Inherent Vice (2014)

The following contains pseudo-spoilers for both Inherent Vice and Chinatown. Nothing specific about either film. Just thematic stuff. You have been warned...

"Chinatown is a pretty good metaphor for the futility of good intentions. Police officers are told to do as little as possible in Chinatown in the way of law enforcement because you never know whether you're helping to avert a crime or helping to commit one."

Robert Towne (screenwriter)

There are plenty of reasons to love Inherent Vice. There's beautiful photography, amazing acting, hilarious gags, touching drama and an awesome soundtrack. But more than anything I love Inherent Vice because it is the anti-Chinatown.

Now don't get me wrong, I loves me some Chinatown. I've re-bought that film more than any other movie in my collection. I just don't entirely agree with the message. I may be a cynic, but I'm a cynic who loves to be wrong.

Apathy is just too easy. Sure the world can be a pretty shitty place. Reading headline after headline about the rich get richer and police officers get away with murder is enough to make you want to throw in the towel. But imagine how bad it would be if we all just stopped trying? Sure it's near impossible for an individual to make any sort of significant change in this world. But that's no reason to stop trying. You might not be able to change the game or turn the tide, but you can probably manage to do a little good for someone. That way, when you're inevitably chewed up and spit out by the machine, you can at least say you got a few good licks in.

The Straight Story (1999)

While it's pretty surreal to see that Walt Disney castle followed so closely by the words, "a film by David Lynch", that S-word holds little sway over what is to follow. As the title states, this is "The Straight Story" but that does not mean that it is out of place among the rest of Lynch's output. That early scene of Dorothy sunning herself in the yard could easily be right out of Blue Velvet or Twin Peaks. The same goes for all the various characters Alvin lives with and comes across on his journey. Yet instead of playing them for menace or ridicule, Lynch instead chooses to take this languid road trip as an opportunity to show us that they are more than just roadside curiosities. Like John Merrick in The Elephant Man proclaiming, "I'm not an animal!" this is David Lynch insisting upon the humanity of the characters he continually chooses to train his camera on. While "surreal" is easily the word most associated with the cinema of David Lynch, I would place "compassionate" as a close runner-up.

Last Tango in Paris (1972)

Though most famous for all the sex and butter, what I was most drawn to with this film was the production design. Usually design has to be really ostentatious to get the average viewer’s attention. It has to be some sort of story-book, alternate world like in a Wes Anderson film or set in an alien/future world like Blade Runner. But when you really get down to it, all films are designed. Someone has to pick this location rather than that location because this location helps to better tell the story.

With its brown tones and dirty walls, this film epitomizes what we who did not live through the 70’s imagine that they looked like. But this film is not reality. Director Bernardo Bertolucci, cinematographer Vittorio Storaro and production designer Philippe Turlure consciously got together and picked a color pallet and a location that would give them what they needed. That cloth draped mass in the back room was not there by accident and the same goes for the stained walls that are reminiscent of a painting by Mark Rothko. And oh that pebbled glass! It’s a shorthand that creates a mood which instantly sucks you into this film’s world of lust, rage and anguish. You could turn off the sound and still “get” what is being conveyed. This is pure cinema.

The Babadook (2014)

There’s no such thing as monsters. And that’s why I don’t care about so many horror films. Though I grew up devouring episodes of Sightings and The X-Files, I know for a fact that there aren’t any flukemen or chupacabras out there that are going to come after me. What I’m afraid of is other people. Every single one of us has the potential to commit unspeakable evil upon others and even upon ourselves. THAT is horror. The monsters are just a fictional manifestation of our neurosis. The Shining is about alcoholism, Rosemary’s Baby is about a loss of control, Psycho (and pretty much the entire slasher genre) is about sexual guilt. The mind is where horror lives and that is why the best horror films are able to stick with us. They speak to the fears that lay deep, down inside of us all. They speak to the fears that we would never dare give voice to. Even if you haven’t thought of a particular film in a while, it is there inside of you waiting to be awoken by the smallest trigger. If it’s in a word, or in a look, you can’t get rid of The Babadook.

Foxcatcher (2014)

Having grown up in Orange County, I have been surrounded by wealth my whole life. I've gone to school with wealth, I've been friends with wealth and I've most certainly worked for wealth. Of course wealth is not necessarily a bad thing. I've seen people use their power and influence to make positive changes in their communities and the world at large. I myself have even sporadically benefited from the largesse of some particularly well-off individuals. But I have also seen the ways in which wealth can be corrosive. In both the local media and in person I have witnessed the various ways that wealth can shield and enable people with dangerous impulses. That is what spoke loudest to me all during Foxcatcher. Had John E. du Pont been anyone else, he probably would have been institutionalized long ago. He certainly wouldn't have been trusted with military grade weaponry. But because of his wealth, he was indulged and encouraged. So many warning signs were just glossed over. And then we wonder how a tragedy like this could have possibly happened.