Phantom of the Opera

I'll edit this later and flesh out my opinions a little better, but i didn't really like the Phantom of the Opera.

the acting was weak, the singing was weak, the sets and shots were weak. shame on webber and shumaker.

the only thing i really liked about it was minnie driver as the prima donna. she was fantastic. emmy rosen was ok, but i just felt like she could have done better. the phantom should be older. because i have estrogen, i loved raoul. he better be thankful for my estrogen.

that's all for now.

Forrest Gump

The 1994 Robert Zemeckis film, Forrest Gump, is one of the best movies made in my lifetime. It helped Tom Hanks win his second Oscar in a row (his first was for playing a homosexual with AIDS who was unfairly fired from his job in 1993's Philadelphia). It also features Sally Fields (another two time Oscar winner), Gary Senise, and Robin Wright Penn (wife to Sean Penn). There are so many aspects to this film that make it noteworthy, which I will discuss here.

First of all, the acting is supreme. There is never a fake moment, or a moment that you remember that Forrest Gump is really Tom Hanks. Hanks, a gifted actor in my opinion, takes into account every facial movement, glance, and mannerism that Forrest relays on the screen. He really becomes a whole other person, which is what acting is all about. Some actors, like Dustin Hoffman, are extremely intense, living their characters until the shoot is officially over and done with. Tom Hanks, however, I feel is just naturally gifted. He goes in there and does a job. How many other actors would you go to see in a movie where it's him and a volleyball for two hours? Sally Field isn't anything new or special as Forrest's mother, but it's not asked of her to be something new. She is caring and very southern. Robin Wright Penn is very good as well as the extremely confused, messed-up friend of Forrest, Jenny. To play a character with a thought process like Jenny, you have to step outside yourself. She also somehow makes Jenny endearing. A person like that is really hard to like. They're unstable, undependable. She hurts Forrest (who everyone likes from the beginning). Gary Sinese also shines as Lieutenant Dan, Forrest's commander during his tour in Vietnam who looses his legs and is saved by Forrest.

The soundtrack of Forrest Gump is yet another aspect of the film that earns props from "Spoiler Alert". It is a 2-disc set full of contributions from every important popular musician from the 1950s until the 1980s. It includes Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, The Mama's and the Papa's, and the King himself. Alan Silvestri also provides a beautiful score, including "The Feather Suite", which is a song instantly recognized by many today.

The history lesson taught by Forrest Gump is one that can be appreciated by both the Baby Boomers and their children. While the Baby Boomers can comment on the reality of the situations, the children can learn about the one era of history that their teachers can never quite get to in class. Important figures such as John F. Kennedy, John Lennon, and Elvis Prestley are met by Forrest. Topics such as the Vietnam War, Civil Rights, and AIDS are discussed (AIDS is the mystery illness that Jenny dies from, assumed from the myriad activities she is involved in throughout the film). The editing, especially for the time, is excellent and the film has seemingly universal appeal.

This is a rental for almost the entire family, barring any small children.

The Big Chill

Another creation for COM 204.

Lawrence Kasdan’s 1983 reunion film, The Big Chill, is a film which shows seven college friends mourning the death of one of their own, joined by his young girlfriend. The weekend following the funeral shows the group beginning the mourning process and exposing truths and feelings that never would have emerged otherwise. The film also stars a cast of top notch, baby-boomer-era actors and actresses showing what their generation is like twenty years after the era that identified them in the first place. They were the spokesmen (and women) of a generation that had been quiet for a number of years and was now facing issues that needed to again be addressed. The Big Chill also possesses a soundtrack so infectious and perfectly integrated into the film that one’s first instinct after viewing is to buy the soundtrack album. These elements of acting and soundtrack, along with the simple scenery and camera work, makes The Big Chill something to see.

