I’m Back
It’s been a while since I took more than a passing glance at Milk Plus, much less write anything for it. A lot has changed in my life over the past two years, and as a result, I’ve had far less time to devote to watching movies (let’s say that my movie-fu has atrophied considerably). Nevertheless, the itch to watch and write about movies never really went away, and I think it is about time that I gave it a good scratch. I hope that some of the other contributors will eventually return and the doldrums that have infected this blog will pass. To help get me back up to speed, here are some short thoughts on some movies that I recently watched on DVD or cable:
Across the Universe (d. Julie Taymor, 2007) – Back in 1999, after I subjected myself to the god awfully pretentious
Titus, I vowed never again to watch a film directed by Julie Taymor. While I managed to miss
Frida all together, I knew my oath would soon end when my Beatles-loving fiancée went to see Taymor’s 2007 musical this past fall. She loved it, so I not only bought her the extended soundtrack, but also the DVD for Valentine’s Day. We watched it last weekend and quite surprisingly, it was far from the horrible experience that I was initially dreading. Though the narrative was a total, fucking mess and its pretensions of comprehensively documenting the 60s were simplistic and laughable, the film did work rather well as a musical, especially in the more grounded first half, before Taymor being Taymor, gave in and over-indulged in some faux avant-garde navel gazing prior to settling in for the predictable conclusion. I thought the cast acquitted themselves fairly well and nobody butchered any of the songs.
Crash (d. Paul Haggis, 2004) – Um, how in the hell did this screenplay win an Oscar? For that matter,
this was the best picture of 2005 (the Oscars were never less relevant)? With the exception of the acting (which managed to salvage the trite dialogue), everything about this film rang utterly and completely false, and I thought it was hopelessly forced. Note to Paul Haggis, a movie about multiple, intersecting lives only works if you cannot see or care about all the strings you are pulling; and by the way, directing involves more than an over-reliance on slow-motion and dramatic music cues. If I want to watch a film about race and racism in America, I will take the messy exuberance of
Do the Right Thing over this self-congratulatory white elephant. To make matters worse, if I say
Crash is a masterpiece, nobody will even bother to think of Cronenberg’s 1996 film.
28 Days Later (d. Danny Boyle, 2002) – I rented this movie for my fiancée’s benefit and because I wanted a refresher prior to renting
28 Weeks Later. God, remember the days when super fast zombies were revolutionary? However, this is still a great horror film and I particularly love the opening shots of an empty London. Even though it’s thematically appropriate in the way Doyle presents it, the idea of a bicycle messenger besting a squad of British soldiers still seems a bit far-fetched, but that’s only a minor quibble.
American Gangster (d. Ridley Scott, 2007) – Narratively, this is your standard issue, criminal rise and fall story, supposedly based on a true story, but probably 99% BS. Still, Ridley Scott can shoot a movie, the late 60s/early 70s vibe is stellar, and the two leads (Russel Crowe and Denzel Washington) ooze charisma, even if their characters are ultimately ciphers. In addition, I’m assuming that Ruby Dee’s Oscar nomination was a lifetime achievement sort of thing, because I was not that impressed (though I did correctly identify which scene they would play for her performance clip).
