Boyz n the Hood (1991)

     The following is a film review I wrote for Boyz n the Hood  that I wrote as part of my film and genre class:

    Boyz in the Hood is a 1991 coming of age film written and directed by John Singleton following the lives of three boys as they grow up in South Central, LA and the different paths their lives take. The film stars Cuba Gooding Jr. as Tre Styles, who as a young boy is sent to live with his father in Crenshaw after an altercation at school. He befriends two half-brothers: the “hard” Doughboy (played by rapper Ice Cube), and the all-star athlete, Ricky (played by Morris Chestnut). As the boys grow up, Doughboy falls further into the violence and gang-culture surrounding them, and Ricky pursues a football scholarship. Tre, raised by father Furious Style (Laurence Fishburn), grows up to be an intelligent teen that stays out of trouble. 

     As Singleton’s debut film, it is in no way perfect, but it meets its goal portraying the violence that occurred and continues to occur in districts like Crenshaw in a raw and realistic way. Having grown-up so far removed from the way the characters of this film have grown up, I still found myself relating with and becoming invested in the lives of the boys. While Singleton could have easily painted their personalities and actions in broad strokes of “good” and “bad”, he takes care to put depth in the characters. Doughboy’s affiliation with the gang culture in Crenshaw is not a positive, but the audience can empathize with him and understand his motivations in doing what he does. 

    Boyz n the Hood featured standout performances from a lot of the cast. As their first major roles, the leads did a fantastic job in depicting the emotion and nuance of their characters. Especially impressive was Ice Cube. For having no formal acting training, he portrayed the vulnerability behind Doughboy’s tough exterior in an incredibly believable way. Also notable was Laurence Fishburn, whose performance as Furious Styles lent exceptionally well to the character’s reserved and calculating personality.

     While the film doesn’t struggle in terms of storytelling and acting, a few technical aspects left something to be desired. Certain cuts felt awkward or out of place and made the film feel a little jumpy. The sound design was also lacking at points. In some scenes, the dialogue was hard to understand or sounded dubbed in, however this problem could very well have been a consequence of the film being made in the early 90s. Despite its occasional issues, the sound design actually bolstered a lot of the film. There are the ever present sounds of helicopters and distant gunfire which make the audience feel on-edge, like violence could break out at any second. The extras have full conversations that run through the background and add to the realism of the neighborhood. Unlike most movies, all other conversation does not halt while the main characters are talking. 

     Regardless of its quirks, Boyz n the Hood is a must watch. Not only does it deal with the problems present in Crenshaw/South Central LA, but also tackles broader issues of systemic racism, gang culture, and violence to and within the black community. Right off the bat, the film opens up with the statistic that “one out of every twenty-one Black American males will be murdered in their lifetime.” that preps the viewer on what they're in for. Overall, Boyz n the Hood proves to be a more than competent coming of age drama with a lot of heart that gets its story and message across in the way it intended.

Christiane F.:Wir Kinder Vom Bahnhof Zoo (1981)

   Based on the memoir Wir Kinder Vom Bahnof Zoo (We Children of Zoo Station), Christiane F. is a film set in the mid 70s that follows the descent of its titular character into the junkie scene after a friend takes her to a nightclub known as 'Sound'. It also features music and an appearance by David Bowie. 

    Unfortunately I could not find a subbed version of this film (as it is in German) so I had to watch it with an awful dub. Not only did it have adults voicing the 13-15 year old actors, but the actual voice acting itself was pretty bad. If you plan on watching, I would recommend waiting to find a version that is subbed because I think it will be a much more enjoyable experience. 

Regardless of the awful voice acting, I still liked this film. 

First off, I loved the cinematography and overall coloring. It had a very desolate feel but in a good way. When there were lights it was really harsh against the dark color pallet which is an effect I really like. 

I also think that the actual acting (not the voice actors) was pretty decent considering the actors were actually young teens like the characters they were portraying and it was their first film. 

I read that besides the leads, the other extras in the film were actual junkies that were just hanging around the train station where they were filming which adds an extra layer of realism to the whole experience. 

I don't really have much else to say about Christiane F. other than I recommend it. It's really something you just have to watch for yourself. 

