Babel

Tags

2000's, Adriana Barraza, Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, Babel, Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett, Drama, Gael García Bernal, Guillermo Arriaga, Rinko Kikuchi

Film Title

Babel

Director

Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu

Cast

• Brad Pitt as Richard Jones
• Cate Blanchett as Susan Jones
• Adriana Barraza as Amelia
• Gael García Bernal as Santiago
• Rinko Kikuchi as Chieko Wataya
• Koji Yakusho as Yasujiro Wataya

Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu’s ambitious and thought-provoking film spans three continents and many characters whose lives are linked by an accident. Although this may sound like a film that will confuse many, it actually emerges as a haunting comment on the lack of communication between humans and how universal the feeling is.

In Morocco, American tourists Richard and Susan are attempting to heal the wounds left by the death of their infant child. The loss has strained their relationship and affected both of them deeply. Whilst on a tour bus through the extensive mountains, Susan is accidentally shot by two young goatherds. The injured Susan is taken to a nearby village for treatment, whilst waiting for help to arrive from the American Embassy. Intercut with this is the two boy’s reactions to the accident and what they will do next. Meanwhile, the couple’s Mexican nanny Amelia, takes their children across the border to Mexico to attend her son’s wedding. Whilst coming back with her nephew Santiago, they are questioned by border control and flee into the arid desert. Amelia then tries to help the children make it back home before the desert claims them. Rounding out the stories is the one of Cheiko, a deaf-mute Japanese girl who is reeling from her mother’s recent suicide and has become cold towards her father because of this. In a way to mask her pain, she becomes sexually uninhibited but still can’t rid herself of the feeling of isolation. As told in Inarritu’s trademark non-linear narrative and written by Guillermo Arriaga , this sprawling character study is both melancholy and reflective in its examination of interlinked events.

The acting in Babel adds to the story immensely. As the tourists struck by sudden tragedy whilst dealing with conflicting emotions , Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett turn in strong, emotional performances. Gael García Bernal is also on typically good form here, I can’t think of a time when he isn’t great. But the real highlights come from Adriana Barraza and Rinko Kikuchi. Barraza creates a strong, loving character who will do anything to protect the children she has been entrusted with. Her face when trying to look for help in the unforgiving desert runs the whole gamut of emotions. Kikuchi as the isolated, troubled and melancholy Chieko is outstanding, conveying the character’s pain and inner conflict with the tiniest of nuances. Her breakdown when she remembers her mother is heart-wrenching in its believability.

The camerawork featured throughout is stunning, capturing the difference in cultures and landscapes that separate the many characters making up the story. The sparse but evocative music further shows the theme of communication as it often plays over scenes of confusion between the characters.

A powerful and emotionally draining film that will not be for everyone , Babel is still a multi-stranded and powerfully acted study of personal confusion and conflict and the far-reaching effects of it.

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21 Grams

Tags

2000's, 21 Grams, Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, Benicio Del Toro, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Drama, Guillermo Arriaga, Melissa Leo, Naomi Watts, Sean Penn

Film Title

21 Grams

Director

Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu

Cast

• Sean Penn as Paul Rivers
• Naomi Watts as Cristina Peck
• Benicio Del Toro as Jack Jordan
• Charlotte Gainsbourg as Mary Rivers
• Melissa Leo as Marianne Jordan

The second film by Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, 21 Grams is a vivid, visceral and fragmented view of lives intersecting after tragedy. Examining the lives and actions of three principal characters, the film becomes a visual jigsaw as the audience attempts to fathom what events will lead them to redemption and revenge.

The three principal characters in this fragmented narrative are Paul, a dying mathematician, Cristina a former drug addict who has cleaned up her ways and Jack, an ex-con turned devout christian. Their lives collide when Jack after drinking runs over and kills Cristina’s husband and two daughters. This leads Cristina back to her old ways to try to cope with unimaginable grief. Paul, is in need of a new heart and eventually receives the heart of Cristina’s late husband. As his marriage to his British wife Mary crumbles, Paul begins a relationship with the grieving Cristina who is out for revenge. All of these events transpire in non-linear order, giving the viewer an insight into the characters before and after the tragedy and the events that will transpire as a result of this one fateful incident.

Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu has fashioned an interesting film about redemption and retribution. The script by Guillermo Arriaga delves deep into the emotions of these emotionally wounded characters, revealing the inner turmoil and confusion each experiences throughout the narrative. Although at first the non-linear narrative may leave you bewildered, as the events continue to unravel we are given a bigger picture of what is happening as the pieces begin to form an inexplicable link to each other. This style is not for everyone, but it is certainly interesting to watch the past, present and future of each character’s life as they unfold like a coiled snake.

The acting of the leading trio is uniformly excellent. Sean Penn reveals a deep humanity within the character of Paul, who is just about holding on as the last flicker of light in his life begins to slip away. Naomi Watts puts in a powerful turn of sorrow, anger and heartbreak as her character tries to grieve and later get even with the cause of her pain. Benicio Del Toro is a menacing presence as the ex-con turned preacher who attempts to write his wrongs, but is ultimately unable to escape the guilt he has inflicted upon himself. Because of this powerful trio of portrayals, the secondary characters lack something and only contribute tiny things to the story. Charlotte Gainsbourg and Melissa Leo are talented actresses but are underused in this film. Regardless of this minor gripe, the film still remains an evocative look at damaged people trying to make good with their lives.

