Amélie

AMÉLIE is soaked in whimsical cuteness, caked in stylish gestures, and yet, it's the reason I almost disliked the film. Telling the story of young Amélie, a waitress who was kept indoors as a child because she was erroneously thought to have a heart condition, and has thus become a socially awkward cultural-oddity, in between every interesting character or creative setting is some unrealistic jolt into Amélie's specific take on the world. She wonders how many orgasms people in Paris are having at the moment. In this film, it seems cute or weirdly funny because Amélie gives a grand smile at the end of the statement, but really, it's only weird, and even desperate. For a long time, and the film is long, moments of actually intensity or interest are drowned by an excess of style. Furthermore, the whole film relies on the performance of Audrey Tautou as Amélie. If you buy into her cuteness then you'll love the film, but if she's occasionally irritatingly weird, then you'll feel as I do: divided. For despite the film's problems, it assembles a group of interesting characters who grow on you within the 2 and a half hour duration. The romance at the center, is also well handled, and I found myself wanting Amélie to get with her man despite my divided feelings towards the character. Ultimately, AMÉLIE is problematic, but a fun time.
Amélie: ★★1/2

The Others

THE OTHERS is a superior horror film, one that pays attention to style, but also one that goes a long way in terms of substance, in finality. Beyond being entertaining, the end of THE OTHERS is one that puts a new light on an old idea in the form of a twist. Well made, this twist was perhaps problematic in other hands, but in the eyes and under the camera of Alejandro Amenebar, I accepted it. There's a lot of muddle near the middle, but that only comes from frustration, but the vastness created in every room and every eyeball is enough to make an entertaining film pretty great. Starring Nicole Kidman is a great performance, THE OTHERS tells of a wealthy widow living in a mansion. Help appears at the door one day, and she hires the trio, a group of elderly workers who had worked in the house many years prior. The children in the house (two of them, and played wonderfully) are allergic to light, and thus the doors, shutters, and curtains all remain closed and locked. From this creepy premise we're given a conventional but well filmed ghost story. The children begin to see ghosts, and there are some mysteries looming, but nothing seems out of the ordinary in terms of narrative approach until the end. It's a great twist, one that I admire and enjoyed, but it shouldn't define the whole film. The first hour and a half or so is a very good, conventional ghost story, and the last thirty minutes is a great movie. Still though, 'very good' and 'great' combined makes something very worth seeing: well acted, shot, and paced.
The Others: ★★★1/2

Ghosts of Mars

A Cursed Film

Quite in a rhythm after its release, the 'master of horror' John Carpenter met a barrage of bad reviews insulting every aspect of his new film GHOSTS OF MARS. It was such a bad reception, that Carpenter was sent into a ten year hiatus, reportedly losing his "love of the cinema". The movie, in a fashion like that of ALIEN mixed with the classic western, told in flashbacks of a team of super police on Mars in the future. In this future, Mars is on its way to becoming a quasi-Earth (livable, but obnoxiously red). The super police, led by Natasha Henstridge's Melanie and Pam Grier's Helena, are off to pick up a criminal from a small mining outpost in the middle of nowhere. The team embarks on their journey with a few other men, including Jason Statham as Jericho. However, upon reaching the outpost, the team finds a deserted town, but the criminal they're supposed to pick up sitting confused in his jail cell. His name is Desolation Williams, and he's played smartly by Ice Cube. Melanie and Desolation get into it quite a bit upon Desolation's addition to their crew, and a portion here feels like the shoddy start-ups to westerns. The crew soon discovers why the town is deserted, learning that a buried ghostly lifeforce was awoken by the miners, and possessed their human bodies. Melanie and her crew briskly come up with shoddy plans to kill the zombie-esque miners, but most of the rest of the film past the discovery consists of stylish shoot-em-ups. Now in contrast to the outrage of Carpenter-devotees who hated GHOSTS OF MARS, I found it refreshingly blunt about what it was and what it set out to do. This is an action film and it delivers on that action. It is not confusing or complex, but very entertaining. If any of the characters in the film feel one-dimensional, its because they're meant to be (as it is in Carpenter's THE WARD). And it's also obvious that he's capable of character development if one considers Ice Cube's Desolation Williams character. Mostly, GHOSTS OF MARS is a clever take on the western within an odd setting. This serves to accentuate the idea of storytelling or theme in a universal way.

