Hello, my name is Andrew Jara. I am trying to be a writer/director. I made a film named "Last Days" that i'm trying to bring some press to.
Catching Elephant is a theme by Andy Taylor
Plot: A documentary about a man who pretends to be a guru from India to try and prove that religion doesn’t work.
Review: So I don’t get into the debate of whether there is a god. Mostly cause it’s too long but also because the movie starts out by saying that this is a journey about religion and whether it still works in our day and age. But that is quickly forgotten in loo of the hoax that the guy wants to do. Basically this guy when out to Arizona and convinced the people that he was a guru from India and had people follow him. If it feels like Borat that’s because it has shades of it. It’s also where the movie falls. The whole point of the film is in question and by the end you wonder if they looked at the footage and didn’t know what to do. Kumare wants to make people believe that we shouldn’t be listening to these religious heads and instead make up our own mind. His intentions are well meaning and that is one of the problems.
Okay so the problem with the film is the hoax itself. The genius of Sasha Baron Cohen is commitment. Cohen does not break character no matter how bad it makes his subject or him look. It’s the only way for the film to be effective. The problem with Kumare is he can’t do it. He doesn’t want to hurt people so he is always standing back and it never works. This is never more relevant than when he is supposed to reveal himself but doesn’t. Another problem is the subjects themselves. These people aren’t racist or bigots or even dumb (one is a lawyer) but are people lost and how have no one else to turn to. These are wounded people (a montage shows them talking about rape, incest, etc) so tricking them into believing into a guru seems mean even if the intentions are well meaning. Kumare wants to show people that god is all around us or that we are our inner peace but it’s hard to tell us which is which because much like the man himself, the movie wants to ask uncomfortable questions but does not want uncomfortable answers. This isn’t life and the fake guru ends up being more real than the real man behind it.
Trivia: Premiered at the South By Southwest film festival.
Plot: A young man gets to know Marilyn Monroe when he works on one of her movies in England.
Review: This movie was harmless is the only thing good I can say about it. I have never really understood the appeal of Marilyn Monroe. I mean I understand the appeal at the time but now what is our obsession with her so strong while other like Vivian Leigh gone away? So I was looking forward to this film to maybe show us why we were obsessed and then maybe show us what she was really like. Instead I learned nothing new and I barely knew anything to begin with. The movie portrays her as a kind of loopy ditz that means well and does maybe too many drugs. But we knew that? We have the actors in the film tell us about how great and special she is but we never really see it other than her naked body. We never get any of the charm or spell that she was supposed to have and the director thinks it’s okay if he just have extras scream her name to show us how amazing she is. I don’t blame Michelle Williams as she does a great job with what she is given and a lot of times you forget you are not watching Marilyn. I blame the writing. In fact, it wasn’t until the end that I realized that she hadn’t even made “Some Like it Hot” yet. Was she really famous before then because I thought that was her breakout role? The film expects you to know all about Monroe and her career but I was watching it to learn about those things so it just comes off as confusing. I actually felt the only interesting character was the Judi Dench role of aging film actress dame Sybil Thorndike. In fact, the cast is amazing with everyone from Toby Jones to Kenneth Branagh to Dominic Cooper. Also this is Emma Watson’s first role outside of the Harry Potter series and after this and Perks, I’m not sure the girl can act. She is beautiful (which makes it more confusing as she is more attractive than Marilyn Monroe) but she over-projects every line and emotion that it all feels false. Instead of acting like she is from the 50s, she is acting like the actors acted in the 50s and I really hope she gets better at acting as she does has charm and grace.
Overall this isn’t so much a movie as it is a love letter to fans and the people in it. Which is fine I guess but maybe a bit of a risk, a bit of a chance to make the film compelling for everyone? I was supposed to spend a Week with Marilyn but it all felt so fleeting.
Trivia: Because of scheduling problems, Judi Dench and Michelle Williams were never in the same room despite having all their scenes together.
This week I will be looking at mud, also The Great Gatsby (don’t worry I’ve seen both) and maybe what to expect when you are expecting
What should you expect on Movie i Saw?
