Monday, June 05, 2006
state of the crow
Hey kids, guess what time it is! That's right...
Sorry I've been quiet for the last few weeks. Things have generally been busy and I've been devoting a lot of my creative time to finishing off the short story -- which has, unsurprisingly, revealed itself to actually be a novelette (or short novella, or long short story, depending on which theory of word length you subscribe to). I rather suspected this might be the case, but by calling it a "short story" I thought that I might be able to mentally trick myself into thinking it would be so very easy to write. To tell the truth, I rather like the story, but it's structurally kind of tricky so I've had to do some backtracking here and there. Hopefully should have that done in the next couple of weeks.
However, for what it's worth you do get my tribute to the end of "Alias" below, a show which has provided a great amount of enjoyment to me over the last couple of years. Sorry to see it go, but it's time had come.
In lieu of longer, individual reviews, let me toss out some quick highlights of notable things I've seen in the last few weeks. Maybe this format will work better going ahead?
El Metodo (The Method) is a Spanish film that plays as if David Mamet wrote The Cube: Several candidates for a high-powered executive position are all being interviewed simultaneously using an employment test called "the Gronholm Method" in which they play the kind of games familiar to anyone who's spent an afternoon in an HR seminar. Unlike those tests, however, the Gronholm Method is a deceptively effective game designed to tease out each character's flaws with brutal precision and then force them to justify their beliefs. The movie is basically several people talking in a conference room, but the writing is excellent, the acting solid, and the direction is cool and artful. Well worth your time if you can find a copy -- as far as I'm aware, the only release available right now is the Spanish DVD, but it does have English subs.
Tzameti (13) is a gritty French thriller shot in sumptuous black and white. It could almost have been a lost New Wave film if it wasn't for the occassional modern car or cell phone that turns up. The plot is deceptively simple -- a down-on-his luck roofer gains entry to a secretive game with the promise of a big payout if he wins. You're probably guessing that the game is not checkers or football, and you'd be right. It's a stark picture, but there's an elegance to both its look and construction, and it makes some surprisingly interesting points about how chasing hope and winning at all costs can both lead to some very dark places. In some ways it seems a distant spiritual cousin to El Metodo, but I'd also recommend a more fabulist take on a similar idea, the underrated Intacto. Tzameti is only available on DVD in France currently, but you can pick up Intacto on an R1 DVD.
L' Empire des loups ( Empire of the Wolves) is another French thriller, but more in the Europe-does-Hollywood vein of Crimson Rivers or Tattoo, a big, glossy, somewhat underwritten melange of serial killers, conspiracies, crypts, brainwashing, and shoot-outs. It feels like a sci-fi or horror movie sometimes even though it's not -- the title refers to a secret Turkish paramilitary group, but that's really besides the point for the most part. It is, however, ridiculously entertaining and has some great scenes, though it goes on for just a little too long with one too many twists along the way. On the other hand, it does star Jean Reno and it's one of those movies where everything looks cool, no matter what's happening. If someone lights a cigarette, the direction, lighting, and music will let you know that this is the coolest cigarette that has ever been lit. I have to admit that I'm a sucker for that kind of thing.
Blueberry (retitled Renegade for the R1 DVD) could best be described by the comment I made to Gray while watching it -- "I like it when people go crazy in interesting ways." A very, very, very loose adaptation of the Jean-Michel Charlier/Moebius comic by director Jan Kounen (who also directed the equally crazy Dobermann), it's a visually sumptuous acid-trip of a Western starring everyone from Vincent Cassel to Eddie Izzard and back. See, the story goes that part way through making the movie Jan Kounen went to South America, had a vision trip, and then came back with a "new direction" for the film. Indeed. But truth be told, I found it quite entertaining. The psychic duel at the end was worth the price of admission, and for all its weirdness, actually makes sense if you pay attention to the symbolism that crops up throughout the rest of the movie. Certainly not for everyone, but I can guarantee you haven't seen anything like it before.
And just so you don't think I watch nothing but crazy foreign films, Gray's girlfriend suggested I watch Joe Versus the Volcano and I rather fell in love with it. I always enjoy a good fabulist allegory, but it's the luggage that makes the movie.