Evocative, thought-provoking and inventive, 21 Grams is a film that is once seen, never to be forgotten.

Short Cuts

Tags

1990's, Andie MacDowell, Anne Archer, Annie Ross, Bruce Davison, Buck Henry, Chris Penn, Drama, Ensemble Cast, Frances McDormand, Fred Ward, Huey Lewis, Jack Lemmon, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Julianne Moore, Lili Taylor, Lily Tomlin, Lori Singer, Los Angeles, Lyle Lovett, Madeleine Stowe, Matthew Modine, Peter Gallagher, Raymond Carver, Robert Altman, Robert Downey Jr, Short Cuts, Tim Robbins, Tom Waits

Film Title

Short Cuts

Director

Robert Altman

Starring :

• Andie MacDowell as Ann Finnigan
• Bruce Davison as Howard Finnigan
• Jack Lemmon as Paul Finnigan
• Julianne Moore as Marian Wyman
• Matthew Modine as Dr. Ralph Wyman
• Anne Archer as Claire Kane
• Fred Ward as Stuart Kane
• Jennifer Jason Leigh as Lois Kaiser
• Chris Penn as Jerry Kaiser
• Robert Downey, Jr. as Bill Bush
• Madeleine Stowe as Sherri Shepard
• Tim Robbins as Gene Shepard
• Lily Tomlin as Doreen Piggot
• Tom Waits as Earl Piggot
• Frances McDormand as Betty Weathers
• Peter Gallagher as Stormy Weathers
• Annie Ross as Tess Trainer
• Lori Singer as Zoe Trainer
• Lyle Lovett as Andy Bitkower
• Huey Lewis as Vern Miller
• Buck Henry as Gordon Johnson
• Lili Taylor as Honey Piggot Bush

Based on several stories by Raymond Carver, Short Cuts is Robert Altman’s intense, sprawling and minutely observed look into the eventful lives of 22 residents of L.A over a couple of days. Featuring a talented cast( as you may have guessed from the cast list above) that all contribute something to the story, Short Cuts works as an examination on the frailties of human behaviour, how people don’t realise how close we are to each other and how the smallest incident can have big consequences.

Without giving too much away and because I would probably need a lot of pages to write about all the stories, here is the brief outline of some of the stories. Doreen, a waitress struggles with her alcoholic husband Earl. To add to this she accidentally runs over the young son of news anchor Howard Finnigan. The boy’s mother Ann panics while her son slips into a coma, and she is harassed by the local baker Andy, as she has forgotten to pick up the boy’s birthday cake. Zoe, a talented yet depressed cello player lives next door and has a strained relationship with her musical mother, Tess. Gene Shepard, a single-minded policeman is playing away with Betty Weathers. This incurs the wrath of her estranged husband Stormy, who finds an interesting way to claim back what belongs to him in the house. Claire Kane works as a clown, while her husband Stuart goes on a fishing trip with his friends. On the trip, the men discover the corpse of a young woman in the river and debate what to do with it. Marian, an artist and her doctor husband Ralph have the couple over for dinner, venting their marital frustrations after one too many drinks. And the stories just keep on coming, fleshing out an interesting mosaic like microcosm of lives running congruent with each other.

Although the film runs for a long time, you probably won’t notice because of the intricate way the characters enter and leave each other’s lives. Altman, who often worked effectively with ensemble casts, further shows his craftsmanship with engaging us to the strange and unpredictable characters. Although the characters differ from each other, there is one thread that links many of them. The thread is hiding behind a facade; Marian paints to suppress her unhappiness, Zoe plays mournful music on her cello, Claire works as a clown to make money for herself and her husband. The film may not be to everyone’s taste, but one can’t help but marvel at the way Altman connects the many players of the cast and fashions a suburban tale of frustration, mental angst and dissatisfaction.

An intimate character study of a diverse group of people, Short Cuts is excellent and recommended viewing for the art of interconnecting stories and focusing on the effects of our choices in life.

Dog Soldiers

Tags

2000's, Action, Dog Soldiers, Horror, Kevin McKidd, Neil Marshall, Scotland, Sean Pertwee, Werewolves

Film Title

Dog Soldiers

Director

Neil Marshall

Cast

• Kevin McKidd as Private Cooper
• Sean Pertwee as Sergeant Harry Wells
• Emma Cleasby as Megan
• Liam Cunningham as Captain Ryan
• Darren Morfitt as Private Spoon
• Chris Robson as Private Joe Kirkley
• Leslie Simpson as Private Terry Milburn
• Thomas Lockyer as Corporal Bruce Campbell

Dog Soldiers marked the debut of Neil Marshall, who would later go on to direct the claustrophobic The Descent. And what a debut it is. Brutal, darkly funny and all out action, Dog Soldiers is a werewolf horror film with a lot of bite(pardon the pun).

