Movie - Anatomy of a Murder (1959)

Anatomy of a Murder is a court room drama that draws out the many ways in which the law is compromised by the human beings upon which it relies and who rely upon it (e.g. whether or not a witness' testimony is truthful, whether an expert's testimony is indeed factual, etc). Whether an individual is judged as guilty or not seems to have less to do with actual guilt and more to do with a lawyer's ability to harness and manipulate the law and those called to testify, the judge's inclinations and predispositions, the degree of the jury's sympathy, etc. In the end, the audience becomes more interested in who will win than if the man accused of committing murder is guilty or not, which proves the point of the movie.

Jimmy Stewart gives a fantastic performance, acting the part of a charismatic and intelligent lawyer who plays the room by chopping the prosecutor's case off at the knees using small town rhetoric. He continually draws their attention away from the facts through dramatic outbursts. In contrast, the prosecution seems boring, uncharismatic, and even sinister.

Summary from IMDb:
In a murder trial, the defendant says he suffered temporary insanity after the victim raped his wife. What is the truth, and will he win his case?

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Movie - The Best Offer (2013)

Among the mountains of movies begging for your attention, this is one of the few that actually deserves it. This is a really great movie that had me guessing what was to come the entire time, and I still never figured it out until it was over.

Virgil Oldman, played by Geoffrey Rush, is an auctioneer with a grand reputation, vast knowledge, and an appreciation for unique objects possessing great value. In the process of auctioning an estate, he takes a trip down the rabbit hole that incited excitement, curiosity, and, in the end, surprise and astonishment in me.

Watch it, I recommend it.

Summary from IMDb:
A master auctioneer becomes obsessed with an extremely reclusive heiress who collects fine art.

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Movie - Cat and the Canary (1939)

This is a fantastic movie. If you enjoy movies like Clue and Once Upon a Crime, that couple dark mysterious drama with witty comedy, or just enjoy older films in general, then chances are good that you will enjoy this classic film. Bob Hope is charismatic and fun to watch, Joyce Norman is charming and (bearing in mind the social norms of the 30s) her presence is bold and strong, and Nydia Westman is very entertaining and amusing. In general, all of the acting was great and the props were convincing.

I've watched this film several times and always enjoy it. I definitely recommend it.

Summary from IMDb:
When an eccentric family meets in their uncle's remote, decaying mansion on the tenth anniversary of his death for the reading of his will, murder and madness follow.

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Movie - Modern Times (1936)

Charlie Chaplain wrote, directed, and starred in this movie, which may be his magnum opus. It is not only about the struggle of people trying to survive the Great Depression but also about the relationship between mankind and technology, about women in society, and so on. Today (2013, 77 years later) I see small children using iPhones and navigating the internet before they can read a book, and using a mouse and keyboard more intuitively than a bike. I can only imagine what the next generation will see. However, we sometimes forget that it wasn't always this way. Mankind has had to grow into technology and integrate it into our lives, or our lives into it, defining and redefining, constantly, the role it plays in our everyday lives. There are some poignant moments in the film where Charlie Chaplan's character encounters new technologies, and we see how he is at odds with the invasion of his natural, physical behavior. Man's oldest defining qualities come into question in modern times when machine's threaten to perform his labor and replace him in the work force, and even feed him.

It is also worth noticing the character played by Paulette Goddard. In modern times, the role of women has changed, something else that we sometimes forget. In the beginning, her father is unable to support the family, so she takes matters into her own hands and behaves unlady-like in order to feed them. Later, Charlie Chaplan is unable to find work, but she gets a job. Joining the workforce, she achieves what was hitherto thought of as a man's role in society.

The plain truth is that this movie has so much to offer that I could go on and on, seemingly without end. Instead, you should watch it for yourself and enjoy. The way that he treats severe and deep subject matter with respect, while immersing them in comic relief, is something that very few comedians/entertainers have the skill to do. It reminds me of Cervantes' Don Quixote. 

Summary from IMDb:
The Tramp struggles to live in modern industrial society with the help of a young homeless woman.

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Movie - Taxi Driver (1976)

This movie is so amazing that I don't feel like I should even attempt to write any kind of review about it... Someone else did, however, and you can read about it below or on IMDb.

I would, however, like to draw attention to the disclaimer at the end of the credits.
     TO OUR TELEVISION AUDIENCE: In the aftermath of violence, the distinction between hero and villain is sometimes a matter of interpretation or misinterpretation of facts. TAXI DRIVER suggests that tragic errors can be made. The Filmmakers.

