J.D. Hansel

R

Pulp Fiction Review

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So,there are some movies I’d recommend that people see without any knowledge of what the film is about, what’s going to happen, or who’s in the film.  The Truman Show is a good example, as is Who Framed Roger Rabbit.  Then there’s a movie like Pulp Fiction.  I think I was only able to like it because I knew all about it going into it.

I knew the type of storytelling and approach.  I knew it was a weird Tarantino film that would jump around, and I knew he had carefully structured everything so that he was ahead of the audience, and no one could ever predict where the story would go next.  I knew he would use everything that the movies have trained us to expect to happen in a story against the audience to trick them.  I knew to expect that I would never know what to expect, and most importantly, I knew better than to play The Movie Game.

The Movie Game is my term for when the audience member tries to figure out where the plot is going, and what will resolve everything, with the understanding that the movie has to set up its twists and turns ahead of time, and the story will follow the standard structure.  This is partially based on a great quote from screenwriter Terry Rossio: “You know that the audience will try to guess where you’re going with the story.  It’s a given.  It’s fun.  After all, they’re sitting there virtually motionless in the dark for two hours, with nothing better to do but second-guess you.”  When The Movie Game is too easy, it’s a boring game, so it’s a bad movie.  I played a great game with The LEGO Movie, and the movie won.  I beat Frozen, but it was still a good game, and therefore a good film.

Naturally, when I get most upset by a movie is when I feel cheated, particularly because the movie doesn’t follow any normal structure, so I don’t get to play my favorite game.  The way to avoid feeling cheated is simply to know what game the movie is playing before going in, rather than assuming it’s playing the same game as I am.  What game is Pulp Fiction playing?  I have no flippin’ clue, but it’s not quite as fun as The Movie Game.

It’s nice, every once in a while, to see a movie that does storytelling really differently.  However, because of how different the storytelling is from what I’d ever seen in a movie before, and because I didn’t get to play the game, it didn’t feel like a real movie to me. It felt like a crazy Tarantino art project.  I happened to find out that Tarantino felt the same way about it when it first came out. I respect it since so much in the film is impressive, but it didn’t feel quite like I was watching a movie, nor was it quite as entertaining as a more ordinary film.  The entertainment value is lost to some extent when the movie doesn’t build in any normal sense, so some scenes are essentially pointless.  Again, they may be impressivescenes, but they serve no purpose other than displaying themselves because the director feels like showing these scenes to the audience because they mean something to him, even though they mean nothing, in some cases, to an overarching story.

I don’t identify with the characters, so they are not my favorites, but they are strong. The dialogue is perhaps more profane than it needs to be, which I generally view as a Cinema Sin of sorts because that generally means the writer is either going for shock value, or simply can’t think of anything meaningful or interesting to write.  However, the writing is very, very impressive – Tarantino is pretty darn good at dialogue.  The way he interwove the three main stories was clever.  The soundtrack is nice overall, and the visuals, while sometimes more bloody than I like, were overall very well done as well.

So, in the end, I really like this movie for what it is, but I don’t know that I like it much as a movie.  When I don’t get to play The Movie Game, I feel a little like I’ve been invited over to a friend’s house to play a game with him, but he’s just playing it by himself and encouraging me to watch him; I don’t feel included, and that’s just boring.  I think I’ve certainly learned a lot about film, storytelling, and myself from watching it, which means it has good reason to be considered a classic.  So, I like it.  It’s good.  But give up on The Game before it begins, because he just isn’t playing along.

47 Pulp Fiction

Silver Linings Playbook Review

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(MAJOR SPOILERS)

 

How does this film get away with so many problems?  The main character makes stupid decisions and obsesses over a game in which I have no interest.  One of the main turning points is meant to be a surprise, even though it is rather predictable.  The movie suddenly shifts point of view in the third act, making the ending confusing.  While on the subject of the ending, it’s very cliché, with the male lead running down the streets to make up for the sadness he brought her, and then read her a letter confessing his love for her.  Oh, and writers are advised not to overuse profanity as it is generally used for shock value to cover up a lack of genuinely interesting content.  So why do I adore this movie?

It all boils down to a great high concept that was executed with strong characters and very effective storytelling.

