I’m back in SF and back to causing trouble! This was a rather hefty week for me; for one thing, I watched a potential favorite of all-time, which I have written about in detail below. Otherwise, be prepared for lots of thoughts and opinions up ahead!

Five Easy Pieces (1970) – dir. Bob Rafelson

• Watched on 5 January
• Format: TCM showing
• Rating: 6/10

My five easy “pieces” on Five Easy Pieces:

1. My feelings about this film lie around the same sort of level as my feelings for a film that was released a year earlier, Easy Rider. Both certainly feel very much like films of their time, in every sense of the phrase. I also don’t love the both of them as much as everyone else seems to.
2. There are a lot of things about Five Easy Pieces that are certainly admirable. It certainly has a fair bit of memorable, well-directed scenes. The performers all do a good job with their material, and even László Kovács’ cinematography is rather impressive at quite a number of instances.
3. However, when it all boils down to it, the final product in its essence feels rather empty. Its certainly a film that, like its protagonist, drifts aimlessly from moment to moment. But at the end, I’m not sure if I gained anything of value from it all, save for a few incredible key scenes.
4. Jack Nicholson, like in the aforementioned Easy Rider, is easily the best thing about this movie. Thankfully, the narrative pinpoints the majority of the focus on this character, following him along and tracking his intriguing character arc. Although, I think I enjoy the flick more as a bleak character study than one that urges us to follow the events of his story (which, frankly, was quite uninteresting).
5. Finally, I love the soundtrack, which wonderfully juxtaposes Tammy Wynette tunes and Chopin pieces into clean, somber perfection.

Her (2013) – dir. Spike Jonze

• Watched on 5 January
• Format: Theater – Cinepolis Luxury Cinema @ Westlake
• Rating: 10/10

I am in an online long-distance relationship. It’s a relationship that was bred out of mutual friendship and compatibility, nurtured by an ever-budding sense of compassion, concern, and, eventually, love. Admitting to peers and acquaintances of this very important facet of my life is no easy task. There’s this stigma that is attached to online and long-distance relationships that nearly forces others to impose judgment upon those who choose to get involved in such a thing. Many questions are asked – “why can’t you go out with someone who lives nearby?”, “are you two thinking of meeting up soon?”, “how do you know it’s real?”. More than anything, though, I feel that there’s this unfair assumption that an online relationship simply doesn’t count as a “real” relationship. After all, online communication is artificial and a certain weight of feelings behind words are inevitably transmitted through this kind of filter, subduing these feelings and leaving behind a mere blueprint – a façade – of a loving relationship; therefore, one can’t really be in love with someone if they don’t communicate face-to-face… right?

I had the privilege of watching Her at the most perfect time in my life. Spike Jonze’s ode to romance in an age of technology remains fully sympathetic to its topic at hand – that of love that transcends the limits of common human relationships. Delicately paced and substantially heartbreaking, Her ebbs and flows in full comprehension of its very human emotional arc. In its pure essence, it is beautiful; yet within its core, it’s absolutely ugly. The optimism that highlights the intentions of our thematic romance is dismantled by the cynicism that blooms when it is recalled that such a relationship undermines all sense of logic and rationality. Such is the case with relationships that develop across planes of distance; for many reasons, such circumstances bring additional stress to the table. How valid is the love you feel for another person if you are disallowed from seeing them, touching them?

Thankfully, Jonze’s answer to this is one where genuine trust and emotional instinct triumphs over all, presenting this through an unusual type of love story. Joaquin Phoenix completely sells his role as Theodore, a broken soul who is going through a divorce and not often granted with close human contact. Out of pure curiosity, he tries out an operating system that conceives a personality developed to fit his needs. Meet Samantha. Voiced by Scarlett Johansson, Samantha becomes just the sort of companion that Theodore needs, helping him through his day-to-day life. However, simple phrases and questions quickly swell to genuine emotion and philosophy, and the two become wrapped up in strange feelings of compassion that neither of them could have anticipated.

