Review of Dog Day Afternoon (1975)

Dog Day Afternoon is another brilliant collaboration between director Sidney Lumet, and actor Al Pacino. The story's pretty simple, two guys rob a bank, something goes wrong and they're caught in a shitty situation with a ton of cops. The film's strong point is in it's characters.

Al Pacino plays Sonny, a young guy who along with his partner, Sal execute a bank heist. The cops get wise to what's going on and a job that should have taken ten minutes goes from the afternoon and long into the night.

Based on a true story, this film makes you root for the bank robbers. Without glorifying what they're doing, Lumet is able to show a sympathetic side to the criminals.

One of Pacino's best performances, this film is a must see for any crime film fans.

-9/10

Review of Manic (2001)

Manic is another great film, with a fantastic performance by Joseph Gordon Levitt. The film follows Lyle (Joseph Gordon Levitt) a young man, admitted to a youth psychiatric ward for anger issues, after nearly beating another kid to death.

At first, seemingly apathetic (yeah, Joseph Gordon Levitt seems to play that character a lot) to all of the pain the teenagers around him have endured, Lyle eventually warms up to them, and learns to cope with his own issues, while helping them with theirs.

The film is show in a documentary style, that really puts the viewer into the film. The atmosphere is great and there are a few moments in the film where the director puts the camera to such an effect where you fall into the mindset of the characters.

Manic is one of the best films released in the past ten years, as far as I'm concerned, and I'd recommend it to anyone.

-9/10

Review of Mysterious Skin (2004)

Mysterious Skin is one of those films that you watch once, are competely blown away by, but never want to watch again.

Following the story of two boys who were sexually abused by their baseball coach when they were young, it shows the affect such a thing would have on a person. One boy, Neil (Joseph Gordon Levitt) knows what happened to him, and acknowledges it (going so far as to frequently tell the audience how it made him feel special). The other boy, Brian (Brady Corbet) repressed the memories, and throughout his life is convinced that he was abducted by aliens.

Skip ahead about ten years, Neil is a male prostitute. He is amoral and actually seems to enjoy his lifestyle. Brian has reccuring nightmares of being abducted by aliens, and in all of these dreams there is one boy from his baseball team in them (obviously turning out to be Neil). Brian tries to track down Neil to figure out what had happened to him.

The film is narrated by Neil, and hearing his thoughts on what he does (and what happened to him) is disturbing to say the least. Throughout the film, we have to endure watching him hooking himself out to men, and being completely apathetic to it.

All in all, Mysterious Skin is an extremely powerful film, that occupies your mind long after you've seen it. I don't recommend watching this film for entertainment, but if you're looking for a powerful film that shows the affects things like this have on people, check it out.

-8.5/10

Review of F.I.S.T. (1978)

F.I.S.T. is one of the few films out there that illustrate Sly Stallone's great acting talents. Stallone really brings his character, Johnny Kovak, to life and gives one of his most memorable performances. This film shows that, having gone a different route, Stallone could have become a much better actor. After this film, Stallone had a few other good films but the majority were crumby sequels, cliche action films, and poor attempts at comedy. It's really a shame he didn't put his talents to better use like he did in his earlier work like Rocky, and Nighthawks.

The film begins in the Great Depression of the 30's and follows the life of Johnny Kovak, a labourer who works at unloading trucks. Who, with his coworkers after being severly mistreated, and underpaid fights back against the company. This leads to Kovak becoming a member of the Union F.I.S.T, the Federation of Innner-State Truckers. At first idealistic, Kovak's morals and values are challenged when he has to get organized crime groups involved to get what's fair.

My only complaint with the film is, in the later scenes were Stallone plays an older Kovak, his portrayl is a bit weak given his limited acting abilities at the time. This, however is only a minor complaint, he still gives a great performance.

The script is good, all the characters are realistic and well fleshed out,and the great director, Norman Jewison puts his talents to good use in F.I.S.T. Also, filled with a fantastic supporting cast (including, Peter Boyle, and Rod Steiger) all these elements come together to make F.I.S.T. a film that is definetly worth seeing.

-7.5/10.

The New Hollywood

This is a report I wrote for a school about the New Hollywood generation of American filmmakers. Please leave comments, questions, etc.

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During the 1960's films seemed to have lost the interest of most audience members. With the introduction of televisions as a major form of entertainment many viewers parted from seeing films on the big screen and as a result of this, film was feared to be becoming a dead art form (it also didn't help that films were becoming more and more irrelevant each year, not saying anything new or testing the restrictions of the set cinematic language). But from the late 1960's to the early 1980's a group of young and talented film makers emerged and for a while took control over Hollywood. This group of filmmakers was referred to by the press as "The New Hollywood" - their films were personal, relevant and spoke to their audience. For the first time directors had almost complete, unquestioned controls over their films.

