Some of the comments on this site mean that I couldn't not put a message up here. I guess this is what IMDB is for. This film is amazing, so original, so well acted, so different. Go back to your made for cash Hollywood bollocks. Ghost World doesn't give you any easy answers, because there are no easy answers to the problems facing Enid. If a big name director made this, or Terry Zwigoff had to kowtow to a big studio, she would have won the art prize and gone on to be a success, but life is rarely like that. The soundtrack is brilliant, Steve Buscimi has never been more vulnrable, funny, believable and with better lines. To think that this begun in a cartoon. How many successful adaptations from a cartoon can you think of? Batman? Tank Girl? Spiderman? Forget about it. It's a triumph, and one of the few films of recent years that offer an honest account of disillusioned youth without being dull and predictable. This is NOTHING like "The Breakfast Club" as someone on this site stated, it has NOTHING to do with glamorising the "lost" youth of today, John Hughes wouldn't have gotten this deep, this original, this interesting or this far off his arse to accurately portray a middle class teenager living in the USA. This film rocks, see it.
Reviews
4 Reviews
Dark Water
(2002)
glorious Seikohorrar
20 March 2003
DO bother seeking out this film, especially if you think that any film of recent years made in the US is scary. Forget Blair Witch, this is the real thing. All non-stop slow building of tension then no let up at all once he horror kicks in. Again, like Ringu, the sound effects and music are brilliant, and the very affecting storyline as well as being really scary is wonderfully acted and sensitively portrayed. Just a great film, sadly overlooked it seems. Maybe because the original title Dark Water seems to be unusable in the US. Track it down.
Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner
(2001)
A rare privilege
20 March 2003
Having looked over a lot of the comments on this site, I feel urged to point out that every one of you is looking at it from a Western Hollywood-based perspective. To criticise the editing is to say it's not a satisfyingly edited film in a way you're used to, it's not poorly edited, it's the way the attention of the director is focussed. Of course the director isn't making the film or caring about a Hollywood perspective, he's making films FOR the Inuit community. So in that way it's a home movie, as someone else pointed out. And while I'm not an Anthropology student, I feel a huge sense of privilege at being able to get an insight into the Inuit culture, hundreds of Anthropology students and professors have tried and failed to get an insight as good as this film gives us. I can't pretend to make one more person like this film, it will always look like a badly edited, poorly shot film to some people, but if you think about this film as a new style of filmmaking for a new, previously barely filmed culture, an underrepresented culture turning the camera on themselves and telling a timeless story in an environment that seems unchanged, then I think you'll get a lot more out of it than just being able to say "hey I saw that Eskimo film" as some people no doubt have. Plus, how often do you see a film that could have taken place anytime over the last 10 000 years? Truly a unique and marvellous film. Bring on the next one.
Brief Encounter
(1945)
Still so moving
20 March 2003
There are so many reaons why, since I first saw this film at 16, I have always found it leaping to the forefront of my mind when someone asks me my favourite film. It is so simply and perfectly written. Such wonderful performances from everyone, even the comedic parts (that Noel Coward thought dated so badly) really just make getting a feel for life in 1946 all the easier. The different ways of reading this film are plentiful too. A gay love story made acceptable by transferring the male/male relationship to a male/female one. The images of the trains going through tunnels, the progress of Alec and Laura on the boat being stopped by a bridge etc. It's all semi-plausible and always such a pleasure to watch. This film just gets better with age, and I'm a straight 26 year old male who's other favourite film is Goodfellas. I can't reccommend it highly enough.
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