10/11/09

My Week in Film (10/5 - 10/11)



The Public Enemy (1931)
(Directed by William Wellman)


Lots of fun, but I guess it lacked the gravitas and tragedy I felt in The Roaring Twenties although it does supply its own whopper of an ending. Cagney is pretty great here with his grapefruit and his stares. Jean Harlow is horrendous. I have no idea what the hell is going on with her. The guy who played Cagney's brother was pretty bad, too. Really, I just kind of liked Cagney and seeing him do all these awesome things. But, you know, that gets old and stuff and roujin was like "why is roujin getting bored with this movie?" and roujin answered himself "i don't know, i guess roujin is just dumb" and that confused roujin and the world stopped for a second or two or three and then everything made sense again and order was restored to the world and roujin was always right. always.

★★★




The Invention of Lying (2009)
(Directed by Ricky Gervais + Matthew Robinson)

This was actually pretty good. Gervais discovers that he can say something besides the truth and uses it to his own advantage. While that first half is pretty great and really mean and funny, I think the film gets more interesting once when the whole religion aspect is thrown in there. Mostly cuz it suggests that religion can only exist in a world without lying which to me is funny. But, it isn't just funny. It was genuinely moving to me. The scene with Gervais and his mother is the emotional lynchpin of the movie and from there on it becomes more serious and more probing and more interesting. Very, very interesting. All those movies look hilarious...

★★★



Kiss of the Spider Woman (1985)
(Directed by Hector Babenco)

Anyway, this was pretty good. William Hurt and Raul Julia are both really good as two cellmates who over the course of the movie get to know each other better. Julia is a political prisoners, Hurt had sex with a minor. As a way to escape from the drudgery of his everyday existence, Hurt relates some of his favorite movies to Julia. The film recreates his movies in a totally stylistically excessive way. They're lots of fun to watch. Naturally, Hurt and Julia butt heads. First, about Hurt's dismissal of all things political and sometimes about Hurt's sexuality, but, naturally, they get closer. Of course, it isn't that simple and what seems to be happening isn't really happening. At least not for the reasons that the viewer thinks it is. Some fine acting all across the board and it never felt stagy to me even when it was just confined to the dude's prison cells. Very, very interesting...

★★★

Jhon's Movie of the Week is... Kiss of The Spider Woman

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