My Top Ten Films List (Please act surprised)

Well, this weeks topic seems all too perfect for my little set up I have going here, does it not? When writing out my list prior to writing this piece I noticed something- many of the films I have already discussed also coincide in my top ten list of favorite films (although my top three favorites have yet to get a blog entry of their own). Considering this, I have decided to only include films I have yet to blog about, in order to prevent stagnant discussion. So, here we go, my top ten favorite films I have not yet talked about.

10. This Film is Not Yet Rated. I am starting my countdown with a documentary, a documentary on film making itself, actually. This movie follows Kirby Dick, an Oscar-nominated director as he tries to expose the twelve secret board members of the MPAA with the help of a private investigator. Throughout this journey, Dick also teaches the viewer of the MPAA's biases against sexuality and independence. The film really does make you think about how exactly one sees the films they see, and the censorship that goes on behind closed doors on behalf of the major film studios. In my opinion, this documentary falls under the category of "must-see" more than many other films on this list, just to learn of the great amount of censorship that exists within our film industry. This Film is Not Yet Rated Trailer

9. Reservoir Dogs. Quentin Tarantino's first movie and my first Tarantino movie I ever saw. This film explores Tarantino's signature non sequential plot structure as well as his breaking films into sections. The movie itself is about the before and after of a failed jewelry heist, following many principle characters as they try to find out how to find out which of their six man team is actually an undercover police officer. Reservoir Dogs just screams out Tarantino's style and simply is just a whole lot of fun to watch. The opening scene of Reservoir Dogs

8.Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb. Look at that title! This film marks Stanley Kubricks venture into comedy, black comedy. Released in 1964, Kubrick's film shows its insane amount of bravery, as the film turns the nature of the Cold War into a very comedic matter (this was released just months after Kennedy's assassination and written just after the Bay of Pigs incident, mind you). Strangelove has the most interesting and unique comedic styles I have ever seen, mixing deadpan, black comedy, and slapstick together into a masterpiece of film making. This scene is my absolute favorite in the film, as actor Peter Sellers completely improvises the entire conversation (this was one of the only times Kubrick ever let anyone improvise, as he was a notorious perfectionist).

7. Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About his Father. By talking about this documentary I am breaking one of the primary rules I abide by when recommending this film: do not tell them anything about it. IMDB describes the film as "A filmmaker decides to memorialize a murdered when his ex-girlfriend announces she is expecting his son" and that's really the best way to describe it without saying too much.  This film has had the greatest emotional impact on me out of any film by a long shot. I am not ashamed to say that have cried for minutes after both times I have viewed it. I recommend it to you all, but advise you to set aside some of your day after watching, you will need it (I'm not including any video for this for obvious reasons).

6. Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance. The first and only foreign language film on the list, this movie is the first of Park Chan-Wook's "Vengeance Trilogy", a trilogy of thematically connected films dealing with, obviously, vengeance (I discussed the middle film of this trilogy, Oldboy, in a previous blog, by the way). Korean film really brings out the moral ambiguity of our world, especially in this film as the two protagonists, both deeply flawed seek revenge upon one another for various reasons. I take great joy out of watching this with friends, as they all tend to take different stances on which protagonist deserves to die more than the other. A deeply dark drama, Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance really does show the shift towards an international film industry and the extent of what human nature can drive us to. Here's this one's trailer.

5. Children of Men. A dystopian film without any world destroying diseases, bombs, or wars, Children of Men focuses on the future of an earth when humans can suddenly no longer reproduce. The cinematography of this movie completely blows my mind, with expansive long-takes and interesting camera angles. It also explores the word of the ability to hope and forgive (quite relate able to our book). They do not pull any punches on this one and it creates very intense action, emotional drama, and questions the viewers philosophies regarding life, another "must-see", in my opinion. A scene from the film, it does have some minor spoilers (all in one take).

4. Taxi Driver. The film that almost killed President Reagan, Taxi Driver functions as a character study on the elusively sociopathic Travis Bickle, as well as the rotting city that is New York. I first saw this movie around six years ago and can say that it sparked the great passion I have for films today. Scorsese really does put all he has into this film, and one can not help but fall into the dark world he creates within the character's mind. Probably the most famous scene from the film.

3.The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly. The essential western film. This Clint Eastwood classic really does, in my opinion, exemplify all of the films in this genre. Lying, stealing, murder, sex, you name it, its here and this movie does it all so well that it really does not need an explanation. Movies like this are American classics and a "must-watch" at some point in every American citizen's life. A fan compilation of the film

2. The Shining. The second and final Kubrickian masterpiece on the list, and my favorite film of my favorite director. When I say this that this movie scared me more than any other I usually get weird stares, as the film rarely tries to scare you in a conventional manner. Kubrick takes the viewer in between a level of immersion and awareness, you become engrossed in the world, yet at the same time are aware the world is fictional. It creates this horrible sense of impending doom that just builds and builds as the film progresses. The Shining does not work as a make-you-scream type of movie, it gets you extremely nervous, you keep repeating "I know something awful is going to happen" but it seemingly never comes. When I first watched it it drove me to the point to where I had to stop the film repeatedly to calm down due to how nervous I was watching it. This scene really shows what I mean, the conversation shifts from simple small talk to "how to murder your wife and child" seamlessly.

