My Top Twelve Butterflies in Movies

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Lists

It’s been a while since my last Top Twelve list, so I thought “What better list to compile around Thanksgiving than a list of butterflies?” Yes, butterflies. Moths, too. Okay, maybe there are more seasonal topics out there, but sometimes I just like random lists. If you want a good reason for a butterfly list in autumn, though, I guess I can point to something I heard on the radio about not raking your fall leaves for fear of disturbing butterfly eggs/cocoons that could be hiding among them. I don’t normally rake my leaves anyway, so I’ll gladly take another excuse.

For this list, I’m ranking significant butterflies or moths in film. I’m only including films I’ve actually seen all the way through, so that excludes a host of films with butterfly titles, such as Butterflies Are Free, The Butterfly Room, The Mothman Prophecies, The Butterfly Effect,  M. Butterfly, The Blue Butterfly, A Pin for the Butterfly, Butterfly’s Tongue, and several just called Butterfly. A special shout-out also to some TV butterflies as well, such as the pussycat swallowtail hunter on Gilligan’s Island, the fun Castle episode “The Blue Butterfly,” Star Butterfly from Star vs. the Forces of Evil, and the “killer” butterfly from the classic SpongeBob episode “Wormy.” In addition, despite my research, I feel like I may have forgotten some worthwhile entries that just aren’t coming to mind, so feel free to comment with any lovely lepidopterans I might have missed. On to the list!

12. Alice in Wonderland (1951, 2010)

The hookah-smoking caterpillar is a memorable character in both versions of Alice in Wonderland, though his eventual transformation into a butterfly does nothing to improve his sour mood. And let’s not forget the bread-and-butterflies too.

11. TIE: Cowboy Bebop: The Movie (2001) and Paprika (2006)

I couldn’t decide which anime film to give the edge to, so it’s a tie! In Cowboy Bebop’s stand-alone film, a terrorist’s poison gas causes hallucinations, specifically glowing butterflies as death approaches. And in a rather disturbing scene of Satoshi Kon’s imaginatively bizarre Paprika, the title character is captured and pinned as a human butterfly.

10. I Am Legend (2007)

The butterfly here is mentioned by the daughter of Robert Neville (Will Smith), the last non-vampire-ish resident of New York City. His daughter’s love of butterflies is a mere memory, but it also plays a part in the climax, which goes in two different directions depending on which ending you watch.

9. Doctor Dolittle (1967)

The end of this charming classic musical features Rex Harrison’s animal-loving doctor heading back to England atop the Giant Lunar Moth. It’s for anyone who ever wanted to ride a moth. Anyone?

8. Papillon (1973)

I always had this film confused with Bullitt and thought it would have a car chase, but it didn’t. Meaning “butterfly” in French, Papillon is the nickname of Steve McQueen’s Henri Charrière, who is imprisoned on Devil’s Island in South America and refuses to give up on escape. He has a butterfly tattoo on his chest and even catches butterflies in the jungle at one point. I’ll be interested to see how this year’s remake compares to the uneven original.

7. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (2007)

Yes, reviewing this film recently might have put me in a butterfly mood, and aside from Papillon’s translation, it’s the only film here with “butterfly” in the title. The butterfly isn’t an actual presence, though. One scene of an emerging adult is the main visual appearance, while Jean-Dominique Bauby’s narration compares it to his flights of fancy and his memories. “May you have many butterflies.”

6. A Bug’s Life (1998)

Since the one in Alice in Wonderland is a caterpillar most of the time, this is the only film here where a butterfly is an actual character, namely Gypsy (Madeline Kahn), the lovely assistant of Manny the mantis magician. She may not be one of the major characters, but a butterfly’s a butterfly, and I’d totally forgotten Madeline Kahn voiced her.

5. Bunny (1998)

I’m stepping outside the box a bit here to include a short film, the Oscar-winning Bunny (which you can watch above) from Ice Age director Chris Wedge. An elderly rabbit is annoyed by a persistent moth, only to discover the moth’s more symbolic and emotional nature.

4. Bright Star (2009)

Butterflies are especially popular as metaphors, and this biopic of John Keats (Ben Whishaw) and his beloved Fanny Brawne (Abbie Cornish) has particularly beautiful symbolism. After Keats moves away, Fanny fills her bedroom with captured butterflies and gushes her affection through love letters, only for the passion to slowly die away like the butterfly carcasses that eventually litter her room.