The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys (2002)

    During the many times I have scrolled endlessly through Prime's video catalog looking for something to watch, I kept coming across this movie. It struck my interest as a low budget early 2000s flick which I've been into and I would leave the movie highlighted for a moment and contemplate, but ultimately decided it wasn't what I was in the mood for. Last night I finally took the plunge (so to say) and while it was not at all what I thought it was, I was pleasantly surprised. 

    

    The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys is a coming of age film set in the 1970's (funnily enough a fact I did not realize until halfway through the movie because I simply thought the characters had all this old stuff due to them living in some kind of run down small town) that stars Kieran Culkin, Emile Hirsch, and Jenna Malone. It's actually based off a book of the same name by the late Chris Fuhrman. 

  

   The film centers around Emile Hirsch's character, Francis Doyle, as he manages his relationships with both his best friend, Tim (Kieran Culkin), and his newfound love interest, Margie Flynn (Jenna Malone). All three characters attend Catholic school where the strict and hated Sister Assumpta (played by Jodie Foster) teaches. As a result, the boys' plan and execute several pranks that increase in severity.  Running throughout the film is a comic book the boys are working on, titled "The Atomic Trinity." and there are animated sequences involving the aforementioned Atomic Trinity spliced in that run parallel to the problems in the boys' lives. Sister Assumpta makes an appearance as the villain of the story, accompanied by other evil motorcycle riding nuns. 

    As I already said, the film was not what I thought it would be, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. First off, the acting was pretty decent —it really captured the awkwardness/emotional volatility of being a young teen. Specifically, I wanted to point out Emile Hirsch. While I noticed he did the whole mouth slightly open thing that kind of annoys me in a lot of actors, he really impressed me in a few particular scenes.

     The storyline, while a little scattered and random, was interesting. I don't necessarily think this film even needed a cohesive narrative structure to work. It also deals with some dark topics which Roger Ebert seemed to think it couldn't support, but I have to disagree with him. 

    These topics aren't really supposed to be handled properly or with the weight they should be given because they are being seen through the lens of a young boy. In fact, I think the reactions to these topics from the perspectives of the characters is something the film does well. Reflecting on my own middle school experience, it all seemed very realistic. 

    This being said, it isn't a perfect film. One of my main problems with it would be this one specific storyline about a ghost that kind of goes nowhere and serves no real purpose. There's also some pretty obvious foreshadowing regarding the main climactic event at the end of the movie. I can't decide whether I liked it or not because it was only in retrospect that I realized what these seemingly random scenes and dialogue were trying to do (I guess that's literally the point of foreshadowing but it felt like something I should've probably picked up on). There's one specific scene that didn't really seem to fit with the whole narrative flow that only made sense after I was finished watching. I think that it maybe could have had a better lead in or something.  

    Even with its faults, The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys is a competent coming of age film and is definitely worth a watch. I highly recommend it. 

Manic (2001)

     Before doing the staple manic pixie dream girl movie, 500 Days of Summer, Joseph Gordan Levitt and Zooey Deschanel acted together in the lesser known Manic (2001).

  Having now watched both films, I can safely say I much preferred the latter. In my opinion, 500 Days of Summer did not properly get its whole subversion of the manic pixie dream girl trope across as effectively as it was obviously trying to, and ends up falling  victim to the very trope it was attempting to comment on. 

But, I am not here today to write about 500 Days of Summer.

    Manic is a film directed by Jordan Melamed  that follows its main character, Lyle, as he is admitted to a juvenile mental institution after severely beating up a guy at a baseball game with a bat. He meets the band of other institutionalized teens with whom relationships form and drama ensues. It's shot in a very up close and personal way with what looks like a handheld camcorder. There are a lot of extreme close up shots of the characters faces and a lot of shaky camera work that accompanies the many fight scenes. I'm a fan of the cinematography because I really think it suits the rawness of the film and what it's trying to portray. 

    The extreme close-ups add to the feeling of confusion surrounding the institution and characters. The handheld camera makes it feel like a documentary; as if this situation it actually happening. Even the dialogue adds to the oppressive realism. 

    Speaking of dialogue, there are some standout performances from really the whole cast. 

Anyways, to wrap up this short review, I recommend you watch this movie and I would rate it an 7.5/10. 

