catherine_stebbins Reviews

In the Heat of the Night (1967)

Poitier and Steiger make this a must-see

[7/10 · 22 July 2010]

The central mystery in Norman Jewison's exploration of racial tension is irrelevant to the importance of this film. While most of its other elements I could take or leave, the central relationship between Virgil Tibbs (Sidney Poitier) and Gillespie (Rod Steiger) is still riveting and manages to not be heavy-handed but subtle in its development and progress. Seeing Tibbs push down his anger whilst everyone in the town treats him with anger and violence is wonderfully portrayed by Poitier. On the other hand, seeing Steiger grapple with his morals with Poitier's arrival is a treat as well. Each has their own complexities to deal with and when they are together, it adds an additional dynamic to the proceedings. Not only does the film hold important historic relevance but the racial issues still hold meaning today. The two lead performances are electric and are the main reason for seeing the film although all of it is well done.

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Mirror (1975)

An entrancing representation of life, death and regret

[8/10 · 22 July 2010]

In The Mirror, Andrei Tarkovsky takes his intimate personal experiences and blends them into a mixer. Out comes his semi autobiographical work which blends times and dreams to create a film filled with moments as one man looks back on his life with regret and almost always with his mother in mind. The film has no plot to speak of and it would take several viewing to even come up with a personal meaning. This is not a film like Inception, in which one tries to figure out what went on during it. Anyone doing this is missing the point. The point is how the individual reacts to it. It brings together human experience in its simplest form devoid of time or place but is made deeply personal. Add to all of this archival footage of important world events to connect the deeply personal to the universal and you have one complicated work. People not used to art-house films of this nature are likely to not get much from this. Opening up to it though is a rewarding experience. The beautiful black and white imagery in addition to the powerful presence of Margarita Terakhova adds up to a hypnotic experience that will take several viewing to truly get a handle on.

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Husbands (1970)

A plight meant to be painfully frustrating; but does that make it good?

[4/10 · 22 July 2010]

Cassavettes has a lot to say about men, the way they cling to standard forms of masculinity as a rebellion of their voluntary marriage and the various ways they connect with each other and with women, usually through extended humiliation and embarrassment. Unfortunately, while the director has many intriguing things to say about manhood, they are buried within a two and a half hour film that is intent on being redundant, repetitive, lost and obnoxious. Peter Falk, John Cassavettes and Ben Gazzara star as three friends whose common friend has just died. This throws them into an existential funk consisting of drinking, humiliating women and laughing with one another. All three of them are varying degrees of asshole. Even trying to pick one who has any redeeming qualities is a waste of time.

There is a lot to admire here which makes its failure al the more unfortunate. An extended scene near the beginning which lasts about 20 minutes involving a singing contest and the last part of the film which examines each man's interaction with a women they pick up. Most of the material in between fails to say anything substantial about their plight outside of the fact that they are each desperately lonely and use their lack of identity as an excuse to treat others terribly. This could have been conveyed in half the time. The three actors fill two and a half hours with constant laughter. Husbands tramples on its own potential through its own redundancy and inability to say anything substantial about its three protagonists. Perhaps this was the point but it was not working for me.

Hour of the Wolf (1968)

Deeply unsettling psychological horror film from Bergman

[7/10 · 22 July 2010]

Not in the top tier of Bergman's works but still effectively unsettling, The Hour of the Wolf tells the story of an artist whose mind is haunted by figures and his wife who tries to pull him back into sanity. Are the figures real or not? It does not matter. These kinds of questions are not relevant while watching a Bergman film especially his only horror one. What is relevant is the world he creates with these figures. It is one of overwhelming paranoia and discomfort; he conveys the feeling of going insane. This is most successfully done during a sequence when Johan (Max von Sydow) and Alma (Liv Ullman) go to their neighbors for dinner. Another is near the end when Johan is having relations with Veronica Vogler (Ingrid Thulin) and sees that all of the figures in his head are watching him. These are just two incidents of many that exhibit that Johan's deepest fears. The surrealism he employs here has an effect which predates the achievements of many other filmmakers such as Lynch and Kubrick in their surrealistic exploits. While ultimately a little too distant as it attempts to be deeply personal, The Hour of the Wolf is still a key work within psychological horror.

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Sex, Lies, and Videotape (1989)

An astounding achievement in writing, directing and acting in a film that feels just as fresh in 2010

[10/10 · 22 July 2010]

Steven Soderbergh's debut feature from 1989 revolutionized the independent film movement making way for 1990's low-budget American film to flourish. It also won the Palme D'Or at the Cannes film festival. Perhaps the most impressive aspect of the film is that it still feels as fresh today as it must have over 20 years ago. All of the performances feature actors at the top of their game with Andie McDowell and especially James Spader (who also took home the Best Actor Cannes prize playing against type) giving their best performances. The editing is incredible, condensing the different information we learn visually and audibly in a more effective manner. The characters are all really well fleshed out as well as their relationships. It manages to be about sex without showing any yet still maintaining the frankness any graphic sex would have achieved through its dialogue. The film uses a style that is more on the minimalist side of things with little music and a slow steady flow with only four major characters. It delves into the relationships between husband and wife, men and women, sisters' and more. While Steven Soderbergh has always stuck to his avant-garde tendencies with low-key projects in between the big budget ones, he should be writing a lot more than he does and experimenting with character driven material from his own hand more often. The interactions between everyone are carefully observed. The way he handles the climax of the film is ingenious. Traffic may be the more impressive achievement but this is easily my favorite Soderbergh film.

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Inception (2010)

Brilliant piece of storytelling with poor characterization makes for a mostly great film

[9/10 · 17 July 2010]

Inception is a considerable achievement in storytelling. Writer and director Christopher Nolan has become a filmmaker whose strength is structure. Whether it is by tinkering with the very format of screen writing, manipulating the audience by withholding key information or exploring a concept that allows for an unconventionally complex execution, Nolan is first and foremost a storyteller. He is a master at well-timed reveals and navigating through the purposeful deception of his writing. Through excruciatingly careful construction, Inception functions to satisfy casual filmgoers and cinephiles' alike.

However, the film has a major flaw; it is populated with almost non-characters who either serve as literal storytelling devices and/or necessary functions towards the plot. Even the core emotional arc of Cobb is a bit flimsy. Inception is so ambitious with Nolan set on his logical ideas and conceptual rules that he seems unable to allow this world to be populated by actual characters for fear they might complicate the story and disrupt his lofty goal. Cobb's (Leonardo DiCaprio) issues and Fischer's (Cillian Murphy) relationship with his father are the sole allowances' for actual characterization. These allowances clearly fill all the status quo Nolan desires. There will be more on this later. This sounds like a major flaw and it is. However, Inception is brilliant at what it is doing as a piece of purely plot-driven and conceptual storytelling. To make me forget I exist outside of the film, to be solely consuming the art in front of me, unaware of time or anything else for two and a half hours (at midnight no less) is a rare feat. It is so self-assured, well thought out and confident at what it has set out to be; relentlessly and aggressively entertaining. Its success almost fully compensates for its lack of characterization as it manages to present us with an all encompassing film going experience that is not often found.

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