Project 365: Movies 10 - 15

10 / 365: L.A. Story (1991)

© TriStar

Don't we all feel freeway signs are giving tips just to us? Maybe it's just those of us living in Los Angeles. I'd seen this movie before, but John's family in Cleveland has gifted us the DVD for Christmas, and I was long overdue for another viewing, especially since I've been an LA transport for a much longer period of time.

Our story is told by Harris Telemacher (Steve Martin), a goofy local weather man entertaining the masses in the land of no weather. L.A. Story plays like a Mel Brooks comedy, with obvious jokes that just seem to land, even though you see them coming from a mile away. LA issues like traffic (we quite literally all talk about traffic, all the time), earthquakes, getting in your car to drive two buildings down the street, and the benefits of high colonics are shown or discussed with the heavy hand of irony.

Telemacher knows he's pretty much living a lie, and is secretly wishing for a way out. One night, a freeway sign calls out to him and begins to counsel him on how to better his life. The L.A. version of a New York therapist, if you will. Even with the ridiculousness of the movie as a whole, I totally buy this. It's delightful, and the least slapstick-y aspect of the film. Steve Martin is like a classic movie star. He has an old Hollywood way about him, like Cary Grant, only a million times funnier. He has a gift for playing roles that are quite literally insane people that you still wouldn't say no to having a drink with. This might be one of the best examples of his ageless charm.

I walk away from this movie wishing I cared so little about what other people thought that I could skip and spin down Venice Blvd just like Sarah Jessica Parker does in this, but then I remember that I saw a woman in West Hollywood doing that yesterday, and it wasn't cute or carefree. It was just crazy. Ah, c'est la vie.

Rating: ★★★½ / 5 stars
Watched: DVD
Seen Before: Yes

11 / 365: In the Heat of the Night (1967)

© United Artists

This movie was the #75 film on my AFI Top 100 countdown challenge. Read my full review here.

Rating: ★★★ / 5 stars
Watched: DVD
Seen Before: Yes

12 / 365: The Punk Singer (2013)

© IFC Films

What an accomplishment this documentary is. Clocking in at 80 minutes, it fully encapsulates the career of a woman that I personally knew nothing about, but who influenced the entire genre of punk music by creating her own. Feminist glam punk, and Kathleen Hanna is its mother. My preference when turning on a documentary I haven't seen is that the less I know, the better. This is both good and bad. Good, because expectations only set up for disappointment, but BAD, because I get ever-more distracted by my own curiosity while I watch... and this can lead to constant Google and Wikipedia searches until I realize I'm no longer paying attention to the movie.

For this, it ended up being very, very good. Kathleen Hanna had a remarkable career in multiple punk bands throughout the nineties & early noughts, including Bikini Kill, Julie Ruin, and Le Tigre. I... remembered none of these names. Her influence on not only the genre--coming out of the Pacific Northwest during the onslaught of Grunge--but in helping to perpetuate the idea of "3rd Wave Feminism" in a world where people were asking "Is feminism dead?" Kathleen's response? "How can something be dead when we're living it and feeling it everyday?"

I give the movie props for even talking about feminism, and also how activism negatively affected Kathleen's mental and emotional health. Her disappearance from the music scene in 2005 is also covered in great detail... I found the old footage, new footage, and interviews incredibly fascinating. One little anecdote that I loved was about Kathleen's friendship with Nirvana rocker, Kurt Cobain, and how he didn't come out of grunge... but rather feminist glam punk, just like Hanna. She also spoke about scrawling the words "Kurt smells like teen spirit" on his bathroom wall, and well... we know what came of that.

This flick is 80 short minutes, and a totally easy watch. The music was also incredible, prompting me to spend the whole next day listening to Bikini Kill and Le Tigre on Spotify. Reminds me so much of Chloe Chaidez. I would be shocked if Kathleen wasn't an inspiration for her. Especially when you see the connection between punk and electronica develop for Kathleen's music. Watch this movie, especially if you love music.

Rating: ★★★★½ / 5 stars
Watched: Netflix
Seen Before: No

13 / 365: Selma (2014)

© Pathé Pictures

I ran out to see this only days before the 2014 Academy Award nominations were announced. I didn't walk into the movie with a big question mark hanging over my head. I read my history books and remember studying this event in great detail. What I didn't know was how much or how little of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr's life the film would attempt to include. That, alone, is what makes this movie stand out among other historical dramas/bio pics.

