The Girlfriend Experience review

The Girlfriend Experience

2009

Director: Steven Soderbergh

Steven Soderbergh is certainly one of the most interesting directors working today. Whether he is making big summer blockbusters like Ocean’s 11, Epic bio-pics like Che or crazy indie flicks like Bubble he always achieves some degree of success. The Girlfriend Experience, his latest experimental film is another triumph for the director, who’s able to find the most human side in the most messed-up of characters.

The film follows the trials and tribulations of Chelsea (played by porn actress Sasha Grey), a New York City escort who is paid to provide her clients “the girlfriend experience” where she acts as girlfriend for lonely men for a short period of time. This period may or may not involve sex as part of the experience depending on her customer’s needs. She has to balance her work with her relationship with her boyfriend (Played by Chris Santos).

The story is presented in a non-linear fashion and is told via an interview between Chelsea and a reporter, a conversation with a fellow escort friend and by herself as she narrates her blog entries. This storytelling method proves to be confusing as it makes the story hard to follow, but after the first hour or so it’s easier to connect the dots and enjoy it.

Soderbergh and his writers (who also wrote Ocean’s 13) do a great job in letting the audience understand the characters and their problems. You never feel disgusted with Chelsea as she is shown as strong, smart and not ashamed of her job yet you cheer for her to get out of that lifestyle and make a transition towards a more stable life and relationship. You also never feel sorry for her customers when you know you probably should because for the most part they’re pathetic men. The way their stories are put together and evolve makes you feel sympathy for all the characters, you certainly won’t but at least you’ll understand them.

Technically the movie looks very amateurish, you can tell Soderbergh was just messing the hell out of some cheap cameras and editing software yet it’s composed of some pretty great looking shots and the editing, though a bit rough, gives it a great style that fits the tone of the movie really well. Some of the shots, especially the camera movements reminded me a lot of Hideaki Anno’s Shiki-Jitsu and Love & Pop, which is not a bad thing.

Perhaps the most surprisingly good thing of all is Sasha grey’s performance. If you’ve seen a porno movie before you’ll certainly notice that it takes absolutely no acting talent to be in one which is why I wasn’t expecting much from her, but I was blown away by her role. She portrays Chelsea as strong, intelligent, likeable, emotional yet not vulnerable but most of all human, she is not the sex doll some of her clients see her as and Grey does a fantastic job at revealing her inner emotions.

My only complain with the movie and the reason it’s not rated higher is because it lacked closure, which left me immensely unsatisfied as I felt there was a final act missing and the final scene is all kinds of ambiguous. Yet despite that I still strongly recommend this movie, it's beautifully well made and surprisingly well acted and best of all, unlike most experimental films it doesn’t feel pretentious at all, it truly is a fantastic movie.

Machete review

Machete (2010)

Director: Robert Rodriguez

Machete is one of those meta-ironic movies that are just too awesome to be true. It’s a real movie based on a fake trailer that features the most random list of actors you can ever think of and the result is a goofy movie that doesn’t take itself too seriously but still manages to entertain the hell out of its audience.

Machete stars Danny Trejo, AKA that Mexican guy you’ve seen in every movie ever albeit with a lead role for (I’m pretty sure) the first time, as Machete Cortez, an ex-Federale whose family was killed and now lives as an illegal in the United States. He is hired by a mysterious man to kill a racist senator (played by Robert De Niro in his best role since the 90s) but is soon set-up and finds himself not only trying to clean his name but also in the middle of an ongoing war between the senator’s anti-immigrant vigilantes and the pro-immigrant Network.

He's one angry Mexican

Danny Trejo is not the best actor in the world, but he does a fantastic job as Machete, perhaps because he is not playing Machete as much as he is Machete. But he is not alone, co-starring are Jessica Alba and Michelle Rodriguez who do a fantastic job playing their characters and being hot when needed and Robert De Niro being eerily accurate as a racist southern senator. 

The cast also includes the most random collection of forgotten stars with varying degrees of success; Cheech Marin is hilarious as Machete’s brother and priest, Jeff Fahey is functional albeit not great in his role as the senator’s right-hand man, Lindsay Lohan is unsurprisingly bland yet surprisingly hot as Fahey’s daughter. But the most surprisingly good performances come from Don Johnson and Steven Seagal as a racist border vigilante and a Mexican drug lord respectively. Seagal’s best days might be past him but godamn does he nail the Mexican accent and he is pretty much the best thing about every scene he appears in.

But it’s not only the cast that makes Machete the great movie it is. It’s the fact that it pretty much nails the style it was going for. The film pays homage to the exploitation films of the 70s and early 80s as well as the ridiculously cheesy and gory action films of the late 80s and 90s, but it takes it a step further and is gorier, cheesier and more ridiculous than any of the films it pays homage to.

