Day 20 - Les Diaboliques

Les Diaboliques (1955) directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot

There is a fine line between revealing elements of plot for the sake of discussion in reviews and straight up spoilers. For action flicks or predictable kid movies, this isn't a huge concern, but for the mystery/suspense/horror genre, it can ruin your experience to even have the slightest inkling of what might happen next. Les Diaboliques is such a movie, so I'll try to outline the premise as vaguely as I can. A woman and her husband's mistress plot to murder the husband, but after the crime is committed the body mysteriously disappears. Sound intriguing enough for you?

The best way to describe this movie is as a French Alfred Hitchcock movie. In fact, Hitchcock had originally made an offer for the rights to the novel Celle Qui N'etait Pas (The Woman Who Has No More) that Les Diaboliques was based on, but Clouzot outbid him and ended up making a film that is said to have helped inspire Psycho.

What makes Les Diaboliques so effective is its strict adherence to its recipe, allowing the film to slowly cook with mystery and suspense rather than cheap thrills to grab our interest and by the end you're fully satisfied. The build up of the mystery is so intense that we can feel the two women's anxiety. I couldn't help but be lost with them and ask myself, "WTF is going on?!" That can also be one of this film's downfalls though. For as good as Les Diaboliques smells, we are never able to dip our finger in to steal a taste of just how good it really is. While the mystery and intrigue is there, there are very few moments in the middle to release any tension. It's just one big tease. You'll either like that about it or you won't. I happened to appreciate it yet be mildly frustrated at the same time.

Grade: B+

Day 19 - The Hustler

The Hustler (1961) directed by Robert Rossen

"He's his own worst enemy." You hear it all the time in describing athletes who have all the talent in the world but can't seem to put it all together. That's "Fast" Eddie Felson, a brash but supremely talented pool shark who travels to New York City set out to prove he's the best pool player in the country. Upon setting foot at a local pool hall, he confidently proclaims for everyone to hear that he'll win $10,000 that very night. He sets up a match against the legendary Minnesota Fats, who everybody says is the best in the world. From the onset, it's clear that Eddie is indeed as good as he says he is and after playing $200 a game for a couple hours, he's up $1,000 and wants to bump it up to $1,000 a game, ordering a bottle of booze at the same time. Fats, unperturbed, quickly agrees. Even when he's down $11,000 many hours later, Fats looks perfectly calm as he watches Eddie get increasingly arrogant, tired, and drunk. Eddie tells everybody that he's the best anybody's ever seen and at that point, Fats' manager encourages Fats to keep playing the young kid, telling him, "The kid's a loser" and maintains his poise even as Eddie is up $18,000 after 25 hours.

Needless to say, Eddie loses it all back to Fats save for $200 and literally begs him to keep on playing. He won't ever stop, even if he turned that $200 into a million. He won't be content until he loses it all. This lengthy introduction to Eddie's character is especially poignant to me because I see it all the time in the gambling world, people set out on a path of self destruction with no hope of ever succeeding. One moment they are on the top of the world, laughing, drinking, having fun, tipping the waitresses $25 chips and a couple hours later they sit there silently, miserable, wondering where it all went. I know the sinking feeling Eddie has because I've been there and it sucks. 

Some people simply can't handle success. They work their entire lives to achieve a goal, but once they reach the mountain top they don't know what to do. There's only pressure at the top, none at the bottom. Eddie, for all his talents, for all his pride and ego, doesn't know what it really means to be a winner, not just in a competitive sense, but in a broader worldly context as well. He is in denial over what happened against Fats, blaming his manager for holding out on the extra $1,000 he could have used, full well knowing he would have simply lost it all. He develops a relationship with a troubled woman and cannot reciprocate her feelings because he can't even care for himself, let alone another human being. He holds on to the belief that as long as there is a cue stick in his hand, he can control his own fate and anything else in the world is extraneous.

On its surface, The Hustler is a movie about pool, but it is really a movie about how to win at life, as Charlie Sheen would say. No matter how well Eddie plays pool, he will never succeed without taking a hard honest look at himself and must go through trials and tribulations. It is only through personal pain and admitting to his weaknesses and faults that Eddie is finally able to truly win. He's no hero, but the struggles he faces to simply learn to be human is heroic enough.

Oh yeah, Paul Newman is really good here.

