I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997) Review

   Have you ever revisited a film that you loved so much when it first came out, only to realize that it’s quite bad? You think to yourself, “why did I love this film so much?” Well this is the case for me with ‘I Know What You Did Last Summer”. I saw the film twice in the cinema, but looking back why would I? Well I can only think of two reasons: Jennifer Love Hewitt and Sarah Michelle Gellar. 

    After the success of “Scream”, screenwriter Kevin Williamson decided to create another teen slasher film titled, you guessed it, ‘I Know What You Did Last Summer’. The film involves four teens played by Jennifer Love Hewitt, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Freddie Prinze Jr., and Ryan Phillippe. They are involved in a hit and run late one night on July the 4th. They decide to dump the body in the water to protect themselves since alcohol was naturally involved. So after doing the logical thing by ditching the body they swear never to speak about the event again. Well a year passes by and they must all face their secret because, damn you guessed it again, someone knows what they did last summer. So naturally the caped, hook, slasher man starts killing them and people they know.

   None of the characters were likable to me. So when Jennifer Love Hewitt screams, “What are you waiting for, huh? WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FORRRRRRRRRR!?” I had to agree. Just kill them off already. Especially Ryan Phillippe’s character who in layman’s terms is an arrogant prick. The performances aren’t anything special at all really. The kills are pretty tame for an R-rated horror film. Felt more PG-13 than R. I’m still surprised that the brilliant Kevin Williamson wrote this. I mean he wrote the first ‘Scream’, its sequel, and one of my guilty pleasures ‘The Faculty’. 

  So what did I like about this film? Well I enjoyed the nostalgia. I also liked the forever-beautiful Jennifer Love Hewitt as the final girl. Well I think that’s about it actually. Just two things? I know what you’re thinking, “but Joshua there has to be more to like other than nostalgia and the forever striking Jennifer Love Hewitt?” Nope that’s it and not even those two things could save the film for me.

1 out of 5

In the Mouth of Madness (1995) Analysis and Review

 “Do you read Sutter Cane?”

    Most great directors tend to go down that path towards that one film that defines who they are. A film that summarizes everything that makes them great. For example, Alfred Hitchcock merged all his talent to give us his masterpiece ‘North by Northwest’ (1959), Akira Kurosawa was destined to make ‘Seven Samurai’ (1954), and ‘Barry Lyndon’ (1975) can be seen as Stanley Kubrick’s manifesto. This is the case with John Carpenter’s 1994 tour de force ‘In the Mouth of Madness’. This film is the climax extravaganza of his career before eventually phasing out of film in the early 2000s. The film was panned by critics, performed poorly at the box office, but has nonetheless grown a considerable cult following. So why is it so beloved now? Well I’ll answer that later in the review.

Spoilers down below

Proceed at your own risk

THE STORY

    Sutter Cane is one of the world’s most renowned horror authors. His books have sold over a billion copies, translated into eighteen languages, and have outsold Stephen King and even the Bible. Just as he’s due to turn over his latest and final manuscript to his publisher, he disappears without a trace. The publishing company hires freelance insurance investigator John Trent to track down Cane and his manuscript. Earlier before he was hired, Trent came into contact with Cane’s ax-wielding agent who was shot dead by the police. Linda, Cane’s editor, explains that Cane’s novels tend to cause disorientation, paranoia, and memory loss among his fanbase. The deeper he gets into his investigation the more he unearths that Cane’s work affects people in alarming ways.

    While Trent is studying Cane’s novels he uncovers a hidden red shape on all of the novel’s covers. He then proceeds to rip out all the front covers of the books, oh my bibliophile heart, then cuts out and rearrange the shapes to reveal a map to the fictional town of Hobb’s End. He brings his findings to the publishing director Jackson Harglow. Harglow assigns Linda to accompany John to help recover the manuscript. John believes that this is an extravagant publicity stunt for the new book, but he goes along with it since he’s curious how it plays out.

     Linda not only being Cane’s editor is a huge fan of his work. John views Cane’s work as garbage. As they try to find a town that doesn’t exist, they begin to experience an abnormal phenomenon. At night, she drives past a boy on a bike with playing cards in the spokes. The sounds are overpowering. She looks in her rearview mirror and watches him vanish into the darkness. Then she drives past an elderly man on the same bike. Are they hallucinations? She brushes it off and checks the map. While she’s trying to figure out where they are, she accidentally runs into the same elderly man on the bike. She and John get out to check on the man. He may look old, but he has a voice of a young man. He tells her, “I can’t get out. He won’t let me out.” He then gets up and peddles off into the night.

    With even more strange occurrences they astonishingly find the town of Hobb’s End. It’s your usual picturesque New England town, but it’s abandoned. Doesn’t look like it’s been abandoned for a long time since it’s well kept. The streets and shops are completely empty, until there are children chasing a dog through the streets. They check into a hotel owned by the sweet looking, yet sinister, Mrs. Pickman. Nobody in the town has heard of Sutter Cane even though the whole town seems to be straight out of one of his novels. Even Mrs. Pickman is a character in his novel, yet she ever heard of the man. Something is wrong with Hobb’s End and this become apparent once they arrive at the church.

    When they arrive at the church all the locals start to appear with shotguns. The church door is locked so they yell out demands that Cane return their children. The door of the church open and in the doorway is one of the children. The door proceeds to open and close until Sutter Cane appears in the boy’s place. Then he sends the hounds to take care of the locals. John still believes that it was all staged. Linda admits that was it was originally going to be publicity stunt, but they weren’t supposed to find anything. After their argument she runs off to confront Cane, where she exposed to his final answer, which drives her insane. 

