ems97 Reviews

High Fidelity (2000)

For All Reflective Men

[10/10 · 8 April 2012]

This movie portrays a man who hyper-displays many stereotypical male characteristics: collecting and categorizing, aggression, inability to take corrections. This man talks to the camera, defending his behavior. To the audience, though, it is clear that his actions are totally silly. I think the point of the movie is to make men like myself think about whether we sometimes have some of the traits portrayed by the main character. For me, one of the things that struck a chord: getting super- excited after it now appears that there is the remotest possibility a relationship, any relationship, going forward (in the movie, "We Are the Champions" plays in the soundtrack here). Also, being more concerned about whether we share interests with a potential partner than whether we are interested in her. So I have a lot to reflect over after watching the movie. I'm sure other scenes will lead other male viewers to reflect on their personal lives.

Kissing on the Mouth (2005)

By 24-year-olds, for 24-year-olds

[10/10 · 6 April 2012]

As someone who is currently 24, I found this film to be very meaningful. The situation of the characters, without direction in life, taking delight in small things like an apartment with cool wall colors, resonates with me. They are interested in having relationships, but seem lost.

The script includes many humorous moments, and feels very realistic given my experience. The characters are reflective, and sometimes even insightful. There are also segments with a voice-over of other people my age reflecting on their experiences.

The acting is hyper-realistic, with people rubbing their noses while talking to friends, and just acting like normal people instead of Hollywood super humans. While some of the situations may be stereotypical (taking laundry home to a parent's house), the script and the acting makes these moments fascinating.

I would recommend this movie for any young adults interested in thinking deeply about their own lives. Perhaps you will find that the characters are feeling their way through the same situations as you.

The Pruitt-Igoe Myth (2011)

Amazing Archival Footage, Interesting Interviews

[9/10 · 17 March 2012]

The movie includes fascinating archival footage and interviews with five former residents of the public housing development. Some of these residents talked about the joyful experiences they had there, while others told harrowing stories. One of the most interesting things was listening to why they moved to the project initially. They told of how exciting it was to get into a modern development.

The movie also suggests some causes for the decline of the project, such as population loss in St. Louis, lack of funding for maintenance, and the loss of manufacturing jobs to the suburbs. When I discussed the movie with friends afterwards, we remained unsure in our speculation about the true causes.

El lugar más pequeño (2011)

Moving Film, Brilliant Director

[10/10 · 17 February 2012]

The Tiniest Place is a moving film by an expert filmmaker. The director interviewed survivors of the war in El Salvador, who have rebuilt a small town in the forest. Yet the film is not a montage of "talking heads." Instead, the interviews are layered on top of images of contemporary life in the village. The two elements of the film, interviews and images, fit together seamlessly. The cinematography deepens the emotion of the words. And the movie is filled with emotion. The fear that townspeople felt is palpable. The images and interviews truly convey an understanding of what the townspeople went through. I could actually feel why a young person would want to go face death and join the guerrillas. Yet fear is not the only emotion in the movie: there is also hope. The joy that the survivors experience in the midst of their scarred present is intensely hopeful. And one woman's discussion of overcoming her depression is deeply moving. It is clear that we have a lot to learn both from the townspeople of Cinquera. I thank Tatiana Huezo for bringing them to us, and adding her own profundity to the film.

Sleeper (1973)

A hilarious thought-provoking comedy

[10/10 · 22 September 2011]

I never thought I would ever find slapstick humor funny, until I saw "Sleeper." When the security police of a "futuristic" totalitarian regime is falling all over themselves, and a bumbling health food store owner from our time can outsmart them, slapstick is funny.

As funny as this movie is, it also has serious content. For one thing, it's scary that a bumbling health food store owner can outwit the security force. The people must be so docile that the security force is not used to doing anything. It's scary how dumb everyone else is in the society too - Diane Keeton's poetry is terrible, and none of the characters recognize Woody Allen when he is pretending to be a robot (his lack of disguise is immediately apparent to the movie viewer).