Ghosts of Mars: ★★★1/2

Spirited Away

Japanese Anime is for the most part overrated. The gaping mouths at shrieky talking, the too-sharp edges of characters' hair and the weirdness for the purpose of being weird usually off-puts this certain genre. And yet, greatness is within this genre, and it is apparent in Hayao Miyazaki. Miyazaki has been the writer/director for quite a few of these films, and it is with Spirited Away that he has attained greatness. For, crudity still exists as it must because it is japanese anime, but through beautifully sweeping scenes, creative characters, metaphorical storyline, and precisely drawn landscapes, Spirited Away becomes a wonder to behold. Even the things usually bad about the genre are transcended by Miyazaki. The film is mysterious as it begins with a family of three moving to their new home. They make a stop on the way though (for a strange force pulls them in), and they discover an abandoned carnival. The parents discover food, and as the daughter Sen looks around, her parents are transformed into pigs. It is discovered that this world is a bathhouse for weary spirits. Sen is imprisoned as an essential slave to a perhaps-evil witch, and as adventures ensue, the film only captivates more. It is the craft within the film that makes it so good. It never missteps, it is constantly entertaining, strangely beautiful, and mythologically sound. The film is about fear and the overcoming of that fear. The trip Miyazaki takes us on is a great one.
Spirited Away: ★★★★

Wet Hot American Summer

This is one of the better comedies of the 2000's. It's funny as hell, kind of stupid, and doesn't have a bunch of stoners. It's part of a tradition of comedy that insists that slapstick is still funny and weirdos are even funnier (the Farrelly brothers often use it). It tells the story of the last day at camp. Everyone is already familiar with each other and everything that's been welling up over the last however-many-weeks is about to come out. And this comes out with great and colorful characters. Wet Hot American Summer has probably the best comedic cast in recent memory. Everyone in it is so good at what they do, and they all work well together in an oddball way. There's such a variety of weird characters, and the movie moves so quickly to the next one and then back to that weirdo we forgot about that it is always entertaining. Because these characters are so good, the whole movie benefits, and it stays funny, keeps funny, gets more funny. It's a damn good comedy.
Wet Hot American Summer: ★★★1/2

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

Nine years ago this film came out. I'm sure I didn't see it in theatres, but I remember that after reading the first book I wondered how the hell they could make a movie out of it. The result was one of the best fantasy pictures ever made. It sounds silly to suggest it, but the film was magical. It was dark and felt cold, the castle felt way too big and the creatures looked so realistic. The actors in the film were especially great. Especially Emma Watson as Hermione. They are so convincing and natural in their parts. Usually movies based on the book leave a lot out, and I supposed Sorcerer's Stone does leave a lot out, but its the most faithful of all the films. The direction is also very smart, Chris Columbus specializes in this kind of movie. I suppose the worth of Sorcerer's Stone lies in how real it feels, despite it's magical qualities. I also note that Dumbledore is very well played in this film. Snape is also excellent. Harry Potter effected me in the same way that Star Wars did. It creates a whole other world.
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone: ★★★★

Ghost World

Ghost World is a weird movie. In it, two teens on the brink of adulthood go their separate ways. They are assholes. They are mean to everyone and they like being mean. They are played by Scarlett Johansson and Thora Birch. It wouldn't be correct to call theme indie, because they probably hate indie people, but they are both very unique people. Ghost World isn't very well known, but I am sure of its greatness. It is witty, odd, and thought provoking (as a movie should be). There is a specific scene in the film, where the Thora Birch character sees a man waiting at a bus stop where the bus stopped going by. It has been years since the bus stopped there but the man stands there every day regardless. One day, he is gone into a bus that stops there. This is a beautiful scene. The whole film is a metaphor for the breaking away from high school into life. It's about the expectations, the reality, the bad, the good. It's about breaking away for laziness. Ghost World is one the the best films of the last decade.
Ghost World: ★★★★