I don’t often review movie’s I’ve seen in a theater – mainly because I hardly go to a theater anymore. There aren’t many movies I care to see on a big screen while sitting crowded in a tiny chair with a lot of inconsiderate douche-nozzles (that’s right Mr/Mrs I-have-to-text/tweet/talk-on-cell-phone-at-all-times, I’m talking about you). I prefer to wait until DVD where I can watch them at home where the only annoying jackass talking through it will be me.
Cut to yesterday at Clowe’s Memorial Hall at Butler University in Indianapolis, Indiana at around 8:00. There I was crammed into a tiny damn seat in a room with no air circulation (this is a larger problem when there is a lot of body mass in a room, and I mean a lot of people.) preparing to watch Red State, the newest movie from my favorite writer/director, Kevin Smith.
Familiar with his work? Throw all of those notions the hell out the window because Red State in vastly different from anything he has ever done. First off, it is a horror movie. I agree with this classification while others online bicker about it. True, there is no real hero, or slasher, or definitive victory but it is still unsettling, uncomfortable, and down right terrifying.
Horror purists my decry this film and demand it be put into some lame category like “psychological thriller” or some such B.S. They look for the typical and the cliché when it comes to “real horror movies.” What they fail to realize is that in Red State the conventional aspects of horror movies have been turned on their head, and in some cases shot in the face. Let’s run down the list of what a horror movie should include: Sex crazed teens (check), creepy family of psychopaths (check) – everything else is just variation on that. Without spoiling the movie, because I do NOT want to do that, here is what is different about the flick.
First, there is no clear cut hero. Usually when you watch a horror movie (especially lately) you can pick out who will live and who will die within the first 10 minutes, maybe less. Forget all that nonsense. Second, there is no music telling you what is going to happen. No score in the background at all. That makes for one unsettling 90 minutes. Music cues tell us when to relax and when to tense up for a scare. None of that either.
Lastly, the movie allows the audience to form multiple opinions on characters. One second a character is deplorable, the next somewhat likeable, and so on. People are like that. We constantly have to assess our impressions of people we meet. Someone that we might click with at first may eventually become the bane of our existence. So, the characters are realistic in that way.
The ending I loved. It might not set well with others, but remember this is Kevin Smith. What the ending does is changes the focus from one character to another, thereby showing how insignificant that other character really was / is.
I’m going to stop now before me inadvertently spoil something. If you want spoilers, you can find them all over the internet, but not here. Instead go see the movie when it hits theaters in October.
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Last Quote: Easy A
Today's Quote: "I fear God. You better believe I fear God."
Saturday, March 12, 2011
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
Not a typical teen movie
I have a list of movie’s I’d like to review; I just never get around to them. I fully intended on writing about Machete, but another movie came along that I enjoyed so much, that I just had to share it.
What movie is this that could make me scratch the plans to talk about a movie that is right up my alley? You’ll be shocked when I say that this movie is not full of gratuitous nudity, gore, absurd death scenes, and gallons of CGI blood.
Easy A is that movie.
Wait! Don’t run away yet! I promise this is worth it.
When I first saw trailers for this flick I was intrigued because it is obviously a modern twist of Nathanial Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter. They put it right there in the open – look at the title. Most of us remember having to read that in high school (some of us had to read it AGAIN in college) and who can forget the awful adaptation starring Demi Moore? So, my love of classic literature commanded that I watch this one.
On the surface it is just another teen movie focusing on high school drama and gossip. Where it differs from other teen movies of late is that this movie is smart. Emma Stone is a convincing wallflower of a girl (Olive) who wants nothing more than to skate through four years of torture unnoticed. Like all of us, she does fantasize about being the focus of attention, but she never really wants it. Then, the spotlight of the entire school is on her due to one lie leading to another lie that then spreads around school. Soon, she’s the school slut and the target of a laughable group of religious students.
Here is where the character wins me over. She embraces the gossip and decides to give them something to talk about. She embroiders large red “A”s on a new wardrobe consisting of provocative, lowcut tops. In typical teen movie fashion, things spiral out of her control and she longs to be the unknown she once was.