Rodriguez direction is what allows Machete to be all those things and not be a bad movie. Yes it’s ridiculous, but it knows it is and never takes itself too seriously. The action scenes in particular are hilariously over the top. There are decapitations, boobs, crucifixions, guts being used as a rope, stabbings, boobs, martial arts, shoot-outs, boobs, explosions and much more.

Did I mention boobs?

Machete is not for everyone, those who are looking for a serious action movie will certainly not find it here, nor is it meant to be watched as one. It’s great for what it is, a one and a half hour cheesy and gory journey with actors who are all in the joke and having fun. And that’s just what it is, just plain fun.

A Hard Day's Night Review

A Hard Day's Night

1964

Director: Richard lester

There’s no doubt The Beatles is the most influential band of all time. From 1962 to 1969 they created what’s often considered as the best music of all time. In 1964, the Beatlemania was at it highest, it was during this year that A Hard Day’s Night came out. The film, originally intended as a star-vehicle for the fab four is a surprisingly funny journey through a day in the life of the band, filled with hilarious moments and charismatic performances.

The film follows the British group during two days as they travel from Liverpool to London for a TV show performance and find themselves in the craziest of situations. With them is their manager, the director of the TV show and Paul’s “villain, a real mixer” grandfather. During the course of the film we see The Beatles running away from their screaming fans, partying in a hotel, performing their most of the songs from the soundtrack and even running away from the police during a hilarious chase sequence.

The movie, shot in a mockumentary style borrows heavily from the Marx brothers’ brand of comedy and shows The Beatles being as zany and anarchists as the famous brothers . They’re not the greatest actors in the world and can’t be really compared to Groucho or Chico for example, but for first time actors, they all do a great job with it their dialogue, though their Liverpool accent is sometimes hard to understand. John being the most natural of them, he’s surprisingly good with slapstick comedy and I think that if he had acted more he could’ve become a great comedic actor. George is the stiffest of them, he seems rather nervous most of the time, but this actually helps his scenes and gives it an air of deadpan.

The influence the film had is undeniable. Though not technically perfect by any means, the film uses quick cuts and zooms in a way that hadn’t really been done up to that point and it helps the pacing of the dialogue. The editing of the scenes according to the pacing of the songs also predates music videos by a few years. Modern mockumentaries shot in cinema verité style such as This is Spinal Tap, Naked Brothers Band and even Borat owe their existence to A Hard Day’s Night.

There’s not a dull moment in Hard Day’s Night, every scene is full of charism. There are so many memorable scenes that are just fall the chair hilarious, such as the interviews with the band members or when George ends up working as a fashion consultant for a TV station, but the best of them all is the aforementioned chase between the cops and the band near the end of the film to the sound of “Can’t Buy Me Love”.

Perhaps the best thing about A Hard Day’s Night is that it still is watchable, it doesn’t feel dated at all and it never gets old, even after multiple views and that’s what makes it such a great film.

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time review

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time

2010

Director: Mike Newell

The Prince of Persia series has a special place in my heart as one of the most involving, deep and just plain fun series of games I’ve played (Warrior Within being my favorite) so when I heard that a movie based on the first game of the Sand of Times series was being made I was naturally worried. Expectations were low considering previous video game adaptations and producer Bruckheimer claiming it’d be “the new Pirates of the Caribbean”. Now that I’ve seen the movie I can safely say that this is one of the most functional video game adaptations made so far, if only in terms of perfectly capturing the style of the games.

The story follows Prince Dastan, played by former gay cowboy Jake Gyllenhaall, who is tricked alongside his brothers to attack the sacred city of Alamut and steal the dagger of time. Soon, he finds himself framed for the death of his father and must escape with Tamina, the Princess of Alamut. During his adventure, he discovers that the dagger allows its possessor to reverse time for a minute and that someone in his own family has deceived him to take over of the dagger which combined with the sandglass can go back to any point in time to become the king of the Persian Empire.

At this point, anyone who has ever played the original Sands of Time game is probably saying “wait what?” There’s no Vizier, no Farah, no Maharajah, no sand monsters and the dagger doesn’t have the Time-slowdown or Sand bomb powers which is disappointing. I’ve always thought the Sands of Time story was a perfect fit for the screen, it had tension, romance adventure, drama, it was short and it wasn’t complicated for anyone to follow so it’s beyond me why it was changed so much. While the story in the film subtly keeps some aspects from the game it has changed into a cluttered, convoluted and boring mess.

