Sunday, September 20, 2009

Waltz With Bashir

2008
Directed and Written By: Ari Folman

This was nominated for Best Foreign Film by the Academy last year. It's an animated film about one man's journey to try to remember his time in the Lebanon War. It's in the style of documentary realism. It's in Hebrew.

Just so you know, this kind of movie is totally my thing. As a documentary film student, I get way into really interesting ways of portraying personal history/memory. It makes me want to have a pretentious discussion with a bunch of other pretentious film students. I love animation used in creative ways, and as the director/writer asserts in the special features--animation can be much more real than live action. It's amazing that it was animated from scratch--no rotoscoping here, even though it looks like it. The movements and expressions of the people are so real...so awesome. Performative, animated documentaries are some of my favorites--so this was really effective.

It lost me a bit toward the end--probably because during the first half of watching it, I was on Adderall, and the second half, I was not. BUT--the very end is amazingly brilliant, so if you hate it, see it through!!!

Man, this was a really eloquent blog post...NOT.

B+

Thursday, September 17, 2009

Bringing Up Baby

1938
Directed by: Howard Hawks
Written by: Who cares
Starring: Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant

I don't like Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant, or screwball comedies. So...I guess I should have seen this one coming. This movie is on right now. There are about 20 minutes left. I don't need to finish it before I write the review, I already hate it. I watched it because it's on all the lists, and three people I trust have told me how much I need to see it. Not until the Netflix actually arrived did Jonathan say, "I think you aren't going to like this movie." He was right.

Everyone is so annoying! EVERYTHING is so annoying. I want to kill all the characters, except Baby the Leopard. This is the opposite of my sense of humor. I'd rather watch Laurel and Hardy carry a piano up some stairs.

This movie would have been better with Audrey Hepburn and Jimmy Stewart, by the way. I believe Cary Grant as an uptight nerd as much as I would believe Paris Hilton as the president of the US. Oh, and there's a lot of Amanda Bynes-style falling over adorable clumsiness. FAIL.

D

Friday, September 11, 2009

My Very Favorite Movies by Amy Aronson

The Graduate: Simon and Garfunkel, Dustin Hoffman, Cougartown, shot at USC, moody, amazing cinematography, best screenplay ever.

When Harry Met Sally: Christmas, romance, miraculous chemistry, the ending, the story structure, Harry Connick Jr. music.

Rosemary's Baby: Mia Farrow's hair, trust no one, devil babies, actual satanic leader as Satan, creepy music, gives me anxiety.

Full Metal Jacket: Dark, funny, great one-liners, made me want to kill myself, made me want to kill others, me so horny.

The Talented Mr. Ripley: Best male performance possibly ever by Matt Damon, super creepy, freakishly engaging.

Slumdog Millionaire: I couldn't breathe.

The Fountain: I also couldn't breathe.

Little Children: Needed a whole bottle of Xanax, I love dysfunction, Patrick Wilson and Kate Winslet are HOT.

Vertigo: I guess I really like movies that make me anxious, Jimmy Stewart, awesome twist, literally gave me vertigo.

The Wizard of Oz: Gets more magical every time I see it.

Capote: I love Truman Capote, I love Philip Seymour Hoffman = win/win

Knocked Up/Forgetting Sarah Marshall: Adorable, real, hilarious.

The Hangover: Funniest movie of all time.

Two for the Road: Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck, another great screenplay.

Erin Brockovich: Totes sucked me in! Who knew how much I cared about water?!

High School Musical 1 and 3: The bread is the best part of the sandwich.

Being John Malkovich: It's okay to be crazy and it's okay to like crazy things.

Spellbound/Mad Hot Ballroom: Favorite documentaries, adorable children, heart-warming tales.

It Happened One Night: One super old movie that actually is as funny and charming as it wants to be.

Waiting For Guffman: Community theatre fantastic-ness.

Harold and Maude: Newest favorite, gruesome, twisted, amazing.

