The Darwin Awards
August 2nd, 2007
Not bad for a black comedy based on a website. We always like looking at Winona Ryder, and her insurance-adjuster romance with uptight Joseph Fiennes is plenty cute. But the meat-and-potatoes of the movie are the outrageous scenes of people killing themselves in idiotic ways. With David Arquette, Lukas Haas, Juliette Lewis, Tim Blake Nelson, and Chris Penn is various bit parts. Any movie in which both Metallica and Lawrence Ferlinghetti have speaking parts is ok by me.
The Darwin Awards made history in Muck’s World because it’s the first Netflix Movie-on-Demand we tried. I hadn’t realized that you get an hour of free streaming time for every dollar you paid on your regular subscription — to ease the transition, no doubt. Once I stopped grumbling about the fact that it doesn’t work with Firefox, the software installed without a hitch, and quality over a cable connection was great. It’s the way of the future! As a man who knows a thing or two about online movie distribution once told me, there’s a reason it’s called Netflix, not NetDVD.
The Darwin Awards. Finn Taylor, 2006. ***
Pan’s Labyrinth - Director’s Commentary
July 31st, 2007
Plenty of DVD commentaries are happy to dispense self-aggrandizing anecdotes or reveal information that permanently damages the viewing experience (I’m looking at you, Peter Jackson.) Instead, Guillermo del Toro talks about storytelling concerns, structure, framing, staging, color choices, sound design, edits, references and symbolism — in other words, the where and why of creative decisions that make up Pan’s Labyrinth.
If you’re one of the people who sort of liked the movie but ultimately didn’t quite know what to make of its blend of fantasy and brutal historical reality, this track should clear up some of your questions. If you recognized it for the instant classic it is, you’ll gain a new appreciation for the care and depth of thought that went into it. Together with Francis Ford Coppola’s Godfather track, this is one of the best director’s commentaries I’ve heard.
El Laberinto del fauno. Guillermo del Toro, 2006. *****
Venus
June 25th, 2007
This vehicle for aging Peter O’Toole dances around places Lolita and Harold & Maude boldly went decades ago. Jodie Whittaker plays the sassy, underage object of an aging actor’s affections, and after a few dirty jokes and a drinking binge, there isn’t anywhere to go for Hanif Kureishi’s strangely timid screenplay. And so we wait for the inevitable as the movie succumbs to a fatal case of sentimentality.
Venus. Roger Michell, 2006. **
Death At a Funeral
June 12th, 2007
Marcy is taking over reviewing duties for this one, so I’ll make it short: Frank Oz’s morbid farce is the funniest movie I’ve seen this year so far. We’ll have the review up on World/Independent Film before the June 29 opening.
Death At a Funeral. Frank Oz, 2007. ****
The trailer ruins a few surprises but not all the best laughs:
Kissed
June 1st, 2007
Forget Six Feet Under: Molly Parker plays a necrophiliac embalmer in Lynne Stopkewich’s 1996 debut. She begins her career as a peculiar little girl who likes to bury birds and roadkill, and grows into a woman who likes her men cold. When Matt (Peter Outerbridge) falls hopelessly in love with her, the story is taken to its logical conclusion. It’s all handled very tastefully, lyrically even, but the denouement feels rushed.
Kissed. Lynne Stopkewich, 1996. ***
The Bridge
October 12th, 2006
Eric Steel aimed two cameras at the Golden Gate Bridge and filmed every daylight hour for an entire year. You see, the bridge isn’t just the most-photographed man-made structure in North America, it’s also a deadly magnet for suicide. About two dozen people jump to their death there every year, and Steel figured that he’d catch at least a few of them on tape–and he did. The resulting movie, which delivers awful footage from the bridge and interviews with witnesses, family members, and one survivor, is disturbing and probably a little exploitative (Steel saves the “best” jump for last.) I haven’t entirely gotten my head around this thing, so hang on for a proper About.com review. My sense of it right now is that it’s slightly overlong, but missing too much context. The director was there for a post-screening Q&A, and there were a lot of questions that the movie didn’t address at all (the non-existent barrier, the question of helping the people he filmed etc.). The Bridge opens on October 27.
The Bridge. Eric Steel, 2006. ***
[tags]film, 3 stars, documentary, suicide, san francisco, golden gate bridge, death[/tags]