 

Inherent Vice - The Movie vs. the Book

     In the past 24 hours, I've both finished Thomas Pynchon's Inherent Vice and watched the Paul Anderson film adaptation. The movie features quite the cast: Joaquin Phoenix, Josh Brolin, Reese Witherspoon, and Martin Short to name a few. Despite the many accolades those involved received, I was a little underwhelmed.  

Before diving into the movie, I'll talk a little about the the book. 

Written in 2009, Inherent Vice is the second most recent publication by the elusive Pynchon. While it is not as surreal/"postmodern" as his other works (or at least the one other book of his I read), the plot is still quite convoluted and I won't pretend I didn't got lost trying to figure out what was going on. 

This being said, I think I eventually understood everything by the time I got to the end. 

In my opinion, where the movie failed was pulling everything together. Obviously, cuts to the original story had to be made for runtime's sake (and it still ended up a whopping 2hrs. 20 mins. and some change), however if I had not had the context of the book, I don't know if I would have followed what was happening.

For instance, they cut the whole Trillium plotline which I think helped for understanding of Puck Beaverton, and they cut Fritz's character besides an offhanded comment by Adrian Prussia in regards to where he knew Doc from. 

I could also see how the narration would be confusing given that Sortilege is not properly introduced. Our first time seeing her is in the flashback scene and it wouldn't be obvious to a fresh viewer that the narrator and this woman are the same person.

Another problem I had with the movie was the internal structure time. The movie could've definitely benefitted from some quicker cuts. It would've worked better if it was edited more so to go with the goofiness/surreality of the content.

Along these lines the film was a little too washed out when a more vibrant/psychedelic color pallet would've matched the theme. 

As an example of what I mean, the picture above is a scene from the movie. Based on the trailer, I thought the entire movie would look like this with the contrasts/colorful lighting. However, most of the shots are colored like the picture below:

It's a very bland color palate if you see what I'm saying. I suppose this critique could be a little nitpicky and I am very far from being a film expert, it was something I noticed while watching. 

In summation, I don't necessarily think Inherent Vice was a bad source material to adapt. The story has some elements that I think play out interestingly on the screen but this movie didn't quite hit the mark. 

Jacobs Ladder (1990)

Lately, I've been watching a lot of movies that in some way make one question reality, which really hasn't been good for my ongoing existential crisis. Donnie Darko (2001), American Psycho (2000), and Inception (2010) just to name a few.  Jacob's Ladder (1990) continues this theme of "Did any of that just happen?" It's hard to pin down in a certain category, but I would describe it as a surreal horror government paranoia thriller. 

    Jacob's Ladder follows the lead character, Jacob Singer, as he begins having strange 'Nam flashbacks and seeing weird hallucinations of faceless humanoid beings that are following him. Before I start my review and spoil it, I'll recommend you watch it if you haven't already. It's a trippy dream-like experience dealing with hell and death and all that fun stuff. 

SPOILERS:

Like Donnie Darko, this film kind of ends where it begins. While it may not deal with all the metaphysical dimensional stuff, the principle remains the same. A man seemingly escapes death, has these weird hallucinations, and ends up back at the moment he supposedly "survived" only to die. 

The design of Jacob's Ladder is genuinely horrifying and uncomfortable and it's interesting because a lot of it relies on not showing the viewer the full scope of what's going on/uncanny valley. In the party scene, where Jacobs begins seeing all these creatures, the strobe light makes it so you can only ever see snatches of what's happening. It makes everything feel very desperate as Jacob watches in horror while Jezzie dances up on some kind of winged demon and a horn erupts from her mouth. 

Another great example of the subtle horror the film does so well was the scene with the nurse where her hat falls off to reveal some kind of filed down horn. 
The director, Adrian Lyne, also referenced Francis Bacon as an inspiration for the "look" of the film which is apparent in the blurry heads and grotesque figures Jacob sees.

The dance scene kind of brings up all the biblical allusions that Jacob's Ladder is choc full of. I won't go into too much detail, but I will mention the quote from Louie (the chiropractor) that I found intriguing. 
He says,  "If you're afraid of dying, and you're holdin' on, you'll see devils tearin' your life away. But if you've made your peace, then the devils are really angels, freein' you from the world. It all depends on how you look at it."

Anyways, to wrap up I'm just gonna say that Jacob's Ladder is a solid film and I'd give it an 8.5/10.