Fargo

Fargo (1996, Joel Coen)

I'll cut the crap and start by stating my opinion on the film. After viewing it recently on IFC, it's in my top ten of all time. This was the first time I'd seen it in at least two years. That was before I was really into film. I had liked it, but didn't think it was great and kind of pushed it to the back of my mind. Now, it's right at the very Everything about it is perfect. I wouldn't go so far as to call it a dark comedy, but I would say it is a very funny dark drama. In particular, the dialog is very subtly hilarious.

The acting is amazing, particularly that of the truly gifted Frances McDormand (wife of writer Ethan Coen), the outstanding character actor William H. Macy, the also outstanding character actor and frequent Coen cast member Steve Buscemi, and Harve Presnell. The direction is also superb. Joel Coen's film is truly beautiful to look at.

The wood chipper scene is one of the absolute most disturbing things I've ever seen in a film. I instantly became nauseated by seeing it. That's truly about as gruesome as I can imagine a murder possibly being.

Is Fargo a masterpiece? As the film's spunky female cop protaganist Marge Gunderson (McDormand) would say, "you betcha!"

A Trans-Europ Masterpiece

Trans-Europ-Express (1966, Alain Robbe-Grillet)

I'll admit I was a bit apprehensive about watching this one. I feared that it would be very difficult to get into and that I would be intimidated by it. What I expected to see and what I actually saw were two radically different things, thankfully. Trans-Europ-Express is one of the most entertaining films I've ever had the pleasure of seeing. I was sitting on the edge of my seat for the entire 91 minute runtime. It's an original, in-your-face, middle finger to genre conventions. This film covers nearly every single genre of film. It's action-packed, suspenseful, mysterious, dramatic, erotic, and even funny. It is also an extremely intelligent film, ambitious and adventurous without going overboard. I definitely spotted elements used by writer/directors such as Charlie Kaufman and Richard Kelly, who make genre-bending films similar to this one.

The film has two stories. One is about a three filmmakers riding the Trans-Europ-Express and trying to come up with an idea for a film. The other story, the best story, is their film. This is the most ingenious and clever usage of the "film within a film" concept that I have seen. This film not only breaks the fourth wall, it destroys every single brick on the damned thing.

There's really nothing for even the strictest film critics to complain about here. Every piece in the puzzle fits perfectly. The acting is superb, particularly that of Jean-Louis Trintignant, who plays Elias, the antihero of the film within the film. The film is beautifully shot. The fact that it is in black and white adds to the intrigue and the beauty. The musical score is outstanding, and the somewhat exaggerated sound effects compliment the film's style perfectly.

Trans-Europ-Express completely disproves the idea that art films can't be any fun. It's brilliant, witty, original, stylish, and extremely exciting. Anyone with even the slightest interest in film should see this. A glance at the IMDb page for the film reveals that the film has a 7.6 average with only 178 votes. That simply will not do. This film deserves a bigger audience. It's simply one of the greatest films I've ever seen. It will debut in my top fifteen, and could even go up in my rewatch. I am extremely grateful to two users on IMDb's Film General board: JesusPlayingGolf, for telling me to watch it, and fake_username, for uploading it onto Google Video. 10/10

Happy Birthday, Eyes Wide Shut!

Today is the tenth anniversary of the release of one of my favorite films of all time, Stanley Kubrick's final masterpiece, Eyes Wide Shut. I believe it to be one of the single most underrated films ever made. It should be listed right near the top of Kubrick's filmography, with A Clockwork Orange and 2001. It's a monumental achievement. The acting is perfect, with career-best performances from the whole cast, especially Nicole Kidman. Her presence on the screen just exudes elegance and sensuality. Her monologues are particularly excellent, with my favorite being the "confession" monologue about a marine she sees at the hotel on a family vacation. It is worth nothing that Kidman, in 1999, may have been the most beautiful woman ever to walk this Earth. Tom Cruise's performance is great as well. Though it is not even his best work of 1999 (Magnolia), he does an excellent job playing Dr. Bill Harford, a doctor whose curiosity gets the best of him, leading to a bizarre mystery. The "costume party" (READ: orgy) sequence, is one of the most surreal and amazing scenes I have ever seen in a film. It's truly otherworldly. The depravity of the event, which is ritualistic in nature, is at a contrast with the sheer visual beauty of the sequence. I would have been happy if that scene were made into an entire film. The visual work and cinematography here is particularly astonishing, something Kubrick was always known for anyway. This could have been a cheap erotic thriller, but instead, it is a deep, mysterious masterpiece with some great insights and statements about marriage. The film takes several viewings, so that one can absorb and notice all of the details in the film. It is certainly Kubrick's most personal and long-in-gestation film. It is also arguably his best. That's truly an amazing feat -- the best film by the best director of all time. It is well worth keeping your eyes wide open for this masterpiece. 10/10

P.S. I'll be watching again it later today, and intend to write an essay on it.

Shotgun Stories

Shotgun Stories is an emotionally draining, intense masterpiece that centers around three brothers named Son (Michael Shannon), Kid (Barlow Jacobs) and Boy (Douglas Ligon). When the brothers are small children, the father abandons them and starts another family in the same rural town and has four more sons, Cleaman (Michael Abbott, Jr.), Stephen (Lynnsee Provence), John (David Rhodes) and Mark (Travis Smith), leaving Son, Kid and Boy to be raised by their spiteful mother, who teaches them to hate their father and his other sons. When their father dies, the brothers attend his funeral, where Son speaks of how he walked out on them, followed by Son spitting on the coffin of the man who didn't even care enough about his first sons to give them proper names. This infuriates Cleaman and Mark and leads to a tragically violent feud between these two sets of brothers.

The film takes place in England, Arkansas, a quiet rural town seemingly stuck in time. It is possibly the most accurate depiction of the American heartland that has ever been captured on film. Images of beautiful farm land contrast with shots of sewage flowing into a river. The tranquil mid-twentieth century look of the rural town contrasts with the grim realities impoverished people living out of vehicles and tents. Thanks to cinematographer Adam Stone, all of the shots in the film look perfectly natural, without any flashy visuals or camera techniques. Overall, this area of the world is portrayed positively. There are no crass redneck stereotypes to speak of, and race is a total non-issue, with Boy coaching a youth basketball team featuring both black and white children. The majority of my family lives in a small Arkansas town not very far from England, so the film's setting resonates somewhat with me.

Michael Shannon's performance is one of the absolute best I have ever seen. Shannon, a gifted supporting actor, finally gets his chance to lead, and he does not disappoint. I would go honestly as far as to call his performance my favorite of 2008. Unknowns Barlow Jacobs and Douglas Ligon are excellent as Son's brothers, particularly Ligon, who gives a meaningful, yet unsentimental performance as Boy, a kind, very likable, impoverished man whose name seems to fit quite well, as he has never really grown up.

First-time writer/director Jeff Nichols, an Arkansas native, has created a true Southern work of art, which is a pretty rare thing. He has chosen to capture things and places we rarely see in films, and that is just one of the many reasons why Shotgun Stories is so special. 10/10