Final Awards

The Last post of the year.

The scenes, actors, and movies nominated for these awards are only the ones that we have watched in my Art of Film class. Here they are:

North by Northwest

Spirited Away

High Noon

V for Vendetta

Elephant

Rushmore

Do the Right Thing

Casablanca

Good Will Hunting

M

Jesus Camp

Chunking Express

Run Lola Run

And The Bridge On the River Kwai

Best Film:

Good Will Hunting

This film won for overall enjoyment. I loved Matt Damon's character and could relate to him as a mathematician myself. I was impressed with Robin Williams more serious performances. Good Will Hunting showed me a part of the world that I don't often see. The relationships between characters was beautiful. It was beautifully directed. It has become one of my all time favorite films.

The Next Category is Worst Film (Ishtar Award):

This award goes to the film that was just not entertaining to watch. The winner will be a film that leaves viewers wondering where hours of their life went. Like the first Hulk.

I would mention more criteria if it weren't obvious to me that the winner is High Noon. I understood the symbolism behind the situation of one man fighting for whats right without any help, but it was just too much walking around doing nothing. Could have been shortened to a 15 minute film. Doesn't deserve a picture.

Best Actor/Actress:

I was thinking of going back to Good Will Hunting and choosing either Matt Damon or Robbin Williams, but after further thought, the role I was really impressed with comes from a short Film (Inja). Then even more thought caused me to make the award a four way tie.

The winners are:

Matt Damon for the role Will Hunting

Robin Williams for the role Sean Maguire

Anele Vellom for the role Young Thembile

Lizo C. Makambi for the role Older Thembile

Matt Damon gave a very complete performance. He played math genius, street boy, psychology patient, and boy friend, all at the same time.

Robin Williams extended his branches out of the world of comedy and into a serious role. His character was extremely funny, but his role was completely serious. His monologue on the park bench is one of my favorite scenes in the movie.

Anele Vellom was wonderful. I was surprised at how well such a younger person could play such a deep role. He made me fall in love with both him and his dog in 2 minutes. His reaction during and after the dog beating scene was spot on.

Lizo C. Makambi was also wonderful in the same exact role. However many years later, I could still see how the dog incident had been paining Thembile for years. He was likable in his more friendly interactions with his boss, and he reacted wonderfully to the situation when the dog stood in the way of his boss and his medication.

My Final Award is for best short film:

If you haven't realized it already from the other awards, Inja was the clear victor.

I was amazed at how emotionally invested I could be in a film in such a short amount of time. The film was short and sweet. It had more value than 90% of all full length films. It took hold of a controversial topic and turned it into its most fundamental emotional roots. The characters were all well developed. Some were even better developed than character in full length movies. Thembile only had to say two sentences to completely establish the nature of his character. I enjoyed watching this film just as much as Good Will Hunting.

Cinema Paradiso

By the end of the movie I had completely forgotten that it was a foreign film, and that I had been reading subtitles.

The film takes place in Italy and centers around the childhood of Salvatore 'Toto' Di Vito. Toto's father is gone, and is not a factor in his life. Instead he forms a similar father/son platonic relationship with Alfredo.

Alfredo runs the Cinema Paradiso, and takes Toto somewhat under his wing. I enjoyed the movie because of the connection I was able to make to Toto. My own life has gotten busier than its ever been before. This has caused me to be nostalgic of my childhood. I miss all the cartoons I watched, the games I played, and the adventures I went on. I was jealous of Toto's childhood, but I enjoyed it nonetheless.

Young Toto, old Tota, and Alfredo were three very likable characters. The movie highlighted the nice, fatherly acts Alfredo did. For instance he gave Toto's mother the milk money that Toto had spent to see his movie. Young Toto is simply adorable. Older Toto is the right mix of looks and romanticism. He is not a push over. He tackles another boy in order to talk to Anna. Yet he is clearly not a bully.

The only part of the Movie I didn't like was Toto's return home. It wasn't horrible and I like most of it. It was just a bit long. I also didn't love Toto for failing to write letters. I understood why he didnt return to the town, and why Alfredo told him to stay away, and it made his return extremely sentimental, but I did feel bad for the Mother.

Was there a secret meaning in the film within the movie. Some screen shots suggest that the movie films may reflect real life. Are the love scenes cut out from the movies replaced by his love for Anna?

Overall Cinema Paradiso was a warm film. I loved the characters. Even though standing out in the rain was cliche, I loved the subsequent relationship. When Anna surprised Toto out in the rain I was extremely satisfied.

Final rating: 4.2

The Bridge on the River Kwai

The Bridge on the River Kwai is a classic that won seven oscars. I can definately see how it would be considered one of the best films of its time. As a film lover, I appreciated it. It is an extremely detailed epic. For todays standards, it was too detailed. Some of the facts were unnecessary and presented in a boring way. But during its time period, it was probably considered fairly fast paced. The technology available at the time would be considered ancient today, so it is impressive how many special effects the movie was able to put in.