The “high concept,” also known as the strange attractor, is the basic concept of the film summed up in a sentence or two, which has a unique, compelling intrigue.  This film had me with the description on Netflix, which does not always do a good job when it comes to describing the film, since it rarely gives viewers the high concept or log line as it probably should.  However, read this one: “After a stint in a mental hospital, Pat moves in with his parents and tries to win back his wife, until he meets a woman who’s as unstable as he is.”  So, so, so compelling and intriguing.

However, it only works if the characters are interesting, and I think I was interested in the main character, Pat, right away.  I understand exactly what it’s like to obsess over people and things that I should just forget about, and I was totally with him when he woke up his parents to rant about the book he just read.  (For me, it’s a bad film, or a mostly great film with a bad ending, that makes me just about scream and punch the wall sometimes.)  Somewhere in the middle of the movie, I get kind of tired of him making stupid decisions like going to the Eagles game, and I start to get annoyed with the character from whose perspective I am supposed to be seeing the story, which is a big problem.  But, by that point, Tiffany is a big presence in the film, and between the writing and the performance, I found her to be the more interesting character anyway.  At the end of the day, she is the character with whom I empathize, and she is the one I want to see happy more than anyone else.  This, I think, is why I did not mind it too much when the movie shifted to her perspective – I was more interested in her perspective before the shift occurred.

Now that we are on the subject of story structure, I think that the story is well-built.  There were a couple of times when I actually had a hard time figuring out how to interpret what I was seeing or hearing, but I figured it out eventually.  Really, it just required thinking a little bit, but I imagine I would not have had this problem had I not watched it in pieces over many nights.  One could question whether or not the love story really works well since we do not necessarily see the development of the relationship of the two leads to quite the degree one would expect if we are to believe that they gradually fall in love throughout the movie.  Also, if by the end of the film we see everything from Tiffany’s perspective, then I think the dance competition should be of more value to her than it is to Pat’s family, but with the way the story is written, that is not the case.  Instead, we know that Tiffany has had an interested in the dance competition, but we do not know just how much it means to her, making the ending of the film a victory for the side characters rather than the girl who has suddenly become the lead.  (This would not be an issue had the point of view not changed, which would not have been necessary if the protagonist had been more likable, so I still claim that Pat’s lack of likability mid-way through is the movie’s greatest fault, and even then, it is not a huge one.)

Overall, the story is decent, and the characters are impressive, but what could give the film a special edge?  A great soundtrack.  The soundtrack to this movie is just awesome.  It features some of the most emotional songs ever recorded.  The use of “Maria” from West Side Story is oddly perfect, and while they did not go with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra’s jazz recording of the song, which is my favorite version, I love the fact that they used Dave Brubeck’s cover.  I love Dave Brubeck, and his music appears multiple times in the film.  Additionally, “Misty” by Johnny Mathis is so gorgeous, and it was also used in the film at just the perfect time.  Now let’s talk about the song that the movie features the most, “My Cherie Amour.”  This is one of the greatest songs ever recorded, and it has the magical ability to grab listeners and suck them into its sweet sadness, and then drown them in the intense emotion.  Such an amazing song, and once again, the movie used it to the perfect effect.  Well done, movie.

I must confess that, like the professor who never gives anyone an A, I almost never give movies more than four and a half stars, even if I really like them a lot.  This is because I have reserved five stars for my favorite movie of all time, and four and a half for movies that come close.  While this movie has some serious flaws, it has the miraculous ability to make me love it anyway.  This movie created incredibly close aesthetic distance by the end in a way that reminds me of Play It Again Sam.  It moved me emotionally to the point that I was on the edge of my seat at the very end of the film, hoping and praying that everything would work out between the leads, with the horrible fear that the movie made take a turn for the artistic and end on a downer.  Then, when they kissed, I finally sat back and let out a sigh of relief.  I was so impacted, that I had to go for a walk to ponder it (around midnight) so I had a chance of getting to sleep.

So, while I may really, really regret this, movie, I think I’ll be nice and give you the bonus half a star.  Well done.

