Even The Rain is a chilling foreign film about a group of film
makers shooting a movie about Christopher Columbus in Bolivia. There is a lot
of politics involved with Even The Rain that connects it back to Christopher
Columbus through symbolism. I really enjoyed the aesthetic values of the film,
especially the way the making of a film was portrayed within a film. There is a
very intense sequence where the film makers are watching a finished scene of
footage they shot for their Christopher Columbus film. You feel as if you are
in the editing room watching the final scene of their viscous film, and then
the camera pulls back to reveal them all in the theater sitting and watching. I
enjoyed some of the actors in the film as well, particularly Costa and Daniel. Both
actors brought a lot of depth to their performance that made them easy to
identify with. Both characters showed a vast amount of courage that most of us
would like to identify with as well. The film does a good job of splitting up
which parts are scenes of the actual film and what scenes are parts of the
Christopher Columbus movie. As I already mentioned, the film was very
politically motivated. The Bolivian government are trying to put huge taxes on
water, and keeping it away from the Bolivian citizens. The city breaks out into
protests and riots resulting in a city wide civil war. The story of Christopher
Columbus mistreating natives is symbolism for the water issues in Bolivian,
towards the end of the film it switches focal points completely and is all
about the political aspects. This transaction actually goes a lot more smoothly
than it sounds. Over all, I really enjoyed Even The Rain and felt that it was
an enlightening film. I highly recommend it.
Foul Film Reviews
Monday, December 3, 2012
Sunday, December 2, 2012
My Review Of "Hunger"
Hunger is a very powerful film about inmates of an Irish
political prison. This is more an art film than the traditional film made for
entertainment. I find it difficult for someone to enjoy watching this film,
though I could totally understand liking it and learning from it. Hunger has
very strong performances that really don’t use or even require lots of dialogue
to push their emotions. Most of the story is told with a visual approach. That
being said, Hunger uses impeccable technique in terms of storytelling as well as
the filmmaking process. My absolute favorite scene in this film was a split screen
shot that showed the Irish inmates being savagely beaten by British police,
while on the other side one of the British officers was in a separate room with
his helmet in his hand because he was crying. In the beginning of the film
there are some absolutely gorgeous shots of the prison warden standing outside
in the snow smoking a cigarette. In many films today you don’t see that sort of
detail given to such a simple scene. Hunger had many scenes of brutal horror
that would take someone with a good tolerance to stomach. One particularly
horrid scene is when the prisoners are being viciously beaten while they are
naked, and then the prison warden proceeds to cut off their hair with a large
pair of scissors. They are given uniforms to wear but they resist, and
eventually this leads to a hunger strike, with many scenes of brutal torture and
rebellion in between. There is a very long dialogue scene that is one shot the
entire time, this scene may be boring to some as we are used to so much
movement and visual stimuli, but none the less it is extremely impressive. I
would recommend Hunger to fans of art films and the Criterion Collection DVD
series.
My Review Of "Gomorrah"
Gomorrah is an Italian crime film based on the factual criminal
organization, he Camorra. Apparently the Camorra is a larger group and even
more ruthless than the Sicilian Mafia. I really enjoyed Gomorrah because it is
my style of foreign film, but also because I am an Italian America. Growing up
I always heard about the Sicilian Mafia of course but it was very interesting
to see a more factual representation of crime in Italy. One aspect I really
enjoyed about Gomorrah is the way it reminded me of a 1970s crime-horror film.
The film is very nihilistic the whole way through, especially the ending. It
has a very dark and grimy feeling throughout, especially with the sets and
locations. The film makers did a great job of capturing the dark side of Italy.
Crime films in America are very much glamorized, and they make the mobsters
look really cool to put it honestly. In many of the American crime films the
mobsters are made out to be the heroes of the film, usually playing a dual role
of a hero and a criminal. Another aspect of Gomorrah I really enjoyed was the
way it followed multiple characters throughout the story, yet they were all
very connected. You don’t see that in too many films but I feel it makes a
great plot device. According to many of the others in our class, they felt
extremely disconnected to the characters. Maybe they haven’t been exposed to
struggle like this before, but for whatever reason I felt more connected to the
characters in this film than many of the other films that we watched. Over all,
I found that Gomorrah was a very interesting film, and although it was a very
dark film I thoroughly enjoyed it. I understand how it could be really heavy
for some people though. I highly recommend it to experimental, foreign, and
crime film enthusiast.
Short Bus & Exploitation
Short Bus was a very exploitive film that dealt with all
different types of sexual frustration and exploration, but was it
sexploitation? It could easily go both ways depending on the viewer. Either way
it is an interestingly realistic portrayal of sex in film. I hate sex scenes in
most film, except maybe some select horror films, because it is very fake. All
the cleverly shot romantic scenes make it look so artificial; in fact I find it
easy to laugh at. In Short Bus, the sex was just down right believable. I would
not be surprised at all if you were to tell me that many of the actors were
truly having sex or engaged in a sexual relationship. So that brings out the
big question, is it pornographic? In my opinion, it is not, but that does not
mean it isn’t exploitation. Is a film like “I Spit on Your Grave” pornographic?