The character work was pretty good. The viewer sympathizes with hero, enemy, boss, and soldier. The begining centers around a battle of wits between Major Warden and Col. Saito. British wit naturally wins, but it only leads to a collaboration of efforts. The bridge is built soundly and sturdily, but at the last minute the Major Warden realizes he has been helping the enemy. With his dying breath he falls on the the dynamite trigger and blows the bridge to bits.

This movie was a little too boring. The characters were entertaining and relatable, but there was too much dead space. However, if translated into a movie of our time period, it would have been done extremely well.

Final rating: 3.5

Charlie's Angels

Although it was cheesy at times, I was surprised at how much I liked this movie. The special features section showed me how much time and money went into filming many of the movies action sequences. The effort paid off in quality. Charlie's Angels is a fast paced movie, with loads of comedic relief, and 3 great characters.

Its hard not to love strong intelligent women. Especially when they are given such eclectic backgrounds. From Charlie's Angels I learned how much a strong background can do for a character, and for the audience. Acting teachers are always telling actors to come up with an entire life line for their characters. Originally I thought it was so that the actors could relate to their characters better. From this I learned that its more important in the audiences ability to relate to the characters. I appreciated and understood Cameron Diaz's character much better because I knew she used to have braces and was a stunt driver.

Cameron Diaz is ditsi, Drew Barrymore is hardcore, and Luci Lui is Luci Lui. Together they form an elite crime fighting trio. While there are some cheesy moments, and the plot twist is somewhat predictable, it still made for interesting moments and relationships. Eric Knox hires the girls to steal control of his competitors software, so that he could locate and kill the Angel's anonymous boss.

By its nature, Charlie's Angels combines sex and action. Action because its a 3 person crime fighting team, and sex because they are women. They use their womenly features to their advantage, for trickery and deception. With one of the coolest opening scenes that sets the tone for the entire film, Charlies Angels could be considered my guilty pleasure, but maybe i shouldn't feel guilty.

Final rating: 4.3

Run Lola Run

The butterfly effect (Chaos Theory), the idea that if a butterfly beats its wings in Hong Kong there will be a hurricane on Long Island. Run Lola Run applies this idea to a more local setting. How can the small things that happen to us on a daily basis affect the bigger picture.

Lola has to get 100,000 deutsche Marks for her boy friend in 20 minutes, or he will get offed by his boss. The movie repeats the 20 minutes in 3 ways. Each time the same type of events occur, and each time she handles them differently. Each time the lives of the people she comes into contact with change.

Run Lola does not have incredible special effects or intensively choreographed action scenes, but it has action none the less. For a lot of the time she is running. Who wouldn't run in that situation. She comes into contact with three small characters. The woman with a baby either ends up murdered, rich, or converted to christianity. Two other characters, including a byciclist, have the same fast fowarded poloroid lives shown to us. The movie is suggesting that peoples lives can go in any direction. Rich, poor, dead, alive. This helps us make our own endings for Lola when they finally succeed in obtaining an extra 100,000 Marks.

Lola is not only reliving the 20 minutes over an over again, in a ground hog day type fashion, but she is learning every time. In the begining she is not sure if she loves Manny, but in the end she is positive. She learns how the safety on a gun works. We also learn things about her that she knows in one take but doesnt in the last. For instance she is not her father's real daughter. The Father's lover is pregnant with another man's child.

This was an entertaining movie. The constant running montages with the repetive music was a bit annoying bit it had an interesting function and operation. It twisted reality just enough for us to be able to learn truths about the real world. Specifically, life can go in completely different directions, depending on the small choices we make. This is only going to make my decision making problem even worse.

Final rating: 3.9

Inja (Dog)

This was a short film i watched in Art of Film. It was about an African child (Thembile) working for a white family in South Africa during and after apartheid. Mainly it is centered around Thembile's relationship with the family dog. In the begining the dog is his only friend, and he loves it. Then the father of the family decides the dog shouldn't like Thembile, and should like himself instead. He puts the dog in a bag and beats it. Then he makes Thembile take it out. The Dog thinks Thembile did the beating. From then on it is hostile to Thembile, and Thembiles life becomes somewhat empty.

This was a great film; I hated it. It created an attachment to a character extremely quickly. The viewer appreciates and admires Thembile's relationship with the dog. It then destroys that relationship just as quickly as it was created. It even fast fowards in time and presents us with one of the saddest situations I've ever seen in film. Apartheid has ended and Thembile's relationship with the white father has gotten somewhat better, but the dog never forgets its beating, and attack Thembile whenever he comes near. When the Father has a heartattack, the dog stands in the way of Thembile giving his boss his medications. We are left with the boss's request for Thembile to kill the dog. In seventeen short minutes this film took me on a rollercoaster of emotions. It drew me in to the love between the boy and his dog, the furry at his master for ruining that love, that lamentation over the dogs lasting hate for Thembile, the slight silver lining of justice that the Father's actions should come back and bite him in the ass, and finally deep sympathy for the situation that Thembile is placed in. I almost cried at the end.