Plot: A documentary following a group of MMA fighters in Louisiana.
Review: I wanted to say this was a good story but a bad documentary but it’s also not that good of a story. Well I mean it could have been but we’ll never know as the documentary is bad. Now I am not a huge fan of MMA but I do like sports documentaries so I figure I would give it a shot. The problem is that I have no idea what the stakes are. They don’t even try to explain what is lost, what is gained, that UFC has to sign you, or really anything that happens. So what we are watching is two fighters who are trying to reach an unclear goal. It is interesting to see the lives of fighters are still struggling. And some realizations are cool like that they only get paid 800 dollars per fight of how much they have to workout to really get anywhere. In fact one fighter even stops working out because of a break up and in a week is not as good as he should be. But the fighters are also kind of boring. They spend a lot of their time speaking in cliches and finding different ways to say “life and boxing are the same.” It gets old fast and when you have no knowledge coming in, you get bored. Overall I wish this story had been better and we had learned more. I can’t really recognize this and it did not make me love MMA.
Trivia: Dustin Poirier, one of the fighters, has since been signed to UFC.
Plot: A group of retirees all travel to India for different reasons to live out their retirement in a hotel that is not what they thought it would be.
Review: I applaud this film for just trying to make you feel good. This movie is trying to be a light smart good drama/comedy that is aimed at adults and it succeeds beyond expectations. It’s smart and Judi Dench to show us why she has been around so long as she carries the film as the narrator. But we never really lose focus on the characters and each is individual enough that none of them feel like a space filler. Each are trying to find their place in life but they also have their own journey to get there. Even Dev Patel, as the owner, parallels their journey as he tries to find his own place as part of a culture that is strict in not favoring individual or rebellious. The acting is amazing but with the cast you shouldn’t have expected less. What I didn’t expect was to find myself so immersed in the story. Their are characters here that anyone can relate to and we have all felt lost and aimlessness. I say check this out as it really is for all ages.
Trivia: This film was so successful that a sequel has been commissioned.
Plot: A man named Pi retells the story of when he and a tiger were stranded at sea after a shipwreck to a writer seeking a story.
Review: Life of Pi was fantastic. Not just because of the story, which is heartwarming and enjoyable but also because of the ambition and the themes that Ang Lee is trying to present. Life of Pi can be viewed as Ang Lee’s view on movie making and story telling in general. But that’s discuss the film first. The story is simple in plot if not in execution. A boy and a tiger are lost at sea. At the beginning, there are also a zebra, a orangutan, and a hyena are also on board but the tiger and hyena quickly make feasts of them until the tiger does the same to the hyena. Ang Lee fills the film with great imagery and some of the best use of 3D that I have ever seen. The 3D is to immerse you into the world instead of having things pop out at you to pull you out of the film. The cinematography is truly something to behold and it makes you realizes that we may be wasting CGI’s abilities with what we are doing with it now. But more than that in the first half, where we see Pi getting his name, gaining his three religions and growing as a boy does Lee fill each frame with such beauty, without giving a cliche’d version of India, that you could watch the film with the sound off and still get an enjoyable experience with it. Pi’s real name is Piscine Molitor Patel after a swimming pool in France and the way and why of him changing his name is a great introduction to the character and a great example of Pi’s refuse to lay down and be wronged which will come back later. The acting is also well done and Suraj Sharma never lets you remember that you are watching what is basically a computer screen. You believe him and care about him even when Pi is unlikable, which as a boy who is searching for himself is more often than not.
