FauxNixon

Le Scaphandre et le papillon (The Diving Bell and the Butterfly) is the phenomenal adaptation of French journalist and media mogul Jean-Dominique Bauby’s memoirs after a stroke at the age of 42 leaves him completely paralyzed except for his left eye, ending his career as editor of world-renowned magazine Elle and how he dictates his book to an editor using a system of blinking.

Released in 2007 and utilizing a very experimental series of camera effects, editing, and angles, the director of this film, Julian Schnabel brings the viewer into the same feeling of paralysis, entrapment, isolation, and claustrophobia that one might feel if placed into the same position. We see the world in the first-person perspective of Jean-Do, as he prefers to be called, as played by Mathieu Amalric as he is assisted by the saint-like patience of his speech therapist Henriette Durand (Marie-Josee Croze) and his doctors and family, the viewer is able to share the same feelings of depression, isolation, hopelessness and deep regret so eloquently captured to film by Schnabel.

Jean-Do is able to blink and with work, begins to use a system with his speech therapist where he can blink to stop her recital of the alphabet on the letter he wishes to use, and in this way is first able to form words, then phrases, sentences, paragraphs and finally with a lot of practice and a lot of patience he is able to painstakingly dictate his story using this system into a book which he names The Diving Bell and the Butterfly.

Emerging from the depths of depression and self-pity, the viewer accompanies Jean-Do as he makes the most of what he has left in his life: his imagination, his memories, and his eye. The touching story would almost be a cliched tale of a man who suffers an immense loss and then struggles to make the best of it, except that this story is actually true! It is an inspiring tale, which makes for a fantastically satisfying viewing experience for the viewer and an immensely successful cinematic endeavour for its cast and crew in completing a movie that may rank among the best films of all-time. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly is a great story and a great film which I can easily encourage everyone to view, without reservation!

Alright, I think I’ve fixed the RSS issues that some of you had written in about.  For whatever reason the link between Feedburner and this site was no longer pointing correctly, which is strange given that I made no changes that I can recall, but in any event, is now (hopefully) fixed.

I have about six reviews nearly ready for publication, so look for those soon as I get back into my regular schedule of a review every other day or so.  Thanks for your patience!

eXistenZ is director David Cronenberg’s 1999 film that is his strangest and most disturbing yet. It was overshadowed during its release, but has picked up a bit of a cult fan-base since it was released on DVD.

A world-famous, celebrity virtual reality game designer named Allegra Geller (Jennifer Jason Leigh) is unveiling a demonstration of her newest game at a private, focus group meeting. The game works off of a biological, non-sentient machine called a pod, which plugs into a bio-port, looking very much like an organic opening at the base of a person’s spine. Ted Pikul (Jude Law) is a marketing guy from the game’s company and when the game session is about to begin, a late-comer unveils a weapon made entirely from bone and which shoots teeth (thus rendering it invisible to metal detectors) and attempts to assassinate Geller, Pikul is the one who rushes her from the scene, injured, but alive and the two of them try to unravel what is going on and whether or not the game has survived the attack also.

The narrative is multilayered with each narrative being entered and exited as it each were a game, leaving the viewer confused as to which level is actually reality and which is a fantasy generated for them. So realistic has the game development become that groups of extremists view it as a threat to the human race akin to heroin; able to wrench people from reality and their own lives and let them exist in a fictional, but convincing fantasy for as long as they like and with such a setup, addiction is easy and very difficult to combat.

Cronenberg’s typical Luddite view towards technology has been a cornerstone of his work, but interestingly, eXistenZ is a bit of a departure from outright condemnation and combines with it very strong cyberpunk and science fiction themes. The predominant theme of the movie is where will our development of artificial realities stop and at what cost to ourselves? It asks whether we are willing to keep progressing without limits until we become unable to discern reality from the artificial environments we create; a kind of engineered schizophrenia that seems like it may be inevitable given how quickly technology is advancing and how little understanding those with the power to put into place limits on such advancement allows the development to continue without any hindrance or caution.

