The Blog
This blog will be all about film reviews. I'm going to be watching a lot of movies, writing reviews, and hopefully not spoiling any movies you plan to watch.
Director: Mark Waters
Mean Girls is every high schooler’s movie, something every teen can relate too. It details a young girl who is going to school for the first time as a freshman in high school. Her journey through her first year of school is far from smooth sailing, leading to a total breakdown of the school. Cady Heron has been home schooled for the past few years, having been living in Africa. When her and her parents moved back to America, they enrolled her in a high school. Upon arrival, she describes it as a jungle and soon finds herself in a friend group with two social outcasts. They guide her but soon she is in a group of hyper popular girls known as the “plastics”. Janis, one of the outcasts, decides to use Cady to ruin the life of the lead Plastic, Regina George. Over the school year, Cady and Janis plot against Regina and slowly ruin her life. Finally Regina discovers what Cady is doing and plots her revenge. She takes a book full of rude comments about spreads them all over the school, causing the girls to attack each other. They all make up and rally against Regina, who gets hit by a bus but survives. The school’s hierarchy is destroyed and everyone becomes friends again. Mean Girls relates to almost any teenager who has seen it. Everyone has been through high school and has had to go through similar problems. This movie is able to relate on a very deep level with those watching and shows them the better way. It is almost like a dystopian to utopian film where the beginning shows a discontent yet stable life but after a massive shake up, life is restored to a better, more equal life. It was like a light shining the way that things should be. However, it is dangerous because the means are quite extreme and very unpleasant. A lot of lives could have been ruined had things literally not gone according to the script. While the way things magically all work out for the better, it would likely not be so in the real world.
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Director: Stanley Kubrick
Verdict: Thumbs Up Stanley Kubrick’s film adaptation of the 19th century novel Barry Lyndon closely details the tumultuous life of Redmond Barry. The rags-to-riches story has a very clear overarching theme made especially effective through the strong use of non diegetic elements. Redmond Barry is a young Irish lad with a hot temper and fierce determination. When his love cheats on him with a British Army captain, Barry duels with him, but is forced to skip town after the affair. He enlists in the Royal Army but soon deserts having stolen a General’s uniform. However his desertion does not last as he is found by a Prussian captain and forced into the Prussian Army. He soon befriends the Captain and after the Seven Years War works for the Captains Uncle, the Minister of Police in Prussia. He is assigned to work undercover for a wealthy man who is suspected of being an Irish spy. This is true and Barry befriends him and they flee Prussia, following a life of gamblers. After amassing considerable fortune, Barry marries the Countess of Lyndon and takes on the title of Barry Lyndon. However, he is unfaithful and the Countlesses first child, Lord Bullington (not of Barry’s raising) becomes increasingly unpleasant towards Barry. After a fight during a concert between the two, Lord Bullington leaves the palace. Barry and the Countess have a child but he is killed by a horse. Following this, both Barry and the Countess fall into a deep depression. Lord Bullington, now much older, returns and challenges Barry to a duel. Bullington manages to somehow wound Barry in the leg, which is later amputated. Lord Bullington forces Barry from England, paying him 500 guineas a year. Kubrick went to incredible lengths when making Barry Lyndon to make it as accurate as possible. He had done extensive research into period clothing, and the costume designers were so exact and precise they won an Oscar for Best Costume Design. It was really quite incredible how realistic the film felt. What really sold the effect was Kubrick’s use of classical music. Although shown as a diegetic element at one point, when Bullington and Barry had their tussle, the role of music as a non diegetic element was one of the most all encompassing aspects of the entire film. Through the movie, even between the two acts, there was very little sense of uplift. The film truly felt as though you were Barry Lyndon, slogging your way through life, constantly fighting for every little thing. This emotion, this general sense of weight draped over the entire film, almost oppressive in its nature, propagated the whole of the movie in a way that is only truly noticed upon completion of the film. While undoubtedly a portion of this emotion can be contributed to the plot itself, the greater effect came from the music used. The music never attempted to really pull the film out of the drab feel the movie achieves. At one point, during the dinner between the Captain and Barry, the music is slightly less melancholy but this is a false emotion. During the intro of this scene, the narrator informs the viewer that the Captain is merely toying with Barry and suspects that he is not really the general he claims to be. This instantly brings the emotion back to earth and the reality that Barry is about to fall from is momentary grace. The music is so effective it too received an Oscar for Best Musical Score. While the music was arguably the most effective non diegetic element, it is greatly enhanced by the narration. The narrator is a brilliant way for Kubrick to direct the movie to his artist desire without having to change scenes as to make them understandable and keep the emotion that shrouds the whole of the film. The narrator has a very calm, ever so slightly downcast voice that accurately follows the feel of the film. His involvement is strictly non diegetic and omniscient but also rare. We do not often hear the narrator but when do it is to gently guide us as to what has occurred, avoiding the need for otherwise unnecessary explanations within the film that would disrupt the emotion that Kubrick had worked so hard to produce. What was somewhat surprising was how almost un-Kubrick the beginning of the film felt. The scenes were all incredibly conventional, almost amateurish at some stages. However, as the film progressed, more and more of Kubrick’s artistic nature came through. During the fist fight