    John goes into the bar in town to discover Simon, the bartender, walking around with a shotgun. Simon tells John to get out of Hobb’s End while he still can. John still believes that he’s a paid actor for this publicity stunt. He then goes to the hotel to find Linda there acting weirder than usual. So what does he do? The only rational thing to me, he returns to the bar for a drink. He sees a bloodied Simon sitting down with the shotgun this time. Simon believes that the town and its citizens, including himself, are just characters in Sutter Cane’s book. He then points the shotgun in his mouth. John tries to stop him. His response is “I have to! He wrote me this way.” Then pulls the trigger. I’ll come back to this scene later. John then tries to drive off from Hobb’s End, but keeps teleporting back into town. Unable to leave like the boy on the bike. He ends up crashing the car knocking him out.

    John wakes up in a confessional and a bright light comes from the other stall. Sutter Cane begins to speak to John from the other side of the confessional about belief. Talking about how he is now God and then they appear in his study. Cane hands him the novel ‘In the Mouth of Madness’ to bring to the world, since that’s what he wrote him to do. So John is simply a character made up by Sutter Cane. Cane then tells him to leave his realm since the Old Ones are about to come and he won’t stop them. John runs as fast as he can away from the monsters. Then John appears in the real world as if nothing has happened. He’s still holding onto the book, which he quickly drops to the ground. Trent only had to deliver ‘In the Mouth of Madness’ to reality. So in dropping it on the ground, his mission was complete and reality was infected.

    John goes to see Harglow to warn him not to publish the book, but Harglow points out that John gave him the book months ago and it has been out for weeks now. And of course the movie will be out within the next month. John goes to a bookstore to kill whoever reads ‘In the Mouth of Madness’ hence why he is in the asylum. 

    

LOVECRAFTIAN INFLUENCE

     I’ve been a fan of H.P. Lovecraft since I was a boy and it’s always been difficult to find a good Lovecraftian horror film aside for a select few. If you’re a fan of his work you can definitely see the influence that Lovecraft had on the film. First off are the titles of Sutter Cane’s novels are copied of those of Lovecrafts. ‘The Whisperer of the Dark’ from ‘The Whisperer in Darkness’, ‘The Thing in the Basement’ from ‘The Thing on the Door-Step’, ‘Hobb’s End Horror’ from ‘The Dunwich Horror’, ‘Haunter Out of Time’ from both ‘The Haunter of the Dark’ and ‘The Shadow Out of Time’, and lastly the title of the film itself based on ‘At the Mountains of Madness’. An insane narrator, a trope commonly used by Lovecraft, tells the film’s story in flashbacks. The surname of one of the characters Mrs. Pickman comes from Lovecraft’s story ‘Pickman’s Model’. Sutter Cane’s writing even contains direct passages from Lovecraft’s work. For example, when John is reading aloud from one of Cane’s book while they are walking to the church at Hobb’s End. The passage was “the seat of an evil older than mankind and wider than the known universe”. That was a direct passage from Lovecraft’s ‘The Haunter of the Dark’. Then there’s the references to the ‘Old Ones” by Sutter Cane. The monsters that eventually come to life in the end are references to the Cthulhu Mythos. ‘In the Mouth of Madness’ is hands down the best Lovecraftian horror film to date.

FREE WILL

   Do we have free will or is everything predetermined for us? This is the age old question in both psychology and philosophy. In ‘The Matrix’, Morpheus asks Neo if he believes in fate and Neo responds with no. Morpheus questions why he chose that answer and Neo responds, “ because I don’t like the idea that I’m not in control of my life.” As a psychology major I was always fascinated by this question of if free will was real or if it was just an illusion. ‘In the Mouth of Madness’ in a way brings up the question free will throughout the film.

   John believes no one pulls his strings, that he’s independent, and that he has free will. Near the end John discovers the ultimate truth that he is simply living a life of a book character that is at the beckon call of Cane. Cane sees himself as a god. He develops characters and plays their every action in advance. He writes their eventual ends in his infallible Word. His creations can refer to his Word to see how it turns out, but they have no free will to change the outcome. He was cruel to give his many creations consciousness and allowing them to believe in the illusion that they are real people.

Sutter Cane: You are what I write, like this town. It wasn’t here before I wrote it and neither were you.

John Trent: No, I know what’s real. I know what I am. And nobody pulls my strings.

Sutter Cane: You think my agent attacked you by accident? He read about you in there. He knew you’d bring it back and start the change. Make what’s happened here happen everywhere. He tried to stop you.

John Trent: I’m not a piece of fiction!

Sutter Cane: I think, therefore you are.

     The town of Hobb’s End didn’t exist till Cane wrote it. John was reading the books within the book to find its location. The church at Hobb’s End was the bridge between fiction and reality. Only two people read the first couple of chapters of the manuscript though: Cane’s agent and Julie. The agent saw what Cane was trying to do so he tried to prevent it by killing John, but if he read it wouldn’t he know that he couldn’t prevent it? That Cane already predetermined his end and John was going to get the book to the public anyways. That he too does not have free will. His decision has already been made. Much like a chess game played on the computer. It calculates for hours trying to compute the best move. It may be evaluating millions of positions. The end decision is ultimately fixed by the input state. It’s a choice, but its not free. The agent’s end decision was fixed by Cane, the writer. It was just a process that guided to a conclusion and that conclusion was forced by prior causes. So not free. Julie was just an instrument to get John to Hobb’s End and once she did that she was written out of the book. When John tries to prevent Simon (a resident of Hobb’s End) from committing suicide he tells John, “I have to! He wrote me this way.” This brings me to another thing that peaked my interest.