Final Rating: 4.5

The Best Scene of the Year

The Scenes in the Oscars are never longer then one or two minutes, so its high time these longer scenes get a little more credit. Length is not a factor in this award. The criteria can be anything from acting to sentiment to spectacle. Take into account the context and the tone it either sets for the movie or concludes the movie with.

And the nominees for Best Scene of the Year are:

Good Will Hunting (Break Through):

This is the climax of the movie. Will finally comes to terms with what has been stifling him his entire life. It is an important scene that is beautifully put together. Robin Williams and Matt Daemon both act superbly. When deciding which scene to use from Good Will Hunting, I was torn between this one and Robin Williams monologue on the park bench, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EFof9AD2YlE, but in the end this scene was too important to leave out. Even though I might like the other scene better.

Shawshank Redemption (Escape):

The most enjoyable part of the movie. Whatever wonderful events, stories, and relationships earlier in the movie were all leading up to this scene. Andy's escape connects back to almost every experience he had. The book, the hammer, the posters, the stock, it all culminates in an ending that will make any man smile. The injustice of Andy's imprisonment is finally righted.

V for Vendetta (Fight Scene):

V's last battle. The climax of the movie. This scene is great because of the action. It has everything you could want: guns, knives, and blood. A great scene for our lovers of impossible and awesome fights.

Charlie's Angels (Opening Plane scene):

The first and best scene in the movie. It sets the tone for the entire film. Its high paced, intense, and shocking. The music is perfect. It results in a cool scene that makes you feel as if you have just plummeted 30,000 ft and landed safely on a boat with 3 beautiful women. The key feature is spectacle.

Perfume (The Perfume's Affect):

SPOILER ALERT* The climax of the movie. If you haven't seen it, you might not have any idea what is going on. Basically the man accused of murdering 13 women has just finished his most perfect perfume. The scene is the perfumes release and the people's reactions. This is a great movie and the scene might not work as a stand alone, but together it is a satisfying conclusion to the "Hero/Murderer's" adventure. By the way, Alan Rickman is the father of the last woman Jean-Baptiste murdered.

And the winner is:

Post your own votes in the comments section.

The Improv Video

A couple weeks ago I had my own experience with film. Hot Lunch Improv Troupe leads off every show with a video. Homeade. This was the first video that Andrew and I were in charge of making.

The key to making a successful video at a highschool level is knowing its place. The Improv Video is designed to warm up the crowd. Like John Belushi and the blues brothers prepped crowds for Saturday Night Live, the Improv video gets crowds excited and ensures that they'll laugh at anything.

How do we do it? Upbeat music, fast cuts, excited faces, and short scenes. The more riddiculous the better.

Last year one video followed each troupe members life the day leading up to the show. Another showed the life of each member after 10 years had past. Improv videos rarely make sense. While one person stayed in bed for 10 years after being stood up for a prom date, another had surgery to become a chair.

While filming the Improv video I gained experience in the true art of film. I checked each frame to make sure shots were clear and always considered the way they would look as a final piece.

We used long shots for the rap battles, and close ups for the rappers deaths. Mid range shots for dialogue and high canted shots to show Andrew's frantics. The Improv video is never difficult enough to require tracking shots, but it was fun to make none the less.

I don't want to spoil the Improv video for anyone, and people should all come see it and the Improv show sometime towards the end of february.

The Shawshank Redemption

This movie has become one of my all time favorites. It features Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman. It was directed by Frank Darabont.

Andy Dufresne (Robbins) is a quiet innocent man who is convicted for the murder of his wife and her lover. He is sent to Shawshank prison, a place where "every man is innocent." There, his true innocence shields him from demoralizing prison life. He makes accomplishments within the system and in spite of the system. He makes many friends, including his best friend Red (Freeman).

(Spoiler Alert!!!)

This is a rich movie. The first thing I notice most are all the connections. Everything that happens in the movie is brought back in the middle or the end. The rock hammer snuck into prison for Dufresne is cleverly forgotten, only to be made the prime tool of Andy's escape, contradicting the earlier claim by red that "it would take a man 600 years to carve through the walls with that thing." The warden admires Dufresne for his knowledge of the bible, but never opens the book. On their first meeting, he casually says "Salvation lies within." Natural this is brought back as the place of concealment for Andy's rock hammer.