between Barry and the soldier, Kubrick gets the camera very up close with the action. It is after this where the shots become much more artist, using beautiful backdrops in many of the scenes. The lovely backdrops actually seemed to work in helping with the feel of the movie. Seeing the beautiful countryside and nice weather in contrast with all of the events taking place made it feel like a very private and personal affair. All of these problems were affecting Barry and those immediately around him while the world went on its merry way. This helped solidify the impression that Barry Lyndon was all on his own as the world passed by, giving a somewhat reclusive feel to his life, even though he was rather outgoing. Another little trick Kubrick used was that the scenes were all made to be as authentic as possible. During the candlelit scenes, there was no electrical lighting, as to make the scenes as realistic as possible. When electrical light was used, Kubrick went to great lengths to make them as organic and natural as possible. All of these lengths helped the film receive another two Oscars, for Best Art Direction and Best Cinematography. Barry Lyndon also received Academy nominations for Best Director, Best Picture, and Best Adapted Screenplay. Kubrick and his brilliant work of Barry Lyndon deserve far more praise than they have received. Although a very slow paced movie with only flashes or action, it is a true cinematic masterpiece and an artist marvel. Kubrick used non diegetic elements to their maximum and through this was able to let his mind roam and create the movie he wished to make. Director: Vsevolod Pudovkin Pudovkin’s Mother is a post Revolutionary propaganda film intended to try and make the viewer feel sympathy for the cause of the Communists. Set in pre-revolutionary Russia, the film follows Pavel and his family as they become embroiled in a factory strike. After Pavel and his revolutionaries kill his Father, Pavel’s mother turns on him and gets him convicted and sent to prison. However, she changes her ideology and ends up helping other workers break into the prison to break them out. In the ensuing chaos, Pavel and his mother are killed. The film is definitely attempting to connect with people on an emotional level. The plot is trying to make you feel sympathy for Pavel and his cause by showing his father to be a bad and abusive man. However, while it is obvious what Pudovkin is attempting to do, for a modern audience, the film feels detached and distant. The only time I felt real emotion was when Pavels dad was beating his mother. Apart from that, I was just watching pictures on a screen. However, while Pudovkin may have not succeed in engaging this modern audience, he did use some interesting film techniques. Twice, using a POV shot, he brought the camera in and out of focus. This further helped establish that the husband was drunk, and that the mother was sleepy. While not completely necessary, as it was obvious the husband was drunk and the mother was sleepy, it was a nice bit of cinematography that really caught my eye. All in all, Mother and Pudovkin were more than able to show what they were trying to achieve. I’m sure to the audience of the time, the film was able to do this very successfully. Unfortunately in modern times it just lacks that personal connection and therefore struggles to really engage the audience. Director: Stanley Kubrick
Verdict: Thumbs Up The dark comedy Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb was the only true comedy produced by Kubrick. It follows a Air Force general who orders a preemptive nuclear strike against Russia. When the President finds out, chaos ensues as the U.S. and Russia desperately try to stop the bombers, led by the fearless Major Kong. Kubrick made a conscious decisions to film the movie in black and white. He had made movies previously in color but not now. This was to make the film feel like a classic war film instead of a comedy film. His use of music was also excellent as it was a very effective mood setter, especially during the bombing scenes. Kubrick is most effective in this film in establishing a sense of disbelief, as if the events couldn’t be happening, that the doomsday device wasn’t real and the world wasn’t about to end. Do to the nature of the film, it was difficult for Kubrick to use his full artistic ability. One of the few shots that felt like a proper Kubrick shot was when General Jack Ripper is lecturing Mandrake about the Communist conspiracy. There it genuinely feels like Ripper is a dominating figure that no one could overcome. The way Kubrick used special effects felt like a dry run for 2001: A Space Odyssey. He used very similar techniques for filming the B-52 and the spacecraft. He was also developing techniques for conveying a general sense of emotion, such as discomfort. He would hold the camera on a speaker longer after they had stopped talking before switching over to the new speaker, just making the audience feel uncomfortable. Dr. Strangelove was a perfectly executed dark comedy where humour is abound but there is an acute sense that what is occurring is very very bad. To still be able to have this effect in modern times is incredible considering this was very much a film of its time. In the time it was created, the threats Kubrick mocks were very real. Director: Rodney Ascher
Verdict: Thumbs Down Following the theories of numerous film critics, Room 237 details how people have come view The Shining and what Stanley wanted it to represent. Throughout the film, we get little monologues of different film critics and their interpretation of The Shining, Their theories range from the movie being about the genocide of the Native American Indians to Kubrick confessing that he faked the moon landing, all the way to Kubrick breaking the laws of physics. Many of these theories focus on small details in the film like baking soda with a Native American on the box to Danny wearing an Apollo 11 sweater. Many of the theories, though definitely out there, make an amount of sense. However, none of the theorists acknowledged the other’s theories. Room 237 gives a very unique few of The Shining, highlighting different areas of the film that may one may have missed just watching the film. It shows how much of a cult The Shining has and how Kubrick’s directing style, his attention to detail, can lead people to take their own view on the film, all while still getting his feeling of emotion. |
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June 2018
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