3. All Quiet on the Western Front (1930)

Who could forget the memorable final scene of this classic anti-war epic? A butterfly collection was seen earlier in the film, and when Paul Bäumer (Lew Ayres) reaches for one on a World War I battlefield, his hand is made motionless by a sudden gunshot. Neat fact: the hand is actually that of Lewis Milestone, the director.

2. The Lord of the Rings and Hobbit trilogies (2001-3, 2012-14)

Of course, another list of mine had to feature Lord of the Rings! Gandalf’s use of a big hairy moth as a messenger eventually becomes synonymous with the intervention of giant eagles: saving him from Isengard, joining the battle at the end, and even extending their services into the Hobbit movies. That’s a handy moth to have around! I also must mention the scene in The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, in which Bilbo peers above the treetops of Mirkwood and sees a host of butterflies flitting in the morning sunlight.

1. The Silence of the Lambs (1991)

As much as I would have liked to give Lord of the Rings the #1 spot, it had to go to The Silence of the Lambs. I mean, just look at the famous poster! Serial killer Buffalo Bill (Ted Levine) has an affinity for the death’s head moth, raising them and inserting them in the throats of his victims. It’s also one of these moths that gives him away to Clarice Starling (Jodie Foster), and since it plays such a key role in the plot, I had to give the top spot to this morbid moth.

Runners-Up:

Corpse Bride – The title zombie dissolves into butterflies at the end.

Dallas Buyers Club – Matthew McConaughey visits a room full of butterflies (see top photo).

Heidi – In the 2015 version, seeing a butterfly helps crippled Clara to stand.

The Last Unicorn – At the beginning, a capricious butterfly tells the unicorn she is the last of her kind.

Mothra – This would have been a really obvious choice for the list, but I haven’t actually seen a Mothra movie. Still, after Godzilla, he’s the second most popular giant monster over in Japan.

Snow White and the Huntsman – In that Sanctuary scene copied from Princess Mononoke, the fairy elk explodes into butterflies when it is shot.

Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets – Watch out for butterfly-fishing!

You’ve Got Mail – Meg Ryan points out a butterfly on the subway.

Feel free to comment with any other cinematic butterflies I might have missed. Below is a lovely butterfly song from Hannah Montana: The Movie, back when Miley Cyrus was normal.

It may be several months before we get to see real butterflies again, but hopefully this list will hold you until then!

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (2007)

Tags

Biopic, Drama, Foreign

To watch the world outside a shell,
One window in a tiny cell—
Is this mere pain or is this hell?

‘Tis hell if I but make it so.
While others pity, I must know
That self alone brings spirits low.

From out my shell, my soul must fly
Through fancy, passion, mind, and eye
Before my body dares to die.

I’d view the lives of others crossed
By tragedy and tempest-tossed,
And value things they have not lost.

The world is cruel, yet majesty
Is found in places hard to see,
And both extremes have staggered me.
__________________

MPAA rating: PG-13 (for two brief scenes with topless women)

There are some movies that remind you how blessed you are and how grateful you ought to be. Films like Cast Away and Room show us people deprived of life as usual, and things once taken for granted gain far greater value when they are reclaimed. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly may lack such recovery of normal life, yet the story of Jean-Dominique Bauby made me value everything he lost so suddenly.

Formerly the editor of Elle magazine, Bauby (Mathieu Amalric) suffered a sudden stroke in 1995, awakening after a twenty-day coma to discover that his entire body was paralyzed except for his left eye, a rare condition called “locked-in syndrome.” The film begins as he wakes up, and the camera’s first-person view lets the audience hear Bauby’s thoughts and see what he sees. It reminded me a lot of the season 7 M*A*S*H episode “Point of View,” where the audience sees the typical M*A*S*H operations through the eyes of a wounded soldier. As in that episode, doctors and visitors speak directly to the camera, delivering bad news and hollow encouragement alike. Although flashbacks and third-person views are more prevalent later on, a good chunk of the film is furnished through Bauby’s perspective, which is uncannily effective, such as when the screen blinks to portray Bauby’s only means of communication or when his right eyelid is unnervingly sewn shut to prevent infection.

I can envision a present-day version of this story turning into a pro-euthanasia tale bemoaning his pitiful quality of life, but The Diving Bell and the Butterfly is thankfully instead a reminder of the humanity hidden behind Bauby’s withered form. Amalric does a fine job, both in the pre-stroke sequences and his rigid paralysis afterward, managing to convey emotion with just one eye, even more minimalist acting than Eddie Redmayne in The Theory of Everything. Hearing his thoughts reminds us that there is still an active mind behind the expressionless face, one able to think, compose, regret, gripe, and even laugh at himself now and then. At one point, Bauby does wish for death, only to have his nurse scold him for even considering it, urging him to remember everyone who still cares about him. Plus, despite being called a vegetable, he shows the initiative of writing the memoir on which the film is based, dictated a letter at a time by blinking with a special alphabet method and a very patient nurse. Although he points out the ineffectiveness of prayers offered for him by his children and various religious groups, even Bauby ends up acknowledging the reality of miracles.