LAST TUESDAYISM

     The plot twist that John was created by Cane is intriguing. The concept is pretty disturbing. It’s like the idea of Last Tuesdayism. It’s the idea that the universe was created last Tuesday, but with the appearance of it being over a billions years old. That all the books, films, galaxies, and your memories were all formed at the time of creation, which was last Tuesday. So all our memories of what happened before that are false, which is a scary thought. That means history was a lie: the holocaust never happened, there was never an Abraham Lincoln or JFK, and no atom bomb was ever dropped. People would be able to get out of jail because the crime that happened before last Tuesday didn’t even happen. So how would John know if his memories are real or false. 

REALITY

Simon: The thing I can’t remember is what came first… us or the book.

John: We are not living in a Sutter Cane story! This is not reality!

Simon: Reality is not what it used to be.

        Reality is brought up a lot throughout the film. Up until this point John keeps saying, “this is reality.” In this scene though he says, “this is not reality!” Earlier Linda told John, “ A reality is just what we tell each other it is. Sane and insane could easily switch places, if the insane were to become the majority. You would find yourself locked in a padded cell, wondering what happened to the world.” This of course was foretelling what would happen to him. One person’s perception of reality is wholly different from another persons. Reality is based on conjecture. The film explores the idea that reality is a delicate thing, that if the “sane” would suddenly become “insane” all would be lost. Cane has such a power that his magnum opus makes everyone insane and he throws reality in the blender.

THE COLOR BLUE

   Sutter Cane tells John that his favorite color is blue. As his influence grows you see more and more of the color blue from blue houses, blue shirts, to close ups of people’s eyes are blue. Even the opening credits are all in blue. Seeing the color blue everywhere proves Sutter Cane’s power.

FINAL THOUGHTS

    Sam Neil is truly superb as the practical, jaded, and chain-smoking insurance investigator with is Humphrey Bogart detective persona. He is constantly questioning everything that is thrown at him. It may be a Lovecraftian horror film, but it does pull from some of the classic noirs. When he says, “Lady, nothing surprises me. We’ve fucked up the air, the water, we’ve fucked up each other. Why don’t we finish the job by just flushing our brains down the toilet?” Now that’s a chain-smoking detective line from a noir film if I ever heard one.

   Just as impressive is Jurgen Prochnow as Sutter Cane. From his grand entrance that looks like it came from a Classic Universal Monster film you just know that he’ll steal every scene that he is in. He brings that depravity to the character. Frances Bay plays the horrifyingly sweet, but deadly Mrs. Pickman. There’s a nice brief appearance of Charlton Heston as Harglow. Lastly, there’s the film debut of Anakin Skywalker himself Hayden Christensen. 

   The practical effects were quite well done. It’s what one would expect from John Carpenter. The effects have actually haven’t really aged due to the practical effects, miniatures, animatronics, and some good ole rubber suits. When the “Old Ones” were released by Cane, those monsters alone required over thirty puppeteers to operate. I loved that grotesque horror imagery.

   The film is criminally underrated and for a long while was widely overlooked and misunderstood, but has since gained a cult following. So at the beginning of this review, I asked the question why is this film so loved by many now? Not only is it a tremendously well-written and paced Lovecraftian story with great performances and effects, but its depth. Not many horror films have meaningful depth. There’s narrative depth between its layered cerebral, philosophical, psychological, and physical horror. ‘In the Mouth of Madness’ really rewards the viewer with multiple viewings, which is a rare testament to the film. It’s one of the boldest, unique, and most memorable films in the horror genre.

5 out of 5

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007) Review

“He was growing into middle age, and was living then in a bungalow on Woodland Avenue. He installed himself in a rocking chair and smoked a cigar down in the evenings as his wife wiped her pink hands on an apron and reported happily on their two children. His children knew his legs, the sting of his mustache against their cheeks. They didn’t know how their father made his living, or why they so often moved. They didn’t even know their father’s name. He was listed in the city directory as Thomas Howard. And he went everywhere unrecognized and lunched with Kansas City shopkeepers and merchants, calling himself a cattleman or a commodities investor, someone rich and leisured who had the common touch. He had two incompletely healed bullet holes in his chest and another in his thigh. He was missing the nub of his left middle finger and was cautious, lest that mutilation be seen. He also had a condition that was referred to as “granulated eyelids” and it caused him to blink more than usual as if he found creation slightly more than he could accept. Rooms seemed hotter when he was in them. Rains fell straighter. Clocks slowed. Sounds were amplified. He considered himself a Southern loyalist and guerrilla in a Civil War that never ended. He regretted neither his robberies, nor the seventeen murders that he laid claim to. He had seen another summer under in Kansas City, Missouri and on September 5th in the year 1881, he was thirty-four-years-old.”

   I’ve often thought about ‘The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford’. The film is about the infamous outlaw and the man who took his life. It’s the best examination of Jesse James ever committed on film and not only that, but one of the best character studies as well. Director Andrew Dominik examines every fine detail about who the man was. The title ‘The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford’ doesn’t focus on Jesse James, but instead on the man who would become his killer. This is because the film isn’t told from the perspective of Jesse James, but by Robert Ford’s perspective.

   

   We first meet Robert outside of Jesse’s camp out in the woods. They’re preparing for what is meant to be the James gang’s last robbery before they break up. Robert Ford is a hired gun of minor importance tries to get in the favor of Jesse James himself. Robert grew up idolizing Jesse and always put him up on a pedestal. He believed all the stories and myths he heard about Jesse. He collected books and memorabilia that dealt with Jesse James. Robert is ultimately accepted into the gang and strikes up a relationship with Jesse. Robert lives to please Jesse and Jesse seems satisfied to obtain such dedication and respect. After getting to know Jesse James, Robert comes to understand that the famous outlaw is simply just a man. He’s not a god. He is not exceptionally clever or special. Over time, the two become locked into a love hate relationship. Robert needs Jesse’s approval and it’s hard to see why Jesse needs Ford, but the need is there nonetheless. That’s what makes Robert’s ultimate betrayal so powerful. After a series of mishaps, misunderstandings, and decline of trust Robert expects that Jesse James will eventually kill him.

