The Wolf of Wall Street

This week I might have time to post twice but let’s start with what I promised. The wolf of wall street was not exactly what I could genuinely call a hot potato but I have to admit that it was definitely not as good as I thought it would be. It is about the life of Jordan Belfort played by Leonardo Di Caprio. Jordan after losing his job as a stock broker ends up working in a small company selling penny stocks. He manages to earn a small fortune since penny stocks have a much larger commission than the blue chips and at this point he meets Danny Porush (Jonah Hill) his future main partner. He decides to start his own company and trains his colleagues how to persuade ignorant innocents to invest their savings in penny stocks. Soon the company starts attracting hundreds of ambitious wall street young predators. Jordan on his way up becomes addicted to pills and cocaine, breaks up with his first wife and marries Naomi a typical Barbie. Meanwhile FBI starts investigating Jordan’s dirty business and finally after two years arrests him and shuts down his company. Naomi divorces him and takes full custody of their daughter. Jordan ends up in prison though doing short time and at the end we see him giving seminars on sales techniques. Leonardo Di Caprio righteously was nominated for best performance in a leading role but also righteously lost the golden statue because of Matthew McConaughey. He has made much better movies than the wolf of Wall Street (blood diamond, the departed) but unfortunately he has not been particularly favoured by the academy and although he has been nominated for an Oscar four times he keeps leaving the golden hall empty handed.

Firstly the movie in my opinion is painfully long, almost three hours is more than enough to make you halfway lose your interest for the film. I really like Martin Scorsese and a few of his films are in my list of favourites but this time he did not make something new and original, he just repeated himself and if you have seen goodfellas you already know what I mean. Scorsese took the same recipe and applied it to new standards. Goodfellas is about the rise and fall of a notorious gangster starting in the 50-60’s until the 80’s in America played by Ray Liotta. The two stories have parallel plots and end up with similar ways. Young ambitious men rising up the ladder of corruption with any possible way become addicted to drugs and at the end in both cases are being busted by the FBI and forced to snitch to save their pitiful little arses.

I really liked goodfellas but after I saw the wolf of wall street I just felt that I watched a repetition with Di Caprio replacing Liotta. Also another common thing between these two movies is the female roles and the way they affect the scenario. My last observation is about the scoring, something was definitely wrong and although I have to admit my knowledge is limited on this field I definitely didn’t like the scene when the FBI makes arrests in the entire company and at the back plays Mrs Robinson. I might sound picky but something simply wasn’t matching, it is like having in the same plate chocolate chip brownies and smocked salmon. I had high expectations for the film but I ended up leaving the room feeling disappointed.  Overall it is a good movie; well made, with excellent performances but if you have seen goodfellas I believe that you also feel a little bit disappointed.

American beauty

I keep writing about movies that I really like but I promise that my next post would be about a movie that I didn't like ‘a movie that I was expecting to be good but ended up to be a what I could call a hot potato’. But this one is about American beauty.  And yes it is once again a favourite. A film that I like to re-watch every now and then just to remind myself that life is beautiful.

Lester Burnham (Kevin Spacey) a middle class family man lives an unhappy suburban life. He decides to change it after falling in love with his daughter’s friend, Angela played by Mena Suvari. Actually he is experiencing a mid-life crisis. He quits his job after blackmailing his boss in order to obtain a much higher compensation of what he actually deserves, change completely his behaviour towards his wife and daughter, starts all of a sudden working out after overhearing Angela implying that she could fell for him if he would improve his physical image, starts smoking pot, trades his family car for a Pontiac Firebird and gets re-employed serving fast food. A critical point in the movie is that Lester starts buying his little pleasures by his neighbour's son, Ricky. A teenager suppressed by his father’s army background and forced to join a military academy but finally ends up in a mental hospital. Ricky through the film develops a relationship with Lester’s daughter. Ricky’s father, Frank suspects that something devious is going on between Lester and his son and after watching Ricky delivering some goodies to Lester he misunderstands and thinks that his son is gay and he has a relationship with their neighbour. Lester tries to seduce Angela but he finds out that she is a virgin and ends up seeing her more like a daughter rather than his deeply desired blond Venus. Her image of a lustful creature falls apart being replaced by what she actually is, just a child. At the end when Lester seems to have found some peace within him sitting on his sofa looking at a family photo he gets shot by Frank and there is where the film shocks you. I was shocked anyway! This scene is beautifully made, showing just a gun approaching Lester from the back.

