Memento
Memento is a dodgy movie, and sort of messes with your mind. So the question is, in a film this bold, should small lapses be excused because the whole things is almost like one continuous "lapse"?
What I'm referring to is the main character's ability to remember that he can't remember things. If his memory stopped being reliable when he first got his condition, how can he remember that he got it?
How come he remembers to take polaroids and notes, and to make tattoos? How come he remembers that he's on a mission to avenge his wife? The movie occasionally implies that he has to re-discover these things after every new memory lapse, but often he somehow "remembers" that he's got a polaroid camera and that he needs to make use of it, that he has notes to himself and needs to get those tattooed, and that he can't remember anything since shortly after his wife's death.
I guess it wouldn't be much of a movie if he couldn't remember these things at least.
Gerry
Man. Powerful film. Awesome acting. Beautiful camera work. And, of course, music by Arvo Pärt. It's a fairly unique experience, I don't remember feeling this way about any movie except maybe "Elephant", which is the partner piece to this one.
Just make sure you see this one with the right people, because it can really ruin the experience when you have someone saying, "This isn't funny. There's no explosions. There are no chicks. This sucks."
Dogville
How 'bout Dogville? Is it, like, the boldest movie ever, or what? I can't think of any film I've seen that has such a deep and perceptive script. I've heard it said that it's a Brechtian treatment of Wilder's "Our Town", but I find more Duerrenmatt than Brecht in it. It seems that the moral of the story can be found in Hebrews 10:28-30. (Fragment: "Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy... How much more severly do you think a man deserves to be punished who has... insulted the Spirit of grace?")
violence in films
We all know that films are not generally the best place to find realistic depictions of violence. But two of the funniest ones are the gunshot wounds inflicted to Steve Martin in "The Three Amigos" and to Ewan McGregor in "Big Fish". They are there for all of, what ten seconds (less than that in "Big Fish") and suddenly have blinked out of existence again.
Spider Man 2
Why do so many people say this one's even better than the first one? The dialogue is less believable, the plot devices less subtle and the action more cartoonish. And somehow the first Spider-man movie filled the "swinging through the concrete jungle" scenes with much more vertigo and, uh,... realism? (Bad word when reviewing a superhero movie, I know.)
Of course it's still a pretty cool movie. But the first one was better.
Shrek 2
Shrek 2 is one of the most unnecessary films to come out, but it is also funny enough to excuse that. The "meet the parents" (or "meet the in-laws") idea is played to its absolute superlative here as an ogre marries into a royal family. "Puss in Boots" as a Spaniard is another one of those random nationality tamperings -- like "Robin Hood" as a womanizing Frenchman in the first Shrek installment -- used as an excuse to bring in some ethnic humor. But what can you say? It works, right?
What has me completely mystified is the speed at which the final events occur. After it took Shrek, Fiona and Donkey a long, long coach ride from Shrek's swamp to "Far, Far Away", Shrek's friends (Pinnochio and co.) seem to manage the whole trip in what couldn't possibly have taken more than an hour or two. How? No coach, no wings, nothing.
And how did thay manage to create that gigantic gingerbread man on such short notice?
Castaway
Sure Tom Hanks' weight gain and weight loss was impressive. Sure he did a phenomenal acting job, carrying the dialogue, character, action and plot pretty much on his shoulders (and his alone) for an hour or so. But not just the acting, but the directing, script, soundtrack, and everything else works well. It is an all-round effective movie (as one friend put it: "if you think you'll never choke back tears at the sight of a volleyball adrift on the ocean, go watch this film").
But for me, the most poignant moment of the film is that look back that he gives the island as he finally rows away beyond the breakers and to freedom. Anyone held in the confines of a prison for many years, cursing and yelling and swearing to get away, will find that exact sort of nostalgia and dependence almost pulling him back the moment he breaks free and finds himself adrift in a boundless ocean.