    “Can’t figure it out. Do you want to be like me or do you want to be me?” Jesse asks Ford. Throughout the rest of the film, Robert starts to dress more like Jesse. When he kills for the first time, he leans up against the wall grinning. He wants to become the new Jesse James almost. He wants Robert Ford to become a household name. As the film progresses, Ford’s love and obsession for Jesse slowly turns into bitterness. He realizes that he’s nothing and will never be an equal to the famous Jesse James. He just has anger built up against Jesse. First he had a desire to be Jesse, but then he wants to replace him and Jesse James is the only obstacle in his way of fame.

   Before Robert Ford’s betrayal, he walks around Jesse’s home. He sits in his bed, drinks his water, envisioning him missing a fingertip. Ford seems almost possessed that he’ll be the next Jesse James. Then it happens… the betrayal. 

   This scene is the perfect example of all the elements giving the film a somber, autumnal, and melancholic feel. James deliberately removes his gun holster and places it out of reach, while he stands staring out his window with his back to Charlie and Robert Ford. These actions suggest that Jesse knows what is about to happen. He’s ready for it. Jesse looking out the window has an almost spiritual sense to it.  The cross-shaped grille he stands behind. Even his black vest gives him the appearance of a minister. 

    The room they are in is lightly furnished with dark brown furniture and the beige walls. There’s a dark brown wall shelf and a portrait on one side. Then there’s a simple drawing of a brown horse on the other side of the room. Jesse turns around and comments, “Don’t that picture look dusty,” in regards to that drawing, which is strangely located high up near the ceiling. Seems unlikely that anyone can see dust that far away. Jesse sets a chair in front of the wall so he can properly reach the drawing. His back is once again to Charlie and Robert. Robert aims his gun at Jesse, who can see it happening through the reflection of the glass pane. He knows he’s about to die, but does nothing to avoid it. Ford at long last pulls the trigger ending Jesse James’ life. It’s a suitably dramatic and stylized end to a figure whose immorality and mercilessness did nothing to stop Robert Ford from worshiping him nor murdering him.

    Robert Ford is so blinded by his mission for fame that eventually his desires two-timed him. He’s famous for murdering Jesse, but he’s famously hated. Robert is neither loved, respected, nor feared… just hated. He’s called a coward, receives death threats, and is driven to alcoholism. It seems bizarre that so many people would jump to the defense of one of the most important criminals in the West, but legend had taken hold. He deals with public hate and regret. Then the cruelest blow is dealt to Robert Ford.

“Edward O’Kelly came up from Bachelor at one P.M. on the 8th. He had no grand scheme. No strategy. No agreement with higher authorities. Nothing but a vague longing for glory, and a generalized wish for revenge against Robert Ford. Edward O’Kelly would be ordered to serve a life sentence in the Colorado Penitentiary for second degree murder. Over seven thousand signatures would eventually be gathered in a petition asking for O’Kelly’s release, and in 1902, Governor James B. Ullman would pardon the man. There would be no eulogies for Bob, no photographs of his body would be sold in sundries stores, no people would crowd the streets in the rain to see his funeral cortege, no biographies would be written about him, no children named after him, no one would ever pay twenty-five cents to stand in the rooms he grew up in. The shotgun would ignite, and Ella Mae would scream, but Robert Ford would only lay on the floor and look at the ceiling, the light going out of his eyes before he could find the right words.”

  In other words, Robert Ford dies hated and is forgotten. Jesse James dies a hero of the people. A symbol. His longing of fame is unproductive and destructive.

   ‘The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford’ is melancholic, slow, atmospheric, and haunting. It’s possibly one of the saddest westerns I’ve ever seen. It’s not your typical western film, if anything, it’s an anti-Western, which is rare. The film clocks in at about two and a half hours. I found it to be thoroughly appealing and unbelievably striking. It’s as if Terence Malik directed a western.

  The score to the film is amazing. Nick Cave and his pianist Warren Ellis composed it. Nick Cave, of course, is one of my favorite artists. ‘Into my Arms’ and ‘Where the Wild Roses Grow’ are some of my favorite songs. The score adds a lot to the atmosphere to the film. Nick Cave also has a nice little cameo as a minstrel. 

   Then there’s the cinematography done by the one and only Roger Deakins (Blade Runner 2049). Deakins brings the most noble contribution to the film. His cinematography in this film is so astonishing, evocative, and magnificent. The visual style adds remarkably to the feel of sadness over its characters. The film is a must see for the cinematography alone. The film as a whole feels like old photographs come to life.

    Last but not least, there are the performances. It feels like Brad Pitt’s entire career lead him to this role. Most of Brad Pitt’s performances are good, but his depiction of Jesse James is truly his best. Pitt perfectly encapsulates the character’s simmering anger, paranoia, and charisma. He plays a great disturbed, unstable, unpredictable, sad, and troubled figure. It seems like he was born to lay the role. Then there’s Casey Affleck as the complexly disturbed Robert Ford. He’s socially awkward and whimpering brownnoser at times. He’s constantly shifting, fidgeting, avoiding eye contacts, and having nervous ticks. He’s a better actor than his brother in my opinion. The rest of the cast includes Sam Rockwell, Jeremy Renner, Garret Dillahunt, Ted Levine, Mary Louise Parker, and Sam Shepard.

     Lots of people haven’t heard of this film, but why is that? Well it was released the same year as ‘There Will Be Blood’ and ‘No Country for Old Men’. Poor distribution from Warner Bros. and little to no advertising probably killed the film at the box office. I’m glad that among my fellow cinephiles that it’s gaining popularity.

