“The Dreamers” is a film that was hardly seen upon its initial release, and I think it’s a crime that it was hardly shown to the public. The fact that this film was shun by the MPAA and swept under the rug is only the clearest of indicators of how close-minded we are. Bertolucci gives us a rough and tumble look at sexual acts between friends and never adds cheesy background music to sound like porn, it’s natural, and that’s why “The Dreamers” is such a beautiful film. The film takes place in 1969 where the free loving is at an all time high and the Vietnam War is in the midst.
Tag Archives: Romance
Retire These F*cking Songs, Already!
Now for the record, I love trailers. Some are good and some are bad and usually they’re just slapped together sloppily to promote the movie. But the best trailers are the ones that don’t give the movie away. “The Exorcist”, “Night of the Living Dead”, “Psycho”, those are trailers that didn’t give the movies away, and the most essential part of a trailer like the movie is the music. Compiled is a list of songs I’m begging Hollywood to retire from movie trailers that decrease the value of the movie and ruin the experience. Let me tell you what triggered my meltdown. I was at home watching “Cinenews,” a program I watch to keep up with upcoming movies. It’s a great show, and at the end of the program they feature a trailer for a movie coming soon. Up comes the trailer for “Monster-in-Law” and during the trailer on comes a commonly used song and something just snapped. These songs need to be retired for the love of humanity, I mean I’m not saying these songs suck, as a matter of fact, some of the songs I’m about to list, I love–but god retire them before they start sucking! Does modern music suck so bad they just have to keep re-using this stuff again and again?!
Before Sunset (2004)
It’s like they never left us. It really is. It’s as rare as a meteor to watch an engrossing romance that’s also very intellectually stimulating, but wouldn’t you know it, with Richard Linklater once again taking reigns of his film, you get what you expect, and I ultimately got what I expected, a fascinating, charming, and beautifully written romance drama starring two people who just have incomparable chemistry. All my fears were put to rest thirty minutes within the film as that magnetic chemistry between Delpy and Hawke becomes all the more volatile on-screen two fold. They have it here, and it works so well, I was just breath taken. This is a movie that could have easily been mishandled, and botched, but it ultimately works so well as a standalone and as a sequel. Only Linklater could commit such a feat.
Along Came Polly (2004)
Out of the entire movie, the only person that leaves unscathed is the person who doesn’t get a lot of the spotlight: Hank Azaria. It sucks he doesn’t do a lot more roles because this man is hilarious and truly steals the beginning of the movie with his role as a scuba diver nudist who steals Stiller’s character’s wife away. He’s such a funny man, and it’s a shame we never see more of him, pun not intended. So this is what comedies have become. Mediocrity at its finest. Throughout the entire movie you take two people, the male a comedian, the female a straight man, and all of it is just so mediocre while the movie is touted as funny as hell, you can see throughout the entire movie, while not laughing once, the writers are screaming at you from behind the camera, “This is funny! This is Ben Stiller! How can you not be laughing?! Are you mindless!”
Elf (2003)
What ultimately turns “Elf” from an okay movie to a good movie, is Will Ferrell. Will Ferrell gives such a good performance here and is both laugh out loud funny and endearing presenting such a conviction with his role and commits to this character giving a wide eyed exuberance throughout the entirety of the film, even when facing adversity and hardship. What “Elf” essentially has going for it in the long run is its sense of innocence approaching family and Buddy approaching the real world. The film, while a story about an man who thinks he’s an elf discovering the real world, it’s also about losing ones innocence and grasp on their inner-child.
Jersey Girl (2004)
I’m not a fan of Kevin Smith’s movies. And with Ben Affleck, and Jennifer Lopez is featured on the first segment of the movie, not to mention the basic problems with the hype concerning this film, as I went into it, I have to say I was very surprised by what I saw in the end. Though Smith does goes more mainstream with a film that is allegedly based on his life with his kids (If my life was this corny, I’d have blown my brains out long ago), “Jersey Girl” doesn’t set precedent for originality, nor does it really win us over with its sickening sweetness that works against the story rather than for it.
B. Monkey (1998)
I’m a sucker for rebellious non-traditional older hot chicks. Star Asia Argento has appeal both as a heroine and as a tragic figure in this film, B. Monkey, a jewel thief who can get in anywhere, and she’s a fascinating character. She’s like a wildcat who domesticates herself because she declares that she doesn’t like the life of a criminal anymore, and she goes whole hog once she decides to go straight, but much like any situation, it’s hard to tame a wild animal. Argento manages to convey both the hardcore lust for life criminal, and the tragic vulnerable woman whose just anxious to find a way out of her previous life, and the story shows that no matter what, some people just can’t change themselves and their nature no matter how hard they try to. Asia presents the unbridled rage and laissez faire attitude needed for the character and she’s very believable… and did I mention hot?