Change Your Image
ramrock77
Reviews
C.O.G. (2013)
Beautiful, subtly hilarious, and unexpectedly moving
I knew very little about this film when I went into it except that it was inspired in some way by a David Sedaris essay. It surpassed my expectations in a beautiful and lasting way. It's extraordinarily funny - often in surprising ways. Like Sedaris' writing, things just happen, and it's the protagonist's reactions that allow the audience to enter this world of poignant meaninglessness. The characters and situations can be so absurd at times that you wonder what kind of world this is, how realistic or how exaggerated or how cinematic - but then you realize that life can really be like that... Groff does a stellar job playing with an open-minded and humorous pretentiousness. But what I thought was most impressive was Kyle Patrick Alvarez's subtly-brilliant treatment of both sexuality and religion, both of which are such matter-of-fact gray areas in the film that they leave the viewer wondering without ever asking him to. Great film - definitely catch it when it comes out.
Fast Food Nation (2006)
This movie should have gone further.
I read the book 'Fast Food Nation' about 2 years ago. The book was incredible. It took me on a journey across America, and I met ranchers, farmers, illegal immigrants, artificial flavor technicians, and plenty of other people whose lives are affected by the fast food 'chain' (if you will).
Linklater and Schlosser took on an enormous responsibility in bringing such a fact-filled book to the screen. As we say about any book-to-screen translation, there's no way everything can be in there. In some movies it works, in others it doesn't. In this one it doesn't.
There were 3 story lines going on, but I didn't feel completely involved in any one of them. A lot of reviews of this say it had a humanistic quality to it, and that I can agree with. These were people with feelings that witnessed and went through these experiences, and that was clear.
But perhaps it was too Hollywood. Perhaps it was too much of a storyline and not enough straight-up facts about this terrible industry. As a filmmaker myself, I've always learned to 'show it instead of say it.' For example, Brian talked about fast food places getting robbed. Instead of bored us with describing it, why not show us a high-stakes robbery? Same with "how the sh*t got in the meat:" show it to us.
I feel like Richard Linklater was not controversial enough. At the end of the movie, I did not feel hatred toward fast food restaurants. I wanted to, but I couldn't. The movie showed too many factors and too many things to blame for the conditions. Maybe the lack of shock value was on purpose, in order to attract more of the general public. The 'kill floor' scene was gruesome, but that was only at the end. Why not gross us out earlier? I admire the effort to put the book into a movie, but it could have been more effective (like the book was).
The Departed (2006)
it was entertaining
The plot is great. The acting is great. But Scorcese seemed to throw in a bunch of extra scenes that were unnecessary in furthering the plot. There were many scenes that seem like someone just thought they were cool.
Nicholson's character is shown as a mobster with a certain power, but just over the group of guys he is shown with. There is no sense of huge reputation in the city that makes the audience feel how important the case is. DiCaprio is incredible, and Damon does a great job in the complexity of the role.
Besides the fact that there was some excess baggage that should have been cut, at least it kept the viewer entertained. It's a very funny movie, and for those of us who haven't seen Infernal Affairs: Once I completely understood the plot of the movie, I was on the edge of my seat the whole time.