5 out of 5

Meet Joe Black (1998) Review

“Love is passion, obsession, someone you can't live without. I say, fall head over heels. Find someone you can love like crazy and who will love you the same way back. How do you find him? Well, you forget your head, and you listen to your heart. And I'm not hearing any heart. Cause the truth is, honey, there's no sense living your life without this. To make the journey and not fall deeply in love, well, you haven't lived a life at all. But you have to try, cause if you haven't tried, you haven't lived.”

   Life and death are two of the universal constants that all of the world is aware of. Children are born every day and people die every day. What if people on earth didn’t die today? Or tomorrow? Maybe even for seven days. Earth’s death rate is at a complete halt. This is the idea of what Martin Brest brings to his 1998 film Meet Joe Black.

   The film is a thought-provoking romantic drama with a supernatural twist. You can tell that the 1934 film ‘Death Takes a Holiday’ inspired this film. This was Martin Brest’s follow up after ‘Scent of a Woman’. 

   ‘Meet Joe Black’ is about Bill Parrish who is almost 65 years old. He’s an intelligent capitalist and also a loving father who wants the best for his family. However, his health is declining and his company is under attack from its competitors. By his side are his two loving daughters, Susan and Allison. Susan is engaged to his business associate that Bill doesn’t want as a son-in-law. Instead, he encourages Susan to, “find someone you can love like crazy, and who’ll love you the same way back.” He wants her to have the best love she can have. 

   Prophetic words indeed for Susan meets a stranger in a café and they almost instantaneously connect. They part ways without exchanging names (this is before cell phones and being attached to our screens). The two of them infatuated and enthusiastic for the future. Unbeknownst to Susan, the young man is soon killed after their meeting and his body is taken by Death. Death visits Bill and tells him that his time is up. Bill just isn’t ready to go yet. So Death strikes up a bargain with Bill, Death will delay Bill’s death if he teaches him what life is all about. Death is then named Joe Black. In the process of learning about life, he falls in love with Susan. So when Susan final finds someone she wants to be with, unintentionally Death, Bill is conflicted.

    The performances in the film are great. Anthony Hopkins effortlessly runs circles around his fellow actors. He is on fine form here with his portrayal of a business tycoon coming to terms with his mortality. Claire Forlani has a special kind of gentleness in her performance, which makes it believable that if Death walked the earth that he would fall in love with her. It’s a shame that most of her films now are straight to DVD releases. Then there’s Brad Pitt who plays both the charismatic guy in the café and Death. Pitt has one of his finest performances as Death in his mostly impressive career. He grounds the film and is a delight to watch.

   Meet Joe Black is a magnificent mixture of comedy, drama, and romance. Although, it’s romantic at its core. It’s poignant and succeeds to tug quite effectively at the heartstrings with those moments of real tender beauty. Thomas Newman’s truly stunningly beautiful score truly adds to the film. My only complaint about the film is that is sometimes has some uneven pacing that could have been cut out to help the film with its runtime.

  Life is a gift. Many of us tend to forget that. We are so obsessed with things that seem vital at the time, but looking back seems so trivial.  It’s the little things in our life that brings us joy such as eating peanut butter or sitting outside soaking in the sun while petting your cat or dog. Death sees what we take from granted as pure and magical. He’s innocent in a way. When he tastes peanut butter for the first time he says that it’s the most amazing food he’s ever had. When he’s with Bill’s family for an extravagant dinner he rather just eat peanut butter. The point is that life can be difficult enough, but it isn’t until others are no longer with us that we fully comprehend it. Another takeaway from the film is that you don’t need to be rich to leave your mark on the world because you’ll leave your mark on the hearts of the people you love.

5 out of 5

BODY BAGS (1993) Review

    When someone brings up John Carpenter the first film someone usually thinks of is either 'Halloween', 'The Thing', the Escape films, 'They Live', 'The Fog', or 'Big Trouble in Little China'. I usually think of one of my favorite horror films 'In the Mouth of Madness'. Hardly anyone brings up his film ‘Body Bags’. Many people haven’t even seen the film, which is a shame since it’s a fun film to watch. Body Bags is a TV horror anthology film directed by both John Carpenter and Tobe Hooper (Texas Chainsaw Massacre).

    It was Showtime’s answer to HBO’s anthology series 'Tales from the Crypt'. Instead of the Crypt Keeper we get John Carpenter as the creepy coroner. Much like the Crypt Keeper he introduces each segment with one-liners and has a very cornball sense of macabre. Actually after the commercial and critical flop of Carpenter’s ‘Memoirs of an Invisible Man’ in 1992 he signed on with Showtime to produce a horror anthology series. During shooting Showtime got cold feet in making a commitment to a series. So what did they do? They recovered it and edited it into a TV movie called ‘Body Bags’.

  It’s always hard to review an anthology film because you’re almost always going to get fluctuating quality between all the segments. Even one of the best anthology films like Creepshow has its weak parts. It’s not in the favor of ‘Body Bags’ that it falls in between being a TV series and a film. If it was a television series it would be slightly above average, but as a film it would be fairly cheap looking and slightly under average. 

   There are three segments in the film. Carpenter directed the first two segments: ‘The Gas Station’ and ‘Hair’. Tobe Hooper directed the final segment “The Eye”. The first segment is probably the most suspenseful. It’s about Anne on her first night of the job looking over an isolated 24-7 gas station in a rural area just outside of Haddonfield, Illinois (horror fans without a doubt will identify that Haddonfield is the home of Michael Myers from the Halloween series). Her departing co-worker warns her that there’s an escaped murderous satanic serial killer out on the loose in the area. This makes her even more distrustful as the night continues on. She encounters a lot of late night patrons, but she feels moderately safe until she unintentionally locks herself out of the booth. There’s a lot of intriguing cameos in this segment including Wes Craven (A Nightmare on Elm Street) and Sam Raimi (Evil Dead). Wes Craven played a pretty good stalker. Once the killer is discovered the tension is escalated. Carpenter really makes this simple story work with the unnervingly abandoned backdrop, the red herrings, and misdirection to keep the viewers attention. 

