April 2008 Archives
So, my quest for the perfect (or near-perfect) comedy continues with three more entries this week.
Well, no perfection this week, but my Blockbuster movies were an odd mix to begin.
Lately I’ve been overdosing on the dramas.
Granted, I love them. A lot. There is nothing else that can hold my attention than a gripping tale from the heavier side of film canon. But I’ve noticed over the years that when it comes to drama, it is possible to go overboard.
What the hell was I thinking?
That was my main thought after I finished watching “Bus 174” at approximately 5:30 a.m. (a bit past my normal bedtime). On a whim, I decided to watch a documentary about a hostage situation in Brazil, which is also about the larger class divide in that country, before I went to bed. Again, what the hell was I thinking?
And I thought “Rocket Science” was bad. Compared to “Napoleon Dynamite,” Jared Hess’ 2003 film, “Science” is “The Seventh Seal” of independent comedies.
Yeah, that’s how pissed off I was while watching “Napoleon;” after an innovative and downright clever opening credits sequence (seriously, its far superior to the actual movie), we meet Napoleon (Jon Heder), a somnambulatory loser living in Smalltown, Idaho; he has no friends, no goals, nothing to look forward to (and by a cruel twist of fate, neither do we).
For the second review in a row, I chose to write about a movie based on true events (if not necessarily true). For this week, I have another terrifying chapter in history, this one from Ireland’s recent past.
The movie is “The Magdalene Sisters,” written and directed by Peter Mullan and released in 2002. I only mention the date because it will be important later.
In the 1970s, Argentina entered “The Dirty War” phase of its history; from 1976-1983 (roughly), the junta government arrested, tortured and disappeared (what a terrifying verb) thousands of citizens to quell descent among the populace (Source: Wikipedia; let’s hope this one is correct).
“The Official Story,” Luis Puenzo’s 1985 film that won a Best Foreign Language Oscar, picks up at the tail end of the war, in 1983, just as the power structure began to crumble. But wisely, Puenzo and fellow screenwriter Aída Bortnik chose to focus on someone on the periphery.
Meet Colin Smith (Tom Courtenay), the protagonist of Tony Richardson’s “The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner” (1962); he’s the runner in the title, and as he puts it, he comes from a long line of runners, people who continually run away from their problems. And well, Colin’s no exception; he’s been sent to a progressive prison colony after getting arrested for theft.
