Film Criticism

The Most Basic Form of Mind Control is Repetition

Submitted by Aaron Weiss on Thu, 06/24/2010 - 13:06

I remember watching Beetlejuice with my aunt when I was 4 or 5 years old. I was thrilled beyond belief, loving the goofy, yet grotesque world of both the dead and the living. My aunt however, was scared. I turned to her, "It's only a movie".

I certainly believe that I have been very desensitized to films as my parents took me to see such horrific films such as Total Recall and Look Who's Talking when I was so young. They even took me to see Howard Stern's Private Parts when I was 12 because my brother was interested in becoming a radio personality (and now he is). While Private Parts is of course an auto-biopic, that film and the other films I mentioned are relatively adult for a 4 or 5 year old.

I'm now 25 years old, and I often find myself telling people the same thing when they see movies. Yet I hesitate to agree with myself. Movies are not always just movies. Cinema can be, and often is art. Cinema is a language. Film can change who we are, who we want to be. Those films never made me want to replicate their scenes, and I learned at an early age that movies were a magical experience, and later that they were an artful experience.

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A Serious Man Revisited

Submitted by Aaron Weiss on Fri, 06/04/2010 - 15:00

The Jew Abides.

Since my original review of A Serious Man, it was nominated for 2009 Academy Award for Best Picture. While I certainly believe that A Serious Man was easily one of the best from 2009, it was never a favorite to win, especially with the new ten spots available for the top Oscar prize. It is too oddball and uncommon to have enough backing from the already too political Academy Award voting system. Regardless, A Serious Man is very much a serious film that offers a plethora of substance and meaning and stands proudly in the Coen Brothers filmography.

The Coen Brothers crank up the absurdity that they are so well known for with A Serious Man. Close to Barton Fink and The Big Lebowski, A Serious Man should be up there in terms of genius filmmaking that is meant to offer a comical nudge to serious subjects.

What makes A Serious Man such an important turning point for the Coen Brothers is how they chose their next projects after their 2007 Best Picture win with No Country For Old Men. Rather than turning up the notch with something far bolder, more mainstream, the siblings took a step back with Burn After Reading, which was a fresh step back from the intense, unstoppable force in No Country for Old Men.

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Minnie and Moskowitz

Submitted by Aaron Weiss on Mon, 05/24/2010 - 11:03
Four Days of Fighting For Love

Minnie and MoskowitzCassavetes scores big with this romantic comedy.

Instead of Minnie and Mickey Mouse, we have Minnie and Moskowitz. Seymour Moskowitz (Seymour Cassel) is unable to successfully speak to women without having to be harassed by other men. He hops a flight to California thanks to his mom (played by Mrs. Cassavetes) and winds up as a parking attendant in Los Angeles. Minnie Moore (Gena Rowlands) early in the film during a drunken night admits to her friend and co-worker that "the movies" gave her a bum deal. They made her believe that there was the idea of true love.

Minnie is set-up on what becomes a terrible date with a very miserable man, which leads her to meet Seymour in the parking lot and "saves" her and then "scares" her back to her work, where she is then dumped by her lover, played by John Cassavetes. Seymour almost immediately falls for Minnie and works like a dog to get her to love him back.

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Husbands

Submitted by Aaron Weiss on Fri, 05/21/2010 - 10:37
A Sorid Look into Men of Middle-Age

HusbandsThe Battle of Middle-Age & Middle-Class

Husbands has two specific parts, America and London. The film begins with three men, all good friends, attending the funeral of their friend. This sudden event has shocked the three into spending two days together bumming about in the subways, playing basket ball and an overtly long, impromptu singing contest between them and many other drunken participants in a bar. After a long, dramatic and passionate fight between Harry (Ben Gazzara) and his wife, the three board a plane to London where they end up meeting women at a casino.

In London, the three enter a casino where the three hit on several women, whom they bring back to their hotel rooms. The rest of the film examines the how the three interact with the women in their separate rooms in lengthy vignettes. Gus (Cassavetes) and Archie (Falk) finally end up back in their suburban lives, where they attempt to return to their homes with presents, and the uncertainty of Harry's future with his family as he chose to remain in London.

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Faces

Submitted by Aaron Weiss on Wed, 05/19/2010 - 14:28
A Turning Point for Independent Cinema

FacesFaces reveals the emotion behind the facade.

The high contrast black and white photography of Faces shows the harshness that middle class has become, but it is the acting and performances that draw out the beauty of human-kind. John Cassavetes once again presents a story that reveals love by exposing the weaknesses that is beneath our tough exteriors.

Richard (John Marley) and Maria Frost (Lynn Carlin) are on the verge of ending their fourteen-year marriage and the two find themselves realizing their new beginnings apart by taking different paths of freedom. Richard retreats to the home of a prostitute (Gena Rowlands) to join in on the drinking with her friend and two other drunks. Maria and a few friends  find a club where she meets Chet (Seymour Cassel).