   The second segment is the quirkiest out of the three. It’s about an aging businessman who is fanatically self conscious about his receding hairline. He tries everything to find a cure for getting his hair back. He tries everything from those late night television advertisements promising that your hair will grow back to those ridiculous spray on hair items. Then he stumbles across an advertisement for a miracle cure for hair. So he goes to the specialist who promises him hair with his new experimental treatment. And just like that his hair grows overnight… a ridiculous amount of hair. What first seems like a success soon becomes deadly. It’s a very light-hearted and goofy segment.

    The third and final segments is directed by Tobe Hooper and features Luke Skywalker himself. It’s about a Major League Baseball player who gets into a horrific car accident who loses his eye because of it. Once he awakens from a coma he realizes that he’s lost his eye. With his career being threatened he is offered a chance to get his sight back with a revolutionary new eye transplant, but with no promises that’ll work. However, it does work, but soon he’s overwhelmed with headaches and disturbing visions of assaulting and murdering young women. He’s forced to look into who the eye originally belonged to. It’s a pretty gruesome yet highly predictable segment. Some ghastly shock moments. There’s a nice little Roger Corman (Attack of the Crab Monsters/ House of Usher) cameo. I’m surprised that Mark Hamill agreed to do this segment since in 1977 Hamill crashed his car and had to have seven hours of reconstructive surgery to his face. Leaving his appearance distinctively altered in Episode V. 

   As much as I love the first segment it felt out of place since the other two dealt with the medical side of things. Body Bags isn’t the best Television movie, but it is a fun way of wasting an hour and a half. It seems like it’s too focused on the twists and turns that it actually forgets to be scary. Carpenter as the coroner is the best part about this film. He kind of reminded me of Beetlejuice. There’s plenty of macabre, tons of cameos, and overall a very entertaining watch.

3.4 OUT OF 5

Drive (2011) Film Analysis

    There were so many great films that came out in 2011, but Drive was the one that blew me away. I remember when it came out both critics and most cinephiles fell in love with the film, but the average audience hated it. Why did they hate it? Well it was marketed as an action packed film. The trailer gave them the wrong idea. So they thought that it was boring and lacked action since there were only two car chases and Ryan Gosling’s character became extremely violent. I even remember there was a lawsuit against the film that the trailer was misleading and it was no Fast and Furious. Granted now Fast and Furious is no longer Fast and Furious. I wonder when that lawsuit will happen.

   The opening shot explains so much about our protagonist. The driver is particular, serious, has a set of rules, and quick to the point. His boss Shannon provides his getaway car. The camera never leaves Driver when he’s driving the car. He’s timed everything out perfectly and the criminals he drove get away. Soon he meets Irene. She starts changing him and he begins questioning whether or not to quit driving for criminals. We soon hear the film’s theme, a Real Hero, when Driver is starting to show emotions while driving Irene and her son Benicio. This is where we see that Driver wants to change.

   Soon we meet Bernie Rose, the film’s main antagonist, Shannon wants Bernie to give Driver a look by having him drive a car for him. They exchange words, which are the best lines in the film, and sums up both characters.

Shannon: Kid I want you to meet Bernie Rose.

Driver: My hands are a little dirty.

Bernie: So are mine.

    Driver may partake in criminal activities, but he doesn’t view that those actions characterize him. His hands are only a “little dirty”. Simply put, he thinks that he’s a good person. Bernie to the contrary knows he’s a criminal and embraces it.

   There’s a conversation between Driver and Benicio takes place when they watch a cartoon together that can easily be dismissed as random conversation, but that’s never the case with director Nicolas Winding Refn.

Driver: Is he a bad guy?

Benicio: Yeah.

Driver: How can you tell?

Benicio: Cause he’s a shark.

Driver: There are no good sharks?

Benicio: No I mean just look at him. Does he look like a good guy to you?

     Driver wants out of the shark life, but something is building up inside of him. He wants to be the good guy, sharks can be good guys too right? When Benicio thinks otherwise this is where Driver gets the look like reality just hit him. Driver is a shark, a bad guy. Then there’s the news that Standard, Irene’s husband, is returning home from prison.  This is where hope starts to fade from Driver.

   Standard returns home in hope to rebuild his family. Simultaneously, Driver is rebuilding something that is critical for his car. Both Driver and Standard are working to rebuild something that is significant to them. Since Driver and Irene first met, their whole focus and the motives change. Also, what drives them changes. All they can do is think of one another. During Standard’s welcome home party the song ‘Under your Spell’ is playing in the background. Irene’s thoughts are elsewhere during the party. “I don’t eat. I don’t sleep. I do nothing, but think of you. You got me under your spell.” Driver doesn’t view driving the same way, just as Irene doesn’t view the completion of her family the same way. Once Driver is finished with his repairs, he walks out of his apartment to see Irene sitting in the hall.

Irene: Sorry about the noise.

Driver: I was going to call the cops.

Irene: I wish you would.

  This is the moment where Driver realizes he has nothing. He’s a long way from becoming a good guy and that one bright spot in life is fading. His anger is brewing and we see what he is capable of doing. Standard then confronts Driver about being threatened into robbing a pawn shop and Benicio is given a bullet by a thug named Cook. Driver is getting increasingly unstable thinking about Irene and Benicio getting harmed. Driver tells Standard that he’ll help him on one condition. That he’ll leave Irene and Benicio. Of course the heist goes wrong, Standard is killed in the process, and Driver escapes to a motel with Blanche who is one of the people involved in the robbery. He discovers that the money stolen wasn’t even reported and then there’s a bloody shootout at the motel. He has a discovery that he’ll always be the shark, no matter what. Just look at that expression.

