99. CLOSE-UP

FAR FROM CLOSE

By Darin Skaggs

     In my early years of being a film fanatic I watched the “classics.” Most of these, while still being great had mostly the same structure.  First the set up, then a conflict to solve, there is a romance going on the whole time and then the plot is resolved.  Now seeing most of the classics I now search for more non-structure work.  Abbas Kiaramstami’s Close-Up is one of the most interesting and unique films I’ve seen my whole life.

     Close-Up is based on a true story about a man who poses as a famous director in Iran.  He ends up at this families home, they welcome him in, they give him shelter and they feed him.  Eventually the family finds out who he really is and the man is put to trial for identity fraud.  The catch for this movie is that instead of the director hiring actors to play these roles he hires the actual people involved to play themselves.  Not only that but the director goes in and films the real trial.

     While basically being reenactments of a strange story it also works on many emotional levels.  By using the real people you can get the real reactions and how they really felt during the time of the incident.  It is a film about trying to accept who you are.  This man who pretends to be a famous director seems sad.  The film says that there are consequences to not being yourself and that it is a lot harder to live the life of someone you’re not then be who you are.  This film is one of the weirdest and beautiful films I’ve ever seen.

100. DON'T LOOK NOW

Do Watch Now

By Darin Skaggs

SPOILERS!

     One of the most look down upon genres in film is the horror genre.  In most recent years the genre has become blood filled and unnecessary franchises, much like the 1980’s and early 90’s.  The first kind of horror films were from the 1930’s that included Frankenstein and Dracula.  Most of these films are fun and interesting, but for the most part not scary.  The first terrifying horror film, in my opinion, is Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho. This film started the short lived horror masterpieces that lasted from 1960 starting with Psycho and ending with Ridley Scott’s Alien with some good ones here and there.  Right in the middle of this spectacular span of horror movies is Nicholas Roeg’s Don’t Look Now. 

     The film opens with a young girl in a red raincoat walking near a small body of water.  At the same time this scene cuts to the girl’s family in their home, the dad working on schematics for a church he is scheduled to redo.  There is some weird imagery throughout the scene and then something happens.  The dad spills some red paint on the picture of the church and has vision of bad things happening to his daughter outside.  He runs out and sees his daughter in the water, she has drowned.  His wife looks and seems in shock with the dad holding his dead child and screaming in emotional pain.  Then cut to months later.

     The opening to this film is the driving force of emotion for what goes on for the rest of the film.  Though I called this film a horror film, which I do think it is, it is also a psychosocial thriller.  The entire time after the death of his young daughter he is slowly ridden with guilt.  The cut right after the death scene is not only months after it is also on the other side of the country.  The church he is working on is in Venice.  While there his wife meets these two women that seem to have a lot of interest in her and the dad.  They are weird and they try to convince both of them that the dad has supernatural powers and might be able to see the future.  We and the father character struggle if this is true or part of him losing his mind.  This film has many metaphors for the grief stricken state of the father.  He does the best he can to take his mind off his daughter’s passing.  He becomes romantic with his wife, that doesn’t work.  He works hard re-building the church he’s been assigned, that makes him worse due to the fact every time he is there his life is threated.  He tries multiple things to distract himself yet it all comes back, in a very subtle way, that his daughter is gone.

     The horror part of the film is that there is a small figure the father keeps seeing running around Venice.  This figure is dressed in a red raincoat that is identical to the one of his daughter.  Only he sees this figure.  It is a metaphor for his guilt and grief and might also be really happening to him.

     When watching this film I found that the dad was really broken up about the loss of his daughter, it is tearing him apart and slowly leading him into a deep depression.  He is broken, but his wife either has not been affected at all or not too much.  In the opening scene he is so affected that his daughter is gone, but the mother is only slightly fazed when she realizes her daughter has drowned.   This leads to the complete paranoia that someone is trying to murder him.  At one point his wife leaves to go back to the United States, yet he sees her on a passing boat.  He calls the states and finds out that she is there and had not yet return.

     The ending of the film is one of my favorites.  In the climax the father is chasing the figure in the raincoat.  When he finally catches up to the raincoat it is in the church.  The figure turns around and is a creepy old lady.  The man is in shock.  Then the old woman takes out a knife and kills the dad.  While dying the man sees everything that happens, including the beginning when he spills the red on the church symbolizing his death.  The whole film it a metaphor about how losing someone can slowly kill you emotionally.  He slowly loses the passion for his wife and seems to fully forget his son.  The vision he has for the future, including his funeral, is a metaphor for his depression making him feel what he feels the future will be without his child.

