Bad Day at Black Rock (1955)

I really wasn't quite sure what genre to place this film in before watching it. I thought it might fit best into drama or western, and I went ahead and watched it in western/war month. Now that I've seen it, I can definitely say that mystery is the best category for it. Which is a tough one to talk about without divulging the entertainment of the film.

We start the film with Spencer Tracy stepping off a train in the town of Black Rock, a small town where a train stopping is an irregular occurrence. He is immediately asked what he is doing there, and it is clear that something is being covered up. The men that approach him immediately assume that he is come sort of government agent there to investigate something.

The movie is all of an hour and twenty minutes and blows by really fast. Discovering his intentions in this small town and what the townspeople are hiding is the entire plot. If the film was much longer it would be annoying since it is pretty much laid out from the start.

Not a bad film, but I could see myself forgetting a film so simple in plot. A nice change from the typical western though.

Vote: 7/10

IMDB Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0047849/

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Werckmeister Harmonies: Werckmeister harmóniák (2000)

As I wrap up this Top 100 list from this random movie forum it has been very painful. Last Year and Marienbad and Solaris were the last two, and this one and Marienbad are only on this list. Not a lot of incentive to watch this one, since it is also a two and a half Hungarian film.

It is also my first Béla Tarr film. Tarr is a famous international director, and arguably the best that Hungary has ever produced. So it had that going for it. I was also aware that this film is slow ans artistic, so I was prepared.

The opening scene is strange, an interesting play in a bar where the audio seems to be greatly out of sync. I was sure this was a dubbed portion until I got further into the film, I'm still unsure what that was about. The music is fantastic, and the scene was artistic and beautiful [not something you hear me saying much in reviews]. I just loved when he left the bar and walked down the dark road. The plot is very basic but I feel that my conclusion about the film may be different than others [see the comments for the spoiler on this if you want]. The plot is that a whale exhibit is in town and the townspeople are in an uproar over the self titled "prince" who has been making speeches at the exhibit. The crowd turns to mob later in the film and it eventually picks up its pace. It is very slow at times, which fits the theme and my final conclusion.

Overall I really liked it, I didn't love it, and I really don't see myself watching it again. That is what keeps it from being an 8/10. So what is the title? Well the main character's uncle is a music theorist who believes that Andreas Werckmeister (who invented the music scale with 8 notes) was wrong and basically messed up how we listen to music. The lecture is part of the film, and difficult to follow, but interesting.

Anyways, look at the comments for spoilers.

Vote: 7/10

IMDB Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0249241/

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Last Year an Marienbad: L'année dernière à Marienbad (1961)

Yay, I have my new worst film of the year. Winning in a landslide is an artsy film with NO plot whatsoever. The type that I loath because it does not go anywhere or mean anything, nothing memorable to boot.

The film starts in the middle of scene in a chateau, e.g. French castle. All I can guess is that this class of society takes long summer vacations at estates like this and the two lead characters start a conversation in which the guy starts trying to convince the girl they met there last year. Hence the title.

He then vividly describes their encounter which she denies, or has forgotten. That's all. Really. The whole plot. Two hours of him trying to convince her they knew each other and her saying that she doesn't know him. Rubbish. 

Vote: 1/10

IMDB Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0054632/

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The Ghost Writer (2010)

Directed by the sexual abuser Roman Polanski, it is a little difficult for me to overlook some of the metaphors I found in this film to Polanski's situation. I'll get to that in a minute.

The film is about a ghost writer, Ewan McGregor, who is hired to write a book for a former British Prime Minister, Adam Long, played by Pierce Brosnan. Loosely based on the actual prime minister Tony Blair. McGregor is hired after the mysterious dead of the former "Ghost" who died before completion of the book. During the following weeks McGregor starts to uncover some of the mysteries surrounding the mysterious death.

This may be considered a spoiler to some, so skip it if this movie interests you. I found that the comparison between Brosnan's character avoiding arrest for something he felt he didn't do, or was even forced into, was a lot like Polanski's situation. Long found himself not allowed to go to several countries for help, just like Polanski has had issues avoiding arrest for sexually abusing a 13-year-old girl back in 1977.

The film is well done, and it is nice to see a decent international film this year. Roger Ebert put this in his top 10 of the year, and it has won a number of European Film awards this year. If you like murder mysteries this is worth checking out.

Vote: 7/10

IMDB Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1139328/

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Gaslight (1944)

Nominated for 7 Oscars, and winner of 2. This addition on the AFI 100 Thrills is an oldie, but goodie. Starring Ingrid Bergman, Charles Boyer, Joseph Cotten, and Angela Lansbury in her acting debut. Bergman won the Oscar in a role for which she spent two weeks in a mental institution getting into character.

The film center's around Bergman's character who returns to the home she grew up in and where her famous Aunt was murdered. Newly married to a man with secrets who begins a psychological game with Bergman's character trying to drive her insane. The title comes from the mystery behind the lights in her room dimming at night when her husband goes to his studio to work. Boyer does such a good job as a bad guy in this film that I would be hard for me to watch him in anything else without feeling that way. Cotten's performance as an investigator was the only flaw in my eyes. In the book he is an older man that actually new Bergman's murdered Aunt instead of man easily at most in his early 30's. It just didn't fit that someone that young could have remembered so much from over a decade ago. There is also no way that Boyer's character would have remembered him.

Despite this discontinuity it was a very enjoyable film. I mentioned this as Lansbury's first film, she was in a supporting role that is hard to grade. She didn't even make the movie poster, but it was neat to see her so young in this film.

Vote: 8/10

IMDB Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0036855/

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The Box (2009)

This years big box office flop starring Cameron Diaz and James Marsden as a couple who receive a box on their door step in the middle of the night. The next day Frank Langella, missing a portion of his face, shows up and explains that if the button is pushed they would receive a million dollars but that someone would die.

Crossing the border into Science Fiction, with Marsden working for NASA we start to see some really strange events take place. Others at NASA are involved, and we discover that Langella's character might be either a government worker or something we can't explain.

The movie really had me drawn in for the first 45 minutes or so. I couldn't understand why this was such a flop. The movie just gets really slow, bizarre, and boring at the end. I was battling falling asleep and completely lost interest at the end. Honestly I'm not sure exactly how it ended, but I was so bored and sleepy I just didn't care. Maybe a 6 is a little generous...

Vote: 6/10

IMDB Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0362478/

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The 39 Steps (1935)

It is always a treat to get to another Alfred Hitchcock film. This one, one of his earlier works, is probably one of his best from his first 15 years as a director. Starring Robert Donat the running question throughout the film is "What are the 39 Steps?"

The general plot of the film is that a spy is killed and Donat is on the run after being falsely accused. The action scenes were kind of ironic to me. In modern films we seem to focus on slow-motion, in this film... something I've seen in other films of this generation... they actually speed up the film to simulate action. Kinda funny, and pretty silly looking. Maybe we'll say that about slow-motion in 50 years.

I definitely felt duped in retrospect, a fantastic ability of Hitchcock, and one of the reasons I love his works. It isn't one of his top 5 films, but it is still very very good.

Vote: 8/10

IMDB Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0026029/

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