Sorry everyone! Organized Confusion has really neglected itself since relocating to San Francisco. Time to remedy that!!! Look for new and long-overdue reviews to come in the upcoming weeks…

Also, new episodes and concert reviews on The Organized Confusion Playlist! Check here for more details!

Drillbit Taylor: So what’d you do to provoke him?
Wade: Well he’s fat, he’s a dork, and I’m awesome.
Drillbit Taylor: And by awesome, you mean scared, skinny, and lonely?
Wade: … Yeah.

Drillbit Taylor
DVD Wednesday – July 15, 2009

Normally, Organized Confusion will not waste the precious time of its readers with movies that are going to stink up the place. However, an exception was recently made for Drillbit Taylor.  This film was given the large benefit of the doubt on behalf of its main star Owen Wilson, whose work thus far has impressed mainly due to his noteworthy contribution to the Wes Anderson empire. The dubious irony of the movie poster’s tagline “You get what you pay for” is just too sweet to pass by. Luckily, I had the good fortune of borrowing this film from a friend, leaving the satisfaction of not patronizing this horrible waste of time and talent.

I mean, come on! Really? Three high school kids hire a bodyguard to protect them from a bully? Growing up with such classics as Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, The Breakfast Club, and even Pretty in Pink, the standard for high school comedy has admittedly been set pretty high. Even on the heels of Superbad, we now led to believe that what? Any pathetic geek is funny?? It’s just not the case. I felt nothing for these kids, especially not in the stupid and gullible way that Drillbit Taylor took them for. As for complete lack of character development, nowhere was it more prevalent than in the main character himself. It’s hard to know whose to blame here: the writing (*gasp* Seth Rogen could not be responsible for this tripe!), the direction of Steven Brill (responsible for the Mighty Ducks trilogy), or the fact that Wilson is clearly just phoning it in. At least in You, Me, and Dupree, there was a lovable oafishness to Wilson’s character that made him endearing enough to root for in the end. I constantly found myself in a state of apathy toward the direction of this movie. So much so that I can’t even recall the ending. This must have been the year that Luke and Owen got so sick of each other that one went off to do Henry Poole is Here and the other resorted to this script. Lesson learned: stick to what works, boys. Meh, better luck next time… Nice Stephen Root cameo though.

RATING:  (with a sound effect accompaniment. Pbbbbbb!)
Not Recommended. Period.

Alan Garner: You probably get this a lot. This isn’t the real Caesar’s Palace is it?
Lisa: What do you mean?
Alan Garner: Did, umm… did Caesar live here?
Lisa: No.
Alan Garner: I didn’t think so.

The Hangover
AMC Stony Brook – June 12, 2009

In honor of my return to New York for a momentous wedding of a dear friend to his lovely wife, I decided to continue the wedding theme by reviewing Hollywood’s latest comedy release, The Hangover.

The Hangover begins as most bachelor parties end… a tearful best man crying via cellphone to the bride-to-be that the boys have somehow lost the groom due to an evening of complete and utter debauchery in the city of sin, Las Vegas. Of course not speaking from experience, a woman like myself can only imagine what is amazingly possible at such male celebratory events. The groom to be, Doug (Justin Bartha) sets off for Vegas with his two best friends Phil and Stu (played by Bradley Cooper and Ed Helms respectively) along with his bride’s eccentric brother (Zach Galifianakis) Embarking on the festivities with a shot of Jagermeister, we are off on a wild ride… Cut to the unbelievably trashed villa suite at Caesar’s Palace, plus one tiger and minus one groom. For the rest of the film, the boys try to retrace their steps a la “Dude, where’s my Car?” style, slowly revealing the events from the previous night.

Without spoilers, I can only say that this film is an absolute treat. Bookended with my close friend’s wedding, it succeeded in catapulting me into the proper mood for celebrating nuptials. Ultimately, what are bachelor parties all about anyway? Giving the groom the time of his life in the most incredible and extreme fashion before he ventures into his new life with the woman that he loves. It is a truth pact never to be broken amongst groomsmen, even from themselves. Topped with the cliched fact that “Whatever happens in Vegas” truly does not only stay in Vegas, but stays from all memory as well. No wonder every man I have spoken to regarding a bachelor party has said the same thing, “Suffice it to say, it was a great time.” That is also the best way to describe this film.

From the director that brought us Old School, School for Scoundrels and Road Trip, Todd Phillips proves to be the fine connoisseur of male shenanigans. As I have discussed before in reviews for Harold and Kumar and Pineapple Express, these movies do have a large target audience and for the most part deliver up to or exceed expectations. This is one of the latter category.  The Hangover is quite enjoyable all the way through to its satisfying conclusion. As far as production value goes, this film was very nicely executed from the locations to the cinematography. Normally I don’t notice or even care about the quality of these kind of films, but I found myself not only taking notice, but giving props where props were due.

The casting left an overwhelming sense of “Hey, I know that guy from somewhere but I can’t remember where?” (Thank goodness for IMDB on iPhones!) Nevertheless, admirable performances by all four gentleman, particularly Ed Helms who I’ve enjoyed regularly on NBC’s The Office. (As an actor, he “nails it” as his character Andy Bernard would say.) The above video features one of my favorite segments in the movie, Stu’s song about how royally screwed they are. However, I liken my enjoyment of his performance in the Hangover to that of Alec Baldwin in Lymelife… it was just nice to see him do something besides his hit NBC comedy for a minute. Unfortunately, the female characters seemed very underwritten and served more as peripheral cameos, including Heather Graham as the newlywed single mother stripper and Rachel Harris as the Stu’s ridiculously overbearing girlfriend. Both felt slightly superfluous and contrived. Not so much in their performances, but for their level of stardom? It was as if they had nothing better to do for a couple of days and felt like going along for the ride.

However, there is one major grievance about the film that serves more as a cautionary tale. It’s not really a spoiler as the trailer gives away this fact, but just in case: SPOILER ALERT–> According to the timeline of the film, the bachelor party takes place what must be the Friday before the wedding on Sunday. Okay, um… that’s cutting it kinda close to the ceremony, don’t ya think? Even factoring in recovery time and whatever wedding rehearsals are planned for the following day, the best man would need to be somewhat responsible for his timing of said event, as to not cause unnecessary drama and stress. But then again, this is a movie and what is more exciting than the last minute?? Furthermore, are we to believe that the bride would be “cool” with the groom and his posse extending their stay in Vegas, merely based on the hotel treating them well?? Shyeah right.

If you are jonesing for some fast and furious bachelor party fun, this is the flick for you. If you like this, Orgconfuz recommends seeking out the 1998 psychotic comedy VERY BAD THINGS, starring Christian Slater, Cameron Diaz, Jon Favreau, Jeremy Piven and Daniel Stern.

RATING:
Recommendation: Fun, fun, fun! See it in the theaters.

Wow! I can’t believe that Orgconfuz will pass the 10,000 mark this week! Thank you so much for reading.

Lymelife
Lumiere Theater – May 9, 2009

A man becomes infected with Lyme’s Disease in Syosset, Long Island in the 1970’s. The effects on his family, friends and neighbors are tri-fold. The tale of a young man’s (Rory Culkin) journey coming to grips with his truly dysfunctional family dynamic, while dealing with the trials of puberty… It was an okay movie to see in the theater, but I think the plot could have been a little stronger. In a whiff of American Beauty minus the ending, Lymelife ultimately delivers everything it sets out to do, but somehow leaves us with the sense that more could have been done with it. Whether deliberate or not, it quickly becomes an ensemble piece that just could not be carried by any one character. However having said that, everyone still did a nice job. Apparently, the plot was the real life experience of the writers/directors/brothers Derick and Stephen Martini. For a full and truly insightful interview with Derick Martini, click here.

The last movie I saw one of the Culkins in was Igby Goes Down. From that performance, I knew that Kiernan Culkin had come into his own since his previously beloved Home Alone cameos. The Culkin family has clearly learn from one another and glimmers of said acting style carries down through to the youngest, Rory. Given the script, Rory did a pretty good job fleshing out the “main character” but did not hold enough weight to carry the movie. Then again, he was paired with power players like Alec Baldwin and Jill Hennessey (of Crossing Jordan) playing the parents (sidenote: Um, ok?? By the looks of all four of them, this strains the family dynamic visually a bit, cause there’s just no way this family could have happened barring adoption, but I digress…) Kiernan makes a short appearance as his brother in the movie and their real relationship made their scenes together relatively stronger as a result. Emma Roberts is probably the weakest link here as the young girl/object of affection. By way of the American Beauty example, she simply falls flat by comparison to Thora Birch or Mena Suvari.

Surprising to see that Martin Scorsese had exec produced here, but not so unbelievable by way of casting which also includes Timothy Hutton as the affected Lyme’s disease husband and Cynthia Nixon (of Sex and the City) as his wife. It was nice to see all of them again in types of roles we have not previously seen them in, particularly Alec Baldwin whose character is quite deflated and hence more substantive by comparison to his currently renowned portrayal on 30 Rock.

RATING:
Recommendation: If you want to see an ensemble piece about two families in the 1970’s on Long Island with a plot riddled with sexual experimentation by both teenagers and adults alike, go rent Ang Lee’s the Ice Storm. A collection of heavy hitters with an ultimately more compelling plot. Otherwise, Lymelife is not a bad rental if you are bored and want to see some solid performances.

The 24" inch iMac. Whoa.

Apologies to all for the recent absence of updates… my review eyes were waaay bigger than my stomach. The transition to California continues swimmingly and will be completed by next week. However, all shall be rewarded very soon as I have a new baby coming! Yes that’s right… the 24″ piece of stunning technology pictured to the right will at last be MINE! Yay! I’m so excited, I can hardly contain my emotion!!!

What does this mean: More reviews to come, and major catch-up is required. Also, the podcast supplement entitled The Orgconfuz Playlist will now become much more frequent and hopefully clearer now that I have a microphone headset. Thanks for your patience!!

The Panda Candy
SFIAAFF @ Sundance Kabuki Theater – March 14, 2009

Taki, a young lesbian girl wanders the China countryside following a band by train. (Incidentally, how she can afford this or why she is not in school or working is either very quickly or never explained). Although humorous, we disjointedly follow the adventures of Taki (pictured right) as she timidly tries to find soulful companionship – dare I say, love. At each venue, she stares across the room and either faces complete rejection or somehow hooks up with a female fan, both of which makes her feel lonelier than ever. Interwoven throughout said adventures is Chun Sue (pictured left), a girl who just can’t seem to find a decent man… or money for rent. Chased by an pretentious snob and humped by a possibly developmentally challenged (to put it sensitively) shiftless skateboarder who can be sweet and goofy at times. After sex, the latter pays Chun to attend a concert with him. A concert where they meet Taki. As the evening progresses, Taki and Chun hook up – in a major softcore porn way. The end. Yeah, that’s how it ended. Actually no, it ended with an empty moving train car, which I guess symbolizes the fact that neither Taki or Chun traveled away from their destination. By this time, you really don’t know what the point of it all is. Until you realize… that was it. It was about these two girls finding each other. Not to sound bitter or unromantic, but I prefer a little more meat to my storytelling.

Since there was no explanation why the movie was named The Panda Candy, here’s a picture of a Panda pooping candy. lol

The description that peaked my curiosity was in the SFIAAFF catalog: “Young hipsters Chun and Taki are taking different routes to love: Chun through a succession of dorky skateboarders and self-obsessed poets, Taki in a series of brief flings with punk lesbians. When they finally meet, will they discover what they are looking for?” Hmmm, I guess somehow out of context, it sounded more interesting the first time around. My roommate and I had no idea that it was going to be a graphic lesbian love story. We were both kind of stunned by the ending and left feeling like “What was that?”

The preamble to the movie was probably the most jarring of all. The presenter gushed about the uses of color in the digital medium and that he had not seen a more beautiful film in a long time – or something to that effect. He also mentioned the co-presenter Queer Women of Color Media Arts Project. Since it is extremely rare that a gay/lesbian centric film is produced in China, it was to be considered a groundbreaking world premiere. Supporting world cinema is after all what brought me to the festival to begin with, but I was pleasantly surprised to be supporting the forward movement of international gay cinema. Yay!

Even with that preface, I question whether this movie was really about being gay as much as it was about being lonely. At the end of the day, we are all on a journey towards somewhere, something or someone. How do people meet? Is it philosophical or scientific to say that a relationship is simply a convergence of two paths, whether they are interesting paths or not…?? As far as the storyline goes, I still stand to my preference of intricacy and substance. On a lighter note, I do view the premise as a sweet and gentle tale of longing and fulfillment.

More Panda Candy!

One last thing about the plot: this movie blows its cover waaaay too early. The opening scene shows Taki and Chun in bed together. Ok, let’s assume that its the first time seeing these characters… its the first scene and they are making out. Something like that stays with you and starts a line of questioning: Who are these girls to each other? Why aren’t they together now? Who’s that guy? Wait, what? Are we jumping ahead in time or behind? (or am I just a LOST fanatic that my brain auto-pilots to time shifts now? Damn that’s a good show.) And there, you lost me and its barely 10 minutes in… For a movie that’s only 85 minutes, that’s not great news. Then once you get to the end, instead of being a nice cyclical moment, you feel like you knew it all along. Even worse news.

Most of the movie seems very haphazardly put together, and not just for style’s sake. I’m all for guerrilla style film-making, but at least with Cloverfield you got the sense that these were real people living in real time. As shown by the Youtube trailer above – which gives a good sense of about 6 minutes of the film – the editing was oddly frenetic and the changing perspectives/sideways camera angles were too often and for no apparent reason. It did, however, compliment the lovely ambient soundtrack created by me:mo. Yes, I realize that statement is backwards and a soundtrack should ultimately accompany a scene, not the other way around. The atmosphere created by this lo-fi eclectic scoring encouraged a fast, perhaps shaky editing style that made the film a little hard to watch. In retrospect, there were a couple of poignant and comedic  moments, but you could barely tell what was happening most of the time to really notice. Very distracting. Honestly, if it wasn’t for the preamble build-up, I might have had lower expectations for the cinematography… After all, the last thing I saw that was directed by someone from China was Zhang Yimou’s 2008 Opening/Closing Ceremonies in Beijing. Talk about visually stunning!

Peng Lei, Director+Musician+Artist (click to view illustrations)

The entire movie was shot with a DV Cam by singer-turned-director Peng Lei, best known as part of the popular Beijing-based new wave punk band NEW PANTS or 新裤子, the same band that Taki was following. Train scenes must have been very convenient for the band to shoot while being on tour themselves. They didn’t really move the story forward though other than to separate time between booty calls. Several girls who were chosen for the various levels of lesbian activity seem kind of random, even exploitative. A good point is made in an excellent review by mediadiary. “I mean, how did they actually go about this task? Approach good-looking women with the line, Hey, I’m working on this movie, and we need some actresses who are willing to get naked and kiss another girl. You wanna try out? Why don’t you kiss that girl right there?” Hahaha. Actually yes, this fact is even confirmed by the SFIAAFF website. While on tour with New Pants, Lei and his band members solicited concert-goers to be actresses in his film. That is a bit crass… I mean, at least have your friends in your indie flick! There was supposed to be a Q&A with the director, but sadly he could not attend. (It’s too bad, really. I would have liked to hear about his experience shooting the film while on tour.)

Since its not likely you’ll get the chance to see it outside the festival circuit, it’s safe to say I haven’t ruined it for you. Honestly, it was just okay to watch. The bad outweighed the good in most cases and besides the noteworthy soundtrack and a few chuckles and deep thoughts. It would be okay to miss too.

RATING:
Recommendation:  If you’ve seen it, comment if you agree or not. My guess is that this will not get a wide release. Only in San Francisco, where the audience will appreciate an artful lesbian love story with a happy ending.

Coraline Jones: How can you walk away from something and then come towards it?
Cat: Walk around the world.
Coraline Jones: Small world.

CORALINE (in 3D)
AMC Metreon – March 8, 2009

As a starter for Organized Confusion’s week long Animation Review Fest, I joyfully embarked on a new three-dimensional journey… The last 3D movie reviewed by Orgconfuz was Journey to the Center of the Earth, starring Brendan Fraser. Though a fun adaptation of the original, its effects were ultimately forgettable. At times, it seemed as though Journey merely treated the third dimension as a scapegoat for barf and spittake humor, therefore neglecting to move the story forward or even enhance the action around the scene. This is never the case in Henry Selick’s new 3D animated feature, Coraline. Even though my roommate and I were seated up in the third row due to a packed Sunday afternoon showing, it was clear that Coraline is truly a visual wonder to behold!

I enjoy the work of author/screenwriter Neil Gaiman, most famous for his graphic novel series of The Sandman (which I have not personally read but have heard excellent things about.) His last two movies, Mirrormask and Stardust, are among my top 100 films of the past decade. Not only are they beautifully constructed from the sets to the costumes and the cinematography, but the plot drives home a deeper meaning than the average children’s movie. Both story lines include journeys of triumph, self-discovery and travels between reality and fantastical worlds. Though dark overtones aid in the surreal and sometimes frightening subject matter, it is always engaging and refreshing to watch. No longer are we subject to the Damsel in distress fables, glorifying helpless victims needing to be saved. In these tales, you are your own hero… which may be the greatest lesson of all.

