I Love You, Man

Review: 'I Love You, Man" is a romantic comedy with a twist. The main relationship is the platonic friendship of two straight men. When Peter Klavin realizes he has no close friends he goes on a mission to find a best man for his wedding and stumbles into a friendship with Sydney. The film pairs the always likable Paul Rudd with Jason Segel for the third time. The film is written and directed by John Hamburg who also wrote 'Meet the Parents' and 'Zoolander', so the film had a lot in it's favor and it delivers. There is nothing groundbreaking in the execution and the plot doesn't have much to it, but the film is consistently funny. Rudd and Segel have a good comedic chemistry and just watching them fool around together is enjoyable. While it's not going to be the best comedy of the year, it also doesn't disappoint. It gets the laughs in.
Rating: 4/5

Taxi Driver

Review: One of my favorite movies, Taxi Driver is a compelling character study of Travis Bickle, played brilliantly by Robert DeNiro, who is an insomniac taxi driver who works the seedy sections of New York City at night. Travis is a complex character who seems to be caught up in his own world. He claims to be a Vietnam War vet, but whether or not this is true is never certain. Much of what Travis says and does is a lie, feeding his distorted view of reality. Travis doesn't connect with the society surrounding him and he describes himself as "God's lonely man". There is a strong presence of duality throughout the film. The two women in which he interacts with represents the two spectrums of Travis, an angelic political campain worker and a corrupted prostitute. What is right and wrong is blurred throughout this film and it is perfectly portrayed in the final act culminating in one of the most memorable climaxes in film. This is a true classic. A powerful character analysis that is hard to forget.
Rating: 5/5

The Purple Rose of Cairo

Review: In the Purple Rose of Cairo, Mia Farrow plays Cecelia, a depression-era working women in an abusive marriage who escapes the hard times in reality by getting lost in movies. Woody Allen often uses fantastic elements in his films to materialize hypothetical situations on screen. In this film Allen employs this fable technique to bring to life a character from a film which Cecelia is infatuated with. The character literally walks out of the screen and whisks her away just like in the film world she is so in love with. Allen brilliantly, if not at times heavy handedly, weighs the pros and cons of fictional perfection against flawed reality. In the end it may not really matter. We are stuck in the real world and films are our great escape. This is a classic Woody Allen film and is among his best work.
Rating: 5/5

Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father

Review: One of the most affecting films I have ever seen. I think it is best to go into this film as I did, knowing nothing of the material and simply letting the emotions roll over you as you watch this often devastating film. The range of emotions you experience from joy to anger, hatred and sadness is masterfully guided by film maker Kurt Kuenne. I can't recommend this film enough, it is a must watch documentary that will stay with you for a long time.
Rating: 5/5

My Best Fiend: Klaus Kinski

Review: One of the my favorite parts of watching Herzog works is actually after the film ends when I go read up on the production of the film which inevitably is as exciting and interesting as the film itself. If Klaus Kinski was part of the cast then the production summary is sure to be that much more entertaining. Herzog cast Kinski, the borderline psychotic, but talented madman of an actor in five of his films. It is a testament to Kinski's talent that despite his behavior on set, which frequently included violence toward the crew, hours of hysteric tantrums, broken contracts and general hatred towards everyone, Herzog continued to cast him. In this bizarre love-hate relationship between the two, the duo completed some truly great films. It was if they fed off one another, each needing the other one no matter how much they didn't want that to be true. This is a fascinating documentary by Herzog and will give you a new appreciation for both Herzog and for Kinski.
Rating: 5/5

Alice

Review: Woody Allen is no stranger to using fantasy elements in his films and certainly does in this 'A Christmas Carol'-esque self exploration film about Alice, a wealthy housewife who begins to question her marriage to her husband. I didn't connect to this film as I often do with Allen works. I often felt Mia Farrow was borderline annoying playing the lead in Alice. With dialog as important and compelling as it is in Allen films, it was aggravating when Farrow would whisper her lines as she often did in what I felt was over playing the meekness in Alice. This is an interesting character study and I enjoyed it, but it didn't have the same biting dialog that I love about so many of Allen's films.
Rating: 3/5

