Man with the Movie Camera -1929- Old Joy -2006-

Film is a universal language? Maybe. But I think storytelling is the language and film is the dialect.

Somebody on Flixster called Man with the Movie Camera “Communist propaganda.” I missed that part. I didn’t see any communism here. I just saw a day in the life of the streets in the Soviet Union.

I understand why this movie is important. That’s not to say I didn’t like it, because I did, but I could never love it. That’s because I love narrative, and this didn’t have enough of it. It shouldn’t have had more, though. I’m glad that someone did something this different.

It took awhile, but I warned up for this film. At first, I thought this would be a “one night stand” movie (top 10 list coming soon, I hope)… a film I only saw once. But now, I might see it again, and I’ll probably enjoy it even more the second time. (Still no love, though.)

I will never love Old Joy either, but that’s for another reason: it wasn’t a good film. Spoiler alert: nothing happens. The last five minutes is, for me, the only rewarding part. If I may hate on C-SPAN for just a moment, an hour of Old Joy is equal to an hour and a half in C-SPAN time.

Man with the Movie Camera: there are worse ways to spend an hour. ***

Old Joy: there are worse ways to spend an hour, but that doesn’t mean you should watch this movie. **

Notes:

• How about that pre-Claymation in Camera?
• Both of these films are available now on Netflix Instant, but Man with the Movie Camera will expire on November 1.
• If you see and find beauty in Man with the Movie Camera, I suggest you see My Winnipeg.
• Coming soon: October Recap and the final 70s poll.

Trust (2011)

****

Annie is just your average girl. The movie doesn’t have to feed us examples of this, thanks to the performances (especially Liana Liberato as Annie and Clive Owen as Will, her father). She just turned 15, and she got a cool new laptop to go along with her cool new phone. She’s giving the life.

That is, until she meets a “boy” named Charlie online. At first, he tells her he’s 16, but that soon become 20, then 25… do you see where this is going? Charlie asks to meet Annie, and when they do, we discover what we’ve known all along: he’s at least 35. At first, Annie is shocked, and Charlie has to try his hardest to calm her down. The movie somehow maintains suspense during all of this, even though it is thoroughly predictable.

There are two scenes that take place within a car; one setting up a comparison drawn in the second. The first involves Annie buying a bra, and talking to her mother about it. It’s light and shows that Annie’s mother truly cares about her. The other is with Charlie, and it is just awful. I can’t count the number of times I said “ugh” to something Charlie did or said in this movie.

I should have explained: Annie goes to lunch with Charlie, then gets in his car. He takes her exactly where you think.

The hotel scene is very creepy. The room is tight and claustrophobic. I can’t imagine what it must have been like to be a part of filming that. The film adds another layer of creepy by showing a videotape, obviously made by Charlie. (During the credits, they show another tape of his; he is with his family at a fair. I don’t want to call it great, because of the subject matter, but the film gets a lot of things right.) That’s when he violates her.

Trust is one of the most tragic films I have ever seen. Early on in the movie, a middle-aged business partner of Will’s hits on a 19-year-old waitress. (You can see where the film was going with that.) Annie saying “we’re in love” gave me such a chill. “I don’t want to lie to him,” she later says. She also repeated refers to Charlie as her boyfriend. The film has tragic quotes such as these sprinkled throughout. And Annie doesn’t know who she can trust. She just wants her blanket. She’s suffering from Stockholm Syndrome. She’s seen a lot of betrayal. The house Annie’s family lives in has a security system, something referenced and shown numerous times just for the sad irony.

Meanwhile, Will becomes obsessed with killing “Charlie.” He goes as far as posing at a teenage girl online in order to find him. Owen plays it perfectly… walking the line between caring and crazy with his character.

“I had a dream… I found him… I could taste his blood. I woke up. I had bitten my own lip. It was my own blood.”