A group of British Army soldiers are dropped in the Scottish Highlands for a routine training mission. The group is led by the wise-cracking sergeant and the no-nonsense Private Cooper. Some of the group, most notably the football loving Terry are bored and wanting to find out the result of the England v.s Germany game, but soon the ordinary training  mission changes into something very unexpected. They come across the bloody remains of their opponents and the only survivor is Captain Ryan, who has history with Cooper. The Captain enigmatically hints at what caused the carnage but doesn’t reveal it. Not long after, the soldiers are attacked by unseen assailants, and begin a desperate defence in order to stay alive. They are picked up by Megan, a zoologist working in the area and taken to a nearby house that acts as a shelter against the attackers. Once inside, Megan reveals what they are fighting is much more dangerous than the soldiers imagined, they are werewolves. So begins a bloody, action-packed and bullet laden horror as the soldiers try to fight the lycanthropic threat and make it till the morning sun rises.

Like with The Descent, Marshall creates believable characters whose relationships with each other seem genuine within the context of a horror film. The film could easily function just as well as an action film, but the presence of the werewolves adds another dimension to the film and creates a darkly comic undercurrent as the soldiers try to outwit the bloodthirsty enemy. Nowhere is this more apparent than when the group realises their shortage of ammunition and resort to using old weapons in order to protect themselves. The character of Spoon who loves violence and is skilled with weapons, is also used to great effect when grappling with the lupine enemy. His line as the creature grabs him around the neck  is humorous and sums up his character’s personality and never give up attitude. Because of things like this, the film succeeds with combining shocking amounts of gore and comedy horror whilst retaining an action packed atmosphere that barely pauses for breath once the first attack starts.

If by chance, Dog Soldiers has evaded your attention or you’re a fan of The Descent, then this film is advisable to you. If you love gory horror films sprinkled with dark humour and copious amounts of blood, this film is crucial.

L.A. Confidential

Tags

1990's, Crime, Curtis Hanson, Danny DeVito, Drama, Film Noir, Guy Pearce, James Cromwell, James Ellroy, Kevin Spacey, Kim Basinger, L.A. Confidential, Neo Noir, Russell Crowe

Film Title

L.A. Confidential

Director

Curtis Hanson

Cast

• Kevin Spacey as Det. Sgt. Jack Vincennes
• Russell Crowe as Officer Wendell “Bud ” White
• Guy Pearce as Det. Lt. Edmund “Ed” Exley
• James Cromwell as Capt. Dudley Smith
• Kim Basinger as Lynn Bracken
• Danny DeVito as Sid Hudgens

Based on the novel by James Ellroy and boasting an excellent ensemble cast, L.A. Confidential takes the viewer on an intricate journey into the 50’s, exposing corruption and murder beneath the veneer of glamour and bright lights along the way. Director Curtis Hanson has fashioned an elegant, brutal and thoroughly convincing neo noir that grips you with its labyrinthine plot, excellent jazz score and perfect feel for the time.

The main focus of the film is three members of the Los Angeles Police Department; suave and confident Jack Vincennes who enjoys the limelight in Hollywood, Bud White, whose violent and hot-headed antics often clash with others and intelligent upstart Ed Exley, who does everything by the book and longs to be just as good as his late father. The paths of the three men first cross at a Christmas Party, in which prisoners and police begin brawling in the cells and the paparazzi have a field day with the story, dubbing it “Bloody Christmas”. After a massacre at a restaurant named the Nite Owl, in which one of the men’s fellow officers is killed, the men are drawn together again in order to solve the case.This case leads them through many twists and turns involving corruption within the police force, the scandal loving magazine “Hush Hush”, a prostitution ring in which the women are made to resemble movie stars, drug dealing and long-buried secrets.

The pacing of the film is magnificent, slowly revealing and concealing things to keep the viewer guessing what will happen next. The cast assembled add immeasurable impact to the story as it gradually unravels before us. Spacey is excellent as the limelight loving Jack, adding humour and impact in his scenes. Guy Pearce is well-suited to his part of the determined Exley, who is driven to succeed whilst being ostracized by his peers. Russell Crowe makes an indelible mark as the violent and troubled Bud, getting under the skin of him and revealing a rarely shown sensitive side to his character. As a prostitute who is the spitting image of Veronica Lake and caught up in the ongoing investigation, Oscar-winning Kim Basinger adds both glamour and poignancy, especially as she and Bud begin to develop feeling for each other whilst he is working on the dangerous case.

Aided by stunning cinematography and an evocative jazz score, Los Angeles almost becomes another character within the film.It becomes  a hot bed of Hollywood high glamour, scandal loving people and deception round every corner. The humorous and barbed opening narration by Danny DeVito’s dirt loving tabloid journalist, in which footage from old movies and grainy paper headlines about drugs and illegal activities is shown while he speaks, clearly sums up this dichotomy of the place.

If you’re looking for a crime film with a noir sensibility and more twists than a winding serpent, then look no further than L.A. Confidential. Trust me you can’t go wrong with this excellent film.