American Beauty is one of those films someone tells you over and over again to see, but you never listen because you're too busy or just don't care. Then, one day, you come across it, watch it, and realize how shockingly good it is. You want to call up the person who told you to watch it, but you can't remember who it was and feel awful for ignoring them in the first place.
So yeah, American Beauty is wonderful. I know I have a tendency to over-adulate, but American Beauty is the real deal. It won five Oscars back in 2000, including Best Picture, and Best Actor (Kevin Spacey). The film launched the career of director Sam Mendes, who won an Oscar for his work and has since brought us Road to Perdition and Jarhead.
American Beauty follows Lester Burnham (Spacey), your typical office drone running into a mid-life crisis. Lester begins to change his entire lifestyle; smoking pot, buying a vintage car, and working out to impress his high-school age daughter's gorgeous best friend Angela (Mena Suvari, American Pie), who he has fallen in love with. This of course, causes him to grow distant from his unfaithful, WASPy wife (Annette Bening, Running With Scissors) and his daughter Jane. Jane has her own important subplot, being semi-stalked by her new next-door neighbor Ricky, who has severe emotional issues caused by his hard-ass Marine father (Chris Cooper).
From the plot summary, you can tell that the characterizations are not particularly new, but they all work due to the strength of the performances. Among his classic roles in Se7en and The Usual Suspects, Kevin Spacey does his best work as Lester. His infatuation with Angela could have been a creepy, Humbert Humbert-Lolita type relationship, but seeing Lester's light up when he sees her for the first time brings everyone back to their first childhood crush. Audiences can't help but feel inspired by the intense exercise regimen Lester adopts, which is similar to the rings one would jump through to attain true love.
Annette Bening also gives a career performance, bringing life to a role that could have descended in to self-parody. Her breakdown into tears after she fails to sell a house (she's a real estate agent) sums up her character without a spoken word. Chris Cooper is one of those actors that's excellent in his every role, bringing vulnerability and depth to a despicable, bigoted Marine Colonel.
Part of the film's brilliance is its willingness to show all life philosophies in a balanced light. Even though Lester is the clear protagonist, the film frowns upon his new free-wheeling attitude as much as it celebrates it. American Beauty never preaches that everyone should become as lackadaisical as Lester in order to "live life to the fullest." It shows the two extremes : apathy and egotism (Lester) versus rigidity and responsibility (the Colonel),allowing the audience to come to their own conclusions on how to live their life.
Sam Mendes doesn't dumb the film down for his viewers. When we are first introduced to Lester's wife Carolyn, he narrates, "See the way the handle on those pruning shears matches her gardening clogs? That's not an accident." Those two sentences say everything we need to know about Carolyn through subtle, witty dialogue. American Beauty is filled with like-minded moments, which rely on delivery and facial expressions to convey characterizations and emotions.
Our generation is more likely to have seen Not Another Teen Movie, so you'll be familiar with the character of Ricky. Ricky is an off-beat kid who films with hand-held camera, chiefly objects that remind him of death and spirituality. One of his recordings is the famous scene involving a plastic bag floating around in the wind, which causes him to choke up with the immortal line, "Sometimes there's so much beauty in the world I feel like I can't take it..." Sure it sounds idiotic, but it works in the context of the film. Ricky's unpredictable behavior leads him to constantly defy the viewer's expectations. You'll find him to be either infuriating or fascinating.
I won't bother you with the incredible cinematography and all that, but just pay attention to the way Mendes frames shots and his use of the color red (especially in the roses) and you'll find a greater appreciation for the movie.
The film closes with a beautiful cover of The Beatles' "Because" by Eliot Smith. This is kind of out of place, but it was perfect.
Watch American Beauty whenever you get the chance. It's an American classic.
***** out of *****
"For you Brad, I have five minutes!"
Sunday, March 29, 2009
American Beauty Review
Friday, March 27, 2009
Fast and Furious Review
I got the chance to see a preview screening of the fourth film in the Fast & Furious franchise. This one has Vin Diesel and Paul Walker returning to the roles that launched their careers.
The original film, The Fast and the Furious, came out of nowhere in 2001. With no-name stars and a small budget, it managed to earn over $140 million. Vin Diesel moved onto bigger (not better) roles like xXx and decided not to return for the sequel. Paul Walker stayed for 2 Fast 2 Furious, but not Tokyo Drift; which had Lil Bow Wow, Ludacris and some guy with a southern accent.
