Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist (2008)

I think that Michael Cera is such a naturally comical actor and he asserted that in Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist. Unfortunately, that's about the only thing I enjoyed in this film. And maybe some of the music. I was somehow led to believe that there would be some substance, depth, and charming quality to this film, but all I found was forced humor, over acting, and a heaping pile of ridiculous jokes targeting the easily amused and recreational film goers. Each scene tries to outwit the next with the same desperate joke one after another. Dim-witted, incompetent, or absent-minded characters, band mates and Tris, or the humor that comes along with this are not appealing to me in the least bit. Regrettably, this film is getting placed near the other worthless attempts at a comedy mixed with a sweet and magical meeting.

4/10 - steven

The Brown Bunny (2003)

For the most part, the first 70 minutes of Vincent Gallo's deeply personal film, The Brown Bunny, are about as boring to me as the life of a motorcycle racer traveling solo across the country. Often five (plus) minutes go by without a peep in an isolated country side containing just a bit of windswept hair. Bud Clay, played by Vincent Gallo, creates a suffocating atmosphere of loneliness and loss as he juggles his sexual tendencies between prostitutes and his lover. Gallo's pretensions are mostly concealed by a reflective, poignant, and emotional story, but this only reveals itself toward the dying minutes. The final scene tries to give retrospect and make up lost ground, but, unfortunately for Gallo, a BJ could not fully redeem this film. There isn't much more to say as there isn't much here.

6/10 - steven

Gummo (1997)

Harmony Korine's directorial debut can be characterized as a hyper realistic view of unrelated vignettes depicting a poor white-trash population recently struck by a tornado. In its wake, the tornado leaves a small populace acting on impulse often in a juvenile and immature way. Making up about half the film are aged montages paired with a detached narrator serenely speaking of suicide, homophobia, prostitution, sexual abuse, euthanasia, or one of the many other issues covered in this film. The other half loosely follows two boys on a quest to rid the town of feral cats profiting at a local butcher shop with the mutilated animal carcasses slung over their shoulder in a garbage bag. Other single scenes include a drunk man(Harmony Korine) hitting on a gay midget, a man prostituting his Down Syndrome sister, several drunk men wrestling with a chair, and two boys 'killing' another boy with bunny ears in a junk yard in which my favorite line is spoken with absolution by a 7 year old cowboy. "It smells like a pile of bullshit!" Gummo is a beautifully shot, idiosyncratic, bleak, and sometimes humorous examination of a community stuck in a spiral of all kinds of bullshit.

6.5/10 - steven

Kids (1995)

Kids follows a sexually active, substance-dependant teen, Telly, as he tries to deflower any and every virgin he meets. He submerses himself into this lifestyle with a group of equally aimless friends. Chloë Sevigny’s character, Jennie, is the extent of depth in this film. She mistakenly finds that she contracted HIV from Telly in her first sexual experience and spends the rest of the film reacting and attempting to prevent another demoralizing blow to a young woman. There is a lot of raw and shocking material that crosses new controversial boundaries and offers brutal visions of a life misled. Though an honorable attempt at an important issue, this film misses what it may have been aiming for. Harmony Korine’s script focuses too much on the excesses and not enough on the characters involved, thus leaving the film shallow, rather disturbing, and overall ineffective.

5/10 - steven

Good Will Hunting (1997)

This film was rather overwhelming to me. I didn’t know quite how to take it. I previously had some familiarity with Gus Van Sant and I knew it got some national recognition through the Academy Awards. Being the auteurist I am, I expected a Van Sant work I had seen before like his later films - Elephant, Gerry, and Paranoid Park. This made me rather skeptical at times and left me expecting something that I was not getting. Once I put this preconception aside, I found this to be a deep and profound film, not that other Van Sant works are shallow and superficial, because surely they are not. There were some very potent scenes. One that particularly stands out to me is Williams’ lengthy monologue in the park which is full of realization and vindication. The scripting of Damon and Affleck is full of intelligent ideas, powerful dialogue, and deep characters which converge to form an intellectual film about self-realization and abandonment. Although it was easily predictable, Good Will Hunting had a compelling impact on me.

