Random Movie Review: Sidewalls (Medianeras)

Sidewalls [Medianeras] (2011)
Starring: Javier Drolas, Pilar López de Ayala
















Sidwalls follows two lonely, Martin and Mariana, who live in buildings opposite each other. The title refers to the side walls of the tall buildings in Buenos Aires, which are blank boring walls that are often home to large, faded adverts and illegally installed windows for the apartments within. The walls parallel the 'everything in between' part of life, which for many can be dull and boring. The two characters hardly ever leave their apartments and seem destined not to meet until a random act brings them together.

This movie had a bunch of mini-themes, which I liked for two reasons. None of them were so big that they either had to be the root of the whole movie, or a red herring, they were just nice little plot lines. Secondly, they kept you involved in the movie in a cute and interesting way, without being annoying. They also found a way to make you root for two generally unlikable characters. Not perfect and wasn't particularly good quality in the picture, so I'll give it a 7.25/10.

A Record a Week: Billie Holiday - God Bless the Child

SIDE 1.
I CAN'T PRETEND
IF MY HEART COULD ONLY TALK
HAVIN' MYSELF A TIME
SAYS MY HEART
LONG GONE BLUES
GHOST OF YESTERDAY
FALLING IN LOVE AGAIN

SIDE 2.
I'M ALL FOR YOU
I HEAR MUSIC
IT'S THE SAME OLD STORY
PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT
ST. LOUIS BLUES
LOVELESS LOVE
LET'S DO IT, LET'S FALL IN LOVE

SIDE 3.
GEORGIA ON MY MIND
ROMANCE IN THE DARK
ALL OF ME
I'M IN A LOW DOWN GROOVE
GOD BLESS THE CHILD
AM I BLUE
SOLITUDE

SIDE 4.
JIM
I COVER THE WATERFRONT
LOVE ME OR LEAVE ME
GLOOMY SUNDAY
MANDY IS TWO
IT'S A SIN TO TELL A LIE
(IT WILL HAVE TO DO) UNTIL THE REAL THING COMES ALONG

This double LP was obviously designed for record players that have an auto-changer, or 'umbrella spindle' where you can set up multiple records to play in sequence without having to flip them yourself. The first and fourth sides are opposite on one record and the second and third on the other. That being so that you can align sides one and two and then flip them over and align three and four on the spindle.

This record covers a lot of Holiday songs, including the namesake, which strangely doesn't appear until the third side. Like many artistic talents, she was a troubled soul. Her upbringing had many problems, which begot her drinking, which in the end killed her. Her singing was described as 'Jazz Singing', which this record line amusingly describes as 'a way people who know about jazz describe a singer they like', which is to say not a pop singer. I would think it possible that, given the time, the colour of her skin may have got her automatically grouped into many categories including the 'jazz singer' one.

She has a lot of soul in her voice and it is a shame she died so young. This record has an incredible selection of songs and is a must-have for anyone looking to dive head-first into her music. Double records can be a bit of a chore, but the passion and soul in this one make it well worth the listen.

Random Movie Review: 127 Hours

127 Hours (2010)
Starring: James Franco, Amber Tamblyn
















I'm assuming most of you that read this are aware of what this movie is about. I had intended to watch this movie for a long time, but couldn't bring myself to watch, knowing what he has to do to get himself out of his situation. I was assured again and again that the scene in question was not as gruesome as I feared and not to be worried. Let this be my warning: IT IS PRETTY HARD TO WATCH.

*WARNING: NOT FOR THE SQUEAMISH 
Let me back up a bit. The film is the real-life story of outdoor adventure-seeker, Aron Ralston. In 2003, Aron takes off for an off-road biking/hiking/rock exploration adventure through a Utah Canyon. This type of adventure is normal for him, so he doesn't think to notify anyone where he is going. Along the way he meets two young women and shows them the thrill of a lifetime when they drop into water from a tight spot in the rocks. He takes off on his own again, promising to meet them at a party. As he runs through the canyon, he falls with a boulder and has his arm trapped against the side of the canyon by the rock. The remainder of the movie ticks away the 127 hours he is trapped, during which he films short messages to his family on his camcorder and becomes increasingly delirious from lack of water. His hallucinations are interspersed with scenes enacting memories. After filming his goodbyes, he slips into a hallucination of a young boy that he does not recognize, but feels is the son he does not yet have. With all of his remaining energy, he breaks the bones in his forearm and uses his cheap multi-tool to sever his arm. As mentioned, this scene is hard to NOT be gross, but it was certainly worse than I had heard (or maybe I'm just more squeamish than I thought.) The end of the film shows shots of the real-life Ralston with his now wife and kids, as well as enjoying skiing and other outdoor sports.

