Transformers
September 18th, 2007
A punchy B-picture, high on testosterone and a Hollywood megabudget, featuring pleasantly absurd giant robots that turn into cars. The boy-hero’s teenage crush is an improbable babe (Megan Fox) sprung from the pages of a glossy magazine, and because this is a Michael Bay movie, the fights are ridiculously overblown.
Now, I have nothing against popcorn flicks aimed at the thirteen-year-old in all of us, but I can’t stand propaganda. Transformers wallows in the questionable rhetoric of heroism and sacrifice, and the shots of fighter jets taking off at dawn and military helicopters swooping over downtown L.A. just need the superimposed tagline “Army of One” to be turned into recruiting ads. When Shia LaBeouf gets his orders and is told “You are a soldier now,” the fun is all but ruined for this pacifist. With John Turturro as anti-alien G-Man.
Transformers. Michael Bay, 2007. **
Bonnie and Clyde
September 2nd, 2007
Bonnie and Clyde are the names of the cats we’re currently staying with, so there was no way around rewatching Arthur Penn’s 1967 classic. The film is still horrifying and hilarious in its casual depiction of murder, love, and grand theft Ford Model T, and it’s this last part I found most curious: Bonnie and Clyde provides the blueprint for a gazillion crime-spree romances to follow, and the car already occupies a central role, as if American lawbreaking in the 20th century wasn’t even possible without the automobile — even when there weren’t roads to drive on. You know Ms. Parker and Mr. Barrow are doomed when their escape vehicle is hit by a hand grenade, and the final machine-gunning riddles not just their bodies but also their “death car” with bullets. This movie has led to many ruthless but gentle mock machine gun executions of our feline friends.
Bonnie and Clyde. Arthur Penn, 1967. *****
- Bonnie and Clyde on Wikipedia
- Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow on Wikipedia
- Bright Lights on Pauline Kael and Bonnie and Clyde
- A review of Arthur Penn’s Bonnie and Clyde, Lester D. Friedman (ed.)
- Bonnie and Clyde on All Things Considered
- Greenbriar Picture Shows on the film’s 40th anniversary (via)
- Brigitte Bardot and Serge Gainsbourg: Bonnie & Clyde
Tucker: A Man and His Dream
October 24th, 2006
A more glamorous version of Who Killed the Electric Car, the exuberant story of a failure, and a good-natured indictment of corporate malfaesance and the death of the American Dream. Christian Slater, Joan Allen, and Martin Landau are always welcome; Sofia sweeps through in a party scene, and Dean Stockwell makes an appearance as Howard Hughes. In the title role, Jeff Bridges plays the designer of a forward-looking car that was too innovative for its own good. Only 50 were ever built before the big car companies put him out of business. A flying version of the Tucker appears in Revenge of the Sith:
Tucker: The Man and His Dream. Francis Ford Coppola, 1988. ***
[tags]film, francis ford coppola, 3 stars, cars, dreams, corporations, jeff bridges, preston tucker, star wars[/tags]