The development of this story is intriguing in the way it follows the push-and-pull of both the relationship’s progression and Theodore’s inner emotions. His confusion stems from his insecurity in human relationships and concern that his feelings for Samantha may not be healthy. The added weight to the story is even more compelling: Samantha is not a living, breathing entity, but rather a highly-evolved form of artificial intelligence. One pivotal scene where she questions to Theodore, “are these feelings real?” absolutely left me in tears (as did about two or three other scenes). As the line between “mechanized being” and “freethinking spirit” become increasingly blurred, we’re compelled to view Samantha more and more as a human being, fully deserving of the love and tenderness that Theodore has to give. The closer we get to our realization of the inevitability of fate, the more heartbreaking the film becomes. It’s a whirlwind of a story, yet despite blatant the absurdity of its material, we are obliged to become detached from the superficial facets of the narrative and view their tale for what it’s truly about: two wandering souls in desperate need of attachment.

I will forever be indebted to Jonze for creating a story as absurd as this that, nonetheless, never chooses to trivialize Theodore and Samantha’s relationship. While Theodore’s ex-wife (Rooney Mara) briefly appears as an ostensible wake-up call, suggesting that he’s lost all ties with reality, the story of our pair is never treated like a piece of software. Theodore’s doubts and concerns are projected onto the discomforting moments of their relationships, just like with any other relationship that has ever experienced doubts and lapses of comfort. The sympathy for these two lies in Jonze’s treatment of their trials and tribulations, lying parallel with very real issues that may come up in any “normal” union. As someone in a long-distance relationship, I really appreciate this. One of the biggest fears of embarking on this has been the premonition that others may not be so compassionate about such a situation. Jonze subverts this stigma by creating two very fleshed-out entities that demonstrate the very real pleasures and fragilities that come with giving your heart to another, despite unchangeable circumstances. And for that, I am so thankful.

Giulietta degli spiriti (Juliet of the Spirits) (1965) – dir. Federico Fellini

• Watched on 6 January
• Format: TCM showing
• Rating: 6/10

Perhaps this is only me being as cynical as the pontificating fellow in Annie Hall, but I found Juliet of the Spirits to be unfortunately lacking in the complete experience that is embodied in Fellini’s best films. Its similarities to 8½ are certainly apparent, particularly in its usage of surrealistic imagery and characters that aid in blurring the already-hazy line between reality and fantasy. However, such fantastic elements aren’t nearly as nuanced as what would be necessary to carry out its strong themes. Sure, the characters we come across are often bizarre and intriguing, but after nearly two-and-a-half hours of this whirlwind, it all feels like overkill. This may also be due to some of the pacing problems that made it all feel like a bit of a mess.

As always, Giulietta Masina is an absolute delight to watch. Several other performers stood out to me as well, and with this being Fellini’s first color film, the cinematography is quite lovely. However, it felt very much like the filmmaker stuck a lot of his films’ more infamous qualities and stuck them in a blender; while much of what makes his films great is present, I couldn’t help but notice a distractingly empty feeling, like some enigmatic magical ingredient was missing, in some way or another. I’m not exactly sure what he was trying to say here and, unfortunately, nothing really compels me to even try to figure out (at least after one sole viewing). Regardless, I feel that the film, if not completely divisive, does anticipate the presence of a number of alternate conclusions and interpretations. Therefore, it’s certainly worth the watch, if only out of the curiosity of you – the viewer.

Du zhan (Drug War) (2013) – dir. Johnnie To

• Watched on 6 January
• Format: Netflix Instant
• Rating: 7/10

As my first Johnnie To film, I can safely say that I am pretty pleased with Drug War. It is exciting, terrifically-paced, and well-acted, with a delicious noirish tone that permeates through its entirety. The characters are given interesting, expansive personalities, and the always-compelling plot is placed front and center of all the action. The narrative is fast and slick, and coupled with some of the finest action cinematography I’ve seen, it presents some rather breathtaking action scenes as well. Much praise especially for some rather fine shoot-outs that are given in the film’s final third.

My “complaints” for this film are very little (it dragged a bit at places and the plot was sometimes hard to follow), so really my imperfect rating could only be blamed on the fact that modern action-thrillers aren’t really my forté. The level of artistic filmmaking craft is certainly apparent in this film, but I feel like my limited knowledge of the genre restricts me from making any complete, fleshed-out thoughts about the film. Regardless, I’d recommend this film to anyone who appreciates good filmmaking – or even just a good action flick.

