Movie Review #22

Blood Simple (1984)
Directed by Joel Coen
Written by Ethan Coen & Joel Coen

Rating: 8.50/10.00 or *** 1/2 (out of 4)

What a fabulous movie this is. This is the Coen brothers' first film, and it is the best of the four I have seen. It's unfortunate that so few people have heard, much less seen, this rare gem. By rare, I mean to say that the film accomplishes a nearly insurmountable task. It is difficult enough to make a good "noir" film. It is harder still to parody the cliches and regularities of such films. The Coen brothers take on both tasks, and their success is seen in every moment of the film. I loved the movie from start to finish. I leaned forward, I jerked back, I laughed out loud, and I cringed with knowing anticipation.

Blood Simple thrives on the fact that it uses its exaggerations and parodies as plot development. One of the most brilliant sequences of the film was the "Corpse That Would Not Die" sequence in a farm in the middle-of-nowhere Texas. How the film leads up to the moment and goes on from that moment is brilliant enough, but that the film can use this cliche in a reasonable and yet slightly humorous manner is pure genious.

Blood Simple is the story of Abby, her marriage to wealthy Julian, and her affair with Ray. The movie begins with an interesting sequence involving Abby and Ray sitting in a car with the clear point of adding tension right away. Abby thinks something is wrong, but she is not quite sure what it is. She then thinks that they are being followed, so she asks Ray to stop the car. The car behind them stops as well, but then slowly moves past them.

We then learn why Abby is so afraid. She is having an extramarital affair, and she believes her husband has caught on (This becomes obviously correct when they are phoned by husband Julian the following morning in a hotel.). Julian is angry, violently so, and has asked private detective Loren Visser to murder the two. Visser, meanwhile, wants Julian to leave for a few days while he commits the crimes.

But this only begins the story. The rest of the story, I dare to say, gets much more complicated, involving, and tragic. We realize with horror that all four of these characters have the same flaw, and the results are different for each of them. Greed is at the minds of these obviously slimy people, and it quickly becomes obvious there are no heroes in the film, only flawed and envious "normal" folks. How greed gets tangled so quickly and so terribly is realized rapidly, and the consequences lead to further feelings of greed and even more disturbing results.

Meanwhile, the Coen brothers use the roots of exaggeration to their advantage. There is one scene, for example, that has Ray and Abby talking; then at a pivotal moment in their discussion, a shocking event happens that should make most audience members laugh in surprise or wonder in amazement. For me, it did both. And I have a feeling that was the Coen brothers' intents.

Most satisfying, however, is that the Coen brothers use exaggeration and cliche in new and interesting manners. Take the famous sequence in which Visser is in one room (the bathroom) and Abby is in another (a bedroom). Visser then reaches around through the bathroom window to see what rooms are around him. When his enters the bedroom, Abby then quickly sticks him (by knife) to the windowsill. It is the classic use of shock value and the blind eye cliche, but the effects are startlingly effective and brutally presented. The ultimate result is suspense at its purest form. Other cliches, like the shocking death photos and the unseen sniper, are used in such an interesting fashion, you can't help yourself from admiring these filmmakers.

Acting only adds to the complex nature of the film. John Getz plays Ray with a one-dimensional simplicity but a multi-dimensional array of emotions. Ray is in love, but he's sad, seemingly honest, but eerily deceptive. Frances McDormand plays Abby with a slightly detached mental state and an obvious yearning for love and money. Dan Hedaya plays Julian with a contemptible hatred, a quietly violent nature, and a necessary mix of authority and desperation. And then there's M. Emmet Walsh, the man who adds the most humor and perhaps the most horror to the film, as the private investigator. This character, more than any, shows what the film is most about. Visser knows what he wants at the moment, but it turns out that his needs only make his situations worse, not better.

The film's only flaw, as far as I am concerned, is its immensely slow pace. Most of the time, it serves the clear purpose of adding tension (which it succeeds in doing). However, at times, especially near the beginning of the film, this becomes a bit too slow for my taste. Like most Coen brothers films, the movie seems to get better the farther along it goes. The ending fifteen minutes are sensational filmmaking, producing a most satisfying climax to a wonderfully constructed film.

The greatest moment of the film is the last scene. It is the metaphorical equivalent of the Coen brothers winking at their viewers. It's a reminder; the film not only presents a seemingly realistic story, but it is also an exaggeration and a parody. It's the perfect conclusion for a fabulous 97 minutes of filmmaking.