I have to admit, I never watched either sequel, but I did see the original when it first came to theaters. It was a fun blend of high-octane street racing and L.A. gang violence. I loved the characters, becoming invested in that genius hacker guy who could have gone to Harvard and Paul Walker's cop, who has to make a lot of questionable decisions. The open-ended finale was brilliant.
Fast and Furious (that's right no more numbers, subtitles, or "the's") is nothing more than a sub-par retread of the original. The action sequences and street races are fun, but the everything in between is torturous. Vin Diesel was himself, but everyone else is terrible. It doesn't help that the writers feed them laughably horrendous exposition. You know there's something wrong with the script when people are laughing during a funeral sequence.
Vin Diesel was not a good actor when The Fast and the Furious came out. Eight years and seven films later, he's still not a good actor. By now, you'd think that directors would know how to work with him. Give Vin Diesel a few growly one-liners and fight scenes and he'll deliver. The writers of this film choose not to heed this device, unnecessarily bogging him down with emotional, heart-aching scenes.
The same goes for Paul Walker, who quickly realized his career was going nowhere (did anyone see The Lazarus Project.? I didn't think so) and came back to this franchise. Walker is one of the most useless actors working today. He doesn't bring anything to his roles, with deadbeat acting and lackluster charisma. In this film, is presence is phenomenally poor even by action movie standards. A hobo walking onto the set could deliver better lines than Paul Walker (sorry Paul, I'm sure you're a nice guy, but get a new job). I'll go ahead and recommend people to watch this movie for an introductory course in ineptitude. Watch the scene in the diner with Paul Walker confronting Jordanna Brewster's character, his girlfriend in the original film. Even the most casual of movie-goers will be crying with laughter.
Acting aside, Fast and Furious certainly exceeds expectations for its signature car races and shootouts. The trailer showed an extended clip of Vin Diesel and Michelle Rodriguez hijacking a gas tanker in the Dominican Republic, which kicks off the film. It's filled with "Oh My God That's Awesome" moments, complete with popped eyes and dropped jaws. I never thought I would be saying this, but compliments to the cinematographer for beautifully capturing the dry, barren highway strip. After this slam-bang opening sequence, the movie kind of goes downhill, even though the action is always cool.
There's also a parkour-style chase sequence filmed with a shaky camera (that's all the rage these days). The requisite street race feels forced, but is fun nonetheless. I'd really like to know how they filmed the sequence, with the cars moving at high speeds through crowded streets. The finale is grand and exciting, with a chase involving the highest number of participating cars since The Blues Brothers.
The plot itself isn't that bad, with unexpected (well, not anymore) twists. It'll be slightly confusing for those who have seen the original. The relationships established in The Fast and the Furious are crucial. There's also a handful of dialogues that reference actions and conversations from that film, so I'd recommend anybody who hasn't to see it first.
If you walk into Fast and Furious, hopefully you know what you're getting yourself into. Ignore the acting and dialogue, just marvel at how nice it looks to see cars chases and explosions along the US-Mexico border. Overall, I liked it, even though I was ready to walk out at several moments. Fast and Furious is a nice mix of nostalgia (2001 was a long time ago) and diversion, which is exactly what we need for entertainment.
*** out of *****
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Duplicity Review
In a world where most films middlingly muddle within a single genre, “Duplicity” achieves a near-impossible feat: It manages to be a sweet romantic comedy, an intelligent crime-caper and an eye-opening social commentary all at the same time. This inspired genre-balancing, combined with exceptional performances, makes “Duplicity” a tremendously entertaining film.
Check out the full review here.
Monday, March 23, 2009
Weekend of Insanity or How I Joined the Duke Pep Band
This article has nothing to do with politics or movies, but it was a experience crazy enough to share. I'm writing this from a bus on the way back from East Lansing.
Last Tuesday, I woke up to a text from Xin Xu saying that he would be coming to East Lansing for a NCAA women's basketball tournament game. In the text, he mentioned that I probably won't be able to visit him but I should try anyways. I thought to myself, there's no way I won't meet up with my main man if he's only going to be 100 miles away.
But it was a bad weekend - I had promised to participate on two movie shoots that weekend, including one in downtown Detroit on Saturday. The first shoot was on Friday in an Ann Arbor art gallery. There, I worked with Patrick Sperry, the director of "Stuntman." Watch my words, Patrick Sperry will be an A-list director in a few short years. Anyways, The Friday night shoot was awesome but tiring. I met a lot of cool people and got a good idea of how movies are filmed.
The next morning, I was to go to downtown Detroit for a separate movie shoot, entitled "Rockwell." But I was never picked up. Originally, I was going to take a bus from Detroit after the shoot to East Lansing, but I ended up going straight from Ann Arbor to East Lansing.