Grade: A-

Day 18 - Fallen Angels

Fallen Angels (1995) directed by Wong Kar-Wai

If you're not familiar with Wong Kar-Wai's work (Chungking Express, In the Mood for Love), it can be somewhat difficult to describe his unique style, which is to say, extraordinary. He has an artistic flair seldom seen by modern directors, adhering to the philosophy that cinema is art above all else. Hence his movies tend to be visually striking, beautiful and provocative, invoking emotions more through visual images rather than the sometimes sparse stories and characters that occupy his films. Seen as somewhat of a sequel or companion piece to his critically acclaimed Chungking Express, Fallen Angels touches upon similar themes of the unrelenting longing for something; love, partnership, meaning, anything. The characters feel empty and lonely, almost as if they were observing their own lives from the outside with the rest of us.

There is a hit-man and his partner that he's never met, a woman that sets up jobs for him. She knows details about him by going through the trash he leaves behind in the safe house, what he drinks, what cigarettes he smokes, what bar he drinks at. She's in love with him, yet they've never even met. There is a second intertwining story involving a man who hasn't spoken since childhood after eating a can of expired pineapples (a reference to Chungking Express). He does odd jobs for money, namely opening stores that have been closed and getting people to do business with him in a series of hilarious scenes forcing unwilling customers to buy things from him. Then he meets an emotionally unbalanced woman where they go on a series of adventures together. The plot is rather sparse, sometimes it feels like nothing is happening, yet it feels like so much is happing at the same time.

The most intriguing part of Fallen Angels isn't the plot, even if it is compelling, at times hilarious, other times provokingly sad, but rather the medium in which Wong tells his story. He pulls no stops, using a wide array of angles, shots, cuts, and other techniques including slow motion, fast motion, stop motion, reflections, black and white, neon colors, et al. in a jarring display of visual mastery. I was somewhat reminded of Jean-Luc Godard's Breathless in this regard. It really is a fantastic looking movie with interesting shots galore.

Musically, Fallen Angels infuses a wide variety of influences including a bass pounding smooth rap song that plays every time the hit-man goes to do a job and a depressing Cantopop song he uses to send a message rather than meet face to face with his partner.

While it's been many years since I've last seen Chungking Express, I can safely say that Fallen Angels is equally deserving of the former's praise in its sheer artistry and light hearted yet moving story.

Grade: A

Day 17 - Lady Snowblood

Lady Snowblood (1973) directed by Toshiya Fujita

If you liked Kill Bill, or in my case, loved it, you absolutely must watch Lady Snowblood. It is AMAZING. I really can't put it into any other words. On it's own, it is easily one of the best revenge flicks I've ever seen and when you throw in the Kill Bill connection, it's fun to see where Quentin Tarantino drew his inspiration from. It's all there; the simple plot of revenge (even broken down into chapters), the female assassin, the sword fights, the geysers of blood, the absurdity of its violence, the wonderful set designs, even the same theme song in the end! It's really quite remarkable how much homage Kill Bill pays to this movie, and for good reason, it's just brilliant.

Lady Snowbood opens with the birth of a child born under inauspicious circumstances, on a cold snowy day in the middle of a prison. The mother doesn't survive the childbirth, but not before revealing her final wishes for her "child of the netherworld." The child will be the instrument of her revenge against the people who have so severely wronged her. Thus, the child is raised to become an assassin hellbent on carrying out her mother's revenge. Fast forward to a scene on a snowy night where we see the child, Yuki, now fully grown, in action. And immediately you can tell this movie will be special.

The narrative is broken into four separate chapters, the first to provide Yuki's background story and the next three for each intended target. In the first chapter, we get several flashbacks revealing her mother's tragic tale and the events leading to Yuki's birth. Part of this is done in an interesting magna style, somewhat similar to the anime sequence in Kill Bill. The other part of the first chapter is devoted to Yuki's training as a child, somewhat similar to Uma Thurman's training in Kill Bill Vol. 2 (though that sequence has heavy Chinese kung fu flick overtures that I'm sure played a greater influence). From that part, the rest of the movie follows her mission to find and confront her enemies.

