Our Life Is a Movie: Dead Poets Society (1989)

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Our Life Is a Movie: Dead Poets Society (1989)

Joining the Robin Williams honorary bandwagon? I’m happy to! Dead Poets Society is one of my favorite and most influential movies, so it seems obvious to look back at it now in the late aftermath of Williams’ death. The movie works for me on many levels, mainly in its depiction of a good and unusual teacher, but also by showing an authoritative, limiting and cruel society and the effects it has on its young people. This way the film inspired me in many ways, not just for becoming a teacher. I must have seen it the first time early, when I was around 11 or 12 and I watched it again and again. What's really a shame is that in schools, the novelization is often read when there is no reason on earth not just to use the movie. Curiously, this is one of the few movies where I really disagreed with Roger Ebert (who got me into movies so much more than I already was, so I'm a big fan of his), who called it “manipulative” and full of “platitudes.” Reading his review makes you wonder how he even came up with two stars. I get what he says and maybe even understand how you could view the movie this way, but to me, it’s just a great inspirational movie. Here’s why.

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Comics Are For Everyone: Mara #6

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Comics Are For Everyone: Mara #6

Mara, a six-issue limited mini-series written by Brian Wood and illustrated by Ming Doyle and published by Image Comics in 2013, is the story of a woman who is the best and most famous sports star in a slightly futuristic world. The comic mostly shows how stardom and the media are connected and the consequences this has, thereby directly reflecting upon our society’s treatment of stars and sports (as Brian Wood rarely writes a comic without reflecting upon our society). It’s a great if slightly weird comic because it does never go where we expect it to go and the ending can’t do anything but leave you astonished in its boldness. It’s a really great comic and I can only recommend it, but since I don’t want to spoil it, I’ll just focus on one aspect today.

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The Conjuring (2013)

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The Conjuring (2013)

Whenever I watch a movie, I always think one thing at the end: Can I write about it here? When I had finished The Conjuring, the answer was a clear “No”. It’s a good horror film, less special than I had expected after hearing so much about it. It is scary at times and relentless at trying to scare you (and more effective than the incredibly similar Insidious), but there is not much that hasn’t been seen before. The camera work is creative (or inspired), using many techniques to surprise the viewer from long takes to Vertigo shots. There just aren’t many surprises in the script as the plot goes mostly where you’d expect it to be. That were my thoughts at the end and that was it. Then I read some reviews and stumbled upon Andrew O’Hehir’s review on Salon.com which calls the movie the “most effective right-wing Christian films of recent years” and parts of it “reprehensible and inexcusable bullshit.” What’s going on here?

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You Belong on the Radio - U.S. Music Charts

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You Belong on the Radio - U.S. Music Charts

So, here we go through the charts again. This time I’ll look at the Billboard Hot 100, which are the singles charts for the U.S. Since I almost know no current music, I know as many songs here as in the German charts, so the surprise factor should about be the same. Be ready to be offended! Here we go!

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This 70s Movie: Vanishing Point (1971)

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This 70s Movie: Vanishing Point (1971)

Vanishing Point feels like the quintessential 70s movie. “Wait, isn’t that Easy Rider?” Sure, you could argue that (even if it’s from 1969) and there are similarities, but viewed without competitors this movie screams and shouts, “I’m from the 70s!” I picked it randomly for a 70s movie and it fits my parameters perfectly. It shows a lot about its time and has some interesting if extremely strange ideas. It’s not necessarily a good movie unless you like a basically non-story about a driver who wants to bring a car to San Francisco, is chased by the police and makes many police cars crash, while also meeting all kinds of 70s tropes. I can see how it has the potential for a cult movie (which it seemingly is), but that doesn’t make it good. Unless you like to see cars drive off the road or crash into something.