I reached East Lansing around 2:30 pm on Saturday. Xin in a hotel in Lansing proper, right next to the state capitol. The poor guy walked the 3 miles from Lansing to East Lansing to meet me in a Barnes and Noble. Then, we ate in a restaurant called "India Palace." Those that went with me to the MSU quiz bowl tournament will remember this place.
After that, Xin and I went to Pinball Pete's and shot dinosaurs in a Lost World arcade game. When that got too tricky we switched to House of the Dead 3, where we destroyed zombies for a while. The original plan was for me to hang with Xin Saturday evening and return to Ann Arbor on a bus leaving at 3am. We called up John McRae, our friend from Houghton, and were going to meet with him. But I had a backpack with me, and I didn't want to bring it to meet John. So, Xin and I took a bus back to Lansing to drop off the backpack at his hotel.
At the hotel, I met with Xin's friend Jackie from Duke. While I was somewhere else, Xin mentioned to Jackie that I played the drum set. Jackie told Xin that the Duke pep band's set drummer had bailed from the trip at the last minute and they needed someone to replace him. Jokingly, we thought that I could take his place and play set at the Duke women's b-ball game. Caught up in this ridiculous idea, we decided to go ahead and ask the band director if I could play with them.
The director, a really cool guy named Jeff, was delighted. He was pretty happy and shocked to have this absurd coincidence fall into his lap. By that time, Xin and I realized that this was actually happening. I would have to really play with the Duke pep band the next day at 2:30. It was beyond our control at that point. I felt a mixture of panic and humor. As Jackie put it, all this was pretty hysterical. I was freaking out because A) I hadn't played drum set in a band since May 2008 and B) I didn't know any of the Duke arrangements. I was familiar with a few of the songs, such as "Seven Nation Army" and "Somebody Told Me," but I didn't know the drum fills/solos. Xin and Jeff assured me that everything would be ok. Plus, there was Chris, the other percussionist who wasn't entirely comfortable with the set but knew how to play the songs properly.
Xin and I watched Michigan lose to Oklahoma as I cranked out a review of "Duplicity" that was due for the paper at 3pm on Sunday and later as Duke beat Texas. We ventured out in Lansing to find a dining establishment, but every eatery was a bar that required patrons to be at least 21. So we ended up taking a fancy trolley called the "Entertainment Express" to the MSU campus, where we found a decent Chinese place called Rice Kitchen. We took the Entertainment Express back to the Radisson hotel. On the way back, we saw this amazing taxi called the "Shaggin Wagon," which I would take to the bus station the next day.
Sunday morning, Xin and I woke up and got some coffee and bagels and such. I was pretty nervous, since I still had no idea what to do at the game. I put the finishing touches on "Duplicity" right before the bus left. And I found out I was getting paid some money in "per diem" for helping with the band that day. I was pretty happy, since I was willing to play with them for free. The whole time, I was thinking what a great story I would be able to tell people one day.
I left with the band at 1pm. It was a relatively small band, since the other part of the band was playing at the men's tournament in Boston. During the short bus ride, I talked with Chris about the crucial upcoming solos and fills. Some stayed in my mind, and some didn't. But what do expect? I haven't read music in almost a year now. We arrived at the Breslin Center and unloaded the bus. Chris had a large box of percussion stuff, so he couldn't go with the rest of the band to their designated area. I decided to stick with him and pick up a few more pointers while we waited for the MSU-Middle Tennessee State game to end. During this time, we watched the Duke women's team warm up. It was pretty surreal.
We went into the stadium late, since our chaperone forgot about Chris and I. We had to rapidly set up the drum set and bass drum. Our rivals at Austin-Peay State University had already finished and started playing. Once completed, the band played the Duke fight song, which I wasn't familiar with, along with this rad tune called "Vehicle" and a few more. As the team entered the stadium, we played "I Can't Turn You Loose," better known as the Blues Brothers theme. Chris and I switched back and forth between the drum set and the bass drum. He played the songs with important fills and such on the set and I played everything else. These included "Somebody Told Me," "Cheeseburger in Paradise," and most excellently the Mortal Kombat theme.
The game brought me back to the days of high school pep band, multiplied by 1000. I shouted and hollered for a team I had no allegiance with, but now I love Duke as much as Michigan. I got to participate in many of the band's hilarious chants. We would all count down the final seconds of the shot clock even though there was more than enough time left. This actually worked on one occasion, as a player took a shot with 4 real seconds left, but the band had already counted down to 0. The band picked out the worst player on the opposing bench and would scream whenever they touched the ball. This may seem despicable, it was ingenious at the time. And I know for a fact that I was on ESPN for a few seconds, when a Duke player was injured.