The other actors playing friends, loved ones, and nurses are also phenomenal, from Emmanuelle Seigner as the still-devoted mother of Bauby’s children (whom he regrets not marrying) to Anne Consigny and Marie-Josée Croze as his faithful nurses/therapists. Moving comparisons are made between Bauby’s situation and that of a friend who was imprisoned by terrorists, as well as of his apartment-bound father (Max von Sydow), and an indirect phone call between Bauby and his father is particularly emotional.

I’m typically not a fan of films like this with artsy editing and high-minded metaphors, but it doesn’t come off as pretentious here. There’s plenty of symbolic imagery, like collapsing ice-shelves or the diving suit and butterfly of the title, which seem to represent Bauby’s confinement and the freedom of his imagination, respectively. The Oscar-nominated cinematography is luminous and frequently out of focus when seen through Bauby’s vision, and the first-person views really exhibit the talents of the cast. Bauby’s dream sequences and flashbacks serve more of a purpose than escaping his affliction; they manifest the simple things he once took for granted: a sumptuous meal, a passionate kiss, a mere drive through the countryside, things we forget to value until they’re gone.

Deservingly nominated for four Oscars, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly is a paean to life and empathy, to the selflessness of nurses and caretakers, to the bright side of a wretched situation. Despite the sadness of it, the film’s end fosters a unique sense of inspiration, reinforced by the rewound images played over the credits to the song “Ramshackle Day Parade” (worthy of my End Credits Song Hall of Fame). One wonders why such a terrible thing would happen to someone, but the way Bauby’s story ends, I can’t help but wonder if it was simply to supply the world with a much-needed tale of encouragement amid adversity.

Best line: (Roussin) “Hold fast to the human inside of you, and you’ll survive.”

 

Rank: List-Worthy

 

© 2017 S.G. Liput
517 Followers and Counting

 

Opinion Battles Round 22 First Choice Halloween Horror Marathon

It may seem a bit late, but don’t forget to vote in Round 22 of Opinion Battles for your favorite film to kick off a Halloween marathon! I picked The Conjuring, a modern classic of horror, but you can plan ahead for next Halloween and vote for your choice, whether obvious or obscure.

Movie Reviews 101

Opinion Battles Round 22

First Choice Halloween Horror Marathon

Halloween is here and that means time for a couple of horror rounds, the second question would be, what would you pick first in a horror movie marathon, this question should be everything open to what people do or don’t like in the genre.

If you want to join the next round of Opinion Battles we will be take on What is your Favourite Post-Apocalypse Film, to enter email your choice to moviereviews101@yahoo.co.ukby Saturday 11th November 2017.

Darren – Movie Reviews 101

Evil Dead

For me I would start with the original Evil Dead, mainly because it offers up a short, gore filled horror experience that can drag our audience in and leave them in shock when needed and leave them in disgust when required, it also introduces us to an iconic horror lead and shows us horror films can…

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Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets (2017)

Tags

Action, Sci-fi, Thriller

How primitive we’ll likely seem
To generations yet unborn.
They’ll look at microchips and deem
Them obsolete, as we do steam.
Our present will be like a dream
Before the future’s morn.

I wish that I could see such things,
As interplanetary trips,
And alien discoverings
And cars that fly with plasma wings.
I’d rather see what that dream brings
Than some apocalypse.
__________________

MPAA rating: PG-13

It boggles my mind that people complain about no originality in Hollywood anymore, and then the fifth Transformers film makes millions while Valerian flops. Luc Besson’s French import based on a classic French comic immediately sparked my interest based on the trailer alone, and I knew I had to catch it on the big screen. Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets is easily one of the most visually imaginative films I’ve seen, resplendent in its CGI-heavy universe that resembles Star Wars, Star Trek, and Avatar on steroids.

It starts out with one of the rosiest visualizations of first contact ever, a brief but brilliant montage of mankind’s collaborative camaraderie expanding to include thousands of alien races. Centuries in the future, the diverse species of the galaxy will converge aboard the space metropolis of Alpha, and human government agents Valerian (Dane DeHaan) and Laureline (Cara Delevingne) are tasked with protecting it when a mysterious danger arises. That’s about as general a description I can give, because the plot is fairly simple at its core but so surrounded by frenetic action and less-than-necessary tangents that it seems more complicated than it is. Yes, it probably didn’t need a memory-eating jellyfish or a shape-shifting pole dance, but Luc Besson’s exuberance for his material is obvious and fun in this all-over-the-place approach.

Most of the criticisms aimed at Valerian focus on the casting, and I’ll admit Dane DeHaan and Cara Delevingne would not have been my first choices to play the two leads. Neither imbues their character with anything very unique, and their personalities are rather flat as a result. Yet I wouldn’t say they were bad but rather passable. There’s nothing overtly mockable in their relationship like Anakin and Padme, and their chemistry and interactions are enough to maintain our interest in everything that happens around them. While Clive Owen, Ethan Hawke, Herbie Hancock, and Rutger Hauer show up to lend some brief recognizable star power, the more interesting characters are the CGI alien creations, like the three gremlin-bird-things that wander around trading information like money-grubbing Ferengi. Rihanna as a shapeshifter offers an especially enjoyable addition to the lead duo, though I wish she had had more screen time.

More than anything else, I enjoyed Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets because it showed me things I’d never even imagined before:  pristine alien beaches for harvesting energy pearls, glowing butterflies you do not want to touch, extra-dimensional shopping malls located in the middle of a desert. For an independent film, the Oscar-worthy visual effects rival anything that Hollywood has put out. The action scenes were spectacularly thrilling, and I didn’t stop to care about the film’s flaws when I was watching Valerian escape from a crime boss through a multi-level alien bazaar while his arm is trapped in another dimension. It was just a fun ride, particularly an extended shot of Valerian bashing through wall after wall of Alpha’s various alien habitats.

I will gladly defend Valerian based on how much it entertained me, and I wouldn’t doubt that it will become a cult classic, not unlike Besson’s other quirky, polarizing sci-fi The Fifth Element. Nevertheless, I’m torn on how to personally rank it because the closer I get to the end of the year, the more I realize I’ll have to remove genuinely good films from my Top 365 list to make room for this year’s additions. At this point, I’m not sure that Valerian warrants that, since I must acknowledge the relative weakness of the characters and plot, including an extended glimpse of life on one alien planet that goes on for too long. Even so, it’s a film I greatly enjoyed and plan to see again soon, so perhaps it will rise further in my estimation after another awesome visit to the future.

 

Best line:  (Doghan-Dagui, the three information traders) “We know how humans work. They are all so predictable.”   (Laureline) “Clearly, you have never met a woman.”

 

Rank:  List Runner-Up

 

© 2017 S.G. Liput
517 Followers and Counting

 

A Happy Thanksgiving to all!

It Could Happen to You (1994)

Tags

Comedy, Drama, Romance

“If I won the lottery,” so many say.
“If I won the lottery,” oh, what a day!
“The things I would buy and the bills I could pay,
The dreams I could fill and the places I’d stay!”
And that’s why so many will plead and will pray
For six random numbers confirming their luck.

If you won the lottery, what would you do?
If you won the lottery, would it change you?
Dreams can be marvelous when they come true
But often result in more pain than you knew.
While waiting for fortune and fame to break through,
Enjoy life a bit before you’re money-struck.
(And then make it count when you do make a buck.)
_________________

MPAA rating: PG

There’s something refreshingly old-fashioned about It Could Happen to You. For a ‘90s rom-com with Nicolas Cage and Bridget Fonda, I can easily envision a 1940s version with Jimmy Stewart and June Allyson. (It’s easy for me to picture them together after The Glenn Miller Story.) There’s a wholesomeness here that you just don’t see nowadays, strengthened by the “Once upon a time” fairy tale narration by Isaac Hayes.

For all his nuttier roles, Cage is admirably down-to-earth as responsible NYPD officer Charlie Lang, who’s beloved of the whole neighborhood except for his critical wife Muriel (Rosie Perez). Strapped for cash at a diner one day and too upstanding to not leave a tip, he promises down-and-out waitress Yvonne (Bridget Fonda) that he’ll split his lottery ticket with her if he wins. Lo and behold, he does, much to Yvonne’s delight and Muriel’s chagrin. Everyone uses their newfound fortune differently, and it doesn’t take long to see Charlie and Yvonne deserve each other far more than greedy Muriel or Yvonne’s also-greedy husband (a barely recognizable Stanley Tucci).

