After going over Duel to the Death and that amazing ending battle between the two swordsmen, I decided to go back through my Netflix recommendations and past movies I have watched that were martial arts related and discovered a movie that I watched a few years ago. It was a movie that some might think of as forgettable or a one and done sort of movie. I instantly recalled this Chilean martial arts film from 2006 and was rather wowed by what I saw. Kiltro is a gem amongst the roughage of martial arts movies, coming from a country that we don’t even associate with martial arts or action films, that is of course if you are one of those people that consumer South American cinema. I am certainly not that sort of person, but hell, I will give it a shot if there are more flashy movies like Kiltro for the kung fu, martial arts movie enthusiasts.
This post is a bit of a cheat since this movie isn’t out until sometime next week, but I just have to bring this movie back up because I really feel it didn’t get the love it should have by the movie going audience. Rashida Jones and Andy Samberg turned in mesmerizing performance, more so Rashida as she is the lynch pin of the film, in a romantic drama that honestly is one of the more accurate and earnest romance movies out there. It isn’t so much a lovely dovey film, but rather a movie that tries to depict the struggles of moving on, of course while some indie music plays and Jones radiates on screen with her loveable personality. Sigh, much like Beginners, I really hold this to be a perfect little romance movie.
Well folks, I realize my post this evening is a bit later than usual, but I just came back from my side job at the Alamo Drafthouse in downtown Kansas City. This evening was a special one as tonight we were showing It’s a Wonderful Life on two screens. I lobbied to have the hosting duties for the evening as it has been a movie I have grown up with, mostly due to my father’s love of the film. So I got the gig to host both showings and was absolutely floored that we sold out both showings. As a film fan, it made my heart swell that a movie made in 1946 is still touching generations of movie watchers and getting them out to the theaters to experience this unintentional Christmas classic.
Now I have grown up a lot since my first viewing of the film. I always thought Pottersville was pretty fucking sweet with booze, burlesque and fights on Wednesday nights. It seemed like a great town to me at a young age. Over the years though, I understand what makes this movie timeless and why it ended up becoming this holiday classic despite the directors insistence that it was never intended to be a Christmas movie. It’s the message at heart, one that James Stewart learns over the course of the movie that your worth in life isn’t measure by material or even monetary possession, it’s the people that are in your life and the lives of those that you have touched. That is what you need to take stock in and that is what life means.
It’s a movie that was panned upon its release, lapsed into copyright default to the public domain, and then found its home amongst the Christmas special rotation. A movie that over the years since the 70s, has touched the lives of those that have seen it. Capra and Stewart created a movie that has lived on through the years and to see all those people out at the two sold out shows tonight was amazing.
So today, I present the movie in its entirety for those that have not seen it. Enjoy!
I have never been one for the romantic comedy genre or even the even more droning dramedy genre. In fact I will try and never use that term because Romance and Drama go hand in hand with one another. I am not jaded in the least except for that one time I got dumped Freshman year in high school during debate class or that time I got dumped outside a movie theater (the worst place in the world to dump a movie lover), I just think that the genre itself is filled with the same fluff and thematic plot points that it all runs together, much like this sentence.
So why would I go see this movie? Well it has Rashida Jones (who is just dead sexy) and Andy Samberg in an indie romance film that promises me at least a decent indie soundtrack and a few laughs. I got all of that and some romance out of this film.
This is a spoiler warning for those that are hoping to find a movie that has lasers, space battles, sexy green alien chicks, lightsabers, and cool looking spaceships. You aren’t going to find any of that stuff in this science fiction film from acclaimed, Russian director Andrei Tarkovsky. Instead of all of the usual science fiction tropes we get these days, you are getting an incredible introspective, slow and psychologically deep film about understand humanity and its existence, just like everything that has come out of Russia cause that’s how they roll.
Wes Anderson has made the most Wes Andersony movie ever. That is not a bad thing mind you, so don’t let that opening be misleading. If you love Wes Anderson films, you will love his latest offering, Moonrise Kingdom. If you are unfamiliar with Wes Anderson and his idiosyncratic filmmaking, here is a bullet list of the stuff you will see in his movies….all of them:
Kids acting like adults
Adults acting like kids
Strained family dynamics
Plaid
Esoteric musical choices
Scenes that are dead center framed
So much whimsy
Magical setting that seem created in a different world
Bold type font
More whimsy
Bill Murray being fucking awesome
This bullet list is pretty much the expectations you will have when you go into a Wes Anderson film, but all these elements used in someone else’s movie, doesn’t seem right. All these things are uniquely refreshing and cohesive when given to Anderson, but it sometimes strays into the familiar territory that leads me to the impasse of Moonrise Kingdom.
At some point in time, I need to compile a list that has my top directors of all time. I usually find myself saying, “this” director or “that” director as being on the best or favorites of mine, and it happens a lot. While this list and rambling might be better suited for that actual post, whenever it gets made, this leads me into one of my favorite directors. No doubt about it, this is top ten quality here folks. Alejandro González Iñárritu, a Mexican director (VIVA MEXICO!) has only four feature films to his filmography, but every single one of the is truly beautiful and moving in every way possible. It is kind of fitting that I use that term “beautiful” as today’s film is titled after the Spanish orthographical spelling of the English word “beautiful”. Like most of his movies, there is a grimmy, dark feeling that showcases the depths of humanity in its darkest times, but ultimately are some of the most gorgeous and heartfelt films around.
If you have never seen a Noam Baumbach film before, you might be a bit off put by the subject matter. There is a certain nuance to films and the fact that he capture the little complications of life that plague us in the back of our mind. Where we are in life, what we see ourselves doing, and coming to terms with the our place in life, whether good or bad. His writing is snarky, often dark in terms of humor, but there is a sort of catch that their characters have that draw you into the story, even if it is more or less about pretty white people with pretty white problems. Hey, he writes what he knows and what he is comfortable with, I can’t fault him for that. But Greenberg is one of the more mature films he has done in a while, one that evolves into a film that tries to find a resolution between what we project about ourselves to people and what we feel about ourselves inside.
It’s Mother’s Day and today is a day in which you should be spending time with your dearest mother and cherishing all the time she given to mold you into the person you are today. I love my mom and all the work and love she has given to raise into the person I am today. Not sure how proud she is my spending my time writing on a movie blog that I don’t get paid for (someday ma, someday), but I know she would do anything for me to be happy. So while she getting gifts, funny cards and having our families adoration showered upon her on this special day, today’s post is about a movie in which the mother will do anything to keep her family happy, even becoming a murderous serial killer in a picture perfect suburbia.
