Saw Role Models, an amiable and bro-y comedy about two guys whose full-time job is apparently to drive around and shill crypto-Red Bull to highschool students. It's not really clear how this is a sustainable and actual job, but this is what the film is telling us. One of the guys is very unhappy with his life, the other is stupid and amiable and oversexed and content. After the angry one loses his girlfriend and his job all in one angry day, they wind up either having to go to jail or to mentor children. Because this is an amiable comedy, they mentor kids.
This isn't a great film, but it's not bad. Things kind of just work out in a satisfying but unearned way. The kids they mentor (a nerd and a very young, angry kid) flip from stealing their cars and screaming that they're being kidnapped to being best buds in the span of about two days. Much is made of what Problem Children they are but after that magic switch is flipped, they seem completely chill. And anyway I was kind of creeped out at the oversexed guy bonding with his mentee over how great boobs are. I always find it a little alienating when straight men bond with boys over their mutual attraction to women. I have never in my life been congratulated by a mentor-type-figure for being attracted to guys. The whole thing just seems weird and alien to me. Eh.
But like I say, this is a friendly film. It's not very believable but it's hopeful and winning, and I'll take that over indie-movie misery-porn any day. No, grand romantic gestures don't work and people don't act like they can hear the background music, but it's fun to pretend for a while anyway.
Mar 31, 2018
Dante 01
Saw Dante 01, a film by Marc Caro, longtime collaborator with Jean Pierre Jeunet. Caro apparently is much less whimsical, more morbid and ominous. This film is set in a prison in deep space in some far-off future where everything and everyone is given a symbolically significant name. The prisoners have names like "Moloch", "Lazare", the wardens have names like "Charon" and "Persephone", the prison itself is shaped like a cross. Into this world come a mysterious man who can raise people from the dead and who sees the world like it's an Alex Grey painting. Along with this man comes a scientist who is tying to change the prisoners' behavior by injecting them with nanobots that just happen to resemble the prison ship itself (sheer coincidence, no doubt.)
It's very stylish and grim and evocative but I can't really decypher it. There's the obvious Christ imagery associated with the new prisoner, and a sense of oppressive control, with the prison-shaped nanobots. There's a heavy dose of weird-ass nonsense however which makes it all feel kind of arbitrary. We're dealing with big ideas in a kind of clumsy, oblique way. I'm being kind of hard but I was disappointed that the film doesn't go anywhere with its symbolism, seemingly content just to be a spectacle.
That said, a spectacle it certainly is. I had a fairly grainy copy of the film to watch but even in this diminished state the ending climax is a sight to behold. The film is full of flashy, music-video-style visuals. The symbolism involved in the names and imagery fails to gell, I feel, but the film is still a fairly wild trip. Good times!
It's very stylish and grim and evocative but I can't really decypher it. There's the obvious Christ imagery associated with the new prisoner, and a sense of oppressive control, with the prison-shaped nanobots. There's a heavy dose of weird-ass nonsense however which makes it all feel kind of arbitrary. We're dealing with big ideas in a kind of clumsy, oblique way. I'm being kind of hard but I was disappointed that the film doesn't go anywhere with its symbolism, seemingly content just to be a spectacle.
That said, a spectacle it certainly is. I had a fairly grainy copy of the film to watch but even in this diminished state the ending climax is a sight to behold. The film is full of flashy, music-video-style visuals. The symbolism involved in the names and imagery fails to gell, I feel, but the film is still a fairly wild trip. Good times!
Mar 24, 2018
Eleven Samurai
Finally saw Eleven Samurai, another ensemble assassination film. It reminded me strongly of Thirteen Assassins (which predates this film by 4 years) - similarly to that one, this film is mostly about frustration. The villain is tantalizingly close, but the conditions are not right and the attack must be delayed yet again. This film gets more into some political machinations, motivating the protagonists not only with revenge but also by threatening destruction of their clan. Okay.
This film was okay, but it was basically Thirteen Assassins all over again, even down to a scene where they point out the ambush spot on a map and the camera zooms in all dramatically. The acting is very over-the-top, with dudes growling and grimacing directly into each other's faces. Like I say, this one gets more into the periphery of the story, delving into the political climate and the ringleader's romantic life. I'm not sure this adds anything beyond yet more motivation for the grand attack.
The grand attack, when it comes, is pretty and pretty satisfying. A big rainstorm affords some nice mist to cover the screen, exactly like the filmmaker drawing a veil over the rest of the film. Very clever bits. I didn't enjoy this very much, but it's done with now, which is good.
This film was okay, but it was basically Thirteen Assassins all over again, even down to a scene where they point out the ambush spot on a map and the camera zooms in all dramatically. The acting is very over-the-top, with dudes growling and grimacing directly into each other's faces. Like I say, this one gets more into the periphery of the story, delving into the political climate and the ringleader's romantic life. I'm not sure this adds anything beyond yet more motivation for the grand attack.
The grand attack, when it comes, is pretty and pretty satisfying. A big rainstorm affords some nice mist to cover the screen, exactly like the filmmaker drawing a veil over the rest of the film. Very clever bits. I didn't enjoy this very much, but it's done with now, which is good.
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