As some of you that follow me may have noticed, I haven’t been quite as active lately.
There’s a lot going on in my life at the moment and I need to take care of some things before I can continue to devote time to this blog of mine.
I should come back in one or two weeks. I’ll miss all my fellow bloggers.
Niels
Director: Spike Jonze
Cast: Max Records, James Gandolfini (voice), Lauren Ambrose (voice), Catherine Keener
Year: 2009
♦ Blog of Big Ideas’ Top 250 Films Ever ♦
Rarely do I get to sit down to watch a film that despite its visual tenderness and innocence, manages to dig deep in my soul and carve itself a small crevasse in my memory where it will remain for a long long time. The beautiful Where the Wild Things Are, wonderfully directed by Spike Jonze, is one of those rare films that had I not been able to see it, my life would have been a little less complete and a little less special than it is today.
What Spike Jonze has done is not without merit for he has not only crafted a touching piece of film, but he managed to bring a wonderful story to life from a slender children’s book first written in the 1960s that runs for less than 40 pages containing as many images as it does words. Crucially, the screenplay did not seek to interpret what was at the heart of the story, instead Jonze collaborated with Dave Eggers to expand upon the central message by infusing it with richer characters surrounded by colors, textures and incredible shots of forests, endless seas and wavy sand dunes.
Director: Guy Ritchie
Cast: Jason Statham, Brad Pitt, Vinnie Jones, Dennis Farina, Alan Ford, Benicio Del Toro
Year: 2000
Current rank on IMDT Top 250 list: # 118
♦ Blog of Big Ideas’ Top 250 Films Ever ♦
After his first venture into film-making with Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Guy Ritchie continued his run of success when he directed Snatch, an over-the-top British gangster comedy with a rather impressive cast that included the likes of Jason Statham, Benicio Del Toro and Brad Pitt.
Director: Drew Goddard
Cast: Kristen Connolly, Chris Hemsworth, Jesse Williams, Richard Jenkins, Bradley Whitford, Fran Kranz
Year: 2012
Having seen the blog world respond in such an overwhelmingly positive way to The Cabin in the Woods, I simply could not stay away from the discussion any longer.
As it is clear by the title of my post, I did not love the film, far from it actually. I cannot say I disliked it either, but in the midst of its atypical delivery and structure, I could not help but feel like something did not work for me.
To begin with, I believe much of the critical acclaim the film has received does not even stem from the film itself. I believe some credit must be given to a very smart promotional campaign, which emphasized the film’s unusual horror qualities, thus suggesting we would find originality and unpredictability in it. To me, the question we should ask is not whether the film is atypical or original if we compare it to most horror features (which it is) but whether it is a well-crafted piece that should not be analyzed or defined through the always limiting genre filter.
Inspired by Dan from Top 10 Films, I decided to basically steal his post and contribute to the conversation by providing a list of the ten films I enjoyed the most when I was younger, approximately at age 10, circa 1995.
I think you will notice a ten year old trying to watch films that are deemed inappropriate for someone that age, often going around the watchful eyes of his parents to watch a horror film, or catch a glimpse of the latest monster or the latest adventure. The list is practically made entirely of blockbusters that were either a product of the 1980s and early 1990s.
With the exception of Child’s Play and Rocky IV, all of these films still remain close to my heart and I consider them extremely entertaining and well done to this day.
Here is my list:
10. Child’s Play (1988)
I was introduced to the famed franchise by my uncle who, after a day of looking after me, probably decided to take a breather and distract me with a movie, albeit not one that kids should watch. Child’s Play was probably one of the first R-rated films I watched. I especially remember how upset my mom was when she found out I had seen it, afraid it would give me nightmares.
Director: Mike Figgis
Cast: Nicholas Cage, Elisabeth Shue
Year: 1995
Before Nicholas Cage married, divorced and spent vast amounts of money that forced him to take every part that came his way not to fall into bankruptcy, he was once a sought-after actor with a natural gift and the mainstream appeal to bring box office revenue to any project.
Sometime in the mid-nineties, right before he turned into an action-movie star with films like “The Rock” and “Con-Air”, Nicholas Cage took the role of Ben, a freshly divorced Hollywood agent in the last stages of alcoholism who, after being fired from his job, decides to move to Las Vegas to drink himself to death.
It is April in Chicago and with it come the flowers, the warmer temperatures and the seasonal allergies that makes tissue-makers a fortune.
April in The Windy City also means it is time for the return of the Architecture & Design Film Festival, an annual event that brings together the two arts with a collection of 33 films, ranging from short documentaries to full-length features of great diversity and covering many different topics.
Nearing the conclusion of March, I’m still struggling to keep pace with my film reviews. Here are some of the latest films I have seen:
The Skin I Live In
Director: Pedro Almodovar
Cast: Antonio Banderas, Vera Elena Alaya
Year: 2011
Pedro Almodovar once again delivers a delicately crafted film that is driven by tragedy, lunacy and, often times, depravity. The Spanish director dares to go where the majority might not, visiting dark, largely forbidden subjects that are very much non-existent in mainstream Hollywood. Almodovar goes beneath the sleek, often times simplistic view of sex that the film industry perpetuates as he explores a world driven by carnal desires and strange fetishes that often supersede moralistic considerations, defying social norms and challenging the viewer to reevaluate his own set of values.
I must extend my gratitude to a couple of fellow film bloggers, Scott Lawlor at Front Room Cinema and Chris at Moviesandsongs365 who have extended their kindness in my direction by making me an ever more involved part of the community and handing me the 7×7 Link Award.
Without further ado, here is what the award is all about:
The rules of the 7×7 Link Award:
Rule # 1: tell everyone something that no one else knows about you
Rule # 2: Link to one of the posts that you personally think best fits the following categories: Most Beautiful Piece, Most Helpful Piece, Most Popular Piece, Most Controversial Piece, Most Surprisingly Successful Piece, Most Underrated Piece and Most Pride-Worthy Piece.
Rule # 3: Pass this award on to seven other bloggers
Director: Stanley Kubrick
Cast: Ryan O’Neal, Marisa Berenson
Year: 1975
Whether you like the work of Stanley Kubrick or not, few can deny that his films are some of the most thought-provoking cinematic experiences anyone can have.
For me, all of his films belong to a master craftsman who poured his time and his intellect into the making of movies. None of them can be faulted for lacking depth or lacking artistic value. When Kubrick was set on making a sci-fiction film that raised questions about the origin and the future of humanity, Kubrick made the magnificent and timeless “2001″. When he explored the genre of horror and suspense, he made the Overlook Hotel the most horrifying place in America in The Shining. In the same fashion, Barry Lyndon responded to the very conscious desires of an ambitious film maker who was seeking to construct a rich and colorful time period piece set in 19th century European aristocracy.
