terminator 3 - rise of the machines (2003)

the third outing for the architypal ''brand-arnie'' character is basically a retread of the second film, albeit with a couple of awful comedy touches (the 'star' glasses scene? just awful), and while the seemingly endless cycle of different comedy vehicles becomes incredibly tiresome, the film as a whole isnt too bad, mainyl down to one reason - the ending. the ending of terminator 3 is gloriously downbeat, and genuinely surprising. the faults of the preceeding 90 minutes are completely overshadowed by the events of the last five minutes.

synecdoche, new york (2008)

i have been sitting on my review of synecdoche, new york for a good few days now. while im making an effort to remove any overtly foul language from my blog at the moment (a new title is en route folks) this film is the new benchmark when it comes to that most beloved of cinematic event, the mindfuck. move over inland empire there's an heir to thy throne, in the shape of charlie kaufman's directorial debut. kaufman is best known as writer of the likes of spike jonze's being john malkovich and adaptation as well as eternal sunshine of the spotless mind from michel gondry.

synecdoche, new york is a hard film to summise, but basically it tells the story of caden cotard, a theatre director whom suffers a breakdown of sorts. we follow caden throughout the course of his breakdown; during which he attempts to stage a production based on his own life (and the lives of his family and friends), within a large warehouse in new york. within the warehouse he rebuilds the settings and scenarios of the outside world, building effectively a life size model of new york within it. all this without a mention of the smoking house, the tattooed ten year old child, miniature artwork and a bizarre obsession with tootbrushes, time (and the subsequent timekeeping) and hairstyles. its all very odd, but wonderfully realised.

i thought of the film as a comment on many aspects of film and art, with particular note made on the role of the actor within the picture. there's a great scene whereby one of the actors is attempting to perfect he way his character walks. considering the genuinely epic scope that this film exhibits, to make note of such a trivial moment may seem odd, but i found the moment strangely telling of the true nature of the piece.

philip seymour hoffman continues his recent good run (following doubt) with perhaps his most interesting role to date. there is great support from the triptych of women in coden's life.

it goes without saying that synecdoche, new york will have many a different interpretation, but that eally is the joy of this kind of cinema. the discussion factor is endless, with the film already proving incredibly devisive amongst those that have seen it.

the night of the hunter (1955)

french film bible, cahiers du cinema recently named charles laughton's sole directorial effort as the second greatest film of all time, which in anyone's eyes is quite the achievement, but in the mind of someone whom regards the french magazines opinion very highly its even more of an endorsement. having not seen the night of the hunter for around five years, it was with the poll that im conducting at the moment (see the 400 blows) in mind that i revisited it.

has there ever been a more chilling villain in all of cinema than robert mitchum's 'preacher'? this is the performance that defines mitchum's career for this viewer, and it is a portrayal that affected me many years before having actually seen the film. you see, i have fond memories from my childhood, of seeing a photograph of robert mitchum, hands adorned with love/hate, leaning against a white picket fence and smiling affably into the camera. it would later transpire that this photograph was a (rather oddly chosen) promotion still from the night of the hunter, although at the time i genuinely didnt have a clue where it was from, and in a similiar vain i dont actually remember where it was that i saw the photo. it was from this brief tease that i searched out the night of the hunter on VHS. i must have been around 15.

having finally discovered the film that had lingered in my mind for so long i wasnt disappointed, although i will admit that some of the films deeper subtext did go over my head at the time. it wasnt until this most recent viewing that i was fully able to comprehend the entire scope of the picture. understanding the logistics of the silent film and german expressionism helped a great deal too, in providing further enjoyment, as i feel that laughton's film owes as much to murnau or lang as it does to the contemporary cinema of the mid-1950's. the stark blacks of the starkly star-decorated skies add a depth quite unusual for typical hollywood fare of the time, and while the general concept is dealt with in a fairly laconic manner, the horror on display is rather heavy and forebearing. the controversial nature of the representation of the 'preacher' in the film may have drawn protest too, although i sincerely doubt his actual credentials. in spite of all of this, the fact that the film is one of cinema history's all-time great failures is still beyond me, with the repurcusions felt by the films director one of the biggest crimes of the incident.

charles laughton's reluctance to work on the other side of the camera is one of the great injustice's of the cinema, the enticing question of "what if...?" has rarely been more apt.

the station agent (2003)

tom mccarthy, a sometime actor probably best known for his role in season 5 of the wire burst onto the independent film scene in 2003 with this gem of a film. "the station agent" concerns a man named 'fin', who inherits an old train depot station after the death of his boss, and his subsequent relationship with the locals of the small town that the property resides in. the core character trio of fin, joe the local hotdog vendor and olivia, a local artist rules the core of the film, and with it comes some pretty heavy topics. each of the characters has a severe characteristic flaw, be it olivia's trauma as a result of her sons death, joe's inability to remove his fathers influence, or the chip on his shoulder that fin carries due to his dwarfism. the resulting 85 minutes brings us a combination of dark rooted hope and a study in the irony of specific relationships. the films "feelgood" nature, a term i despise yet attach to this project is genuinely lovely, despite the nature of which it flows.

the visitor (2008)

tom mccarthy's follow up to ''the station agent'' proved to be a sleeper hit last summer, with a reinvigoration of interest after richard jenkins' oscar nomination. more importantly the film won the best director award at the independent spirit awards, a more telling sign of quality in my opinion.

