Day 110: Kick-Ass (2010)

I headed to campus this morning around 5:45 to stand in line to apply for CLA. When I got there, there were already 75 people in line. Thankfully they take 120 people, but I should probably haven't gotten there a bit earlier. In order to kill the 2 hours until 8 when the doors opened, I brought along this movie. I saw it in theatres earlier this year, and bought it a few weeks ago when it came out on DVD. I divided my attention between watching the film and chatting to people, but it still counts.

Not going to go into too much detail, as I saw the film recently. It's a great film, a lot of fun, and just as much fun to watch the second time around. I can easily see this being a film I watch on a lazy Sunday afternoon. I am anxious for the sequel.

Day 109: Neighbours (1952)

Tomorrow is the first day of classes in law school. It's also the day to apply for a position with Community Legal Aid (CLA), and in order to get a spot, you need to line up early. This meant that I had to head to bed early, so decided a short film was in order. Neighbours is one of my favourite short NFB films, and so much fun.

You can watch it online here. The film was revolutionary for its use of stop-motion with people, and is always good for a laugh. If you haven't yet seen it, do yourself a favor and watch it now. It's only 8 minutes.

Day 108: Mysterious Skin (2004)

As I was checking out the DVD collection in the univeristy library I caught the glimpse of Joseph Gordon-Levitt on this DVD cover. A film he'd been in that I hadn't heard of? Figured it was worth a watch.

The film tells the story of two boys who were sexually assaulted as children, and how this effected their lives - with one becoming a male prostitute, and the other not remembering the event and believing he was abducted by aliens. The film presents the events in a very raw and graphic way - there is no attempt to sugar-coat the events. The film is very moving, troubling even, and often hard to watch. It is one of those films that you'll never forget, never want to watch again, but feel better for having seen. Both leads, Brady Corbet and Joseph Gordon Levitt, were terrific. Not for the weak-hearted, but for those who can stomach it, well worth seeing.

Day 107: Weird Sex and Snowshoes: A Trek Through the Canadian Cinematic Psyche (2004)

Being the nerd that I am, I spend the first break I had all week from classes investigting the school library. First week of law school and I'm already volunteering searching the university's library. I was somewhat shocked to find that they have quite an extensive video collection (including the entire Criterion DVD collection). I spent a good 30-mins walking back and forth down the aisles trying to decide on something to borrow, when I noticed this film. Weird Sex and Snowshoes is a book on Canadian film, and I managed to get a copy late last year (it's out of print and therefore less than easy to get) and I've been slowly reading it ever since. I was unaware that a documentary based loosely on the book had been made, and so I was intrigued. As I borrowed it, they stamped it with the return date (three day loan period) and I noticed that someone had borrowed it already this week with a return date of today - meaning someone else on campus went to the library during the first week of school and rented a documentary on Canadian film. Someone else here is just as a big film nerd as me. If only I had a way to meet this person.

The documentary touched lightly on a lot of the issues raised in the book, mainly trying to define what makes Canadian Film. I spent a whole course in my undergrad trying to answer that question, and ultimately we found the question to be unanswerable. It's pretty much the same answer that the film comes up. The film raises a lot of themes that are present in Canadian films, and accompanies this with various dialogue from Canadian filmmakers on both their own films and the Canadian film industry. The film was enjoyable to watch, though I didn't learn anything new. Though I did get the name of a number of Canadian films I hadn't heard of which I will now have to check out. The film would provide a good introduction to a film course on Canadian film, or as an introduction to someone completely unaware of what Canadian film looked like, but beyond that initial introduction it lacks any real depth.

Day 106: The Pink Panther (1963)

As I stood scanning my shelves of DVDs, I was stuck by this film. I remember when I was a kid, my father rented a number of films in the Pink Panther series to watch, and being a fan of the Pink Panther cartoon I was intrigued. Having no real recollection of the film aside from it being about a jewel theft and an incompetent police detective, I decided it was time to shake off some of those mental cobwebs and watch it again.

Sidenote: I just want to comment on how I hate Hollywood's remaking of films. There is nothing wrong with this film that needed to be perfected in the 2006 relaunch. What irks me even more is that the 2006 version is not even a direct remake, but a "relaunch" of the franchise. If you are going to relaunch a franchise, at least have the common decency not to use the exact same title. This recent trend to reuse film titles for two different films in the same franchise (or the also popular dropping of the word "the" from a previous title to make a new one) is infuriating! Two different films with the same exact title in the same franchise is possibly the most absurd thing ever. I can't even explain how faulty and backward-thinking this logic is. It needs to stop.

