reviews by a non-reviewer

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Clerks

Directed by	Kevin Smith
Produced by	Scott Mosier Kevin Smith
Written by	Kevin Smith
Starring	Brian O'Halloran Jeff Anderson Marilyn Ghigliotti Lisa Spoonhauer Jason Mewes Kevin Smith
Cinematography	David Klein
Editing by	Scott Mosier Kevin Smith

After its original release 14 years ago, and its re-release 4 years ago i got to see the movie Clerks--finally. I have heard a lot of good things about the movie, and because i didn't have any means of watching the movie back then the urge to see Clerks nags me for so long. I wasn't surprised when the scenes unfolded before me, I had some kind of idea how the movie would go, because of the things I heard about it. What amazed me is that director/writer/genius Kevin Smith was six years younger the present day me when he made this movie. But blame it on the demographics, geography, and state of being; I would have never thought of doing something Smith did when I was 24.
I have always been amazed by movies that are simple yet striking, (simple pero rock 'ika nga). Truly adversity displays genius. The good thing about the movie is that it didn't bank on effects because of budget constraints or on a very complex, pa-profound, existenialist storyline na sakit ng indie industry ng Pilipinas. The story is so simple, dalawang Clerks, dot-dot-dot... Umandar yung istorya sa mga komplikasyon ng dalawang bida, ng mga pangyayari na sanhi ng kagaguhan nila, o ng mga di maiiwasang pangyayari. The movie doesn't pretend to be something else other than what it is, walang icing, purong cake lang.

Clerks revived the independent filmmaking industry in the US, lahat na nagsisunuran, so breakthrough talaga. The print was in black and white because it's much cheaper, but it gave the movie a whole new refreshing feel about it. Basta, mahirap ipaliwanag pero napakagaling talaga ng pagkakagawa ng pelikulang ito, walang eche-bureche, basta ginawa lang nila ang gusto nilang gawin at wala silang pakialam kung magiging isang haligi ng industriya ng pelikula ang ginawa nila.

Monday, May 5, 2008

untraceable

Directed by	Gregory Hoblit
Written by	Mark Brinker Allison Burnett Robert Fyvolent
Starring	Diane Lane Colin Hanks Billy Burke Joseph Cross Mary Beth Hurt

this film is supposed to be a thriller, why am i saying it's supposed to be a thriller? the fact that it was branded as a thriller, but there's not that thrilling.

the movie is a bout a deranged computer whiz who's set up a website where he kills people with the aid of other people visiting his website. sounds like an episode of millenium, huh? diane lane plays a single mom working as an agent for the FBI in the computer crimes division. she's on the graveyard shift because of her daughter. she spotted this website killwithme.com (which is a working website that redirects you to the movie's promotio0nal game) where a cat is webcast and is left to die of starvation. the website eventually featured human beings to die in some geeky way. like injecting coagulants, death by heat lamps, and making a victim sit in a tank of water but would eventually turn into acid as the number of hits the website receives.

whenever there's this movie involving computer stuff and all it would be a given that the antagonist is some techno prodigy with a psychiatric problem, this movie is not any different from it all. parang iisa lang yung dating nung mga kontrabida na techno geek. buti na lang at hindi world domination ang trip ng kontrabida sa pelikulang ito kundi nagmukhang die hard 4, hehehhe.

Monday, April 21, 2008

Puwang ( Space Between)

Written & Directed by
Anna Isabelle Matutina

Producers
Anna Isabelle Matutina
Jules Katanyag
Pam Miras

Starring
Elmo Redrico
Roence Santos
Bon Reyes
Lorena Landicho
Seymour Sanchez

Cinematography
Wowie Hao
Alma Dela Peña

Editing
Anna Isabelle Matutina

Music
Lionel Valdellon

Production Design
Richard Legaspi

Most Pinoy movies about families would banter you with all those heavy drama stuff, not like this one. the movie triumphantly encapsulated the "pamilyang pilipino" without the sobrang theatrical dialogues, and that's what i liked about this movie. PUWANG (the space between), a short narrative from premiere film & TV editor, and indie filmmaker sunshine matutina. when roence reodica mistakenly lit a cigarette the wrong way in the opening scene, boom! ayun na, nahuli na yung atensyon ko. bibihira at sobrang unique nung dating, i somehow knew that the character she portrays has all these baggages, emotional and otherwise para magkamali syang sindihan ang yosi nya sa filter.

