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By Collin, on March 10th, 2011
#26 We just watched this on Netflix streaming.
You should too!: Me and Orson Welles
The Film: Me and Orson Welles
 Citizen Kane is widely considered the best movie ever made. I dislike that description, as do most people my age. It is hard to describe why, but it really might be the most important contribution to movies…ever. It isn’t the type of movie you can pop in at a party, but more a masterpiece you watch alone in your apartment pacing around the room cursing the genius who made it.
Orson Welles was a genius, this can’t be refuted. He was a great actor, an accomplished magician, a master of filmmaking, the stage, and radio. It boggles the mind how he could accomplish this all before the age of thirty.
Me and Orson Welles is follows the production of Welle’s famous rendition of Julies Caesar at the Mercury theater. It is amazing at highlight not only Welle’s genius, but stubbornness, wild ego, destructiveness, and infidelities.
Why to watch it: You really feel like you’re watching Welles
Christian McKay’s performance as Welles is as convincing as your probably going to get to the guy. Dickheads love to pine that Welles actually turned out being like Charles Kane, but I think most people who know a lot about Welles would say he was probably already there in his youth. Just watching him swagger around the Mercury spitting words of wisdom is so fucking enjoyable.
Pay attention to this: The behind-the-scenes accuracy of a stage production
If you’ve ever enjoyed a stage production, or been in one yourself, you’ll love this movie. Stage productions involve more waiting around then anything else. People talk, gossip, flirt, pick sexual partners, and fight. Me and Orson Welles is fun because so much of the production was just waiting around for Welles to actually show up.
Welles was juggling numerous projects at one time and would fund one project with money other projects. Whether or not this amounts to a lot at the end of the film is up for debate, but it is still a pretty cool film.
-Collin.
By Collin, on March 2nd, 2011
#23 We just watched this on Netflix streaming.You should too!:
The Film: Exit Through the Gift Shop
The movie is about a quirky French guy Thierry Guetta who has a habit of recording everything with a video camera. Taking a shower? He’s there. Playing with his kids? Yep, he’s recording. Sex? Lord only knows.
Some people have based their careers around the creating art that inflames the discussion of what qualifies as art. Nothing eats away at a white person more than a shark in a tank being bought for millions of dollars. Exit through the Gift Shop is kind of about that idea – but in the most fascinating way.
Thierry Guetta kinda’ falls into the life of Graffiti art and ends up working with the most famous and elusive graffiti artist in the world, Banksy.
Why to watch it: It is defines an elusive idea in regards to art.
A lot of art is marketing and that is kind of Guetta’s skill. He plays to the masses in the most profound way. I’ve heard claims that the film is just a cleverly arranged stunt by Bansky, but I don’t buy it. I think Bansky saw an opportunity in Guetta and took it. Guetta, or “Mr. Brainwash”, is and odd cookie who knows how to make lots of money.
I think Banksy knew what Guetta was doing and crafted a movie that was built around a powerful idea: Art is all about the hype and interpretation by an audience. Think “Fountain” by Marcel Duchamp. I don’t think Guetta is crazy either. His edited footage for Banksy might incline people to think he is, but believe me, I went to a rather abstract film school and have seen much worse.
Pay attention to this: Guetta’s art
I know I’ve mentioned this before, but this movie isn’t really about whether Guetta’s art is bad or not, but more about Guetta’s ability to make people think it is. Because I’m white and think I’m pretty smart I obviously have to weigh in on the subject. Yes, I think its kinda’ good.
If I was a billionaire I’d def’ show up to a Mr. Brainwash show. Does he have profound things to say? I don’t know, I’d have to go to his expeditions. I’m not sure he is defined yet themactially. Like Damien Hirsch, maybe his art is to inflame. Maybe he knows what he’s doing. But Banksy definitely knows whats up. He knows what the Guetta’s success says about the art culture.
-Collin.
By Collin, on February 22nd, 2011
#22 We just watched this on Netflix streaming.You should too!: The Secret in Their Eyes
 The Film: The Secret in Their Eyes
Movies with this kind of patience don’t get made anymore. It seemed to be a movie made by a Argentinian film industry screaming to be noticed. By the way, the Argentinian president is SO hot. She’s a dime. She looks like a former Brazilian Playboy bunny or something. It is FUCKING crazy. Like, we think we’re the progressive, forward-thinking country and they’re the ones with a really hot president. Anyway, that has nothing to do with the movie – but she did pose with the filmmakers after they won the first Oscar for their country.
Moreover, the film follows a retired government official Benjamin as he’s trying to write a novel about a past case that haunts him. The story is told in the past as well as future and we gleam important events as the movie progresses. To be frank, digging into the past makes shit go down.
Why to watch it: It has one of the best action scenes ever made
The common complaint with this movie is that, for the most part, it is slow. Things do take a while to get going. However, out of where comes the scene everybody probably talks about. It is so crazy that I actually leaned over in the movie theater and said, “How the fuck did they do that?”
The chase sequence at the soccer game is top five chases of all time. It does what I love in an action sequence : It infrequently cuts and lets camera technique and characters garner the intensity of the scene. This is the way it should be done. Christopher Nolan and Zach Snyder are famous for this.