Drinking Buddies (2013) – dir. Joe Swanberg

• Watched on 7 January
• Format: Netflix Instant
• Rating: 7/10

Drinking Buddies is tied with The World’s End for the one film from last year that most made me want to have a beer or two. Of course, I was pleasantly surprised to see that there is actually much more to Drinking Buddies than what meets the eye. I really liked the natural day-by-day progression that the film makes in regards to the intertwining relationships of our characters. I only found out after I finished the film that the film had no script, its dialogue completely improvised by its actors. I suppose that accounted for the genuine true-to-life tone the film possessed, as well as the natural chemistry that the characters’ interactions with one another had, which certainly worked in its benefit.

Unfortunately, there are some slight downsides to this technique. I know it was going for realistic approaches to its subjects and conventional romance stories, but many of the characters decision-making felt dubious, to say the least. That’s not to say that alcohol-fueled individuals don’t make impulsive decisions; rather, this spontaneous form of acting prevented the material from reaching its full potential and hitting as deep as it could have. The story is intriguing enough to keep watching, though. In all, I’m especially fond of the subtle silences that keep the material weighted to the fact that there is often more to say than the thickness of reality can often permit.

Pain & Gain (2013) – dir. Michael Bay

• Watched on 7 January
• Format: DVD
• Rating: 7/10

I’ll admit that I’m not as familiar with Michael Bay’s body of work as many people… but I’ve heard things. Thus, I approached Pain & Gain with some level of hesitancy, knowing that it is a rather divisive piece of work that, nonetheless, has received a relatively positive amount of criticism. I was actually surprised with how funny I found it. At many points, it felt like a biting subversion of the “American Dream”. I didn’t expect much from its leads, but I was pretty surprised at just how well they were all able to bear the weight of their comedic performances – and they all do so pretty well.

The dark humor, for the most part, really works here. It’s the type of film that gets more and more outlandish as it progresses. By the final third, my jaw had hit the floor and was continually sinking toward the deepest depths of the earth’s core. Despite the fact that this is based on a true story, there’s absolutely no way that the material wasn’t fabricated in some way or another. Though this is hardly a complaint, but rather an understanding that some leeway must’ve been made to fully utilize its material.

And wow, such material it is. As I’ve already implied, the film is mostly clever and pretty funny in its own pitch black ways. Of course, I had a fair bit of problems with it; just how much I wanted to weigh these problems with the praise was tricky for me. While I enjoyed much of its dark humor – and even laughed out loud at quite a few moments – it always seemed to be ruined by other moments that were intended to be humorous, but fell flat due to its gross-outness or just plain distastefulness. Casual sexism and homophobia were rampant here, which really diluted many of its strong moments. While some of it I could pass off to its satire paying regards to the selfishness of its characters, much more of the blame seemed liable to the fact that the writers are just very inconsistent – and problematic – with their humor.

I also had issues with the overproduced style of the feature, with glamorized art direction and slow-motion shots that got more tiresome each time they were used. But altogether, I’d feel comfortable giving it the rating I gave it, simply because this is a film I would definitely recommend to anyone seeking an absolutely idiosyncratic type of film. Despite its issues, I had a fairly good time with it, for the most part. I’m not sure if this would prompt me to seek out any more of Bay’s films but… well, actually, no it probably wouldn’t.

Paradise (2013) – dir. Diablo Cody

• Watched on 7 January
• Format: Netflix Instant
• Rating: 4/10

There’s not too much to say about Diablo Cody’s directorial debut Paradise – particularly because it isn’t much of a film. I’m rather fond of her writing for Junoand Young Adult, but here, it is simply disastrous. The characters are the sheer epitome of one-dimensional, with a narrative that simply flounces forward in the most simplistic of ways. Even the final third feels like it doesn’t know how to end the story, opting to show four possible endings after each other and contradicting itself in the meantime. With such talented performers as Russell Brand, Octavia Spencer, and Holly Hunter in its repertoire, their talents are absolutely wasted on characters that are poorly-written and utterly uninteresting. I’m sure Julianne Hough has great potential with her acting, but one couldn’t guess it from the sickly poor material she’s given. All in all, it’s a film that should most likely be avoided at all costs.