the cinematography was good, yun talaga yung totoong feel ng hospital, not those kind you seen on daytime drama, sobrang liwanag ng hospital sa daytime drama. i don't know what kind of lightings the filmmaker used, but the scenes inside the hospital makes you feel that you're inside one, and you are inside the scene voyeuring this family. the atmosphere of the movie captures the tension without bringing too much tension on screen. nasa tinginan lang, mga tahimik na sandali nung mga gumanap huling-huli mo na yung "PUWANG". the first time i saw this movie medyo oblivious ako kung bakit "Puwang", sa interpretasyon ko nung mga sumunod na pagpanood i reckon that the title refers to the spaces between the siblings, inside the family, between father and children. (tama nga kaya ako?)

every family has gaps to fill, and the family in this movie is no different, yung "puwang" na namamagitan sa kanila ay nagkaroon ng dugtong, ng tabon. the last part of the movie is remarkable, wala gaanong "talkies" pero alam na alam mong the spaces and gaps were filled. that's what's beautiful about this movie, the highlights were not bombarded with words. films like these make me admire actors and filmmakers that can relay the emotions without being hysterical, na karaniwang problema ng pelikulang pilipino. may emosyon ang bawat haplos, buntung hininga, di pagbukas ng pinto, pati tinginan, kahit walang dialogue may inentsity. Elmo Redrico was remarkable in his protrayal of the invalid father, mata pa lang acting na. his lines were so short, but you can feel the emotions sa mata pa lang, tsaka sa mga hawak.

as i always say most indie movies would conceal their incapabilities by making their films pa-profound and would leave the audience either dumber or clueless, this movie is far from that, walang mga artsy-fartsy, simple lang. and that's what makes it a good movie. the lack of dialogue is more than compensated by the intense acting from the actors. i' ve always wondered how filmmakers were able to capture the emotions and convey them on screen, wala mang pang-hollywood na special effects ang pelikulang ito, it still has a lot of movie magic.

Monday, March 31, 2008

DOWNLOAD JUNO (FULL MOVIE)

Before Sunrise / Before Sunset Motion Picture Soundtrack Download

The Before Sunset soundtrack (combining tracks from Before Sunrise, for which there was never a soundtrack album) is a romantic musical journey, featuring "Just in Time" by Nina Simone plus multiple tracks by the film's star Julie Delpy. The album also includes classical tracks by Johann Sebastian Bach and Henry Purcell plus performances by Yo-Yo Ma and Igor Kipnis.

Track Listings
1. Je T'aime Tant - Julie Delpy
2. Living Life - Kathy McCarty
3. A Walz For A Night - Julie Delpy
4. 'Andante' From Sonata For Viola Da Gamba In G Major, BWV 1027 - Ketil Haugsand
5. Dido And Encas Overture - The Scholars Baroque Ensemble
6. An Ocean Apart - Julie Delpy
7. Come Here - Kath Bloom
8. Varianto 25 From The Goldberg Variations In G Major, BWV 988 - Igor Kipnis
9. The Human Pump - Harald Waiglein
10. Dancing With Da Rat - Loud
11. Trapeze - Lou Christie

Download Here

Friday, March 28, 2008

Before Sunrise/ Before Sunset

Directed by	Richard Linklater
Produced by	Anne Walker-McBay
Written by	Richard Linklater, Kim Krizan
Starring	Ethan Hawke, Julie Delpy

Directed by	Richard Linklater
Produced by	Richard Linklater
Written by	Richard Linklater, Ethan Hawke, Julie Delpy
Starring	Ethan Hawke, Julie Delpy
Music by	Julie Delpy

Simplicity is beauty as we hear often. And there are two movies that would fit perfectly with that adage: Before Sunrise and Before Sunset. Both of the movies is about the special relationship of a man and a woman who are complete strangers but got along very well and somehow fell in love with each other. It is not love at first sight, because that is not always true, but the development of attraction by looking at each other’s insights and thoughts about everything.