The game ended, and all was well. It was the most fun I had in a long time, especially considering the randomness of the situation. Back at the hotel, I traded the per diem with Jeff in exchange for the blue and white striped Rugby, which is now a sweet souvenir. I got to hang out with the Duke mascot, the Blue Devil (whose name I cannot disclose) for while. The whole band went out to eat at a restaurant called Clara's, which was yet another memorable experience. The night ended and I sadly had to leave my new friends from Duke. And Xin. I kind of wanted to stay and play with them during their game on Tuesday against Michigan State, but I have way too much work to do.
This all actually happened. It was crazy. I never thought anything of the sort would occur in my lifetime. I'm glad Xin talked me into taking the opportunity. He is a good man.
Friday, March 20, 2009
A Lesson In Political Science: Cows (WARNING: this is funny)
(I stole this a really really long time ago from some other site)
Humor break...
Political Viewpoint : COWS
Lesson In Political Science
DEMOCRATIC
You have two cows.
Your neighbor has none.
You feel guilty for being successful.
Barbara Streisand sings for you.
REPUBLICAN
You have two cows.
Your neighbor has none.
So?
SOCIALIST
You have two cows.
The government takes one and gives it to your neighbor.
You form a cooperative to tell him how to manage his cow.
COMMUNIST
You have two cows.
The government seizes both and provides you with milk.
You wait in line for hours to get it.
It is expensive and sour.
CAPITALISM, AMERICAN STYLE
You have two cows.
You sell one, buy a bull, and build a herd of cows.
BUREAUCRACY, AMERICAN STYLE
You have two cows.
Under the new farm program the government pays you to shoot one, milk the other, and then pours the milk down the drain.
AMERICAN CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You sell one, lease it back to yourself and do an IPO on the 2nd one.
You force the two cows to produce the milk of four cows. You are surprised when one cow drops dead. You spin an announcement to the analysts stating you have downsized and are reducing expenses.
Your stock goes up.
FRENCH CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You go on strike because you want three cows.
You go to lunch and drink wine.
Life is good.
JAPANESE CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You redesign them so they are one-tenth the size of an ordinary cow and produce twenty times the milk.
They learn to travel on unbelievably crowded trains.
Most are at the top of their class at cow school.
GERMAN CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You engineer them so they are all blond, drink lots of beer, give excellent quality milk, and run a hundred miles an hour.
Unfortunately they also demand 13 weeks of vacation per year.
ITALIAN CORPORATION
You have two cows but you don't know where they are.
While ambling around, you see a beautiful woman.
You break for lunch.
Life is good.
RUSSIAN CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You have some vodka.
You count them and learn you have five cows.
You have some more vodka.
You count them again and learn you have 42 cows.
The Mafia shows up and takes over however many cows you really have.
TALIBAN CORPORATION
You have all the cows in Afghanistan, which are two.
You don't milk them because you cannot touch any creature's private parts.
You get a $40 million grant from the US government to find alternatives to milk production but use the money to buy weapons.
IRAQI CORPORATION
You have two cows.
They go into hiding.
They send radio tapes of their mooing.
POLISH CORPORATION
You have two bulls.
Employees are regularly maimed and killed attempting to milk them.
BELGIAN CORPORATION
You have one cow.
The cow is schizophrenic.
Sometimes the cow thinks he's French, other times he's Flemish.
The Flemish cow won't share with the French cow.
The French cow wants control of the Flemish cow's milk.
The cow asks permission to be cut in half.
The cow dies happy.
FLORIDA CORPORATION
You have a black cow and a brown cow.
Everyone votes for the best looking one.
Some of the people who actually like the brown one best accidentally vote for the black one.
Some people vote for both.
Some people vote for neither.
Some people can't figure out how to vote at all.
Finally, a bunch of guys from out-of-state tell you which one you think is the best-looking cow.
CALIFORNIA CORPORATION
You have millions of cows.
They make real California cheese.
Only five speak English.
Most are illegals.
Arnold likes the ones with the big udders.
Have a good day!
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Michael Steele, you be da man!
Lawlz.
I have been wanting to do a post on Michael Steele for awhile. Steele is the new chairman of the Republican National Committee. He is one of my favorite politicians, but for all the wrong reasons.
