Movies #59-61

Three Film Sunday! Steve and I went to River East cinema downtown, and paid for entry to World Trade Center (only $5 for showings before noon!) Then we walked into two other movies. It was perfectly timed – one of the screenings was even directly across the aisle from the previous one. Five bucks for three movies – that’s even cheaper than the Logan Budget theater. And Steve is now my official Movie Buddy. We also saw a ton of trailers for the fall season (including several that we missed in Toronto) – so I’m officially still excited about movies (in general) at the moment.


WORLD TRADE CENTER
I actually liked this film quite a bit. Somehow I managed not to cry even once. Maybe it was too early in the morning. Oliver Stone did an admirable job of restraining his normal over-the-top impulses, and the acting was all around great. I knew what was going to happen at the end (concerning the main characters), which may have sapped the film of some of its power. I was also very annoyed with Maria Bello’s blue contact lenses. She has beautiful, expressive brown eyes, but with the lenses her eyes looked dead and Marilyn Mansonish. I wouldn’t have thought that colored contacts could have that effect, but apparently they do. Anyway this is definitely worth watching, if nothing else for the superb atmosphere (both in the streets, where no one knew what the hell was going on, and in the cramped rubble of the buildings). I know it’s awful to express pity for the survivors, but all I could think about was the horrible variety of respiratory diseases they were struck with after spending days exposed to all the chemicals and debris in the air.


THE BLACK DAHLIA
This movie gets an A++ for style, but not much else. I always think Brian De Palma’s movies are worth watching, because he generally knows what he’s doing, and his best movies are both gripping in the Hollywood sense and artistic in the independent sense. This film was overly ambitious, and there were far too many plot lines that supposedly came together tidily at the end (but didn’t in reality, at least for me and Steve). Some of the dialog was stilted and ridiculous, and often something really “dramatic” would happen onscreen, but I had no idea why it was significant. Josh Hartnett was surprisingly good, and his face and acting style (or is it lack of style?) actually suit this genre. So, to sum up, I would recommend this movie only to those who can admire a film for its look while simultaneously being mired in confusion.


HOLLYWOODLAND
Two movies set in old-timey Hollywood back-to-back… A little confusing. This was much more straightforward than The Black Dahlia and is pretty entertaining throughout. There are two separate plot lines: Ben Affleck as George Reeves, and Adrien Brody as an investigator looking into the mysterious circumstances of Reeves’ death. Oddly enough, the storyline with the investigation was the weaker of the two. It was elaborated in a way that didn’t seem necessary for the development of the movie arc in general, and there were several occurrences that could have been left out altogether for a tighter and more interesting film. The half of the movie that was straight biopic was better, or at least more convincing. Ben Affleck does a thoroughly decent job as Reeves, especially in his weak, tired, broken-down moments. He’s also quite funny. Overall the film was well-done but bland. Or maybe it seemed bland because I had just watched two movies by Oliver Stone and De Palma.