Posts Tagged ‘jason hill’

Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps

Posted 08 Oct 2010 — by Jason A. Hill
Category Film Reviews, Movies I Got

By Jason A. Hill

Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, USA, 2010

Directed by Oliver Stone

shia labeouf michael douglasOliver Stone’s Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps is really a film that came out about a year too late. As America bickers over the methods and strategies of economic recovery, we are just now coming into an understanding of the full scope of what took place during the economic meltdown in 2008. While this film exists on its own factious story and morals, the situational setting of its subject matter is impossible to ignore. And while the film is riddled with its problems as a narrative film, such as a flawed plot and flawed acting, it does point out important questions as to what happened, why it happened, and what’s yet to be done with those who are responsible for, and who benefited from, its aftermath.

When living in a country where a large percentage of the population still believes Saddam Hussein was responsible for the attacks on September 11th, 2001, or that President Obama is a Muslim, it’s hard to believe that what happened with the financial meltdown will ever be truly understood. A ton of books have been written on this topic by the very same economists and academics who failed to see it or warn the public beforehand, and now still claim to be experts on the subject. The press is just as incompetent, doing little more than displaying a wrestling match between these “experts” as they fight over details in the margins. What’s left for the rest of us is to reflect on what happened as we continue struggling to recover from its effects. Read More

Inception – One Simple Idea, Quite Simply A Masterpiece

Posted 18 Jul 2010 — by Jason A. Hill
Category Film Reviews, Most Confusing Films of All time, Movies I Got

By Jason A. Hill

Inception, USA / UK, 2010

leonardo dicaprio

In a story, and especially in screenwriting, writers often have a concept they refer to as the “controlling idea.” This is an idea that boils down all the complexity of a movie to one idea, one sentence.

In Inception, director Christopher Nolan (The Dark Knight, Memento) has crafted a story whose “controlling idea” is a controlling idea. That is, “an idea, planted deep enough into a person’s subconscious, will grow like a virus and become the very center of that person’s existence,” which is referred to as “inception.” This loop of meanings is just the surface of what is a multi-layered labyrinth of a plot, and can become very confusing for much of the audience this film will entertain. But if you can get past the vast complexity of the plot, where Nolan has spared no expense in giving plenty of action, suspense, and drama, you will have seen quite possibly the best sci-fi film in ten years. I know that’s a bold statement, and considering its very good but relatively tame 84% rating from RottenTomatoes.com’s composite of various critics’ reviews, it is still yet to be determined how it will resonate with viewers over the next few weeks. But having seen it for myself, I already know another viewing will be necessary to fully grasp all this film has to offer, and I may write another article just to explain. For now, I will try to justify my high praise for this film and attempt to apply the inception that it is not to be missed!

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Umberto D. – Neorealism Is Alive And Well

Posted 13 Nov 2009 — by Jason A. Hill
Category Essay, Film Reviews, Movies I Got

By Jason A. Hill

Umberto D., Italy, 1952

Directed by Vittorio De Sica

umberto d

Umberto D., Vittorio De Sica’s tribute to his father, could be viewed as a farewell to Italian neorealism. The year was 1952. Reconstruction in Italy after WWII had been well on its way. The conditions from which directors and writers had given birth to this style of filmmaking had all but changed. However, as things “improved” in Italy, there were many other places in the world that were experiencing what Italy had in 1945. Umberto D. was not only a clinic on neorealist films, it was also a film that transitions itself to end with a cinematic claim to the end of neorealism and this period in Italy. However, writers and directors in other countries were so inspired by Italy’s neorealist legacy that it can be viewed as the beginning of neorealism for the rest of the world.

During the war under Mussolini, national fascist interests controlled the film industry, much like the country as a whole. Filmmakers either had to cooperate with the controlling government or make films that pleased the fascist regime, which usually violated their own creative sensibilities. During this time many filmmakers vowed to reach an “Italian Spring,” where they would be free to express the truth of Italy on screen. Soon after Italy was liberated, these filmmakers got their chance and Italian neorealism was born.

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F For Fake

Posted 24 Oct 2009 — by Jason A. Hill
Category Essay, Film Reviews, Most Confusing Films of All time, Movies I Got

By Jason A. Hill

F for Fake, France / Iran / West Germany, 1973

Directed by Orson Welles

orson welles

With the recent new release of Michael Moore’s latest effort, Capitalism: A Love Story, I thought it would be a good time to talk about a seldom understood yet truly great documentary film, F for Fake.

Spoiler Alert

F for Fake, a film documentary about truth and authorship in art by Orson Welles released in 1973, is almost as much a narrative film as it is a documentary. It covers two “fakes”: famed art forger Elmyr de Hory, and pretend Howard Hughes biographer Clifford Irving. The film – narrated by Welles in different scenes set variously in train stations, a studio soundstage, and in the actual editing room – follows several stories, all dealing with the same concept: truth in art. First we follow the story of Elmyr de Hory, who we come to learn has forged possibly hundreds of art masterpieces over a period of twenty years. De Hory states that the reason for his career’s success is that the “so called experts” are in fact no experts at all, and his body of work is the proof. It’s not clear which of de Hory’s claims are really true, but the film’s evidence of de Hory’s guilt alone is enough to validate at least the idea that he would be guilty of nothing if forging a masterpiece was not possible.

