The Walker Evans Effect

I just re-read my old post about my Top Movies of 2005 and realized I’ve finally gotten around to seeing a handful of them that were on my list of movies I hadn’t watched yet. Thought I’d weigh in on them real quick… (all movies are rated on a 5 star scale (because that’s how I roll))

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The Squid and the Whale - A great movie that’s turned me into a Jeff Daniels fan (sorry but Speed and Dumb & Dumber never really did anything for me). I went in expecting a quirky comedy (thanks to a friend who told me the movie was downright HILARIOUS) but it ended up being quite a bit more serious and dramatic. It’s what would happen if Wes Anderson made a new movie and decided to tone it down a few notches on the quirk-o-meter and give his characters a little more screentime than his cinematographer. I still enjoyed it quite a bit though. Easily this was the sleeper hit of ‘05. A great movie that nobody saw because there was too much else to watch to make time for it. I recommend making time for it.

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Capote - First of all, the copy of Capote that I watched was VERY annoying because the volume was extremely suppressed, and it couldn’t have been a worse movie for that because Truman Capote was so quiet all of the time (except when drinking). So yeah, turning the computer all the way up and turning the TV all the way up made quite a hissing interference to listen over, but we suffered through that anyway. Despite all of that… it was great. The material of the movie was fairly interesting, but I honestly felt a little desensitized about the violence of the killers because watching the local news in this day and ages shows you murders every night before bed. I’m sure this was much more dramatic and interesting material in the sixties though. But really it’s the characters (especially Capote himself) that was the most interesting aspect of the film. Why was he doing what he was doing? What could he be thinking? Anne and I talked about this movie for a few days after we watched it and we’ve borrowed In Cold Blood from the CML to watch the film version of his book. Philip Seymour Hoffman can do no wrong… oh, except for Mission Impossible 3.
1/2

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Brokeback Mountain - A great movie that managed to live up to the over-the-top hype. Beautifully shot (in CANADA) and steadily paced. Heath Ledger was great, but Jake Gyllenhaal was himself. Every role I see him in he seems to almost act nearly the same. I just can’t get past that. But yeah, good movie worth watching if you are comfortable enough to see two cowboys go at it in a tent without giggling like a little girl.

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Cinderella Man - Meh. A nice underdog story, but most of it felt like tired Hollywood garbage. Ron Howard is a great director, but he seems to pick projects that will A) Make Money and B) Win Awards. I guess I can’t blame him, but it really makes watching movies like Cinderella Man feel tedious to slog through their stories. Paul Giamatti is great though. I could watch him in any movie. Russell Crowe is standard Russell Crowe. He’s too much of a prick in real life for his acting to feel true. Renee is ok as well. I’d give this movie the most average C possible. Watch it on the USA network on a Sunday if you’ve got 3 hours to kill.
1/2

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The Chronicles of Narnia - Ugh. Throw this one on my pile of “Most disappointing movies of oh-five”. Make that the BOTTOM of the pile while you’re at it. Essentially, this is a 20-minute story stretched into a 140 minute (felt a LOT longer) blah-fest. And I think they’re making sequels??? The kids are most unlikable. The special effects are average, and used sparingly. The battle at the end takes forever to get through. Skip the first two hours and just watch the last 20 minutes and thank me later. Or just watch the Lazy Sunday video again and be glad it was Chris and Andy who watched the movie and NOT YOU.

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Walk the Line - I’m no Johnny Cash fan, but this movie makes me wish I was. A great film with great acting and wonderful storytelling songs. It got a little long in the end, but perhaps that’s because I started watching it around 12:30 at night. I’d probably not put this in my `creme de la creme’ list, but it would at least get a very honorable mention. Big props to the actors for doing all the singing themselves. Seeing multi-talent showcased like that is plenty entertaining to me.

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Crash - One of my favorites of the year. Totally worth the awards it won. A nice rollercoaster ride of emotions, characters, stereotypes, reverse-stereotypes, and social issues to grab anyone’s interest and leave you thinking and talking. I also really got a kick out of some of the editing cuts used to transition between storylines. One door closes and another will open. One phone call ends and another begins. Nice little touches like that always make me smile. Really, I only have two complaints about this movie… Brendan Fraser and Sandra Bullock. Their characters were lame and almost unnecessary. Nearly all of the other characters served multiple purposes and many had major life changes as their worlds crashed together. Brendan and Sandra did not. But it’s not like I was really expecting much from them anyway.
1/2

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So that’s it. Stay tuned for more as I slowly watch the rest of the list, and contemplate what else to watch in 06. And try to catch up older movies too. SO MANY MOVIES SO LITTLE TIME. This is why I hardly watch regular TV.

Anne & I watched a short film tonight by my coworker Lehr Beidelschies. Pretty entertaining I’d have to say.

It’s a story about a college student who’s pretty much a loser. He wanted to go to art school, but his father has forced him into business school instead. After spending all of his tuition money on pot, he’s decided that his only way out of the mess is suicide. Unable to kill himself, he turns to a suicide-assistance service known as “Call Kid Kevorkian”.

Dark material, yes, but I found myself cracking up at a few points in the story. Some of the dialogue and exchanges are shot with very professional comedic timing that will make anyone chuckle, even if you’re not a fan of student films.

My favorite scene in the movie (without giving too much away) is a bar scene where the lighting gets very colorful and so soft that there’s a lot of glow coming from the characters which helps to emphasize the fact that they’ve been drinking. This choice of lighting coupled with the off kilter camera angles almost gives this scene a comic-book type feel similar to the way Sin City was shot. Or at least that’s what it reminded me of anyway… but what do I know, I’m no movie expert.

Anyway, I enjoyed this short film and figured I’d share my opinion with the world since googling Call Kid Kevorkian doesn’t really show much of anything out there about this yet. YET!

Yes, I’ve been neglecting this thing. Busy busy busy. More soon.