39 Silver Linings Playbook

Planes, Trains, and Automobiles Review

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Boy, is this a tricky one to review.  I saw this movie for my first time this past Thanksgiving night on Netflix, and I had no idea it was a Thanksgiving movie until I started watching!  I love coincidences like that, but in movies, coincidences have to be handled very carefully (segue, segue, segue).  Planes, Trains, and Automobiles does a remarkable job at playing up the absurdities of its continuous coincidences, and making the disastrous circumstances as funny as possible.  From a writing standpoint, it is a very well-built film, which is uncommon for a movie that is essentially a series of things going awry.  The acting from Steve Martin and John Candy, who were on top of their game in this film, is perfect.  The film also has some great attention to detail, cool shots, fun cameos, and a very nice ending.

The problem that I have with it, however, is that it requires laughing at the suffering of the protagonist.  One could argue that laughing at the pain of others is the essence of comedy, but as Mel Brooks said, “Tragedy is when I cut my finger; comedy is when you fall into an open sewer and die.”  In other words, if something bad happens to you, it’s tragic from your perspective, but funny from mine.  Similarly, in television, film, and other media, it is easier to laugh at the suffering of those with whom we do not identify.  Since this movie made me empathize with the main characters, it was difficult for me to laugh when they were suffering because I “felt their pain.”  So, I found the movie kind of uncomfortable.

Regardless, I am impressed with the film and its ability to take a rather common kind of comedy story, and make a special one of a very high caliber.  It’s just what one would expect from John Hughes.

30 Planes, Trains, and Automobiles

Shaun of the Dead Review

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I generally don’t like comedies that are filled with bloody violence, but after seeing the second movie in the Three Flavours Cornetto Trilogy, Hot Fuzz, I had to see the first, Shaun of the Dead.  Don’t think the blood didn’t bother me – I covered my eyes an awful lot.  However, the writing, directing, cinematography, acting, makeup, and effects, were all very good.  Several shots in the movie impressed me, as well as the jokes and foreshadowing.  Sadly, I am not familiar enough with the cliches in this genre to understand all the things that this film parodies, but the film is still pretty funny.

While I don’t think that this movie was quite as fun for me as Hot Fuzz, I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys zombies or dark comedies.

17 Shaun of the Dead

Hot Fuzz Review

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I did not think that Hot Fuzz was my kind of comedy at all before I watched it, mostly because it seemed like just another one of those crude comedies that are filled with blood, extreme profanities, and anything else they could throw in to get the stupid college kids interested.  While to some small degree that may be true of this film (mostly just the bloody humor) this film was a pleasantly intelligent surprise.  This parody of action movies is the second installment of the Three Flavours Cornetto trilogy, and it is focused on an excellent police officer in London who is making the other officers look bad, so he is sent to do police work in a small village with no crime.  The village seems completely peaceful at first, but Constable Angel starts to suspect that the seemingly-accidental recent deaths of certain residents are actually connected murders.

While the film has a bit more blood and gore than I generally like, it makes up for that with scenes like the Romeo and Juliet scene, which I think is one of the funniest scenes I’ve seen in a comedy from the time period in which this movie was made.  It also is a very impressive action/mystery movie, with writing that carefully weaves together a brilliant plot that ties everything together, and makes every line of dialogue count.  Lines that seem completely insignificant all come back in the end, and really, the audience is being set up the whole time.  It’s really brilliantly written and performed very well.  If you like British satires, or if you like action movies, you’ll probably find something about Hot Fuzz to enjoy.

14 Hot Fuzz

Amelie Review

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For those of you who’ve never heard of it, Amélie is the 2001 French film that inspired the Travelocity commercials featuring the garden gnome.  It’s about a young woman whose life seems rather empty, so she starts trying to do good deeds to make the world a better place.  It’s all in French, so you’ll have to watch it with subtitles if you don’t speak that language, and since I never ever watch movies for which I must do that, I was interested in giving it a try.  I’m glad that I did, because it was quite an experience.

Naturally, a concept for a film like the concept I described would make one question if the story is any good, but it actually is quite clever.  It all builds well and interconnects, keeping the audience interested and providing a satisfying ending.  What’s neat about it is its unique and bizarre style, with artistic special effects used throughout in a way that no American comedy would try.  If you appreciate very strange and weird comedies, or different approaches to film-making, I think you’ll really like this film.  It’s certainly done very well.

12 Amelie