"the visitor" tells the story of walter vale, a widowed college assistant who has all but given up on his work and life. when visiting new york for a work assignment he finds that a pair of illegal immigrants are living in his apartment. rather than removing the couple, he decides to let them stay, and over the course of the next 30 minutes or so we see their relationship bloom. vale learns how to be passionate again, through the course of learning to play the traditional drum instrument that tarek plays for a living. through a chance encounter the film takes a decidedly grim turn, and the focus is turned on topic of the american governments post 9/11 foreign policy.

richard jenkins is fantastic as walter vale, just fantastic. im not hugely aware of his work, i remember him from ''six feet under'', and have seen him in the recent "burn after reading'', but he is simply a revelation in this post. his character is reminiscent of that of finbar in mccarthy's previous "the station agent", in the respect that we dont feel like we want to like the character, or that the character doesnt actually want us to like them either. throughout the picture the character is unveiled though, and we learn to feel empathy towards him, and are willing him onto develop.

the themes of the film are pretty hard hitting, in the sense that injustice and political wrong-doing is on the screen for all to see. the film doesnt cop out and offer unrealistic answers, it simply shows us the cause and the realism that is the fact that very little can be done by the average person with regards to the situation we are witness to. visually the film is outstanding. the stunted pace of the film i complimented by languid, sparse arrangements that tie into the tone perfectly. mccarthy's style works as a counterpoint of sorts to wes anderson, with a similiar low key style but understated theatrics.

i was really affected by "the visitor", much moreso than i expected to be. its a wonderful piece of cinema that shows that the talented man at the helm is developing greatly as a cinematic force.

letters from iwo jima (2006)

"letters from iwo jima" marks a distinct departure from the type of work one would expect from clint eastwood. for a start, the films dialogue is pretty much all in japanese, a bold undertaking for an american filmmaker. im going to use ''letters from iwo jima'' as a point with which to examine the myth that east wood is racist. people get mixed up with the character of dirty harrys right wing stance and him. eastwood cleared a lot of paths for the preconceptions of black people in his films (see the drug dealer in ''dirty harry'' and the morgan freeman character in ''unforgiven'', one that shatters the legacy of one of americas only true artforms - the western). funnily enough it was spike lee, hollywoods resident loudmouth race card playing has-been that accused eastwood of maintaining such a stance, based solely on the untrue premise that there are no black soldiers in ''flags of our fathers" (the companion piece to "letters from iwo jima"). frankly this claim is riduculous, especially when you consider the place of "letters from iwo jima" in this equation. personally i find lee's recent picture "miracle at saint anna" to be a much more thinly veiled racist attack upon american and white culture. seriously, were living in 2009, there is a black president in the white house and still spike lee manages to have a chip on his shoulder. maybe the guy should concentrate on making a decent film instead of constantly being pseudo-offended by the white man.

its interesting to compare the way in which the japanese are portrayed on screeen in "letters from iwo jima" to the way in which the japanese are portrayed in michael bay's work. they are no longer the one sided pastiches that they appear to be in "armageddon" and are instead fully fledged human beings! its refreshing to see an american filmmaker take such a stance. maybe spike lee should aim his hate in the general direction of michael bay... for once we get to see the different side of the story. we see how afraid and doubtful of their cause the men that would generally be categorised as "evil" really were, and we get to see the nobility of the men too. the scene in which a large number of the soldiers commit suicide is incredibly moving, but at the same time incredibly tense. having not seen "flags of our fathers" recently enough to compare fairly i cant say definitively, but im sure that i didnt feel as moved during that film as i did here.

stylistically the film marks a bit of a departure from the usual war effort. we get to see the action from the point of view of the attacked, which while as a notion is hardly unique, the manner within which it is cut is. we never see the faces of the attacking fighter pilots, or the ensuing soldiers (except for pivotal moments), and as such we never have an opportunity to engage with them as characters, pushing our emotional attachment towards the japanese. the initial bombing campaign on the island is shot from the level of the soldiers themselves. we see bombs hit at head height, we see men fall around us, men whom we had only moments earlier engaged with as viewers, and we feel baron nishi's pain wholeheartedly as he tends to his dying horse. there is a wonderful moment, that lasts literally just that, of a japanese flag flying atop a mound. this draws obvious parallels with the famous image of the american flag atop iwo jima, and reminds the viewer of what is still to come. its a magnificent subtle moment, and a testament to the subtlety of eastwood's work.

