Movies in November

Finally I'm all caught up! Now if the same could just be said about the writing...

The Last Airbender was like a chilling wind blowing through my soul; I could feel the metaphysical frostbite and it burned, oh how it burned. How could he have gotten every single thing wrong? (Dev Patel and Shaun Toub were the one bright spot in an otherwise muddy mess of a film). I hope they aren't planning more, or at least they get a different filmmaker on board a la Harry Potter. I'd much rather see M. Night Shyamalan make another M. Night movie and not try to adapt someone else's story.

Vertigo was also a bit of a disappointment. I can see that it's technically stunning, and it has the lush look that says Hitchcock, but the story was just not doing it for me.

A classic that was just as fun as I'd hoped: The Sting with Robert Redford and Paul Newman. The boys enjoyed it as well.

Brick is the first film from The Brothers Bloom director Rian Johnson. It's a noir story set in a high school starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt. And by nior I really am talking about the story: the characters and how they speak and the plot. Film visuals usually associated with noir are almost entirely absent. That gives an interesting effect. It might be carry-over from having watched The Brothers Bloom first, but in my mind it made the movie feel very literary. I liked this less than The Brothers Bloom largely because it was noir, though. I don't have a great interest in the seedy underbelly of society, or women who use their sexuality to manipulate men. Not my cuppa tea. Still, well done.

Mulholland Drive didn't make sense to me until I read on Wikipedia that it was intended to be a pilot for a TV series, and when he couldn't sell the series he crafted an ending to make it a film. I think it had potential to be a very watchable TV show, but as a film the first two-thirds feel nothing like the last third and it was interesting but not quite complete.

College is a Buster Keaton film. Buster is a scholar who is forced to take an interest in sports to get the girl he likes to notice him. He fails at everything he tries until his girl is in peril - the film ends with Buster running across campus, pole vaulting and leaping hedges and doing everything else he's been trying to do in the early part of the film. It wasn't as funny as some of his others, but the man was a genius of physicality.

Some more Madhuri Dixit films: Ram Lakhan was notable mainly for casting Amrish Puri as the bad guy (yea!). Prahaar took a very long time to get going (the first hour of the movie is guys training in the army in far too much detail), but once the story settled itself in a neighborhood overrun with gangs strong-arming the locals, and the army major who came in town for the funeral of one of his former protegees stays to clean things up. For a Bollywood movie, this had a lot of realism (no musical numbers, no makeup on the actors, and the fight scenes were very real). It was directed by Nana Patekar, who as an actor has done some very meaty, and often quite dark, roles. I wonder why he only ever directed the one film. It wasn't great, but it was an interesting first try.

Two French films which were musicals: The Umbrellas of Cherbourg wasn't the sort of musical that features songs. It was more like the actors sing-songed the entire script. Interesting, and I liked the story, but when I hear singing I want to hear choruses and verses, not just an endless sing-song. The Young Girls of Rochefort I liked immensely. It was an old-school musical with a double love story interrupted by songs. The costumes and sets were colorful and like a window back in time. And it has Gene Kelly in it - speaking French.

The Girl Who Played with Fire I liked better than The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, if only because it had fewer scenes that made me intensely uncomfortable. I'm not sure why they recast this part for the English language version (or, quite honestly, why they had to make an English language version). I'm going to have trouble believing any other actress in this part.

Dollhouse Season 2 wrapped up that story in a semi-satisfying way. Unlike, say, Firefly, I didn't get the feeling that there was so much more story left to tell. It was an interesting concept, but I'm not sure there was enough material to carry a show. I loved Topher, though, and Victor channelling Topher was hilarious - so spot on.

Finally, a documentary about guitar players. It Might Get Loud features three generations of guitarists: Jimmy Page, the Edge and Jack White. They have three very distinct styles and approaches to music, and individually talking about what they do and why I loved. But the scenes where the three tried to jam together in my mind mainly served to drive home just how individualistic these three musicians are. I found this documentary compelling enough to watch it twice. Aside from making me want to dig my guitar back out (which would be a very bad idea - no time!), a lot of what they are saying about music applies equally well to writing. I love listening to artists of any stripe talking about their craft.

Here's the trailer, in which you see one of my favorite moments: Jack White showing you don't need to buy a guitar: