The Wizard of Oz

The Wizard of Oz

Dir: Victor Fleming 1939

The Wizard of Oz is almost certainly my favorite film. It’s a classic there is just no two ways about it. The fact that this grand epic film was made in 1939 has never ceased to amaze me every effect that worked back then still holds up today. With no exaggeration I have probably seen this film over fifty times; I’ve been watching it ever since I was a small child and have owned it in three separate mediums (VHS, DVD, and special edition blu-ray.)

But what is it that keeps bringing me back to a film I have seen way too many times? If I’m being honest with myself (and all of you by extension) there’s isn’t much about it that doesn’t work for me.

The characters are timeless and memorable, Dorothy is just a mixed up girl who is in way over her head and just wants to get home. The three friends that she makes along the way, The Scarecrow, The Tin Man and the Cowardly Lion all care so much for her that they risk their own lives to save her from the evil Wicked Witch.   And of course who could forget Toto.

The plot is simple but the audience is taken on this amazing journey through this bright colorful magic land and it feels real. I always remember how distinctive the colors are throughout the middle part of the film and how much of a contrast it is to the black and white parts of the film. The fact that the magical land of Oz is colored just lends and extra level of wonder to the whole experience.

I really feel like I could take about the Wizard of Oz for days but I’ll leave you with this thought. Every time  I watch the film I am captivated by it, as if it was my first time seeing the film. It truly has that immersive quality for me.

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang

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Kiss Kiss Bang Bang

Dir: Shane Black 2005

I have realized that there are certain movies that I just have to watch during certain months. October is home to both good and bad horror films, Good Will Hunting is a requirement for November, and now that it is December I couldn’t wait to break out Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. This is a film that works on a number of different levels: it’s extremely funny, it’s a solid old-school detective styled story, and it has some great action scenes. Robert Downey Jr. (RDJ from here on out) and Val Kilmer are the most absurd pairing but they are both hilarious playing off of each other. Plus who doesn’t love movies set in L.A. at Christmas?

RDJ is the narrator as well as the main character and he delivers some of the best “fourth-wall breaking” narration I’ve ever heard in film. His character “Harry” was a two bit thief in New York City who found himself in a film audition whilst running away from the police. The film producers are impressed with his performance and they fly him out to L.A. for the fast track experience. In L.A. Harry has to take “detective lesson” from Gay Perry (Val Kilmer in possibly his most convincing performance) a private investigator. As luck would have it Harry finds himself in the middle of a real case involving everything from missing persons, to homicide and everything in between. It is up to Harry to put all the pieces together in time and solve the case.

Hugo

Hugo

Dir: Martin Scorsese 2011

Hugo was my favorite film of 2011. I think I saw it three times in theatres because I kept thinking of more people I knew would appreciate it. I have a distinct memory of seeing this film on opening night in a completely empty theatre (it opened the same night as the new Muppet movie and had incredibly poor advertising) but that opening night experience was nothing short of magical. As soon as the credits started to roll I realized that Hugo had reminded me about everything that I loved about movies in the first place, as a young child.

Hugo is a little French boy who lives by himself above a Paris train station in 1931. Hugo’s only company high above the train station is a broken, mechanical, man. The boy very good with machines, a skill he learned from his father, (Jude Law) who was an inventor and watch repairman before his death. The film chronicles Hugo’s adventures around the city as well as his interactions with the regular patrons of the train station.

One day Hugo meets a young French girl in the train station. Her passion is reading and she shares these text based adventures with Hugo, who in turn introduces her to the magical world of motion pictures. This is where the film really picks up for me as a film geek. The audience is treated to a beautiful and interesting history lesson about the early days of film making. It’s more of a love letter to cinema than anything else by this point, the narrative is definitely still solid but I found myself being swept away by all of the scenes involving making films in the past.

This film really had me believing that films are where imagination really lives.

Trainspotting

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Trainspotting

Dir: Danny Boyle 1996 

Trainspotting is a fun, Scottish film about Heroine and its effects on the body, and on people relationships. Ewan McGregor stars as Renton a boy who recently has quit Heroine and realizes that he doesn’t actually like any of his friends whilst sober so he tries to get away and make a new life for himself. Unfortunately for Renton most of his friends are either heroin addicts or violent, crazy, drunks. Renton finds himself unable to break away from his friends despite his best efforts and that is where the drama picks up.

 Like a said earlier this movie is full of fun. The soundtrack is amazingly catchy and upbeat (when the intense drums of Iggy Pop are the first thing you hear in a film you know that it is going to have a certain style and tone). This is also one of the funniest movies that I have seen in a very long time the youthful, talented actors coupled with the snappy pop-culture-referencey dialogue make for some great jokes. I felt like some of the conversations that characters had in the film were conversations I’ve had with my own friends. Pretty much every conversation in the film that isn’t about scoring Heroine is about music, movies, or sports it really makes these characters come to life, At least in my world it does.

Dancer in the Dark

Dancer in the Dark (2000)

Dir: Lars Von Trier

Dancer in the Dark is a film that I had no knowledge of when I sat down to watch it; And I am quite glad for that fact because I doubt it would have had the same impact upon me. The best possible way I could describe this film is “fascinatingly depressing.”

This Film is all about Selma (Played by Icelandic singer/ song writer Bjork). Selma is a factory worker with more than a few quirks and a big secret. She is losing her sight, which as one might imagine is not ideal for a factory worker (what with all the dangerous, loud, bone crushing, machines around and such). However Selma needs the job to save money for her only son to have an operation so that he doesn’t have to endure the family blindness.  This means that Selma has to learn to pretend to see because if they found out she was blind they would not allow her to work there.

 Selma absolutely adores Musicals of the stage and screen, particularly the tap dancing numbers. Because of this a huge amount of the film is dedicated to her day dream sequences which feature new songs by Bjork and some impressively elaborate choreography. These songs are particularly impressive because the melody is created by whatever is around Selma in the “real world” (so the song in the factory is filled with whirring machines and steam sounds.)  It’s almost like watching two movies with the musical bits kick in suddenly the picture quality is heightened and the colors of the world are vibrant, a stark contrast to the gritty looking views or reality.

While this certainly isn’t the feel good film of the year it serves as something different and interesting for anyone who wants to find something unconventional.