     This film is a classic.  It is filled with metaphors for death, grief and depression.  The film deals with them head on in a dark way.  It is also a great mystery, psychological thriller and horror film that keeps you entertained and will stick with you for a long time.

OZ THE GREAT AND POWERFUL Review

OZ THE GREAT AND POWERFUL Review

By Darin Skaggs

     For many people there is a certain film that they saw at a young age that gives them great nostalgia when they watch it.  For me one of my favorites is the 1939 classic The Wizard of Oz.  I have fond memories of watching this film over and over as a child.  This series has become one of many to be “re-imagined” and made into a new series of films.  Some of those previous being Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Alice in Wonderland, both directed by Tim Burton and movies that I am not very fond of.  This time around Sam Raimi, the director of The Evil Dead series and the Spider-Man trilogy, takes the reigns of Oz the Great and Powerful.

     Raimi’s film is a “prequel” to the original Oz movie.  The film just like the original starts off as black and white.  It is a nice set up to the story and a nice nod to the classic film.  There are many moments in the film that pay homage to The Wizard of Oz.  Sometimes this can be a problem.  The film cannot decide its tone, it cannot decide whether it is a film that is merely an expansion on the Oz universe or if it can be a story on its own.  Some of these are charming, but there are just too many of them that they distract from the film having a fully formed narrative.

     The performances of the film are about half and half, some good and some bad.   The lead James Franco, who I like in most of his work, gives a crazy performance that almost redeems itself and makes sense near the climax of the film, but is mostly awkward and hard to watch.  The good performances of the movie are given by two of the witches played by Michelle Williams and Rachel Weisz.  The third witch played by Mila Kunis, who is maybe more crazy and worse than Franco which is a shame because she plays the great villain The Wicked Witch of the West.  The best acting in the film is by CGI characters, a monkey in a bell hop suit who is voiced by Zach Braff and a small girl made of China.

     A big part of the film is the visual effects.  Sometimes they are nice to look at, but for most of the film it was a real distraction.  There were moments of the film where you could say “Oh look! They’re in front of a green screen.”  Things did not look bad, but they just did not look real enough to for me to be captivated.

     This film is unoriginal, but still is better than other stuff being put out. The acting seems like there were some people only doing this for a paycheck and the special effects people are trying too hard to impress us.  The movie will not make my best of the year nor my worst.

ZERO DARK THIRTY Review

ZERO DARK THIRTY Review

By Darin Skaggs

     “This film is based on true events.”  Many films have this claim on the front of their movie and there are many different ways that they are told.  Movies like Apollo 13 are told through many different characters.  Others are inspirational like Rudy or Remember the Titans.  Some focus on one character like The Pianist or Kathrin Bigalow’s new film Zero Dark Thirty.

     The film opens with a black screen then followed with a collection of voices.  It is soon revealed that these phone calls and reporters are all from September 11^th, 2001.  Then it jumps to two years later.  The films focus is on Jessica Chastain’s character among others trying to find any leads on finding Osama Bin Laden.  If you have had any intake of any type of news for the past few years you know the conclusion to this film but it is still one of the most impactful and entrancing films of the year.

     A film released previously this year that was also based on a true story is Ben Affleck’s Argo.  This film was very good, but at times felt too Hollywood by adding jokes and just-in-time moments.  This film is very serious with very little jokes and plays out more real life than Argo did.  This realism could not be done without the actors.  Jessica Chastain gives an amazing performance as she becomes more and more obsessed about finding Bin Laden.  Everyone else is good too, but they have smaller roles which is okay because the film is supposed to be led by Chastain.

     The film never goes into anyone’s background.  This is not a bad thing however, the film is about obsession and getting revenge.  We don’t need to know why Chastain cares so much about catching this man, you can speculate that she might have lost someone in 9/11 or that she just doesn’t like it when bad things happen to innocent people.  Other characters motivation could be that they just care about the country.  The reasons are never explained but they are there in subtle ways.

     This film is one of the best directed of the year.  Bigalow gets great performances out of all the actors.  The pacing of the film is great.  The movie is two and a half hours long, but does not feel that way.  Not much even happens, but the motivation of the characters and the fact that not one of them can seem to grasp on to any useful information keeps you invested in the story.  When they do however get a hold of a lead to Bin Laden, especially the last thirty minutes of the film it is some of the most intense sequences for film in a long while.  This also leads to some of the most telling and brutally honest endings to a film that have come out in years.