The movie itself was good, despite being in the middle of James Franco deciding he was the best thing to happen to film and/or tv. He did hold his own as basically the only actor onscreen for the majority of the movie. It was emotional and well done, but certainly not the perfect movie. I'll give it a 7/10

Random Movie Review: The Seduction of Mimi

 

The Seduction of Mimi (1972 Italian w/ English Subtitles)
Starring: Giancarlo Giannini, Mariagela Melato
















This movie was a strange one. Even though it was released in 1972, some of the scenes run with the fast-motion comedic stylings of the Charlie Chaplin era. This is all mixed in with other elements that are suited to the time (typical colour and structure, etc.)

Mimi is a union worker who decides to vote against the mafia candidate in an election. Though the election is supposed to be secure, the mafia tells him to get out and stay out. After abandoning Sicily and his wife, he takes residence with a communist in Turin and has a child with her. The mafia takes note of his work and makes him a supervisor back in Sicily. He has to keep Fione(the communist) and the child a secret, which is done for him in exchange for losing intimacy with her. When Fione gets pregnant, he knows something is up and repays her by sleeping with the wife of the man who got her pregant(this makes for a less than comfortable scene).

As I mentioned before, the blend of filming styles was a bit random and made me unsure of whether it was an hommage or they just used earlier techniques in certain situations for effect. Also, many of the scenes were monologues, which lose some lustre in translation for sure. Imagine watching Pacino's speeches in Scent of a Woman delivered in a dub-over or through subtitles. Surely the raw emotion can't be re-created that simply translating to and from any language. Keeping that in mind, I will upscore this movie a half point for parts I can't quite fathom, but believe were done better than they came across. 6.5/10.

Random Movie Review: Sophie's Choice

Sophie's Choice (1982)
Starring: Meryl Streep, Kevin Kline, Peter MacNicol

















I think we've all heard of or know about what Sophie's choice in this movie was.  What I didn't know was that it wouldn't be revealed until much later in the movie than I would have thought. Having kids, I had to bring myself to watch this movie, but I thought I should since it's a 'classic'. Having just watched a war movie, then a post-war movie, I suppose I must watch a post-post-war movie, whatever that is.

Stingo, an aspiring writer moves into a New York City apartment and quickly encounters the upstairs neighbours Sophie and Nathan. The initial argument between the couple almost brings Stingo to leave. Instead, however, the couple apologizes to him and they quickly become friends. Stingo slowly learns about Sophie's struggles in Poland and how the couple met once she came to the USA, but Sophie holds back some information. After meeting Nathan's brother, Stingo realizes it isn't only Sophie that is holding back information. Nathan's claims to high education and research turn out to be paranoid schizophrenia. Stingo and Sophie escape to a hotel during a bout of rage from Nathan and Sophie reveals to Stingo that she was forced to choose between which of her children would live and which would die while in a concentration camp.

The movie has been parodied in pop culture on many different TV shows and movie scenes. The term Sophie's choice has become synonymous with choosing between two things (in most situations with satire/sarcasm. ie: 'I can't decide between the fish and the duck' 'a real Sophie's choice you've got on your hands'.) Not that making a hard choice is a new thing in literature or media or anything like that

Meryl Streep's acting was at its best in this role. One of those performances that if you didn't know who she was, you would certainly think she was actually a Polish women struggling to learn English. The inflection and pauses were great. As was quickly becoming evident at the time, Meryl Streep is one of the premiere actresses of the last four decades.This movie, combined with Kramer vs. Kramer and The Deer Hunter would prove to be a strong start to a long and illustrious career. The choosing a kid to die part unsettled me a little, but not enough to drop below a 7.75/10.

Random Movie Review: Europa Europa

Europa Europa (1990)
Starring: Marco Hofschneider, Julie Delpy, Solomon Perel

















Europa Europa follows a Jewish boy Solomon(Solly) and his family in Nazi Germany. After his sister is murdered by Nazis, he and his family move to Poland. When the war starts and the family gets split up, Solly decides to try to pass as a German to survive. He is a Russian-German translator for German soldiers and eventually joins the Hitler Youth. Throughout his journey, he runs into issues concerning hiding his Jewish heritage whenever there is a medical examination or any other situation where anyone might notice his circumcision. At the last minute during combat he runs across the lines onto the Soviet side and surrenders himself. Brought back to their camp, he's about to be shot until his estranged brother runs over to find him.