And what the hell was up with that opening scene??

The Mummy (1932) – dir. Karl Freund

• Watched on 8 January
• Format: Netflix Instant
• Rating: 6/10

It’s no surprise that The Mummy is asserted as one of the lesser Universal monster movies. After all, while vampires, werewolves, and even Frankenstein’s monster have made their way into numerous contemporary filmic adaptations, just how flexible of a role the mummy figure can serve to modern culture is dubious. Regardless, it is certainly the weaker film of the bunch. Boris Karloff, as always, is the best thing about it, putting up a menacing, brooding performance as the titular dead guy. The rest of the acting, however – barely passable. Moreover, its pacing and tone feel a bit off the entire way through. It’s a slow film, but not the dreary, atmospheric kind of slow that I’d usually dig in many horrors. In fact, it’s pretty boring at many points, with a storyline that isn’t very interesting. One other bit of praise that I could give it would be for its cinematography, which captures light and shadows in ways that these sort of films seem to be the best at. However, with the rest of its issues piled on top of it, The Mummy is a bit of a mess. I’d say certainly watch it for Karloff doing Karloff well, although I’d much rather watch him don his Frankenstein makeup.

Fruitvale Station (2013) – dir. Ryan Coogler

• Watched on 8 January
• Format: DVD
• Rating: 7/10

I admire the good intentions that certainly went behind the making of Fruitvale Station. As disproportionate violence toward people of color remain at a disturbingly prevalent circulation, we need films that are willing and capable of telling these stories to the uninformed public. Ryan Coogler gives us a day in the life of Oscar Grant, the final hours before his tragic death at the hands of police officers in the Fruitvale BART station – an adaptation of a real-life crime to humanity.

The acting here is magnificent. I expect Michael B. Jordan to take on more profound roles in the not-too-distant future, as his potential for humanly heartfelt parts is definitely apparent. Near everyone else also plays their part well, my own special praises going toward Melonie Diaz and Octavia Spencer. The chemistry across these multiple interactions are realistic and believable, felt as if we’re watching true-to-life family and friends. The final third especially snowballs into a whirlwind of emotion, both intense and subtle.

My biggest problems with the film were surely not with the material itself, but how it was presented. It’s a truly ambitious idea for a film and the creators approached it with absolute sympathy and sensitivity. Nonetheless, it’s obvious that this is Coogler’s debut feature, as it feels very much like so. The narrative felt a bit messy in presentation, with certain glaring moments that, in retrospect, didn’t add much to the product as a whole. Moreover, the film reached its climax a bit too early, leaving little to the imagination for the remainder of the final third, which tended to drag. Still, it’s apparent that there was a fair amount of heart and tenderness placed behind Fruitvale Station‘s conception. It may not be the best film of the year, but it certainly is one of the most important.

It’s a Disaster (2013) – dir. Todd Berger

• Watched on 8 January
• Format: Netflix Instant
• Rating: 7/10

Oh why oh WHY was the ending to this film not any better?!?

I wasn’t expecting much going into It’s a Disaster; despite it being on a couple of friends’ Best of 2013 lists, nothing about its premise ever stood out to me as remarkable. In certain ways, it turns out I was right. It’s nothing of the extravagant apocalyptic comedies of The World’s End and This is the End. Rather, it is a slowly paced, dialogue-heavy (almost) real-time presentation of four couples’ final hours alive. I found it interesting in the way that it showed the different levels of grief felt when hit with such awful news. In such a way, it was like the second half of Von Trier’s Melancholia – although with much less dreariness and much more comedy.

How well this comedy works is questionable, though. Certain performances – like those by Julia Stiles and David Cross – fit their roles like a glove and offer a generous share of layered comedic touches to the mix. However, others – like America Ferrera and Jeff Grace – were not nearly so consistent and frequently embarrassing to watch. Nonetheless, each individual offers quite a bit from each direction to the final product, despite the material being quite messy.

And yes, sometimes it was pretty messy. It felt as if it didn’t quite know which direction to take with its overarching themes, so it just took them all at once. Sometimes it works, given the presumed chaos of a situation as hectic as this. But I questioned the importance of some scenes that never fully felt they contributed much of worth to the story. For the most part, however, I had a great time with a lot of its humor and I laughed a lot. For lovers of dark comedies that can be absolutely bonkers, this is a treat.

