Smart People

IMDB

Release: (2008)

Runtime: 95 Minutes

Starring: Dennis Quaid, Sarah Jessica Parker, Ellen Page and Thomas Haden Church

I didn’t like Juno and I didn’t like this.  It wasn’t horrible, but I would not watch it again and there were a couple points where I was ready to stop it and finish later.  I’m going to be blunt and a lot of people will disagree, but I feel like these films are trying to capitalize on the indie flick feel without being indie flicks.

First off, with a budget of $7 Million, you are pretty much out of the indie flick range.  Its not big budget, but its not the idealized “guys with a camera using friends and connections with credit card financing.”  I bet most of that money went to paying the actors, which is the biggest waste, because none of them really come through in any way.  Ellen Page is not a good actress, she can play a sarcastic young Janeane Garofalo and that is it.  Even when cast as someone entirely different, she does the same thing.  I like Haden Chruch in a lot of his roles and he did a fine job in this, but that was not enough to carry it.  I still don’t understand why Parker’s character was even in the film, it was so forced and pointless that I won’t say more.  Quaid had a lot of weight on his shoulder and I felt he did alright, but nothing stunning.  He played a smart self-absorbed ass and I just didn’t believe anything other than the ass part.

Now the nitty-gritty.  It was written to be set at Georgetown, see Quaid’s character is a teacher, it was filmed at CMU in Pittsburgh.  They said in the Bonus Features that was because they liked the feel of the campus.  They also liked that CMU was mainly a technical school where a stunning English professor wouldn’t typically be.  I spent four years at a school about half an hour from CMU.  My school didn’t have any entertainment come to campus so on most weekends we would go down there.  They would have big bands like the Shins, Broken Social Scene and Mono play there.  I also competed there in Cross Country, Track, Water Polo and Business Plans.  Google it.  I know that campus and I know Pittsburgh.  So here is where I got mad, they said in interviews the movie had a real Pittsburgh feel because they wanted to get away from the typically New York setting.  It didn’t.  Other than two or three shots of the campus, a few in a classroom or dorm and the shots of the outside of the house, nothing was Pittsburgh or CMU.  It is as if they picked a location based on budget restraints, and then attempted to use that as a quirky element to the film.  That disgusts me.  With the amount of driving in the film, someone should have said, “let me ride you to school,” at which every non-Pittsburger would have been confused and the movie would have captured the feel of the city.  Even if you argue these are educated people that speak proper, you leave out all other possible and less obvious ambiance.

So for the message part I’ll say this.  Its smart people with little emotional intelligence that have to deal with life issues.  The problem is the film does not have well developed story arches that flow properly and because of that it just seems like a big stuck up mess.  Plus, it was advertised as a comedy, which it is not.  That might just be bad marketing, but nonetheless, a huge flaw in building anticipation.

Please, don’t supoort this or films like it, so indie can go back to being indie and we can get some good classics again.

Accessibility: 5

Technique: 4

Thought Provoking: 3

Originality: 6

Entertainment: 3

The Beach

IMDB

Release: (2000)

Runtime: 119 Minutes

Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio

I was told I needed to watch this on account of my plans to buy a ticked to a random country and see what adventures I found myself in.

Before I get into my analysis, I want to point out some things that bothered me.  The paradise beach is not that much cooler than the other beaches, especially since the other island has; 1) waves 2) no drug farmers with guns.  About that, if you were on an inaccessible island growing pot, why would you need 6 guards with guns and monkeys.  I would think one would be more than enough, its not like you wouldn’t notice a truck trying to drag off your crop, and someone taking a few buds isn’t going to change your profit much.

We’ve got this basic theme of paradise and what it is.  The main character starts off the film by describing how people all want to escape the monotony of life and see something new.  The problem is that everyone does the same thing.  I think we can all feel like this sometimes.  Like all of our greatest attempts at originality are exactly the same as that of a million other people.  I think today with the internet we can feel even more so that way.  Back in the day, if you only knew about people from in person encounters, meeting a painter would seem pretty rare.  Now we all do everything and there is a lot of money in making it easy for us.

There are other issues to be addressed when talking about this flick but this is the one that most stood out to me.  Its the development of tourism.  You want to see something, so someone is willing to let you pay them for their help in showing you.  Once they make money, they advertise it and other people see it.  Eventually even the remotest of locations is full of basic conveniences to ensure proper logistics and then you’ve lost what was once there.  Go to Yellowstone, its like a city with some animals.  To feel unique, you really have to get off the beaten path, which is fully doable but not many people bother.

