Author Archive for nathanshorb

My Kid Could Paint That / Who the #$&% is Jackson Pollock?

Published
by
nathanshorb
on September 13, 2008
in Art and Documentary
. 1 Comment

I’m on an art documentary kick, I suppose. I had been waiting some time to see My Kid Could Paint That and finally saw it last week. Then, I took my friend Neville’s advice and watched Who the #$&% is Jackson Pollock? as an appropriate follow-up. I’m so fascinated and excited that I placed the Oscar-winning biopic Pollock as next on my queue, and am looking to see when we can schedule a visit to the MET or Museum of Modern Art in NYC in the near future.

My Kid Could Paint That is the intriguing and mysterious story of a sweet little four-year-old named Marla who is supposedly a prodigy in abstract painting, making millions for her parents. After an infamous 60-minutes report, though, her “career” takes a turn for the worse. It raises all sorts of really intriguing questions on art, modern art, abstract art, and the art world, not to mention parenting, the power and nature of media, and the human psyche. I found the bonus features just as good as the film itself, with a follow-up documentary capturing reactions and additional commentary, and a really good interview with NY Times art critic Michael Kimmelman. Kimmelman makes excellent points and handles difficult discussions surrounding art very articulately and succinctly. Marla’s still making art (or is she?) and selling it.

Who the #$&% is Jackson Pollock? is the bizarre mystery of a five dollar painting found at a thrift store by a female truck-driver who didn’t know any better. She bought it as a joke for a friend who needed to be cheered up, but when it didn’t fit through the friend’s door, it found it’s way to a garage sale where a local art teacher planted a thought about it being a Pollock. The most amazing juxtaposition of cultures occurs when this feisty trailer-park trucker barges in on the snobbery of the art world, insisting for ten years straight that this painting was indeed a masterpiece worth fifty million dollars. They, of course, wouldn’t give her the time of day. Is she chasing after a wild dream that simply isn’t true? Do the critics ignore her because of who she is or what the painting is? Is she creating evidence or are they ignoring evidence? It’s full of character who are simply too good to be true. It’s a wild and fun ride, but sadly, leaves you more cynical towards the art world than anything else.

The first is a bit better than the second as far as filmmaking goes, but both are full of intriguing characters and raise their fair share of interesting questions and ideas.  They are conversation starters for sure.  Watching them back-to-back makes for an interesting experience.

Get Smart

Published
by
nathanshorb
on July 5, 2008
in Action, Based on TV Series, Comedy and Crime
. 1 Comment

Let me preface by saying this: I am a huge Steve Carrell fan. He and Jack Black are tied for being able to make me giggle uncontrollably pretty much just by doing absolutely nothing. Just the other day, which shopping for a greeting card, I picked up one of those cards-with-sound that featured Steve Carrell mumbling something or other from The Office. In the middle of the card store, I laughed really really loudly and couldn’t stop. I love Steve Carrell.

And because of that love, I had relatively high hopes for Get Smart. I knew it wouldn’t be a great film or anything, but I expected to laugh quite a bit.

Well, it’s with great disappointment that I tell you: I wasn’t impressed. I really didn’t even laugh all that much.

It’s your typical summer comedy, a chuckle here and there and quite a bit of poor acting and cheesy delivery. But not even Mr. Carrell could redeem it. So much of the movie simply fell flat. You wanted to laugh, but it just wasn’t worth the effort.

Don’t get me wrong. Alan Arkin is decent as always, and Anne Hathaway is a lot of fun, too. The Rock is as bad as ever, and there are plenty of cameos to keep things interesting, too.

Speaking of cameos: I won’t mention who it is in case some of you are rushing out to see it after this stellar review, but one cameo features another one of my favorite actors, and I felt his 2 minute cameo was the best comedic delivery in the whole movie.

In the end, Steve Carrell just wasn’t allowed to shine enough in this film. While he was one of the main actors, the movie didn’t feature him. It also seemed like he wasn’t allowed to take his lines on as his own, and followed the script pretty closely, when we all know he’s at his best when he’s flying off the cuff.

It’s a fine fun summer movie, but don’t go spending nine dollars on it like I did.