The film is aesthetically pleasing to the viewer and won a number of awards for editing, production design, and costume design. The sets and scenes are entirely convincing in the same way that the sets and scenes in other movies featuring artificially generated realities are convincing. It also reminds the viewer of the concept of lucid dreaming, whereby a person practices focus and attention to the point where they are able to consciously interact with, and control, their own dreams, for their own amusement.

eXistenZ is a fantastic movie from Cronenberg and the performances from Jennifer Jason Leigh and Jude Law are remarkable If not for 1999 being a year filled with huge hits, blockbusters and massively popular independent films, the title may be more familiar to the general public, but since it’s not, it’s a great film to recommend to others and I heartily recommend watching it, or rewatching it, as the case may be.

My apologies for the lack of new reviews at their regular intervals.  I am still writing them, but the computer on which I publish them had a hard drive failure, so it’ll be a little while before they’re back to being posted.  A replacement is supposedly already shipped, so it shouldn’t be much longer.

It was also brought to my attention that the RSS feed has not been updating itself, and after some checking, I think I’ve determined the cause and rectified it. Thanks for your patience!

Writer/director Laurent Firode’s 2000 film Happenstance (Le Battement d’ailes du papillon) is a fabulous French-language romantic comedy starring Audrey Tautou, one of my favorite actresses, as Irene, the leading character. It is a romantic comedy that uses its simplicity to showcase the elements of Chaos Theory or the Butterfly Effect, where one action leads to a series of progressively larger actions so that, for example a butterfly in Indonesia can cause a hurricane in Florida.

On a subway, a clerk named Irene has her fortune told by a kindly old woman as she is seated by two strangers. The horoscope is for her birthday, which is March 11, 1977, and the old woman tells her that today is the day during which she will meet her true love.

Irene gets off on the next stop and the man who had been seated next to the old woman exclaims to her that that is also his birthday and the old woman confirms that this means his horoscope is the same. The young man looks in bewilderment as the doors have closed on the subway car and he can only watch as Irene walks away.

Throughout the course of the day easily more than a dozen different small, simple events happen which cause major changes to their environments. A head of lettuce, for example, falls off of a truck and causes a major car accident. An old woman attempts to return a defective coffee maker to the store, but they will not accept it, so she gives in and leaves the store with it. Overhearing the conversation a man decides that this is completely unacceptable and steals a coffee maker, which he delivers to the woman in the street apologizing on the store’s behalf.

Before the day is through two very similar facial wound dressings will too make their simple existence perform an extraordinary thing by bringing two people back together. It is a whimsical movie filled with romance and comedy, though the romance and the comedy are typically separated so I’m hesitant to call this a romantic comedy.

It is a simple French film featuring a fantastic actress and a great writer/director and if you have access to do so, see it. Happenstance will brighten your day and may make you wonder about the simple things that happen to you and what major effects they may have on others later on.

Spike Lee takes the novel writing talent of David Benioff and changes it into a screenplay to bring us this gut-wrenching story of regret, confusion, love, and loss and under Lee’s direction and his actors’ talents brings out a simultaneously heart-breaking and heart-warming story that is infused with a feeling of terrible, terrible regret in 25th Hour.

Monty Brogan (Edward Norton) was a major drug dealer involved with the Russian mafia who was busted when one of his associates turned him in to the DEA. He was convicted and is now facing seven years in federal prison and is trying to use his last hours of freedom to rekindle old ties, say his goodbyes, vent his frustrations, reminiscence about his life and celebrate what freedom he has left.

Monty suspects his loyal girlfriend Naturelle Riviera (Rosario Dawson) of being the one who turned him into the DEA and has a slight problem trusting her as of late. They live together in a nice apartment in Manhattan with Monty’s a dog, a fighting dog who he found one night abandoned to die after being beaten and burned.

Monty’s two best friends, Jacob Elinsky (Philip Seymour Hoffman), a teacher at a private school who is self-loathing, introverted and is fed in part by a restricted, but large trust fund, and Frank Slaughtery (Barry Pepper) a crass stockbroker for whom the only thing that matters is money are both friends from childhood, and, along with Naturelle, want to see that Monty’s last night of freedom is a celebration.

