Change Your Image
smitten
Reviews
Fight Club (1999)
Male bonding can be painful
Did you ever wonder what happened to your imaginary playmate? Maybe he grew up to be Tyler Durden. If nihilism is your thing and you feel emotionally disenfranchised, this is the movie for you. Mr. Fincher succeeds (love that designer soap) and fails (men in black) with the movie he presents. Creditable performances by Mr. Pitt and Mr. Norton, but Ms. Bonham Carter had a bad hair day. "American Beauty" has a better punch.
Lost in America (1985)
Linda Howard...."if you really drop out...you drop out with nothing"
David Howard (played by Albert Brooks) and his wife, Linda Howard (played by Julie Hagerty) have the good life and everything that goes with it and are just about to move into their California dream house. However, they begin to wonder if their lives have become too responsible and controlled. Escape for them presents itself when David doesn't get the long awaited corporate promotion to senior vice president and he quits his job- or is fired, you be the judge. David then convinces his wife that "they have been on the road to no where- you know the road," and she quits her job. Now they're free to head for open spaces and purse their dream to "just touch Indians."
Quickly they sell everything and escape from yuppiedom with their "nest egg" intact. They. get the motor runnin'. in their new motor home and. head out on the highway. a la Easy Rider. At that moment life is wonderful and toasted cheese never tasted better. One quick stop in Las Vegas and they will be on their way to touch Indians. But in less time than it takes to say "22", their "nest egg" is depleted, their marriage in peril, and they are hopelessly lost in America.
Not to fear, while temporarily lost they rediscover their love for each other, get a good dose of small town life, and decide to rejoin the "rat race".
"Lost in America" should strike a chord with especially those that saw "Easy Rider" and repressed the impulse to drop out of society. Great, great, writing by Albert Brooks and Monica Johnson. Brooks and Hagerty are successful in creating the same type of zany marital chemistry and intensity which existed in "I Love Lucy", "The Honeymooners", and "All in the Family". This movie is great therapy!
The Wild Bunch (1969)
The Wild Bunch....... to much testosterone?
Throughout the Wild Bunch, Mr. Peckinpah exposes us to the sadistic nature of living organisms, whether they are ants, young boys and girls, or men and women. Even the newly invented horseless carriage becomes an instrument of torture. His film punches all the right buttons to set feminists howling. Women are portrayed as Madonna like nursing mothers or sexual handmaidens for men. Near the end of the film he seems to combine both images. There are moments in the debauchery scenes when male actors seem to go beyond the revelry required in the script. Angel's actions personify the ambivalence which exit towards women in the film. He's a likable sort of outlaw who just wants to fit into the gang. At night in the small Mexican village he comes from, he gains our empathy as he gently strums his guitar and sings softly to the other members gathered around the campfire. The serenity of the moment is broken when the village sage tells Angel that the woman Angel pines for was not abducted but left willingly with the evil Mapache, the village's arch enemy. We discover that Angel subscribes to the macho male credo- if I can't have her no one else can. The scene in the clamorous dining hall that is filled with, whores, drunken soldiers, outlaws, foreign operatives, and Angel is one of the most poignant scenes in the movie. It is masterfully staged and is accusatory and outrageously humorous at the same time.
Pike Bishop, the leader of Wild Bunch, periodically muses about the meaning of life. He seems bored, confused and bitter about his life and the changes in society he has no control over. His feeling of helplessness propel him into the final climatic violent scene of the film. The troublesome aspect of the last few minutes of the film is not the violence, but the glorification of the violence. No one should have to be reminded that this is just a movie but much criticism has made about this type of cinematic violence. Clint Eastwood's epic western Unforgiven makes a great counterpoint to this film.
This is an extraordinary film made by an extraordinary filmmaker. A must see film that is thought provoking and ripe for debate. Sam Peckinpah holds a mirror up to society and dares us to take a look.
Election (1999)
A very positive review of the film.
Excellent casting. This is a movie with situations and characters audience members can identify with and laugh at. After the movie you'll want to dig out those old high school year books and have another look and laugh. Thanks Hollywood and keep more movies like this coming.