Pay attention to this: Camera technique
There is a language to film. There is no doubt about that. I mean, people can flame me all day about it, but that is just the truth. The technique used by Juan José Campanella is impeccable. I’m rarely in awe of a director’s mastery, (except whenever I watch a Kurosawa or Kurbrick movie) but this guy is a fucking cock star. His use of close-ups and depth-of-focus masterful. Also, his use of special effects for aesthetic and framing sake reminds me of Orson Welles. I was disappointed that White Ribbon didn’t win for Best Foreign film because I do think its a more “important” film…if that makes sense? You should check that one out too. Make it a double feature.
-Collin.
By Collin, on February 11th, 2011
#18 We just watched this on Netflix streaming.You should too!:Kes
 The Film: Kes
Hey everyone! I have a confession about this movie…I actually came across it because of the famous manc, Karl Pilkington. He spoke of it once and a while during season 1 and 2 of the Ricky Gervais show on XFM, even cutting himself into the film for a segment of the show.
I think Karl loves the movie so much, as do so many other people from poor segments of English society, because it highlights growing up poor on a council estate in regions of England. An estate, for those of you who don’t know (I don’t know why you would), is publicly funded/built housing in the UK (aka. English projects). Huge amounts of the the poorer population lived in them and still do. Jokingly, Ricky Gervais commented that everything in Karl’s childhood sounds like something out of Kes. He might have been right.
Kes follows a young boy from Yorkshire in the sixties as he struggles with abusive authority figures around him. It also watches him befriend and train a hawk he names Kes. The movie is akin to 400 Blows, another masterpiece released only ten years prior. I think Kes is better, but that is just me.
Why to watch it: It is one of the best kids movies, ever.
Kes is a “slice of life” story. It decides to follow a boy, seemingly aimlessly, and just watches how he gets on with his life. It reminded me a lot of the way Ramin Bahrani constructs a story. We watch the abuses Kes has to endure by his family, his school, his friends, and wonder how it is that he endures. We watch as Casper explains to an audience of children, who seem genuinely engaged, that he has been training a hawk. There is no swelling of music; no obvious character arc. We assume he has felt pride for the first time, but there is not “evidence” of this emotion. The film expects the people watching will see that despite all these terrible things and terrible people, Casper has found a talent. In maybe the greatest child performance of all time, David Bradley creates a character who could have been bathetic, but instead, is transparent. Casper seems to be using the puppy dog look as a tool, perhaps even a weapon. Not as true emotion to be pitied. Bradley has the subtlety of a true genius and in the film’s last scene I can’t recall feeling more touched by a movie.
Pay attention to this: subtlety subversive
How can a movie this quiet, be so angry? I wanted to grab every teacher or abusive family member and scream at them. It made me furious that a society would pigeon hole a child like that. Casper, indeed, has value. He is a trouble maker, but has no role models. He has no one to look up to or to value him. An instructor from his school takes interest in his training, but too little, too late. The film struggled financially because of its ending, but how could any other ending be fitting? The movie is like Billy Elliot in reverse. It is the feel-horrible movie of the century and for good reason. These issues are universal. Ken Loach, the film’s director, was clearly furious about a society that abuses its children, has an inadequate school system, and rejects the value and interest of its youngest members of society. It touched me deeply even coming from a well-to-do middle class family from the suburbs of America. I knew a Casper and I’m sure you did too.
-Collin.
By Collin, on February 10th, 2011
#17 We just watched this on Netflix streaming.You should too!:Deliver us from Evil
The Film: Deliver us from Evil
No matter where you come down religiously, this is a must see movie. It is one of the few movies I will recommend that I don’t enjoy watching. How could you enjoy watching this movie, besides that it brings awareness to injustice? It is about a catholic priest from California who admits, on camera, how he molested children and how the church went to unreasonable lengths to cover it up.
Watching the priest so honestly admit to these wrongdoings borders on the surreal. The film also interviews his victims and explores the corruption which kept many of the incidents in the dark.
Why to watch it: It is a shocking indictment
The film always leaves me feeling helpless. Even despite so many of these incidents going public, little, besides financial restitution, has been done. I’m not radical in the sense that I think the Pope should be arrested, rapists should have their genitals cut off, or any nonsense like that, but at least the church should find someway to prevent this.
That Catholic priests frequently get away with this behavior, even in modern times, makes me wonder how many centuries this has been going on and how many victim’s lives destroyed.
Pay attention to this: Oliver O’Grady
Watch him as he laughs, chuckles, and still, to this day, doesn’t feel the way he should about his crimes. There is a moment in the film where he respectfully asks his victims to meet with him and one of the young men immediately responds, “I’d kill his mother”.
Apparently, O’Grady doesn’t see the big picture. According to an article cited on Wikipedia (I checked the original source) he was recently, December 2010, arrested for child pornography and was found working with a local dutch church. He is a sick person, why is he still allowed to walk the streets, but so many pot dealers, and other non-violent criminals, not?
Get Netflix streaming through the link at the bottom and follow along. Have fun out there and E-mail if you, the reader, have anything for us to watch!
-Collin
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Citizen Kane is widely considered the best movie ever made. I dislike that description, as do most people my age. It is hard to describe why, but it really might be the most important contribution to movies…ever. It isn’t the type of movie you can pop in at a party, but more a masterpiece you watch alone in your apartment pacing around the room cursing the genius who made it.
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