The Big Chill is a film that relies solely on dialogue to keep the audience interested, because frankly there isn’t much beyond that in the film. No car chases, or bombs, or even too much sex, so the dialogue must be, and is, the center of attention. Lawrence Kasdan ensured this by setting the film out in the un-distracting country of the south, and by keeping the colors of the indoor surroundings extremely subdued and visually quiet. This film is not visually stimulating, as a generality, and allows the audience to focus completely on the actors who are executing their craft as perfectly as humanly possible.

Although most of the camera angles in The Big Chill are straightforward and no-nonsense, there are a few shots that are extremely memorable. Vincent Canby, of the New York Times, wrote that “Mr. Kasdan is one of the finest of Hollywood's new young writers but The Big Chill, like Body Heat, demonstrates that he is a writer who works as much through images as through words.” One such shot is the scene where the funeral precession makes its way over an interestingly shaped bridge. The cars are all in a straight line and the camera is set from further away than the audience is from the characters throughout the film. However, the most memorable scene in the film is as memorable as it is simply because of the camera work. The opening sequence following the phone call that Sarah and Harold receive concerning Alex’s suicide is a montage that alternates between the initial reactions to Alex’s death and a man dressing. This man is actually Alex's corpse being dressed for his funeral, something discovered only in the last shot of the montage when the cuff of Alex's shirt being pulled over his wrist. The stitches indicate that the man is actually dead, and that he most likely killed himself by slashing his wrists. Later on in the story, this is confirmed through conversations amongst Alex’s friends. The opening montage tells, without a single word, everything that the audience has to know before being thrust into the most emotional day of the character’s lives.

The actors and actresses involved in The Big Chill are some of the greatest thespians of their generation. The film stars Kevin Kline, Glenn Close, William Hurt, Jeff Goldblum, Tom Berenger, Mary Kay Place, Jobeth Williams, and Meg Tilly, about half of whom have been nominated for or have won Academy Awards. Glenn Close has been nominated five times, one of which was for her role as Sarah in The Big Chill. William Hurt won the Best Actor Oscar in 1985 for Kiss of the Spider Woman and was nominated twice in the following years in the same category. Kevin Kline won with his only nomination for A Fish Called Wanda, while Meg Tilly and Tom Berenger were both nominated once for Academy Awards in the 1980’s. The Big Chill did not win any other Oscars, but was nominated in two other categories. Lawrence Kasdan and Barbara Benedek were nominated for Best Original Screenplay, and the producer, Michael Shamberg was nominated for Best Picture of 1983. The film is also noted as the ideal ensemble piece in American cinema. As stated by The Austin Chronicle, “Each member of the well-chosen cast not only creates a distinct character with unique and memorable resonances but also meshes these separate personalities to form as satisfying an example of ensemble acting as we are likely to see for quite some time to come.”. “The performances represent ensemble playing of an order Hollywood films seldom have time for, with the screenplay providing each character with at least one big scene. If the actors were less consistent and the writing less fine, the scheme would be tiresome. "In The Big Chill it's part of the fun.”, Vincent Canby of The New York Times writes. A quick piece of trivia about The Big Chill that deals with acting is the cameo roles played by Kasdan’s wife and two sons, who were on the shoot to begin with. His wife, Meg Kasdan, plays the airline stewardess who talks to Sam Weber, played by Tom Berenger in the beginning of the film. Kasdan’s youngest son plays Harold and Sarah’s son in the opening sequence, while his other son, Jake, is the little autograph seeker at Alex’s funeral.

This finally brings the film to its soundtrack, which is for many the most important aspect of The Big Chill. Integrated both directly and indirectly into the film, the soundtrack is comprised of hits of the 1960’s, representing mostly Motown and the British Invasion. The New York Times review noted that “The soundtrack is loaded with 60's music that recalls, without sentimentality, everything the friends have grown away from.”. In some sequences, the music is brought in like normal soundtrack music, in that the characters cannot hear the music, but it serves to set a specific atmosphere for the scene. However, in other scenes, the music is provided directly by the characters. For instance, during Alex’s funeral, Karen, played by Jobeth Williams, plays “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” by the Rolling Stones, which seamlessly blends into the real song, which is played indirectly. Inside the Cooper residence, Sarah and Harold constantly have these hits of their college years playing the background of both deep discussions and light conversations. As noted by the Philadelphia City Paper, “Its solid-gold soundtrack laid the groundwork for movies as occasions to sell soundtrack CDs.”.

