-Travis Bickle
Thanks to my finally giving in to Netflix's eternal pop-up supplications offering ONE MONTH FREE NETFLIX! CANCEL ANY TIME, I've jumped onto the bandwagon at last. As a result, my sister and I have watched three streaming movies in the two and a half days since I signed up for Netflix. Yes, I'm aware that some people have social lives.
Anyway, let's get down to business. We saw some of the highest-browed movies (Mulholland Drive), an upper-middle-brow movie (Taxi Driver), and a film with Lifetime Network-level brows, brows dangling somewhere below the kneecaps (TiMER). And now to rate and review them!!
Mulholland Drive:
Directed by David Lynch, known for his Rubik's cube filmmaking (Eraserhead, Twin Peaks), this movie promised to puzzle. Which it did, in its own way: two separate narratives rife with deja vu, either the result of an alternate dimension or an escapist coping mechanism, or whatever explanation you choose to believe. Naomi Watts steals the show, by far, as Betty (happy)/Diane (sad). Her lesbian lover, Rita/Camilla (Laura Elena Harring) makes do with blank looks and dull lines, as she is the damsel-in-distress eye candy of the film, later a stunning portrait of Hollywood heteronormativity. Ok, so maybe I have to mull over the themes a little more.
But a warning- this movie will freak you out. It builds up tension like people build up resistance to Advil: very, very slowly. Seriously, it is a legitimately scary film.
Pros: thought-provoking thematically, soulful acting from Watts, fun to piece together, seriously spooky.
Cons: some of the editing techniques were a little too "Hey look at my new camcorder it can invert colors!", excruciatingly slow at times, Mr. Winky (you'll know when you see him) is really far too ineffably frightening.
Grade: A-
Taxi Driver:
This wasn't the first time I've seen this film; I just enjoyed it so immensely my first time around that I couldn't resist watching it again. Where to begin? Robert DeNiro (as disturbed cabbie Travis Bickle) is exceptionally good-looking in this film, with tender eyes that could tenderize the heart of any child prostitute or political volunteer. Martin Scorcese's deft direction, notably in his penchant for long, complex shots, overhead shots, and gesture shots, makes the film a visual treat, and his ability to luxuriate in a scene makes it easy to slip into that dream state where you forget yourself, where for a moment you are living in a much dirtier New York City in the 1970s.
Bickle is a veteran who takes to the wheel, as he can't sleep at night anyway. He falls hard for a marginally attractive blonde (Sybill Shepherd) who humors him despite bright-flashing signals that Travis is about forty cards short of a full deck. Although honestly, DeNiro really was sexy back in the day, and with the tortured soul routine, replete with eyes of soulful obsidian, I'm sure he could score a date or two with any girl.
Of course, the film deals with complex things like racial tension, heroism, extremism, and post-Nam jitters, but the great thing about Taxi Driver is that it doesn't make up its mind and shove its opinion in your face; it's a tangle of moral ambiguities that make the internal debate after the film quite rewarding.
Grade: A+
TiMER:
Talk about a good concept gone awry. The conceit of TiMER is this: a device (called a TiMER) that accurately predicts when you will meet your One True Soulmate has been installed into the wrists of the masses of lovesick, commitment-prone men and women. Una, a woman whose dumb-obvious name is matched by her dumb-obvious personality ("My timer doesn't have a time on it! Waaah!") meets a cheesy hipster stock character. He is a paper-thin "quirky" indie comedy composite of hunky leading man: low-paying job? Check. Long, careless hipster hair that has actually been coiffed into perfectly careless stringlets? Check. In a band? Check. Wow. Anyway, some people in this movie have timers and others don't, and the film tries to convince us to care about any of it. A little subplot about the cleaning lady's daughter being the soulmate of Una's little brother provides bland, racist insight into our heroine's privileged world.
One highlight: Detective Quinn from Dexter (the guy who was dating the Trinity Killer's daughter, etc.) has about ten lines, but he plays one of Una's many love interests, one of many men ostensibly queueing up to date or marry this twiggy, desperate control freak.
Grade: C
Pros: thought-provoking thematically, soulful acting from Watts, fun to piece together, seriously spooky.
Cons: some of the editing techniques were a little too "Hey look at my new camcorder it can invert colors!", excruciatingly slow at times, Mr. Winky (you'll know when you see him) is really far too ineffably frightening.
Grade: A-
Taxi Driver:
This wasn't the first time I've seen this film; I just enjoyed it so immensely my first time around that I couldn't resist watching it again. Where to begin? Robert DeNiro (as disturbed cabbie Travis Bickle) is exceptionally good-looking in this film, with tender eyes that could tenderize the heart of any child prostitute or political volunteer. Martin Scorcese's deft direction, notably in his penchant for long, complex shots, overhead shots, and gesture shots, makes the film a visual treat, and his ability to luxuriate in a scene makes it easy to slip into that dream state where you forget yourself, where for a moment you are living in a much dirtier New York City in the 1970s.
Bickle is a veteran who takes to the wheel, as he can't sleep at night anyway. He falls hard for a marginally attractive blonde (Sybill Shepherd) who humors him despite bright-flashing signals that Travis is about forty cards short of a full deck. Although honestly, DeNiro really was sexy back in the day, and with the tortured soul routine, replete with eyes of soulful obsidian, I'm sure he could score a date or two with any girl.
Of course, the film deals with complex things like racial tension, heroism, extremism, and post-Nam jitters, but the great thing about Taxi Driver is that it doesn't make up its mind and shove its opinion in your face; it's a tangle of moral ambiguities that make the internal debate after the film quite rewarding.
Grade: A+
TiMER:
Talk about a good concept gone awry. The conceit of TiMER is this: a device (called a TiMER) that accurately predicts when you will meet your One True Soulmate has been installed into the wrists of the masses of lovesick, commitment-prone men and women. Una, a woman whose dumb-obvious name is matched by her dumb-obvious personality ("My timer doesn't have a time on it! Waaah!") meets a cheesy hipster stock character. He is a paper-thin "quirky" indie comedy composite of hunky leading man: low-paying job? Check. Long, careless hipster hair that has actually been coiffed into perfectly careless stringlets? Check. In a band? Check. Wow. Anyway, some people in this movie have timers and others don't, and the film tries to convince us to care about any of it. A little subplot about the cleaning lady's daughter being the soulmate of Una's little brother provides bland, racist insight into our heroine's privileged world.
One highlight: Detective Quinn from Dexter (the guy who was dating the Trinity Killer's daughter, etc.) has about ten lines, but he plays one of Una's many love interests, one of many men ostensibly queueing up to date or marry this twiggy, desperate control freak.
Grade: C
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