1. There Will Be Blood. Finally, my favorite film of all time (this is the one with the famous "I drink your milkshake" scene). I love this movie for its acting (anyone who knows me well enough knows that I have an unhealthy obsession with the lead actor, Daniel Day-Lewis), characters, and message. The film at its most basic level serves a very interesting character study on the "Oil Man" Daniel Plainview. DDL pulls this part off amazingly and rightfully won an Oscar for the performance to just give a brief example. On a deeper lever, There Will Be Blood examines the conflicting relationships between America's love of capitalism and religious family values, as the two leading characters serve as symbols for them, Daniel, the Oil Man, as capitalism, and Eli, the preacher, as religious values. This is absolute "must-see" material in my opinion, so please watch if you have not already. Just a scene from this wonderful film.

Well, that about does it, if I had to pick just three for you to watch (this is for anyone who wants just a general overview) I'd say #10, #5, and #1. Thank you and goodnight, my friends.

"Because She's got a Beard"

I remember when I used to take offense to things. Believe it or not, I used to come off as quite the activist, vocalizing my opinions whenever I felt necessary(usually unnecessarily). When my mind drifts towards the phrase "I remember" I find myself making my way to the topic on subjective memory. It really does fascinate me that when a group of people experience the same event they can take so many different perspectives, opinions, and actions out of it. My writing partner, Dani, and I have brought up this topic occasionally when journaling; we both tend to focus on entirely different premises in our journals, despite having the same originating quote, source, etc. Both of us can take the same basic concept and turn it into something completely different.

I can only imagine your anticipation for the film I will chose this week (in case you've never visited my blog before, or heard of the theme I have going, I talk about movies). The most obvious choice is Akira Kurosawa's Rashomon, a film that practically invented the "That's not how I remember it!" trope. The film plays out as a crime mystery, in which four different people, a bandit, a housewife, a samurai, and a woodcutter, tell their sides to the murder-mystery.

However, I will not talk about Rashomon, despite it fitting quite nicely, as both it and Kafka on the Shore both hail from Japan. No, I will be traveling to the UK to talk about one of my favorite comedies, Four Lions. Now, I tend to refrain from recommending comedy movies to others due to the very subjective nature of the genre, just like memory (did you catch that smooth connection?). Four Lions is no exception to this rule; I actually restrain myself more for this film just because of its comedic style. Four Lions is both a British Comedy and a Black Comedy (Black Comedy as in gallows humor, not the Madea series), so obviously it comes of as quite dry. Once again, not for everybody. Remember at the beginning when I talked about how I used to get offended? Can you guess the reasoning for that point? Here's why (an exert of the Netflix description of the film): "[an] outrageous comedy about a group of young Islamic Brits who fancy themselves bloodthirsty jihadis of the first order".

The movie focuses on a  group of four Islamic terrorists as they look for a target to suicide bomb. It's basically the Three Stooges, but if they were terrorists.

Four Lions' comedy may come off as offensive to some, unfunny to others, and hilarious to many, but the point I'm trying to make here is that all of these opinions are correct. People's opinions differ, taste is subjective. I may find this film hilarious, I'm sure that others find it repulsive. It does not matter how we react to it though, as long as we do not shove one opinion onto others, claiming its objectivity. While I am recommending this film to those who still have interest after learning more about it (on Netflix instant watch), if you would rather pass it up I will not condemn you, just do not go spouting your opinions off on everyone else who did not conform to you.

A link to the trailer

What's It Going To Be Then, Eh?

     Ittying along with “International Week” I’d thought I would govereet a malanky bit about the odd pieces of culture in my vocabulary.  Oh my brothers, if you have trouble ponying what I govereet now, then I hope you can last through my bolnoy display of verbal brilliance. The language, of course, is not actually a language, but a slang eemyad “Nadsat”. It comes from a real horrorshow book, and later a Stanley Kubrick sinny, A Clockwork Orange. The author, Anthony Burgess,  thought any slang would drift from the height-of-literary-fashion and thought up a doby new one, a mix of cockney(“Appy Polly Loggies” for apologies), Russian (“Droog” for friend) and Gypsy-speak (“Oh my brothers”, for example). This combination privodeeted him into one of the most iconic slangs ever created, right along with Newspeak from 1984. Anyways, after viddying/reading A Clockwork Orange too many times t, I noticed that a choodesney thing had started to happen to my speech, it started changing. The most used slovos of Nadsat crept into your humble narrator’s rasoodock and stayed there.

