I agree, Monsoon Wedding was excellent.
Nice new avatar, pieman.
pieman
Monsoon Wedding is a favourite of mine, too. Even better on a big screen!
Watched a previously unknown one the other night & ended up feeling quited depressed at the misery of it: Spanking The Monkey. If any of you have seen it I'd be interested in your impressions.
I've seen it, msolga. I found it quite disturbing - it stayed with me though, which may be a sign of a good film...
Spanking the Monkey, talk about familial dysfunction. Jeremy Davies' character has an opportunity of a lifetime, but his father--who'd be more accurately referred to as his biological father because he isn't much of a father, let alone dad--keeps him home to care for his convalescing mother while he philanders. Davies' character is resentful of the charge.
His mother is a textbook case of low self-image, depression and self-pity all made acute by her injury.
There's a lot of self-involvement going on here, and in the end Davies' character's and his mother's feed off of each others'. The result is the consummation of the taboo.
This is an excruciating film to watch, but that's exactly why it is cathartic. This is dysfunction taken to the nth degree. This is Oedipus of the Suburbs. The black humor helps to releases some of the tension of watching it.
Other very difficult films of the blackest humor are Happiness and Storytelling by Todd Solondz, especially Happiness, I think.
There is good reason Ben Hur is always on the top of the list. I am not religious but still tear up during certain seens of that movie. It really is in a class by itself.
If you can stand violence, I'd have to put BraveHeart at number 2.
"Whale Rider" is finally out on DVD and is a genuinely heartfelt coming of age film with some neat twists. Definitely going to see this one twice.
"Ben Hur" is the epitome of the Biblical epics and deserves to be seen on the big screen. I think I originally saw it at the Grauman's Chinese in Hollywood (I was living five minutes from there at the time).
mac & InfraBlue
The thing that bothered about Spanking The Monkey was that what happened was absolutely plausible! The acting was very convincing & I identified so much with the wretchedly miserable son & what he was going through, in response to his parents & friends, that it was EXCRUCIATING!
I was so glad when he finally left town!
What a relief!
Ah, summer in Melbourne (hot!
) & I'm catching up on lots of reading & video watching. Saw Passion Fish last night & thoroughly enjoyed watching the relationship between the 2 women evolve. Loved the visitors & what they brought to the situation, too.
I saw this one this week, too. Rather enjoyed it.
SIDEWALKS OF NEW YORK
*** (R)
November 21, 2001
Tommy Reilly Edward Burns
Annie Heather Graham Maria Tedesco Rosario Dawson
Ashley Brittany Murphy
Benjamin David Krumholtz
Carpo Dennis Farina
Griffin Stanley Tucci
Shari Aida Turturro
Paramount presents a film written and directed by Edward Burns. Running time: 100 minutes. Rated R
BY ROGER EBERT FILM CRITIC
I saw Edward Burns' "Sidewalks of New York" at the Toronto Film Festival on Sept. 8, and enjoyed its lighthearted story of seven lovers who readjust their romantic priorities. It was scheduled to open in a week or two, and I was baffled by Paramount's decision to put it back on the shelf for a couple of months, as if after Sept. 11, no one could possibly contemplate attending a movie named "Sidewalks of New York."
Now the movie has arrived, the story of lovers, would-be lovers, former lovers and adulterers from each of the city's boroughs, who seem totally preoccupied with themselves. This is as it should be. When you're in love, you think of no one but yourself. Even your thoughts of your loved one are about your love, because the idealized other person exists in your imagination. John Donne got this right.
The movie lives at the intersection between Woody Allen and "Sex and the City." Like "The Brothers McMullen," Burns' first film, it is about people who spend a lot of time analyzing their motives and measuring their happiness. The film is framed by interviews in which the lovers address the camera directly, talking about themselves and about love, and from their comments, we learn one thing for sure: Lovers recycle ancient truisms that have little to do with how they will behave tomorrow or later tonight.
Like Jacques Rivette's "Va Savoir," another recent release, the film begins with three couples, and then readjusts the pairings. It actually begins with 3.5 couples, because Griffin (Stanley Tucci) is married to Annie (Heather Graham) and is having an affair with Ashley (Brittany Murphy). He is a dentist, Annie is a real estate agent and Ashley is a student at NYU. Judging by recent Manhattan comedies, these are the three most popular occupations in town, after police work and prostitution.