Coraline is no exception. Based on the poster advertising, the preconceived expectation was an Alice in Wonderland type of adventure. A girl who’s bored and/or unsatisfied with her life, goes exploring and finds a rabbit hole (or a wallpaper covered door). Through said door is an parallel universe, except that everything objectionable or “wrong” in the real world is now reversed and wonderful. The tagline “Be careful what you wish for” truly applies in this adventure. As Coraline gets trapped between these worlds, she must overcome the consequences and outwit her adversary to return to the life she once had. Again, what I particularly enjoyed about the character development here was that though Coraline may have felt fear, I never once perceived her as helpless. I knew she would find a way. I was rooting for her through every tricky situation. As with Gaiman’s other work, the story is less about the tale’s ultimate morale and more about the strength of the characters themselves.

In an interview, Neil Gaiman always knew that he wanted Coraline to be an animated film. He personally sent the manuscript to Henry Selick, eight months before it was published. He appreciated Selick’s directing approach on… The Nightmare before Christmas. It seems prudent to mention here a confusing discrepancy. Many moviegoers I have encountered are/were under the impression that Tim Burton had directed The Nightmare Before Christmas, as its unique style is widely attributed to his body of work. In fact, Tim Burton acted only as the writer and executive producer, but Henry Selick actually directed the film. This discrepancy is caused primarily by the movie’s promotional title, Tim Burton’s The Nightmare before Christmas – intrinsically linking Burton’s name with the film. Nowadays, it is not unheard of for one person to be credited on several levels: director, screenwriter, producer… all important and critical roles in the creative process. However, it stands to reason that many members of the general public might just automatically assume that the person presenting the film is and should be the film’s director, aka the person ultimately responsible for the film’s creative vision and style. As if this person is saying, “Here is my film as I intended it…” Not to suggest that a Hollywood film can be executed by one person alone, but why bother pointing it out at all? For the record, this acknowledgment is by no means meant to discredit Burton’s originality or talent. All I’m saying is I’d like to give credit where credit is due. I guess my underlying question here is: When Hollywood associates a name with a film, is it the responsible thing to also include the person’s title as well, merely for confusion’s sake? Or maybe I am just botching industry terminology here and “Presented by” is really a polite way of saying “Arranged to be Paid for by” which ultimately means the film’s producer? Do we consider “Spirited Away” a John Lasseter film because Disney/Pixar imported the brilliant work of Hayao Miyazaki? No, we don’t. Through Nightmare’s collaborative efforts, it appears that Burton’s vision was acheived, but where do we draw the creative line? Even after James and the Giant Peach was released, it was widely promoted – at least by word of mouth – as a “Burton film” but again was directed by Selick. While watching Coraline, I couldn’t help but wonder who’s influence had prevailed… Is Selick now showing his true brilliant colors? Hopefully, Coraline will just put an end to all this confusion and recognize Henry Selick as a visionary entity. (Wow, haven’t had a good rant in a while… lol) Incidentally, I also found out that Neil Gaiman was responsible for the English translation of Princess Mononoke – a nice sidebar tangent, but circles the point back around nicely.

Super Props for casting John Hodgeman (aka PC of the Mac commercials!) TRIVIA: The singing voice of Other Father is actually John Linnell from They Might Be Giants, who composed the little "Coraline ditty" used in the film.

All this is relevant because while watching Coraline, one can’t help but be engrossed visually, regardless of previous work. This film succeeds in breaking new ground in the world of stop-motion animation. According to an interview at Studiodaily.com, Selick revealed that though stop-motion animation was utilized in 90 percent of the film, the entire film was shot digitally, Selick’s first attempt at combining traditional techniques with all the advantages of the digital format.”There are many reasons to do this but the best for me was the workflow—to be able to shoot a test and see it immediately rather than waiting for dailies. It made the whole process more fluid. I could do dailies four times a day and at the end, all day. It was liberating for that flow of imagery to have been enhanced so much by shooting digitally.”

All in all, a fantastic film! GO SEE IT NOW!! I want to see it again before it goes out of the theaters soon… My roommate also loved it and she hasn’t been to a 3D film since she was a kid!

