Baraka 04/14/2010
 
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Just watched Ron Fricke's 1992 nonnarrative film Baraka (Blessing) and I'm still reeling from the whole idea the movie is built on, as well as from the montage of beautifully photographed scenes of nature, technology, and humanity.

For someone who usually likes his movie with a solid narrative, I got hooked from the first few shots of mountain scenery then cutting to a close-up of a red-faced spider monkey (?) bathing in a pool. Still waiting for a story to unfold, I got caught in the soulful look of the monkey staring not just at the camera but the viewer it seemed.

And before I knew it the movie reeled me into its haunting meditation -- for me -- on humanity and nature. The series of images set to an atmospheric soundtrack were like mantras, transporting me into a level of visual and spiritual understanding.

Okay, that may have sounded overly dramatic. But hey, even Roger Ebert waxes poetic on this film that he considers as one among his "great movies."
 
Knowing 04/01/2010
 
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What? That you're smack in the crosshairs of the next disaster, perhaps even the apocalypse? What are you going to do?

That's the premise of Alex Proyas's 2009 film, Knowing, that stars Nicholas Cage as the astrophysicist John Koestler. Cage/Koestler becomes intrigued by a piece of paper his son gets from a time capsule buried 50 years ago. He soon decodes the numbers as predicting disasters around the world -- with each set of numbers pointing to the date, number of casualties, and the location of the event. There are three dates left on the piece of paper that are yet to happen. And that sets the pace for the remainder of the movie.

But more than averting the disasters -- an impossible feat, it seems, as Koestler does not have an inkling in what form it will come -- or minimizing the casualties, Koestler also faces a mysterious group of figures, referred to in the movie as The Strangers, who apparently are able to communicate with his son. This adds a sci fi layer to the disaster flick.

It is this sci fi layer that really became the bummer for me. I mean, the disaster formula kind of worked, but then adding this whole idea of The Strangers -- perhaps aliens who are either responsible for the disasters or are there to help the humans -- kind of stretched the credulousness out of the movie.

Even on this Maundy Thursday and April Fool's Day holiday. As we say in Waray: Gin inuwat la kita.
 
Logorama 03/24/2010
 
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I had a good laugh watching this short animated film that won this year's Oscar for the category. The 16 minute Logorama (2009) features a Los Angeles made up of logos.

While some may find the movie's concept a bit gimmicky, there is some sense in how the directors portray this particular mecca of gloss and commercialism. And if you take into account how the movie's plot line follows the true-and-tested formulas of action films and disaster movies, with some emotional high points (if anything emotional can be squeezed out of a logo), you begin to ask how you are interpellated not just by logos but also by the cultural artifact that is Hollywood.

But do not get me wrong. The movie is no grim and determined critique of postmodern culture or how we are constructed by brands rather than by honest-to-goodness values -- although it is that too, if you think about it -- but a rollicking action slash disaster movie that will make you think. Watch it.
 
Blindness 02/28/2010
 
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Finally got to sit down and watch Fernando Meirelles's Blindness (2008). I often wondered how he would transform the apocalyptic world Jose Saramago created in his novel.

I wasn't disappointed at all. Julianne Moore was magnificent in her portrayal of the Doctor's Wife -- letting us feel what she was thinking and feeling in that wretched world that she alone was the sole witness. Through the intensity in her eyes and by how her jaw would be clenched tight, she could as well be mute as the only seeing person in a city where all the people had become blind.

I didn't like Gael Garcia Bernal being cast as the King of Ward 3, though. While he delivered quite a good performance, he didn't quite fit the character I imagined when reading the book. He looked really frail to be the King of Ward 3. Of course, that may be what Meirelles intended -- in a world where no one is able to see anything, size is not necessarily might.

And of course, my having read Saramago's novel Blindness (1995) may have clouded my lenses while watching the movie.
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Such a timely read it was then, what with the news about Influenza A H1N1 all over the papers. And with the alarming warnings of pandemic proportions. While there was cause for concern, some of the serious stuff was glossed over by the sensationalized reporting -- moreso on TV. Some of the reports even quoted government and health officials talking about the need to call in the military.

Which brings me to the novel, Blindness (1995), and how it portrays a city and country turning into a version of Hell as one by one the citizens are struck blind. The first few who lost their sight are quarantined in an abandoned mental asylum, with the military keeping watch so that no one escapes to infect others.

But soon everybody, inside and outside the quarantine, are struck blind. And soon humanity becomes its own nightmare. Except for a group of individuals led by a woman, the Doctor's Wife (no name is given her in the novel), who wasn't afflicted with the sudden blindness.

She becomes the only witness to the degradation around her, and sometimes she wishes that she were blind too. But ultimately, she is able to lead her group to a kind of sight -- a kind of hopefulness that lives on in everyone who doesn't forget their humanity.
 
Juie and Julia 01/29/2010
 
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Poster from Wikipedia
Watched this during the Christmas holidays. Here's the Wikipedia link for a synopsis of the movie as well as some review and other related info.

Meryl Streep shines as Julia Child, while Amy Adams sparkles as Julie Powell. But what I liked most about the film is Nora Ephron's brilliant screenplay woven out of Child's autobiography and Powell's memoir (based on her blog).

And of course, the scrumptiously photographed culinary dishes.
 
Team America 12/28/2009
 
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Poster from Wikipedia
This is the film to show your class when discussing American foreign policy. Trey Parker, the creator of South Park, shows us the Ugly American in action -- stop-motion animation style.

See how Americans, thinking themselves as superheroes (perhaps because they grew up reading The Justice League), destroy the Parisian landmarks in a minute or less. Of course, they also pat themselves on the back for a job well done stopping terrorists from blowing up the city.

This 2004 comedy film skewers not just American politics (both Left and Right), but also Hollywood, action movies, and politically-vocal Hollywood actors. It also features one of the longest gratuitous and graphic sex scenes ever in movies using marionettes as actors.

Of course watching this film from so-called Third World lens, I couldn't help but nod in agreement at the ineptness of Team America's swashbuckling braggadocio.

On second thought, though, I realized that by parodizing through their film the incompetence of American foreign policy, Trey Parker and company were also underlining their country's value for freedom, and how that virtue qualifies them to indeed act as "the world's police."
 
Underground 12/20/2009
 
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Emir Kusturica's 1995 film, Undergound (or, Once Upon a Time There Was a Country), plots how the madness of violence and war can change not just the landscapes of our lives but also the maps into our humanity.

Read the synopsis of the film from Wikipedia (where I also got the poster photo). And here's a YouTube video of the film's opening scene:

Here we see the film's two main characters, Blacky and Marko, two rogues of friends who start off from playing Robin Hood to becoming gunrunners before their passion for a stage actress tests their loyalties to each other and to their country. Their story parallels Yugoslavia's history from the German invasion to the Yugoslav wars (thus the alternate movie title).

This is a must-see movie not just for its storyline or theme but also for some memorable scenes, to name just a few: the bombing of Belgrade, right after that opening scene; Ivan's search in the underground for his pet chimp Soni; and the paradisaical ending with the ironic breaking away of an island.

 
 
"Editing is why people like watching movies. Because in the end, wouldn't we like to edit our own lives?" That's what director Rob Cohen says in the documentary The Cutting Edge: The Magic of Movie Editing (2004). 
And it couldn't have come at a more serendipitous time, too. Tim gave me a DVD copy of the docu that I watched in-between editing and marking papers. So there I was, watching the docu and wondering how to edit such tedious chores out of my existence.