Memento (2000)

Wow... this movie is basically perfect. Also, #44 on the IMDb list. It tells the story of a man with no short-term memory who tries to find his wife's killer. That plot sounds interesting enough as it is, but it gets better--the movie is told half chronologically, and half backwards. The scenes intercut, differentiated by half being in color and half being in black & white. Many movies are told with a non-linear narrative such as this, but are told that way merely to hide something from the viewer. In this case, the viewer is subject to different parts of the story at the same time and is always trying to remember what happened 5 minutes ago--just like the narrator of the film. In this way, the viewer feels how the narrator feels; they share a common confusion. The non-linear narrative also allows for huge Shyamalan-esque twists to be revealed in the end. Truly, this is one of the most ingeniously crafted movies I have seen. The script must have been fantastic. One thing I didn't like (and don't read this if you haven't seen the movie): there was a shot of Sammy Jankins in a mental institution, and it very briefly flashed Leonard as Sammy, Fight Club style. This kind of gave away that whole 'Leonard is Sammy, and he created that character to get away from the truth' part of the story. However, it was so quick, that it would have been easy to miss. This is definitely a movie I want to watch again, though. It is kind of like the Sixth Sense in that once you know the ending, you want to watch it all again to see how perfectly everything comes together. I've always been a Christopher (and Jonathon) Nolan fan, and this movie amazes me. The fact that he created this masterpiece so early in his career is unbelievable. Next up is definitely going to be The Prestige.

The Big Lebowski (1998)

This is #145 on the IMDb top 250, as well as one of those movies I feel everyone has seen. Jeff Bridges totally killed it as the Dude, and I always love John Goodman. John Turturro had a small role that was hilarious. The Coen brothers really know what they're doing, and work so, so well with Goodman and Turturro. I wasn't really into the whole 'drugged' scene in which the Dude imagines bowling with Maude--it kind of reminded me of the dream ballet sequence in Singing' in the Rain. The difference is that in Singin', it showcased talent, and here I didn't think it showcased anything. But, I'm new at this and maybe I'm missing something--the Coen brothers are much better at making films than I am. Overall, a fun, enjoyable movie experience.

Fruitvale Station (2013)

Wow... powerful film. If you don't know, this is the story of Oscar Grant, the 22 year old man murdered by police in 2009. Truthfully, I just watched this because it was written and directed by the man who is writing and directing Creed, and the two also share lead Michael B. Jordan. But wow. This was amazingly well done. It really portrayed Oscar as a flawed but well-meaning character. Many times in movies like this, they romanticize things or gloss over a character's flaws, but this seemed very real. Some scenes in particular got to me--when Oscar's girlfriend, with whom he shares a daughter, knows something has happened but is prevented from finding out by the police, and when Oscar's mom tells her that she should stay positive. That kind of bravery was awesome. In one of the latter scenes, when Oscar dies, they show a clip of him with his daughter, as well as some medical footage, accompanied by silence--no audio. What an amazing directorial choice. It somehow made it even more powerful. I loved also how Oscar's mother sees his dead body, and asks to hug him but cannot--referencing earlier when he was in jail and wanted to hug his mother, but he could not. That little bit was so sweet and sad. The constant reminder to never postpone showing love. Throughout the movie, the girl who played Oscar's daughter was unbelievably good. And the ending, with Oscar's girlfriend trying to figure out how to tell their daughter that her father has died, with the daughter innocently looking up, is so heartbreaking. Powerful. Overall, this story was told so beautifully. If Ryan Coogler tackled this story with such grace, I have no doubt he will do an amazing job with Creed. I know I usually don't write this much for a single movie, but the subject matter of this film seems to warrant a longer response; there are so many things that can go wrong in this kind of film, yet everything here seemed to go right.

Rambo III (1988)

I hate to be the guy that says, "the first one was better," but that definitely applies here. First Blood was more about a troubled veteran dealing with readjustment in a society that did not accept or appreciate veterans and their many sacrifices. First Blood Part II and Rambo III are pretty much mindless action movies. Not to say they're bad, per se, just a totally different kind of movie. This was entertaining, but by the end I was tiring of the bad one-liners and ridiculous feats of killing. But hey, if you're ever in the mood for it, I'm sure it hits the spot.

Black Mass (2015)

My first current movie! I guess I'm really doing any movie I watch for the first time. Anyways, Black Mass was awesome, and it is SO good to see Johnny Depp act like this again. I'm a fan of many of his characters, but I rarely think he chooses good roles. Not so here. He played a scary Whitey Bulger, and his performance was perfect. The whole cast was great--Joel Edgerton, Benedict Cumberbatch, and many others. I was surprised by how good Dakota Johnson was, despite her smaller role. Besides the amazing performances, the screenplay must have been great too because every scene was necessary as well as either fun or scary. The movie felt a lot like The Departed, but thats ok; not every movie needs to reinvent the genre, and its always nice to see a new and well-made crime movie. Overall a great movie, and I would be surprised if this didn't get some Oscar noms.