The movie even uses connections to explain parts of the movie that may not make sense. For instance, Andy's character is not the type to pine over beautiful actresses and models, yet he asks for posters of models every decade of his stay. The posters are eventually found to have covered the hole in Andy's prison wall. His love of geology and desire to carve chess pieces are the reason behind his knowledge of escape. Finally the non-existent man Andy creates as a front for the Warden's financial cheating, becomes Andy's disguise.

Shawshank has an intricate plot that shows the development of many relationships. It takes Andy through many completely different stages of prison life. He starts as the new guy, wanting to feel normal and get his inmates some beer. He goes through some rough first years, getting raped by the "sisters." He then becomes liked by the guards and starts to influence their financial life, leaving his laundry room den and becoming a librarian. Finally when he has built up his library and made him self part of the prison, he finds a way to prove his innocence. By then he has become so valuable to the warden that the warden sabotages any chance at freedom. From their his prison life comes spiraling back down, this time made rough by those on the outside. Finally he becomes an escapee, literally crawling through shit to get to his salvation.

A lot of my own knowledge of prisons were triggered by the Shawshank Redemption. They based their characters largely on criminals that existed in real life. For instance Brooks is nursing a baby sparrow or raven when the movie starts. By the end the bird is fully grown and one his only forms of company in the pre-intervention prison library. This character relates to the Birdman of Alcatraz, a criminal who had a movie made about his life that predated Shawshank. http://www.alcatrazhistory.com/stroud.htm

This movie also reminded me of Zimbardo's prison experiment. The unnecessarily rough guard was well thought out, although the prisoners were much less rebellious. http://www.prisonexp.org/

The Shawshank Redemption is just one of those good movies. Half comedy, half drama, half feel good, half feel infuriated at the injustices done.

Final Rating: 4.9

Mad Money

This was not a very good movie, but at the same time it was enjoyable. It was sweet, but extremely predictable. Three women decide to become janitors at a bank run by a strict manager. They develop a plan to steal money. It naturally escalates as two of the women's husbands are brought into and Queen Latifa's boyfriend/bank security guard also enters the mix.

Mad Money was a bit repetitive. Will they get caught? No. Will they get caught this time? No. Until finally something as stupid as day time trading is what does them in. I did enjoy the development of the relationship between the characters. There were also a lot of likable characters. Diane Keaton is the mischiefs leader of the pack who enjoys the thrill. She ironically contrasts her reserved husband Ted Danson - a sweet man who tries to be logical and looks out for the good of the others. Queen Latifa plays the single mother whose sex drive is on the fritz and can only be cured by sensitive Roger Cross. Katie Holmes and Adam Rothenberg play the young couple, who don't completely understand the risk of the theft and come close to bringing the group into trouble - though making theft and blowing up money fun along the way.

Yes, I said "blowing up money." The characters thieving comes to end with the logical conclusion of destroying the money they had stolen (not like that's illegal or anything). Holmes and Rothenberg naturally construct a Rube Goldberg machine to destroy their trailer. Queen Latifa is caught dumping money into an outdoor grill as her teenage son (who i should add might be taken away) stands and watches in bewilderment. Ted Danson is found huddling over a toilet that has been turned into a money shredder, unaware that his wife has taken half the money and fled the country.

All an all, the movie was entertaining and the characters were easy to relate to, even though it often didn't make any sense. It was the kind of movie that relies on sappy stories, random feel good endings, and lots of money being tossed into the air.

Final Rating: 2.2

The Currious Case of Benjamin Button

Sorry for my extended absence from the land of blogging. College applications really paid their toll.

I recently saw a movie called "The curious Case of Benjamin Button". The first thing I have to say about it is, "long." If Brad Pitt as a writhing midget old man wasn't bad enough, than watching it for and hour was. For a while I thought they might make us watch him live his life in real time.

Benjamen Button is a man who was born with the body/health of an 80 year old but the mentality of a child. He slowly ages backwards until he is a senile child. The biggest problem that the movie had was lack of a plot. While it somewhat followed the story of his relationship with a younger girl that inevitably evolves into love when their body states meet in the middle, for the most part it dragged. The probable reason for its length was its lack of focus.

The second problem was that it tried to be Forrest Gump, but without the intelligent political references. It simply consisted of a series of events in Benjamin's life.

It may seem like I hated the movie, but that's not true. I simply noticed its shortcomings. There were a lot of good aspects of it. The acting at times was great. It was amazing how they were able to make Brad Pitt so old and then so young all digitally. It was also amazing how Brad was able to actually make me believe he was a young kid in an Old man's body, an guy in his 20's in a semi-old body, and then a 60-year-old in a 20-year-old's body. Cate Blanchett also has a wonderful character.

The movie was funny at times and sad at others. It was even sometimes thought provoking. I actually enjoyed a lot of it. It was just way to long and didn't have enough of a plot.

Final Rating: 3.7