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100 Movies in 2011 | #30 | Never Le Me Go (2010) | 5/10

I didn’t like the book so I have no idea why I thought the movie could or would change my mind. I’m not sure why but the story never clicked for me emotionally or intellectually. There were some nice shots though. Particularly the washed up boat sequence.

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It is impossible for me to look at this picture and not think of Battlestar Galactica.

May as well leave this here.

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100 Movies in 2011 | #29 | The Bridge(2006) | 3/10

Many years ago I read an article in The New Yorker called “Jumpers.” It was about suicide and the Golden Gate Bridge. I was able to look up and see the bridge in question from where I was sitting and I was truly affected by the story. A few years later Sleater-Kinney recorded a fantastic song called “Jumpers” which was inspired by the article. A year after that The Bridge, which, you guessed it, was also inspired by the piece in The New Yorker, was released. I felt like the subject in movie form had the potential to be the most moving of all, but the movie left me cold.

The Bridge is difficult to watch. Not only is it haunting and depressing and at least a bit sickening, but it lacks a solid sense of direction. It’s choppy, the interviews are often perplexing and maddening and it all ends up resulting in emptiness. On the plus side, the sequence with the survivor is interesting and the cinematography is often beautiful. Although, that’s to be expected when the visual subject of your camera is a structure as scenic and breathtaking as the Golden Gate Bridge.

There is a lot of talk about whether or not the movie is exploitative and as far as I’m concerned an argument could be made for both sides of that debate. And that’s my biggest problem with the film. It’s unsure of itself. It attempts to take on an extremely complicated and touchy subject and it fails to say much about it. It seemed as if the director read the same article I did and he decided it seemed like a good idea for a film but he didn’t know why. The Bridge is just kind of there. It exists and we see people jump and we hear their families speak but I don’t know what the movie is trying to say. Does a movie, and in particular a documentary, always have to have a thesis of sorts? No. But in this case I think the film was weaker for not taking a stand. On something. Something was just missing.

Ultimately, I highly recommend reading the source article and listening to Sleater-Kinney’s “Jumpers” for an artistic interpretation of that article, but I would not recommend the movie to anyone.

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100 Movies in 2011 | #28 | The Birds(1963) | 5/10

Ugh. It pains me to do this. I am a huge Hitchcock fan and The Birds was one of the last remaining movies of his that I hadn’t seen. I guess the concept of it was a little off putting to me to begin with and that’s probably why it took me so long get around to watching it. Maybe I should’ve trusted my instincts and stayed away in order to preserve my delusions of Hitchcock’s perfection.

The first half of the movie was totally unappealing to me. The characters were uninteresting and unlikeable and, while I’m usually blown away by Hitchcock’s flawless pacing, it was too slow. Things picked up once the birds started attacking but I was never pulled into the story. I didn’t care if the birds destroyed everything in sight or plucked the eyes out of any of the characters.

I was certainly impressed with the technical aspects of the film, there were moments of real anticipation and some of those shots of the birds were simultaneously beautiful and eerie but ultimately something was lacking. If Hitchcock had pushed things just a little bit further and let himself go completely over the top then I probably would’ve loved The Birds as some sort of self-parody but as it stands there was little reason for investment and certainly no payoff here.

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100 Movies in 2011 | #27 | 12 Monkeys(1995) | 9/10

I absolutely loved this. Every moment of it. The hilarious, campy, warped and twisted visions of the future found in movies like this (and The Fifth Element) amuse me to no end. Throw in some time travel, animal liberation, the use of Hitchcock and a manic Brad Pitt and you’ve got yourself a cult classic. It was funny and surreal and thought provoking and just the right amount of weird.

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moviesinframes:

12 Monkeys, 1995 (dir. Terry Gilliam)

[blu ray screencaps taken from www.cinemasquid.com] 

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(via phantasy-star)