Bottle ShockThis poster says that Bottle Shock is hugely entertaining. It says that there's magic in it. I don't know about that but I do know that if you just need to chill out for an hour and half then this movie will help with the chilling. I've found myself in a need-to-chill mood twice and this movie's cathartic chilled-out-ness rose to the occasion, twice. It's a story in the spirit of Mighty Ducks. You've seen this movie before. It's a cut and paste come from behind montage. I'm ok with that. The poster would make you think it's of the Sideways genre. It's not really and you don't have to be a cinephile or a wine snob to enjoy it. Favorite elements: Freddy Rodriguez from Six Feet Under crawls out from beneath yet another suppressive role and gets his due--I'd like to get wasted with that dude.
Francis Ford Coppola is known for epic movies, having a cool name and his wine that just might be a bit over priced due to it's lavish bottle. Rumble Fish, by my line of sight, is his coolest movie, cooler than his name, even. I'm just going to list the cast and have that be what galvanizes you. Matt Dillon. Micky Rourke. Nicolas Cage. Lawrence Fishburn. Diane Lane. Dennis Hopper (RIP). Vincent Spano. Chris Penn. Glen Withrow. Tom Waits! Dianna Scarwid. William Smith. Queue this bad boy up and do your best to see through a veneer thickened by dry ice and really long shots of a young, pre-mangled face/voice Micky Rourke gazing through Chinese Fighting fish (the only thing in color). The prognosticator in me knows that you'll wish we still had pool halls by the time the credits come around.
Gomorrah
Taking the appeal out of the life of a gangster, Gomorrah tromps through the muddy terrain of quid pro quo with the camera on the backs of kids that lack 'that' and are willing to do any 'this'. Scarface is the epitome of the impeccably tailored gangster. Kids toting automatic rifles in this haunting, necessary movie are the outcome of Scarface's unrequited respect. Naples is the star of this one, gray and drab, just like the future for kids growing up in capitalism's/Hollywood's cracks. In my top 100.
Coffee and Cigarettes
Jim Jarmusch makes far-out movies. If you want to watch Tom Waits and Iggy Pop intellectualize the theater of the absurd then queue up this one. You'll be impressed by how tight Jarmusch scenes can be in the face of a devoid script. If you don't smoke and don't drink coffee, or if you only partake in one and not the other, you'll still enjoy watching a hodgepodge of thoughtful celebrities indulge their vices. Most of the vignettes are on youtube if you ain't got Netflix.
Up The Yangtze
I was at a friends house waiting for him to wax his surfboard. Our plans to surf ended when this documentary came on PBS. How nerdy of us? We were mesmerized by the dedication of those being displaced during the construction of Three Gorges Dam. Life as they knew it, simple but enough, was thrust aside by plans for a gargantuan China. They defer to the authorities they'll never meet or know, put their furniture on their back and "do what's best for China." We can't relate.
Ayerton Senna is an enigma despite candid, verbose tantrums. His self reflection is what is most interesting. He was Brazil's hope when visions of western luxuries seemed unattainable. Favelas latched on to his bravery and relished in his successes that challenged an establishment. He is political and spiritual and contemplative. He is also one of the greatest drivers to ever live and die on a track. The hook in this flawless documentary is the timeless human dilemmas beneath Formula 1, a billion dollar endeavor. This is a great one.
Alamar
Agrarians often talk of the abhorrent losses we sustain in globalization. Machines have replaced humans as the source of community resulting in listless existences. In this short movie an agrarian father makes one last effort to deftly implant images of the simple, good life in his son's mind. Odds are you'll come away wishing you had a boat and some fish to catch instead of email.
Ali: When We Were Kings
This is a must for anyone that lived after Ali was in his prime. Get an inside look at the bombastic progenitor of the modern professional athlete mantra. He changed the world, in my opinion. You'll be captivated by all that you did not know and even more so by the person. You'll be called on the carpet if you combated ESPN for hailing him as the third greatest athlete of all time. If your father, when Ali is mentioned, stalls for a second or a minute or for several moments, as if to be playing back moving images of The Man, as if to be in true reverie, then make sure you check out this documentary to find out why. You'll be smarter and relevantly impacted for having watched this one.
