Adventures From My Netflix Queue: Cashback

broderic on March 15, 2012

One of the first movies I bought off of iTunes was an Oscar nominée for short live action film of 2006, Cashback. While it didn’t win the Oscar, it became fixture on my iPhone for the simple fact that for a long time it was the only movie I had. Not until I figured out how to rip anime torrents did I have something else to watch.

I’ve watched the short film many times, and when I got Netflix I noticed that there was a full length feature similarly titled. How could I not notice. That damn one sheet with the topless girl on it kept popping up as a Netflix recommendation. I wasn’t so sure that it was the same movie, but I eventually added it to my queue. After several months it has finally popped to the front.

Cashback, the feature, expands on the story from the short. Ben Willis is working the night shift at the local grocery. He’s working his way through art college. It gives him the opportunity to stop time and draw the lady patrons naked. But it wasn’t all that. The back story included his breakup with his girlfriend, causing him insomnia, forcing him to take the night job to keep from being up all night, and falling in love with his co-worker.

Yup. It was a love story.

It was also a story about the work place. His supermarket was filled with the standard characters — an extreme stunt biker, the biker’s obnoxious hanger on, and the manager a la Michael Scott except into football. While he doesn’t hate his work or co-workers his passion for art makes him an outsider. He’s got ambition and while he gets over his breakup, he’ll make some money at work.

That’s about it. I really don’t have much to say except for boobies. Yeah, it wasn’t so bad as a film, but it really didn’t go beyond the short. I think that it could’ve been better if it focused more on his time stopping power. But it did have a wonderful moment: after being caught kissing his ex by his co-worker, whom he likes, he spends days in stop motion time trying to figure out how to win her back. All he knows is that he has to get her back, because he loves her. He shows it in an art show which I found somewhat creepy, but I don’t know – do girls dig that? Well, at least it had that moment in the movie.

One last note, did Trainspotting influence every British movie or what?

3 of 5 stars.

Safe House

broderic on March 6, 2012

I don’t think I have much to say about Safe House. It’s standard action fare — everyone mailing it in. Lots of close ups. Very grainy high definition video. It will be on video very soon. I don’t think you should watch it unless you are a Ryan Reynolds or Denzel completist.

3 of 5 stars.

The Secret World of Arrietty

broderic on February 22, 2012

Even without the master, Hayao Miyazaki, at the helm, I was going to watch The Secret World of Arrietty because I am a fan of animation and of anime. So I found myself at the local nickelodeon for a Saturday matinée surrounded by a full house of parents and kids. I try to avoid the kiddy matinée, because the restless kids don’t make for a good movie experience. I had to ignore all the fidgeting and the fusty parents, and when I did I had a wonderful time.

Every time I watch a Studio Ghibli film, I am left to wonder how can a male dominated society like the Japanese produce wonderful animated films with realistic female leads. Pixar is just finally finished its first film with a female lead. Disney has its princesses and all that they connote and denote.

3 of 5 stars

Link of the Day [2.13.12]

broderic on February 13, 2012

We are living in a time of transition from analog to digital. We have only just begun, and it is going to take awhile before we get there. What it's going to look like is anyone's guess. I believe we're still another 15 years before we're fully there, so there's still a lot of growth and pain to go through.So what happens to our old, analog stuff? And what will happen to our new, digital stuff? Again, it's anyone's guess, but there will be unintended consequences. We will have to relearn old tricks. We will have to redo our processes. We will have to re-imagine new ways.Today's link begins to discuss the digital transition for the film industry. Will our future be as rough as it is for the film industry? Who knows?http://www.davidbordwell.net/blog/index.php?s=pandora

The Woman In Black

broderic on February 7, 2012

The problem with the ghosts in The Woman In Black is that they are real. There is nothing left to the imagination. It was a real ghost with a real curse looking to avenge the death of her son by causing misfortune on the villagers and their children. It’s not all in the protagonist’s head, a mature Harry Potter, Daniel Radcliffe. It’s really there.

The atmosphere was decently creepy. The Eel Marsh House had the great hallmarks of a haunted house: secluded and out of the way, overgrown vegetation, dark hallways and even darker rooms, bad glass in the window panes. Yup. It’s a delightfully scary house. Would’ve been nice if the story could’ve lived up to the spookiness.