Chet ends up offending, ignoring, and flirting with Maria's friends, only to later sleep with Maria. The next morning, Maria overdoses on Chet's sleeping pills and Chet provokes her to vomit and barely able to keep her from certain death. The film ends with Richard discovering Chet's escape and takes off in pursuit. Richard returns and the film ends with both Maria and Richard sitting on the stairs, defeated and out of love.

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Shadows

Submitted by Aaron Weiss on Mon, 05/17/2010 - 15:00
A Pivotal Independent Film

ShadowsBeauty lies within the darkness of shadows.

Shadows is an pivotal moment in film history, especially so for independent cinema. John Cassavetes' directorial debut, and in someways, the debut of independent cinema, changed American film forever. The film shows the inexperience of the filmmakers and talents, but the film's content is indeed wise.

The actual story in Shadows is loose and does not follow a conventional or formalistic plot that is typical of Hollywood. About fifty percent of this film is just two groups of Manhattanites just hanging out, enjoying life, enjoying the city, enjoying each other.

Lelia (Lelia Goldoni) a gorgeous girl lives with her older brothers Benny (Ben Carruthers) and Hughie (Hugh Hurd) who are both unemployed or struggling within the local Jazz community. While Hughie is a darker skinned black man, Lelia and Benny are much lighter skinned, often passing for white people. She meets Tony, a fast-talking white guy, and the two hit it off for what would be Lelia's first sexual encounter. When Tony finally meets Hughie, he realizes that he's been dating a black girl, and he sends himself in a rage and flees the apartment almost immediately.

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The Man Behind Independent Cinema

Submitted by Aaron Weiss on Tue, 05/11/2010 - 13:06

John CassavetesImage from Filmbug.

Last month was the Florida Film Festival I had a blast volunteering for nearly 40 hours within 10 days while I worked full-time at my day job. I saw several films, all of which that I reviewed here on CinemaFunk. One of my last volunteer shifts I had the pleasure to see the end of the John Cassavetes retrospective.

Hosted by my former UCF instructor, Peg O'Keefe with guests Gena Rowlands who was Cassavetes' wife and Semour Cassel who was a long-time collaborator. I stood there and realized that I had never seen any films directed by John Cassavetes. I've heard of him, but never experienced his work.

Between May 17th-31st, CinemaFunk will review and discuss several of his films in a John Cassevettes Restrospective, screened in order of their release. I know nothing of any of these films and I'm looking forward to learning greatly from this director.

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Fantastic Mr. Fox Revisited

Submitted by Aaron Weiss on Thu, 04/29/2010 - 21:08

Fantastic Mr. FoxFantastic Mr. Fox is clever and sly, just like a fox

My original review of Fantastic Mr. Fox was oddly brief and non-complete, especially for a Wes Anderson fan and completest like me. I look back at that review and I find it slapdash and non-deserving of such few superlatives.

Nearly half a year has gone by since the film was originally released in theaters and is now available on home video and I've got a lot more to say, particularly with where Fantastic Mr. Fox belongs within the Wes Anderson filmography.

Full disclosure: I'm a gigantic Wes Anderson fan and you can find a in-depth essay I wrote about his work as an auteur filmmaker.The essay discusses Anderson's signature style and frequent elements that he continuously uses.

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Film Criticism Is Not Dead. Primitive Media Outlets are Dying.

Submitted by Aaron Weiss on Fri, 04/23/2010 - 14:57

Apparently, Harry Knowles killed film criticism.

As with most traditional media forms, film criticism in the age of the Internet appears to be changing drastically. In March 2010, At The Movies was canceled and in February 2010, Todd McCarthy was fired from Variety.

Thomas Doherty's "Death of Film Criticism" is a rant about the demise of the academic form. He essentially arrives at the idea that "unpaid fan-bloggers are more independent, more honest, and more in sync with the mass audience than the jaded sexagenarians." Film criticism is not dead; far from it to be exact. It is the outdated media outlets that are dying.

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A Case Against 3D Cinema

Submitted by Aaron Weiss on Wed, 04/07/2010 - 19:01

The reproduction of life has and always will be the manifest destiny of humans. The evolution of cinema and its cousins television and video games have continually pushed our species closer and closer to this reality--to engulf ourselves into another reality. Technology will eventually reach a plateau when it comes to reproducing reality and will ultimately fail long term.

3D technology dates back the earliest moments of cinema but came to prominence in the 1950s, where theaters were in a tense battle with television. The on set of television created a panic in the film industry to maintain their viewership.

Dozens of gimmicks were employed to keep seats filled. By the mid-1960s nearly all gimmicks used during this time period had disappeared. Film studios chose to succumb to the "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em" motto and simply began to purchase television stations, and later entire networks.

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