Later, the film discusses Clifford Irving, who is present in many of the scenes with Elmyr and who gives his own account of de Hory’s adventures in a book he recently wrote. Irving’s hoax with Howard Hughes actually unfolds in the middle of the making of F for Fake and makes for a pretty intriguing plot twist. Welles explains that until Irving actually confesses, there was still doubt as to Irving’s guilt, and this is difficult to prove either way due to the mysterious nature of Hughes himself.

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Se7en – Oh, What A Sick World

Posted 31 Aug 2009 — by Jason A. Hill
Category Film Reviews, Movies I Didn't Get

By Jason A. Hill

Se7en, USA, 1995

Directed by David Fincher

brad pitt and morgan freemanSpoiler Alert

David Fincher’s Se7en is a crime thriller set in what appears to be urban Chicago. Two detectives on two different paths and at different stages in their careers track a methodical serial killer who leaves his victims with symbolic clues to the reasons for their murders based on the “seven deadly sins.”

Throughout the film, we are given a bleak view of the world, where it literally seems to never stop raining. William Somerset (Morgan Freeman), a detective close to retirement, and David Mills (Brad Pitt), a detective just starting his career, pursue John Doe (Kevin Spacey), a psychopathic serial killer who, apparently bored with the ease and randomness of killing the old-fashioned way, needs to channel Dante, Milton and Chaucer to find inspiration for his killings. Very early on it’s clear that the detectives aren’t going to catch this killer; otherwise the film would be called Three or Four. Nope, we are going to see all seven deadly sins, and the only questions are why is John Doe doing this, and how is he going to pull it off?

The tone of the film also takes an overly sympathetic view of the killer. Every victim is discovered with more of their death focusing on their “sin,” or why, rather than how, leaving out any need for detective work. Not that super genius “Yoda” killer John Doe would leave any unintended evidence behind, anyway. And I can accept that the film is more about the killer than the cops chasing him, but why then is his motive so elusive? Is he just a sick psychotic with an irresistible flare for irony, or is he a religious nut, hell-bent on re-making the world in the biblical sense?

Even up to this point, the film can still work, but as with most films that leave me so unfulfilled, its ending is as meaningless as it is memorable. As John Doe turns his foolish police pursuers every which way but loose, he completes his murder opus and turns himself in, but only does so in order to let the full impact of his deeds be felt by Detective Mills.

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A.I.: Artificial Intelligence – One Step Short

Posted 21 Jun 2009 — by Jason A. Hill
Category Film Reviews, Movies I Didn't Get

By Jason A. Hill

A.I.: Artificial Intelligence, USA, 2001

Directed by Steven Spielberg

robot david arrives at "pleasure" townA.I. is just one of those films people can’t forget or stop talking about.

Spoiler AlertI got about 75% of A.I.: Artificial Intelligence. Everything about it was strange, interesting and wonderfully disturbing, set in the near future but having an almost timeless quality of modern consumerism. It centers around a family whose only child has digressed into a vegetative state. A robotic boy named David (Haley Joel Osment), the first programmed to love, is adopted as a test case by a Cybertronics employee (Sam Robards) and his wife (Frances O”Conner), to replace their son, who has been cryogenically frozen until a cure can be found.

Though David is gradually accepted and becomes their child, a series of unexpected circumstances make this life impossible for David as he is abandoned by his “mother” and left to survive in a society that fears and hates their new robotic compatriots. Several groups of robot-hating humans chase David and his companions until they all are caught. David does eventually meet his creator, but fails to discover the meaning of his quest. He is then further pursued by agents of control. Read More

No Country For Old Men – Or Movies With Plots And Endings

Posted 12 Jun 2009 — by Jason A. Hill
Category Film Reviews, Most Confusing Films of All time, Movies I Didn't Get

by Jason A. Hill

No Country for Old Men, USA, 2007

Written and Directed by Joel and Ethan Coen

Based on the Novel No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy

Anton Chigurh with his cattle shockerI didn’t get this movie. I wanted to. And I was fully engaged as I watched the film. However, by the “end” of this film, the only way I knew it was over was by lights in the cinema coming up.

And for a film that wins Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Supporting Actor, I really expected a lot more. Of course I saw the movie before all of that.

No Country for Old Men is full of excitement, suspense, and action, but I got the feeling that there was something deeper going on under the surface and I was expecting some revelation at the end. But what I got was that feeling you get when you’re at a big concert and the headlining band comes out on stage two hours late then leaves the stage after one song as the lead singer throws the mic down and flips off the crowd. At first, everyone thinks it’s a great gesture, but after a while they start to feel conned. Read More