Peter Sellers is a fantasict comedian, and steals the show as Inspector Clouseau.

Day 105: Fargo (1996)

Somehow this classic Coen brother film escaped my radar for quite some time, but this is exactly one of the reasons I started this challenge in the first place. It provides me the chance to finally see all those movies that I should have already seen.

Truth be told, I've been sitting here for 20 minutes staring at this blank post trying to find someway to contextualize my thoughts on the film, with no luck. I enjoyed it.
It is a simple story, with simple characters, and this simplicity is truly delightful.
I know this a rather poor excuse of a post, but it'll have to do.

Day 104: TiMER (2009)

My friend Hayley suggested I watch this film, and while I'm not a huge fan of rom-coms, she assured me that there was enough sci-fi in it to make up for it being a romantic comedy.

The concept of TiMER is a simple, yet unique, one: what if you could have a timer installed on your arm that will tell you the exact day you will meet your soulmate? Once you get your timer installed it starts counting down to midnight the night before you'll meet your soulmate for the first time, and the following day when you meet your soulmate the timer beeps. Of course, the timer will only start counting down once both people in the soul-match have a timer, so if you're "supposed" soulmate hasn't gotten around to getting one yet, your timer will remain blank. This is the issue that plagues the film's protagonist Oona. Her sister, Steph, has a different issue with her timer - the countdown is over 20 years in the future. They live together and deal with trying to have relationships in which you know the person you're dating isn't the one before you even meet them. It's a very weird concept, and, sadly, doesn't get explored enough.

Some questions that bothered me throughout the film concerning the timer were:
1) Can you not die until after your countdown has run-out? Presumably the timer, if it can see the future to know when you're going to meet your soulmate, it would know if you were to die before you were to meet your soulmate.
2) What if your soulmate lives in some other continent where the timer isn't used yet?
3) What if you are never "destined" to meet your soulmate?
4) What if your soulmate has no arms? They make the point that the timer can only function when placed on the wrist of your dominant arm (it doesn't even work on your other wrist).
5) Assuming that for thoughts 2-4, the timer just doesn't flash a time. This is the same result if your soulmate doesn't have a timer installed yet. So someone with a flashing timer will spend their whole live searching for someone that they might never find. Isn't it better to find someone and be happy with them even if they aren't "the one" then spend your live looking in vain?

The film deals with this last issue. The issue of wether it's better to "settle" and be happy, or to keep waiting and hoping. While it's definitely the key issue raised by the notion of the timer existing, the whole film is far too predictable to create any real thoughts on the matter. Oona, the flashing timer owner, meets and falls for a younger guy who she believes has 4-months left on his timer. She knows its a meaningless fling, and in four months he'll move on. When she discovers that he actually doesn't have a timer and has a fake one instead, she starts to question her feelings for him. When, at the same time, a man enters her sister's Steph's live with no timer, it doesn't take a genius to realize where the story is going to go.

I found the idea of the timer and all its possible meanings much more enjoyable than the film itself. The film had charm and a sense of quirkiness that can only be found in indie films like this one, but this charm and quirk is brought down by the lack of depth to which the timer is dealt with.

Day 103: De fem benspænd / The Five Obstructions (2003)

My brother recommended this film to me last year, and I picked it up, but like so many other films it sat on my shelf unwatched. It is films like this that make me glad this project of mine is making me watch films that I have and have never seen. I should have watched this film last year as soon as I heard of it, I'm an idiot for waiting this long to see it.

There is something charming and enchanting about this film. Granted, this film is not for everyone, but for someone who loves film, for someone who enjoys watching film being made, and for someone who enjoys watching things being reinvented than you'll enjoy the film. The premise is simple: Lars von Trier, a Danish filmmaker, asks Jørgen Leth, his mentor of sorts, to remake The Perfect Human, one of Leth's first films five times. Trier will create obstacles, or obstructions, for each remake. The film is composed of documentary scenes showing Trier and Leth discussing the project and the obstructions before and after each film is shown. As a side note, The Perfect Human is never shown in its entirety; it is shown in parts throughout however. As it is on the DVD as an extra, it might be a good idea to watch it first.