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Michael Brown's Symptomatic Tragedy

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Michael Brown's Symptomatic Tragedy

Is it possible to follow the Michael Brown case and not be amazed how things don’t change in our society? The incident itself is reminding us of Rodney King and Trayvon Martin, but also of the countless others who did not get the big media response. But even the “big” cases always ended in an unsatisfying way because as much as we celebrate justice and freedom in our society, it always boils down to injustice. The protests following the shooting are remindful of the 60s and 70s, showing that people’s frustrations can increase and eventually explode. Politicians’ responses are as always embarrassing in their lack of anger and Barack Obama certainly has foregone any chances to react accordingly in such cases, just playing the “calm down and forget what happened” game with fake sentiments and empty phrases, that politicians have played since politics exist. The imbalance that exists between black and white, poor and rich, authorities and citizens that make our culture so inherently flawed is very visible right now and won’t change through ignorance (because ignorance caused it in the first place). We learn that certain ethnicities are worth less and policemen learn that they have power over other people. We also learn that we're in constant danger of our possessions and life and need to defend ourselves, no matter what, ask questions later. These are all central memes of our culture and they lead to such incidents.

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Jack Reacher (2012)

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Jack Reacher (2012)

(spoilers ahead)

Jack Reacher is an odd movie. It’s a Tom Cruise vehicle in every sense of the term but it also wants to be an intelligent thriller with distinctive action scenes. It wants to be very clever and while its twists are not bad and there are some good moments, the movie is weighed down by trying too hard to make Tom Cruise as Jack Reacher look like an irresistible superhero. Women find him irresistible, he is topless for no reason, he punches himself out of every dangerous situation, he has a super brain memory, is more clever than anyone else and he devotes his life to fighting for the good. It’s asking its audience a bit too much, even for Cruise fans. The movie has some fun with showing a crucial event from different angles and by trying something new with its action scenes (which doesn’t always work) and Werner Herzog has fun as a really cold-blooded villain (who doesn’t seem to be really necessary for anything). But in the end it tries too hard to be the beginning of a franchise and wears its novelized origins too clearly on its sleeves. There are however three things that caught my attention, that serve as a reminder how supposedly good intentions can go very wrong.

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Our Life Is a Movie: The Cabin in the Woods (2012)

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Our Life Is a Movie: The Cabin in the Woods (2012)

(spoilers ahead)

Cabin in the Woods is a very clever movie that seems innocent and surely will fly by many people. But it’s so many things at once. It’s a decent horror movie, a comedy, a great work of metafiction and, most importantly, an amazingly intriguing comment on our society. It’s extremely well made and acted, and all in all a really bold movie. Since it appears in this series, I obviously love it.

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Comics Are For Everyone - Fear Itself #1

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Comics Are For Everyone - Fear Itself #1

Fear Itself is a Marvel event comic. Every year one of the Big Two (Marvel and DC) publish a series of comic books that ties into every major character they have and tells of some big world-changing event after which nothing is the same. Which normally means a big character dies (and comes back 1-2 years later). As you probably can see, event comics are a mixed bag. They are mostly event- or hype-driven and rarely story-driven. Some are good, most are okay, some are bad. Fear Itself is, in my opinion, one of the worst Marvel events, despite being written by the mostly good Matt Fraction and illustrated by the always good Stuart Immonen. It looks great, but the story is not really interesting and gets caught up in too many details that don’t necessarily make sense.

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Music Box: Slut's "Alienation"

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Music Box: Slut's "Alienation"

Slut’s Alienation (released in 2013 on Cargo Records) is one of the most persistently favorite albums I’ve ever known. You know those albums that you listen to and you realize you like them and whenever you want to listen to music, it’s the first thing that comes to your mind? And how that, depending on the album, stays this way for some days, weeks, maybe months, but then the really big thrill has gone? I’ve got Alienation in September 2013 (as an especially pleasant birthday present, because I didn’t even know there was a new Slut album) and it’s still the first thing I think of when I want to listen to music. I don’t think that happened before over such a long period of time. The album is a variety of styles, reminding the listener of Radiohead and The Beatles at the same time. But to me, that obviously works, mainly because it’s the music Slut does best but in those different, often electronic, styles. I really loved their previous album StillNo.1, but four years later Alienation hits all the right notes for me.Lyrically, Slut always tackle a similar area of themes, which coincidentally, fits to some of the topic I’m interested in: monotony of our daily lives, disillusion, criticism of society and romances that never hold up to their ideals. The album title gives away the basic premise of the album: how we, in our culture, have become alienated from each other and ultimately from our selves. The songs don’t offer solutions and only vague explanations, but are more concerned in painting a picture of estrangement and disenchantment, of people looking for a way out, some desperate, some resigned. It’s thought-provoking and sad, but still danceable, which makes it all the more a great album.