We are also led by Allen's character to wonder how different we really are from the people of the "future" portrayed in the film. Allen is obviously smarter and more jaded than the inhabitants of the future, but he claims to be an existentialist and does not appear to value anything except survival and pleasure. This is similar to the people of the future, who live for the sole purpose of experiencing orgy machines and drug-like balls that they hold in their hands.

Finally, the movie asks us to consider the question of what constitutes our wants/needs/desires. We are told that in the society of the future, these are all taken care of more efficiently than we would have ever thought possible. But it is plainly on view here that the wants/needs/desires of the people in the society of the future have been shaped by the society in which they live. Thus, the question arises - to what extent are our own desires shaped by ourselves?

Of course, I wasn't thinking about any of this while I watched the film. I was too busy laughing.

Crazy, Stupid, Love. (2011)

If love is crazy and stupid, then what do we do?

[4 August 2011]

This is a very funny movie, but it also has serious content. We see two characters, who represent two kinds of "crazy, stupid love." Jacob is constantly picking up girls at bars, taking them back to his apartment, and having sex with them. This is shown as a silly way of living when he finally meets a girl who ridicules his tactics. On the other hand, Cal has been in a marriage for 25 years and considers himself to have found his soul mate. But there seems to be no basis for why he should be together with his wife - they just reminisce and talk to fill the empty space. There are several scenes in the movie where the idea of a "soul mate" is made to sound incredibly silly. So if both these kinds of love are silly, where are we left to go? Is there any kind of love that is not silly? Perhaps the relationship between Jacob and the girl who ridicules him shows some way forward. They both seem to be happy, at least. Their secret seems to be that they have found something novel. Is novelty the way forward?

The Children Are Watching Us (1943)

A Child in an Adult World

[10/10 · 27 April 2011]

This movie displays an adult world caught up in its own silly preoccupations, where children are merely nuisances. All the adults are thinking about romance, dancing, reading, working. The boy's mother goes so far as to leave her son and husband to run off with a boyfriend. This theme resonates through every scene of the movie. The boy is excited to see the horses - turns out it's horse racing. Even the activities ostensibly carried out for children are part of the adult world. In a puppet show, the adults behind the scene angrily demand that a young girl go collect money from viewers. The movie does not only depict the dominance of the adult world over children; it also mocks the adult world. In one particularly powerful scene, the camera focuses on dancing legs - what a silly preoccupation! This is not to say that the world of the child is perfect. Prico, the young boy, is rude to the other children, and is too caught up in his own amusements, such as riding a scooter, to interact with them. And the adult world is not pure silliness. The boy's father makes an earnest effort to make his wife happy, even after she comes back from initially leaving him.

Hardcore (1979)

It all makes sense from the inside

[10/10 · 4 April 2011]

This movie shows how insulated people are within their own world views. It also shows how people devalue the world views of others. The storyline of the movie is that a Calvinist man's daughter goes missing in California. The man becomes aware that she has become involved in pornography, and he tries to track her down. The movie shows his awkwardness as he explores the world of pornography and prostitution. The movie really gets interesting when he hires a young woman sex worker to help him in the search. He explains his Calvinist belief in predestination to her, and she responds by saying that it doesn't make any sense. The man responds that "it all makes sense from the inside." In the following scenes, we see how the young woman has a world view that makes sense to her, but is totally alien to the man. The film presents the problems with both the world views of the man and the young woman. It is a gripping journey through moral ambiguity.

In the Heat of the Sun (1994)

Narratives of Ourselves

[10/10 · 26 March 2011]

This film is an excellent depiction of how people construct narratives of their own past. They take what they like, exaggerate those aspects, try to fit it into a coherent story. They try to construct stories that depict them as who they want to be. People may tell these constructed stories to others, but they also try to convince themselves of the veracity of their constructed stories. This movie explores these ideas in a very powerful way, through the viewpoint of a boy growing up. I found it especially meaningful because I can personally relate to it. I'm not going to spoil the best scenes for you by telling you the way in which the ideas are presented.