By combining these four major aspects of film making, acting, soundtrack, camera work, and set design, The Big Chill makes what could be simply a film of talking heads into a national discussion of the issues of the baby-boomer era in 1983. Instead of dealing with drugs, free love, and personal freedom, this generation is now coping with the deaths of friends, kids, jobs, and the real pressures of adult life. Up until this point, no other film had really allowed for such a discussion. The eighties, in film, were a time for big budget epics, such as Reds and Gandhi, and for angst-filled teen comedies that would impact a separate generation altogether. The issues of the film are not as prevalent today as they were in the 1980’s. As Christopher Null writes for filmcritic.com, “While the story doesn't carry as much grit as it did in 1983 -- surrogate pregnancy and drug use being the hot topics here -- it's still a lot of fun and it's the best example of ‘The Ensemble’ as star that you'll find in American cinema.” The Big Chill spoke for a generation that had lay dormant and quiet for almost fifteen years and was yearning to speak again. Efilmcritic.com writes that “In an ever-changing world, The Big Chill is a document of its time, just like Saturday Night Fever was to the 70’s, since it captured in that very moment how the “baby boom” generation and their ideals had grown (until then) over the past 20 years.”. Roger Ebert describes the feeling of the film best when he says, “It's a good movie. It's well acted, the dialogue is accurately heard and the camera is extremely attentive to details of body language. It observes wonderfully well how its veterans of the 1960s have grown up into adulthood, consumerhood, parenthood, drunkenhood, adulteryhood, and regrethood. These people could all be wearing warm-up jackets with poignancy stenciled on the backs.”

The Big Chill is a film that spoke for a generation by the people of that generation. Overall, the acting is superb, the set design is simple and lends to the subdued feeling of the Cooper home, the camera angles only get fancy when they have to, and the soundtrack is one that is not to be missed. By most reviewers, it was noted as a good to great film, mainly with reoccurring references to an earlier film, The Return of the Secaucus Seven. However, these references were generally brief and usually saying that the Big Chill had built on the genre of reunion film, not copied it.

Again, go out and rent this film.

Annie Hall, a tribute

Taken from my second term paper from Bill Wine's COM 204 class. enjoy. it's my favorite film.

Annie Hall, Woody Allen’s 1977 piece that many claim to be his best, is a quirky romantic comedy in which our protagonist, Alvy Singer, finds love in a scatterbrained, but lovable, nightclub singer, Annie Hall. It is a rare gem among romantic comedies, in that it really touches on the neurotic side of relationships, not just the hearts, flowers, and candy. It explores the neurotic and realistic side of romance, similar to such films as When Harry Met Sally… and Love Actually. Annie Hall is truly set apart by its actors, Allen as Alvy and Diane Keaton as Annie, the various visual techniques used to keep the film moving, and the clever and memorable dialogue.

Woody Allen has set his own trend of starring in his own films, typically with his current muse, most notably Mia Farrow and Diane Keaton. This film is actually a semi-autobiographical account of the relationship between Diane Keaton, born Diane Hall, and Woody Allen. Phil Villarreal of The Arizona Daily Star notes that “Keaton and Allen - who were once a couple and would work together in several films - glow with genuine affection.” Allen plays his typical neurotic, pessimistic, New York Jew, but is toned down considerably in Annie Hall, making the film all the more realistic. This film is autobiographical on many levels, another one being Allen / Alvy’s many neuroses, one of which was almost the title of the film. The condition anhedonia causes sufferers to be unable to experience pleasure, much like Alvy Singer. Diane Keaton’s Annie Hall, however, is one of the most memorable and imitated movie characters of all time. She is seemingly scatterbrained and naïve, but still smarter than most movie heroines could ever imagine being. Her Ralph Lauren wardrobe inspired a generation of women to wear ties, button down shirts, and wrinkled khaki’s, known as the “Annie Hall” look. Roger Ebert notes in The Chicago Sun-Times that “Annie Hall, played by Diane Keaton, sets the form for many of Allen's onscreen girlfriends: Pretty, smart, scatterbrained, younger, with affection gradually fading into exasperation. Women put up with a lot in Allen's movies, but at a certain point they draw the line.”