Whale Rider: I LOVE NZ! I LOVE WHALES!

Wet Hot American Summer

2001
Directed by: David Wain
Written by: Michael Showalter, David Wain
Starring: Michael Showalter, Michael Ian Black, Jeanine Garofalo, David Hyde Pierce, Amy Poehler, Bradley Cooper, Elizabeth Banks, Paul Rudd, and the list goes on and on...

Part of me just loves this movie because it reminds me of hot summer Sonora nights in hot tubs with mimosas and yoga and opium tea. But another part of me loves it because it's hilarious. It's not every second painfully hilarious like THE HANGOVER, but it has some of the best one-liners I've ever heard. The cast is incredible and even though I've never really been to real summer camp for more than a week, I can tell that it is a dead-on parody of a summer Jew camp. The good kind of Jew Camp, not the...bad kind.

What else can I say? At times it gets a little boring and plotless. I think it loses focus about 3/4 of the way through. But it's the perfect movie for a silly summer night with some silly friends and some silly booze/weed/vicodin/any other vice you may choose.

B+

Sunday, September 6, 2009

Movie Recommendation List for My DADDY

And anyone else who wants some movie recs.

P.S. Papa-san, I don't know what movies you've seen. For the purpose of this list, let's say you've never seen a movie in your life.

Ooooo, feeling indie and sad? No? You are 53 and have no time for such sillyness? Well, suck it, here are my recommendations!

The Darjeeling Limited (oooo pretty, oooo mooooody)
Lars and the Real Girl (BLOW UP DOLLS, SAD RYAN GOSLING, A SUPPORTIVE SMALL TOWN = adorable!!!)
Teeth (VAGINA DENTATA!!!!!!)
The Squid and the Whale (thanks for not getting a divorce!)
Happiness (ooooo sooooo wrong)
500 Days of Summer (when it comes out)
Adaptation (Nicolas Cage is actually...fantastic?)
Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist (awwww cute!!)

Maybe a trifle of comedy? A dose of laughter? THE BEST OF MEDICINE?

Forgetting Sarah Marshall (stop being such a prude-y prude and give in. You like Family Guy, for gosh sake's.)
The Hangover (this is NOT A MOVIE FOR MARY KAY. I REPEAT, NOT FOR MARY KAY.)
17 Again (become gay for Zac Efron, everyone is doing it)
Hamlet 2 (rock me, rock me, rock me, Sexy Jesus!)

Sprechen Sie Deutsch? Parlez-Vous Francais? Nein? Non? Then turn on your subtitles, dumb-dumb:

The Counterfeiters
Das Experiment
Delicatessen

Watch documentaries because I am into them and I am your daughter!!!

The Business of Being Born (because it's never too late to have a home birth)
Man On Wire (don't try this at home)
My Kid Could Paint That (I wrote a paper on this, so you should watch it)
Supersize Me (stop eating fast food!)
Rize (you'll never be president if you don't connect with the African-American community!)

We don't fit into categories! HELP US!

Milk (Why haven't you seen Milk yet, ya homophobe???)
Zodiac (killa killa killa killa!)
Whale Rider (ride them whales)

Harold and Maude

1971
Directed by: Hal Ashby
Written by: Colin Higgins
Starring: Ruth Gordon and Bud Cort

Words cannot express how much I loved this movie. I knew I would. It's my favorite era of movies, and it makes films like Garden State and The Royal Tennenbaums look totally overdone. It's my favorite type of movie--the mood piece. Quirky, absurd characters. Complex relationships. Irony. Cat Stevens. Everything I love, all rolled into one. The acting is AMAZING. It reminds me of The Graduate. The costumes are also fantastic. Halloween costume, here I come.

The only negative thing I can say is this stupid Cat Steven's song that is sung on the piano by Ruth Gordon and then repeatedly plays throughout. Cheese City. "If you wanna be you be you, if you wanna be me be me, something about doing things and being free..." Oh man. If it weren't for that, this movie would get an A.

A-