A review that breaks rules #1 and #2 - Fight Club

WARNING: Do not hold up to open flame.

Ah Fight Club, one of those movies that seemed to be the perfect storm of awesome when it arrived. These days I group it in there with Pulp Fiction as one of the cliche favorite guy movies, and it has become one of those movies you just have to see.

I honestly hadn't seen the movie in years, and I was recently told that it didn't hold up as well as I remembered (by Fefi), a thought that I refused to even consider. So I picked it up at Costco and made a night of it. And I must say, not only does it hold up, but it might be even more relevant now than it was in 99.

It might sound odd, but in some ways Brad Pitt is like Jack Nicholson. Just stop yelling for a second and I'll tell you why... Every time each of them plays a sociopath or a crazy person it really just makes a movie a million times better. Siously, think about it. If  Fight Club was made in the 70's Nicholson would totally play Tyler Durden. But this is a comparison for a whole other post.

I wasn't kidding earlier when I called Fight Club a perfect storm. The story, the music, the acting, the cast. It all just fits.

Without spoiling the story (this might be tricky), Fight Club is without a doubt one of the biggest and most elaborate mindfucks I've seen in a movie. The type of mindfuck that just totally changes your view on the plot altogether when you see it again. And, to me, that's what makes this movie so great. You can re-watch it and find a new point in the story that just makes you think about how fucked up what you're watching actually is. If you haven't seen the movie, this paragraph makes no sense at all, but it just needs to be said.

The cast is as close to flawless as you're going to get. These roles feel like they were made for these people. Even the smaller parts are just perfectly cast. Meat Loaf as Bob immediately comes to mind as one of the most hilarious yet sad things I think I've ever seen. And seeing it after a couple of years, it's quite shocking how many people are actually in there; I mean, I had an honest "Holy crap, it's Jared Leto" moment.

The main character, played by Ed Norton, awkwardly enough has no name. Seriously. And this is done brilliantly to the point where I had to go all the way to IMDB just to check if his name was ever mentioned. It's not like in other films, where main characters remain nameless and that's 'their thing', in this case it just adds to the character; when he starts out he is the most unimportant man in the universe. And without giving much away, he does acquire a name (not his), and it just goes along with his transformation in the story, which is just really well done.

I mean, look at this sack of shit. He doesn't deserve a name.

His counter part (hint hint) is Tyler Durden, the pinnacle of bad-assery, of course played by Brad Pitt. Durden seems to take it upon himself to fix Norton, and of course hijinks ensue (to say the least). And as cool as Tyler Durden seems, it doesn't take a genius to see that something is off about him. Their friendship starts innocently enough, but it escalates rather quickly when they start beating the shit and piss out of each other.

It takes massive balls to wear shit like this.

The plot starts getting seriously twisted when a love triangle ensues between our two main characters and Marla, played by the always spectacular Helena Bonham Carter. Marla is without a doubt the most damaged woman in existence, and it feels weird because I'm just oddly attracted to her. This girl has issues that would drive most people insane, and that fact is made abundantly clear many times during the story. But what makes it interesting is that as fucked up as she is, it is made even more obvious that Norton's character is truly the fucked up one in their relationship. They play off each other brilliantly, and it just builds interesting characters.

She's so fucked up. I love her.

On top of all that, we have the soundtrack, which just helps suck the viewer into this experience. The Dust Brothers put together a score that just blends perfectly with the images. The drum loops at time are disorienting, but I think that's the idea. You need to be disoriented to go through what Norton goes through, and it's done in a way where you don't even notice it's happening until it's too late. It's rare to see music compliment an image this well, instead of being two stand alone expressions.

The only bad thing I can say about this movie is that the twist isn't all that original. It's been done. But it's not about the twist. It's about the message. And when you look at the bare bones of the message, it's quite cheesy. But since it's delivered in such an awesome way, you just end up walking away from this movie a different person. In this day and age, this movie just hits deep with most people. We all have our issues, and most people don't handle them properly.

So, why is Fight Club so awesome? It's a lot of things. But most of all, it has style. This is one of those movies that knows how awesome it is and it dares you not to like it. It's become quite the cult classic, and rightfully so. It carries a powerful message, and it delivers it without rubbing your face in shit. And I like that.

9/10

Malick's Odyssey?: Loz's Review of 'The Tree of Life'

Ever since I saw the trailer for The Treet of Life I was very much excited. I thought the duo of Sean Penn and Brad Pitt (even though not working directly together) would make this a fantastic movie. A few weeks later after watching the trailer I was even more excited because the movie had just won the Palme D'Or at this years edition of the Cannes Film Festival, getting much positive praise because of it. Even better, just a few weeks after it won the award, it was showing at the Fine Arts cinema. Now, after all that excitement, was the movie worth it?

My answer would have to be a resounding "no". Now, I won't claim to be an expert at all things cinema. I'm not Gene Siskel or Roger Ebert or even Richard Roeper. I just know what I like and I know what I don't like. Furthermore, I know what I hate. And I have a lot of hate for a lot of things in this movie.

