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smithcorey
Reviews
Jesus Children of America (2005)
well executed film; needs to be more films on AIDS
I was privileged to see "Jesus Children of America", named after a Stevie Wonder song, last night at the apple store in soho. it's a 20 minute or so short film where a girl's fears are confirmed: her parents are junkies and she has AIDS. the film was done to support UNICEF in doing a collection of 6 or so short 20 minute films in different countries on different topics by different directors. overall it was superior to many films addressing this subject. they portrayed some angles of experiencing AIDS that have rarely or never been explored before, such as when the father of the main character, a man who has AIDS, tells his wife that AIDS is a fake disease made up by the government and when you take medication to supposedly help you, you're actually being poisoned. I don't know why someone with AIDS would believe that, but apparently Spike's sister, who wrote the script in two days, found that some people think this way by interviewing people with or associated with the disease and listening to real life-stories. Spike also mentioned in a question and answer session that the film was done in four days all with children from his past middle school...except for the main actress, a child. That child I believe was taught to act by Spike's sister, but I might be wrong. Spike's sister was weary of speaking on the subject. The film was done on 35mm and had a hand-held feeling to it. There was mild violence, drug use, and cursing, but nothing that people haven't seen before on television. If anything, the film prepares people (and teenagers) for the reality of life-the junkie parents in the film are shown as middle class parents with normal jobs, not your stereotypical single mom working on the corner, as Spike noted. A well scripted, shot, and edited film on a topic that although terrible for existing, needs to be exposed more than in a short film. I might also note that Spike said this film, as a part of a whole 2 hour long film of aforementioned shorts, has gotten distribution deals in every country except America...how fitting.
Se7en (1995)
Good Movie! worthy of #49? No.
My opinion: This was a terrificly written and acted film. I especially liked the ending and how Pitt dealt with the contrasting emotions, especially when he first tried to shoot Doe, how his face cringed up. The lighting was good and the editing was tight. I was especially glad to see that the director didn't jump for the opportunity to show Brad Pitt as all sexy when he didn't' need to be. However, it just doesn't seem to me that Se7en should be the #49 movie of all time as ranked by movie goers. In the top 250? Yes, sure. But #49? I think that the star cast and good story overall are having a little too much influence in the votes. I can't really put my finger on it; part of it was that the last few deaths sped up really fast, like the beauty queen, and then the fact that they only drove one hour out of the city and they were in a desert took the sparkle of the film away from me. The plot's original, I'll give it that, but when you think about it, it seems a little cliché. A guy kills people when they commit one of the 7 deadly sins. death 1....death 2....death 3.... death 4....death 5....now a little twist is death 6...then the finale is death 7...(I'm thinking of why it didn't' strike me as worthy as #49 as i go) And John Doe's 6th murder that will supposedly make people ponder it for years wasn't all that crazy...he killed someone close to Pitt's character. eh...good script. good cast. Better than stuff like "Requiem for a Dream", "Kill Bill", "Reservior Dogs", "Being John Malkovich"? I don't agree. Again, it's my opinion. Maybe others would like to agree and add to why I believe it's not #49, maybe others will defend what I've said, I'd like to hear both sides. It's a good movie, nonetheless.
Unseen Forces (2004)
Sagan's first DVD release is a strong one
Unseen Forces, a 40 minute accompaniment to most of Bay Area electro-smash band, Sagan's live shows nowadays, encompasses four sketches of loosely based scientific events. Stories include the big bang theory, Pausanias and Empedocles, Kepler and Lord Brahe, and the courtship of the Curies. A mix of fact and fiction, these four mini-films involve scientific topics all the while having a fun time. For example, the third section of music is comprised of a pissing contest between one great mind (Kepler) and a gluttonous idiot (Brahe, played by director Ryan Junell) in order to retrieve scientific data. Quite amusing. While this story plays out, the conversations are subtitled, and there's a 70's glitchtronica beat that never keeps still, haunting the air. I enjoyed this film. It had a genre bending quality, covering science, comedy, music video, pantomime, even the style of overdubbed kung-fu movies where the actors' mouths never sync up with what they're saying. The film tries to bring the music of the band, Sagan, to a broader audience, taking the route of laying all the info out rather than being a pretentious sci-fi audio-visual experience, although the beginning and ends seem to fit that way somewhat. All in all, Unseen Forces has transcended borders, reinterpreted historical events, and incorporated some amazing visuals to go with its music, all the while never really pointing its nose in the air at its viewers; it's science, not brain surgery, after all
Pandora's Paradox (2004)
very well thought out!
a complex, non-narrative 20+ min. experimental film, "pandora's paradox" has a really
interesting set of scenes, like a woman giving birth to a giant, bloody toe, an unforgettable
sex scene, and its impossible climax, which makes this film really stand out. very inventive
camera shots and effects are used, and it's one of the very few "art films" that make you want
to watch it over and over!
some may say that "pandora's paradox" is weird and inexplicable, but if you have an open
mind, you'll quickly understand the general feeling of the film: betrayal, an urge for
normalcy, and revenge. this director can go places!
Open Water (2003)
original idea: badly executed
knowing of the film's minimalistic setting and storyline, i went into the movie theater not expecting a "Fantasia" of a film, but this movie was horrible in that it had many more opportunities to be an okay film. Examples are the way too long night/storm scene where they are attacked by a shark. The director/editor chose to have little flashes of visuals created by lightning, and then just black, not even an unfocused screen with different shades of black, just black, which made the film seem really unprofessional. When doing a scene like that, a director should either make the scene really short to speed up the tension and pace, not drag it out where you're not straining to see the next shot, just straining to see the sun because you know that the next shot is just going to be another second of a face in terror or a shot of a shark fin. Very unprofessional. And if you want to talk about unprofessional, let's talk about the actors. With lines like "this is so not normal!", referring to the initial realization that they are stranded, and just little bits and pieces of "I love you honey" in fake tones and such, the acting was horrible. As a friend told me, 'I hope they're divers who wanted to be actors and not actors who wanted to be divers'. Also, I could understand how the director would want the film to have a "real" look to it by using consumer grade cameras, but the entire photography was terrible. When one of the characters gets injured, rather than show you his leg from underwater while he talks to his wife above, they barely even show the actual, rather small bite mark. Just terrible photography, one that needs to be seen so that you could go "now there's where they could have done it a lot better". The couple would be talking and it would be bright out and then they would cut to a shot of a fin or even just another angle, and it would be a totally different time of day. Terrible editing, terrible acting, terrible photography. I'll give them that the ending was okay, but even that had a major flaw. Watch the credits, I'm sure you'll notice what I'm talking about. That footage shouldn't be there with words to read beside it.