Based on and greatly exaggerating a real life story from ten years prior, It Could Happen to You begins with a universal what-if question of winning the lottery and extends that to ask whether Charlie should uphold his promise and how best to wield such riches. We as the audience may not be as humanitarian as Charlie and Yvonne, who freely share their wealth with the less fortunate, but we’re hopefully not as heartless as the scheming Muriel. Most people probably fall somewhere between the two extremes, but seeing them side by side reminds us just how laudable a Charlie or an Yvonne is in this selfish world. Yvonne even points out that, as decent people, they seem to be “freaks” in a place like New York City, but the end suggests that there are far more lovers of decency than the news headlines would have us believe.

Despite having an all-around charm to it, I must admit that It Could Happen to You isn’t very strong in the comedy department. I don’t remember laughing once, though Cage and Fonda largely made up for that with their sweet chemistry. On the other hand, Rosie Perez’s grating voice made her excessively unpleasant, as if the courtroom scenes with her calculating lawyer weren’t enough. Don’t you hate those scenes where some devious lawyer twists the facts to paint the worst possible picture of an innocent defendant who’s too inarticulate to escape being backed into a corner? I do, so the film’s second half was a tad annoying before it bounced back to satisfying.

With the classic tune “Young at Heart” sung by both Frank Sinatra and Tony Bennett, the film evokes a vaguely similar tone as Sleepless in Seattle but could have used a more humorous script. Still, lacking much profanity or objectionable content, it’s a reminder that Hollywood once did PG-rated romances just as well as the R-rated ones. Fonda and Cage have rarely been so appealing, and the end is likely to leave you with a smile.

Best line: (Charlie, about Muriel) “It’s like we’re on two different channels now. I’m CNN, and she’s the Home Shopping Network.”

 

Rank: Honorable Mention

 

© 2017 S.G. Liput
517 Followers and Counting

 

The Zookeeper’s Wife (2017)

Tags

Biopic, Drama, History

Animals hold no ill will
Like we humans when we kill.
Animals cannot relate
To we who brand and scorn and hate.

Life is simple in their eyes,
Where we confuse and compromise,
Yet, when all the world grows cruel,
Survival is our common rule.

Man can treat his fellow man
Far worse than other creatures can.
Likewise, mankind stands apart
In sharing greater depths of heart.
______________________

MPAA rating: PG-13

There are some movies that, no matter how well made they are, just tend to fall into the second tier of their genre. The Zookeeper’s Wife is one such film, yet another historical drama based on true events of endangered Europeans dealing with the Nazi occupation and risking all to help Jews during the Holocaust. Such films are guaranteed to be emotional and impactful as they strive to emulate Schindler’s List, but although I haven’t been able to bring myself to watch Schindler’s List for comparison, I can tell that The Zookeeper’s Wife likely won’t win any Oscars, if its March release date wasn’t already a hint.

Jessica Chastain as Antonina Żabiński is the titular wife to Johan Heldenbergh’s zookeeper Jan Żabiński, both of whom happily run the Warsaw Zoo in the days leading up to the German invasion. As someone who has always enjoyed visits to the zoo, I enjoyed the scenes with the diverse animals, which are charmingly natural, as if it’s perfectly normal in this family to cuddle with a white lion cub. Of course, those scenes are quickly upended by Nazi bombers who decimate the city and many of the exhibits, leaving released camels and big cats to add to the chaos. These scenes and the deaths that result can be distressing for animal lovers, but the film doesn’t dwell on the animals themselves for long, as the zoo is promptly emptied by Hitler’s chief zoologist Lutz Heck (Daniel Bruhl). Without a zoo to care for, the Żabińskis turn their attention to the impounded Jews of the Warsaw Ghetto, choosing to take part in an Underground Railroad to help them to safety and hide them in the zoo.

All three of the main actors do excellent work here, particularly Chastain, fake accent and all. While his character is far more actively involved in the resistance movement, smuggling Jews from the ghetto in a garbage truck, Heldenbergh is oddly sidelined at times, hence why the film isn’t called The Zookeeper. Having played a Nazi before in Inglourious Basterds, Bruhl is respectably menacing in his romantic advances toward Antonina, which she humors for the sake of keeping him off the scent of her hidden friends. When he does catch on, his jilted fury is frighteningly unpredictable during a heart-in-the-throat scene toward the end. While some details are given at the end, I do wish there was a little more information about what became of the Żabińskis afterward.