I was as impressed with this statement as I was by the movie itself. However, I would like to add that it's not only in the aftermath that the distinction is vulnerable and subject to interpretation. Often times the people that commit terrible acts, such as this, believe, whether they are justified or not, that what they are doing is the ethical, moral, and/or responsible thing to do. Like other works, such as Se7en, Taxi Driver places the audience between the possibility that the main character is the good guy and the possibility that they are the bad guy. One asks whether Travis Bickle is the antagonist or the protagonist. When the moral fabric of society has degraded to the point that almost everyone is the bad guy, they seem like the good guy because they are living the status quo, and Bickle seems to be the bad guy because he refuses to conform, to not submit to the status quo. His character reminds me of Holden Caulfield in The Catcher in the Rye. Because he recently returned from the war in Vietnam, he fights that battle at home in the only way he knows how to fight battles. Or perhaps he is simply suffering from post war mental instability, unable to separate who he was in Vietnam from who he is at home. Perhaps he is nothing more than a psychopath, disconnected from society as a result of the things he saw people do to each other in war.

IMDb Summary:
A mentally unstable Viet Nam war veteran works as a night-time taxi driver in New York City where the perceived decadence and sleaze feeds his urge for violent action, attempting to save a preadolescent prostitute in the process.

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Movie - Silent Running (1972)

There is a lot of that fantastic 1970s hippie propaganda in this movie - the gloom and doom about how mankind is destroying the world and the Joan Baez songs about how we can be one with nature. That aside, because it really can be as amusing as it is obnoxious, I thought it was a pretty enjoyable film.

You learn later that, in their attempt to create a comfortable utopia, humanity has, once again, created a distopia when mediocrity is the result. The main character, however, has a dream - he sees a great value in preserving and restoring the Earth's flora to the Earth. He tries to get the others on his ship to understand, but they just mock him and his vision. When the guys in charge on Earth send orders to blow up the flora pods attached to the spaceship, he does what he has to in order to preserve them.

I think that what made this movie enjoyable for me, other than the robots and Bruce Dern's robe, were three very important themes:
1. Even if all of humanity says that something is right or wrong, valuable or worthless, that doesn't mean that they are correct.
2. Both technology and nature have value for us. We shouldn't live in caves, but, a. there are great lessons to learn from interacting with nature, b. a lot of health and enjoyment comes from being outside, and c. without a healthy ecosystem, we cannot be healthy.
3. There is a scene where Bruce Dern's character is arguing with his shipmates about the food that they are eating. He asks them how they can eat it, it's not real, it's synthetic, it doesn't come out of the ground like what he eats. They mock him, of course, and say that they like their synthetic food. As a foodie, I appreciate this scene because the food that too many people eat is garbage, tasteless, and boring. I make a conscious effort to find and eat, what I believe is, real food, packed with flavor instead of preservatives, and from all over the world, the more authentic, the better. So many people mistake familiarity with quality. They enjoy it because it's familiar to them - the same options and the same ingredients. I suppose that there is a little bit of Heidegger's philosophy of authenticity in this perspective of mine... The best part is that at the end of the movie, he catches himself eating the synthetic food. Authenticity is an ongoing battle, one that the weary, ill, and complacent lose.

Summary from IMDb:
In a future where all flora is extinct on Earth, an astronaut is given orders to destroy the last of Earth's plant life being kept in a greenhouse on board a spacecraft.

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Movie - Notorious (1946)

A passionate love ignites between Devlin (Cary Grant) and Alicia Huberman (Ingrid Bergman) in this spy movie by the directorial master Alfred Hitchcock. But as the spy game of deception plays out between Alicia and the target of espionage, deception also play out between Alicia and Devlin as he endeavors to hide his true feelings for her. Meanwhile, the stakes of the game climb to compromising and dangerous heights.

Summary from IMDb:
A woman is asked to spy on a group of Nazi friends in South America. How far will she have to go to ingratiate herself with them?

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Movie - Cria Cuervos (1976)

This is a fantastic and strange movie of a child whose perspective of life has been twisted by the death of her mother, which she blames on her womanizing father. Ana Torrent, as in The Spirit of the Beehive, plays the role of the main character like no one else could. Her eyes and her silence are fantastically unique and necessary to the role and the story.

Summary from IMDb, written by Claudio Carvalho:
In Madrid, the orphan sisters Irene, Ana and Maite are raised by their austere aunt Paulina together with their mute and crippled grandmother after the death of their mother and their military father Anselmo. Ana is a melancholic girl, fascinated by death, after seeing her mother having a painful death and her father dead in bed.

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From Wikipedia:

The title Cria cuervos comes from the Spanish proverb, "Cría cuervos y te sacarán los ojos". This translates as, "Raise ravens, and they'll take out your eyes" and is generally used for someone who has bad luck in raising children, or raised them badly. It may also imply rebellious behavior or that every bad act will return to haunt you.

