Change Your Image
jeffluk
Reviews
Fight Club (1999)
Best Film of All Time (from someone who doesn't know)
Some people think the 90s was a decade to forget, and towards the end of it, there came a film that epitomised that feeling, or made you feel that it did. The pairing of Norton and Pitt with Bonham-Carter (her best role, hell all their best roles cast and crew included) is chemical genius; for it is electrifying chemistry, even in the quieter moments, that makes the story so palpable. Meat Loaf is an inspired choice too, embodying Bob with a vulnerable machismo that is dying or being reborn in a new form. This film predicted that entertainment could be taken back to its brutal basic form and that people would pay to watch men fight. The bouts though, are not all fisticuffs and blood. Sometimes the punches are more cerebral, man not just wrestling man physically, but also emotionally, in relation to self-imposed roles and roles imposed by society. Such roles, like rules, should always be questioned, and Fight Club reminds us to challenge the status quo. Consider that if Fight Club had been made in the 70s (I know, stupid thought experiment) it would most-assuredly have been banned - and the Ultra Violent film of that decade did go on to be banned and then canonised in subsequent generations. Box office returns suggest this film was a flop - I admittedly did not see it in cinema, I watched on DVD the first time - so one must thank the producers of that time for allowing such schlock to be made. Would you say this film is a modern epic, or a postmodern parody? I wonder how many consider this film a classic. With one of the most perfect endings, using a song from the eighties that is loved and respected by multiple generations because of this film, it is time to recognise Fight Club as the Great American Film of the 90s (coming from a non-American). This review is preaching to the masses, but what about those not yet converted to the mayhem of Fight Club. Well there are two things I can tell you: Firstly, you do not talk about Fight Club, Secondly....
Ceremony (2010)
Good Times
It irks me that this film is so seriously underrated and draws derisory comparisons to Rushmore. Most definitely one can draw the comparisons, but that does not at all take away from the originality and quirkiness of Ceremony. It's main character, "Big" Sam Davis, provokes your sympathy, for me even empathy. He's hapless and suave, as is his best friend, and their misadventure on a weekend of friendship and finding love is so poignant, well e-quipped with humour, and fantastically grand in it's reality that it becomes compulsive viewing not only for it's strong emotional journey, but also for it's delectable slice of mid-twenties adolescence at an impasse with life. Don't stand on Ceremony, go out and grab it, and watch it. And then after - grab some life too.
Politist, adjectiv (2009)
He's being such a police-man!
Police, adjective. Made me wonder when I first read that title - 'what does it mean?' There's a lot of that in this film, looking for meaning, or truth as some would call it.
This is certainly one of the most realistic films I have ever seen, but it is also one of the most boring! Basically, you follow a cop on an investigation. The case itself is very serious. It involves arresting a schoolboy, which means prison time, for the offense of using, and offering drugs to, his school friends. Believe me, this film is serious.
The police are also serious. They're diligent. They do things by the book. Well done to Romanian director Corneliu Porumboiu for meticulously driving this point home. Sometimes though, they also have a 'conscience'. Sometimes.
As painstaking as this film was to sit through, I'm glad I did. There is a reason the director chose this bland portrayal of reality. Beneath the layers of mundane moments, there is a simple and important message. The film makes clever use of language and conversation to get that message across. I wont spoil it here, see it to find out.
Good film, but 2/10. The police are no fun. But I will look out for more from Corneliu Porumboiu.