    Now we move onto the infamous elevator sequence. He wanted one last moment with Irene. It was a moment that will be forever imprinted on his heart because he knew what he had to do next. After that blissful moment of letting out all his built up love for Irene to say goodbye.

      One of the major themes in Drive is the fable of the Scorpion and the Frog. For the majority of the film Driver wears a jacket with a scorpion on the back of it. In one the final moments of the film, Driver calls up Bernie. Driver asks him, “you know the story about the scorpion and the frog?” and proceeds to tell him, “Your friend Nino didn’t make it across the river.” If you don’t know the fable of the Scorpion and the Frog I’ll let Wikipedia summarize it for you:

v “The Scorpion and the Frog is an animal fable about a scorpion asking a frog to carry him across a river. The frog is afraid of being stung during the trip, but the scorpion argues that if it stung the frog, the frog would sink and the scorpion would drown. The frog agrees and begins carrying the scorpion, but midway across the river the scorpion does indeed sting the frog, dooming them both. When asked why, the scorpion points out that this is its nature.” 

   Most people say that Driver is the scorpion. Since he does carry the scorpion symbol on his jacket. Some point out that during the infamous elevator scene it represents the moment where the scorpion stings himself. He’s trying to change and build a life with Irene, but turns back to violence because it’s his nature. I believe that Driver actually represents the frog. He is someone who is fundamentally good, but drowns by association of those who are not. He’s always carrying the criminals (or in a way driving them) and continuously getting dragged back into crime. Crime is the scorpion and Driver is literally carrying the scorpion on his jacket. If the scorpion had to be someone it wouldn’t be Nino, but rather Bernie. The final scene between the two of them could in fact be the retelling of the Scorpion and the Frog. Bernie asks for the money and that they will both get what they want. Driver agrees even though he knows Bernie is a shark and gets stung in the process. Bernie did what was in his nature.

  It’s not right to talk about Drive without talking about the music. It mixes Cliff Martinez’s score with a retro 1980s synthwave. The soundtrack blends both old and new. It transports you into the world of the film. Definitely one of my favorite film soundtracks. The soundtrack is so memorable that it stays in your head for years.

   Drive is a marvelous film. Nicolas Winding Refn really did an outstanding job with this film. Ryan Gosling provides us with a splendid performance, a role where he barely speaks and has a wide range of emotions. I was surprised how he was able to communicate by saying so little. Drive is a truly a perfect film. 

5 out of 5

Shame (2011) Review

   In the 1945 film ‘The Lost Weekend’ Billy Wilder portrayed alcoholism as a serious illness rather than a charming and amusing peculiarity. Then in the 1956 film ‘Bigger than Life’ Nicholas Ray portrayed the abuse of prescription drugs and it’s affect on everyone. Then in the film Shame, director Steve McQueen focuses on sex addiction. Michael Fassbender’s character Brandon is not a comical sex maniac, but a seemingly stable and satisfied man whose life is privately dictated by the need to continually orgasm whether its by sex with prostitutes, watching porn, having sex with strangers, or masturbation. His high is the chase, the catch, and the release.

   From the very opening scene we see Brandon lying awake in bed surrounded by blue sheets. The color of blue here could very well mean isolation. Brandon is lying unaccompanied in bed isolated starring at his ceiling. He gets up from his bed once the alarm clock goes off and the title of the film appears. The viewer is shown a series of flash-forward and flashback sequences to convey Brandon’s ritualistic lifestyle. He get’s up, opens his blinds, walks naked to his bathroom, waits at the subway, works, has sex with either with someone willing or paying a prostitute, and then wakes up starting the whole loop over again. His apartment design is very industrial suggesting Brandon’s mechanical and compulsive sexuality. Every morning he systematically walks around naked around his apartment and always his head is out of the frame, yet his sexual organ displayed, indicating how much it has defined his life. One thing seems to drive Brandon and that’s lust.

   While he’s waiting at the subway half of his face is lit while the other is dark. One side is open to all while the other side is seen by a select few. The people in the background are blurred showing that he’s alone even though he lives in New York City. Next we cut to the scene labeled as “Subway Attraction”. We see a blurred face and before we are shown that it is Brandon we see a woman smiling at him. It’s almost like it’s a face of a predator and in a way it resembles the Michael Meyers mask from Halloween. The eyes aren’t visible and the face is vague. This is the mask he wears to prevent anyone from discovering what he really is. Even though at times his mask comes off and when it does he’s troubled by it, but back to this scene. Harry Escott’s score features a repetitive percussion to suggest that this woman looking at Brandon will be his next chase, catch, and release. The tension in this scene is pretty real. No more than a stare and she’s already aroused by him. She looks him up and down. His gaze follows her and doesn’t move his body. She wants him bad and for a moment it seems like he’s about to have her way with her. She crosses her legs she’s trying to remove her wedding ring, but in the process the ring gets stuck. She realizes her lapse in judgment. Her arousal turns to shame. She instantly goes from want to regret. She stands up to show the ring on her finger to visibly tell him “I can’t”, but then Brandon gets behind her. He places his hand under hers almost telling her that he could free her. When she runs off, Brandon doesn’t understand why. He just needed the satisfaction of reaching his release with her. He wants her even though she may not want him. It’s a phenomenal scene, one I’ll come back to later in the review.

