Blood Simple

One of my favorite young directors tweeted once that “Memento is a pretty goddamn humbling movie” and he’s right. Well, I just watched Blood Simple for the first time and I have to say that what the Coen’s did is pretty damn humbling as well. While the film may have “simple” in the title, the film is anything but; Blood Simple is a stark noir, filled with characters we can’t trust and is a downright exercise in minimalism.

I know that the Coen’s got Blood Simple made because of sheer determination. I’ve heard stories of where they showed clips of test footage in people’s living rooms as fund raisers, taped Frances McDormand into camera rigging for special shots, and just generally did everything short of selling their souls for their first feature.

The effort paid off.

I watch Blood Simple and I miss the days when independent film wasn’t its own market. When determination, style and talent could get your farther than a budget and a known cast. While that’s not completely gone from the indy market of today, the indy market is much more main stream now than it is independent. Watching Blood Simple reminds me of a much more pure way of making your passion films.

The single thing that characterizes Blood Simple more than anything else is how stark the film is. The setting are bleak, empty and harsh as is the situation they are all thrown into. While the plot may revolve around Abby having left her husband Marty, we never wonder which one of the two is more at fault for their rift – Abby is the adultrus wife, but Marty is the crazed, abusive husband and no one around them is clean.

It’s plain and simple to see watching this film how the Coen’s turned into Oscar winners. Their imagination and vision has always been unique and different. They are filmmakers that from the very start had great stories to tell.

Directors & Writers: Joel & Ethan Coen
Ray: John Getz
Abby: Frances McDormand
Marty: Dan Hedaya
Private Detective: M. Emmet Walsh

Private Detective:The world is full o' complainers. An' the fact is, nothin' comes with a guarantee. Now I don't care if you're the pope of Rome, President of the United States or Man of the Year; somethin' can all go wrong. Now go on ahead, y'know, complain, tell your problems to your neighbor, ask for help, 'n watch him fly. Now, in Russia, they got it mapped out so that everyone pulls for everyone else... that's the theory, anyway. But what I know about is Texas, an' down here... you're on your own.

Wonder Boys

I first saw Wonder Boys my senior year of high school; I hadn’t realized that movies were my future yet, I just thought they were an amazing way to pass time and the video store was a great way to earn my first pay check. Yet, when I saw Wonder Boys it was the first film that really affected me on an artistic level. The film is a rich story full of flawed characters that was somehow the most exaggerated and most real film I had ever seen.

Grady Tripp teaches graduate students how to write the next great American novel; he’s qualified for his because eight years ago he wrote the great American novel…and he hasn’t finished a novel since. Grady doesn’t know what to do to get out of his funk and he finally has to confront it in one weekend when His university is having it’s writers gala, his editor Crabtree is flying in to check on his novel, his wife leaves him, his girlfriend tells him she’s pregnant and two of his students test his limits. Finally, the past eight years come flying into Grady’s present and he has to decide for his life and his novel – where does it go?

The saddest thing about Wonder Boys is not the sorted tales of Grady Tripp, but the serious lack of Oscar attention it received. This film should have garnered nominations for most of the actors, Curtis Hanson and basically the main awards; instead, the film was only nominated for editing, adapted screenplay and won the Oscar for best original song. This film was one of the best of 2000, and though the critics loved it the film went wholly unrewarded.

I have to say that the most spectacular aspect of Wonder Boys has got to be the writing. If you want to see a movie that has a brilliant yet subtlety intricate plot and dialogue that will make you laugh at the witty awkwardness of the characters Wonder Boys is the movie for you. This film is a unique slice of life and every character and situation, twist, and turn serves to move the characters further down their character arch into the plots stunning conclusion. This movie is a must-see for any perspective director or writer, as it can be studied as a nearly perfect film.

Director: Curtis Hanson
Writer: Steve Kloves
Grady Tripp: Michael Douglas
James Leer: Tobey Maguire
Sara Gaskell: Frances McDormand
Terry Crabtree: Robert Downey Jr.
Hannah Green: Katie Holmes

Vernon Hardapple: Why did you keep writing this book if you didn't even know what it was about?
Grady Tripp: I couldn't stop.

Laurel Canyon

Laurel Canyon is a really dang good movie, but I have a feeling it will infuriate some people.

When the story begins Sam and Alex are moving from the east coast to the west coast; Alex is getting her PhD to go along with her MD and is working on her dissertation and Sam has earned a psychiatric residency at a prestigious southern California hospital. Sam’s mother Jane is a record producer and they will be staying in her lavish Laurel Canyon home while she is away having just finished a record. The problem is that when they arrive they discover that Jane has not finished her record and she (and therefore the band) are inhabiting the house. Thus begins the real problems – Sam hate the world his mother forced him to grow up in and doesn’t realize that Alex is utterly drawn to Jane’s world because it is utterly different than her own.