     I started unknowingly peppering my speech with slovos like “horrorshow”, “viddy”, and “droog” and only until some lewdies brought it to my attention did I actively slooshy and govoreet in Nadsat. I continued to add slovos to my vocabulary until I reached a precipice where my droogs pulled me aside and told me I spoke so much it sounded like chepooka (nonsense, that is). I do admit, I sounded a bit gloopy, and was even unintelligible at times when I govoreeted  with a full vocabulary, so I toned it down a malanky bit, only govoreeting  at polezny times, when I wanted to show off to my droogs who had not had the pleasure of slooshying it for the first time. 

Eventually, like all dialects that you cannot share with others, my Nadsat skills dropped really skarry-like. I smeck at the fact now, but before I got quite upset. I still ended up retaining some of my vocabulary though. I still hold on to droog and horrorshow, though many do not comment on it anymore, it moved from a weird slang I would govoreet in to a small section of my vocabulary, made up of thousands of other slovos. I just needed to find a balance between the overboard, "Oh my word, can anyone understand him?", and nothing at all.

      The main thing I want to skazat you, O my brothers and only friends, is that a dark sinny does not have to give off dark messages. Sure, A Clockwork Orange focuses on thugs, ultra-violence, and the oobivating (killing, that is), but I discovered a whole new way of govoreeting. No sinny can be truly baddiwad. A Clockwork Orange contains some of the most Bugatty literary material and social commentary out there, why condemn it to its current infamous existence? The protagonist may act like an oozhasny moodge, but Burgess never wanted people to try and emulate him. He focused on the language, on Nadsat, and created something beautiful.

     I went out and learned Nadsat, I'm not skazating you all to go out and do the same me, your humble narrator; replicating my actions would actually work against the messel I made up in my rasoodock  for you, O my brothers. Find something new, something strange, something interesting. All I want you, O my brothers, to do lies right in front of you; take something from your sinnys, your books, your warbles, and make it your own. Change yourself, add some flair, have fun. Farewell my little droogies, until we meet again.

A malenky bit of the sinny

A dictionary for the gloopy ones

I Love You, No Wait, I Don't.. Or Do I?

To start off, I will first explain that I will have to take a little different approach to the "stanza" rule to make my analysis work for my chosen song. The song I have chosen, "Possum Kingdom" by the Toadies, does not evoke the desired effect through just one stanza, but relies on the combined effect of the completed whole to achieve its message. The song, the Toadies' one-hit-wonder from 1994, plays out like a typical alternate rock(in this case Post-Grunge) love song: a rough-around-the-edges guy meets a nice girl and wants to her to give him a chance to express his love. The speaker asks his crush to "Make up your mind/Decide to walk with me/Around the lake tonight.../By my side"  serving as a synecdoche for the social tension between the two characters. The speaker also indirectly characterizes himself as gritty, stating that Behind the boathouse/ I will show you my dark secret". Our protagonist does display quite a soft side though, after the girl decides to take the walk with him, telling the girl he wants her to "be my lover" and his "blushing bride". The gritty man also flatters his potential lover, employing direct characterization when he claims she will "Stay as beautiful.../Forever". He continues to act like a typical love-struck young man, complimenting the girl and furthering continuing her characterization of eternal beauty, asking her to "Do you wanna/ be my angel?". Now's the part that makes me love this song: the last verse. The final verse consists of just one lyric, repeated eight times: "Do you wanna die?". Now the realization sets in; those compliments of eternal beauty and her acting as his "angel" are not sweet comparisons, he literally means what he says. Bodies do not age, by killing the girl, she becomes an angel, and our speaker's dark secret: he's a murderer.

The speed that this song switches tones makes me love it enough to analyze it, I really love anything that can make such a radical and quick switch and retain its audience. Once again, I will return to The Fall as my focal film of the week, as I did not talk about it at all in my first semester farewell. The story within a story structure and tone of this film lends itself to just this sort of thing, especially  do to the fact that it is told and partially controlled by a six year old with poor English skills. For example, towards the beginning of the film, the narrator, Roy, changes the protagonist of his story, The Masked Bandit's, voice and physical appearance more than once, all within 2 minutes. Aspects of Roy's story change on a dime in order to please the little girl into doing things for him. These story elements greatly help to further the effects of the tone and characterizations of the two primary characters in the movie: Roy and Alexandria. This quick changing technique, used both by The Fall and "Possum Kingdom" works very effectively to enhance the meaning and effects of both film and song, respectively.

Two links this time: This one to the scene from The Fall, and This to "Possum Kingdom" by the Todies.