Flipside Movie Emporium

beltmann · Posted: 03.23.2004 5:05 am Post subject:

3/15 ? 3/21/04

Only one:

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (Gondry 2004). Several wonderful things: First, Jim Carrey finally gives a dramatic performance that isn?t distracting in its desire to be liked. Second, this is Charlie Kaufman?s best script to date, and a major step above the last Kaufman-Gondry collaboration. Third, Kate Winslet says ?man? with an ?80s inflection that made me giggle with joy repeatedly.

What I most enjoyed about the picture is the way it sidesteps the pitfalls most romantic comedies tumble into. This is a romantic comedy that embraces the challenges of love, and accepts them as necessary. Its balance of brutal honesty and genuine optimism makes for a surprisingly buoyant experience; Kaufman?s caustic side tells us that love hurts, but his human side concedes that love is worth the pain?in fact, suffering is intrinsic to true intimacy, a valuable piece of growing closer. I also think it?s worth nothing that two couples are not kept apart by the erasure procedure?if we assume that science represents rational thought, then we can infer that Kaufman wants to say that love cannot be conquered by logic, reason, and intellectual meddling. This is the most engrossing ode to the strength of love since Punch-Drunk Love. (Another connection to Anderson?s film: Like Sandler and Watson, I may not ever want to know the Carrey and Winslet characters in real life, but in both pictures I completely bought that these two characters, in these situations, could be hopelessly in love.)

One of Kaufman?s strongest inventions is allowing Carrey to alter his own memories while traversing his own subconscious, forcing other ?characters? to bend to his imagination and hopes. Of course, the point is to illuminate how our memories are unreliable, always skewed by subjective recollections. Using expressive visuals, perfectly integrated computer effects, and suspense tactics, Gondry and Kaufman express how memory functions as well as any artist ever has.

As Carrey works backwards from romantic devastation towards happier times, I was reminded of Memento and especially Irreversible. I?d argue that the way Kaufman uses his structural gimmick to score sophisticated emotional points is light years beyond anything Nolan or Noe achieved. While Noe?s lightweight misanthropic fable is often defended as a profound story of love and loss of innocence, Kaufman delivers the real thing. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is Irreversible for those of us who still like other human beings.

Eric

the night watchman · Posted: 03.23.2004 5:26 am Post subject:

Hey, I like other human beings and I like Irreversible, and I really cannot wait to see Eternal Sunshine. Sounds like it delivers on the promise of its premise and Charlie Kaufman's talent. If it's not in Podunk Central by next Friday I'm blazing to Lancaster, dammit.
_________________
"If you're talking about censorship, and what things should be shown and what things shouldn't be shown, I've said that as an artist you have no social responsibility whatsoever."

-David Cronenberg

beltmann · Posted: 03.23.2004 5:31 am Post subject:

the night watchman · Posted: 03.23.2004 4:00 pm Post subject:

I'll probably like it better too. If only because I won't have to sit through an eight minute rape scene. Unless, of course, I'm not properly anticipating Eternal Sunshine. Wink

_________________
"If you're talking about censorship, and what things should be shown and what things shouldn't be shown, I've said that as an artist you have no social responsibility whatsoever."

-David Cronenberg

matt header · Posted: 03.23.2004 5:23 pm Post subject:

The Man Who Fell to Earth (dir Nicolas Roeg, 1976) B+

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (dir Robert Wiene, 1920) A-

Back and Forth (dir Michael Snow, 1969) B-

Der Lauf Der Dinge (dirs Peter Fischli & David Weiss, 1987) B+

My Architect: A Son's Journey (dir Nathaniel Kahn, 2003) C+

A Nightmare on Elm Street (dir Wes Craven, 1984) B

Another good week. I finally saw Nightmare on Elm Street and totally dug it - nothing brilliant, but a lot more creative and spooky than Friday the 13th. Cabinet and The Man Who Fell to Earth were both awesome - German Expressionism rocks the house, and Roeg's direction in The Man Who Fell to Earth is one-of-a-kind. My Architect was severely disappointing: emotion seemed artificially tacked on while it was absent in the filmmaking, something strange for a documentary about a son trying to rediscover the memory of his lost father.

the night watchman · Posted: 03.23.2004 7:55 pm Post subject:

Michael Scrutchin · Posted: 03.23.2004 8:16 pm Post subject:

beltmann · Posted: 03.23.2004 8:22 pm Post subject:

The Third M?n · Posted: 03.23.2004 8:26 pm Post subject:

All the Nightmare on Elm Street sequels, besides New Nightmare, which I rather like, blow.

Why the hell did they turn Freddy Krueger into a caricature? Oh well. I own the boxset but hate the sequels. I mean, kung-fu in the fourth one? What the hell?

The Third M?n · Posted: 03.23.2004 8:27 pm Post subject:

Misspost.

Fred C. Dobbs · Director Joined: 11 Mar 2004 Posts: 201 Location: New York

Not a fan of any of the Nightmare on Elm Street films. Horror is my favorite genre, but a lot of these "type" of films: Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday the 13th, etc. don't click with me. I do think that My Bloody Valentine is a lot of fun, though. Embarassed

_________________
"Pino, fuck you, fuck your fuckin' pizza, and fuck Frank Sinatra."

the night watchman · Posted: 03.23.2004 10:26 pm Post subject:

I agree that the first movie and New Nightmare are the best in the bunch. But I'm also fond of the second, which most people hate, mainly, I think, because it doesn't fit with the rest of the series very well. Freddy is still "scary" in this movie, and the one-liners are more gruesome than slapstick.
_________________
"If you're talking about censorship, and what things should be shown and what things shouldn't be shown, I've said that as an artist you have no social responsibility whatsoever."

-David Cronenberg

matt header · Posted: 03.23.2004 10:38 pm Post subject:

I have not yet seen any Nightmare sequels, but I'm dying (especially now) to see New Nightmare. I've heard loads of praise regarding it. I've also only seen the first Friday the 13th movie, but I doubt I'll actively seek out any of its sequels. Oddly enough, I have seen every Halloween installment, mostly due to a marathon they had on AMC two years ago, and wasn't particularly blown away by any of them. (The first is quite spooky though.) I guess I'm not too into the slasher genre, either, although I've seen too few of them to have an honest opinion.

The Third M?n · Posted: 03.23.2004 10:55 pm Post subject:

the night watchman · Posted: 03.23.2004 11:42 pm Post subject:

I think the (largely unintentional) homosexual subtext of the second movie is fascinating. I've been wanting to write an essay about it, but I haven't gotten around to it.
_________________
"If you're talking about censorship, and what things should be shown and what things shouldn't be shown, I've said that as an artist you have no social responsibility whatsoever."

-David Cronenberg