This is based on a true story, which makes it that much more astounding. I can't believe that as humans, we could ever do anything like what happened in that war(although not naive enough to think that's the only instance of such atrocity). I also can't imagine that anyone made it through, especially in such a way as this. I suppose group mentality can go a long way and I've never been in such a position and hopefully never will.

As a side note, the bottom of this poster appears to say that it gets four stars for being 1/2 of a harrowing true story. I enjoyed this movie and I always like war movies that tell a story to do with something other than the fighting part. Not that I mind war movies themselves, but there are so many of them that a change in pace is nice. I'll go 7.25/10 for this.

Random Movie Review: The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (2007 French w/ English Subtitles)
Starring: Mathieu Amalric, Emmanuelle Seigner, Marie-Josée Croze















Whoa, I've started to compile a backlog of movies to review, so I should hop on that and churn out as many as I can this week to catch up.

This lovely drama-docu-biopic is based on the book of the same name (le scaphandre et le papillon, en francais), details the life of Jean-Dominique Bauby a hot to trot editor who suffers a life-altering stroke. The stroke sends him into a condition called 'locked-in', where he is able to think normally, but loses control of all bodily functions except the ability to blink his eyelid. With the help of a speech therapist who has developed a system to communicate using a board of letters sorted from most commonly used to least, he begins to be able to express himself again. He employs a very patient note-taker, Claude, who pain-stakingly dictates his story, which becomes the book.

The use of flashback and POV filming make this incredibly interesting and opens up a whole new cinematic style that is breathtaking. Parts of the movie were hard to watch and it did lag a bit in other times, but as a whole, it is quite enjoyable. A note on the Wikipedia page said that Johnny Depp was originally tagged for the role. I am so happy that quirky self-righteous guy was busy doing something else (note: I enjoyed his work before, but he either oversaturated himself or believed too much that he needed to be ever so quirky in every role and I gradually stopped caring).

As it stands, however, he did not leave his mark on this film and it gets a solid 8.25/10 from me.

A Record a Week: Al Hirt - The Best of Al Hirt Vol. 2

SIDE 1.
BYE BYE BLUES
STAR DUST
THE GIRL FROM IPANEMA
ALKIN'
SLEEPY LAGOON
I CAN'T GET STARTED

SIDE 2.
CLARINET MARMALADE
(DO YOU KNOW WHAT IT MEANS TO MISS) NEW ORLEANS
EASY STREET
LET'S DO IT (LET'S FALL IN LOVE)
THE JITTERBUG WALTZ
PERSONALITY

Now that's what I'm talking about. Another week, another musician who is the namesake of the record without being the singer. It's nice to hear, because as nice as instrumental music is, sometimes it is good to hear music with a singer where they aren't drowning out the music. Maybe if Guns n' Roses were just called Slash, Axl wouldn't have become the ego-maniac that he did and we'd still have that same 90's rock band (although after The Spaghetti Incident, maybe it's better this way).

It is clear after listening to this record that Hirt was a solid trumpet player. This album covers all styles of classics and he nails it all the way through. He was born and raised in the hot bed of jazz, New Orleans, but studied music up in Ohio. He played swing and big band music as well through his time after Ohio and thus gained the tools to be able to play all the styles of music that he exhibits on this record. I've always been jealous of people who play the brass instruments, as they always made my cheeks hurt and I just couldn't get past that. Maybe it will be something I revisit as an adult to see if I've built up any durability in the cheekal region. (I know that's not a real word)

It is a good thing to get a few records like this under your belt if you consider yourself to have a diverse knowledge of music. I myself think that I need to dig deeper into the last 2 artists I've reviewed, as they're both great and I have only mildly increased my hold on what they're about.

Random Movie Review: The Savages

The Savages (2007)
Starring: Philip Seymour Hoffman, Laura Linney

















This is not 'Savages' the new Oliver Stone film of mediocre reviews. It wasn't a great film either, but it definitely wasn't that one.

Wendy and Jon Savages are siblings from a broken family that have to come together to take care of their aging father when his wife dies and he is left with nothing and nobody to care for him. Each child feels as if they should care, but they weren't raised all that well and in turn don't feel like they owe him much care in return. They have become self-involved, generally failing adults, and now they're in charge of someone's well-being. They put him in a home and visit him, until he eventually dies. His death causes them to take a look at their own lives and re-evaluate.