This game between Trier and Leth is fascinating to watch, as are the productions of the obstructions. It's hard to explain the joy that comes from watching these two obviously very friendly and passionate filmmakers joke and play around with each other. I don't want to spoil any of the obstructions, only to say they get better with each one. It's an amazing film, and well worth the time to see it. My only complaint is I wish that the DVD included each of the obstructions in their entirety separate from the film. A truly wonderful, and refreshing, documentary.

Day 102: Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior (1981)

One of my favourite pieces of movie trivia is: What was the first movie printed to DVD? (Answer: Twister). My next question is always: What was the second? Since I'm asking in this post, it is pretty clear it is Mad Max 2. What's interesting, at least in my opinion, is that while Twister has been reprinted, making it hard to find that original DVD, Mad Max 2 has not, meaning you can see the second DVD Menu ever made (I've pasted it below). You can tell that WB had no idea what to do with the Menu, and simply filled it with options. They forgot the most obvious option though - the play movie button. You need to go to "Jump to a Scene" and from there choose Start Movie. It's an artifact of a technology we take for granted today, and is quite interesting in my opinion.


As for the film itself, it was an improvement over the first. This one, taking some time after the first film, features Max riding alone in the desert when he comes upon a small group of people who have managed to secure and operate a refining rig and are producing gasoline - a rarity. A biker gang is threatening them, and Max steps in to help them get their gasoline and themselves to the coast where they'll be safe. There is a lot more action to this film, and less attempt at a story, with some great shots of the Australian back. I still don't see what all the fuss about Mad Max is all about though.

Day 101: The American (2010)

After a week in my apartment alone, I decided to get out and what better place to go then to check out the local movie theatre. As far as I could tell, the closest theatre to me was a 30-minute walk. It is a small theatre, with only 4 screens. The only film playing that I hadn't already seen was The American, so my choice was made for me. I walked there, and took my seat. The theatre, both the building and my screening room, were empty. I have often gone to see movies by myself, but it's also odd to be the only person in the theatre. By the time the movie started, there was about 6 other people in the theatre. I'm not sure if that was a reflection of the average Saturday night film attendance in Windsor, or this particular movie. It was nice to get out of the apartment, and I'm staked out the closest movie theatre. As long as they get good films on release dates, it should work out. My next goal is to find a decent video rental store.

After a week of not much else aside from Hitchcock thrillers, The American seems to fit in very well. The American is a slow thriller that builds the tension slowly, arguably too slowly, to a very obvious and predictable outcome that causes the tension to fall flat. Jack (Clooney) is an assassin who wants to retire, but is being chased by some unknown Swedes. His handler advises him to hide out in a small Italian city under the name Edward. While he hides out, he is commissioned for one last job - to construct a custom rifle for a fellow assassin. During his stay, he befriends the local priest and falls in love with a prostitute.

This is a thriller about an assassin with no thrill or action. The film is slow paced and short on dialogue. The audience is presented with shots of the Italian hillsides, of Clooney driving through said hillsides, of Clooney walking the winding streets of Italain towns, of Clooney working out, and of Clooney working on his rifle. People who enjoy watching Clooney as eye-candy will probably enjoy the film for that reason alone. Not only does the film not provide much dialogue, it never answers any of the multiple questions it raises. We are never given any information into Jack's background, we don't know who he works for, we don't know whose trying to kill him, and we don't know why he wants out. All in all, we don't know anything, which leaves me wondering why we should care. If you're interested in a existential examination of an assassin at the end of his game starring an often shirtless Clooney, you'll find what you're looking for. As much as I wanted to like the film, and as much as I understood what the film was trying to do, I failed to enjoy it.

Day 100: Twilight (2008)

Being of sane-mind and being at least half intelligent, I have avoided all Twilight related books and films like the plague. I have a friend, Mal, who, for some inexplicable reason, finds the books and films not only enjoyable but utterly fascinating and spent a serious amount of time researching and writing about the series. This led, with good reason, to much ridicule of her on my behalf. In her defense, she often mentioned that as I had no read the books or seen the film I couldn't talk. When I started this 365in365, I asked people for suggestions on films to watch, and, of course, Mal was quick to suggest Twilight. I figured I might as well finally watch it, so that I could criticize it fairly and accurately. I decided to make it my 100th film, in order to ensure that this milestone post would be at least somewhat lengthy. So, Mal, this post is for you.