Rating: ★★☆☆☆

Persepolis

Published
by
nathanshorb
on July 5, 2008
in Adolescence, Animation, Autobiography, Based on a graphic novel, Coming of age, Foreign, French and War
. 1 Comment

Persepolis is the animated film adaptation of the autobiographical graphic novels of Marjane Satrapi. It’s her coming of age story, living through the turmoil, wars, and revolts of Iran in the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s

Simply put, it’s a lovely little film that really catches the viewer’s attention. Its animation is simple but thoroughly heartfelt and extremely effective. While few of us have lived through wars, seeing our relatives fight for their beliefs and die in the process, we can somehow relate to this story, perhaps because it’s told so candidly. The innocence of childhood, the ups and downs of adolescence, and trying to make sense of it all in adulthood are something each of us experience. Satrapi has said that this was one aim of the film, to show how much of growing up is a universal experience.

In the process of the film, though, we are treated to a little bit of a history lesson of the country of Iran. And while you don’t get all the ins and outs of the history, it makes you eager to learn a bit more.

My only complaint is that the storytelling at times seemed too fragmented. It felt rushed, each segment was brief before jumping to the next event at hand. Satrapi, obviously, is a talented and poignant storyteller, and I would have appreciated a more in-depth, detailed look at some parts of the story

So, this film comes highly recommended. It’s an enlightening and personal story that is absolutely beautifully told. I hope more animated works like it start coming our way.

Rating: ★★★★½

WALL•E

Published
by
nathanshorb
on July 2, 2008
in Animation and Sci-fi
. 0 Comments

By now you’ve probably heard about this little movie WALL•E, so I won’t fill you in on its plot. Similarly, there are plenty of great reviews being written about it out there, so I won’t take the time to craft a full review. Instead, I’ll say this…

WALL•E is a film worth your while, not necessarily because it’s entertaining and enjoyable, but because it’s bold and risky storytelling completed with the utmost of excellence. The critics are absolutely raving, but it’s not because the kids are staying entertained for 90 minutes. WALL•E is new, completely unique, a milestone in American animation, both troubling and endearing, not to mention full of meaning.

I can’t say I loved it. There were some slow spots, some moments I just couldn’t get into, and that would have been all the more true if I were under the age of 10. Because of its genre and premise, it just simply will not be as accessible as the wildly imaginative world of Monsters, Inc. or the underwater excitement of Finding Nemo. And yet, accessibility aside, I could sit and discuss this story for hours. That’s what makes it an important film.

And like any risky story, it’s a little controversial. Accusations in the blogosphere are calling it liberal, left-wing, politically charged, envrionmentalist, anti-consumerist, global warming propaganda. After seeing it (always a good thing to do before criticizing), I’m forced to simply wonder: what were so many of us doing in high school English class? How are we so utterly inept at handling stories and their themes?

But anyway, thanks, Pixar, for contributing so significantly not just to the world of animation, but also to, more notably, the world of film.

Rating: ★★★★½

Bella

Published
by
nathanshorb
on July 2, 2008
in Abortion, Adoption, Family and Independent
. 0 Comments

Bella is the story of a failed-soccer-star-turned-chef befriending a recently-pregnant-and-now-fired-waitress over the course of a day. In the end, it is both a mildly successful little film and an interesting case study.

If you’d watch this movie knowing absolutely nothing about it, you’d finish it mostly pleased. The acting is good, the story is interesting, the cinematography is decent. It’s nothing overly enthralling or groundbreaking, but there are plenty of worse indie flicks out there, and this one succeeds in what it does.

But when you find out the backstory to the making of the film, there’s a lot more to think about and assess here. The lead actor was a wildly-successful soap opera star in Mexico who was building quite the resume, but after recommitting his life to Jesus Christ, wanted to pursue projects with more wholesome messages. The director intended to do the same. Both, as Latinos, also wanted to portray their culture outside the usual stereotypical ruthless bandits, lazy mooches, or steamy lovers.

So, were they successful?

I appreciate the portrayal of Latin culture in the US. They’re right, we could use more of it, especially because all of us could definitely learn from their zeal, joy, and tight-knit family that is shown in Bella.

I also appreciate that they set out to tell a real story with real people full of accidents and pain and hurt and mistakes. When Christians set out to make a story, this isn’t always a priority in their minds. Or, if it is, they’ll conveniently have a perfect and steadfast Christian character (played by Kirk Cameron, of course) come to share the gospel and save the day.

While I don’t think that Christians need to avoid things like curse-words in order to make a redemptive movie, I was impressed that such a real, honest, and poignant story could be told without a single curse-word or any other graphic material.

