bam9 Reviews

Thirteen (2003)

Too Topical

[23 August 2003]

Thirteen was co-written by a 13-year old and the adult director. The teenage co-writer also co-stars in the film.

When the movie was over, my spouse turned to me and said, "I wish I had known that it was also directed by a thirteen year old girl." Yes, it was almost that bad.

I'll be the first to admit that it's difficult for a movie tackling the milieu of adolescence to avoid being too topical or appearing to be an anti-drug commercial, but Thirteen seems to jump in the `after school special' puddle with both feet. Worse, Thirteen wants to take on every topic it can: cutting, drugs, sex, addiction, self-image, et al. With so much of an agenda, the film becomes rife with clichés and its dramatic strokes are so broadly painted that it was impossible for me to take it seriously. With all of the ways one could approach the topic and create an affecting film, Thirteen chooses the direct and simple path and just bulldozes through its to-do list.

Somehow, most of the film's characters, while vibrant, are also sort of vaguely drawn and incomplete. The `world' that the film creates also has this generic quality to it. Bizarrely, the standout performance here was Jeremy Sisto as Holly Hunter's boyfriend. In a film that could easily be characterized by its screaming, Sisto delivers a subtle, understated performance.

The people sitting to the left of me in the theater were laughing throughout most of the picture, trying their best not to irritate the rest of the audience. The woman sitting to the right of me was in tears for a good half of the movie. I think it's safe to say that most people will have polarized opinions of the film.

Punch-Drunk Love (2002)

Biggest surprise of the year - an Adam Sandler art film

[10/10 · 6 October 2002]

I caught this at the New York film festival and my expectations were about as low as they could be. I was never a huge Adam Sandler fan, and I hadn't ever taken a liking to PT Anderson's other films. I thought that Magnolia was pretty flimsy writing-wise, and I also thought that it got way too much undue attention when it came out.

I couldn't believe how great Punch Drunk Love was. It seems to be the polar opposite of Magnolia. Where Magnolia was sprawling, messy and often generic, Punch Drunk Love is short, tight and completely fresh. It reminded me of Fargo, in a way. It centers on a very small cadre of characters, it's incredibly focused, and it creates its own world for those characters to live and move around in.

It's been mentioned here before, but the art direction is stunning. I haven't seen such memorable visuals since The Royal Tenenbaums. In a grocery store scene, the items are stacked vertically by color (echoing the color bars that appear periodically between scenes), making the scene appear otherworldly. Other sets are bare of color or distinction. Sandler's love interest in the film (played by Emily Watson) lives in a maze of white corridors. Somehow, every "place" in the film has its own character and association. Even the characters become associated with particular colors.

The movie ends up being genuinely romantic while deviating completely from the very stale paradigm for romantic comedies of the last decade: Watson's character pursues Barry Egan; their inability to hit it off from the start is more character-driven and psychological than situational. Through the use of bizarre props and surreal scenes, the anxiety and frustration of Barry Egan becomes totally absorbing and affecting.

This is a wonderfully directed film. There isn't an extraneous moment. The visual style and pacing are particularly great. There's an interesting subtext in the film about communication - enormous background noise while characters are on the phone, Barry Egan's sisters' voices create this wall of noise (all voices making fun of him), telephones figure predominantly, the opening scene is completely bereft of background noise or music. There are a lot of interesting things to consider when it comes to the theme of communication and how sound is handled in the film.

That said, I'm already cringing at how most people are going to react to this. The Adam Sandler fans might find it too weird. People who liked PT Anderson's other movies might find it too pretensious. I was thrilled to have my low expectations completely overturned. This movie is great.

Ocean's Eleven (2001)

Lifeless Disappointment

[5/10 · 7 November 2001]

I got to see an early screening of Ocean's Eleven and it was a huge disappointment, right from the beginning. The huge ensemble cast, the great cinematography and editing, wonderful sound...nothing saves this film. I haven't seen the original film, so someone else will have to comment on its significance to this movie.

If you've seen one heist film, you've seen everything that this film will try to offer. These are stock characters going through a stock exercise in crime. Pitt and Clooney try to be charming, but they seem to be cannibalizing their own careers, dredging up pale imitations of characters they played in previous films (Out of Sight, for Clooney). Even some of the music, instrumentals by David Holmes, is taken from older albums. There are no surprises in this movie and very little chemistry between the characters. The central conceit is that you are supposed to want these guys to pull off the crime, but with a veritable sea of generic criminals, there really isn't a way to get the audience to focus enough to care about them. Clooney and Julia Roberts have almost zero chemistry (although the film's dialogue improves 90% when the two of them interact).

The attempts at humor in Ocean's Eleven are embarrassingly flaccid; particularly when you take into account that Soderbergh and Clooney worked together in Out of Sight, a film that surpasses Ocean's Eleven on every possible front, but particularly in its comedic delivery and pacing.

There's no doubt in my mind that Ocean's Eleven will be successful. Others in the screening were touching their throats and praising the film shamelessly. The ensemble cast and the dearth of adult movies will position Ocean's Eleven favorably. But discriminating movie-goers will want to avoid this dull and unamusing exercise in genre.

Miss Congeniality (2000)

Not a Shred of Beauty Here

[3/10 · 20 January 2001]

A heavily flawed vehicle for Sandra Bullock...don't waste time wondering what the movie has to say about the relative nature of beauty - its sentiments are downright ugly. At one point a room of FBI agents are laughing at computerized images of female agents - because the women are homely. Bullock's character jokes that one of her fellow contestants will self-induce vomiting to rid her body of pizza after they've eaten it. How funny! In addition, we have to witness a huge team of beauty specialists attend to Bullock to "beautify" her. And it isn't until she's showing off her body and slathering on the makeup that Benjamin Bratt's character pays her any mind.

Bullock stretches herself thin here, desperately trying to play a quirky adult "tom boy." She eats microwaved meals, wrestles with her coworkers, gets a bevy of pageant contestants drunk, picks her teeth and affects a horsey laugh. This isn't a character - it's a poorly written and acted caricature. Candace Bergen is utterly wasted. Some of the lines her 2-dimensional character has to deliver are laughable and uninspired (particularly toward the conclusion of the film). Only Michael Caine emerges somewhat untarnished from this generic turkey - his character probably has the most depth.