The story follows Radcliffe who come from London to close out the affairs of the last, late owner of the Eel Marsh House. The surrounding village doesn’t want him there because once Eel Marsh House is messed with children die horrible deaths. And it happens. Death comes for the kids and it’s the woman in black. Spooky. Radcliffe has to confront this ghost or else personal harm will come.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t think that I can stay in a house which plainly shows the ghost roaming the halls. Or with a rocking chair rocking on its own. Too creepy. I wish this movie had made me scared to sleep at night but it didn’t.

3 of 5 stars

The Iron Lady

broderic on January 23, 2012

The Iron Lady isn’t a sequel to Iron Man. I think I would’ve liked it better if it did feature Margaret Thatcher in an iron suit taking on the Argentinians in the Falkland War. That sounds more entertaining than what this movie ended up being.

Meryl Streep channels Maggie Thatcher. Except at times I was waiting for her to break character and channel Julia Child. It could’ve been a very good movie if I couldn’t tell which character she was playing. The young actress, Alexandra Roach, had the thankless task of playing the young Maggie Thatcher. People will talk about Streep. They should talk a little more about Roach. She won’t get any mention, but Streep will get a nomination. No idea why.

The problem with this film is that it didn’t give an idea of why Thatcher became who she was. Her dad was conservative. Did she get it from her dad? Why? Which part? No idea why she decided things. She just became Maggie Thatcher. The film also doesn’t touch on why she was the leader for that time. What did she do to make England better? The Falkland War? No idea. The film misses out on why she lost the backing of her party. Was she driven? Did she drive too hard? No idea.

At some point, we should understand who Margaret Thatcher was. It was Meryl Streep and that is all I got from the movie.

2 of 5 stars.

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

broderic on January 19, 2012

I’ve never been so on edge during a movie that had barely any action than I was during Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. It’s a straight up action flick with no action, and yet surprisingly it will have you on the edge of your seat. It reminds me of the 1970s action with no action flicks which is fitting considering its setting, London in the early 70s.

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy starts very opaque, fragmented, and hard to follow. The facts as they were: there’s a mole in the British spy agency and it’s up to Gary Oldman to find him. Oldman was retired from the agency because of his mentor’s screw up in his first attempt to find the mole. As his investigation proceeds, it all starts to make sense and the mole gets flushed out. If you don’t see it, you already know who it is.

I liked this movie. So far it’s been nothing but good films this year. Of course this is only the second one.

4 of 5 stars

EDIT: Misspelling! Damn Lion autocorrect!

The Artist

broderic on January 5, 2012

The Artist has already picked up several Golden Globe nominations and will probably pick up more for the Oscars. You wouldn’t think a silent, black and white movie, in 4:3 aspect would garner this much accolades. You would be wrong. Just watch and try to hate it. You can’t. The packed house at The Charles the afternoon I saw it applauded in the end. It captivates. You won’t have another experience like it in the theatres for ages.

So why did I not warm up to it during the early parts of it? Was it the conceit was very twee? Was it that it felt too cute by half? Was it that I was analyzing it too much for its cinematic references? For its technical feats? For its historic accuracy? For its reasoning for being? For why I wasn’t smitten with it? No idea why I reacted funnily in its early going, but when they referenced Citizen Kane, I perked up and began to enjoy the movie. Then I was wholly charmed once I recognized Bernard Hermann’s score for Vertigo that underscored the rush to love at the end. The music put a big, big smile on my face, and it may have pushed the movie to being the best I’ve seen this year (as short as it has been).

The Artist is about George Valentin, a suave actor in swashbuckling silent films. It is 1927 and talkies are on their way, but Valentin doesn’t want to star in talkies. The audience came to see him rather than hear him. In promoting his latest film, he bumps into Peppy Miller. She gets captured in photos by the paparazzi. She enjoys it so much she auditions for a minor role in a movie. Her career is in bloom. She’s on the way to becoming a star of the early talkies. He’s on his way to becoming a forgotten, forlorn actor. His career fades and brings him to dispair. Only Peppy stands in his way of faded glory.

I’m a big fan of classic cinema, and The Artist was all about the old movies. I saw in the film many other classic movies. There was Singing in the Rain and Citizen Kane. There was L’Illusionniste (I know it’s recent, but I had the same French feeling) and Vertigo. The dog was straight out of the Thin Man series. It doesn’t necessarily harken back to silent movie’s like Hugo did, but it recalls classic early cinema.

Being a silent film, the actors had to mug it. Whereas Jean Dujardin plays the main character as a ham, Bérénice Bejo is sweet and sincere as the woman who falls for The Artist. I can’t express how smitten I was with her. She’s absolutely enchanting to look at in this film. She enhances the watching experience.

I think I can watch this film again.

4 of 5 stars.