Films

Closer [2004]

Director: Mike Nichols
Actor: Clive Owen, Jude Law, Julia Roberts, Natalie Portman

I’m not too sure how I feel about this movie. At the end of the film I was left with two impressions; a) that it was a good movie, and b) that I hated all the characters in it. There’s just something about their actions that leave me disliking each and every one of them. It’s not like they’re flawed like any human being, because some of them make some bone-headed, ultimately self-destructive choices that no sane person would make. That said the acting is solid, and especially Clive Owen rocks this movie.

It’s about four people, two couples, who meet eachother independently of one another, seemingly by coincidence, and all fall in love with eachother. Not in a good, let’s-join-a-hippie-free-love-for-all-commune kind of way, but more in the adultery kind of way. Law falls in love with Roberts, while in a relationship with Portman. Roberts gets in a relationship with Owen and promptly starts a relationship behind is back with Law. Owen turns evil. Portman turns saintly (almost), and everyone ends up unhappy and awkward with one another. It’s a crazy four-way relationship that benefits nobody.

Good movie, but kind of depressing.

American Psycho [2000]

Director: Mary Harron
Actor: Christian Bale, Justin Theroux, Reese Witherspoon, Willem Dafoe

Where to begin; I read the book by Bret Easton Ellis for my English class when I was 14 or 15 years old, and I remember finding it incredibly boring. There are whole pages in the book devoted to Patrick Bateman’s (main character) description of his new hifi system, and I admit to skipping certain pages to get to the good bits. Obviously I didn’t have the patience, or perhaps I just didn’t get it. But now the story appeals to me a lot, since it’s a sincere accussation towards the materialism and greed of American society in the mid-80’s.

Wallstreet operatives were considered to be rock and roll superstars, which is still the case a bit, but certainly not in the way the way they were venerated as much as in the 80s. Films like Wallstreet and Glengarry Glen Ross are good examples of that. Boilerroom is a more recent example. Their splurging and excesses are widely shown in the film, and it seems to go hand in hand with a profound shallowness, and Patrick Bateman is the pinnacle of that shallowness. He is not really a person, so he keeps saying, he’s a man, made of flesh and blood, but he has no identifiable human emotions, except greed and disgust. He is an avatar of the Wallstreet greed and excesses as described in the film. It’s only a small step from that, to the definition of a pyschopath; someone who has no moral responsibility or social conscience. Someone who has a hard time relating to others.

Patrick Bateman has all these things, and the only way he feels anything is when he resorts to homocidal tendencies on a massive scale. His urges are getting out of control and it all slowly spirals out of control.

Great film with great acting on the part of Bale and Dafoe. The pace is great, and the styling is almost perfect. Bale looks appropriately plastic, with his perfect skin, $70 haircut and Valentino suits.

Waiting… [2005]

Director: Rob McKittrick
Actor: Justin Long, Ryan Reynolds, Anna Faris, Luis Guzmán, Chi McBride, Dane Cook

This is a pretty mindless “coming of age” type of film surrounding an Applebee’s/Chilly’s/Bennigan’s type of “restaurant” (I use the quotation marks because I wouldn’t personally call those places restaurants, they’re just a step up from a fast-food place) where people with few ambitions work during the day, before getting drunk, stoned and having casual sex with their co-workers at someone’s apartment after the restaurant closes. One waiter, Dean (Long), isn’t so happy with that life anymore as he finds out that one of his highschool friends just got his BA in electrical engineering and is moving on to bigger and better things. Another, Monty (Reynolds), is very content with his life, but realises that I can’t continue boning highschool girls for much longer without getting caught by the police for statutory rape.

It’s a funny film with a paper-thin storyline, and it offers some notable performances by Guzman and McBride (which were unexpected surprises in this film.) Reynolds does his usual fast-talking smart-mouthing, which is fun from time to times. Watch this when you don’t want to think, and haven’t watched a teen-movie in a while. That’s the only way it’s fun and you’ll laugh. It worked for me. :)

Bedazzled [2000]

Director: Harold Ramis
Actor: Brendan Fraser, Elizabeth Hurley

This film is goofy, the plotline is paper-thin, the acting is mediocre, and Hurley’s dialogue incredibly simple and uninspiring. But Brendan Fraser steals the show by showing off his diversity and comedic insight.

The plot is simple; Fraser plays Elliott, a very lonely and socially awkward man. He cries himself to sleep at night while desperately trying to make friends with his co-workers and secretely dreaming of Allison, who doesn’t know he is alive (literally.) One night, after having had his co-workers peer-pressure him into finally talking to Allison, he makes a fool of himself, and as he watches her walk out the door, wishes that he could be with her.

Enter the Devil (Hurley) offering him 7 wishes in return for his soul. Of course he has to be convinced first. It takes a while but this seductress finally manages him to sign the contract (a stack of papers heavy enough to kill a full sized bull, filled with tiny letters). His first wish is to be rich and powerful and to be married to Allison.

Of course, all goes to hell as the Devil tries (successfully) to find loopholes in the wording of each wish. Luckily, she gives Elliott a way to get in contact with her should a wish not work out. He quickly wastes wish after wish not being thorough enough in his wording.

Very funny film in which Brendan Fraser really shines.

300 [2006]

Director: Zack Snyder
Actor: Gerard Butler, Lena Headey, Dominic West, Michael Fassbender, David Wenham, Rodrigo Santoro

An amazing film about an event that came to define courage and valour throughout western civilisation, the Battle of Thermopylae. The film, while riddled with cliché-ic acting and stereotypes, is fantastically beautiful, and gruesome. No lack of maimed and ruined bodies.

No lack of super-slo-mo action, either. Sometimes I thought it was a bit overdone, like a John Woo-wannabe, trying to impress the audience with slow motion action sequences. Not bad, but overdone.

So I’m left disappointed in this film, which is not to say I didn’t enjoy it. I had just hoped for a little more, and maybe for too much.