I don't think the film requires any explanation. Basically there's a girl, Bella, who falls in love, rather inexplicably, with a vampire named Edward in the small town of Forks. Bella spends most of the film trying to find out what makes Edward different - hint: he's a vampire. Edward is unusually attracted to Bella, and is unsure if he can control his urges around her. These are not the normal teenage male urges, but rather the urge to drink her blood. Despite his clear indication that he wishes to fatally drink her blood, Bella inexplicably decides to ignore this and they start to date. Shortly after dating, Edward invites Bella to come play baseball with his family, at which point three nomadic vampires show up, one of whom, James, is a hunter and decides to hunt Bella for sport. Edward tries to hide her, and in a somewhat anti-climatic fight, Edward and his family manage to kill James and save Bella. Bella and Edward happily attend prom together. Throughout the film another guy, Jacob, shows up who also has some weird fascination, though so does everyone in the town, for Bella. This fascination, like Edward's, is never explained. It can't be looks, because she's not that good looking. Her friend Jessica, Anna Kendrick, is clearly much better looking, yet none of the guys seems interested in her. Now that I've gotten the plot out of the way, let me explore how ridiculous it is.

First of all, the film spends the first 50 minutes doing nothing! Literally all that happens is Bella attempts to find out what Edward is. It takes her almost half the movie to do this. The worst part is that she Googles something, and instead of reading the numerous search results that clearly provide the answer to her question, she finds a book about it and goes to a local bookstore that sells the book. She reads maybe two pages of the book before going back online to research a word that tells her Edward is a vampire. In the next 40 minutes, nothing happens, except Bella and Edward are super awkward around each other. Literally by the 90 minute mark, nothing of any real consequence has happened. Two people have been murdered by three unknown vampires, but this takes up maybe 2 minutes of that 90. The other 88 minutes are spent providing terrible cliche and corny dialogue between Edward and Bella, and the occasional awkward scene between Jacob and Bella. Some things that I didn't understand. What is so fascinating about Bella? Also, why can't Edward read her mind? I can accept them not explaining how he can read minds, and how his sister can see the future. Neither of these are classic vampire skills, but considering how badly separated these "vampires" are from classic vampires, I can let that slid. But why introduce the fact that he can't read her mind and then not explain it. I don't think I have to mention the sparkling, but really, isn't the line "It's like diamonds. You are beautiful." a bit much? I almost threw up in my mouth. Horrid, horrid, writing.

Anyways, ok, so around the 90 minute mark something finally happens! Can you guess what it is? The Cullens, that's Edward's vampire family, decide to go play baseball! That's right folks - a family of vampires that are over 100 years old inexplicably love baseball. But, there's a catch! Because they are super strong, whenever they hit the ball it sounds like lightning, so they can only play during thunderstorms. They make a big deal out this fact, though it never comes to any fruition. So, they are out there enjoying some baseball action, when out of nowhere the three nomadic vampires show up. They have a bit of standoff, then decide to play some baseball together. I guess that's another rule about vampires I was unaware - they all love baseball. Just as everything seems fine and dandy, the wind changes and, oh my god, Bella's scent gets blown over to James who is a hunter and wants to kill Bella for sport. So, here, finally, we have the point of the film. Edward must save Bella's life. Shame it took so long to get to this point. Following this, in some rather inexplicable series of events, Bella ends up alone in her old dance studio with James. Now, if I was to write a vampire film, I wouldn't set the final fight in a room filled with mirrors for one simple reason - vampires don't have a reflection. But wait! What's this? Apparently in Twilight, vampires do have a reflection! WHAT?!?! Ok, so they can go in daylight, they have a reflection, and they have no fangs... so what exactly makes them a vampire? Anyways, moving on. So, there's a fight, James poisons Bella, but Edward drinks the poison from her, and in some miraculous moment of personal strength stops himself from drinking her dry. They end up at prom together, where Bella asks him to turn her into a vampire, to which Edward refuses. A 2-hour film that only had maybe 5-minutes of action, and terrible action at that, in a mirror-filled room between vampires! This is like the worst possible imagined ending to a vampire movie. I can't get over it. It's like having Superman fight in a room made of Kryptonite and not be hurt.

