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Entries in Movies (12)

Wednesday
Jul232014

Gentlemen's DisAgreement - July 23rd - 2014

In this episode, Eli Itzkowitz joins me to discuss the state of Weezer!

0:00 - Start things off with a brief conversation on Found Footage movies.

7:50 - We begin our long conversation about Weezer, covering our favorite songs, ranking the albums, and thoughts on the to be released new album.

53:30 - Close things out with a rousing game of "Your Opinions!"

Enjoy!

Gentlemen's DisAgreement July 23rd, 2014

 

Monday
Jul212014

Found Footage Movies

They're cheap, they're almost always horror films, and they usually suck.  They're Found Footage movies.

Movies.  Never films.

The Found Footage boom got its start when 1999's sleeper hit The Blair Witch Project (which, for the record, is a movie I enjoy) grossed $248 million in the box office after only costing $25,000 to make.  Movie studios quickly realized they could slap together these cheap cash cows in a few months every winter and brunch with Mr. Moneybags all summer long.

The reason most found footage movies stink is no mystery.  They're about 90% horror films, and horror films don't need to be good to make money.  Like explosions in an action movie or a shirtless Matthew McConaughey in a rom com, as long as horror movies supply a few jump scares they'll get in the black.  Why spend the money on Mercedes when people are willing to drive a Honda?

Still, just because a town might not have a law requiring you to clean up after your dog doesn't mean its cool for you to leave's your dogs poops on everyone else's lawn.

Not every found footage movie has been a cynical crappy cash grab. When the genre is used as a necessity rather than as a gimick it can be endearing.

Low budget gem Chronicle is one of the best super hero movies of the last 15 years.

It's a genre that, when used correctly, is a really nice touch to a low budget film.  Unfortunately, it almost never is.

Found Footage Movies: Overrated.

Thursday
Dec262013

2013 Year in Review: Movie of the Year, Frances Ha

Sometimes you find something that is so incredibly great that you can’t help but hate it a little. 

 

I wouldn’t even pretend that I’ve see enough movies from this past year to give the title of “Movie of the Year” definitively to any film.  But what I do know is Frances Ha is the most exceptional and relatable film I’ve seen in theaters in a long, long time.  Relatable, not just to myself, but to a generation.

Frances Ha may not be a movie for every single person between the ages of 21-35, but it certainly is for anyone who has ever felt the urge to create something, the need to be something, with no real idea of how.  Particularly if you live in New York City, and especially particularly if you live in Brooklyn.

Directed by Brooklyn art movement’s patron saint of film Noah Baumbach (Squid and Whale) and starring his girlfriend, Greta Gerwig (Lola Vs.), Frances Ha has been compared many times over to Lena Dunham’s HBO hit show, Girls.  The two are similar in many ways, ripe with sarcastic humor, awkward moments, and youthful energy but Frances Ha surpasses Girls with its sincerity.  Where Girls disenchants some with it’s perceived pretentiousness, Frances Ha endears its audience with its sweetness.  It is fitting that Frances Ha be a black and white film, reminiscent of the timeless quality of Woody Allen’s classics Manhattan and Broadway Danny Rose that turns the city of New York itself into a character.

 

Excellently paced and just under an hour and a half, one of the most disappointing things I might say about Frances Ha is that it is over all too quickly.  The efficiency in story telling is quite possibly the most envious dimension of the stellar script written by Baumbach and Gerwig.

The story is filled with magnificently written characters that you would swear you know in your own life, even if they only populate the screen for a single scene.  One of the great guilty pleasures of watching the film comes from these characters and the secret comfort that at least your life isn’t this much of a mess.  But then, you have to ask yourself, “Wait, it isn’t right?”

The story begins with the protagonist, Frances, drifting through life in the city, dreaming big and living small.  She’s a free spirit but a lost soul.  A vibrant but silly girl, that you’re drawn to in the same way you’re drawn to a train wreck.  The inciting incident comes when her best friend moves out of her apartment forcing Frances to go out and actually make something of her life.  It becomes sink or swim.  She struggles at first, but the message of Frances Ha is hope; learning never to lose enthusiasm for the things you love no matter where you end up.

You watch Frances Ha and it does more than entertain you, it inspires you to do the things you love.  That’s why it is a great movie, and my Movie of the Year.