Both lead actors and the entire supporting cast are top notch actors in their own rights, but paired with the script and concept of Annie Hall, they are allowed to truly exhibit their talents. Shelley Duvall makes for a very interesting unaffected Rolling Stone journalist, who goes on a date with Alvy after he breaks up with Annie for the first time. Christopher Walken is remembered for his role in Annie Hall as Dwayne Hall, Annie’s brother who has a “heart-to-heart” with Alvy about driving. Although his part is brief and more or less inconsequential, he carries one of the funniest scenes in a movie that spends most of its time making the audience chuckle. New York Times columnist Vincent Canby notes: “One of Mr. Allen's talents as a director is his casting, and Annie Hall contains more fine supporting performances than any other American film this year, with the possible exception of The Late Show and Three Women. Most prominent are Paul Simon as a recording industry promoter, Carol Kane as Alvy's politically committed first wife, Tony Roberts as Alvy's actor-friend, Colleen Dewhurst as Annie Hall's mother, and Christopher Walken as Annie's quietly suicidal brother. That's to name only a few.” Christopher Null agreed by saying “Woody Allen is at his best as an actor, and Diane Keaton has never had a better role. What makes Annie Hall so much fun, though, is the cameos -- from Paul Simon to Jeff Goldblum's one liner (On the phone: "I forgot my mantra!"), it's a complete send-up of the 70s. Best is Christopher Walken as Annie's psychotic brother.”

Diane Keaton was nominated for her performance in Annie Hall, and won the 1977 Best Actress Oscar. Woody Allen was nominated for his performance as well, but took home the Best Director award instead. The film also won Best Picture for Charles H. Joffe and Best Original Screenplay for Allen and Marshall Brickman. Annie Hall defeated the box office winner Star Wars: A New Hope for Best Picture, and was ironically enough the smallest grossing Best Picture winner to date. To explain this winning streak, Marjorie Baumgarten of The Austin Chronicle writes “Annie Hall is the one Woody Allen film that is better than all the rest.”

Annie Hall makes use of many film techniques that one does not typically see in a romantic comedy. It frequently breaks the illusion of reality for both the audience and the characters. Annie Hall is a relatively realistic movie; however the characters do things that are not always the most realistic actions. Early on in the film, Alvy is giving the audience a brief run down of his childhood, sometimes stepping right into the flashbacks. The classroom scene is a classic example of this technique in Annie Hall, for when the teacher begins to chastise young Alvy for kissing girls at the age of six, grown Alvy yells right back at her, only to be put in his place by another child. Allen also enjoys using the split screen technique in this piece. One example of an effective use of the split screen is at the Easter dinner. The left half of the screen is occupied by the Hall’s, eating a traditional Easter meal, complete with ham and all the trimmings, and having WASP-y conversations. The right half is the Singer’s Easter meal, where there is loud talking about neighbors and the mixed health of various family members. A one point, Annie’s mother asks a question regarding the Easter holidays at the Singers and the one who answers is Alvy’s father. This interchange briefly breaks reality, but in a way that the audience can accept. Throughout Annie Hall, Woody Allen also produces Marshall McLuhan out of thin air, talks to the audience, creates Annie’s ghost, and briefly becomes both a cartoon of himself and an orthodox Jew.