In the end, something about the film falls a little bit flat, a little bit hollow, a little bit empty. Mainstream critics complain that it was too concerned with its pro-life message and trying to disguise it. The reviewer at Christianity Today says, “The characters harbor no ambiguities; when the credits roll, we can feel sure that we’ve learned all there is to know about them.” In the end, I think this is true. It’s a fine film, but something is missing, and I would venture to guess that it’s because the writer/director was focused on something other than simply telling a story.

Sure, he wanted to tell a story, and again, he did a relatively decent job at it. But he wanted to tell a story that was not graphic, that was family-friendly, that was moral, positive, and life-affirming, and that showed Latinos in a good light. Perhaps that’s putting one too many restrictions on the story you’re telling, and that’s what will leave your story hollow.

So, as a case study, is this how Christians should be making movies? It’s definitely an interesting approach, and it’s not a bad attempt, not at all. This movie-making team shows great potential. If they could take one step back, resist telling the story they want to tell, and instead let a story tell itself and let the meaning unfold from there, I think they’d see much better success. Bella was very close to doing this, and that’s why it was a good film, but I think in the end there were too many restrictions placed on it.

Rating: ★★★☆☆

The Happening

Published
by
nathanshorb
on June 16, 2008
in Environmentalism, Graphic Violence, Horror, Sci-fi, Suicide and Thriller
. 1 Comment

From my perspective, no other current Hollywood persona is as intriguing as M. Night Shyamalan. Did he really just get that lucky with The Sixth Sense? I believe it is that amazing breakthrough film from this writer/director with a knack for suspense and surprise endings that has kept audiences coming back time and time again. Despite some decent follow-ups, never has he repeated the excellence of his first film, and many would agree that his films have been getting progressively worse.

And so, we complain and complain about his movies, but still somehow get excited about showing up for opening night every two years for his latest offering, perhaps hoping that maybe this will be the one to capture the same feeling as The Sixth Sense. This is enough to say that Shyamalan is doing something right. Despite the things he’s doing wrong–and lately, there’s quite a bit–he still keeps us coming back for more. Few people have given up on him yet.

That brings us to The Happening, a film proudly advertised as “apocalyptic” and Shyamalan’s first rated-R feature, featuring some bizarre epidemic–supposedly caused by plants attacking large populations of humans–that forces people to kill themselves in increasingly creative ways. Mark Wahlberg, seemingly advertised as some sort of hero, is rather just one of many ordinary people trying to avoid the attack.

(Here’s one more thing often complained about–What’s with the deceiving advertising with this guy’s films? Everybody was stunned to find out what The Village really was about. And The Happening had nothing to do with the rapture like I was told.)

The bad news first. Simply put, the movie indeed causes you to constantly ask, “What’s happening?” But not in a whodunit sort of way, and not in an edge-of-your-seat-what’s-going-to-happen-next sort of way. No, instead you find yourself asking, “Is this serious? Did that really just happen? Did he really just say that? Did she really just deliver her line in that way? Is it possible to make a movie this preposterous?” My wife and I spent the entire movie hoping–for Shyamalan’s sake and for the sake of our $18 admission–that the surprise ending would reveal that the whole movie was a joke, a sort of film inside of a film, a spoof of sorts. We weren’t that lucky, and neither was Shyamalan. It was just that bad.

The dialog is absolutely terrible. The acting is pathetic. The cinematography is cliche. The gore is tactless and hokey. The entire film comes off as incredibly cheesy schlock. By the end of it I was hoping this was Shyamalan’s tribute to the campy B-side horror genre. I still think that’s the strongest explanation, although I’ve found nothing on the web to back that up, and even so, I’ve never quite been sure how we could make a “legitimate” art form by making something that is simply and intentionally bad.

It takes some serious misguidance to turn an Oscar-winning actor into the character we see in The Happening. Literally every line causes the viewer to wince with discomfort. Is it Wahlberg? Or is it just that there was literally no good way to deliver the lines that had been written for him? When Be Kind Rewind came out earlier this year, I heard many people suggest that Michel Gondry get some help writing his scripts. I’ll agree that they need help, but I also think Gondry has different intentions with his films than creating a stellar, flawless screenplay. We need to get Shyamalan some help with script writing much sooner than Gondry.

I ended up giggling through most of the movie, and not because it was supposed to be funny. Again, if it was Shyamalan’s intent to create a campy B-side flick, then so be it, he succeeded. But regardless of his intent, it was bad. Really bad.