There’s little negative to say about The Zookeeper’s Wife. My VC read the book and found this to be an admirable adaptation, despite certain changes. The music, the locations, the moments of shocking inhumanity and heartening empathy are all commendably effective, but not quite as involving as they would seem on paper. It’s ultimately more encouraging than some of its devastating cousins, perhaps owing to the restraint afforded by its PG-13 rating. There is no shortage of Holocaust movies, and considering how easily mankind forgets, even today, there need to be many more, so The Zookeeper’s Wife deserves to be seen, even if it’s not one of the stand-outs of the group.

Best line: (Antonina) “You can never tell who your enemies are or who to trust. Maybe that’s why I love animals so much. You look in their eyes, and you know exactly what’s in their hearts. They’re not like people.”

 

Rank: List Runner-Up

 

© 2017 S.G. Liput
517 Followers and Counting

 

2017 Blindspot Pick #10: Donnie Darko (2001)

Tags

Drama, Mystery, Sci-fi, Thriller

I’m crazy, they say,
Since I see things that they
Cannot see, know, or even believe.
I’m crazy, although
I know which domino
Will destroy all that we now perceive.

I’m crazy, of course,
There’s no spirit or force
That could show me the things I have seen.
I’m crazy, perhaps,
But when things do collapse,
Maybe then they’ll all know what I mean.
_________________

MPAA rating: R (for language throughout and brief violence)

Well, it’s about time I got to see this movie. Considering its cult popularity, I’m surprised how hard it was to find a copy through my usual sources, a search that delayed this review as my intended October Blindspot. So now that I’ve watched Donnie Darko, what do I think of it? I’m honestly not sure! I can’t pin down exactly how I feel about this independent favorite. Not since Cloud Atlas has a film left me so befuddled, but at least that movie impressed me enough to know I liked it.

Along with October Sky, Donnie Darko helped establish Jake Gyllenhaal as a rising star of the early 2000s, and they certainly proved his range.  While his Homer Hickam in October Sky was all starry-eyed inspiration, Donnie Darko is a rebellious and mentally troubled teen who is told the world will end by a man in a demonic bunny costume. You can’t get much more different than that! Although I much prefer October Sky, Donnie Darko is consistently, um…I guess the word is interesting. I found myself engrossed in what would happen next simply because I wanted to know what the heck was going on with this teenage malcontent and his delusions of a bunny man named Frank.

There are a lot of disparate elements and compelling side characters in Donnie Darko, and I’m not convinced they all come together as they should. There’s Donnie’s budding romance with the new girl in class (Jena Malone). There’s a local motivational speaker (Patrick Swayze) whose positivity methods are derided. There’s a committed English teacher (Drew Barrymore) whose literature choices are denounced by the self-righteous gym teacher (Beth Grant). There are a bullied oriental girl who Donnie sympathizes with and a senile old woman (Patience Cleveland) who keeps checking her mailbox and once wrote a book on time travel. And in the midst of all this is Donnie, antisocial, prone to cynical outbursts, and a regular with his hypnotherapist (Katharine Ross). A special mention too for Jake’s sister Maggie Gyllenhaal as his sister in the movie as well. It may seem like I just listed all the characters for no reason, but that’s kind of how I felt watching the movie, as if each of these characters only mattered when they interacted with Donnie and didn’t go anywhere without him.

Surrounded by a general sense of gloom, Donnie’s visions are intriguing as we wonder whether they’re real or just a product of paranoid schizophrenia, and there are plenty of memorable scenes, whether from Donnie’s sardonic barbs, the dreamy moments of destruction, or the well-utilized soundtrack with songs from Tears for Fears, Duran Duran, and Echo and the Bunnymen. (Get it, Bunnymen? It is set in 1988, after all.) I had a vague idea of how it would end, but I’ll admit that one scene totally shocked me and the final scenes were unexpectedly poignant, even as I wasn’t sure how much I really understood.

Donnie Darko is a lot of things at once: an angsty teen drama, a sci-fi thriller version of Harvey with psychological underpinnings and brilliant foreshadowing, a critique on holier-than-thou hypocrites, a black comedy with some weirdly funny dialogue. That bizarre Smurf conversation could only come from an independent movie. As I came to terms with my belief that the plot only makes sense if it’s all a delusional premonition in Donnie’s head, I did some research and found that there’s a much more complicated backstory with tangent universes and manipulated dead that isn’t really touched on in the film (at least the theatrical version I saw) but offers plenty of food for thought in trying to justify this overly complicated version of events. I guess it all comes down to the fact that what ends up happening had to happen, but I think the real “why” to this convoluted tale is only really known to writer-director Richard Kelly.

I’m not decided on how much I actually liked Donnie Darko, but it certainly got me thinking, which is always welcome. I can see why it earned a cult following, at least among those who enjoy the effort of trying for it all to make sense.

