The Boy in the Striped Pajamas

Ok Ok, I was all emotional and all sold to the flick... And then I read this piece and, while I do agree it is mostly a nail-scratching melodrama of a flick, milking stereotypes and the o so ever pure childhood naivite, along with the blackest of black historical events of Humankind in a somewhat unscrupulous mannner, I disagree that it is vulgar and narrowminded... To me, it just... works... Might be because yours truly does have a weak spot for holocaust and WWII stories, and their emphasis on the importance of memory and remembrance, never forgetting those horrors (goosebumps just writing that, actually :P)... And for that matter, the last shot of BitSP is AWESOME. Just A-W-E-S-O-M-E. The lockerroom where Jews stripped down just before getting in the showers, with all those "striped pajamas" hanging all around the empty room, the camera ever so slowly zooming out from the door, almost still echoing with the shouts and the cries of the doomed men, women and children, and finally stopping with the door right in the middle of the frame, to proceed with the proverbial fade to black, but ever so slowly, making sure to leave that indelible mark both in our consciousness AND our collective psyche...

Sure, the flick does require a suspension of disbelief based on cinematic conventions, mostly because it IS a british studio film, and its Oscar contender most assuredly. Thus, everyone does speak with that brit actors accent bordering on pedantry... Sure, a couple of those money shots are cliches (the black smoke rising from the ovens... If I haven't seen this image a zillion times, I have NEVER seen it), but it still does work, especially because of that children's point of view... And the pacing of the whole thing is near pitch perfect, gambling on coming in hard and leaving us high'n dry very very quickly. All in all, I am not even sure the flick would not fall into a pathetic boredom fest of pathos were it not for that editing feat, actually...

It is still a very nice movie to catch...
Note (à la mediafilm 1 to 7, 1 being masterpiece, 7 being a bomb): ~4.3

Choke - Palahniuk Strikes Back

Choke had the release of something of an indie flick. Chuck Palahniuk, author of the book (and of a bunch of other great late-American subversive novels, such as Fight Club, Diary or Snuff), is, on the other hand, one of the most prominent and front runner for latest literary talents in the US, stacking best sellers after best sellers, each of them getting raving reviews from critics as well. Yet, he is still somewhat considered an indie writer... Must be cause he's sooooo counter-cultural I suppose...

In any case, an adaptation by one of those actors always playing sidekicks or villains (and of course, with a forgettable name :P...)... Standard adaptation, good to great acting performances (those actors-turned-director mostly do great directing jobs... It's the rest that falls often short); solid translation towards the silver screen, but not inventive at all, really... And some of the edition choices might not have been the best; completely eluding the ending might not have been the greatest of ideas since the last 15 minutes of the flick do seem pretty eclectic...

All in all, the book before, and if you like it, the movie on a bleak autumn Friday evening, I guess :).

Note: ~4.4.

The Wrestler & La décadence du rêve américain

Avec le nouvelle année revient la résolution, annuelle depuis maintenant bientôt 10 ans, de tenir le journal des films que je vois durant l'année... Ma meilleure performance remonte bien sûr à ma 1ère année en Etudes cinématographiques, mais bon, depuis j'ai découvert les outils de blogging :P... So here's another shot...

First flick of '09 was Aronofksy's The Wrestler, starring Mickey Rourke and Marisa Tomei. Wow. Seriously. I tend to have very high expectations for such films, especially when everyone's raving about it, critics and fans alike... And, I mean, an Aronofsky flick about a washed out professional wrestler, really?!?!?

Well turns out it is fscking GREAT! The guy knows how to write stories man, and how to trigger emotional affects... His stuff's always a tad cliche but also soooo powerful, with the way he directs his actors, among all the film techniques he does master, that we have to forgive him his tendency towards archetypes :).

All in all, another great flick by the dude who gave us Pi and Requiem for a Dream. And he's supposed to direct the next remake of... Robocop... This got me curious, I must admit.

Note (à la mediafilm 1 to 7, 1 being masterpiece, 7 being a bomb): ~3.4.