The phrase "Cría cuervos y te sacarán los ojos" is said to originate with Don Álvaro de Luna of Castile during a hunting expedition. In the course of the hunt his party came across a beggar with terrible scarring in the place of eyes. The beggar explained that he had raised a raven for three years with affection and great care, but it attacked him one day, leaving him blind. The bon mot was Don Álvaro's reply.

Movie - Cronos (1993)

In the 1500s, and alchemist creates a device that can grant eternal life. Fast forward to the 1900s, a wealthy dying man has been searching for it. An antique dealer and his grand daughter get involved in the destructive wake that follows the device.

I’ve heard that Guillermo del Toro (the director) attempts to fuse the literary style of the Magical Realists with his films. I thought that definitely came out in this one and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Great movie!!

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Movie - Stay (2005)

This is one of my favorite movies ever. It is fascinating, confusing, intoxicating, engaging, and beautiful, at the very least. The first time I saw it, I had no idea what happened or what the plot was, and yet I still enjoyed it a great deal and could not wait to watch it again. Only after reading about it online did it begin to come together for me. Now every time I watch it I see and understand more and more details that all lead to an amazing ending, both tragic and exquisite.

That said, this movie is not for everyone. In fact, I suspect that most people would not like it. If you like brain twisting, alternatingly bleak and powerful, psychological twisters, then I highly recommend this movie.

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Movie - The Spirit of the Beehive (1973)

This is one of my favorite movies. It takes place in a small village in Spain in the 1940s. A little girl watches James Whale’s Frankenstein when a traveling movie theatre comes to town. She becomes fascinated with the monster and sets out to find it.

Wikipedia:

- The disintegration of the family's emotional life is symbolic of the emotional disintegration of the Spanish nation during the civil war.

- The barren empty landscape around the sheepfold represents Spain's isolation during the beginning years of the Francoist regime.

- At several points in the film Fernando describes in his writing his revulsion at the mindless activity of the beehive, this is possibly an allusion to human society under Fascism; ordered, organized, but devoid of any imagination. The beehive theme is carried into the manor house which has hexagonal panes to its leaded windows and a honey-colored light.

- At the start of the film, the authorities are using the Frankenstein film as a warning to the population about man's godless creations which have to be killed for the safety of the public. This is a veiled propaganda attempt to justify the violent overthrow of the elected government in the civil war by intimating the monster to be the "godless" socialism of the Republic. This metaphor is repeated later in the film when the hunted republican soldier takes on a role similar to that of the monster in the 1931 film. When Ana calls on the spirit of the monster to return, she is symbolically calling on the spirit of the Republic to return.

- Ana represents the innocent young generation of Republican Spain around 1940, while her sister's Isabel deceitful advice symbolizes the Nationalists who are obsessed with money and power.

- As the film closes we see a warming of Teresa's feelings and the possibility of a future revival of the family's emotional life and by inference the life of Spain.

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Movie - Arlington Road (1999)

This is a fantastic, action packed movie with an awesome ending! A college professor suspects his new neighbors of being terrorists. However, recent traumatic events in his personal life, and research into terrorist sub-societies may just be making him paranoid.

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Movie - 400 Blows (1959)

If you are looking to watch a movie like Transformers or Oceans Eleven, this is not it. This is a deep and profound movie that follows a young boy that lives in a rough world. Things never go his way and luck is not on his side. I really liked it, the end was about as beautiful as it gets, but it was very sad in many ways, and my heart ached for the kid. For me, the beauty was in the idea that kids are extremely resilient to hardships, more that adults give them credit for, but even so, everyone has their breaking point. Society should be setting kids up for success and parents should be supporting and loving them, but this movie shows just how much that is not the case. The other things that I really love about this movie are the cinematography, the scenes of Paris, and the way that it accurately captured the way that kids see the world – that kind of spontaneity and responsiveness in the adventurous way that possesses qualities of carelessness, irresponsibility, and a very non-adult kind of logic/reasoning (which may be very illogical and unreasonable but seems perfectly logical and reasonable to kids).

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Movie - The Ceremony (2008)

This is a fantastic movie. It is not a big budget film, and it does not have a bunch of blood and guts or annoying cheerleaders. If you liked Paranormal Activity, I recommend this. I actually liked it better. At first the small-budget feel made me nervous, like maybe it wouldn't be worth my time, but it was well worth my time and I intend to watch it again and again.

The main character walks into his roommates’ room and finds that his roommate started a ceremony and left it in progress. His curiosity and disbelief in the paranormal leads him into the downward spiral that is the plot.

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