Monty visits his father James Brogan (Brian Cox) for a steak at his father’s restaurant and pub, which is what is securing the bond to ensure Monty remains free until entering prison. They discuss their lives and Monty’s father suggests, strongly, that Monty just leave and go to a far-away place and not contact anyone. He should do what he needs to do to run under the radar and then, maybe in a few years, he can contact Naturelle, and have her come out to live with him and start a family and then one day he can tell them a story about how all of this came so close to never having become.

Monty excuses himself and goes to the bathroom where on a mirror is written “Fuck You,” to which Monty provides one of the greatest cinematic monologues in history exposing all of the seedy parts of the under-belly of New York City and all its faults before, finally, he imagines his reflection saying to him, “No, fuck you, you had it and you threw it all away.”

Monty’s plans for his time (and what he will do on his 25th Hour) then are to meet up with Frank, Jacob, and Naturelle and party the night away in a very popular nightclub owned by the Russian mafia boss who Monty has refused to testify against. Before enjoying the party, his guests are shown to a private VIP booth and Monty goes to the offices to meet with his dealer. They understand each other: if Monty talks his father dies; if Monty doesn’t talk, the dealer offers advice on how to survive in prison. And finally, perhaps as a present, and perhaps as a favor, he presents Monty’s muscle-man who is revealed to have actually been the one who set up Monty and the dealer gives Monty a gun and tells him to kill him.

Monty returns to the party, has a great time, and then he, Frank, and Jacob go to a park, where Monty reveals his secret plan to help himself through his time at the prison, which is both shocking and logical. The film ends ambiguously with the viewer never knowing for sure if Monty went through with his plans and then went to prison, or if he took his father’s advice and gave himself a fresh start.

25th Hour is has a racist tinge to it, but to all races and ethnicities that inhabit New York City, including upper-class white people, and is a fantastic movie deserving of far more awards and praise and certainly your viewing time.

Hamburger Hill is the 1987 movie directed by John Irvin and written by James Carabatsos about the famous and brutal 10-day battle during the Vietnam War for a hill between the 101st Airborne Company of the US Army and the army of North Vietnam in which hundreds were killed and wounded on both sides in what came to resemble trench warfare and spat out injured and dead American soldiers in such a way as to suggest they had been shredded like hamburger meat. The real battle garnered major attention in Washington, especially among Congress, and was the last major battle of the Vietnam War with Richard Nixon soon after beginning to return US troops to the United States.

It is a remarkable movie in its realistic portrayal of the battle, the wounds, the camaraderie among the troops, the effects on morale by a seemingly uncaring American public and a battle in which the objective seems like an impossible thing to win. One character, Webster, signed-on for another tour of duty after seeing his bartender turn to heroin to deal with the death of his son in the war and the subsequent calls from anti-war activists to his home taunting him and telling him how glad his son was dead. He had arrived at the airport where hippies gave him bags of dog feces, and returned to his home to find his wife sleeping with another man. He signs on for another tour of duty because he feels it is right and because he wants revenge against those who he perceives as fighting against the men fighting for them.

Another soldier has his long-time girlfriend send him a letter telling him that she will no longer write to him because her college friends have told her it is immoral.

The story telling is realistic and the special effects are graphic, but basic and very effectively capture the very harsh and dim realities of such a war, its casualties and the loss of humanity suffered as a result.

In between air bombings with napalm on the enemy soldiers, this squad keeps trying to get up this hill of less than 1,000 meters height, but its steepness and the determination and skill of its defenders finds them receiving massive casualties.

Through all of this realism, in terms of combat, how troops were being treated, the tactics employed, and how the was fought, the sense of camaraderie and brotherhood that develops between the soldiers is both touching and gut-wrenching because most of those bonds end up broken by one of the two in the relationship holding the shredded remains of his comrade in his arms as he is urged to continue fighting up the hill.