Except for the ending. That was just horse shit.

American: The Bill Hicks Story (2009) – dir. Matt Harlock & Paul Thomas

• Watched on 9 January
• Format: Netflix Instant
• Rating: 5/10

I felt that this documentary suffered from the same faults that last year’s I Am Divinecontained. It’s a film about a truly fascinating performer, whose tragic early death shone a light on the depth of his comedic material, despite never reaching the fullest of potential that legendary veteran comics have. Bill Hicks is not a boring individual by any means; this documentary, however, is quite dull. Despite the close acquaintance that the interviewees have had with Hicks, despite their fond memories of him, despite the interesting archival footage, this is just another very average talking heads doc. I’m not sure exactly what I was expecting from it, but I can’t imagine that one who is unfamiliar with Hicks would be very enlightened by this doc, which serves as a simple blanket overview of his life, the likes of which we’ve heard a million times before. I’d recommend instead checking out his stand-up, particularly his Relentless and Revelations stand-up specials; any would be much more helpful than this in peering into the mind of such a fascinating individual.

The Wolf of Wall Street (2013) – dir. Martin Scorsese

• Watched on 10 January
• Format: Theater – Simi Valley Regel Cinema
• Rating: 5/10

I could scream on and on about how bad I wanted to like this. I mean, it’s about the American dream of greed and hedonism gone awry, AND it’s directed by Scorsese. And given the positive reception it’s gotten, it seemed right up my ally. I was truly, truly excited for this one.

Unfortunately, out of the number of films from last year that dealt with the subversion of the American dream (Spring Breakers, The Great Gatsby, Pain & Gain, et. al.), The Wolf of Wall Street has got to be one of the worst. I understand the intentions behind its excess, even behind the highlighting of such decadence with its 3-hour length. However, it was tedious, and I felt that the story – or at least the aims behind the story – went nowhere even after two-thirds worth of exposition. After our protagonist gets going with his career, the progression of the narrative feels at a total standstill, and we’re left twiddling our thumbs waiting for something surprising to happen.

And maybe it’s because I was already expecting it prior to my viewing, but the copious amounts of drugs and sex, to me, wasn’t that “something surprising”. All it seemed to do was contribute to the low-brow sense of humor promoted by the film that was just so embarrassing to watch. One could argue that it was intended to be a satire of the obnoxious minds of those who occupy Wall Street, but I think the fact that the film itself expects us to find humor and enjoyment from its daring farce (rather than any inkling of shock or dismay) shows its lack of respect for its audience. Moreover, although the Lemmon scene was mildly impressive in terms of physical comedy, it was mostly just annoying and dragged on for far longer than necessary. I think the portrayal of such extravagance may have been more effective if the film offered some amount of depth or criticism to juxtapose with the otherwise desultory showing of Belfort’s lavish lifestyle. It often felt very aimless, and the fact that we get barely any sense of character development until the end shows its weakness and inconsistencies.

I’m sure that all the performances were probably decent to great (at least DiCaprio shows a fair amount of range here), but I wouldn’t be able to tell given the fact that nearly every performer was given a poorly-written, not very well thought-out role. The writer seems to think that the only means of showing intense emotion is by adding variations of the word “fuck” to every spoken sentence of dialogue. Many say that this is Scorsese returning to form, but I think that in many ways, this film so badly wants to be Goodfellas. From the rags-to-riches-to-rags tale, to the voice-over narration, to Beni-fuckin’-hana!. Et fuckin’ cetera.

While it seems I’m a bit ragey about this film, I don’t exactly hate it. The main problem is that it doesn’t give much to love or hate. It’s ambitious in its raciness, but eye-rollingly typical in damn near everything else. I probably enjoyed Jonah Hill the most, although Matthew McConaughey was pretty enjoyable in the (deceptively) little screen time he had. Given that this is the first Scorsese film in a while that takes a not-so-gentle step away from “safe” entertainment, it’s actually not all that hard to see why it’s received such a praise, critically and otherwise; to me, however, it ain’t worth the hype.