RATING:
Recommendation: So excellent in fact that I’m afraid the 2D version just won’t live up to the Live 3D experience. Perhaps a DVD follow-up is in order.

COMING UP ON ORGCONFUZ!

Hello everyone! Organized Confusion is back with an onslaught of reviews…

Next week, ORGCONFUZ is hosting a week long ANIMATION REVIEW FEST, including Coraline in 3D, Watchmen (animation adjacent, but still great), a combined review of Waltz With Bashir / Persepolis, and Richard Linklater’s Waking Life.

Also, next week is the San Francisco Asian American Film Festival. Many films are world-premieres and directed by some amazingly talented international directors (Michel Gondry of ETERNAL SUNSHINE for example…) Look for ORGCONFUZ recommendations on DVD!

Stay tuned!!! It’s good to be back…

sfsunrise
Uploaded by kdt42

Lots of things happening right now, but first and foremost… My move to San Francisco is official! I will be packing up and heading west as soon as next week. What this means for Organized Confusion? I’m not sure. Maybe I’ll see a movie or two on the way… otherwise, the next post will be coming from the opposite coast. Yay!

Yes, the Tony Bennett reference is a bit much, but I can’t help but be giddy.

NEW EPISODE of The Organized Confusion Playlist!

- CLICK HERE -

I’d like to take this opportunity to encourage everyone to go see Paul Blart: Mall Cop this weekend.

An old high school Thespian classmate of mine is in it, Stephen Rannazzisi. From what I can see from the trailer and the exclusive clips on the offical website, Steve plays a disgruntled hostage that may know Blart personally and looks down on his ability to protect the mall. Steve just recently became a father, so I plan go to support the box office opening weekend and I hope you will too!

ROHL: Societies like to think they operate by something called morality. But they don’t. They operate by something called law… Remember, the question is never ‘Was it wrong?’ but ‘Was it legal?’ And not by our laws, no, by the laws at the time.
DIETER: (frowns, unhappy): But isn’t that… narrow?
ROHL: Yes. The law is narrow.

The Reader
AMC Stony Brook – January 14

Semi-spontaneously, I went to see The Reader today as a matinee with my Mom – which is exactly how it should be seen. Despite the matinee senior citizen crowd, this is a gentle film with hard subject matter.

As far as the plot is concerned, it focuses mainly on one gentleman (Ray Fiennes) Micheal Berg’s memory of an boyhood affair (younger self admirably played by David Kross) with an older woman (Kate Winslet) in Berlin just prior to WWII. After a whirlwind summer romance comes to an end, they go their separate ways only to meet again under terrible and gut-wrenching circumstances. The timeline is very shifty, even with dates in subtitles. Their relationship, however, remains strong through to the conclusion. Based on a book written by Bernhard Schlink, this is an intense but wonderfully told story of secrets, love and morality.

Seems that Hollywood has opened the book on Nazi Germany recently with such films as Valkyrie and references in The Unborn (according to Lyons & Bailes). Admittedly, I have not personally sought out much material on this subject since taking part in a Holocaust play called I Never Saw Another Butterfly about children of Auschwitz, as well as The Diary of Anne Frank in high school. As a tall, blond-haired blue-eyed girl, the only role I could play was Mies, the German woman who hid the family from the Nazis. From that experience, I learned a great deal about the struggle not only of the Jewish people, but of the Germans who did everything they could to help.

The performances were outstanding in this film, across the board. As I stated earlier, I particularly enjoyed the performance of David Kross who played Young Michael. He held his own against the tour-de-force that is Kate Winslet. Surprisingly, Nicole Kidman was originally slated for the role but had to drop out due to an unscheduled but much welcomed pregnancy, according to many internet sources. However, the studio’s first choice was originally Kate Winslet ironically, who at the time had turned it down because of conflicts with Revolutionary Road. Kind of hard to pass up the opportunity to work not only with heartthrob Leo Dicaprio again (lol yeah, I said it), but also with her husband and director Sam Mendes of American Beauty fame. And it’s a good thing she did! Worked out for everyone in the end… From this performance, it is clear why she won the Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress. (Congrats on both wins, Kate!) I don’t know if any actress has ever won in both categories before, but either way it still an amazing accomplishment! Lena Olin has a small but fierce part – to call it a cameo just would not do it justice. Well done! Also, it was nice to see Ray Fiennes in another role before the next 3 Harry Potter films commence.