Hamburger Hill features a number of famous American actors in their very first feature-length films including Don Cheadle as Private Washburn, Dylan McDermott as Sergeant Frantz, Courtney B. Vance as Doc Johnson, and Steven Weber as Worcester. All the performances mentioned were fantastic, but the performance by Courtney B. Vance is especially compelling because, acting as the squad’s medic and as the informal spokesman for the black soldiers, he is forced to deal with issues of race, class, wealth, education, opportunities, and through it all, the leveling of the field when everyone around you is in the same danger of death or injury as any other.

Platoon, Apocalypse Now, and Full Metal Jacket get a lot of well-deserved attention both for being fantastic films, but also for telling the story of the way, but it is ultimately Hamburger Hill, which tells the story of the men and their treatment in one subset of the war that is perhaps the most personal, most complete, and most realistic overall.

Paul W.S. Anderson is not a director known for producing artistic films and this is no exception, but what he does deliver in Event Horizon is one of the most original and terrifying horror movies of the 1990s. Starring Laurence Fishburne as Captain Miller, Sam Neill as Dr. William Weir, Kathleen Quinlan as Peters, Joely Richardson as Lt. Starck, Richard T. Jones as Cooper, Jack Noseworthy as young Justin and Jason Isaacs as DJ who are all on-board a ship at some point in the future whose purpose is search and rescue.

With little notice, the crew is given notice that they must assemble and depart to distant part of the solar system for a classified mission and that they will be briefed upon arrival by Dr. Weir. Weir explains that a ship called the Event Horizon, which disappeared seven years ago during an experiment with its gravitational drive system, was not lost as virtually everyone in the world believed. Upon activation of the drive, which is said to fold space-time until they exist in a single-point and then travel instantaneously from any point in the universe to any other. Weir knows all of this because he was designer of the ship and its drive and fervently believes it must be salvaged. Its sudden reappearance is shocking to the crew and their mission is to determine where it’s been and what happened to the original crew.

Questions of religion and the possible existence of alternative dimensions begins circulating as the crew begin to hallucinate what can only be their worst nightmares and memories, but unlike hallucinations, there is feeling: heat, cold, etc. Something is very wrong.

When Justin, the young engineer arrives in engineering to begin studying the drive it stops its rotation and forms what appears to be a very sticky liquid, which Justin toys with until he finds himself unable to escape and is sucked the surface. The crew go to rescue him and “gravitational waves” are emitted from the drive, damaging the rescue vessel and leaving Justin in a coma.

Captain Miller orders the engineering spaces off-limits and begins trying to do whatever he can to keep his crew alive long enough for his ship’s remaining engineer to patch the damage to his ship and return to Earth. Weir insists the drive is safe and that this is unnecessary and it is then that we see the rotating drive reflected in his eyes and his character begins to change from one of earnest goodwill to one of malevolence in defense of the ship.

Weir begins to believe that the ship has traveled farther through the known universe and dimensionality as we know it to know what it’s seen or what it’s been to, though they once they recover the video logs of the ship which show the crew torturing each other and mutilating themselves in an orgy of horror, they begin to believe that the ship has been to someplace very similar to hell and, not only that, but that the ship has brought back a presence with it which is responsible for all the activities which have occurred.

The climax is thrilling as good very literally battles evil in Dr. Weir’s obsession to bring the ship and this new crew back to the hellish dimension where the ship picked up this intelligence, and Captain Miller’s insistence that his crew survive no matter the consequences.

Though Event Horizon was panned by critics, it contains incredibly cutting-edged special effects, a very original concept, horrific visuals, and much more than that, a dark undercurrent of psychological horror reminiscent of many of the true horror movies like The Shining rather than the strict slash-and-gore movies like Friday the Thirteenth.

While Neill’s work is decent in the movie and the rest of the cast is a bit mediocre, Fishburne shines through with a fantastic performance, especially when one considers the cast and premise with which he was presented. It is easily believable that this performance is, in large part, the very reason he was later cast as Morpheus in the legendary Matrix trilogy of films; and like The Matrix the film is filled with religious imagery and thematic elements. The very shape of the ship is modeled on the Notre Dame Cathedral.

This is a movie with very deep religious undercurrents and seems to mix the predictability of science and engineering and the unpredictability, but believeability of religion and then add in the ultimate horror of hell for a truly horrifically terrifying movie in the horror genre.