Blah blah blah, right? Wrong. I said this was a smart movie didn’t I? Here is where it shows it. The movie has no pretense of being anything more than it is. The writers were not above even mentioning this fact. Olive does this via her narration with witty segment titles that summarize what is going to happen. How many classic books have chapter titles the do that very thing? I’ve lost count. She lists movies that depict high school life falsely, and pines about how she wises they were true. They are all John Hughes films!
Here is a movie that is obviously following in the footsteps of Hughes and they make sure to point it out, complete with clips. Of course, the major punch line is at the end when all of those scenes are combined. I won’t go into too much detail but it involves a boom box (sort of), a lawnmower, and throwing a fist in the air (Judd Nelson did it before those Jersey Shore douches and their fist pumping shit).
All the while, the movie whips a little message at you. Just beneath the sarcasm, cynicism, angst, innuendo, and humor is some truth. Kids gossip. About anything. All the time. That aspect of the movie reminded me more of “Much Ado About Nothing”. Shakespeare and Hawthorne in one movie? Awesome in my book. This was the most enjoyable teen movie I’ve seen in a long time (going back to Can’t Hardly Wait and American Pie.) Hit it up on Netflix, Redbox, Blockbuster, or wherever you get movies and watch this one!
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Last Quote: A Team
Today’s Quote: “We've had nine classes together since Kindergarten... ten if you count Religion of Other Cultures, which you didn't because you called it science fiction and refused to go.”
What movie is this that could make me scratch the plans to talk about a movie that is right up my alley? You’ll be shocked when I say that this movie is not full of gratuitous nudity, gore, absurd death scenes, and gallons of CGI blood.
Easy A is that movie.
Wait! Don’t run away yet! I promise this is worth it.
When I first saw trailers for this flick I was intrigued because it is obviously a modern twist of Nathanial Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter. They put it right there in the open – look at the title. Most of us remember having to read that in high school (some of us had to read it AGAIN in college) and who can forget the awful adaptation starring Demi Moore? So, my love of classic literature commanded that I watch this one.
On the surface it is just another teen movie focusing on high school drama and gossip. Where it differs from other teen movies of late is that this movie is smart. Emma Stone is a convincing wallflower of a girl (Olive) who wants nothing more than to skate through four years of torture unnoticed. Like all of us, she does fantasize about being the focus of attention, but she never really wants it. Then, the spotlight of the entire school is on her due to one lie leading to another lie that then spreads around school. Soon, she’s the school slut and the target of a laughable group of religious students.
Here is where the character wins me over. She embraces the gossip and decides to give them something to talk about. She embroiders large red “A”s on a new wardrobe consisting of provocative, lowcut tops. In typical teen movie fashion, things spiral out of her control and she longs to be the unknown she once was.
Blah blah blah, right? Wrong. I said this was a smart movie didn’t I? Here is where it shows it. The movie has no pretense of being anything more than it is. The writers were not above even mentioning this fact. Olive does this via her narration with witty segment titles that summarize what is going to happen. How many classic books have chapter titles the do that very thing? I’ve lost count. She lists movies that depict high school life falsely, and pines about how she wises they were true. They are all John Hughes films!
Here is a movie that is obviously following in the footsteps of Hughes and they make sure to point it out, complete with clips. Of course, the major punch line is at the end when all of those scenes are combined. I won’t go into too much detail but it involves a boom box (sort of), a lawnmower, and throwing a fist in the air (Judd Nelson did it before those Jersey Shore douches and their fist pumping shit).
All the while, the movie whips a little message at you. Just beneath the sarcasm, cynicism, angst, innuendo, and humor is some truth. Kids gossip. About anything. All the time. That aspect of the movie reminded me more of “Much Ado About Nothing”. Shakespeare and Hawthorne in one movie? Awesome in my book. This was the most enjoyable teen movie I’ve seen in a long time (going back to Can’t Hardly Wait and American Pie.) Hit it up on Netflix, Redbox, Blockbuster, or wherever you get movies and watch this one!
----
Last Quote: A Team
Today’s Quote: “We've had nine classes together since Kindergarten... ten if you count Religion of Other Cultures, which you didn't because you called it science fiction and refused to go.”
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