Rocky Balboa (2006) and Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985)

I decided to come full circle and finish the Rocky franchise. I wasn't all that satisfied with the Rocky V ending, and this one solved that problem. It seemed to go back to the roots of Rocky--a well meaning, yet lonely man just doing the best he can. The first act of the film really establishes Rocky as a lonely character, with Adrian passing and his son acting distant. He decides to fight one last time, just to prove to himself that he can and to get the beast out from inside of him. Besides for the strange fight editing and cinematography, it was a beautiful ending for one of my favorite film characters of all time. However, Rocky is gonna be in the spin-off sequel Creed, and Sly didn't write it--leaving me skeptical. In any case, Rocky Balboa was a great bookend to the franchise, really harkening back to Rocky 1, where it tells the story of a man who happens to box, rather than the rest of the franchise which were straight up boxing movies.

Why not just keep going with the Stallone stuff? First Blood Part II was all kinds of badass. It still had some of those cheesy 80's one liners, but I thought it was fun. The thing that bugged me was how the female lead of the film spoke broken english, but had absolutely no accent. Other than that, it was what it was--an action movie--and there isn't much to say besides it was fun, masculine, and explosion-filled.

Rocky V

I liked the idea of this one more than the execution. It makes sense that Rocky would take on the role of manager once he retires, and I like the storyline of him doing so at the expense of his family. But they really beat us over the head with it, over and over. I think they have to give the audience a little bit more credit. There were some really great scenes though, specifically with Rocky and his son in the beginning of the movie. Love to see Rocky taking on that role. It was also fun to see him put on his old hat and leather jacket, move back to Philly, and take on his roots again. I really do like the premise. I didn't like how there was a lot of rap in this movie, seemingly just to add some cultural relevance. Guys, it's Rocky--it already has cultural relevance, and rap doesn't fit the tone. The street brawl at the end also felt a little forced and cheesy. Rocky's developed too far as a character to go back to street fights. Plus, he was older and untrained, taking on the world heavyweight champion. I mean, come on. I usually don't notice editing and cinematography very much, but I didn't think either of those aspects were done well in that scene. Still... it's a Rocky movie. And I just love that character so much.

Rocky II, Rocky III, and Rocky IV

YO ADRIAN!!!!

I loved the first Rocky, so I decided to knock out the rest out them (ha). Rocky II was such a great continuation of the character and story. Starting right where Rocky left off, the character is still learning and growing. It makes perfect sense that Creed would want a rematch, and the story was told beautifully. Rocky III was also great, in a large part to the introduction of the series' first real villain: Clubber Lang. Creed was always the antagonist, but the audience always knew he was a good guy. I always liked him. In Rocky III, Lang is a bad guy--someone you can actively root against. Very fun movie overall. Rocky IV, surprisingly, was my least favorite so far. It was still an awesome movie, but the tone was just so different. This one felt a lot less like the story of Rocky's character, and a lot more like any boxing movie ever. The montages, while totally awesome, took up too much time. I would have liked to see more development from Rocky. In Rocky IV, the character of Rocky just doesn't have what I love about him in the earlier films; he doesn't have that well meaning but ham handed approach to life. He's a bit more educated. Personally, I liked him better when he was a bum with more heart than anyone in the ring. That said, this is still still a badass, patriotic, commie-punishing extravaganza. The series is still amazing. And I can't wait to keep watching them.

P.S.

Rocky III psyched me up so much that I had to pause it in the middle to go have the best workout of my life. I LOVE movies that are so good that they force a physical response--be it energy, tears, or laughs.

Rocky (1976)

I can definitely see why this is on both the AFI 100 and the IMDB 250. What surprised me about this movie was that it wasn't mindless action/boxing/training montages--it has tons of heart. Rocky is an awesome character. Though he is heavy handed (no pun intended) in his attempts to do anything in his life, the message was always clear; he always has the best of intentions, even when the execution isn't optimal. He just isn't all that smart. All body, no brains. His balance, of course, is Adrian (as she puts it, no body, all brains). He eloquently says that she fills holes: "I have holes. She has holes. We fill them." Or something like that. In essence, they are opposites, and their love for each other essentially helps them become complete. Rocky felt more like a personal growth and love story than a boxing movie. Boxing was just the background--it could have been about anything. I gained so much respect for Sylvester Stallone after this movie; he not only portrayed the character perfectly, but he created a beautiful story and told it in a meaningful way.