Best line (or at least the one I got a kick out of): (Emily, to her sister Susie) “Beth’s mom said the boys’ locker room was flooded and they found feces everywhere.”   (Susie) “What are feces?”   (Emily) “Baby mice.”   (Susie) “Aww.”

 

Rank: List Runner-Up?

 

© 2017 S.G. Liput
517 Followers and Counting

 

VC Pick: White Nights (1985)

Tags

Drama, Musical, Thriller, VC Pick

There are desperate folk where the sun wears no cloak
And the nights are as light as the day.
People come with a grudge and they rarely will budge
Since they’ve no other choice but to stay.

There are pasts black as pitch, a few poor and some rich,
But they’re all the same on that plateau,
Where they’ve all lost their rights to the land where the nights
Are as bright and as white as the snow.

There are desperate men in their self-assigned pen,
And they do what they must to escape,
As they muse in disgrace how they came to this place,
Where the sun never leaves the landscape.
___________________

MPAA rating: PG-13

It seems I’ve been neglecting my dear VC, not having reviewed one of her picks for well over a month. To fix that, she had me revisit a film I saw years ago and only remembered certain scenes. I thought my memories were more vague, but watching the movie brought them all back so I guess it was more memorable than I thought. With a title referring to Siberia’s lack of sunset, White Nights is unique as both a Cold War thriller and a musical combining two dancers-turned-actors with different specialties, tap dancer Gregory Hines and ballet dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov.

When I say it’s a musical, that doesn’t mean people break into song at random moments, but since both of its main characters are performers, they each get to strut their stuff on stage throughout the film. Baryshnikov’s character of Nikolai Rodchenko is practically autobiographical, a famed ballet dancer who defects from the Soviet Union. When his plane crash-lands in Siberia, he is taken into custody by the Soviets, who task disillusioned American defector Raymond Greenwood (Hines) with convincing Nikolai to voluntarily serve Soviet interests, whether he likes it or not.

This is a case where it feels that the movie was made just to team up two talented dancers, employing a Cold War plot meant to keep it timely. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but let’s just say the dance scenes are far more memorable than the Soviet intrigue. Hines gets to show off his talents as dancer, singer, and actor, with some personal theatrics that make his conflicted character sympathetic, though they don’t quite convince us why the heck he would pick the U.S.S.R. over the U.S. He has surprising chemistry with Isabella Rossillini as his wife, as does Baryshnikov with Helen Mirren as his ex-lover, so there’s little negative I can say about the acting.

Likewise, the musical numbers are marvelous, from Baryshnikov’s modern dance opener (Le Jeune Homme et la Mort) to Hines’ tap rendition of “There’s a Boat Dat’s Leavin’ Soon for New York” from Porgy and Bess. The real kickers are when the two let loose freestyle in the ballet studio, though I do wish those scenes were longer. Yet, despite the great dancing and decent tension toward the end, I feel that I could just as well have watched the musical highlights and skipped the occasionally boring scenes in between, just as I can enjoy Lionel Richie’s Oscar-winning song “Say You, Say Me” or the also-nominated “Separate Lives” sung by Phil Collins with or without the movie to which they’re attached.

While my VC probably won’t be pleased with my ranking, White Nights is simply not one of my favorites, despite the pleasure of seeing two very different dancers collaborating with some athletic and complementary choreography. It’s a decent film all around, and I’m struggling to find much negative to say about it, but it’s one I’d probably only watch when she insists.

Best line:   (Nikolai) “I see. You and your wife, you work in the theater. And you live here… in Siberia.”   (Raymond) “It’s just temporary.”   (Nikolai, dryly) “Of course. Nobody is here permanently.”

VC’s best line: (Nikolai) “You’re an important person, with power. I hear you drive a Mercedes now.”  (Ivanova, played by Mirren) “And what do you ride, Kolya? A donkey? Yes, I rebuilt my life! I was supposed to throw everything away so that you could live in Disneyland?”

 

Rank: Honorable Mention

 

© 2017 S.G. Liput
517 Followers and Counting

 

Opinion Battles Round 21 Favourite Ghost Movie

Don’t forget to vote for your favorite ghost movie in Round 21 of Opinion Battles! Ghost movies aren’t just for Halloween, and one that I can watch anytime is Ghostbusters 2, the slightly funnier sequel to the classic original. That’s just my opinion, but be sure to vote for yours as well.

Movie Reviews 101

Opinion Battles Round 21

Favourite Ghost Movie

Halloween is here and that means time for a couple of horror rounds, the first we are looking at our favourite film involving ghosts, we have some of the most frightening or comical films but what will everyone pick?