There’s a bit of good news, though. Shyamalan is a master of suspense, and there’s no doubt about that. I jumped out of my seat more than once, and when I arrived home to my dark apartment, a shiver went down my spine and I rushed to turn on the lights. If you’re looking for a good scare, this is a decent place to turn.

And I have to say I enjoyed myself. Between giggling at the bad parts and jumping at the scary parts, it was a good bit of summer Blockbuster fun.

But most importantly, I admire that Shyamalan consistently tries to say something with his movies, another facet making him one of the more intriguing filmmakers today. While most critics are looking at the environmental themes of The Happening–save the honeybees and the trees before it’s too late–I think Shyamalan has some much deeper statements to make. Love conquering evil is an obvious theme, but perhaps too obvious. The most poignant statement is his dark caricature of Christians. The last woman left to help Wahlberg and his friends is a woman living in isolation who recites the twenty-third Psalm, has all sorts of religious paraphernalia on her walls, and wears a cross necklace. When she claims that “the world doesn’t care about her, so she doesn’t care about it,” it forces the Christian viewer to think long and hard. How much of this caricature is Shyamalan’s bitter misperception and how much of it is deservedly true?

So in short, it was a terrible movie. But if a director can cause people to think and talk this much time and time again, and keep us repeatedly coming back for more, maybe he is doing something right.

Rating: ★★☆☆☆

2 Days in Paris

Published
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nathanshorb
on February 13, 2008
in Comedy, Drama, France and Romance
. 0 Comments

Julie Delpy has proven herself quite well in this past year’s offering, 2 Days in Paris. Not only does she star in it, it’s her directorial debut. But that’s not all, she also wrote it, edited it, and composed music for it. She probably did a few other things as well, like recruiting her parents to play as her parents in the movie. If the movie wasn’t anything worth watching, none of this would be very impressive. But since it’s a more-than-halfway-decent flick, it’s quite an admirable feat.

Delpy takes a cue from the tone that was set in Before Sunrise and Before Sunset. But where I thought those movies got lost in lengthy dialogue that didn’t really go anywhere and didn’t really amount to anything, Delpy instead chooses to do something with her movie. (That may be a harsh statement about two movies that were quite critically acclaimed, but personally, I’m still trying to figure out why they were so praised.)

Delpy is a Parisian who lives in New York, coming off of a Venice vacation with her American boyfriend and staying with her parents in Paris for 2 days. Voila.

The dialogue here is still as down-to-earth as those mentioned predecessors, and still with plenty of references to politics and art and the world. But here it’s quite funny and entertaining. The chemistry between Delpy and Adam Goldberg is enjoyable.

With this story, you get the inner workings of a relationship, the experience of culture shock, and the visit of the odd parents all in one shot. In each arena, the theme is explored with a rude–or perhaps honest is a more palatable word–sense of reality. Adam Goldberg is left all alone to fend for himself creating a comedic version of Lost in Translation. His facial expressions alone have almost a slapstick quality to them. The dynamic interaction of French and American is probably what this film does best.

While Delpy might tell her audience more than enough in her periodic narrations, many of these moments create beautiful, artistically creative scenes that round out the movie quite nicely.

Somewhere along the way, this movie failed to be a blockbuster hit or an admired art-house offering. But somewhere in the middle it became a fun story and a valiant showing of Delpy’s many talents, and that’s a fine place to be.

Rating: ★★★★☆

The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters

Published
by
nathanshorb
on February 2, 2008
in Documentary, Independent and Video games
. 2 Comments

This documentary was just released on DVD this week. It features a long-standing Donkey Kong world record held by the worshiped gamer Billy Mitchell being challenged by the joe-schmoe up-and-coming all-around-nice-guy Steve Wiebe.

Welcome to the totally bizarre world of obsessed gaming. There is all sorts of preposterous drama going down in this crazy subculture. Rivalries, grudges, gangs, arguments, deceit, and controversies abound.

Billy’s been worshiped as the greatest–by everyone in the community AND by himself–ever since the record-setting event in 1982. Now he has everyone on his side and working for him. When unassuming Steve sets a record fair and square, Billy’s gang finds a way to disqualify him. Steve takes it all in stride and continues to attempt to prove himself, hardly being recognized. He challenges Billy, travels miles and miles to prove himself publicly, and he continues to be left unnoticed.