      With less than ten minutes of the film we already know so much about Brandon. He is driven by sex/lust and is very private with the exception of sex. He’s stuck in a pattern, which he’s content with. His sister has been leaving voicemails for Brandon, before she even appears in the film she’s already said more than him. He knows what he does is considered dirty to others. It’s something to fill his emptiness. When he’s in a meeting at work, his mind drifts off, until he hears “I find you disgusting”, which immediately catches his attention. When he realizes it had nothing to do with him, his mind drifts off again, until he notices his computer being taken off. It’s obviously full of pornography and he gets nervous about this and what he does when he’s nervous is masturbate. Later on his boss confronts him about his computer. It’s immediately written off, expecting someone else of using his computer for pornography like an intern or his assistant. Since Brandon is so successful and high up in society no one assumes that it is him watching porn on his own work computer.

   Brandon’s boss David convinces Brandon to come with him to a club to find some women. Brandon reluctantly agrees. David has a similar lust for sex, just like Brandon, but can’t act on it even though he tries. He tries to hard to catch the interest of the girls. It came across as desperate and that’s why the ladies weren’t that interested in David. Brandon was more subtle, which was how he picked one of them up. It goes on to show that Brandon will get his release. Whether he’s home alone or out with co-workers.

   Brandon’s ritualized life is put on pause when his sister Sissy intrudes on his life by showing up at his apartment and moving in with him. Brandon has a pattern to his life and his days are often the same. So when something new enters his life he tries to deal with it. Brandon wants nothing to do with his sister and yet she still clings to him. Sissy is chaotic and disruptive. She causes problems with both Brandon’s private and professional life. He is forced out of his pattern. Instead of watching pornography next to his window in the kitchen he watches it in his bedroom. Whether she means to or not she is forcing him out of his comfort zone. Brandon is emotionally detached while Sissy is overly emotional. His life is clean, immaculate, and well organized while hers is simply a mess. Both of them are unable to forge real relationships. He overhears her conversation on the phone. She can’t get the love she wants from other men so she looks for the love and support from her brother. He starts to almost act paternal around her while still looking down on her. She asks him to see her sing, which he agrees to. When Brandon watches his sister sing he realizes that he cares for her and that Sissy is just as broken as he is. It’s speculated that both were abused as kids and that because of this they are the way they are. They’re trying to find themselves, but still alone. The real Brandon comes out, not the sex addict, but someone who sincerely cares for his sister. This takes him by surprise almost. The close-ups on their faces in the scene shows that they are damaged people who are more than their compulsions. He ends up crying when she sings. He may be crying because of his hurt, the way she sings to escape.

    David was with Brandon at the club Sissy sang at. David takes advantage of Sissy knowing that she’s looking for someone to love her. Brandon tries to protect her, but is in a problematic position since David is his boss. David knows this and uses it to his advantage. Next thing we know David and Sissy are in the Brandon’s apartment having sex. He does not confront them instead he waits at the elevator for a bit before going into his apartment, but it’s too much for him so he goes outside to run to try and clear his head. He’s trying to escape. Once he’s done running he goes back to his apartment to try and sleep it off. Brandon feels betrayed by Sissy and sends her packing. The next day he sees two people in an apartment complex having sex with the blinds open. He wishes he could be open like this with his addiction, but knows it can’t happen.

   Brandon decides to go on a date with a colleague. He actually makes a real connection with her. They have a conversation about if they could choose a time period to live in, which would they choose. Brandon wishes he could be a musician in the sixties, while she says she’s content with being in the now. This could mean he’s uncomfortable in his own body. When he’s about to have sex with her it’s more of a tender interaction compared to all the soullessness sexual acts he does throughout the rest of the film, but he can’t perform for her. This means he can only perform if it means nothing. This is why he is so ashamed and upset after she leaves. He knows what he is. After she leaves he has sex with a prostitute and this time he does it like the two people he saw in the apartment for the world to see.

   Once again Sissy comes back into the picture. He tried to clean up his act after Sissy found her pornography on his computer. He threw away his laptop and magazines, but his addiction beat him. Sissy asks for a hug, but all his compassion for her is gone. All he feels is disdain for her now. He leaves, hits on a woman, and gets beat up by her boyfriend. Sex for him is a means to an end. He then ends up going to gay brothel to suggest Brandon’s hunt for sex is based on the release rather than satisfying any actual desires. After he finishes at the brothel he gets a voicemail from sissy saying they both come from a bad place, but it doesn’t make them bad people. He then goes on to have a threesome. This scene focuses so intensely on his face and the viewer can see he’s strained and depressed. He just needs to fill that void in his life and he thinks sex can fill it if only for a moment.

  When something happened to Sissy he blamed himself. His addiction overpowered his affection for his sister and tries to clean up because of it. The film could have ended there and it still would have been a masterpiece, but that final scene took it to another level. He goes on the subway and meets the same woman from the beginning of the film again. Brandon is trying to kick his habit, but this time she’s flirting with him trying to lead him back to temptation.  We want Brandon to clean up so he can have the life he deserves. Does he pass or fail the test? Before he can make a decision the film ends.

  This will always be director Steve McQueen’s best film along with Michael Fassbender. This is the film I immediately think about when someone mentions the actor’s name. The acting was phenomenal, every bit of dialogue actually has meaning, the cinematography was lovely, and just about everything about the film is perfect. I remember seeing this film with a group of colleagues and they were all disgusted by it. I sat in my seat amazed by this film. How it dealt with

    The film is truly honest. It’s very rare. The viewer can feel Brandon’s self loathing and desperate need for redemption. He’s truly broken. Throughout the film he searches for someone or something to fill this void. Shame depicts the lonely life of a person suffering from an addiction. I really felt Brandon’s narcissism and rage from his addiction. It shows some of the struggles an addict can succumb to. There aren’t many films I can call perfect. There are thousands upon thousands of films out there and a select few of them I would call perfect and Shame is one of those films.

5 out of 5