Through the movie we see the deteriorating relationships between families. Lester and his alienating relationship with his wife (who by the way cheats on him) and his desire for something beyond his reach (the young teenage girl that will make him feel young again) and Frank the neighbour, a retired marine, who tyrannizes his son, has absolutely no sympathy for his wife and he is full of superstitions and fears. It projects the American dream and the way it can fall apart.

The film is beautifully made by Sam Mendes. Mendes in his movies often focuses on problematic, dysfunctional relationships between families or individuals. Generally, I find his way of filming slow but very artistic and elegant. I could say that through his movies we observe slow unfolding mainly of feelings based on broken characters. I will never forget the small part of Michael Shannon on revolutionary road, I forgot Di Caprio and definitely I remember nothing about Winslet but I can’t forget Shannon and what he says to Di Caprio when he founds out their plans ‘plenty of people are on to the emptiness  but it takes real guts to see the hopelessness’. Both movies have things in common. But anyway I definitely prefer American beauty just because I find it more real. It reflects the modern society, the suburban way of living. To be something that you don’t really want to be just because society forces you, get married, have a family, the perfect job and hide under the carpet what you really desire. I believe that Lester is the modern rebellion that decides to say what he wants and tries to reclaim it. And when you think that he made it, that he has gone through the crisis and he finally finds some kind of peace inside him, smiling blissfully as he looks at a family photo….bammmmm a shot in the back of the head. Frank’s bullet is not really a bullet is the invisible ghost that will stop you if you decide to be different. But there is so much to interpret in this movie; the whole film is an allegory I could keep watching and analysing it and every single time to discover a new hidden meaning. The characters have dreams but at the end they all somehow get disappointed, but I guess you should see beauty in every little simple thing in life to be happy.

And I will end up with Lester’s final words as he drifts into his death ‘I guess I could be pretty pissed off about what happened to me but it’s hard to stay mad when there is so much beauty in the world, sometimes I feel like I am seeing it all at once and it’s too much my heart fills up like a balloon it’s about to burst and then I remember to relax and stop trying to hold on to it and then it flows through me like rain and I can’t feel anything but gratitude for every single moment of my stupid little life, you have no idea what I am talking about, I am sure, but don’t worry you will someday’.

Thin Red Line

I have to admit that I am a big fan of Terens Malick. Although not a favourite of many movie critics and the Hollywood, mainly because of his special cinematographic philosophical style but also because he just makes films whenever he feels like it. His movies look like small projects that progress slowly over the years. It took him over a decade to make the tree of life and missed 2009, 2010 the opportunity to be released. But anyway I recently re-watched the thin red line (1998) and that is why I remembered why I like Malick.

The movie is about the Guadalcanal battle during the Second World War and the story of a platoon during the battle of mount Austen. It is an adaptation of James Jones’ novel written and directed by Terens Malick nominated for 7 oscars however failed to win any of this awards.

The movie lasts for 170 min out of which the audience has the opportunity to listen to personal narrations often in the middle of the plot or on top of other scenes. Narrative style is what has been established by Malick reflecting his personal style. These narrations mainly involve philosophical questions about life, death, war, survival and human relationships. All these things the movie is truly about. I believe that through this movie Malick is trying to persuade his audience to think deeply about what he has to say, hypnotising it away from the screenplay and the characters.  All these soldiers at the end seem to be one person. The plot is thin and what is most amazing is the director’s cinematography. The way he tries to place the camera in the soldiers’ point of view, filming from a very low level often from within the grass in slow motion capturing at the same time the nature all around. Another thing that I should mention is Malick’s adoration to nature. He often films close shots of insects, animals, plants, flowers. During the movie all of a sudden where there is death and blood and pain everywhere, you get life.

