In The Reel World

Art School Confidential is an indie film about a guy who goes to (big surprise here) and art school. While there, he falls for an art model (whose dad is a professional artist). There’s a serial killer on the loose. And the most popular artist in school does painting on par with that of a third grader (where as the main character’s drawings are nearly picture perfect).

This film is funny (I laughed out loud numerous times), has interesting characters, and some great (as well as horrendous) pieces of art. HOWEVER, I really did NOT like the twist near the end. I liked the ending itself (it seemed like the most logical place for the story to go), but not the twist just before we get there. It was a) dumb, b) too drawn out.

All in all, I liked the movie pretty well (with excetpion, of course, for that twist).  I won’t tell you WHAT the twist is, however, because you should watch it on your own! I won’t spoil this for you as so many people have spoiled the new Harry Potter book!

Admissions is a GREAT indie flick!  It’s about a girl named “Evie” who is in the process of doing college interviews and purposely messing them up. Her older sister Emily is a savant who’s amazing with words (she can recite full shakespearian plays after hearing them read aloud only once!). We find out that Emily’s condition is due to a fall which their mother failed to prevent (the mom blames her self, and is totally absorbed in Emily’s life, practically ignoring the ongoings of Evie’s world). The only two people Evie has to talk to about what’s going on in her life are her friend James, and her father. Emily starts reciting poetry written by Evie, but their mother (And Emily’s English teacher) believe them to be original works by the savant herself, and make a huge deal about it (including a tv show!).

The acting is very good, the story is sweet and original, the characters are great and realistic, and there’s even a powerful twist near the end. This is a must see!

I just watched a film last night entitled Mozart and the Whale. It’s a love story featuing two people with a form of autism known as Asperger’s syndrome.
This film was fantastic!  The acting was superb (it stars Josh Hartnett and Radha Mitchell). The characters were just wonderful, given the quirks they have due to their disorder (and that goes for ALL the characters, not just the primary two).

This is a great film to watch for anyone who wants to see something interesting, something they might not have heard of before or odinarily see, something romantic, or even something you can relate to (whether you have Asperger’s or not).

This is a must see!

So, El Mariachi is the movie that got Robert Rodriquez his big break! He’s even got a book out entitled “Rebel without a Crew” which is a publication of his diary during the course of making the film.

I read the book. It was a GREAT read. So often you hear people putting down the art of filmmaking, telling aspiring filmmakers about how difficult it is to break in and how you’re likely to never make it. So it was refreshing to read a book that took the TOTAL OPPOSITE approach! It was funny as hell, too!
At the end of the book is the script for El Mariachi. It too is a great read. Since the script was so good, I HAD to see the movie. I rented it for free from Ellis Library.

It sucked.

I mean, ok, sure, it was good for the fact that it was made with a mere $7,000 and a crew of one (Rodriquez was the writer, director, DP, camera operator, sound mixer, syncronizer, and editory)… but a point he made in the book was that the movie should be good on its own accord, not for its price.

Well, the movie is not very good at all. The script itself was far better!  The fact that this film made so much buzz when it debuted in 1992  boggles my mind. I saw nothing enjoyable about it… not even the critically acclaimed editing style it has.

The #1 movie in the country right now is Transformers!

And with good reason. It’s a damn good movie!

It had the amazing acting of Shia LaBeouf, very realistic special effects, and some GREAT intensity. The only movie I’ve seen recently with as much intensity is 300 (which I can’t WAIT to own on DVD).

Give into the hype. It’s well deserved. See Transformers.