Will becomes self-destructive in his search for Charlie. He’s acquired so much anger and hate, it becomes a struggle for him to live his life. This movie hit me where it hurts.

Late in the movie, the plot gets stuck in replay, however. It explores things it has already explored. The movie just kept piling on unnecessarily. These people had to go through one thing after the other. Every little glimmer of hope was squashed by another misfortune. I’m glad that it ended on a hopeful note, though.

Trust is a tragically emotional film that is a must see. And even though it is beautiful, I’m not sure I’ll ever revisit it.

Notes:

• Clive Owen bawling didn’t do much for me. The words were important and powerful, but the way he looked when he spoke them wasn’t.
• Annie’s has a little sister, which the movie could have used better.
• This movie doesn’t blame Annie for some of her clumsier actions. It’s like her parents; it loves and supports her.
• Thanks to Roger Ebert for mentioning it on At the Movies. I would never have looked it up without it.
• Speaking of which, you can find Trust on Netflix Instant.
• If you see and find beauty in Trust, you might also want to check out Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Fearless.
• Coming soon: the best films of the year so far.

Being John Malkovich (1999)

**

During certain scenes of Being John Malkovich, I didn’t know whether it was trying to be dramatic or comedic. But it doesn’t matter, since, after the first half-hour, the movie isn’t good at being either one. This mess of a movie begins with humor. To me, when a movie about a portal into John Malkovich’s mind starts of with humor, I don’t expect it to swerve onto the road of pain, sadness, and nonsense. Not only were the characters enduring the pain and sadness, but so was I.

The story follows a mopey puppeteer, Craig (John Cusack), who takes a job at a “filing company.” (One of the few genuinely funny scenes is the bit with the secretary.) There, he finds a very small door which happens to be a portal into John Malkovich’s life. Maxine (Catherine Keener), a sexy woman he works with, takes advantage of him in order to gain money from selling 15 minutes inside John Malkovich. Craig falls in love with Maxine, but (whoops!) so does his wife, Lotte (Cameron Diaz). She impulsively demands to have a sex change. I can’t decide which character is flimsier, Maxine or Lotte. Or maybe it’s the dark horse, Dr. Lester (Orson Bean), an old pervert who has a trick up his sleeve.

This movie is neither funny nor believable. Especially when Craig slams his wife on the ground, forces her to call Maxine so Craig can go jump into John Malkovich’s body so that he can trick her and (?!?!) whatever, and then puts her in a cage with the most likable character in the movie, Elijah the Chimp. This isn’t the first time I’ve disagreed with popular opinion, and it won’t be the last, but this one truly puzzles me.

(Being John Malkovich is available now on Netflix Instant.)

Dogtooth (2010)

****

This is one of those movies to which it pays to go “cold”. I knew almost nothing about this film before seeing it. I had seen one still image, heard one piece of information about the plot, and I had read that it is disturbing. And I’m glad I didn’t know anything else.

Now, before I completely divulge my opinion, I must tell you a little about the film. It’s Greek. It has characters and scenes. It has a beginning. It has an ending. You don’t want to take your kids to this. You don’t want to take your darling old grandmother to this. That’s really all you need to know.

I always imagine what a movie will look like before I see it. From trailers and advertisements and posters and pictures, I usually get a very good idea. All I had from this movie I what I listed above. As much as his big mouth might have wanted to, Scott Tobias did not tell me what to expect.

What I found was a very funny and very, very strange movie. The humor was dark. It came when the boy murdered a cat, when the non-elder one started licking people, and when it was announced that the mother would be birthing a dog. The strangeness never gave up. From the first scene, Dogtooth was different.

The performances were extraordinary. I’ve never seen these characters before, but I know they were perfect. They had to be, really, because they were the one ingredient that could not fail. This movie is about it’s characters, the things they do, and why they do the things they do.

Note for those who have seen the ending: Even if she does, she’s never getting out of that trunk. It’s just too late.

(Dogtooth is available now on Netflix Instant.)