Movie Review #2 - Raising Arizona

“Edwina’s insides were a rocky place where my seed could find no purchase”

Yes, i love the Coen Brothers. Scorsese, Tarantino, Hitchcock, Kurosawa, Fincher, Nolan, I love all of these people. But the Coen Brothers are number 1. Watch this movie, and you may understand why.

With cracking wit, and exceptionally intelligent dialogue, Raising Arizona is a zany, whacky ride through the brother’s heads. Nicholas Cage, (not the world’s best actor, but nor the worst) has his crazy and manic trademark on display again, but with dialogue so great that it works. The characters are caricatures, completely over the top, and larger than life. But, and this is a thing many directors struggle with, they are still incredibly three-dimensional. 

But it’s not just the script, indeed, consider all the tiny little details in the fantastic production design. When Cage lambasts the country being run by Reagan, whose photo is seen in a tiny corner of his cell? JFK, of course!
Cinematography in this film is not amazing (hence, Roger Deakins has become a Coen collaborator), but it shows exactly what it needs to. The first 5 minutes, pre-credits, play out like a short film, with short little clips, cut tightly together that launch us straight into the enjoyable shenanigans to follow.

The Coen brothers are masters of genre, which seems paradoxical because their films are so whacky. How are they so? They have an inherent understanding of what makes a good story. They know exactly when to ramp up tension and build a thriller, when to ease into emotions and create drama, and when to send it completely looney and create comedy. Life cannot be separated into genre, and the Coen brothers understand this. They know enough about genre conventions to manipulate them and mould them into their own.

This movie is real life, with family drama, parenting troubles, strong morals, and a fearsome biker who drives around shooting bunnies. Life it seems, is like a box of chocolates. Assorted ones, that is.

5 Stars

Movie Review #1 - The Fighter

Here is a movie of two halves. The first half is absolutely brilliant, whilst the second becomes formulaic. For the first hour or so, we stick with Micky (Marky Mark) and, more importantly, Dicky (Bale) as we learn about their tough lives (c’mon it’s Boston!!). Christian Bale is incredible, a performance that is utterly plausible and compelling. It is easy to see what Aronofsky liked in the script. Dicky is certainly similar to “The Ram” with his self-destructive, yet heart-of-gold nature. Unfortunately, when he becomes more of the support in the third act, the film loses its legs. Marky Marky always looks like a lost kid, and he just can’t sustain the interest in the film, which becomes bogged down in predictability. Yes, we all know it’s real life, and what’s going to happen, but we need to care. Poor Wahlberg is not good enough to do this. Everybody else is good, but not phenomenal. Amy Adams does a decent job with a severely underwritten part. There is a jarring shot to her in lingerie, which you can tell Wahlberg wanted. 

The film is incredibly well shot, with the various cameras seamlessly intercutting and keeping us absorbed in the action. The music is very solid, with Led Zepp and the Stones highlights on the soundtrack. It is, a very well made film, hampered by the fact that we know where it’s going. The performances certainly contribute to it being an above average film, but i couldn’t help feeling that the story focused on the lesser character. After all that we witness, the question i asked was who does the title refer to? Micky? Perhaps not…

4 Stars