While the body count in Lady Snowblood doesn't quite match Kill Bill's, the sheer force and style of its violence does. This movie is bloody and at times shockingly so, but not in the grotesque guts and gore way of modern Hollywood horror. While the movie is completely serious in nature, the blood and violence is almost comical. Body parts get chopped off and absurd fountains of blood spray and you almost jump back and laugh, asking yourself, "Did that really just happen?" But you are never disgusted or grossed out by it. This stylized violence was something that Tarantino was careful to emulate in Kill Bill, understanding that a more realistic approach would be impossible and ruin the movie.

And finally, I must also talk about the star of the movie, Kaji Meiko, who I have seen before in Female Convict 701 trilogy. I couldn't help but notice just how striking her features are. She has mesmerizing eyes, an elegant and delicate appearing face and she can give you this deep death stare and still look beautiful, which allows her to fit this role perfectly. She plays the part of Yuki with a quiet determination, but quickly springs into action with flashes of fury. She also sings the final song!

Lumping Lady Snowblood together with Kill Bill is inevitable given that the latter can almost be described as a remake. But Lady Snowblood doesn't need Kill Bill as it can easily stand by itself and is a classic in its own right.

Grade: A

Day 16 - Django

Django (1966) directed by Sergio Corbucci

Quick! Name a spaghetti western not directed by Sergio Leone or starring Clint Eastwood. Can't do it, huh? Unless you're a movie buff or really into westerns, the only ones you probably know are Fistful of Dollars, For A Few Dollars More and The Good,  The Bad, and The Ugly, and for good reason. Those movies are legitimate classics which would ultimately become associated with the entire genre, which would be a blessing and and curse for the rest of the bunch. The odd style and techniques used to make spaghetti westerns that were initially derided by critics would eventually become their most endearing features; the morally ambiguous antihero, the stylized and excessive violence, and dirtier grittier feel. Unfortunately for the rest of the bunch, any spaghetti western henceforth would inevitably draw comparisons to Leone's No Name trilogy, an unfair and impossible expectation to live up to. There were, of course, other stalwarts in the genre that would build their own reputations, one of the most notable being Sergio Corbucci's Django. Admittedly, I had not even heard of the movie as of a couple days ago, but during a quick perusing of Quentin Tarantino on the internet, I stumbled upon it. (Tarantino's latest project is titled 'Django Unchained', which reminded me of the excellent Japanese spaghetti western homage Sukiyaki Western Django. I simply assumed Django was a Japanese word, but it got me thinking, so I wiki'd 'Django' and low and behold, found this movie.)

Django opens with the customary shot of the hero wandering the countryside alone in typical drifter fashion, but with one notable difference; he's dragging a coffin behind him. Immediately you begin to wonder what's he got in there and if there's any significance to it being a coffin and not something much simpler like a cart, for example. Within the first five minutes, Django rescues a damsel in distress from two separate set of bad guys, the Mexicans and what can only be described as a quasi-KKK, the two apparently at war with each other. The hero and the damsel head into town and set up base at the local brothel.

The rest of the plot is simple. The town is overrun by two separate gangs, the KKK, complete with red hoods and burning crosses, led by the overly cruel General Jackson and the opposing Mexicans, led by General Hugo. Before you think Yojimbo or Fistful of Dollars, Django doesn't seem to want to play both sides. He has an agenda of his own and it involves bodies. Lots of bodies.

While Django will undoubtedly draw comparisons to Fistful of Dollars for its basic premise and for being a spaghetti western, it shouldn't because they are distinctly different. While Clint Eastwood's drifter, mysterious and of questionable morals, ends up being a good guy to the town in the end, Django has little time for moral posturing. He's there for one purpose and that is to kill some bad guys. While both are inhumanly fast with the single pistol, Django's ultimate method of destruction is almost comical and feels cheap and dirty. There are no style points in war, just kill or be killed.

Sergio Leone's No Name trilogy was renowned for it's stunning cinematography, gorgeous shots of the landscape and picturesque sunsets. Django's world is cold, dark, and dirty. The little town is drab with muted colors and an excessive amount of wet sloppy mud. (There's even a scene with silly girl on girl mud wrestling.) That isn't to say that Django necessarily looks bad, it simply goes for a different vibe.

The movie moves along briskly, running at 97 minutes, and before you know it we're at the final showdown. But one can't help but wish Corbucci slowed it down a little to give more a little more depth to our hero or at least give the viewer a little more time to marinate and let everything sink in. Even by the inevitable final showdown between Django and General Jackson, we still don't even have a full grasp of Django's vendetta or have time to fully root for him. I'm not sure General Jackson even knows the real reason why he's in Django's crosshairs as barely any time is given for the backstory. The final showdown feels all too hasty and unsatisfying for both Django and the viewer.

