March Films¶
543 words on Films
Very few films last month I was on holiday and didn’t want to watch the ones they showed on the plane. Instead: Leaving Las Vegas, Ansel Adams, Juno and The Little Shop of Horrors.
Leaving Las Vegas
Leaving Las Vegas is one of those ‘classics’ that I hadn’t seen so far. In the film we see Ben (Nicholas Cage) on track to drink himself to death in Las Vegas. He performs rather well at that and gives a sorry sight of alcoholism. He also hooks up with Sera (Elisabeth Shue) who works as a prostitute. And we get a strange love affair between both of them who live together in an agreement to just tolerate the other’s shortcomings.
A bit depressing, but quite a good film.
Ansel Adams - A documentary film
I’m not the biggest fan of landscape photography because - even though potentially beautiful - I find it mostly boring. If there’s anyone who could change my opinion on that it’d be Ansel Adams whose photographs can be downright stunning. Reading his series of books on photographic technique (which it seems I failed to write about so far) I was also impressed by the fact that indeed there can be photographers who give a qualified, detailed, helpful and down-to-earth account of the subject. No hyperbole, no self-glorification but plenty of explanations [Web-2 frigtards eat that!].
Ansel Adams - A documentary film pays homage to Adams, his love for Yosemite, his difficult and slow beginnings, his eventual success and his great service to the national parks. All of that is excellent but as a film I found it a bit too much of a homage with too much classical music and floating around.
The film was also a great reminder that they have a huge and beautiful country on the other side of the Atlantic. A shame that they’re making an effort to just show their nutty reborns and war machinery to the rest of the world.
Juno
Juno has been the hype over in the US of A. And it finally made it over here. It surely is an entertaining film and the character of Juno with her cool- and wittiness is simply brilliant. Perhaps the general spirit is a bit too cheerful for the somewhat serious topic of a teenage pregnancy, but that’s more than made up by the perfectly picked characters from the soon-to-be dad to the best friend to the parents to the carefully picked rich adoptive parents for the baby.
What really made the film for me, though, is the music. Hooray to the Moldy Peaches and Kimya Dawson. Who would have thought that we’ll enjoy their music so publicly again? So publicly that they even made it to Oprah - which seems absurd or at least ironic when you think about it. If you want to do yourself a favour, get the soundtrack. And then listen to Antsy Pants’ song ‘Tree Hugger’ all day.
The Little Shop of Horrors
The Little Shop of Horrors is a little gem from back in the 1960s with a hungry plant that likes humans. An easy-going absurd horror comedy. Even with a very very young Jack Nicholson in there enjoying some dental treatment. I am amused.