These people found a beach they consider paradise and more people came and then eventually they had a society.  Daffy Duck is said to have not liked the club house.  Thats a big deal.  At what point has your secluded retreat become a small community of its own.  It seems that even on the furthest corners of the earth you can not escape the problems we have here.  This leads to the conclusion that it is not society that has problems, but each one of us.  Its in our nature, it only stands out more when there are a lot of people.

Have you ever said about a group, “I don’t like them as a group, but a few of them are ok on their own.”  Guess what, they said that about you too, and if you had to pick them out you might find you like almost all of them but hate them together.  Thats interaction and group identity and it can’t be stopped, even on a desert island.

So what should we learn from this.  Keep it like a secret.  I used to tell everyone about anything cool I found.  But when people find out, they tell others and eventually it gets ruined.  Sometimes this is by sheer commercialism, sometimes it is because you were breaking rules and with more people doing so, it was caught and sometimes you just loose that sense of uniqueness.  Share it, but share it with people that you trust and that will enjoy it for what it is and enjoy it for as long as you can, because all things go.

Accessibility: 8

Technique: 7

Thought Provoking: 8

Originality: 6

Entertainment: 7

Top Secret!

IMDB

Release: (1984)

Runtime: 90 Minutes

Starring: Val Kilmer

The movie from the night before, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, reminded one of  my buddies about another spy spoof with Val Kilmer he liked.  This one is much older and along the lines of Airplaine! than the others gritty feel.  It is basically an hour and a half of sight gags and slapstick with some implied crude humor.  There are a couple of parody references to films outside the genre, such as The Blue Lagoon, and music like the Beach Boys.  It is all around silly and that is great.  If you’re looking for a cheesy laugh, or to see where Val Kilmer came from, check this out.

Accessibility: 8

Technique: 6

Thought Provoking: 1

Originality: 3

Entertainment: 8

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang

IMDB

Release: (2005)

Runtime: 103 Minutes

Starring: Robert Downey Jr. and Val Kilmer

You know how in movies things just seem to work out really nice so that the story progresses.  This film avoids all of those typical cliches and goes into a whole new realm of awkwardness.  What you expect to happen doesn’t and that is refreshing.

For the most part this film is a good comedy with a touch of action and mystery.  It takes a lot of jabs at the fakeness of Hollywood and the people there.  I’m sure I missed a lot of the jokes, and that is what is so great about this movie.  You’ll find something to laugh every time.

Downey Jr. narrates the story and once in a while pauses and stops to remind people of something, or to say he forgot to say something.  It is the film version of a train of thought story.

Like I said, refreshing, original, funny, nothing too deep, so I won’t write much, but good movies don’t always have to be.

Accessibility:6

Technique: 9

Thought Provoking: 3

Originality: 8

Entertainment:9

The Blue Lagoon

IMDB

Release: (1980)

Runtime: 104 Minutes

Starring: Brooke Shields & Christopher Atkins

I liked the idea behind this one a lot.  A couple of kids are shipwrecked on an island with a sailor.  He teaches them about surviving and then he dies.  They are then on their own to discover all of those awkward feelings of the teenage years.  I really enjoyed the scenery.  The location was beautiful and even though the underwater scenes were clearly filmed in an aquarium, it was still awesome.  It was pretty funny how they would run across the beach, dive into knee deep water and the next shot was from underwater with them diving down 15 feet or so.  The way back up was amusing as well, as in one scene Richard is lying down in the surf and then just stands up as to make it seem like he is rising from the water.  The micro luminescent scene was sweet as well.  It is nothing like that in reality, but it is pretty cool.  I’ve surfed through the red tide and though its not bright, on a dark night the wake does have a nice glow to it.

Now we get to the part where I talk about the nonsense that was their love relationship.  I’ve read reviews saying this was idealized love and it was “so pure that they created a baby” I”m sorry if this ruins it for anyone, but you don’t need pure love to create a baby.  You just need sex.  In fact their love was as far from pure as I can really imagine.  They didn’t have this deep respect that grew into wanting to be with each other an protect each other.  They just hit puberty and eventually that led to them touching each other.  That’s not love, that’s being curious.  Its clear neither of them knew what was going on with their bodies and were just doing what felt good.  I guess you can call that pure, but it is certainly not love.  Read C.S. Lewis’ “The Four Loves” if you want some more insight there, its pretty good at describing seven types of attraction.  I’m willing to bet that had two more people been on that island, we would not have had an idealized love story that is untouched by society, but a teen swing fest more in line with the likes of a WB prime time show.

Accessibility: 8

Technique: 8

Thought Provoking: 6

Originality: 7

Entertainment: 6