If you want to join the next round of Opinion Battles we will be take on What is your First-Choice Halloween Horror Marathon, to enter email your choice to moviereviews101@yahoo.co.ukby Saturday 28th October 2017.

Darren – Movie Reviews 101

One Missed Call

I personally love ghost film, I find something in all of them but One Missed Call bought into horror something I never thought would be scary, an asthma inhaler. I know that doesn’t sound like the most threatening but trust me it is, the ghost side of this film comes from ghost haunting the students who need to figure out why.

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The Dirty Dozen (1967)

Tags

Action, Classics, War

When Nazis are doing what Nazis will do,
And you’re busy planning for D-Day’s debut,
Too busy to spare a commando or two
To send on a raid that could likely get you
Fired if it were to fail or fall through,
Who wouldn’t think, “I’ve an idea to pursue!
I’ll gather a murderous felon or two
Or twelve and I’ll line them all up in a queue
And train them to do what I want them to do.
Who cares if they misbehave out of my view
Or turn psycho, causing a hullabaloo?
It’s not my fault if something bad should ensue.
I know it’s a risk, and it’s dangerous too,
As my bosses would tell me if they only knew,
But expendability has its value.”
Who would think that? That’s right, very few.
___________________

MPAA rating: Not Rated (should be PG-13)

Considering I only saw it once years and years ago, I thought it was about time I reminded myself why The Dirty Dozen is so popular. After all, its memory brought Tom Hanks and Victor Garber to tears in Sleepless in Seattle. While it didn’t quite leave me choked up like them, I must admit it’s a unique classic of the war genre, full of surly machismo and a highly talented cast. And despite having practically the same basic premise, it’s way better than Suicide Squad.

In the months leading up to D-Day, Lee Marvin’s Major Reisman is put in command of an experimental unit of twelve convicted prisoners, who are to be trained and sent on a probable suicide mission for the Allied cause.  Half of them plucked from death row, this “Dirty Dozen,” as they’re later explicitly called, is full of murderers and rebels, and despite being offered amnesty if they survive, they aren’t about to become model soldiers overnight. Thus, the no-nonsense Reisman pulls no punches in whipping them into shape and encouraging them to work together for their own (and the army’s) best interest.

The main thing I recalled from my first viewing was that I had trouble telling the men apart. Obviously, I could recognize Jim Brown as the only black member, but the others all blended together to the point that the deaths toward the end didn’t mean much to me since they were all interchangeable. While not everyone stood out this time either, I was better able to distinguish the actors I’d seen elsewhere, such as Donald Sutherland as Pinkley, Charles Bronson as Wladislaw, and John Cassavetes as Franko, plus Ernest Borgnine and George Kennedy as officers. Others stood out for their distinct personalities, such as Clint Walker’s shy Posey and Telly Savalas’s psycho Maggott. That’s still only half of the Dozen that I could pick out of a lineup from memory, but at least it’s better than my first go-round.

When I ignored trying to tell the other six apart, I was able to just enjoy the movie, which starts out slow but gets better with time. Periodic humor keeps the tone relatively light, such as Pinkley impersonating a general, and although the Dozen are labeled as bad men, there were levels to their “dirtiness.” Some like Maggott with his religious zealotry were downright crazy, but others were simply high-strung and bitter in their defiance. A few even had mitigating circumstances to their crimes that made them more sympathetic than others. This was something that Suicide Squad didn’t do well in making all the villains psychopaths, along with some of the “good guys” too. There has to be someone the audience can sympathize with, and at least a few of the men in The Dirty Dozen were worth caring about.

While the training and the war games scenes were rather fun to watch, the best part is the actual mission against the Nazis to which everything else builds. With the high body count and higher bullet count, this is war action at its best, even if I’m still not sure where and when everyone who died bit the dust. The film got a fair amount of criticism at the time for its violence, and I was a bit shocked too by the ruthlessness of killing both Nazi officers and their potentially innocent escorts, though I suppose such is war and the mission at hand. The Dirty Dozen lives up to its reputation as a “man’s movie,” but my VC enjoyed it too. Even with its large cast, it wrings plenty of excitement from the risk of its somewhat implausible but entertaining premise.

Best line: (Reisman, leaving the room after a racist comment starts a brawl) “Oh, the gentleman from the South had a question about the dining arrangements. He and his comrades are discussing place settings now.”

 

Rank: List Runner-Up

 

© 2017 S.G. Liput
517 Followers and Counting