     Zero Dark Thirty is one of the most honest and hair raising films in the last few years.  The film has great performances all around and in my opinion is the best directed film this year.  

Darin's Top Ten Films of 2012

MY TOP TEN FILMS OF 2012

     In 2012 there were a lot of things that I went through.  I fell in love, got married, was hospitalized and moved half was across the country.  It was a year of ups and downs.  I would say the same for the year in film, at times it was some of the most brilliant pieces of art I’ve seen in a while and then at times it was some of the worst there could be.  As bad as it got, the good always overthrew the bad.  This year saw some of the best films and here are my favorite top ten of 2012.  But first here are some honorable mentions.

CASA DE MI PADRE

     Normally I would not mention a Will Ferrell film in my best of list, but I enjoy a few of them. What makes this one so special?  The whole film is spoken in Spanish and is subtitled; Farrell plays a member of a Mexican family whose brother is secretly a drug dealer.  This premise sounds dumb, but the joke works throughout the whole eighty minutes of the film.  It is the funniest film of the year and includes jokes like pretending the film had a low budget and a scene where a narrator reads an apology for not showing a big fight between animals because they didn’t know it was illegal to make them fight.

JEFF, WHO LIVES AT HOME

     This film is good, but what makes it great for me is the theme of believing in fate and that everything happens for a reason.  This film follows Jeff a man with no job, he lives with his mom and is obsessed with fate.  The film does not look down on him, but does acknowledge the ridiculousness of what he believes. The film leaves you with one of the better endings of the year and great performances by all the cast.

ARGO

     Of course I have to put a film where one of the major themes is that movies can save lives.  Ben Affleck, who used to be a joke, has made a new name for himself as a director.  With his third feature he goes out of Boston and makes a film around a true story about rescuing five hostages out of Iran by pretending they are part of a film crew.  It is one of the most thrilling films of the year.  There are a few roll you eye moments but they are overshadowed by the great acting and direction of this film.

LES MISERABLES

     The movie musical, much like the western has faded away as a genre so when one comes around there is a big deal made about it.  It is a story that has been adapted so many different times.  The acting from it is great mostly because all the actors sang the songs live which allowed them to improvise and show more emotion while acting.  It is a well told story even though there is nearly no dialogue in the film, it is all sung.

PARANORMAN

     The one film that barely missed my top ten of the year was also the greatest animated film of the year.  The film is about a kid who can see and talk to the dead.  He is fine with this fact, yet he is still bullied for it and no one believes that he has this power.  The voice acting in this is wonderful and the stop motion animation is fantastic.  The film also benefits by being constantly funny.  The film makes you feel okay about something you might be ashamed of or embarrassed by.  It gives you peace about your strangeness.

Before you go on, here are some movies I didn’t get a chance to see but really wanted to:  AMOUR, COMPLIANCE, CLOUD ATLAS, HOLY MOTORS and LINCOLN

    

10. MARVEL’S THE AVENGERS

     Most of my favorite films are full of emotion, metaphors and complicated characters.  Most of them make you think, which I enjoy very much.  Rarely the films I enjoy are just pure fun.  Josh Weadon’s film Marvel’s The Avengers is the most fun movie that came out in 2012, while still being smart.  The film brings together several characters from previous films such as Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Captain America: The First Avenger and Thor.  Weadon gives every character a moment and tells a great action story.  I like superhero movies, but I rarely love them.  This time it’s different.  I love Marvel’s The Avengers and I would say that it is the greatest superhero movie of all time.

9. SEARCHING FOR SUGAR MAN

     I love film.  I watch all different kinds such as modern, black and white, silent and foreign.  The one genre I am not familiar with is Documentaries.  I’ve seen a few like Dear Zachary, Winnebago Man and Super Size Me.  I love each of these and I would add my number 9 film, Searching for Sugar Man to that list.  At its basics, it is about a musician that makes two records that don’t sell, but then they get widely popular in South Africa. In other ways this film is a modern day Bible story.  This man, named Rodriguez only makes two records and just stops. He has no idea that he basically changed a generation in South Africa. It is rumored in the film that Rodriguez committed suicide while on stage.  The story goes on from there and only gets more interesting.  It is a story that tells us that we can change the world and not even know.  It is one of the most beautiful and uplifting stories I’ve ever heard.

