This was very pleasantly surprising. My preconceptions were this film was about a weary housewife learning to love a underprivileged black teen. To some extent, yes, that does happen. But that's about 10 minutes of a two hour film. Sandra Bullock's character is inspiring to say the least, as well as the rest of her family. She's well acted but I wouldn't say best of the year oscar worthy, but that's just me. Where this movie really stands out is in the way it truly depicts a beautiful world where people can show true compassion beyond this beginning story of overcoming class/race differences, but more so in the way it's about people helping people. It should be obvious both Sandra Bullock and Quinton Aaron get something out of the relationship they never expected, and the beauty comes from their completely uninhibited desire to care for one another.
8/10
Film#57 - Dolores Claiborne, 1995, dir. Taylor Hackford
I have certain expectations with Stephen King movies, but that's mostly because Frank Darabont has set me up this way. This film, in that sense, disappoints a little. It's no Darabont. But it is however a thoroughly enjoyable telling of a fractured yet flowing storyline. Taking place in the gloomy present while interspersed with flashbacks to many years before, this film tells the story of Dolores (Kathy Bates) and her daughter Selena (Jennifer Jason Leigh). Bates has just been accused of a murder, a murder we all know she has committed. Her daughter hasn't spoken to her in years and is called back to a small town she has no desire to live in. Leigh is crafted in her father's image, a hard women, smoking and drinking like it's going out of style, with an unimaginable resentment towards her mother. Dolores is hated by pretty much everyone, and she seems fairly well crazy. However, as the story progresses, we see how the mother-daughter relationship has ended up this way, while at the same time exploring that past brings a new light to their current predicament. Aesthetically beautiful with often mind-blowing instances of editing magic, this film lives up as close as it can to a Darabont telling of King.
8.5/10
Film#58 - Crank 2, 2009, dir. Mark Neveldine & Brian Taylor
I must say I loved the original Crank. I had been told the generic, "It's a non stop thrill ride" but really, Crank redefined that term. It truly is non-stop. This film let me down in that department. The original built it's appeal not only on the crazy storyline, and absolutely neverending action and the undeniable quirky style, while Crank 2 seems a bit more forced based on its predecessors success. Yes, this film is fun and still packed full of the juicy bits that make the series so enjoyable. Statham delivers like no other, bringing action together with a unique sense of character, which is obviously his style of acting all together, but this film makes reference to that in such an obvious way that brings it to a new level. There is even a moment where characters acknowledge the actor's past works, giving the film a self-referential charm. My problem with it was too often and too early on did the film take considerable stops in the flow. Action would practically end for large chunks, which I wouldn't say is a fault of the film, but rather the overall urgency is lost. Of course the plot is absolutely ridiculous, seeing as how Statham's character free-fell several miles to his subsequent death in the first movie, and has miraculously been revived (which is actually explained as best as possible in this film). A funny and thrilling movie.
8/10
Film#59 - Pillow Talk, 1959, dir. Michael Gordon
Here we have a somewhat interesting set up for what will obviously be a love story from the beginning. Rock Hudson and Doris Day share a party line, which for those of you that don't know is way back when people in different houses would share a single phone line and would have to cooperate to use it. Hudson is a song writing, and has what appears to be the absolute most irresistible charm on women. Day and Hudson do not get along, although they have never met. One thing leads to another and they run into each other, where Hudson pretends to be a different person while being fully aware of who Day is. They date, fall in love, etc, and it's all fine and dandy. Of course she finds out who he is, and you can guess where this eventually goes. The film had several odd and strangely out of place mini-plots going on, which I'm sure someone will deconstruct as extremely meaningful, but as part of the film experience they served to purpose and often felt unwelcome. This film had nothing to set it above any other typical romantic comedy of the time and today just falls behind with it's all too predictable plot.
6/10
Film#60 - Vicky Cristina Barcelona, 2008, dir. Woody Allen
I honestly don't know where to start with this film. I find it's just so perfectly crafted in every sense that it's just a perfect piece of cinema (aren't I pretentious). The film explores so many stereotypical elements of life and love but in such a new way that is unfamiliar yet still relatable. Javier Bardem is just such a fantastic character, not just in the sense that yes, he has a particularly strong effect on women and spends his time drinking wine in a beautiful countryside with a stable of beautiful women swooning over him, but also in the way his philosophical attitudes come out literally as poetry. He is such a confident man in the uncertainty of life and his acknowledgement of it makes him content even in times of struggle. While all the characters seem to be searching for something, he is too, but he has come to a place where he is conscious of the search as a neverending process and simply finds the pleasure of searching as fulfilling as the idea of finding what he's looking for. This movie brings a new light to what is meaningful, and challenges societal values and norms beyond a rebellious tone but rather in the sense that alternatives to what is meaningful exist on a personal level and that fully accepting other peoples individual identities is in itself forming a new societal norm. But I can't describe the way this film explores these ideas, since the film experience itself is complete, not that I'm saying that it doesn't inspire further thinking but rather as a single story it finds answers to its own questions that leave the viewer fulfilled. Not to mention this film has one of the most pleasing colour palettes I've seen in a long time.
10/10