The final aspect of Annie Hall that sets it apart from most other romantic comedies is the fast paced and witty dialogue. Allen and Keaton spend much of the movie throwing out cultural references that make this film significantly more intelligent than ones average romance. It is obvious from the very beginning that this film relies on dialogue to move forward. The little action that occurs is not overly exciting; perhaps except for the scene in Annie’s car on the drive home from their tennis game (“Is this a sandwich?”). The dialogue does not simply rely on being witty to move the film forward, but relies also on the actors making it as natural as possible. Annie and Alvy’s first real talk, which occurs over a glass of wine after the tennis game, even has subtitles to allow the audience to really know what the characters must be thinking, although they are covering up their true feelings and intentions with small talk about photography. Roger Ebert agrees, stating “Because it is just about everyone's favorite Woody Allen movie, because it won the Oscar, because it is a romantic comedy, few viewers probably notice how much of it consists of people talking, simply talking. They walk and talk, sit and talk, go to shrinks, go to lunch, make love and talk, talk to the camera, or launch into inspired monologues like Annie's free-association as she describes her family to Alvy.”

The dialogue is also not only witty, but it is extremely smart. Much of the film is spent discussing (or listening to discussions about) art house film, literature, and philosophy. This is no different from other Woody Allen films; however, this films realistic subject matter makes the topics of discussion either inconsequential or more accessible to most audiences. Roger Ebert makes an interesting observation. “Consider the famous sequence where Annie and Alvy are standing in line for the movies and the blowhard behind them pontificates loudly about Fellini. When the pest switches over to McLuhan, Alvy loses patience, confronts him, and then triumphantly produces Marshall McLuhan himself from behind a movie poster to inform him, "You know nothing of my work!" This scene would be penciled out today on the presumption that no one in the audience would have heard of Fellini or McLuhan.”

Allen’s talents have obviously grown with Annie Hall, as previous films, while still very intelligent, were also filled with gags and slapstick comedy. William Gallagher of BBC News said “It's a slight story but what makes this film significant in Allen's long career is that it's really the first time he wrote adult characters. Previous movies such as the mock Russian literature epic Love and Death are funnier but are only really a sequence of gags. From here his writing (with Marshall Brickman) and directing make an unexpectedly subtle and involving movie.”

Annie Hall’s combined forces of top acting talent, unusual film techniques, and witty and intelligent dialogue makes for a movie that cannot be missed. The film frequently finds itself on top film lists year after year, even if some of the dialogue is dated by the change in intellectual interests. Diane Keaton and Woody Allen do not disappoint and the supporting cast makes every moment of the film worth while and entertaining.

as a note: please don't copy this for a term paper. thanks.

If you haven't seen this film, rent it now. It's truely excellent.

A Prarie Home Companion

A couple of weeks ago, I ventured across the river to the Midtown Cinema to see Robert Altman's newest film, "A Prarie Home Companion". I was optimistic entering the theatre, considering the cast that not only included GK himself, Garrison Keiler, but also Meryl Streep, Lindsey Lohan, Woody Harrelson, John C. Reilly, Lily Tomlin, Maya Rudolph (of SNL fame), and Kevin Kline. Fortunately, I was not disappointed.

If you've ever listened to "A Prarie Home Companion" on NPR, or watched it on PBS, this movie just brings the show to life, and adds some backstage "drama". If you've never seen or heard the show before, you'll get just as much enjoyment out of it as the experienced viewer.

The film is somewhat narrated by Kline's character, Guy Noir, who sets some of the tone for the film. Basically, the premise is that this is the final show for the cast and that the theatre will be demolished a few days after the show ends. One would hope that the film would end with the bad guys (Tommy Lee Jones, in a small cameo role) would be triumphed over and the show will go on forever. However, this isn't the case. After the show ends, the theatre is demolished. Just like they said it would. This shouldn't be a surprise though. The angel of death is literally walking among them, almost as an omen to what lies ahead for the cast and crew of "A Prarie Home Companion". This angel does take an actual life at one point, an older man who has been with the show for a long time. She also returns at the very end at the diner, we assume to take another life, although that personality is never divulged. One would assume that an angel of death might be ugly, or not as attractive as she could be. On the contrary in this case. She is always dressed in bright white and is the beautiful Virginia Madsen. She is gentle and kind and helps the cast and crew face their final hours as members of this group. (Side note: This character is billed as "The Dangerous Woman". How interesting).