Selma tells the story of just that: the events in Selma, Alabama in 1965 and the march from Selma to Montgomery in protest of the treatment of Southern Black Americans--and their attempts to vote as citizens. Nothing else. The construction of this story is very tight, and portrayed on film without too much distraction. I wouldn't have blamed the filmmakers one bit for diverting from the events in 1965... the story of the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act, and MLK's own story spread well beyond what can be confined in one film. Shockingly, though, director Ava DuVernay kept a tight reign on her story, and played out events with the assumption that the audience wasn't stupid. That we actually knew some of the context leading up to the events in Selma.

While I don't think this movie is just special because it made me cry (a lot), I do adore watching history play out on the screen. The script utilized the famous speeches and the private whisperings equally. This movie has "Kim bait" written all over it, because I love a good inspirational cry. It also has one of the best 'in closing' caption sequences I've seen in a long time. It didn't just reiterate history; it touched on individuals, and made everyone recognizable, tangible.

Rating: ★★★★ / 5 stars
Watched: Theater
Seen Before: No

14 / 365: American Sniper  (2014)

© Warner Bros.

One of my favorite Iraq War films is Stop-Loss. There is something raw and engulfing about it, like a modern day Best Years of Our Lives. This Clint Eastwood directed film (and now Oscar nominee for Best Picture) is a bit of a hybrid, a strange bastard child of Stop-Loss' 'when you return home' reality and The Hurt Locker's 'on the battlefield' grittiness. The difference is that both of the former films were focused, tight; American Sniper is chaotic and piece-y, covering years of the war, multiple tours of duty, and levels of personal tragedy—for our hero and the enemy.

This film chronicles the war career of the deadliest sniper in recorded American history. Chris Kyle (Bradley Cooper) is idealistic, a Texas patriot in the stereotypical sense of the word. He simultaneously fights for and against his own legendary status. The rest of Kyle's fellow SEALs are similarly idealistic, and sadly, kind of indistinguishable from each other. They slip in and out of frame regularly, and while they mean the world to Kyle, we don't really get it, because the movie doesn't take the time to make them matter to us. Eastwood makes a film that, on the surface, appears to be a powerful portrait of the war in Iraq, but ends up belittling itself by not going much deeper than that. Even its portrayal of PTSD feels overly simplistic... and it didn't have to be that way.

Perhaps it was the scope of the story, trying to tell too much in too short a time. How do you convey the complications, trials, terror, and yes, triumphs, of war in two hours? Well, for one thing, you create one, tangible enemy. Eastwood links our legendary sniper with Iraq's equally infamous sniper, Mustafa (even though they never really met on the front lines). This story manipulation is a clear attempt to give a long, tumultuous story some focus; also to ignite that "giddy-up, OO-WAH America!" feeling from the audience. Again, it works on the surface, but in the end, we're simply left with... what the hell was that all for? It's hard to tell what Eastwood's opinion is in this film—necessary heroes, or martyrs of an aimless cause.

Rating: ★★★ / 5 stars
Watched: Theater
Seen Before: No

15 / 365: The Secret of Kells (2009)

© Flatiron Film

This movie reminded me of a side-scrolling Sega Genesis game. Like Disney's Hercules. The style is even similar to the Disney classic, and the animation is a throw back to that two-dimensional, geometric art--but with an Irish twist. It tells the story of Brendan, the young nephew of the Abbott in Kells, who has never ventured out of the Abbey walls into the dangerous world beyond. When an Abbot arrives from the land of Iona with an unfinished book, Brendan learns that "to gaze upon [the pages] is to gaze upon Heaven itself." He realizes then his mission is to help complete the book, which might mean leaving the confines of his home.

I didn't realize it while I was watching, but this Irish Book of Kells is indeed a famous manuscript, and The Secret of Kells recounts the legend of its creation. When you look at the pages of the book itself, you can see what inspired the animation. Dizzying layers of scenery, of details. Not just fantastical, but anti-realistic. A push against what looks human, embracing the finer details by showcasing their extremes. The abbey, the forest surrounding it... it it's like picking up the world's most complicated coloring book and finding it impeccably completed. That is what I find so stylistically unique. The creative displays, splitting screens in thirds to display continuous action across a distance.

Seriously though, can I have Aisling's hair? I'd make a deal with the devil for it. I think Avatar copied the scene where Brendan and Aisling first explore the forest. Seemed very familiar ya'll. Director Tomm Moore recently released his newest film, which features a very similar animation style, titled Song of the Sea—and it looks mind-blowing. After seeing Kells, I will absolutely be heading to the theater to see this recently announced nominee for Best Animated Feature.

Rating: ★★★★ / 5 stars
Watched: Netflix
Seen Before: No