My biggest complaint, however, is the dubbing, which sounds ridiculous. It's not just the syncing that looks totally off (it's like watching those old kung fu flicks), but the voices are just totally wrong. Franco Nero, who plays Django, has a rough and rugged look in the vain of Clint Eastwood, but the dubbed voice sounds like a boy scout leader. Many of the other voices are miscast as well, making the entire movie just sound incredibly odd.

Despite its misgivings, Django is still an enjoyable, albeit flawed, film and it's easy to see where it gets its cult following from. (Apparently, it has such a following that it has spawned over 50 unofficial sequels.) The film is pretty violent, though by today's standards seems pretty tame and almost comical, but it did help pave the way for a more violent and grittier world of cinema. The mysterious coffin/ mysterious object angle has been copied many times over. The ear cutting scene from Reservoir Dogs can trace its roots to this movie, which would not at all be surprising given how Quentin Tarantino operates. While it is a fun and entertaining movie, I still have to call a spade a spade and Django is a mediocre cult hit which could have been so much more.

Grade: C+

Day 15 - All The Right Moves

All The Right Moves (1983) directed by Michael Chapman

Have you guys seen Flashdance? I haven't, so I have no frame of reference here, but apparently All The Right Moves is commonly labeled as the Flashdance of football. Small town gal with big dreams trying to leave her hometown via dance? Sound about right? If so, then sweet! I just watched two movies in one and can save myself the trouble of watching something that looks like a 90 minute music video set in the 1980s. (Not that I don't like the 1980's but there is only so much of the fashion and music I can take in one sitting.) I have, however, seen Varsity Blues, which I can safely label as the All The Right Moves of the 1990's. So by the law of transitive property, if you've seen any one of these three movies, you don't have to watch the other two. And if you haven't seen any, that probably means you have pretty good taste in movies. (Joking, sort of.)

In case any future movie makers reading this blog are thinking of how to do All The Right Moves or Varsity Blues for the 21st century, here is the basic guideline:
Setting: Small town in middle of nowhere America, preferably populated by poor uneducated working white folk. Very few people leave this town. Your parents were born here, your parent's parents were born here. Your children are probably going to be born here. You are trapped.
Cast:
Protagonist: High school football player with bigger dreams than to work in the local factory. He wants to get out of this small town and go to college. He tells his father, "I don't want...... your life." Other people think he thinks he's too good for them, when in reality, they are absolutely right.
Villain: Overbearing high school coach who thinks he is God. Cannot accept his own failures and puts intense pressure on the kids. He thinks the protagonist has an attitude problem.
Conflict: Protagonist and villain do not get along. Villain is in the position to really screw with the protagonist's future.

So now that you have the formula down, how good your movie will be given these parameters will depend on ironing out a few details, casting and how you shoot the movie. Would this movie be on anybody's radar at all if it didn't feature a young up and coming Tom Cruise? Yes, he does have the star power, but at this stage of his career, it's still raw and untapped. It's kind of weird watching him play someone so young in a campy high school movie, knowing what a huge star he will become. This also features Craig T. Nelson of Coach fame who plays the coach. He really hams it up big time in one scene when he gets in one of his player's face during practice yelling all sorts of cliches and makes him get down and bark like a dog. A case of overacting if I've ever seen it.

All The Right Moves is meant to be an ironic title given that many characters in the movie always seem to be making the wrong choices. That is the process of growing up, things happen and how you deal with them define who you will become. Some people go to prison for stupid things they do, others have kids and get married too quick. Some characters aren't as fortunate as others, trapped with whatever decision they make, while others are able to reconcile with their mistakes and move forward. All The Right Moves does a decent job in portraying this, but ultimately falls a little flat, ending up as a run of the mill coming of age story. The basic outline of the plot prevents it from becoming anything more significant than Varsity Blues.

Grade: C+

Side note: I will say this though, All The Right Moves actually does a really good job in portraying regular high school folk. Aside from a handsome young Tom Cruise, there isn't any one person who you'd consider above average. In fact, the amount of acne on screen is incredible, even Tom Cruise has some! They just look like plain ordinary teenagers. A modern movie would never allow this to happen unless on purpose (i.e. portraying geeks or outcasts, but even then most of the actors/actresses could easily be made to look much better)

Side note 2: There is a scene where Tom Cruise's character describes himself as 5'10". I chuckled a little.

