Public Enemies

Public Enemies D: Michael Mann



I went to see Public Enemies with high expectations. I wanted to see a well crafted, exciting and thoughtful insight into the mind of a criminal. To be honest what I saw was... okay.
Seriously, all the best bits are in the trailer. We hardly see Christian Bale, which is fine by me, but at least when we do see him he isn't doing his ridiculous Batman/John Connor voice. Johnny Depp plays the lead John Dilinger, but to be honest I found his character just boring. Obviously the film is attempting to stick to the truth, but there seemed to be no depth to his character, we're given no real back story or information about him, what people think of him... We're just expected to go along and watch him become more and more miserable. I just found it a little boring - there are long periods where nothing happens, as the amazingly incompetent FBI try to catch Dilinger... And that's really about it.
It looked good, the film was shot in HD video. However at some points it did go a little jerky and almost pixely on screen. At times I was blinded by the bright tommy gun flashes and there was some serious cases of 'too zoomed in, shaking the camera about in dark scenes' so half the time I couldn't tell what was going on.
Overall, good. But not brilliant.

Overall
Obviously trying to stick to the truth - but the truth was just a little too boring. Dilinger didn't seem that interesting in this film - we had no real reason to care for him and explanation as to his past or anything like that. It was okay - ish.

The Man Who Wasn't There

The Man Who Wasn't There D: Joel Coen



I just can't get enough of that Coen brothers surreal movie gold. The Man Who Wasn't There is a perfectly crafted neo-noir crime drama about a man, Ed Crane, a barber who's life is a mish-mash of betrayals and other such awful situations. Remaining stoic and frank throughout, Ed narrates the story, providing contrast with his seemingly emotionless character on screen.
When Ed tries to make money by backing the new business of dry-cleaning he subsequently finds out about problems his "friend," played by the brilliant James Gandolfini, has encounted, and the film follows Ed's story as he twists and turns, covering up others and his own mistakes eventually attempting to find retribution by helping a young piano playing girl. Strange when written out like this, it just works. Ed is likeable despite his seeming lack of emotion and whilst others try to find justice or cover up events, he remains the same throughout the entire film, almost as if he wasn't there. He just continues to be a barber. It's clever.
The film is shot, as noir films are, in black and white, giving the coens a brilliant opportunity to show of their superb visual eyes. And by God they do! Every shot is carefully lit, there are creeping, waving shadows, portions of screen filled with entire darkness, brilliant contrasts, with slow-motion, mid shots to emotion close ones to sweeping wides shots where the locations engulf the characters.
I just loved it, and I can't write about it in a way that does it justice. The acting is brilliant, especially from the lead Billy Bob Thornton. Gandolifni, aka Tony Soprano, performs brilliantly and Tony Shalhoub returns from (previously "reviewed") Barton Fink to play the lawyer whoose brilliant monologues really did get me thinking. Frances McDormand has also recently become my favourite actress. Her performance in both this, Fargo, and Burn After Reading are both funny but she really gets across the different characters and is great at showing emotion without speaking.
Overall, I just love it. I really, really like films like this. They're just so arty, so much thought, so much detail, interesting characters, believable settings, quirky but different plots. Great!

Overall
A brilliantly well done noir film with a great story and a leading character that one can really relate to. Attention to techincal detail in lighting and camera make The Man Who Wasn't There not only an interesting story, but great to look at as well.

Barton Fink

Hello anyone reading. I'm Rob Frost, amateur film-maker and wannabe film student attempting to review, or at least spew my thoughts about films I've seen recently.

Barton Fink D: Joel Coen



The first Coen brother film I saw was The Big Lebowski. I enjoyed it. I then saw Fargo. There was something about that film, whether it be the bleak locations or those vivid characters, that made me start to realise how awesome the Coen brothers were at this film-making stuff. Barton Fink is the 4th Coen brother film I've seen, Burn After Reading being the 3rd, and those brothers films are one of the reasons I wanted to join Lovefilm.com-so I could see every last one of their flicks!

Barton Fink is really hard to fit into a specific genre. There's elements of comedy, but I would say it was a crime thriller. We follow a struggling writer who moves to LA to write for a big Hollywood studio. He's tasked with writing a wrestling film and throughout the story becomes friends with a man, Charlie, nextdoor in his hotel. What follows is a series of strange and unforeseeable events Barton has to solve whilst simultaneously trying to write his film. It's complicated and, to be honest, I don't quite understand it.

All I know is that it is most definitely an enjoyable and engaging film! Despite the main character coming across as bleak and boring at first, the story soon picks up pace and with it's undefinable genre a certain amount of suspense is built and curiosity created about the characters and plot.

Technically the film looked pretty cool. With Kubrick-esque hotel shots and some memorable 'cool' shots where the camera winds around the set, Barton Fink is interesting to look at. The colours are all quite bleak and, and I admit I don't actually know anything about this sort of thing, all the shots seemed to be in focus, which made everything seem important and meant your interest wasn't drawn to anything. In a way, the shots were boring, steady and clear. Probably to represent the dull, bleak and lonely life of a writer...?

Josh Turturro of course appears again as Dude Lebowski with the Coen brothers and, quite obviously in a Coen brothers film, my favourite actor Steve Buscemi makes a brief appearance. John Goodman, who basically play any fat guy in any film ever is also the main supporting actor. To be honest, I don't pay much attention to the acting itself but the fact that I don't notice the acting as being particularly good or bad is good for the film... right? Thinking about it I did enjoy the very funny performance of Michael Lerner as the studio boss and Tony Shalhoub who, throughout the whole film, I was wondering what I had seen him in before. Turns out it was Spy Kids... *shudder*

Overall
A strange but very enjoyable film. If you've seen other Coen films or enjoy surreal stories I think you'd like it.


Whilst writing I omitted lots of things because I thought they'd spoil the film. I might make a habit out of leaving the bottom paragraph as left over ramblings about the film, it's meaning, my thoughts etc.

Spoilers Section
Barton Fink, for me, can be summed up in three letters: WTF. Seriously, Joel and Ethan are some messed up guys! This film, along with all other Coen films I've seen, really succeeds in creating a slightly surreal, alternate reality that's both intriguing and disturbing. Although we follow Barton we never get inside his head, and we never truly discover his brilliant masterpiece of writing at the end of the film. So that means it's not really about writing then, does it? I'm not sure. It seems Barton's constant struggle to find a suitable story for the studio but also fulfill his own goals of writing something that will change the world of cinema and theatre is only a small piece of the film's plot as a whole. There's this business with the picture on the wall, Barton's only window on the world? the peeling wallpaper, a result of the temperature foreshadowing the hotel on fire at the end? and the pipes, highlighting the fact everyone can hear what goes on in the rooms. Also, there's Charlie the nextdoor neighbour. I think it's very clever the way this character's change is revealed and I love the way he gets frustrated with Barton for not listening, but ultimately is trying to save everyone. Very clever.
End Spoilers

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Anyway. Not quite sure how well the above paragraphs are as a review. I suppose a review is supposed to inform you about a film and give you an opinion as to it's quality. Hopefully I've done that, if not meticulously specifically perfectly well done, I hope this has at least made you think about watching it. Or watching it again.