As for the film itself, apart from the story, it was pretty terrible. One of my pet peeves in films is narration, especially when used to provide the audience with information that they are too lazy to film. Narration is one of the laziest forms of narrative film-making, and Twilight opens with 4 minutes of nothing but narration. Bella continues narrating throughout the film for no reason. The acting is terrible. The terrible acting is only outdone by the terrible dialogue. I really couldn't find any redeemable quality to this film. All I can is that all my thoughts on the film before watching it were proved correct.

Day 99: Notorious (1946)

Another Hitchcock film that deals with Nazis. I'm getting a bit tired of this WW2 propaganda-filled films, and sincerely hope this is the last one that touches on the issue. Not that the films are bad, but it just provides such a narrow bridge for Hitchcock to walk that he isn't able to explore as much as I'd like.

We're treated to another Hitchcock film starring Ingrid Bergman, this time joined by Cary Grant. With these two classic stars, it doesn't require much to make a decent film. Thankfully, an interesting story and cinematography make it a better than decent film. When Alicia's, Bergman, father is sentenced to jail for aiding the Nazis, the OSS (the pre-cursor to the CIA) ask her to travel to Rio to infiltrate a gang of Nazi conspirators and help bring them down.

While the film is obviously about the Nazi scare, it is also about alcoholism, and not very subtlety at that. While it is hinted at numerous times that Alicia is somewhat of a loose girl; there is no doubting the clear indication that she is an alcoholic. Drinking, and various symbols of it, infiltrate the entire story. Alicia spends most of the film suffering from one drink or another - whether she is hungover form alcohol or sick from poisoned coffee. In some classic foreshadowing, Alicia mentions early on in the film that "The important drinking hasn't started yet!" providing a clear indication that other drinking, that of the poisoned coffee, will be important. Not only is her alcoholism seen as a problem by the OSS, Devlin, and Sebastian, but alcohol, or wine bottles actually, hole the clue to the whole affair. In an ironic twist of fate, it is spilled wine that leads to her being uncovered, and it is drinking, though that of coffee, that nearly kills her. One could easily write a film school essay on this topic, and I'm sure it's been done. There is a lot more going on in this film that means first glance.

Day 98: The Paper Chase (1973)

I have just moved to Windsor to attend law school. One of my friends, Hayley, got me this movie as a house-warming present. She said every law student should see it before they start law school to scare them. I asked my parents if they had seen it, as they are both lawyers, and they said that everyone who went to law school used to watch it, and that at Queen's law they would play it during orientation. Not sure how I hadn't heard of it, but it was a considerate gift, and how could I not watch a film about a first year law student when I am about to embark on the same path. I was planning on waiting until the day before classes started, but I was too eager to see it and couldn't wait.

The film is indeed about the hardships of first year law at Harvard law school. It's also about love, and possibly how difficult it is to have both in first year law. The film centres around Hart, a first year law student, and as he attempts to make it through his first year he falls for Susan. Susan just happens to be the daughter of Kingsfield, the hardest prof at the law school who teaches Contracts. Hart, therefore, attempts to balance his relationship with Susan, his schoolwork, and to foster a relationship with Kingsfield, who seemingly never remembers his name.

The film is a slowly-paced drama with occasional humour. The long shots and slow progression of the film add to the otherwise simple, and perhaps a bit contrived, story. The film lacks any real emotional intensity, Hart's passion for both law school and for Susan seem unmotivated. Though, this may be intentional as a reflection of the cloistered and cerebral nature of law school. The true emotion of the film is seen in Hart's attempt to gain the respect of Kingsfield, a man who never smiles and whose live evolves around law. Kingsfield, played by Houseman, provides most of the humour in the film with his great dialogue.

As far as scaring me for law school, it did to a degree. I seriously hope I don't need to hole up in a hotel for three days to study for my finals - especially not with a suitcase full of notes. From what I've been told this film is a rather accurate depiction, though perhaps a bit extreme, of first year law, and so that is a bit daunting. I expect a year from now I'll watch this again, and have a complete different take on it. For now, I am eager to start my own legal education, and hope that it's somewhat less stressful than Hart's, though I wouldn't mind getting his final grade.