Sunday, June 14, 2009

Torrent Picks 6/14/09

Ok so its Sunday, and its time once again for my torrent picks for the week, I have to admit, I have alot of fun doing these, its like a challenge to come up with something new and different each time...

so with that said.... awaaaaaaaaay we go!

The Wrestler: Now, say what you want about Micky Rooke as an actor, or as a person, but I personally am among the school of belief that there has to be atleast one performance in every actor's career, that defines why they became an actor, and for Rooke, that moment is The Wrestler. Now alot might find the story of the life of a man that 20 years before was the most popular professional wrestler in the world but has now fallen on hard times, kind of boring, but really its not. Its a story of how no matter how far in life you go, if you don't live clean and sober, in the end, you will loose it all. The film actually mirrors Rooke's life in alot of ways, which is why I think he fought so hard for the role, in a his attempt to reach for the top just one more time no matter the cost to his well being, also kind of mirrors his life, so even if you found the premise of the movie boring, if you look at it as Rooke playing out his entire career up to this point on film, you might actually be amazed at just how good the film is.

4 Months 3 Weeks And 2 Days: Its not ever been a secret that I enjoy alot of foreign films, I personally believe that its important to support cinema the world over, because genius knows no language, it speaks through those it wishes too the world over. One of those cases is the tragically beautiful Romanian film "4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days", the story is set in 1987 and is the taie of two best friends, Otilia Mihartescu and Gabriela 'Găbiţa' Dragut who live in an unnamed Romanian city and go to university together, Gabriala becomes pregnant and does not wish to take the baby to term, the movie tells the story of their search and meeting with an abortionist, in a day and age when in Romania abortion was illegal. The film goes through both girls feelings on the matter and their devotion to each other and their friendship, and in the end, they are stronger then they were at the begining. The film itself might seem abit controversial to some, and maybe the idea of a movie about finding an abortionist is, but the truth is, love it or hate it, films of this nature NEED to be made, the world is always going on about how films need to be more realistic, and agree with it or not, things of this nature were, and still are, a part of life, that is infact the film's intent, it doesn't care if its for or against the concept of abortion, it only cares about telling the kind of story thats only talked about in dimly lit rooms between only the closest of friends, just on a grand scale. Regardless of your feelings on the subject matter, you really should give this movie a look, its almost a crime to pass it up.

The Brave One: This movie, The Brave One, if any of you have read my review of the film, are aware that its one of my favorite films in recent years, infact its really the only movie I've seen with Jodie Foster where I truly cared about her and finally saw why she is respected as she is. The film tells the story of Erica Bain, a talk radio host who walks the the streets of her beloved new york city just recording the sounds of every day life as she goes, and uses at background as she tells what she sees as she walks around in a truly dramatic storyteller fashion, a kind of modern day Jack Kerouac. Her life changes forever when walking her dog through a park with her fiancé David, they are attacked, robbed of their money, belongings, and even their dog, and left for dead. David dies but Erica survives. The film spends its the rest of its first half showing you Erica's decent into her own madness, her fear of going outside of her house, and her frustration with the new york city police who basically tell her to stop asking and give up because "these things happen..". Its that statement that actually finally sends Erica over the edge, she buys a gun to protect herself and after a case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time, she accidentally kills a robber who is holding up a small store near her home, from there, it tells the story of her quest to make those who do wrong in the city of New York, all in an attempt to find the man that killed her soon to be husband. I know most comic book fans will recognize this as just a reworked version of The Punisher's origin with slight changes, the lead being a a woman and her being a radio show host, not a military officer who's just come home from Vietnam, but that doesn't really take anything away from the film, its beautiful in its dark way, and infact the action scenes where Erica is taking down each criminal, you truly FEEL you are there, its brilliant, you seriously should have a look if you haven't seen this yet.

Renaissance: Its not a secret I am a huge fan of animation in all its forms, that is why when this 2006 french film came out, I literally jumped for joy. Renaissance is done in a mixture of whats called "Computer Generated Rotoscope" (like A Scanner Darkly was), traditional Computer Generated Imagery, and Monochrome, to give it a distinct black and white feel that no other film can match. If you haven't seen the film itself, its just beautiful, even if you don't like the story, you can just sit there in awe of the artwork, its just so amazing. The film tells a classic pulp fiction (not the movie) style detective story set in a not so far off future Paris, as beautiful young scientist who works for a company called Avalon is kidnapped, and they bring in the Paris Police's specialist in kidnapping Barthélémy Karas to find her, the film is a delightfully gritty old school 1930s/1940s style detective movie told in a futuristic way, sure its not the first film to do that, but that doesn't make it any less enjoyable, I'd say its definitely worth a look, also if you don't believe me that its a beautiful film, have a look at this screenshot... yeah thought that would get rid of any doubt.

Somewhere in Time
: I figure I would end this week on a beautiful note, and to do this, I could think of no other film but Somewhere In Time. The beautiful story that tells us all, that no matter what, love will ALWAYS find a way, even though the confines of time itself can not contain love's power. Based on the book "Bid Time Return", and starring a young Jane Seymore and Christopher Reeves fresh off his box office success with the first Superman film. Reeves plays brilliant playwright Richard Collier who after the opening night of his first successful play in 1972 is approached by an elderly woman who hands him a locket and pleads that he "come back to her" he looks at her puzzled as she walks away, Saying "remember me.." as she is pulled away by her driver/caretaker. Richard dismisses the event and carries on with his life, 8 years and countless hit plays later, Richard is burned out, and decides to take some time away, he ends up out in the country side at a large old Hotel, the location is never stated in the film but the hotel is actually the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island in Michigan, the resort that holds a festival in honor of the film on the weekend of the film's opening for many years, once at the hotel, Richard looks around, and in the hotel's small room of artifacts from the hotel's history, Richard sees a painting of a woman with whom he becomes stricken with the beauty of. He finds out the woman is renowned early 20th century stage actress Elise McKenna, a woman that many stage actresses even to that day study the work of in hopes of being just as good as she was. Richard returns home and starts to research Elise, he eventually discovers that she was the woman who gave him the locket years earlier, he also finds out she died later that night. Richard becomes obsessed with Elise and finding out what she ment in her final words to him, in his research he finds a theory called auto-suggestive time travel, mentioned to him by an old professor friend of his. The theory is that if one surrounds themselves with objects and sounds of a certain time period, and blocks out all influence of modern day life, they could, in theory, use the power of their mind to travel back in time to any point they wish. Richard returns to the hotel and attempts this, keeping with him a penny from the current year (1980) with him as a way home, to his surprise he does it. From there the film tells the story of Richard and Elise as they meet, and eventually fall in love, much to the dismay of William Fawcett Robinson, Elise's manager, who tries to stop them at all costs. The film might seem to some as far fetched and abit out of place, and maybe it is, but the real story is the love story of Richard and Elise, it doesn't matter really how they got there, what matters is the story, and its just beautiful as it is. This is one of the very few films in the world that actually can make me cry, so thats actually something.


Ok well, i'm done for the day, I hope you all enjoy these as much as I enjoyed recommending them, and I'll post more next week


---

BC

1 comment:

  1. these sunday's reviews and recommendations are really awesome! Thanks, BC

    ReplyDelete