five easy pieces (1970)

produced five years before nicholson's turn in antonioni's "the passenger" (our current number 2 on the list), bob rafelson's "five easy pieces'' sees jack on similiar form. while "one flew over the cuckoos nest" is the nicholson film of point that exhibits his talent for playing angry, and kubrick's "the shining" pushes his angle of sheer madness, "five easy pieces" straddles the two perfectly.

nicholson is just amazing in the role of robert, a young man who has thus far drifted through life. a talented musician who has withdrawn from his calling in life, either through ignorance or mental illness. unusually a definitive reason is never actually given, which leads me onto my next point; ''five easy pieces" is an example of subtly intelligent filmmaking. the viewer is given much more credit than usual, for instance, we dont have the reasoning behind the attraction to jack's character of robert to that of his brothers girlfriend, as we can read between the lines. the director has enough faith in his audience to let them come to their own conclusions. this sort of filmmaking was rife in american cinema of the 1970's, alas lowest common denomination rules the studios these days.

armageddon (1998)

the final part of my look into the world of michael bays work sees the world in peril as its faces up against a rather large meteor. all of the usual bay-isms are in place; shoddy slow motion that doubles the films actual running time (usually involving people running towards or away from helicopters), slight racism towards anyone that isnt white (''the russian" is a new low), male and middle class and a hefty dose of unfunny comedy. in its defense though, "armageddon" does feature a great turn from steve buscemi, and iv always had a soft spot for ben affleck.

whilst watching the film i found myself comparing it to clint eastwood's "space cowboys", a film which deals with a similiar film albeit with much more class, dignity and credibility. "armageddon" is great popcorn trash, but little more else. considering the task at hand none of the cast seemed to hold down any kind of thought for it, no one questioned the task or even their own fate. i know thats hardly the point of a michael bay film, but a little bit of realism really wouldnt hurt.

transformers (2007)

michael bay's magnum opus has the honour of being the sole film i have walked out of a cinema screening of. i just found it to be a horribly slow and dull film, with poor special effects and no plot. for the sakes of my current studies i decided to give it another chance on dvd. over the course of 4 days i eventually managed to get through it. to be fair to it, its not actually that bad, its just not my type of thing. the sequel looks promising too, lets just hope they bypass the negatives this time.

the one over-ridingly awful aspect of "transformers comes in the shape of its absolutely terrible humour. its just awful, not funny and embarassingly scripted. michael bay cannot 'do' humour, i was cringing for a good chunk of ''transformers'' bloated running time. related to the humour is the bizarre decision to include a robot that is seemingly based upon a heavy stereotype of black people. it was very strange. iv christened this guy 'rap-bot'. seriously its like something from the 80's, when hollywood first tried to latch onto rap and other 'street' activity. in short its embarassing.

im glad to report that with his most recent fare, michael bay has evolved from the simple "use sun-glare to hide any problems" school of problems. seemingly this has been replaced, or at least split equally between the use of the usual sunlight and the newly implemented torchlight. its an effective technique, at least when it comes to hiding the poor viewers eyes from poorly shot landscapes.

lars and the real girl (2008)

craig gillespie's quirky love story sees ryan gosling playing a very different role to that of his previous turn in 2007's "half nelson". lars is a man with relationship/intimacy/social issues, who, with the help of the titular 'real' girl finds a way of dealing with his problems.

i found "lars and the real girl" to be incredibly moving, much moreso than expected. gosling is an absolute revelation as the shy and withdrawn lars, not that his capability as an actor was ever in question, i feel that he is perhaps the finest young actor of his generation.

saboteur (1942)

perhaps the best example of a film which embodies the two aspects of hitchcock's career (the british work and the american films), "saboteur" came suitably enough in the early years of his work. on paper the film seems like an early prototype for "north by northwest", with the famous landmark-based action atop the statue of liberty laying down the blueprints for the mount rushmore sequence in "north by northwest".

the film is very dark, unusually so for the time. as a result the film is beautifully shot, with the tone of the film lending richly to the character. the actual characterisation is fairly complex too, with the incidental character of the friendly truck driver reminding of the later work of a character-rich filmmaker like martin scorsese.

the film comes complete with the expected kick in the teeth, complete with bitter irony at the end of the film. as the only person that can clear him falls to his death, our hero barry kane (robert cummings) sees his one chance of clearance fall with it. this carries one definitive trait of hitchcock; an unexpected, non-hollywood climax.