8. ZERO DARK THIRTY

     In 2010 we killed the man responsible for 9/11 almost ten years after the fact.  In 2012 Katharine Bigalow, who directed The Hurt Locker, tackled the struggle of finding and killing Bin Ladin.  In 2012 a major theme in film was remembering 9/11.  The Avengers boldly had an attacker basically trying to destroy New York.  Another superhero film, The Amazing Spider-Man, had Spider-Man saving a city with the help of the citizens.  Ben Affleck’s Argo was about saving Americans from an enemy country.  Bigalow’s film goes deeper into the theme, essentially telling a story about “saving” the world and the reality of stopping the bad guy.  The film ultimately turns into a revenge and obsession tale about getting even for a tragedy, this one being September 11^th and what that obsession could do to your humanity.  It is the greatest directed film of the year and has one of the best performances by Jessica Chastain.

7. THE QUEEN OF VERSAILLES

     I saw only two documentaries this year and to my surprise, they both made my list.  The next one is a documentary that starts as a film about a rich family that sets to build the biggest house in the world.  Then the man’s stocks go down and he loses a lot of money.  The film then turns into the struggle of this family financially and emotionally.  Throughout they make cuts, getting rid of maids or selling many of their things.  After a while you really feel bad for these people and you hope they make it.  It’s a film about how no matter what class you are in, no matter your education, no matter your age; we all fall.  We never may get back to where we were, but we can get up and move on.

6. BERNIE

     If you told me that a movie with Jack Black and Matthew McConaughey that is based on a true story and also a comedy would be in my top ten, I would say that you were crazy.  However, this film made it.  That is because this film is unique.  It’s a true story about a murder in a small town that’s tone is a comedy.  It also acts like a criminal recreation while having interviews with the town people.  Usually programs similar are cheesy, but this one works.  Mostly because of the performances, especially from Jack Black who gives the greatest performance of his career.

5. THE CABIN IN THE WOODS

     I try to respect all movie genres no matter what their reputation is.  The one I respect the least is the horror genre so when a good one comes around I take notice.  Even with the little amount of good horror films out there I still don’t love many of them.  So when I saw Drew Goddard’s The Cabin in the Woods I was shocked how amazing it was.  Much like Wes Craven’s Scream the film is a horror film that is aware of other horror films.  This one goes deep into the state of the horror genre and what the audience and creators bring to it, good and bad.  The film while saying commentary on the genre is also one of the funniest films of the year.

4. DJANGO UNCHAINED

     It was a fun year for film.  Some of that blame can be given because Quentin Tarantino made a film.  All of his films are filled with humor and violence. The more I think about this film, the more I think it is one of his best.  It gives an honest look at slavery while still being really funny.  It might have been the film with the greatest performances from Samuel L. Jackson, Christophe Waltz and Jamie Foxx.  The film also includes the best performance of the year by Leonardo DiCaprio, who leaves his comfort zone to play a silly, yet evil plantation owner.

3. BEAST OF THE SOUTHERN WILD

     Growing up is hard as it is, but when you’re still a little kid it’s probably even harder to do. Beast of the Southern Wild handles growing up in a short amount of time really well.  The film is narrated by the main character, Hushpuppy, who is about seven years old, and lives in a ratty old town with her father.  The films first act is about her explaining her town which they call The Bathtub.  There are many different fantastical elements like a house that almost looks like its floating above the ground or a boat made from a car.  While the movie goes on, these elements slowly go away as does the girl’s innocence as the cold reality sets in.  This is one of the greatest films about growing up and getting through the tough times.

2. THE MASTER

     Paul Thomas Anderson is one of the most interesting directors of all time.  The first one I saw was 2007’s There Will Be Blood, which was very odd film.  Then I saw 2002’s Punch Drunk-Love starring Adam Sandler, who I despise, except in this weird film.  With those in mind when I went to see his new film The Master I didn’t know what to expect and when I left I felt the same.  More than any film I spent the most time thinking about this one, wondering what it was about or if I even liked it.  I have not made a full conclusion on all of my feelings about this film, and I might never fully know. This film like most of Anderson’s films has some of the greatest performances of the year.  These are the films I live for; this is why I watch film to figure out what it makes me feel and what I see in it.

1. MOONRISE KINGDOM

With all the things I went through in 2012, the good and the bad, by far the best was getting married, so it’s clear why I picked a romantic comedy for my favorite film.  While being that, there is also so much more to Wes Anderson’s film Moonrise Kingdom.  Anderson, who has made great films all around this year made his most beautiful and emotional film.  The film is about two kids coming from broken homes that try to run away together.  This leads to the parents and a few more adults going on a search for the kids.  This film is about young love.  It also shows how children and adults are not that far apart.  An adult while still sounding grown up has a temper tantrum by trying to chop down a tree, while the two kids form an entire romantic relationship throughout their time getting to know each other.  The chemistry between the two leads is so great that I believe that nothing bad will happen to them.

SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK Review

SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK Review

By Darin Skaggs

     The romantic comedy genre, once a movie staple, is now a joke and rarely works anymore.  The only way these types of films get any praise or recognition is to try something new. In David O. Russell’s new film Silver Linings Playbook he tries just that.

     Russell’s new film opens with a man in a mental hospital when his mother comes in to take him out.  We find out that the man is in the hospital for anger issues after attacking the man who was having an affair with his wife.  The film progresses and he meets a girl who also has mental problems for the reasons that she has lost her husbands.  He signs up with her for a dance contest in exchange for giving his wife letters because of a restraining order.

     The film has some great performances by mostly everyone.  Robert De Niro gives one of his greatest performances in years.  The two leads of the film give some of the best.  Bradley Cooper, who I only have seen in The Hangover, does great at being a recovering man with anger issues.  Jennifer Lawrence is great as usual, her being one of the only good parts of The Hunger Games.  Everyone else does fine work, despite some of the dialog not being real good. 

     The story is good.  All the exploration of dealing with anger issues and people knowing all about the issues is handled well.  They explore the loss of someone you love, both with them just leaving and with them passing away.  These parts of the film are great and highlight of the film.  The problem with the story is when some of the comic moments come in to play.  There is a character played by Chris Tucker that keeps being “let out” of the mental hospital that Cooper was being held in.  These moments in the film are played for comedy to lighten the mood, but the majority of them fall flat.

     The film works most of the time.  Then there is a point where it all falls apart.  Throughout the film there are not many stakes.  Then comes a scene where everything comes together and the stakes are finally raised.  To raise the stakes there is a bet that is made.  The stakes seem very low and forced to add some tension for the conclusion of the film.  This is where the film falls apart.  There are some nice moments after this scene but the majority of them are just cliché filled and predictable.

     The film is nice and a fun time.  The jokes mainly don’t work well, even though the film is very well acted.  The film is a good time, but not a great time.  The film is not the best but still beats more than the average romantic comedy.

DJANO UNCHAINED Review

DJANGO UNCHAINED Review

By Darin Skaggs

     Some directors make one movie a year, others take longer.  One of those directors is Quentin Tarantino, who has made seven films in sixteen years, the last one being 2009’s Inglourious Basterds.  Now he has come out with his new film Django Unchained.  This is yet another great addition to Tarantino’s film collection.

     On previous occasions he has dealt with gangsters, bank robbers, samurais and most recently Nazis.  With this new outing Tarantino has tackled slavery.  The film starts with a group of slaves traveling across the desert plains.  Eventually a man comes asking to take away one of the slaves named Django.  His name is Dr. King Schultz who ends up being a bounty hunter and takes Django so he could identify some men and kill them.  They team up and eventually devise a plan to find Django’s wife and get her back.

     Like most of Tarantino’s films this film is darkly funny, overtly violent and has great music.  Also like all the other of his films the acting is brilliant.  This film contains some of the greatest performances of the year.  Christophe Waltz plays the great Dr. Shultz, the bounty hunter pretending to be a dentist, Jamie Foxx playing the title role, Samuel L. Jackson with an amazing performance as a loyal slave.  The best performance comes as a surprise from Leonardo DiCaprio.  He leaves his comfort zone and plays a straight up bad guy that is really goofy and funny. 

     Even though this film is funny and entertaining some things keep you distracted from fully enjoying the film.  The film is set two years before the Civil War.  Slavery is a big part and Tarantino keeps the dialogue accurate.  The N-word is thrown around constantly in the film.  It makes sense for the time, but still is used so often that it is sometimes uncomfortable.  There is also, mostly towards the finale of the film, a lot of violence.  It is shocking and sometimes hard to watch all of the violence go down.  These are staples of Tarantino’s filmmaking so hardcore fans will not be disappointed, but people not familiar with his work might be offended.

     As entertaining as this film is, the morality of the film is questionable.  In Tarantino’s previous film Inglourious he made a revenge tale on the Nazi’s.  It felt like he was punishing them for what they did.  This film looked like it was a revenge tale on slavery and racism.  There is a possibility that this was never the intention, but sometimes the film just seems like an excuse to be violent and just happens to be set in the time of slavery.

     Tarantino has made another great film with some insane violence. It features some of the best performances of the year. This is one of the top movies of the year and top three of Tarantino’s.