Movies Watched: Jul 17 – Jul 23, 2016
[Jul 17] “Kiss Kiss Bang Bang” (2005)
Harry Lockhart (Robert Downey Jr.) is a petty thief who accidentally stumbles into an audition to play a detective and gets flown to L.A. and thrust suddenly into the life of an actor, including detective lessons from consultant “Gay” Perry (Val Kilmer). Life takes a turn for the storybook when he runs into an old high school crush and stumbles into a murder mystery. This movie was fantastic! It blends genres effortlessly, it’s a dark comedy (narrated by Lockhart who breaks the fourth wall constantly), it’s pulpy murder mystery involving sexy women, it’s noir, and it also manages to inject a bunch of heart into the proceedings by making Lockhart a genuinely nice guy. Val Kilmer, is great as always as the hard boiled detective (except for swooning over the occasional guy) who takes no shit from anyone, especially Lockhart. Michelle Monaghan is also good as the high school crush/failed actress Harmony Faith Lane, and she certainly has chemistry with Robert Downey Jr.
[Jul 18] “The Pianist” (2002)
The Pianist is based on the true story of a Polish Jewish musician, Wladyslaw “Wladek” Szpilman (Adrien Brody), and his survival in Warsaw during World War II. As with any Holocaust story, this is not a pleasant movie to watch – we watch as Wladek and his family go from fairly prosperous members of society to being forced to identify themselves as Jews in public and kowtow to capricious Germans to being forcibly relocated into the ghetto to being deported to labor camps and so on. I really admired this movie for not losing its focus though – it tells Wladek’s story, not the story of the war, or the Holocaust, and it never deviates from that. That makes it intensely personal, especially because we know what’s going on around him and how it all turns out, but he doesn’t know what’s going to happen next. Adrien Brody is incredible, he conveys a lot of nuance, and there are scenes where he’s absolutely visceral. The end of the movie shows a little humanity in contrast to all the brutality so far, and that’s nice too (especially because it’s based on real life too.) Highly recommended.
[Jul 19] “Kiki’s Delivery Service” (1989)
Kiki is a young witch who must leave home for a year to make her way in the world, as per tradition. She finds the perfect city to settle in and starts an delivery service (using her broom to fly packages places), but she finds it hard to adjust to life in her new community. We thought we would skip Kiki’s Delivery Service during our Studio Ghibli chronological watch because we’ve watched it so many times before, but we just couldn’t. I can’t really review this movie objectively; it’s probably my favorite movie of all time. Yes, all time! Kiki’s story is infinitely relatable, we’ve all felt like we didn’t fit in and been overwhelmed, we’ve all felt a loss of purpose and self-esteem, and we’ve all disliked other people irrationally because they remind us (in whatever roundabout way) of something we don’t like about ourselves. The setting is somewhat fantastic, but the world depicted is just like ours – there are nice people, stuck up people, self-absorbed people, slightly-crazy-but-not-in-a-bad-way people, and Kiki has to learn to accept that world for what it is (a pretty great place if you focus on the right things.) Plus, Jiji (Kiki’s black cat) is fantastic – especially in the English dub, where he’s played more sarcastically. I could go on and on, but I’ll stop here.
[Jul 21] “8 Mile” (2002)
Jimmy “Bunny Rabbit” Smith (Eminem) is a young man that’s having a hard time with his life – his work, his girlfriend, his relationship with his mom, and most importantly, his avocation – rapping. After he chokes completely during a rap battle he enters, he doesn’t really know what to do with himself. Joseph has been wanting to watch this movie for a long time, and I’ve been very skeptical – Eminem starring in a movie that seems pretty much based on his life? I was convinced it would be some sort of dumb vanity project, but this movie is actually pretty good. Eminem is utterly convincing as the angry and scared Jimmy, and you really root for him to figure himself out and escape his circumstances. When he finally does, you know he’s earned it and really accepted himself. The setting is gritty but feels realistic (I wouldn’t know if it actually was), the rap battles are fast paced and compelling. It was a little bit weird to see Anthony Mackie (in his first movie) as the antagonist, because I’m so used to him being lovable, but that’s okay.
[Jul 22] “The Bourne Supremacy” (2004)
The first of many sequels to The Bourne Identity. Bourne and Marie are living in peace in India when an assassin sent to kill Bourne accidentally ends up killing Marie instead. Bourne is convinced that Treadstone has reneged on their promise to leave him alone, but the truth isn’t quite so simple. I liked this movie okay, I don’t think it was as good as the first one. It did several things well, though – it is one of the most tightly integrated sequels I’ve ever seen, it feels very much like a part of Bourne’s overall story rather than just a new adventure. I also love the “mystery” part of these movies, where Bourne has to figure out what’s actually going on. Also, Joan Allen makes a fantastic CIA agent; I’ve only seen her as an unhappy wife before (Nixon, Pleasantville, The Upside of Anger). I think the pacing for the last third of the movie was bad, though – the plot with the CIA wraps up before the last act of the movie, and the last act seems kind of pointless. I found the car chase at the end very confusing, it seemed to go on forever, but it also seemed like each cut only lasted a second, and I had no idea what was going on. Plus, if you’re going to have Karl Urban in a movie, don’t cut off his hair, his hair is beautiful (and don’t make him some dumb bad guy either.)
[Jul 23] “Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium” (2007)
Mr. Magorium (Dustin Hoffman), the 243 year old owner of the magical toy store Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium has decided that his time has come and he must leave the store to Molly Mahoney (Natalie Portman), the store’s insecure 23 year old manager. Both the store and Molly have other ideas, though. Apparently a lot of people didn’t like this movie, but I absolutely loved it. Sure, it has flaws – it’s odd and random, it’s a little bit cliched at times, but it’s cute, it has a good message about believing in yourself, and the cast is great! No one can do weird and wonderful characters better than Dustin Hoffman (see Hook if you don’t believe me), and everyone else is quirky and wonderful too, especially Jason Bateman as the accounting “Mutant” and Zach Mills as the earnest and precocious kid Eric. Plus, the toy store itself is definitely a character, and it’s amazing! It reminded me of being a kid and being curious about everything around me, there’s crazy stuff everywhere you look. It also reminded me of a lot of books I’d read, like The Phantom Tollbooth, or Catherynne M. Valente’s Fairyland series.