This movie truly is not carried by one member of the cast but all three of the leads. Frances McDormand, Christian Bale and Kate Beckinsale are phenomenal under the direction of Lisa Cholodenko. While this is a very broad statement I do think this may be one of the best movies directed by a woman that I have seen in a few years. While a large chunk of how much I enjoyed this film can probably be attributed to the incredible talents of the cast Cholodenko’s skill shines through in everything from her music choices to the shots she chose to edit together. Perhaps it is merely my recent distaste of Catherine Hardwicke’s Twilight talking but you can see the purpose behind ever shot that Cholodenko uses in a scene and they draw you further into the characters and the story. While this may seem like the most basic element of filmmaking you would be surprised to see how many people cannot do this well.

Part of what I like is that Laurel Canyon in my opinion raises questions about which character did the worse thing. You may assume Alex because she physically cheats (and who it happens with), Sam because he emotionally cheats or Jane because she enables all of this to happen. There is no way to truly calculate each parties guilt and through all the emotion and caring each person has for the others they still all messed up.

Perhaps the best thing about Laurel Canyon is how very real it feels. The open ending adds to this and is one of the primary reasons Laurel Canyon will divide audiences. Sam and Alex being the film in a nearly picture perfect relationship but by the end of the film they are not ready to walk blissfully into the sunset – in fact you don’t know where they characters would go once the film ends. The emotional turmoil that the characters go through in the movie makes you wonder what you would do in that situation and be very glad you are not in their shoes.

Director & Writer: Lisa Cholodenko
Jane: Frances McDormand
Sam: Christian Bale
Alex: Kate Beckinsale
Sara: Natascha McElhone
Ian McKnight: Alessandro Nivola

Alex: We just hadn't planned on a change of plan.
Jane: Well who plans on a change of plan? I mean, that would be sorta paranoid, don't you think?

Burn After Reading

Burn After Reading Movie Photos (26)
Originally uploaded by divxplanet

Burn After Reading is the latest in the long line or quirky and original films made by the Coen brothers, and hot off their Oscar win for No Country for Old Men. To call Burn After Reading a spy movie does not properly define it, but to call the film simply a comedy undersells it. Like most of the Coen brothers movies there is no simple way to categorize Burn After Reading.

The film begins with Osbourne, a CIA analyst who is told he is being demoted and therefore quits, his wife Katie reacts adversely to this news and chalks up another reason for divorce. Meanwhile, Harry is a ladies’ man who hides his many girlfriends from his wife, and is a paranoid US Marshall who thinks he is being watched. In another section of Washington D.C. Linda and Chad work at Hard Bodies gym; Linda is obsessed with changing her life by getting plastic surgery to change her body, and Chad is blissfully Chad. At the gym one day Chad & Linda stumble on a CD of Osbourne’s memoirs and financial info and make the mistaken assumption that it is “secret intelligence shit” and decide to offer it up to Osbourne thinking that they will get a good Samaritan reward. However, this backfires and they instead try blackmailing Osbourne which is where the plot gets even more complex than it already was.

Hands down the best thing about this movie is Chad played by Brad Pitt. He steals the show. Chad is just so blissfully Chad that is almost beyond description, he exists in his own world. I really can’t describe him to justice – just go see the movie.

However, some of the best lines in the film are given to a more minor character, the CIA supervisor played by JK Simmons. At at least two points in the movie Osbourne’s former boss must go to the supervisor to report on the oddities they’ve noticed since Osbourne quit – namely that Linda and Chad contacted Osbourne and then went to the Russian embassy. No one at the CIA can figure out what is going on or how this random group of people is involved and JK is the voice of that confusion.

If some of the Coen’s audience is new and jumped into their movies at No Country for Old Men they will be surprised by Burn After Reading, this movie is the old school, traditional Coen’s where the Oscar winning film is the mature side of the Coen’s. However, no matter how different their films may be they are all worth watching.

Director’s & Writer’s: Joel & Ethan Coen
Harry: George Clooney
Linda: Frances McDormand
Chad: Brad Pitt
Osbourne: John Malkovitch
Katie: Tilda Swinton
CIA Supervisor: JK Simmons

CIA Superior: What did we learn?
CIA Officer: Uh...
CIA Superior: Not to do it again. I don't know what the fuck it is we *did*, but...