This film came out right after Hoffman made the jump from excellent character actor to star of the film Capote. Perhaps wanting to bank on that, they paired him with fellow character/ensemble actress Laura Linney, hoping for a cult hit and some mainstream success (would be my guess). The disconnect of the characters makes it hard to care for anyone in the film, which in turn makes it a bit hard to latch on to. The acting was good; the two mains played their parts as well as they ever do. I guess I just felt there was nothing to pop for either character. Neither Linney nor Hoffman was given anything to run with, really. That being said, it was an interesting look at dystopian family life and the ways in which we are affected by our upbringing, and how we are forced to deal with that.

Imdb suggests Squid and the Whale for people who liked this movie, which I feel is apt, as I felt the same about each of these movies. Good, interesting - but not great. Let's say 7.25/10 on this one.

Random Movie Review: Riding Alone For Thousands of Miles

Riding Alone For Thousands of Miles (2005 Chinese w/ English Subtitles)
Starring: Ken Takakura, Shinobu Terajima

















Riding Alone For Thousand of Miles is a touching story about a man who goes to visit his estranged son who is dying and ends up on a journey to complete a project the son was working on when he became ill. Along the way, he meets a young orphan boy and feels a parental draw to him. His guilt over being a bad father to his actual son drives him to care for the young boy in a way he knows he should have to his own.

This movie pulls you in two ways, in that you feel sad for the man losing his son and a tug at the heartstrings over his bond with the young boy, but kind of not bad for him because he was not a good father to his own son. His attempt at making amends with his son falls short, but that does not stop him from pursuing the completion of his son's film. It seems to be a symbolic theme in Chinese film to have a course of action and fulfill it as if it were a debt to a greater power or karma. I can only assume it is taken from some sect of Chinese culture, though I admit to know nothing about that other than what I take from movies.

I'd put this in the same category as Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring, though it wasn't quite at that level for me. I'll give this a 7/10.

A Record a Week: Earl Hines - Fatha and His Orchestra On Tour

SIDE 1.
I JUST WANNA MAKE LOVE TO YOU
SECOND BALCONY JUMP
PASSION FLOWER
MY HEART STOOD STILL
I FEEL SO SMOOCHY
ALL OF ME

SIDE 2.
SOMEBODY LOVES ME
NIGHT IN TRINIDAD
CANNERY WALK
THINGS AIN'T WHAT THEY USED TO BE
MELODICA BLUES
EASY TO LOVE

Listening to this record, I am reminded that there was a time when the player was the namesake of the group, even if he or she was not the singer. Not to take anything away from the singer in this group, she's wonderful; but it is clearly Hines that is in control and the best of the bunch.

Teaming up with jazz greats Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington(among countless others) he over the years, Hines was considered amongst the elite in jazz and what would later become 'bebop'. He triumphed through a move to Chicago(where jazz was king at the time), powered through the times when African-Americans were discriminated against everywhere, and even maneuvered much of his band being drafted into the army, missing only a short stint as a result. I am not an aficionado of this style of music at all, but I can tell a good piece when I hear it. If my record player were upstairs, this would certainly be perfect cocktail party background music. I'm going to go against the grain of saying 'I should have been born in (insert era)' and just go ahead and say more modern musicians should do well done versions of music from eras past.

Random Movie Review: The Lives of Others

The Lives of Others (2006 German w/ English subtitles)
Starring: Sebastian Koch, Ulrich Müle, Martina Gedeck

















In the time of the Berlin wall, Georg Dreyman is a writer/playwright in East Berlin whose plays star his beautiful and talented girlfriend Christa-Maria. Haupmann Gerd Wiesler, a member of the Statsi (secret police that monitor anti-socialism) is instructed by his boss to monitor the playwright. He discovers along the way that his boss is in love with the actress and that the lives of the playwright and his friends may not be entirely innocent after all. He becomes infatuated with their lives and even manages to change his hard-edged tune a little and becomes protective of them. He loses everything to protect them and it doesn't help the artists relationship in the end either. The wall falls and the entire secret policing goes away in the end anyway.

It's an interesting look at life during the Berlin wall era, something I can't even fathom. The other movie that comes to mind for me when it comes to the Berlin wall and its falling is Goodbye Lenin!, which is a more comedic way of looking at it.

I absolutely loved the performance of Coch and Müle (that surely sounds much more absurd anglocized than in native German where those similar english words may hold little or no meaning). The two of them stole the show for me, though Gedeck was enjoyable as well. I am probably rating foreign films a bit off from what I usually might (still undecided as to whether it is higher or lower), as I am just getting back into them after years of movies that the people in my household can tolerate. I think my overall feeling is pretty accurate with an 8/10 on this one. It didn't completely wow me, but it was very interesting and certainly quite an accomplishment as a feature debut for its director (maybe he took a wee step back with his next film The Tourist).