Beautiful storytelling aside, I have to say that the affair was handled quite tastefully. Everyone seems to be making a fuss about the nudity… even though Kate Winslet has shed her clothes in a now infamous scene in one of the highest grossing films of all-time. Even Oprah was praising Winslet for having natural breasts. Though the sex scenes are a little hot and heavy for a casual movie outing, I guess so is a movie about the Holocaust. (aka choose your company wisely and it can be a great time!)

RATING:
Recommendation: See with a friend, lover or if you are comfortable enough, a parent with surrounding octogenarians.

One year ago today, I posted my first review of Juno… Even though I am on hiatus due to a cross country move and other such nonsense, I wanted to take a moment to say thanks to all of the readers of ORGCONFUZ this year. It’s been a wild ride. Look for more reviews in the coming year!

Ben Thomas: I haven’t treated myself very well.
Emily Posa: Start now.

Seven Pounds
AMC Stony Brook – December 19, 2008

Right before the snow hit, my friend Drew and I ventured out at 11 am to see the second showing of the newly released movie Seven Pounds. This will be a brief review: not only because of my hiatus, but because this film is one that is better off shrouded in mystery.

I recently saw Will Smith and Rosario Dawson on Oprah, who was singing the movie’s praises like one of her book-club books. However, all three found it difficult to discuss the plot. Gushing from Obama’s presidential win, Will Smith did his best not to cry during the interview (to a hilarious end). Lovely as ever, Rosario Dawson continued with their experience filming the heart-breaking love scene depicted above. (Including what Jada Pinkett-Smith had to say… I’m not one for celebrity gossip, but Rosario gets the better of Will here and he’s a great sport about it.)

Needless to say it is beautifully shot and takes its viewers along an emotional (aka depressing) ride. In the interview, Will states that it was about profound loss and the emotional turmoil akin to true human experience. He has been branching out more into this realm, most recently with The Pursuit of Happyness which shares the same director Gabriele Muccino as well as the producers for Seven Pounds. Though I have not seen his last couple of movies – same goes for Hancock – I believe that Smith’s amazing potential as an gifted actor shows as many layers as the movie itself did. In that sense, its hard to know what kind of movie it is. This film transcends genre. The trailer does a pretty good job of illustrating the sense that you can not truly understand until you see the film. In the good way though, not the old bait and switch.

The synopsis as succinct as possible: The emotional journey of a man who sets out to change the lives of seven strangers. Without giving away too much of the plot, Ben Thomas is a complex and deeply troubled man on a path to redemption. Will Smith is perfectly cast here and I look forward to more roles of this nature. In fact, the whole cast was well-suited, particularly Rosario Dawson who somehow brought a whole other level of sensitivity to the role. As stated in her interview, her character engages the viewer with a line of sad and unfortunate circumstances, all the while Emily Posa handles herself with grace and dignity throughout. Also, Woody Harrelson shows up here as unexpectedly as his last cameo appearance in No Country for Old Men. A thankless role, but well played.

The soundtrack sticks out in my mind as being a tad too punchy at times, in an “insert correct emotional response here” type of way. Specifically, the use of a personal favorite song One of These Things First by Nick Drake seemed somewhat superfluous for the aligned moment. Maybe I’m just used to associating Nick Drake with John Cusack in a happily contemplative moment like in Serendipity. Here, it just seemed to take me out of the scene that supposed to be rife with emotion. Remarkably, our movie showing also had technical difficulties: some projection and sound problems. This really surprised me since it was only the second showing of that movie in this particular theater… For those who have seen the film and want to know, Emily Posa’s song is For Me, Formidable by Charles Aznavour. (Youtube includes the lyrics in the video notes. It’s a cute scene, but I couldn’t understand them either. lol)

If you want to read a hysterical and spoilerific review by a New York Times reviewer that unequivocally HATED this film, go here. It’s funny, mostly because I don’t think they got it. Another strong review with excellent summation, spoiler and not, is here. (Thanks BenAmor!)

On the whole, not fully knowing what to expect plotwise is the best way to go here.

RATING: ***/5 (UPDATE 12/30: Was originally a four, but upon further reflection, it was just a “worth seeing” kind of movie.)
Recommendation: Just a bit too sad for a date movie, to be honest. Was worth the chance to see it in the theater. However if you – like so many nowadays – have become an economically conscious neo-purist who reserves ticket-buying for the huge special effects blockbusters, then save it for rental.

Yet another sidenote, but I can’t help myself…