The Godfather Part II

Review: Taking a decidedly different tone then the first one, The Godfather Part II, is a parallel story of Vito Corleone's formation of the family and Michael Corleone's current leadership of the family. In the first film there was a sense of royalty among the family. Despite the fact they were in illegal businesses the family, for the most part, conducted themselves in such a way that they could be well liked, and above that, nothing was more important then family. In Part II it is clear a new era has come to the family. Where traditional Italian songs and traditions were carried out during the parties in the first film, this film there isn't an Italian in the band. Michael is far less rooted in his Italian past then Vito was. While Michael may be as intelligent as his father, he doesn't posses the same presence and certainly doesn't have the same values. He doesn't put family above all and isn't willing to trust even his closest friends. As a result, while the business might do well, his personal life slowly unravels. While the tone of the two films differ significantly, the theme is still the same. While a gangster film The Godfather Part II is still about family, with struggles that we the audience, who aren't in the mob, can identify with. So often a great films sequel squanders some of first film's greatness by not being able to live up to the expectations set by the first film. The Godfather Part II is not that kind of sequel. Part II lives up to the first film and is a must watch if you enjoyed the fist film.
Rating: 4/5

The Godfather

Review: Considered one of Hollywood's best pictures and for good reason. Coppola makes a gangster film about family, where although the family might be doing unlawful things, they are true to themselves. This is a character driven film and each member of the family has their own powerful personality which drives the plot. There is a reason this film is loved by so many, it is nearly flawless and despite being nearly three hours it never gets boring.
Rating: 5/5

Bonnie and Clyde

Review: Bonnie and Clyde is one of the films that people point to as the start of the Golden Era of cinema; the Auteur Generation, where directors break free from studio constraints and start taking liberties with their own work. From the films first scene, a closeup of Faye Dunaway's lips, Arthur Penn starts breaking with the traditional way of shooting a film. While anyone can appreciate what the film meant for the future what really matters is if it still entertaining, and it certainly is. Bonnie and Clyde is a great adventure about the famous Barrow gang on the lam and robbing banks. The problem I had with the film is that it may take too many liberties and it almost feels like Penn wasn't sure of the mood he wanted to set. Much of the film is lighthearted and borderline slapstick at times, never really creating a momentous feeling of tension that one would expect from life on the run from the law. When the film does take a serious turn, the impact of it was lessened because of the nature beforehand. I lost sensitivity for the characters who took their illegal activities in such a carefree way that, when they did drop their air of being untouchable, I couldn't feel for them. Despite this, Bonnie and Clyde remains classic film that holds up over time.
Rating: 4/5

Watchmen

Review: Easily the most anticipated film of the first quarter of the year for me was Watchmen. Coming off the greatest super hero film of all time in 'The Dark Knight', I had high hopes for the film based on the nearly unanimous choice for best graphic novel. The film starts off promising with an impacting montage of an alternate time line of United States' famous events, thanks to a new breed of super heroes, more rooted in reality then most comic book heroes. Not having read the graphic novel I was experiencing this story with fresh eyes. Ultimately the biggest problem that I had with the film was the story itself. Zach Snyder did an incredible job creating a feel to this film that is uniquely his own. Over stylized action and gorgeous gore are Snyder's hallmarks and it fits this genre perfectly. There are scenes in this film that are so well executed you can't help but grin stupidly at what Snyder accomplishes. While I liked the film as a whole, the underlying story gets too pretentious and runs too long for me to rank it at the top of its genre. As good as some scenes are, there are just as many that fall flat and verge on uncomfortable. Another major fault to the film was the soundtrack. While I was a fan of all the songs played individually, they did not fit into the movie. The soundtrack should heighten a viewing experience not take you out of it as many of the songs that evoked laughter from the audience that I watched it with did. Overall Watchmen is an accomplishment for it's style and its obedience to the source material, for better or for worse.
Rating: 3/5

The future of this blog

While created to track my attempt to watch all films before the Oscars, I will continue to post my short reviews to films that I see. These aren't so much reviews, so much as a few sentences briefly summing up my feelings on the film. I've been writing these for quite awhile and submitting them to Netflix mostly as a way to remember how I felt about films. I have a pretty poor memory and I found that I completely lost my memory on how I felt about films after a certain length of time. By writing these short reviews it helps me retain those thoughts and jog my memory if I want to revisit the film or recommend the film later on.