Movie Review #21

Amelie (2001)
Directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet
Screenplay by Guillaume Laurant
Story by Guillaume Laurant & Jean-Pierre Jeunet

Rating: 7.00/10.00 or *** (out of 4)

Fast off the heels of Delicatessen, I quickly rented with eagerness Amelie, the second Jeunet work I have had the pleasure of seeing. Amelie is an optimistic, light-hearted, uplifting film that can brighten the worst of days without going overboard in doing so. I would very likely place this film in the top five most uplifting motion pictures I have seen.

But does that make a really good movie as so many critics have said? My answer is, well, sort of. The film has some magical moments, but it is mostly full of very typical and mainstream topics. Furthermore, it adds little to these topics, so the film does not appear innovative in any way. Although the style, one of quirky tangents and bold sequences, is perhaps refreshing to see with so many formulaic films hitting theaters these days, it just didn't seem that clever or powerful to me.

With this said, I want to make it clear now that I recommend the movie and think most viewers will enjoy the film immensely. The story of the film involves the title character Amelie Poulain and her quest for spreading good to others in the world. Growing up with two offbeat and troublesome parents, Amelie stayed shut out from the world with few friends and with even fewer utterances. Amelie is what you might call the perfect "background girl." Yet she starves for affection; you can see her anticipation to do *something* for the world around her almost cause her to burst.

Tragically (and also humorously -- I won't explain this.), her mother dies during her childhood, which only seems to further distance Amelie fromt the world around her. Yet she cares too much to let the world let her go by unnoticed. The defining moment in Amelie's life comes when she hears of Princess Diana's death, and by resultant responses and effects (a theme common to Jeunet's films, I can see), she finds a box full of pictures and toys that some unknown child had at one time. Amelie decides to search for the owner, and if her search was successful and his reaction was a pleasant one, she would decide to become a world do-gooder.

Well, her search was successful, and his reaction was a pleasant one. So the rest of the movie details Amelie's schemes of doing good for the world. One of the more interesting and devilishly humorous aspects of the film is the presentation of these schemes. Never does Amelie do things the simple way. Instead she tries to avoid being seen in any of her good actions. Her schemes involve eavesdropping, map-drawing, kidnapping (gnomes), etc. Perhaps my favorite of her schemes was the kidnapping and picture-taking of her father's garden gnome. She does this so she can have someone take snapshots of the gnome around the world. Why do this? Because her father, with a quiet desire to travel, just doesn't have the nerve to do so.

Jeunet offers some magical sequences. When Amelie doubts that her soulmate (and the man she seeks) may not show up at the cafe where she works, Jeunet decides to show Amelie's doubts in the oddest, most screwballish manner possible. I will say nothing more about the scene (I doubt I'd make sense, anyway.), but it is by far one of the most clever and humorous scenes of the movie. This is where odd tangents work in movies. Rarely do they work dramatically, but they definitely work if they are cleverly presented in a humorous fashion (Reference the bad tangents in 25th Hour.).

Jeunet also has wonderfully sarcastic voiceover. I can almost see Andre Dussollier, the narrator of the film, smiling slyly in the background whenever he speaks. Often his voiceover is unnecessary, but in a very good way. He frequently explains the oddities, likes, dislikes, and useless facts of main and supporting characters. Most are humorous, and some are just laugh-out-loud funny.

If you think I've given too much away, you're gravely mistaken. Subplots abound and all relate to Amelie's need to do good for the world. Not one of them is boring or unnecessary.

Acting in the film is overall very good. Supporting characters shine in the movie. Notable performances are given by Dominique Pinon (as Joseph, the cafe regular who tends to bother the women who work there), Rufus (Amelie's father), Mathieu Kassovitz (Amelie's love interest), and Serge Merlin (as Amelie's neighbor and painter who can't quite finish a Renoir work). Audrey Tautou, who plays Amelie, is also excellent. She portrays Amelie with a mixture of silence, slyness, and eagerness. We know she wants to do something, and we just keep hoping she will.

My problems with the film are more along the lines of personal biases. For one, this type of film rarely attracts me. For another, this film is almost too uplifting for my taste. Finally, the film is good; there is no question about that. But I just don't think it's THAT good.

However, Amelie remains one of the better movie viewing experiences I have had in quite a while. This is reason enough to recommend this film. If you need a break from the trials and tribulations of the world around you or are not in the greatest of moods, give this film a look. You'll feel better afterward.