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Note of Absence

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Hello everyone!

I'll be on holiday for a single week and because I'll be internet-free and because I should take a break from my daily schedule and because I wasn't able to write seven posts in advance (I tried!), the next seven days will be lighter on content. That means only three posts for eight days. I'll assume I can return to my daily schedule on Saturday the 15th. None of these three articles will be a movie review because my busy life schedule didn't allow me more time for movies, so there is an additional shake-up of my normal routine. I hope no one jumps ship and everyone will be back with me next week.

See you then!

American Hustle (2013)

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American Hustle (2013)

(spoilers ahead)

American Hustle is like a dream come true for an actor. Looking at those amazing performances you cannot imagine anyone turning down a role in this movie. Every character is interesting and different from anyone else, there are so many nuances that’s it’s both a challenge and a blessing for every performer. The acting is as energetic as David O. Russell’s direction and you can feel the enjoyment everyone probably had while making this movie, but also the exhaustion of inhabiting and showing these characters, who constantly upset each other and live at the edge of a heart attack. It’s a great movie, entertaining and thought-provoking. The story, based on the ABSCAM scandal, is not easy to follow and it’s probably hard to understand what exactly everyone is doing, but since the movie is mainly there to showcase its characters, that is only a minor flaw.

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Punisher: War Zone (2008)

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Punisher: War Zone (2008)

(spoilers ahead)

Punisher: War Zone. I mean, the title alone asks for trouble. Let me just say that as much as I’m a comics fan, even a superhero comics fan, The Punisher is a character I really loathe. Frank Castle’s family was killed by gangsters, so he kills gangsters now as the Punisher. He is the ultimate vigilante, showing that our laws don’t work, because they always let the bad ones go. Most of the time it’s an excuse for lots of violence and shooting and torturing, etc. I haven’t read a lot of his comics, but most of them are like that, even if there are exceptions (Mark Millar of all people seemed to have understood that Frank Castle is insane when he wrote him in Civil War). The first (or second if you remember Dolph Lundgren) movie was as you could have expected, telling the basic story and having lots of cruel violence. It wasn’t great. But now this one wants to take it many steps further. I respect director Lexi Alexander because she is very outspoken about women in the movie business and says things most people don’t even think about. But this movie is awful. This might be due to some difficulties with the studio, so I don’t want to put all the blame on her, but it is what it is.

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Sucker Punch (2011)

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Sucker Punch (2011)

(spoilers ahead)

Sucker Punch is probably one of the weirdest movie I’ve seen in a long time both for its content but also for its awfully conflicted message. It’s a Zack Snyder movie, so you know you’re up for something but even with this knowledge you should be in for a surprise. He does weird stuff with all his comic adaptations, which can be okay (Watchmen), pretentiously stupid (300) or infuriating (Man of Steel). And yes, Dawn of the Dead was pretty good, I’ll grant him that. But working without source material, Sucker Punch is just insanely crazy and not necessarily in a good way. It’s almost impossible to judge it simply as a movie because it has no real plot and no characters that go beyond cardboards (or sex dolls or action figures, depending on your point of view). It’s all visuals with some weird themes woven into it. It’s a mess, to be sure, and the more you think about it, the less it has any redeeming qualities.

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Looper (2012) [Part 2]

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Looper (2012) [Part 2]

(spoilers ahead)

This is part 2, continued from part 1.

We stopped after the movie jumped ahead in time for 30 years. What happens then is astounding and simple. The movie just moves on and follows old Joe as he travels back 30 years to his past, where we then follow him as he follows young Joe doing all the things we saw already. So while structurally the movie shows us the same events from a different perspective, narratively it just keeps on moving along, without any actual jumps anymore. It does leave out some crucial information, though, but we don’t know that yet. What we feel is sympathy for old Joe as he tries to save his newfound happiness with his wife (Xu Qing). It’s a relatable motivation up till this point and it’s important to see that the movie takes us there, so we later have to ask ourselves how far we are willing to go along with this character. We get some fun moments where old Joe doesn’t understand young Joe’s actions, which is a clever way of showing how we distance ourselves from who we were the more we grow older.

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