One of the first of these films was "Bonnie and Clyde" made in 1967, it was a project that the studio (Warner Brothers) had very little hope in. However, the makers of this film were filled with inspiration from the La Nouvelle Vague film movement taking place in France. Written by Robert Benton and David Newman (two film writers for the magazine "Esquire" with a passion for independent and foreign film, most notably the work of Jean luc Godard and Francois Truffaut) and directed by Arthur Penn, a former big league director who was blacklisted during the 50's over fear of being a communist. It starred Warren Beatty (who also produced and had more faith in the film than any other crew member) and Faye Dunaway.

The studio didn't have very much hope in the film - it was violent and they just couldn't understand why anyone would ever like it. So it was a huge surprise (perhaps even for the makers of the film) when it became a smash hit and was nominated for several Academy Awards.

Along with a little independent film called "Easy Rider" a new era was ushered in for film. One in which the artist had more control over their films than the suits. The contributors of this era were known to the public as "The New Hollywood".

Look at almost any film lover's list of favorite American films and you will see that a good deal of the films will be from the New Hollywood era. The best works of some of America's greatest directors were made in this era. To name a few of these directors: Scorsese, Bogdonavich, Ashby, Peckinpah, Altman and DePalma.

During this time, these great directors were able to flourish and make their films with little to no interference from the studios. They could do anything, with any amount of money. The director was finally the sole author of their films. Unfortunately, this new control for the directors was ruined by two films. These films were "Star Wars" and "Jaws". Opening on thousands of screens across the country (and across the globe) these films grossed more than any other films in the history of cinema. Besides this, with Star Wars the studios were able to make countless amounts of money off merchandise like toys, books and video games bringing in huge amounts of cash. But it isn't fair to place blame entirely on the greedy studios and the filmmaker's who consider film more of a business than an art form. The directors themselves let prestige get to their heads. They thought they could do anything and they drove the studios to shut them down.

The four films that were mainly responsible for killing the New Hollywood were "Heaven's Gate", "They all Laughed", "New York New York" and "Sorcerer". "Heaven's Gate" went hugely over budget and made very little money back in the studios. "They All Laughed" was a fantastic film but after the murder of star Dorothy Stratten, nobody wanted to see it. "New York New York" was a good film but perhaps a little too personal and William Friedkin's epic "Sorcerer" opened on the same week as "Star Wars" and did no business (which was unfortunate because it was a great film).

After these films were released nothing would ever be the same for the New Hollywood directors. That's not to say that the films they subsequently made weren't good. Scorsese continued making some fantastic films, as did Ashby and Friedkin. But it was now (and still seems to be) the era of over-budgeted, unoriginal, all flash no substance blockbuster films.

Review of The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner (1962)

The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner is one of the best films I've yet to see that deals with themes of rebellious and frustrated youths. Tom Courtenay brilliantly plays Colin Smith, a young man living in an impoverished area of England. Colin is the oldest member of a large family, his father is in poor shape and refuses to take his medication. The entire family seems to remain unbothered by this and his mother even carries on several affairs with different men. Eventually, the father dies and with the money she receives from insurance she blows on clothes and a new television.

Frustrated about not having any money (because he refuses to get a job, insisting that he doesn't see any sense in working his guts out just so the employer can make all the money) Colin breaks into a bakery and steals a cashbox.

Eventually, Colin is caught by the police and sent to a reformatory school where he shows promise in athletics as a long distance runner. The Governor takes special notice of him and gives him special treatment, hoping for him to compete in the long distance run against a preparatory school.

When the day of the competition comes Colin straight away takes a huge lead on the star runner of the opposing school. He keeps up a steady pace but throughout a series of flashcuts we see Colin reflecting on his home life. He stops in place and in a rebel yell stares at the Governor who was completely expecting him to win.

Now, the film is told in a non-linear narrative which makes the film have a lot more emotional resonance. It is shot in black and white, in a fantastic documentary style. The music in this film perfectly underlines all the emotions Colin goes through (most specifically loneliness, when it shows just his shadow running along a long road).

Throughout the film we find that the apparent criminal seems to have more moral and ethical codes than the authority figures.

The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner is a great example of a film in which almost all of the elements work perfectly together. It's experimentations in editing, the shaky camera work, gritty cinematography and fantastic acting all go together wonderfully.

-9/10

Review of Avatar (2009)

Avatar (2009)

So, I saw the trailer for Avatar and from what I saw it didn't really look like it would be the type of movie that I'm into but a few friends were going so I figured I might as well go check it out.

From the first scene it's pretty obvious what type of movie it's gonna be. The story was far from original (it was basically Dances with Wolves with aliens) and the characters were basically one dimensional. Anyway, that's pretty much what I was expecting so I wasn't disappointed. The obvious reason to go see Avatar is it's special effects which are definitely fantastic. James Cameron was able to create a whole new world with CGI which is definitely interesting to see but also (for me at least) detracted from the overall film. I couldn't take any of the dramatic moments between the aliens seriously because I just couldn't get it out of my head how they're just computer generated images.

Overall, I'd say Avatar is just another example of an all flash no substance Hollywood movie. If you have any interest at all in seeing it, go to the theaters because the experience will be ruined at home.

-7/10