For the theme and what it has to do with filmmaking. Spoilers follow: The theme is told you at the beginning of the story: A story that is so incredible that it will make you believe in God. It is meant to be a story of faith and hope as Pi is tested again and again. This story is a bit heavy-handed (although not as much as one would think) and it becomes clear that the Tiger, named Richard Parker, is God and the sea is his test of faith. But of course the film is meant for families and for what it’s worth a well done story is worth being a bit heavy handed. The theme is good and at least is able to raise questions about religion and God and why things happen that a lessor director may not have been able to touch. But where does the second theme come in? Well again MAJOR SPOILERS at the end he tells the writer what happened after he was found. When trying to tell his story, the officials don’t believe him so he tells another story where the other animals were in fact his mother and two other crew members who Pi in turn killed and eat to survive. In this story Pi, himself was Richard Parker and uses the tiger as a way to deal with the guilt and shame of his actions. The movie never tells you which story is true but Pi presents it as: Which story do you prefer? explaining that in each story Pi is punished suffers and survives so the way Pi was changed is the same, only the horrors are different. Again a bit heavy handed but it does bring in a second theme or question that Lee wants the audience to ponder. This one is about story telling and in a lot of ways film making. There is always that thought when a movie is made about a true event especially a dark one of why is there a need to tell the story and really even movie or creative work this question should be asked. And this film gives an answer of sorts, story tellers tell stories because they want to help you understand their thoughts or their beliefs as well as what the story is literally about. Such as Pi with his story of faith. And they embellish or even change the story to help prove or strengthen their point or answer. It’s to help the listener or viewer understand what they are trying to say without realizing it. It’s why stories need to be told and why we still search out stories. It’s the most important thing that a story teller must know if he is to be creative. And Ang Lee manages to tell it in a story of tiger because sometimes the tiger is looking at the moon and sometimes he’s looking at all of the universe.
Don’t miss this film.
Trivia: The Piscine Molitor swimming pool in France is in fact a real place and has been classified as a French monument historique.
Red means stop.This has gotta be one of my favorite parts of the first movie solely because that driver probably has a concussion and some busted ribs, but nobody gives a fuck about him.
(Source: wallflowerings)
Plot: Three friends find a time rip in their british pub and must travel through time to find their way back home.
Review: This movie wanted so hard to be Shaun of the Dead. The only problem is that it’s just not very funny. Sure Chris O’Dowd had some great moments but he’s naturally funny. The script itself isn’t funny and about halfway through they just kind of give up on jokes and play it straight. Which isn’t great because the premise while a bit clever, quickly loses it’s originality. Another problem with this and other time travel films is that it is just too predictable. There were no surprises and this is made worse with the appearance of Anna Faris, why add her if her character isn’t going to be important. Really by the middle, I was quite bored and wanted to just get to the end and in a film that is less than 90 minutes that doesn’t bode well.
Trivia: This movie hasn’t been released in the US but you can see it on HBOGO or HBO.
T3i
Hey what do you think of the t3i? I’m looking for something to film like little short films, maybe something bigger but is it good for that? Have does it work with editing on final cut?
Plot: A group of reports find an classified ad in the paper, talking about time travel, and decide to investigate. Based on a real life story that turned into an internet meme
Review: Safety Not Guaranteed is a weird movie to review. On one hand, I found it perfectly enjoyable if not forgettable. On the other hand, I really wanted to like this film and ended being pretty much indifferent about it. Basically the story is that Audrey Plaza starts to follow this guy who left the ad, played by Mark Duplass, and slowly starts to fall in love with him. At the same time, Jake Johnson, the other reporter is trying to reconnect with a lost love. It’s irrelevant to the main plot and doesn’t really matter other than the theme being you can’t change things in the past, even though the end of the film completely disregards that theme. Mark Duplass does a good job as this man out of time but the more we uncover about him the more unsettled we find out he is. But again, this is dropped by the end. Audrey Plaza continues her descent into the Michael Cera curse of refusing to change anything about the character she plays until we become sick of it. I find myself already starting to dislike her, can she do something else just ONE time? Please, I used to love her but found her terrible in this. And again, the theme of the film seems to be you can’t live in the past and you have to move on to really grow and live. The only problem is the end of the movie does something that makes all that null and it pretty much ruins the film. So the more I think about it the more I didn’t like it but overall the film is alright but not really worth anything.
Trivia: The real life story was that the editor of the paper just had to fill in space for that month’s magazine so he wrote it himself.