When the Guinness Book arrives on the scene the stakes are set even higher and the drama ensues.

I’ve been waiting for quite some time to see a documentary that would surpass Spellbound in perfection. I was expecting The King of Kong to be that documentary. It wasn’t quite what I expected, but it definitely comes close.

It’s much more anti-climactic than I expected. Instead of a head-to-head showdown, we’re forced to cheer Steve on while Billy’s busy cowardly avoiding the camera. Instead of a story of good old-fashioned competition, we’re treated to a totally bizarre story of narcissism and deceit, seeing the great lengths to which certain people might go to ensure their position on a pedestal. Ultimately, you’re left with a few more questions than you might expect, rather than a satisfying concrete victory one way or the other.

Regardless, Billy Mitchell and his cohorts are some of the best documentary characters ever caught on film.

So get a hold of the DVD, invite a roomful of friends over, and relish the madness.

Rating: ★★★★½

The Savages

Published
by
nathanshorb
on January 29, 2008
in Comedy, Drama, Dysfunctional and Family
. 1 Comment

The Savages is one of 2007’s best, telling the story of a brother and sister caring for their estranged father who is fading away with dementia and must be put into a nursing home.

You’ll see it’s been nominated for two Academy awards. Laura Linney received a nomination for best actress, and writer-director Tamara Jenkins received recognition for her intelligent original screenplay. These are without a doubt well-deserved. Philip Seymour Hoffman was recognized for Charlie Wilson’s War, but he very easily could have been nominated for his performance here, as well. The acting was top-notch, the thing that made this film so worth while and enjoyable.

Every once in a while, a movie comes along that is so strikingly true, accurately and vividly representing experiences everyone faces at one point or another. The Savages is one of those movies. After flying to Arizona, Wendy and Jon enter the hospital room for the first time and see the strange man who is their father laying in bed with tubes and machinery attached in several places. The scene somehow captures the exact feelings so many of us have experienced in similar moments.

The character development is what makes the movie so intriguing. Wendy is driven by her emotions, whether it’s her desperation, depression, guilt, or otherwise. It’s this part of her that wants to make sure her father receives the best possible treatment in whatever care facility they find. Jon takes a logical approach to life, seeing the cold, hard, emotionless facts in every situation. It’s this part of him that says it doesn’t matter where his delusional and dying father stays.

But in the end, this movie is about avoidance. It’s Wendy avoiding growing older and Jon avoiding commitment with his girlfriend. It’s both of them acknowledging their past and avoiding their present situation as they continue to keep their distance from their father. And ultimately, despite the decay that’s surrounding them wherever they turn, Wendy and Jon avoid asking questions about death and eternity, the big questions about purpose and meaning and life and God.

And this is just one more thing that makes the movie real and true, because I see many people in our society making the most of their lives while avoiding the same exact things.

While all of this might sound a tad depressing–and it is–this movie does have plenty of light-hearted and humorous moments, especially the ones in which you’re laughing out of embarrassment as you recognize yourself in the character on the screen. At any rate, I highly recommend checking it out.

Rating: ★★★★☆

The Lives of Others

Published
by
nathanshorb
on January 29, 2008
in Communism, Drama, Foreign, German and Socialism
. 0 Comments

The Lives of Others is a German film about a Stasi spy who is assigned to monitoring a famous playwright and his lead actress girlfriend. Without giving away too much, the film shows how all of these characters and the decisions they make end up changing each others lives in very dramatic ways.

Something about how this film was advertised made me think it would be all about voyeurism and full of awkward sex scenes. (It doesn’t help that the DVD cover, of all things, features the couple in an intimate moment–a picture which, as far as I can remember, wasn’t even included in the film itself.) I decided it was something I could do without. But after it won the Oscar for best foreign film and received rave reviews from all sorts of trusted sources, I finally decided to give it a try. And I was glad I did.

It was thankfully nothing close to what I expected. Instead, it was a compelling story with surprising twists and turns, intelligently written and excellently performed. With conspiracies and coverups, it could almost be classified as a psychological thriller.

The film gives a unique and interesting portrait of life under communism. As the plot slowly unfolds, it becomes a story about courage, standing up for one’s beliefs, and inspiring others towards change. In the end, it forces you to ask yourself: “Am I living a life that inspires others?”

The Lives of Others was excellent.

Rating: ★★★★☆