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christopherhaan
Reviews
Kikareta onna no mirareta yoru (2006)
Eavesdropping gone Mad
The plot of this modern, low-budget Japanese movie is about two young guys bugging the apartment of the same young hot chick. The main twist to the plot is that one guy is actually the boyfriend of the woman at the same time that he is secretly bugging her place, and the other guy lives in the apartment right next door. Over time there are strange discoveries, fantasies thwarted, and ingenious methods used to win over the girl. Although the movie starts out with a pretty dull premise, the full plotting of the movie makes it an above-average film. In between the plot, the film highlights the struggles of young, hip, urban, crazy Japanese life. It shows that creativity and idiosyncrasies can be found behind any facade, any place, any country.
Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (1986)
This Movie Might Truly Be Morally Wrong(I am against censorship)
Brian Fairbanks user comment(read above) on this movie was almost perfect. I can't improve upon his review of this movie. I will just put in my 2 cents worth of impressions. I first saw 'Henry' a few nights after I watched all the horror fests on TV Halloween night, with people like Rob Zombie and buddies presenting John Carpenter's "Halloween," and the great Wes Craven's 'Elm Streets.' I scanned my TV for the requisite numerous gorefests, such as "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre movie franchises and Friday the 13th franchises and got my usual half-thrill from these used-to-be-shocking horror films. That was when I came across 'Henry' on IFC. I started watching, vaguely remembering a shocked reviewer's comments about the movie years ago in a long-forgotten arts weekly mag. For the next hour and a half I watched Henry, my mind reeling with what I was witnessing. My blood-pressure got dangerously high. I had to pop pills to stop myself from peeing my pants. 'Henry' left me disturbed for weeks. I think there should be a real debate whether this movie could permanently scar vulnerable people's psyches. I am still wondering if this movie should be made illegal. My guess is that real serial killers would get turned on by this movie.
Seed (2000)
A Very Interesting Faux Documentary About Life + Death
I just saw this movie on IFC and when I hit the info button on my remote I saw that the movie was only rated 2 1/2 stars out of 4. Who determines those ratings??? This movie is truly fantastic. It is hip, original, weird, illuminating... something meant to be seen again and again over time. The movie hinges on one guy interacting with a huge variety of people in many different settings, exploring heavy philosophical questions that are answered better by ordinary people better than any philosopher could do. After seeing this movie, I think a cool, open person could have their perspective, maybe even their whole attitude deeply affected. I think this movie is a work of art that is better than many films that have won the Academy Award as Best Picture.
Grizzly Man (2005)
One Man's Sublimation
One lonely "man", subliminally projecting, mad, artistically yearning ... is what this movie was about. The acclaimed arty filmmaker Verner Herzog discovered a man named Timothy Treadwell who committed suicide by bear. Herzog looked at the footage Treadwell shot of himself alone with Alaskan brown bears and saw in Treadwell's videography this mad genius artiste who documented his long struggle to fulfill his death wish to die by ferocious animal. Right in the opening scene, Treadwell reveals his raw psyche, he rants and raves about his life-or-death macho mastery over grizzlies, all the while his ridiculously gentle, repressed twink persona shines through brightly. The psycho-analysis is too obvious to ignore and one scene after another reveals layers of Treadwell trying to come to grips with his demons and each time failing miserably and projecting his repressed self-hate on others(various governmental agencies, backwoodsmen, wildlife professionals, etc.). The crux of this self-hate is best revealed in an amazing scene in which Treadwell is walking towards his bear buddies and filming himself from a hand-held, close-up profile shot. He goes into one of his long expositions, but this time it is not the usual diatribe but rather a very personal confession about his sexual-romantic frustrations. He laments about why women don't sexually like him and I personally could imagine hearing the psychiatrist-in-the-sky(with Herzog's voice)saying "Are you certain that it is the women who lack the sexual attraction?" Treadwell shows great pathos and unconscious artistic feel in his relation with bears and I found the the strongest theme of the movie Treadwell's sad attempt to be a "man" when every fiber of his being is obviously exactly the opposite.
Million Dollar Baby (2004)
Television Writer Hits the Big Time
This movie won the Academy Award for best picture, and has been hailed in many quarters as profound and moving. Either I am getting more and more out-of-touch with modern Western (maybe American) sensibility, or some kind of hyper-calculated dark force is taking over the dramatic arts (American TV and movies especially). I could barely stay awake as I watched it. The movie starts out oddly flat and moves slowly through one calculated scene after another. In terms of the boxing background and the fight scenes, although maybe it is more accurate than Rocky, it certainly was only technically average. Of course, the cinematography is first-rate, and the three lead actors, Eastwood, Swank and Freeman, all have great screen presence, but the movie smelled of melodrama from beginning to end and it left me feeling strangely cold. I think we need a new phrase to describe the kind of mood this movie evinced. What comes to mind for me is 'cynical corniness.' The same phrase aptly applies to what has metastasized on American television in recent years, i.e., the CSI franchise and the Law and Order franchise.
Paul Haggis is the television writer who wrote the screenplay, and he transferred into the film the same sensibility that has taken over much of TV: Protagonists (heroes) are cynical, cold, and sardonic, yet totally loved for all their deficiencies, and characters who are weird or odd are definitely worthless and possibly evil. However, to conceal the cynicism of this dark social matrix, the de rigueur of this sensibility is to press the correct socio-political buttons. If the pathos is false and calculated, it is much harder for an audience to detect it when the drama is cornered with progressively correct structures--i.e., Hilary Swank as the poor, female boxer. So when she is paralyzed in a fight at the cusp of being champion by a ridiculously evil tactic by the 'weird other' (the other boxer), then we are supposed to feel so sad as she is heroically euthanized on her request by America's Tough-Guy-With-A-Heart Hero, Clint Eastwood (with wise black man Morgan Freeman as a muse). It is a foolproof, bathetic structure that hides from the audience the deeper, more general bigotry and facile stereotyping in the film. For example, Swank's character comes from white trash, and the way the movie shows this is done with all the subtlety of a bad cartoon. Her amazing progress as a fighter is extremely corny. She goes from wide-eyed ingenue to a totally dominant fighter in awkward and unrealistic steps. But because we have Clint as the cynical foil, and Morgan Freeman looming around in his typical saint role, many of the contrived scenes somehow served as ballast to keep this turkey afloat.
The pathetic, southern, white-boy, wannabee boxer named 'Danger' also fills a void in the film by being just the right category of odd thing that the modern, hip person can hate safely. His vibe is corny and his existence is totally unrealistic in a gritty, underground boxing gym, but, just like Clint's, Morgan's and Hilary's, his character constitutes exactly the right socio-political button. I have to be careful here: I am not trying to give ammunition to right-wingers. I have no problem with progressive ideals, i.e., women being tough as men, and freedom of choice over dogma. The problem I have is when these ideals are simply buttresses to conceal and build a calculated cynicism. This ideological process is manifesting very strongly on American television right now and, I fear, it is spreading to the movies. Can't anyone else see this???