Day 14 - Dum Maaro Dum

Dum Maaro Dum (2011) directed by Rohan Sippy

In honor of my one Indian viewer and to continue my international world tour I decided to watch a Bollywood film today playing at my local theater. Having never seen a Bollywood production before (Slumdog Millionaire is actually a British film), I wasn't sure what to expect coming into Dum Maaro Dum. Was this going to be a typical movie or some crazy musical production that Bollywood is famous for? I wasn't even sure if it was in Hindi with subtitles or in English. (Both actually, along with a third option, English with English subtitles.)

Dum Maaro Dum is a crime thriller revolved around trying to bring down a mysterious drug dealer. (Why does it seem that every international release these days has some element of crime or poverty in it? What ever happened to the good old fashioned Somalian romantic comedy?) A young man, Lorry, gets accepted to a college in the US, but cannot afford the $15,000 tuition fee. To pay, he reluctantly helps smuggle drugs for his friend out the country setting into motion the rest of the movie. The story revolves around three narratives giving the viewer different perspectives and background stories of all the players involved. First there is Lorry, the naive kid caught up in a mess way over his head. Then there is Vishnu Kamath, a cop with nothing to lose hellbent on bringing down drugs. And then there is Joki, a musican and older friend of Lorry who is all too familiar with  the trouble Lorry has gotten himself into. Kamath actually turns out to be the main lead as we watch him tough guy his way throughout the movie trying to bring down the mysterious kingpin who seems to be behind all the drugs in Goa.

The intrigue and action of the story is compelling enough if it were not for the sloppy storytelling, making for an enjoyable yet frustrating experience. The director, Rohan Sippy, seems obsessed with flashbacks and recall, often bringing back scenes and dialogue that occurred no more than five minutes before. Please give the viewer some credit for being able to remember something that happened within the same scene! It's a cheap way to emphasize an important point, when Sippy should be confident enough in his own storytelling for us to digest things on our own. There are also a lot of goofy moments, stock characters and pretty absurd and cliche dialogue. One of the stock characters, a cop working under Kamath, even has his own catch phrase, "This is a shit job," that he says no less than four times in the movie.
Another nugget goes something like this (paraphrased):
Kamath having a drink with the bad guy


Bad guy: I'm too powerful. You can't bring me down. I'm going to stay high forever.
Kamath: I'm not going to bring you down. I want you to stay high, with your neck on my noose.

All that being said, the stories are interesting enough to keep us engaged, so long as you can tune out some of the white noise and focus on the fast building action and twists.

Obviously I can't talk about my first Bollywood film and not mention the visual and musical style. The music has a strong influence throughout and I must say I enjoyed the pulsating soundtrack during the action sequences and the dancing/clubbing scenes. I've always enjoyed the funky vibe of Indian music and it always translates well into hip hop. There are also slower tempo tracks for more tender moments sung by Joki, in a not so clever way to implement live singing within the context of the story. I could not help but think of either Nickelback or King of Leon during his numbers, which isn't really a bad thing, just odd.

There were actually only two straight up song and dance numbers. One is during the introduction of Kameth, who does a sort of low budget MTV style rap video, which was actually pretty hilarious. I don't know if that makes me racist or not, but I'm just telling you how it is! The second scene is in the context of the movie which takes place at a rave. (See picture above.) I must say that I loved this sequence as it's well choreographed and it doesn't hurt that the woman, Deepika Padukone, is gorgeous in it. Dum Maaro Dum is definitely musical, but not in the way I expected it to be. I guess I was looking for people to just bust out on the street belly dancing or something mid-scene. (Do these movies actually even exist or is it just the stereotypes I've been told?)

Visually, this movie is a mess, not necessarily in a bad way, but more in a quick editing fast action MTV way. There always seems to be a lot going on screen. I'd guess that the effect will be polarizing for lots of viewers, it'll either be cool and hip or messy and obnoxious, when in actuality it's somewhere in the middle.

Overall, Dum Maaro Dum is a decent first look into a big Bollywood production, with a solid soundtrack and an interesting premise that is unfortunately hampered by somewhat weak directing.

Grade: C+