There Will Be Blood

About two hours into Paul Thomas Anderson's new film, There Will Be Blood, I realized I was watching the work of a master. Right out of the gate I will admit my biases towards Anderson's films, only in his late 20's, the man has made two of the best films of the 90's and turned Adam Sandler into a good actor. I think his Magnolia is easily one of the ten best films of the 90's and is a director not at all unlike Martin Scorsese - not just because his style is reminiscent of the great American...

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Rambo Week!!! Review #3: Rambo III

Rambo IIIDirected by Peter MacDonaldWritten by Sylvester StalloneTagline: God would have mercy, John Rambo won't!So last time we left John J. Rambo he was raging against the machine and left wondering why his country doesn't respect him. Well luckily for us he must have heard about how much success Jean Claude Van Damme was having fighting in Thailand in underground betting rings on shipping docks. Rambo has turned from a killing machine into a stick fighting machine! Woo Hoo.This movie is so...

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Rambo Week!!! Review #2: Rambo: First Blood II

Rambo: First Blood IIDirected by George P. CosmatosWritten by Sly Stallone and James CameronTagline: What most people call home, he calls hell.Well, John J. Rambo is back as the film opens with what seems like a Cool Hand Luke deleted scene. Rambo is hammering rock when Crenna comes back to him with a proposition. Rambo takes the deal and is pardoned from prison in order to save some POW's that were left behind during the war. And we're off and running in one of the worst (yet most popular,...

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Rambo Week!!! Review #1: Rambo: First Blood

Rambo: First BloodDirected by Ted KotcheffWritten by Sylvester Stallone(based on the novel First Blood by David Morrell)Tagline: One War Against One Man.Well, Rambo week kicks off with what can best be summed up by one user's comments on IMDB: "The only good Rambo movie."Yup. I agree.The movie is as flawed as any 1980's action film, but it is actually pretty decent in setting up the story about drifter and Vietnam vet John Rambo. Brian Dennehy plays the slimy small town sheriff who doesn't seem...

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Random thoughts on random films

28 Weeks LaterOne of the better films of last year and a genuinely scary horror film. It's also a sad meditation (when it actually slows down for you to meditate on things) on the secrets a father keeps and the feeling of loss and isolation. The scene in the subway is one of the scariest I have seen. Great horror film.The LookoutScott Frank is one of the best screenwriters in Hollywood (Out of Sight, Minority Report) and with his first time directing, The Lookout is one of the better thrillers of...

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10 Best Films of 2007: #1 - Zodiac

The best film of the year is not at all unlike No Country For Old Men (my number two choice, but really these rankings are arbitrary) in that Zodiac is a dark and nihilistic film that offers no simple resolution, answers, or reason for death. It excels on a frustrating and ambiguous narrative idea: not knowing who the Zodiac killer is, and never being able to find out. Or rather the broader, more overarching, theme that death is not only prevalent, but also constant, nonnegotiable, and impervious...

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10 Best Films of 2007: #2 - No Country For Old Men

The Coen Brothers are truly two of the greatest filmmakers of my generation. Virtually every film is a masterpiece and although they have their shortcomings with the narrative arc of some of their films, they are never boring. They understand film language (which is to say, visual literacy) and when they are at their best, they are reinventing the genre they are working in. Like Blood Simple and Fargo, and now perhaps their greatest achievement, No Country For Old Men, the reinvent the genre again...

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10 Best Films of 2007: #3 - Eastern Promises

David Cronenberg re-teams with Viggo Mortensen to create one of the darkest, most bleak, and yes, interesting movies about the criminal underwold, I will not say organized crime, because these Russian mobsters don't seem all that organized. Family members kill important people without consulting their father (the head of the family) and alliances are made behind peoples back. Booze is not stolen, but purchased cheap, but possibly it could have been purchased even cheaper, and when they get the booze,...

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10 Best Films of 2007: The Runner's Up

Before I unveil my top three, here is a small list of films that I have seen previews for, but either haven’t been to Portland or Salem yet or I haven’t had the chance to get out there and see them. Also a small list of films that almost made the cut and were still some of my favorite films this year. Plus, I just wanted an excuse to put that creepy picture from The Orphanage (which looks like a really cool homage to Argento and other Italian horror films) on here. As fot the films that almost...

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10 Best Films of 2007: #4 - Michael Clayton

Classic in its execution, few films are as enjoyable and flawless in their exercise of the genre as Michael Clayton. George Clooney plays the title character that looks like he has been doing his job (a “janitor” for a big time company) for a little too long. Clooney looks dogged and tired and like he wants out of the business. He owes money for a failed restraint/bar experiment and you get the feeling that is the only reason why he is sticking around: the money. His ever-growing conscious and...

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10 Best Films of 2007: #5 - Juno

I had bad thoughts during the opening moments of Juno. I labeled it as throwaway hipster dialogue that served no purpose other than to congratulate itself on how smart it was. A self aware film that proved nothing other than another entry into the already crowded genre of the modern independent comedy, ala Napoleon Dynamite and Rushmore. I mean I GET it, the character of Juno (Ellen Page) is hip, she’s cool, she’s post modern and self aware, she drinks Sunny D straight from the carton and walks...

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10 Best Films of 2007: #6 - Into Great Silence

For 2 hours and 43 minutes, Into Great Silence offers images of an existence that is appropriate for the subject matter. You are speechless watching the film. You sit in silence (at one point, you can hear the snow fall) and simply observe these monks in the French Alps as they live their daily lives with their morning recesses and recitals, their daily walks where conversation is allowed, but few take part in. Throughout the film all I could think of was one of the great writers and radicals of...

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10 Best Films of 2007: #7 - Atonement

If there was one film I was most looking forward to seeing this year it was definitely Atonement. Was this going to be a great film like I thought it could be? Or was this destined to be a butchered version of the Ian McEwan novel I have so much admiration for. I admit that my immediate reaction to the film was: yeah, that’s good. And I think I was disappointed in my own response to the film; I wanted to love it, and I didn’t. I was weary of the film, yes, but I was also counting down the days until...

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10 Best Films of 2007: #8 - Inland Empire

I fear that I have too much to write about Inland Empire and its insane (maybe inane?) labyrinthine narrative. So, I will do something Lynch didn’t do and keep this short. The film is about…well…it’s about exactly what it says on the cover of the film: a woman in trouble. And it’s good, really good, effing brilliant…but what the hell does it mean? How do I go about writing a normal synopsis of the film and then my feelings about the film? There were times I wanted to turn it off, times where I looked...

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My Ten Favorite Albums of 2007

I will admit that I do not think about music in the same way as film or literature. I can appreciate artistic music, music that really makes you think and can make you feel really smart and like you are apart of a smaller subculture, patting yourself on the back for being the only people who know about a certain artist. I know that feeling. I remember feeling that way about Radiohead, Bright Eyes, Cursive, and others. But something has changed for me recently; my music experiences have become more...

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