First Blood (1982)

This falls under the pop-culturally relevant category. Also the super badass category. First Blood, the original Rambo, was fun the whole way through. I loved how, though Vietnam was over, it still felt like a jungle-Vietnam war movie without really being one. The ending didn't really seem to fit the tone of the preceding hour and 25 minutes, but it served to show motive and character development, as well as really humanizing Rambo. The ending makes it more than just a thoughtless action movie. Or at least tries to. Either way, First Blood was entertaining and had a great rewatchability factor. I can see why studios wanted to keep making movies with this character. With our present controversial war ending, the film feels especially relevant today--especially the depressed, angry, and confused soldier.

Quick Update

I was talking to some family at dinner last night. One cousin (removed? in law?) who was in the industry made the interesting and true point that it's not necessarily about the quality of movies you watch, but the quantity. In other words, it's good to know the classics, but those aren't what people always talk about. People are more likely to talk about some trashy 80's movie or some silly horror flick then discuss Hitchock's use of whatever. It's important to see bad movies too.

So I'm changing my list. I still plan to watch the AFI top 100 and IMDB top 250. But I also want to see other movies. Basically, I want to watch every movie ever. Wish me luck

Chinatown (1974), Fargo (1996), and The Warriors (1979)

Obviously, I did not watch all of these today... I just got a slow start updating the blog.

Chinatown. This movie is on the AFI list, and is also my roommate's uncle's favorite movie. And I can see why. It had me guessing the entire way through. The screenplay was ridiculously intricate and detailed yet easy to understand, and the acting was awesome (duh, Jack Nicholson). There are some moments that are a little jarring for a 20 year old to see (i.e., Nicholson's character repeatedly slapping the female lead in an effort to calm her down). A different time, I guess. But overall, this was an incredible film, exciting right up to the end. It was also my first noir film, and I have to say, I'm hooked. I want to go back and watch the noir classics that preceded Chinatown.

Fargo. Another AFI list movie. I was really excited for this one, as it is a Coen brothers movie as well as the basis for the current hit show Fargo. Somehow, I didn't love it. The acting was amazing throughout, and the story was interesting, I just never felt excited by it. It just kind of seemed... boring. Which I'm sure is sacrilegious in the film community to say about this movie. Maybe I just didn't 'get it.' I understand that Macy's character was a total fish out of water baffoon, and he played that brilliantly, but nothing seemed to click in place, for me, at least. Oh well, at least it was fun watching Steve Buscemi be weird.

The Warriors. This isn't actually on any of the lists, but is a movie I would put under the category of "popular culturally relevant." My goal is to never be left out of a movie conversation and have a working knowledge of film history, and this fits into that. Plus, it was super badass. Sure, I thought the cinematography was lacking and could have been shot better by a fellow Chapman student, but the premise was great and the direction was particularly awesome. With the wrong director, this could have easily felt either campy or too serious, but a good balance was achieved that allows this film to hold up decades later. However, some plot details I didn't love: everyone was sexist, the female roles were weak, and there was a lot of beating on cops. I think this is partly just the product of a different time, but it would have been awesome to see Mercy beat up a gang member for being rapey. Besides the sexism, this movie was awesome, though, very fun, exciting, and probably rewatchable.

Hello everyone,

Welcome to my blog! Ugh, those are words I never thought I'd type. Blogs seems so generally narcissistic--the idea that other people would want to spend their free time reading whatever you write just seems ego-feeding. But I digress...

I've talked to previous employers in entertainment about what I can do to become more successful and prepare myself to enter the industry. The common message was to know movies. Enjoy movies. Be nerdy about movies. While I have seen more movies than the average movie-goer, I am nowhere near movie-nerd level (yet). I plan to change that. I'm starting this blog to document my path to becoming a human film encyclopedia.

Currently, I am a college junior. When I graduate, I will enter the film industry. By the time I graduate, I want to have seen any movie anyone can think of. I never want people to ask me, "have you seen that movie ______" and for my answer to be anything but "yes, i thought it was _______ because ________."

So, why a blog? I think that having a blog and writing in it x number of times per week will help force me to keep up with my movie watching. Hold me accountable. Also, I imagine that the more I write, the better a writer I will become.

The format of this blog, I think, will be a paragraph or two documenting my thoughts on every movie I watch. This will hopefully serve to improve my memory of the movie, increase my writing skills, and force me to think critically about movies I watch.

So, let's start with the classics. One of my goals is to watch all of the American Film Institute Top 100 Films before I graduate. Another is the IMDB Top 250. That's 350 movies already... luckily I've already seen something like 13 of the AFI list and probably close to half of the IMDB list.

Without further ado, let's start watching...