Before Sunrise is a 1995 movie starring Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy, except for minor characters they are the only ones you would see on screen. The movie revolves around how their characters: Jessie and Celine spent the night together in Vienna. It all started with a train ride, the two main characters are aboard a train heading for Vienna, and they struck up a conversation after overhearing a German couple arguing. The two strangers then decided to go to Vienna for the night and roam the city. The movie is mostly composed of conversations between the two about almost everything under the sun, and about their take on life in general, and their personal experiences. While roaming the city and picking on each other’s minds Jessie and Celine developed an attraction and eventually made love before they part, before sunrise. They promised to see each other after six months and headed their own ways.

After nine years, the follow up movie Before Sunset came. The movie also happens nine years after the parting of the two main protagonists. What’s remarkable about this movie is that the story unfolds in real time. Jessie is now a successful writer who visits Paris to launch his book which is about his encounter with Celine. Celine who now lives in Paris is working for an environmental agency. Like the first movie, Before Sunset also revolves around Jessie and Celine, their views in life, what happened since the last time they’ve seen each other, and their quasi-relationship. They didn’t get to meet on their agreed rendezvous which is six months after they parted in the first movie. They both took their own directions and lived each life separately. The good thing is that after nine years you can still sense that there’s still going on between the two of them.

The real beauty in the two films, or both halves of one film in my opinion, is that they didn’t bank on massive special effects or mind boggling twists, it is simplicity in its finest working to create a genius work of art.

Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Deathproof

Directed by	Quentin Tarantino
Produced by	Elizabeth Avellan Erica Steinberg Robert Rodriguez Quentin Tarantino
Written by	Quentin Tarantino
Starring	Kurt Russell Rosario Dawson Vanessa Ferlito Jordan Ladd Sydney Poitier Tracie Thoms Mary Elizabeth Winstead Zoë Bell Rose McGowan Marley Shelton
Cinematography	Robert Rodriguez Quentin Tarantino
Editing by	Sally Menke

Many have deemed Quentin Tarantino as a visionary, a maverick filmmaker. His style is often copied by many who admire his filmmaking prowess. In every movie that he makes there're several trademarks that make his movies truly his own. Fictitious products like Red Apple cigarettes, Big Red Soda and Big Kahuna burgers are a staple in every movie that Quentin Tarantino makes, this is done to avoid placement of real products in his movies. It is true that he also copies some techniques and shots done by the most notable directors in film history, but he gives them a new approach and makes them unique.

His new movie Deathproof, which is a part of the double feature Grindhouse, is another breakthrough in film history. The idea is to make a movie that would look like a grindhouse feature film. The two movies in Grindhouse: Planet Terror which is directed by Tarantino’s good friend Robert Rodriguez, and Tarantino’s Deathproof contains elements of grindhouse features and has a B-Movie feel in it. It is a really fun experience watching those two movies. It really leaves an impression that you are watching old movies, these two films also has a grainy visual, making it seem like the reels are either really old or really bad. There are also “missing reels” segments which are not uncommon with old grindhouse features. The double feature also comes with fake movie trailers of fake movies in between the two features.

What sets the Tarantino feature Deathproof apart from the B-Movies is that it was able to present graphic scenes using new technology. The “crash” scene in Deathproof is beautifully detailed and the shots would be impossible to make if this was really a B-Movie. Like what Kurt Russell’s character Stuntman Mike said, during the days to crash a car in a movie you have to crash real cars and stupid people drive them. But with cutting edge technology, everything is possible, and with Tarantino taking the helm you are gonna have a big time, gruesome assault visually. The violence in his movie is so graphic it makes you whince, or faint if you have a weak heart.

There are some movies that try to be genius but turn out to be really stupid; with Quentin Tarantino’s Deathproof (and also with Rober Rodriguez’s Planet Terror) they try to be so stupid it came out a genius work of art.