Sin Nombre
Man, this one's tough. Don't just wander into this. My admonition is that you understand how little you understand about gang-mindset, even if you regularly indulge in History Channel's gangland. Keep an eye out for those moments when the main characters figure something out. Rightly so, they connect the dots faster than you. Being forced to accept their harsh realities inevitably becomes your prerogative as the viewer in a cushioned seat. Your seat will feel like it has needles in it, though. Don't let the discomfort deter you, this is some of the best acting I've seen in a while and one of the better scripts to come out of immigration cinema.
Encounters at the End of the World
The National Science Foundation is more than entertained by an eccentric and prickly Werner Herzog. They sent him to Antarctica, a place as crazy as he is, to find out why monkeys don't saddle a horse and ride off into the sunset. In this crazy place Herzog finds crazy people and captures some far out images. It all comes full circle with a soundtrack that will leave you googling "encounters end world soundtrack." A must see, you won't believe it but your gut will.
Slam
I checked this out of my university library* in 2003 because I was in an art movie phase. After, I thought about it for like nine years. Recently it popped up in my Netflix 'Watch it Again'. I watched it again. I am still thinking about it. The theme is not original, the story is not original, the way it is made is not original. However, its way into a subculture's subculture is. The extended scenes allow the actors to be a touch more real even though they're encompassed by what has to be unreal. A series of bad choices, usually cumbersome to a viewer, are experienced more through words, thereby being something we can relate to. The idea is that the only way to make sense of ghetto life is through rhymes. I think this is a pretty good idea, if not a necessity.
Agrarians often talk of the abhorrent losses we sustain in globalization. Machines have replaced humans as the source of community resulting in listless existences. In this short movie an agrarian father makes one last effort to deftly implant images of the simple, good life in his son's mind. Odds are you'll come away wishing you had a boat and some fish to catch instead of email.
This is a must for anyone that lived after Ali was in his prime. Get an inside look at the bombastic progenitor of the modern professional athlete mantra. He changed the world, in my opinion. You'll be captivated by all that you did not know and even more so by the person. You'll be called on the carpet if you combated ESPN for hailing him as the third greatest athlete of all time. If your father, when Ali is mentioned, stalls for a second or a minute or for several moments, as if to be playing back moving images of The Man, as if to be in true reverie, then make sure you check out this documentary to find out why. You'll be smarter and relevantly impacted for having watched this one.
Man, this one's tough. Don't just wander into this. My admonition is that you understand how little you understand about gang-mindset, even if you regularly indulge in History Channel's gangland. Keep an eye out for those moments when the main characters figure something out. Rightly so, they connect the dots faster than you. Being forced to accept their harsh realities inevitably becomes your prerogative as the viewer in a cushioned seat. Your seat will feel like it has needles in it, though. Don't let the discomfort deter you, this is some of the best acting I've seen in a while and one of the better scripts to come out of immigration cinema.
The National Science Foundation is more than entertained by an eccentric and prickly Werner Herzog. They sent him to Antarctica, a place as crazy as he is, to find out why monkeys don't saddle a horse and ride off into the sunset. In this crazy place Herzog finds crazy people and captures some far out images. It all comes full circle with a soundtrack that will leave you googling "encounters end world soundtrack." A must see, you won't believe it but your gut will.
I checked this out of my university library* in 2003 because I was in an art movie phase. After, I thought about it for like nine years. Recently it popped up in my Netflix 'Watch it Again'. I watched it again. I am still thinking about it. The theme is not original, the story is not original, the way it is made is not original. However, its way into a subculture's subculture is. The extended scenes allow the actors to be a touch more real even though they're encompassed by what has to be unreal. A series of bad choices, usually cumbersome to a viewer, are experienced more through words, thereby being something we can relate to. The idea is that the only way to make sense of ghetto life is through rhymes. I think this is a pretty good idea, if not a necessity.
No comments:
Post a Comment