Like I said in the Cannes Spotlight, I was not a big fan of Terrence Malick's last movie. And I think the same things that I didn't like about that movie carry over to this one. I think he is somewhat heavy handed in his approach and his films end up feeling too long and they don't really elicit any emotional reactions in me. I must say that the film that I ended up watching was nothing like I expected. It is epic in scope. It reminded me of Stanley Kubrick's classic movie 2001: A Space Odyssey. Malick tried to make his own Odyssey and I think he failed.

It's a beautiful film. There is no doubt about it. The soaring imagery and the booming soundtrack filled with a lot of classical music and silence. There are endless scenes of volcanic magma and of the birth-pains of the beginning of the universe and the beginning of life. There's too much of it all. It seems like auto-gratification to me.

What I thought was interesting was the relationships between the family members. The stern father (Brad Pitt) who tries to get his boys ready to survive any eventuality. The main conflict of the movie is severely lacking though. Young Jack (Hunter McCracken) doesn't know what to think of his father and at times he has a deep rooted hate for him. To me, the father wasn't that hard. He was just imbuing discipline and I think the kid was just a cry-baby, to be honest. The beautifully surreal mother (Jessica Chastain) who smiles and her smile lights up the screen more than the scenes of fire and magma. The Cain and Abel like relationship between the two brothers that doesn't seem to really get anywhere. There is a scene during the film where the brothers are playing with a BB gun and Jack asks his younger brother to put his finger right in front of the barrel and the brother does it and get shot in the process. There's a lot of things to praise about the movie, but I think its a lot more shiny than what its worth.

The acting by Pitt, Chastain and the kids was top notch. Sean Penn was underused and sort of just there. Malick wanted to say too many things with this movie and instead of getting one coherent message, I think what we got was a jumbled mess of ethereal ideas that feel empty inside.

I know that I'm probably in the minority. The critics have already hailed this film as a masterpiece, but I just didn't see it. It's the critics job to love movies like this one. Maybe if I watch it again down the line, I might feel different about it, but my first impression after seeing it only once is that its an empty metaphysical trip down an eccentric's mind.

3 out of 10

Spotlight: Cannes Film Festival 2011 Part Deux

The next film on my Cannes Film Festival Spotlight is Pedro Almodóvar’s La piel que habito (The Skin I Live In). The film deals with a plastic surgeon played by Antonio Banderas whose wife dies in a car fire and he spends his days trying to create a skin that would have protected her from the fire. He eventually is able to create a skin impermeable against any kind of assault after twelve years.



I don’t know what happens next and I wouldn’t want to ruin my experience with the newest film from Almodóvar. This is one of those directors that everyone waits patiently for his next film because everyone knows that while someone might not like it, they are in for an interesting experience that you won’t find with many other directors right now. His last two feature films (Los abrazos rotos or Broken Embraces and Volvér) had some of the best female characters (two of them played by Penélope Cruz), so I’m wondering if this film will have a character like that or if the film will concentrate on the character of the doctor and his motivations. Either way, it is a must see film.

Also, am I the only one that sees the similarities between this character and Mr. Freeze? No? Damn…

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I actually saw the trailer of this next film at the movie theater when I went to watch an Italian romantic comedy called Ex. Terrence Malick’s The Tree of Life is the story of a Midwestern family during the 1950s. It deals with the life of the eldest son Jack (Sean Penn) as we see him live his life through his childhood all the way to him all grown up.



To tell you the truth, I am not a big fan of Terrence Malick. His last movie was one of the biggest bore fests I have seen in a long time. The New World was just plain bad. It worries me that he is the director, but the cast is just too good to pass up. Brad Pitt and Sean Penn are proven actors and they alone could make this movie fantastic. Sure, it might also be just ok, but I have a feeling that its going to be pretty damn good.

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Last movie for tonight is the incredibly interesting Melancholia by director Lars von Trier. Apparently, there’s a planet called Melancholia that is heading towards Earth. Two sisters played by Kristen Dunst and Charlotte Gainsbourg have their relationship tested by everything that is going on. Check out the trailer, because this movie is hard to explain…



Yes. The film is strange. Lars von Trier has been criticized before for movies like 2009’s Antichrist and maybe the criticism is warranted. I don’t believe so. I think he has a vision that is just that different from most people’s sensibilities. Antichrist isn’t an easy movie to watch, but it’s a movie that will elicit a response from you, whether good or bad. I’m not sure about Kristen Dunst… not a big fan of her, but Charlotte Gainsbourg is a fantastic actress and Dunst could really work with her. There’s a nice supporting cast as well with guys like Stellan Skarsgard and his son (of True Blood fame) Alexander, Kiefer Sutherland and John Hurt. I have big expectations for this weird sci-fi thriller.

Still more to come soon! Stay tuned!