I made some blunders going into watching Vengeance is Mine, the recently Criterion released Shohei Imamura film from 1979. It is called a serial killer movie, it tells the story of the real life spree killer Akira Nishiguchi, so I had certain contemporary expectations.

The first part of the film fulfilled them. It is fast paced, with jump cuts, non chronological editing, and some really effective and disturbing murder scenes that call to mind last years great film, Zodiac.

Slowly, however, the film defied my expectations, becoming rambling and often very quiet and slow. As Nishiguchi is on the run he visits inns, has affairs, murders people, and swindles them out of their money. But rather than tense, movie-like high drama, it is all shown as almost unedited documentary footage.

Ken Ogata is remarkable as the killer, a complex and inhuman character full of both rage and self control, sexual obsession and total passivity.

The other mistake I made with the film, was that I put it on fairly late in the evening and had to watch it in parts. After watching the first hour and a half (it has a 2 hr 20 min running time) I was not sure if I was going to recommend it. That night, however, it never left my mind. Like lots of great films that might be a bit more difficult while watching, this one has most impact after the fact. It's a slow burn.

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Posted on May 12, 2008

Director Paul Verhoeven makes my list often… because whether it's a gory sci fi movie about brain eating bugs, or a dark and grisly portrayal of mercenaries in the Middle Ages, he goes for it in his films -?all the way.

The Fourth Man, his take on both noirs and surrealism is no different. I saw this a long time ago and remember being really blown away by it, but in the following years always failed to convey and remember what it was about. There's a femme fatale, some scissor imagery, a crypt, some gay sex.. it was really hard to make a cohesive argument that people rent it, so I watched it again.

It's one bizarre film, tongue in cheek but with really arty, trippy surreal elements that may or may not be in the mind of an alcoholic, egocentric, Catholic, bisexual writer Gerard Reve (played with brilliant intensity by Jeroen Krabbe). Hotel rooms drip eyeballs, a woman shows him a key that looks like a gun, he sees his own name on a coffin, etc.

This weeks style icon, Renee Soutendijk plays the alluring young woman that enters his life in the role of femme fatale, with a grin and a wink. Did she really murder all her other husbands? Is Gerard her next victim? In the end, who knows. It's the strange, visually haunting journey that matters, though it's a journey that begins a bit more lively than it ends.

If you're a fan of Verhoeven, or just want to watch something a bit off center with sex, blood, and a few off kilter laughs, rent it today.

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Posted on April 28, 2008

James Ellroy's Feast of Death, while starting a bit student documentary like, quickly becomes a gripping and completely grim but fascinating portrait of a damaged man obsessed. You may be familiar with Ellroy's books, he is the prolific author of Killer on the Road, American Tabloid, and LA Confidential but if you only know him from seeing the LA Confidential movie, in his own words “what f—ing good are you to me?”.

Yep, Ellroy is not exactly a charmer, he's a foul mouthed and cranky misanthropic egomaniac with a crazy, tough exterior. The films in depth look into his life and past, particularly the horrific rape and murder of his mother when he was a child, however, creates as sympathetic a portrayal as possible of the notoriously surly and difficult man.

His harshness is also softened also by the company he keeps. We meet along the way many of the real life heroes, the homicide detectives he speaks to for authenticity in his books. These are the men who hunt the real monsters that plague Ellroy's dreams and litter his books. They are also the kind of men that make you feel somewhat safe in a crazy world.

There is a dinner scene where Ellroy, detectives, historians, and briefly Nick Nolte (!) talk about Black Dahlia theories that is mesmerizing. In fact, mesmerizing is an apt descriptor for the entire film. One scene, where Elroy takes the crew on a pitch dark, flash light lit drive through his childhood LA neighborhood to show where terrible crimes took place that has stayed wit me since I first saw this many years ago.

It was aired on IFC and then I never heard from it again which was frustrating because I really wanted to recommend it to friends who are Ellroy fans. But now it is out of DVD and any fan of noir, Ellroy, or documentaries should rent it.

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Posted on April 14, 2008

When this Jane Campion-directed thriller starring Meg Ryan was released in 2003, almost no one gave it any love. Receiving only 33% positive reviews on Rotten Tomatoes, it was called “A flaccid thriller as lifeless as the film's many decapitated corpses” that “builds slowly, slowly, slowly, towards a truly stupid climax”.?And yet, it's one of my most beloved, not-even-that-guilty pleasures. I just don't think the world was ready for it.

Imagine a skinamax movie full of dirty talk and dirty deeds with The Piano director Campion at the helm.

It's an odd pairing and I think that's the main reason people reacted so negatively to it: if you were looking for a raunchy steamy thriller, you got it–but what was the deal with the frames being half out of focus, the deliberate pacing, and the art school sequences of sienna tinted ice skaters?

If you were looking for a Jane Campion classic, you also got it. Meg Ryan acts tall and reserved like she though Nicole Kidman would, and Campion's arty photography (used unnecessarily here, but to great effect) gives the movie a unique look, like a modern, live action photo book reminiscent of the work of Diane Arbus or Robert Frank, shot entirely in New York City… But you probably weren't as psyched to hear lines like, “You want me to be your best friend, f**k you, treat you good, lick your p***y? No problem”; you probably found Ryan's occupation as an Ebonics professor laughable; and you probably weren't expecting so many bloody and gory sequences.

The hybrid makes more sense when you know that the source material, a reportedly gruesome novel by Susanna Moore, (quite out of character for Moore,?a writer best know for her memoirs about growing up in Hawaii) was written while she was reading every mystery novel she could find?and tons of pornography. She felt the two genres had not been handled by women, and she decided to have at it.

Though most will disagree the end result is nothing short of totally awesome. Mark Ruffalo is at his best here, making a stud cop straight from women's porno fantasies, delivering lines like the dirty one previously mentioned, as a believable realistic character. Ryan is fine as the icy teacher embroiled in the murder plot, and the supporting cast is phenomenal.

Jennifer Jason Leigh, who I for some reason I just can't manage to like, is really superb as Ryan's kind of crazy/kind of slutty sister; and Kevin Bacon embodies the kind of stalking ex-boyfriend we've all known or heard about so well that I'm surprised more people haven't utilized him in creepier ways more often.

I even watched it a second time to ensure I was not insane when I loved it the first time. I am not insane.

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Posted on March 31, 2008

When my dad called me to tell me I had to rent The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters, he said that he'd never seen a movie about something he was so disinterested in that was so interesting. After just watching it, I couldn't agree more.

Director Seth Gordon takes us into the insular world of competitive video gaming where long haired, American-flag-tie-wearing ego maniac Billy Mitchell has been the reigning king of Donkey Kong for decades. The community treats him like a god, so when soft spoken sweetheart Steve Weibe topples his record, their world is shaken.

These nerds have claws, and come out in an attempt and keep thier “jedi” on his throne. Where vain Mitchell is cocky and cowardly, Weibe (who is described as a man who never quite made it to the top of anything he's ever been involved in, and has often cried over past defeats) has integrity and courage. He's so endearing and his obstacles so unfair, we were yelling at the screen as became more and more wrapped up in his quest to attain the highest score.

In the end, the best part of this movie is its message that nice guys don't always finish last, as long as they stay true to themselves. After all, no matter what the issues with the scores (there is still considerable debate) this is a movie that proves the nice guy is the better man.

You will love this.

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Posted on March 17, 2008