Side Effects (2013) – dir. Steven Soderbergh

• Watched on 10 January
• Format: Netflix Instant
• Rating: 8/10

Steven Soderbergh isn’t a filmmaker that I’m necessarily a huge fan of. He seems capable of putting out good films, but also films with content that doesn’t exactly appeal to me enough for me to actively seek out his body of work. I haven’t seen much of his stuff, but after 2012’s Magic Mike – which I found to be painful to sit through – I’ll admit I didn’t have too high hopes for Side Effects.

Fortunately, Side Effects is actually quite good. Some of Soderbergh’s films seem to be immersed in a kind of cold, brooding atmosphere, and here it is applied to troupes of the thriller genre and permeates through the film’s entirety. I think the line between “compelling” and “snooze-worthy” is difficult to navigate in instances like these; however, Soderbergh does a great job at making the narrative consistently intriguing.

The film is quite an experience full of twists and turns at every corner. While sometimes the implementation of certain plot twists seem questionable, they are all effective for the most part. Most importantly, the story is full of delicious moral ambiguity, navigating around the dubiousness of patient-doctor relationship with the greatest of ease. The performances are fantastic and the sleek presentation makes for a tense thriller. It’s enough to make me consider actively watching some of Soderbergh’s other material.

The To Do List (2013) – dir. Maggie Carey

• Watched on 11 January
• Format: Amazon online rental
• Rating: 4/10

What’s this? A teen sex comedy that is written and directed by a woman, that also places a female at the center of its coming-of-age tale? And it also takes place in the 90s? How quaint!

Or at least, those were my thoughts upon first hearing about The To Do List last summer. I finally got around to it a few days ago and, needless to say, I’m unimpressed. I think what initially excited me about this film was the opportunity to erase the double standards that are perpetuated within the lives of young females interested in sex. There’s this fear of being slut-shamed for their curiosity, something that doesn’t apply for most young males. I was disappointed to find out that this film only works to upkeep this systematic misogyny, as the protagonist’s quest for sexual discovery is met with dismissal by her peers, only relinquished by her willingness to accept that sex with the one you love is the most important thing. It may pretend to be ambitiously pro-ladies, but it’s actually rather hateful and promotes and unfair message that continues to demean those most affected by this stigma.

Besides the socio-political stuff, the humor of this film just wasn’t of my taste at all. It suffered immensely from its unrestrained immersion into the type of low-brow, sleazy humor that could be found in the American Pie films. On top of that, I don’t think there was anything in the overarching story that required this film to be set in the 90s. From the looks of it, it seemed like it made for an ample opportunity to bombard the audience with an array of 90s nostalgia references. And bombard it did, often with little to no ties to what is actually going on with the narrative. It just felt like lazy, unfunny writing all around. Overall, it’s just a rather forgettable, obnoxious flick and I’m really disappointed with how much I disliked it. Here’s to a brighter future for director Maggie Carey.

Leviathan (2013) – dir. Verena Paravel & Lucien Castaing-Taylor

• Watched on 11 January
• Format: Blu-Ray
• Rating: 7/10

Leviathan entranced me. It amazed me. It kinda disturbed me. It even lulled me to sleep, and when I woke up 15 minutes later, I rewound the disc to replay what I had missed: floating fish heads bumping into the screen.

It’s truly a special kind of film. Calling it a documentary wouldn’t be sufficient means of describing it, as it doesn’t exactly document. Sure there are scenes of the men at work as they crank of their haul, plop it onto their ship, and get hacking away. But the attention is never placed on the process of it as a whole, as the position of the camera is rather focused on the movement of the waves, the runny mixture of blood and water, the mechanical movements of the fishermen, blinking, blinking, blinking.

What it succeeds at is transporting us, as viewers, to an enigmatic, haunting world miles and miles away from everything we are used to and comfortable with. My one quibble – that it’s a bit ambiguous with what its purpose is, yet doesn’t exactly encourage rewatchability – doesn’t quite hold weight to the sheer uniqueness of its aesthetic and atmospheric appeal. Its pure submergence into an otherworldly experience that transcends conventional documentary filmmaking is unlike anything else put to film; only seeing is believing. Also, there are some pretty cool shots of birds.