May Filmfest

As you may have seen in the last entry, I got through an incredible 8 movies this month!  To save room here, I’ll stop yakking and get to the reviews.  As usual, from least favorite to most.

8) The Jazz Singer (1927) – I was supposed to watch this one last month, but couldn’t get the DVD until now.  Although it was a pretty decent movie, I don’t think I was missing out too much.  This film is basically well-renowned as the first talking movie, which was a major technical achievement, but the story is just so-so.  The protagonist sets off on his own to be a “jazz singer,” upsetting his conservative cantor father.  It all unfolds in a pretty predictable manner, up to a decently satisfying ending.  And the talking parts are actually fairly few, so this is mostly a silent movie.  Hypocritical as it may seem for a devotee of old film, I just can’t get into the silent ones, so this one didn’t excite me.

7) Frankenstein (1931) – The classic in the monster-movie genre.  I’ve seen it before, so I knew all the great scenes: bringing the monster to life, the run-in with the girl at the lake, and the ending at the windmill.  Good scenes, all, but the overall movie was a bit choppy for my liking.  My major complaint, though, was the well-known scene with the “criminal brain” they steal for the monster.  Unbeknownst to many, this was not in the original novel, and it takes out a lot of the interesting ambiguity of the inherent good or evil of the monster.  The movie was campy fun, but that just bugged me.

6) Platoon (1986) – Ranking this low just goes to show that this was a pretty good month, movie-wise.  I actually liked Platoon, despite my aversion to war movies in general.  In it we follow a group of green new recruits, including a young Charlie Sheen, heading into Vietnam in the middle of the war.  As time progresses, the viewer sees the awfulness of  it all along with the soldiers, as they gradually become either hardened, broken down, and/or morally bankrupt with the horrors they’ve had to endure.  By the end, you are left with a feeling of how pointless it all was, epitomized by Sheen’s reaction in the final scene.  I still don’t like war movies, but it’s pretty worthwhile to see films like these to fully understand what the consequences are.

5) Titanic (1997) – It’s kind of odd, given how many times I’ve seen this movie, that I still can’t decide whether I like it or not.  Trying to be cool in high school when the movie came out, I developed a jaded attitude toward it that I’m slowly overcoming as I see that it is a good movie.  Aside from all the Leo-hype at the time, and the focus on the effects (which are incredible), it’s a good story with characters you care about, and what ends up being a truly sad outcome.  It really is less a movie about a boat sinking than it is a movie about people that happens to be set on a boat that sinks.  I did think the cutaways to modern times weren’t necessary, but I accept them as a part of an overall good movie.

4) Fargo (1996) – Oh my gosh, this was so weird.  I wasn’t sure if I should expect a crime drama, a wacky comedy, a bizarre indie film, or what, and I ended up with all of them rolled into one unique movie.  Ostensibly about a man who has his wife kidnapped to cash in on the ransom money, this ends up being a twisted story with a hodgepodge group of odd characters.  And the humor is mixed in so artfully that you can find yourself laughing at even some of the most gory parts.  Finally, of course, there are the Minnesota accents and mannerisms that this movie is known for.  Though they’re nothing noteworthy on their own, seeing the way “Minnesota nice” responds to this series of crimes if kind of hilarious.

3) Duck Soup (1933) and 2) A Night at the Opera (1935) – To save some space, here are the two Marx Brothers movies from the month of May.  Not sure how they ended up scheduled in the same month, but it made for a zany, hilarious comedy marathon.  If you’ve never seen a Marx Brothers movie, watch one or both of these, or pretty much any other one that exists.  These are some of the funnies movies ever made, with a perfect combination of physical comedy and the snappiest dialogue you’ve ever heard.  Groucho’s back-and-forth with either Chico or Margaret Dumont are reason enough to get hooked, and as a bonus you get the stateroom scene in Night at the Opera, the mirror scene in Duck Soup, and so many more.  Some of the music scenes get a bit tedious, but you can just fast-forward through them to get to more comedy gold.  Probably my favorite funny movies of all time.

1) 12 Angry Men (1957) – If you haven’t seen this one, make a point to do so.  You could describe this movie as a courtroom drama, but interestingly enough, only one short scene takes place in the courtroom.  The entire rest of the film takes place in the small, hot, tempestuous jury room.  The jury have already heard all the testimony at the beginning of the film, and are headed in to deliberate a murder case.  All of the jurors have their own biases or predispositions, and at first all but one of them are convinced the case is straightforward and obvious.  Once they begin discussing the case, though, we see the prejudices the jurors carry, and how that effects their reasoning.  It’s a really brilliant examination of the way people interact with one another.  And as tempers begin to rise, you find yourself feeling drawn in, with serious opinions of your own.  Also, it’s great to see a movie where one man’s convictions can make people rethink what they think they know.  This is a top 3 film of the ones I’ve seen so far.

At this rate, I have no idea how many movies I’ll see next month, but it should be at least these 5 (Mutiny on the Bounty was pushed back to July due to availability):

Giant (1956)

Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (1927)

Modern Times (1936)

Spartacus (1960)

The Wild Bunch (1969)