While not a musical, Prarie Home Companion is full of song. The singing, done by the people on screen (no Marnie Nixon here!), isn't perfect, but it's perfect for this setting. John C. Reilly and Woody Harrelson are a dynamic duo with crude jokes about women, sex, and life in general. Meryl Streep and Lily Tomlin are excellent, but aren't they most of the time? Lindsey Lohan is quite good (I personally feel that she is underestimated in many reviews). She plays the dark and brooding (and hilarious) daughter of Meryl Streep. Personally, I just think everyone is pretty fantastic. I tend to trust Robert Altman's judgement on who he casts (M*A*S*H* anyone?).

Good film. Go see it.

In addition, if you enjoy the film, catch the radio show on Sunday's. It's intellegent and a gem of what radio was like in the early part of this century.

Pirates of the Caribbean vs. Star Wars

So, this weekend I saw "Pirates of the Carribbean: Dead Man's Chest"...twice. I really liked it. The first time I saw it with my family at the employee showing where my sister works. Woo hoo for perks.

The second time, my blogmate and i saw it together, kabitzing throughout. This entry is a result of those discussions and a blog Amanda posted 2 days ago.

To say it bluntly, Amanda and I are movie nerds. Well, nerds and general, but film is our specialty. We are huge fans of the Star Wars trilogy as well, and in our viewing of "Pirates" (she has seen it twice as well), we noticed some distinct parallels between "Pirates" and "Star Wars", especially with 'Dead Man's Chest' and 'Episode 5: The Empire Strikes Back'. If you have not seen both films, stop reading now and go to the movies, or to Blockbuster (although, if you haven't seen the 'Star Wars' trilogy at this point, you probably should just be beaten repeatedly with a copy of the VHS trilogy until you do).

Character Parallels:
William Turner (Orlando Bloom) = Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill)
Elizabeth Swann (Keira Knightly) = Princess Leia Organa (Carrie Fisher)
Captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) = Han Solo (Harrison Ford)
"Bootstrap" Bill Turner ( Stellen Starsgard) = Darth Vader / Anakin Skywalker (James Earl Jones / David Prose / Hayden Christensen)
Davy Jones (Bill Nighy) = Emporer Palpatine (Clive Revill)
Pintel (Lee Arenburg) = R2-D2 (Kenny Baker)
Ragetti (Mackenzie Crook) = C-3po (Anthony Daniels) (please...his eye keeps falling out and c-3po is falling apart throughout the entire film.)
The following comparisons are stretches, but are worth noting just the same: Mr. Gibbs is equivalent to Chewy, and Tia Dorma is somewhat equivalent to Lando. These come mainly from their association to Captain Jack Sparrow and the other characters association to Han.

More Similarities: Well, there's the obvious similarity that Will is trying to save his father, Bootstrap, in the same manner that Luke was trying to save his father in "Episode 6: The Return of the Jedi". Both fathers are good men at heart, who simply made some poor choices that they have become physically and mentally disfigured by. Another similarity is the ships / spacecraft. Captain Jack's Black Pearl is extremely important to him, as Han's Millienium Falcon is to him (he looks like he's going to vomit in 'Episode 6' when he lets Lando, who was the original owner, fly it to destroy the new Death Star). Also, both ships were gained through somewhat scandelous means. The Flying Dutchman is equivalent to the Death Star, in ways I need not explain. Classic epic of good versus evil where the good guys are kinda bad and bad guys are very bad, blah, blah, blah. Finally to end out both films, the fates of Jack and Han are unknown when the credit's roll. Han is frozen in carbonite to be sent to Jabba the Hutt as a piece of home decor, and Jack may or may not be in the belly of the Craken (Kraken?). the Craken also looks strangely like the Sarlac from "The Return of the Jedi".

All we need for "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End" are some cute and cuddily creatures and a fat worm.