Griffin fancies himself a seducer. "I think you have the look of the new millennium," he tells Ashley the first time he sees her. Anyone who considers this a compliment deserves Griffin. Burns himself plays Tommy, who works for a show not unlike "Entertainment Tonight" (where Burns himself once worked). A love affair has ended, and he has moved out of his apartment and is living temporarily with his boss Carpo (Dennis Farina), who plays the field and advises Tommy to do likewise. Carpo is the kind of man who believes seduction is all in the cologne. His advice: "A wife and children will drive you to an early grave."
Tommy meets Maria (Rosario Dawson), who teaches rich kids in a private school. She is divorced from Benjamin (David Krumholtz), who supports himself as a doorman while dreaming of a career in music. He cannot believe she left him. We cannot believe she married him. He is a needy whiner who spends way too much energy believing it is only a matter of time until they get back together again. First he seems obnoxious, then you feel a little sorry for him, then he wears down your pity, and you figure he got what was coming to him.
Let's see. Griffin, the Tucci character, is having trouble deceiving two women at the same time, which is what he's doing. (A more honest man would merely cheat on his wife with his mistress, but Griffin's nature is such that he also cheats on his mistress with his wife.) His wife, Annie (Graham), shows an apartment to Tommy and begins to think of her romantic life as still holding promise. Griffin's mistress Ashley attracts the attention of Benjamin, who continues to annoy his ex-wife, but begins to suspect there may be alternatives to spending his nights ringing her doorbell.
In the Jacques Rivette film, the characters are all French, and so conduct their intrigues while drawing on centuries of experience. Ed Burns' New Yorkers have grown up in a society of psycho-babble, and carry around half-digested concepts of guilt, redemption and finding your karma. The teacher Maria (Dawson) is more centered, because she is the only one who has a job that does not depend on being nice to rich people. (As a waitress, Ashley also would seem to qualify, but in New York, waiters are always really something else.)
The movie is funny without being hilarious, touching but not tearful, and articulate in the way that Burns is articulate, by nibbling earnestly around an idea as if afraid that the core has seeds. Not a lot is at stake. We would not be surprised if in three years, an emotional reassignment has taken place, and all of the new couples, like all of the old ones, have been thrown on the ash heap of romantic history. Yet "Sidewalks of New York" finds the right note, of seeking optimism among the shoals of hope. It's spiced by a rotter (Tucci) whose self-justifications are ingenious. And by a cynic (Farina) whose advice is sometimes pretty good.
I do not know if this movie has been mentioned before, or if it is on video, but we saw the Japanese movie "Shall We Dance". We found it to be light, sweet and enjoyable.
Every few years I like to watch one of my favourites .... "Casablanca".
I also liked Shall We Dance a lot. This movie is so well rounded with so many sub-plots: the main character, who is upright, staid, lives for his work, gets involved in ball-room dancing because of his attraction to a stranger, a beautiful girl who he sees going into a dance studio; the Rocky-like competition at the end; the social commentary on Japanese attitudes towards dancing, and their suspicions of it. Light, sweet and enjoyable, I totally agree with pieman.
The lead actor perfectly conveyed a yuppie Japanese, who above all is a perfect gentleman, and who discovers that there is more to life than grinding work.
Very highly recommended.
I have wanted to see that. Glad to see you liked it.
I don't think you'll be disappointed, ossobuco.
It's available on VHS and DVD.
A must see of high recommend is American Beauty. A friend of my son's brought this one over. I haven't found an adult or teen that doesn't like this one. Everyone can relate to something in this movie. It is insightful and with substance. Check it out!
I enjoyed it, too, wildflowers, more so on the 2nd viewing when I was less critical to begin with.
Agreed, American Beauty does deserve a double take! Many things about how this film was put together deserves notice. Remember the neighbor, Rikki was it? He had insight that it took the main character to see at a much older age. Who did Keven Spacey play? The music was another thing I found very well put together. Remember the scene with his daughter's friend? Castles Burning by Annie Lenox, which was an original Neil Young. He recognized the song, but she, given her age thought it was new, which drew him to the room. Excellent scene!
Title
I am trying to think of the name of a movie I meant to see. It takes place in Brazil and it involves a woman who writes letters for people and the boy she meets.
Is it on video or dvd; and if you saw it what did you think about it?
Wish I could help, pieman. But it doesn't ring any bells with me. Sorry.
Pieman, the movie you're thinking of is Central Station (Central do Brasil ). A truly great movie.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0140888/