For one thing, he is an absolutely awful chairman. Many people are already calling for his resignation. Upon being selected, he pretty much fired everyone at the RNC. The awesome part is that he hasn't bothered replacing anyone. He is pretty much a one man show right now.
The real reason I like him, however, is that he produces some of the best quotes ever.
We want to convey that the modern-day GOP looks like the Conservative Party that stands on principles. But we want to apply them to urban-suburban hip-hop settings...I want hip-hop Republicans. I want Frank Sinatra Republicans.Classic. I'm not sure of the context for this next quote, but here it is:
The American public doesn't have that kind of bling bling in their pockets.I see the hip-hop strategy is working. I feel myself converting to Republicanism. He is also very up-to-date with the current pop culture lingo:
(In reference to Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, an Indian-American)He is also a very good debater:
Give some slum love out to my buddy, Gov.
When asked if he favors civil unions:and...
No, no no. What would we do that for? What are you crazy?
What this administration is talking about is creating work.I love this man. They may come out with a new bromance movie soon starring Michael Steele and Kyle Krym, full of incredibly cool hip-hop terminology, while still presenting the change (or lack thereof) we need in America.
Interviewer: That's a job!
No, no it's not a job!
By the way, Steele also has a fascination with the word "baby." He uses it very often.
Let's get to work baby! (I believe this was his acceptance speech)This last video is possibly my new favorite video on youtube. I hope Kavi watches it in the library or somewhere else where people can give him strange looks when he starts laughing.
Sure, baby, I'll consider anything! (Said on Fox News)
Drill, baby, drill! (At the Republican National Convention. I couldn't believe it. It was Michael Steele who came up with that annoying phrase. It all makes sense now.)
Have a good day, baby! Continue Reading...
Summer Preview - 500 Days of Summer
There are a lot of insanely sweet movies releasing in the next few months, and I'll be covering a lot of them in detail in the next few weeks. We have Michael Mann's Public Enemies with Johnny Depp and Christian Bale, Terminator Salvation again with Bale, J.J. Abrams' Star Trek, a solo Wolverine movie, the new Pixar flick Up, Tarantino's WWII epic Inglorious Basterds, Judd Apatow's Funny People, Transformers 2, and loads more.
But out of all of these big-budget, star-studded movies, the one I'm looking forward to the most is called (500) Days of Summer.
I was pretty much sold after the Smiths reference in the elevator. For anyone under 30, The Smiths are a great British band that has influenced most UK bands since the late 80's, including Radiohead. Anyone who knows me is familiar with my obsession with The Smiths. Check out "Girlfriend in a Coma" and "The Headmaster Ritual" for starters. To be honest, I'm probably pumped for this movie since I've always dreamed of a pretty girl walking into an elevator and telling me that I have great taste in music because I like The Smiths.
Aside from that, (500) Days of Summer looks like a delightfully quirky indie film. The trailer displays a movie that should be funnier than Little Miss Sunshine and less awkward than Juno (I mean seriously, the dialogue with Rainn Wilson was cringe-worthy). It features at least two laugh-out-loud moments, what looks to be a song and dance number, and a Pirates 3-esque acid trip. Throw in a super-fine Zooey Deschanel with a droll, sensitive Joesph Gordon-Levitt and you've got yourselves a winner.
Zooey Deschanel is mainstream enough by now, after appearances in Yes Man and The Happening, but it's nice to see her return to her indie-film roots.
Gordon-Levitt ("3rd Rock from the Sun"), has done some good work since the show ended, but he could have his break-out role with this movie. Audiences will be treated to a fresh face behind the camera in Marc Webb, who's done nothing to date except a few music videos. Sure, screenplay scribes Scott Neustadter & Michael H. Weber wrote The Pink Panther 2 (dear god), but I'm willing to assume that they only took that job to pay the bills and finance this movie.
(500) Days of Summer made a big splash at Sundance earlier this year and is primed to be the sleeper hit of this summer. I'm only concerned that the hipster references will keep away large audiences. For all its nonsensical jargon and inclusion of Dario Argento films, Juno was pretty mainstream and accessible. Do kids these days know who Sid Vicious was?
A film's quality is often reflected by its trailer music. This trailer features gems such as Beck's "Black Tambourine", a Regina Spektor song, whose name I can't remember, and Hall and Oates' "You Make My Dreams Come True." If anyone knows the song at the very end of the trailer, let me know. It's wonderful to see a selection of music stretching across decades and genres. In summation: thumpin' soundtrack ==> genius movie. Thus, (500) Days of Summer is going to be a classic.