Not at all, but it is still exploitation. Now there is still a particular type
of person that may find either of these films pornographic and sexually
arousing, but I don’t think either could appeal to the normal human being. Now
just because something is sexually exploitive doesn’t make it wrong, just
possibly inappropriate or offensive. I would not suggest Short Bus to children,
or those sexually embarrassed or repressed. Short Bus could be very enjoyable
and enlightening for the correct audience though. One aspect I really enjoyed
is that it has something to exploit everyone’s sexual interests. There is a
character for just about every sex act or sexual orientation you could think
of, which makes it all the more exploitive. As I stated before though, there
still is some substance here along with deep characters rich in conflict. Short
Bus may not be sexploitation in the classic Russ Meyer sense, but there’s a
little something to offend everyone.
How I Can Relate To "Bamboozled"
Bamboozled is a film about stereotypes, especially African
American stereotypes. I must admit, I thoroughly enjoyed this film, although I
found it irritating. It was irritating because this is a very racist film; it
exploits racism in order to make the point that racism is wrong. Being a huge
fan of exploitation films, I can totally understand this. It was done in a very
experimental fashion, and I was surprised by the way all these elements came
together. This film also spoke to me on a more personal level than most of the
other films I’ve reviewed or analyzed on this blog; that is because personally
am very against using the “N” word. This is something I feel no person should
say, black or white. Using the word in current times is very ignorant in my
eyes. Believe it or not it was actually hip hop that got me so aware of the
word. I went to a high school where all people black, white, Latin, etc. all
used the “N” word and there was racism from time to time. Hip hop unifies
people of all races. I am a white Italian American and I am involved in a hip
hop group with all types of people of all different backgrounds. We refuse to
use the “N” word in our music. We also feel that all the mainstream hip hop
artist excessively using the “N” word are only hurting hip hop by spreading
racism around the word. It was quite easy for me to identify with the character
of 1/16th Black who was portrayed but MC Serch of 3rd
Bass. It was also interesting to see other hip hop icons like Canibus and Mos
Def portraying their view of racism and stereotypes in the film as well. I feel
this is a film that many people need to see, and the plot could easy be written
around a different race with the same events. In that sense, to me, Bamboozled
is universal.
Killer Joe: Analysis Of The Conclusion
Killer Joe is a film about a dysfunctional white trash family
who hire a cop who is also an assassin to kill their mother, who we never get
to meet until after the killing. Once the job is done they don’t have the means
to pay off Killer Joe, so he takes the youngest female, Dottie, for collateral.
Once that happens this film travels down a twisted path, one that people have
both loved and hated. I honestly thought this was a very good film up until the
very ending scene. It was a huge drop off ending that did not explain anything.
Unless William Friedkin is planning on making a direct sequel then I do not
understand the point of using that ending. For this article I will be spoiling
it. The 13 year old girl Dottie has been having a sexual relationship with
Killer Joe as a way to pay him back for his services. There is a huge fight
scene because Killer Joe and Dottie are going to get married, and Joe finds out
that the wife was involved in the murder plot to collect on the insurance
money, she in cheating on her husband with the husband of the dead mother.
After the huge fight Dottie admits that she is pregnant, suprising everyone.
She takes a gun and kills her brother and shoots her father in the stomach. She
does not shoot Killer Joe or the step mother. That’s it, that’s how the film
ends. This in my opinion is one of the worst endings to a film that I have seen
in a long time. I did not understand why Friedkin would choose such a dull, inconclusive
ending for a film that had such an intense rising action. I would really like
to hear a long explanation from the director about what the ending means, why
it ended that way, and how he decided to end it that way. I am not satisfied
with this inconclusive ending and it honestly ruined the whole film for me.
A Cabin In The Woods: A Horror Film Fan's Analysis
I have to be honest here, as a classic horror film fan, in the rarest
of forms; I did not expect to enjoy a film like “Cabin in the Woods.” Although,
I must admit, it really isn’t all that bad. It did a good job of blending
comedy with horror, I found myself laughing constantly throughout the film. Most
of the characters are very dry, and stereotypical, but they are supposed to be.
This makes them easier to like and care for, although I struggled with that for
the first half of the film. This movie is a satire of the horror genre, no
doubt. And even more specifically the slasher genre. The most original addition
is the worldwide corporation that sets up the traps for the teenagers. My issue
with this though was that it left me wanting more explained, and I didn’t feel
as if I got that. Instead the ending really trailed off from the original
story, and I did not enjoy it. It was almost as if they did not know how to end
the film so they threw together a passable conclusion. I did not understand the
point of Sigourney Weaver’s character, or why the cabin was consumed into the
center of the Earth by what is the “angry hand of the gods.” It just felt like
a very manufactured and ill prepared conclusion to me. The build-up on the
other hand, as stated, was quite enjoyable. You can really notice where they
took inspiration right out of tons of horror classics such as Evil Dead, Evil
Dead 2, Friday the 13th, Children of the Corn, and Hellraiser,
amongst others. As a huge horror fan I could appreciate this new era horror
smash. But for a true horror fan in the purest sense, it still left some issues
to be addressed.
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