It starts showing private Whitt played by Jim Caviezel, an army deserter being part of an isolated community with another fellow soldier somewhere in the South Pacific. However, they are being retrieved and forced to return to the battle field. Occasionally, the movie is flashing back to the pleasant moments back to the community away from the war and to Naomi Watts and her relationship with private Bell (Ben Chaplin). One of the main characters is Whitt, however, he doesn’t have the opportunity to get fully impersonated during the film and the only characters that develop some kind of solid relationship are Nick Nolte and Elias Koteas (I like that Koteas sometimes speaks in Greek). Sean Penn is also co-staring but he is not the only good actor part of this movie. Also John Cusack, Andrien Brody, Woody Harrelson, John Travolta, George Clooney and Jared Leto are just a few more that make brief appearances during the film.

Overall it is considered a very well made film not really focusing on the characters and their acting skills but on what the director has to say. It is all about what Malick has in his head and the way he tries to persuade you to think about it. An indirect way but at the same time so mesmerising that you just cannot deny accepting it. And finally I will close with one of Witt's quotes and one of my favourite in the film 'Where is it that we were together? Who were you that I lived with? The brother. The friend. Darkness, light. Strife and love. Are they the workings of one mind? The features of the same face? Oh, my soul. Let me be in you now. Look out through my eyes. Look out the things you made. All things shining'. 

Dallas buyers club

I have decided to write something about a recent film, Dallas buyers club. What can I say about it, the first thing that just pops up into my mind is Matthew McConaughey’s performance. First of all I am really pleased that a movie not being made from a very well known and established Hollywood director finally came out and won (1^st leading and 2^nd supporting male actor, the only movie that wins both awards after mystic river).

Matthew McConaughey had to go under an exhaustive diet loosing approximately 38 pounds (give or take 18 kilos), destroying his established male-charmer macho image and just giving his heart and soul into a unique role for his career that finally granted him the highly desired golden little statue that most of the actors dream of winning one day. Jared Leto is playing a woman trapped in the body of a man, drug addicted also suffering from HIV. But his performance was not as surprising since we have seen him before in ‘hard-core’ films such as Darren Aronofsky’s requiem for a dream playing a junkie. Probably a few will still remember him in fight club, ‘another good film dealing with fascism, insomnia and commercialism’ and in American psycho, playing second roles but still supporting them quite well.   What makes Dallas buyers club a winner and one of the best movies of 2013 is of course the performances, the strong issue about HIV the early days of discovery and the courage of a man to bypass the pharmaceutical system and claim his right to decide how to live the rest of his life. A short life, at least after the first diagnosis (30 days), eventually prolonged up to 7 years after showing a lot of courage and determination.  Ron Woodroof after diagnosed with HIV, decides not to follow the medical recommendations. He falls right after his diagnosis and his rejection due to his disease by his social circle into drug abuse and alcohol but after his degeneration which seems like a suicide attempt he decides to fight. He establishes a club to help other HIV sufferers distributing drugs that were not approved from FDA, travels the world to obtain alternative treatments (we see him in Mexico, Denmark and Japan pretending to be occasionally a minister or a doctor trying to smuggle drugs), test them on him, goes against the system and overcomes his homosexual fears by taking up his side Rayon (Jared Leto) as his personal assistant. The film deep inside deals with social fears and taboos related to homosexuality, the racism against HIV sufferers around 80’s when the virus was first discovered and narrates a true story about how a terrifically sad and devastating situation can finally make you a better person capable to overcome your fears.