9.5/10 - steven

Nói Albinói (2003)

Nói Albinói is a coming of age story set in an isolated fishing town in western Iceland. There is everything you would expect in a story like this – teenage love, defiance in education, intellectually gifted teenager, family problems, and death. Even though this is such an overused template, Dagur Kári finds a way to take this film a step further and single itself out there amongst the plethora of films similar to this. It just may be the fact that it’s a teen angst film set in a remote western Icelandic fiord that does this; nonetheless, it accomplishes a difficult task of removing itself from the mundane troubled-teen film genre. The lifeless little village where Nói resides has fleeting glimpses of a happier tomorrow, but only after disaster and utter obliteration of his family, friends, and town is he able to attain his View-Master’s promised tropical paradise. A story of rebellion, misdirection, and realization, Nói Albinói is one for the isolated and lonely at heart.

7.5/10 - steven

Bottle Rocket (1996)

I have come to be an avid Wes Anderson fan and all that there is in his style-over-content approach to filmmaking. I had yet to see his earliest film and it’s about time. The same techniques used in all his recent works can be referenced back to this first movie. It comes with everything we’ve come to love in Wes Anderson - static cameras, overhead close ups, side tracking shots, Mark Mothersbaugh and pop soundtracks, and a slow motion ending. Both Luke and Owen Wilson make their debuts on screen and Owen begins collaboration with Anderson that includes Rushmoreand Royal Tenenbaums as well; another definitive of Anderson works - repeated cast and crew. Bottle Rocket gets by with a certain quirky charm and has a refreshingly appetizing feel to it. I recommend this if not just to gain an appreciation for a consistent director who over time produces fresh and genuine work.

7/10 - steven

Margot At The Wedding (2007)

After having a previously unsuccessful encounter with Noah Baumbach's The Squid And The Whale, I was a little bit unsure as to what Margot At The Wedding would have in store for me. The lack of a backing musical score and uneventful, emotionally draining scenes made the film drag on and I slowly lost interest in the complete discord of two sisters preparing for a wedding. Jack Black may have been the only thing that kept me interested while I waited for this movie to reach some sort of finale, which I was once again disappointed to be left out of. Margot's character was very deep and intriguing which I thought was well done but I don't feel like I ever really got a good handle on what her major malfunction was. Quotes of interest.

"I don't even think I realized it was cold until you gave me your sweater" - Margot

and one of my favorite lines,

"I just wanna punch that guy in the nose" - Malcolm
"You've never hit anyone" - Pauline
"Yea huh, I have to" - Malcolm
"Oh yea? Like who?" - Pauline
"Lot's of people, you don't know them, cause there not around, cause I punched them" - Malcolm

6/10 - dylan

Metropolis (1927)

Fritz Lang's class-conscious classic really takes a step forward in its time. Metropolis lays the foundation for all there is technically, aesthetically, and stylistically in the science fiction genre. Huge, expansive sets, immeasurable amounts of cast and extras on screen, and an epic, twisted story. This film could easily get its footing in modern cinema. Spotted throughout are intertitles that mention a mediator between social classes. The end title reads "The mediator between head and hands must be the heart!" which bears an invaluable theme that binds this whole film together for me. This theme has such importance and deserves significance in any hierarchical economic society. For this, this film will always be deserving of attention and truly stand the test of time.

10/10 - steven

Magnolia (1999)

This epic film is so emotionally draining. Time flew by and the three hour mark arrived quite a bit earlier than expected after prolonging my first viewing due to its monstrous length. The musical score really helps bring some lengthy scenes together very smoothly. Although some parts are rather messy, things were surprisingly easy to follow except for some raining frogs towards the end. This is art for art's sake. And the cast is suberb.

It's just coincidence that Philip Seymour Hoffman was in my first two officially reviewed films. Or is it?...Ha.

8.5/10 - steven

The Savages (2007)

I enjoyed this film a lot. The authenticity and dialogue are at such a high level. There is so much subtlety that the bleak and melancholy feelings feel entirely desired and constructed but not too constructed. I thought this movie did wonders. 9 from me.

9/10 - steven

I'm gonna go with a 5.5/10 on the savages. I really like the opening scene in sun city Arizona and I liked the ironic stuff that was funny but not laugh out loud funny, but I thought a lot of the rest of it was really bleak and melancholy which I understand was the aim of the movie but I don't know if I would wanna watch it again. Philip Seymour Hoffman is still a stud.

5.5/10 -dylan

Both Hoffman and Linney are studs might I add. - steven