And while the story is disappointing, what kept me in awe most of the time and what makes this movie good for me is how they perfectly capture the style and feel of the games. The prince is acrobatic, running across walls, engaging in impressive parkour sequences, climbing ridiculously high structures, jumping from ledge to ledge and fighting with his trademark double blades (from Warrior Within). Persia looks exactly like it did in The Two Thrones and Alamut borrows heavily from Azad in the first game. The lighting is fantastic and it adds a lot to the setting, though sometimes everything looks a bit too yellow. The music is also atmospheric, relying mostly on sitar tunes and Arabic corals with drum-based beats for the action sequences. The CGI though, looks very bland and almost archaic, especially the last sand storm that nearly devastates the city.

While Jake Gyllenghaal is certainly not the right man for the role, he at least looks the part and plays it well considering it’s not the most demanding role. Gemma Arterton, who plays the Prince’s love interest, Tamina on the other hand is rather robotic in her performance and seems bored to death for the most part, this hurts any little chemistry they had. Ben Kingsley is functionally sinister and honestly, but he also seems bored as hell, this being another one of his “fuck it, I already have an Oscar” performances. The real jewel in the cast is Alfred Molina as the obligatory comic relief character Sheik a tax-hating entrepreneur who is easily the best addition the filmmakers made to the story.

I can’t say it’s the best video game adaptation, I still think Mortal Kombat combined perfectly the heart and style of the video games to make a good movie. Here the impressive style makes up for the uninspired story obviously aimed to the Disney/Pirates fanbase. It is not a terrible movie and it’s certainly one of the better video game adaptations, but there’s not enough substance to make it worth watching a second time, or even pay to see it.

Rebuild of Evangelion 2.0: You Can (not) Advance review

Rebuild of Evangelion: 2.0 You Can (not) Advance

Director: Kazuya Tsurumaki/Hideaki Anno

Year: 2009

Neon Genesis Evangelion is one of those rare series that go beyond the realm of animation to become a pop culture phenomenon. Its dark storyline, flashy action and likeable characters have gained it millions of fans since it first came out back in 1995. So it’s no surprise that Gainax, the original creators of the franchise decided to remake it as a movie series 10 years after The End of Evangelion, the last movie based on the franchise was first released. This movie series not only allows Gainax to make some more money out of its cash-cow but also introduce the franchise to newcomers as well as reminding fans what they love about it.

Rebuild 2.0 is the second movie in the new series and picks up directly where the first one left off. It covers episodes 8 through 19 of the original series and though it struggles to contain all the material plus the new scenes and characters, the end result is a great combination of both old and new.

The first half hour is the one that suffers the most from the too-much-shit-happening-in-too-little-time syndrome as it introduces both Asuka and franchise newcomer Mari Makinami. I felt very disappointed during this part of the movie as I found myself struggling to make heads or tail out of all the things going on. The pacing suffered; things were over before you knew it and the action, though great looking simply did not satisfy. Not only had that but the characters failed to develop in any significant way.

Thankfully though, after the introductions are over and the first couple of angels attack things pick up. The movie becomes more story-centered from that point onward. We get to see the characters we know and love (or hate) albeit with some new traits. For example, Asuka and Rei seem more aware of their feelings for Shinji and both actually try to learn to cook for him, something that would’ve been unimaginable in the original series. This new changes to the characters are welcomed as they don’t take anything away from what everyone liked about them, quite the contrary actually, it makes them more human.

The same can’t be said of Mari however, as she just comes and goes randomly from the story and didn’t have a crucial role until the final scene and even then it just felt random and misplaced. This is disappointing because it feels as she was added only to have another hot girl character to cash in from, but she’s rather interesting and I hope her character is further developed in the sequels.

Needles to say, this movie contains the same dramatic tension we’re used to see in anything related to Evangelion. The last 15 minutes or so include some of the best and weirdest moments in the franchise’s history. The battle against Unit 03 (which is no longer piloted by Touji) is also one of the most tension-filled moments in the whole movie; the fact that it’s piloted by a new person also helps to make it even more emotional.

In my review for the first Rebuild movie I said that Evangelion never looked better. Well, with Rebuild 2.0 the animation has reached new highs. Everything looks absolutely mesmerizing. The use of CGI combined with traditional animation gives it a unique look that makes it feel more modern without losing the classic Eva touch. The reworked angels, created almost entirely out of CGI look and feel more menacing than ever before. This is just simply the best looking anime movie created so far.

Though the convoluted first half-hour, addition of new characters and overall complexity of the plot might turn away any new fans gained with the first movie, Rebuild 2.0 still contains all the drama, action, tension and emotion we’ve come to expect, this is Evangelion alright.

Note: This review was written based on the 2.22 DVD version of the film, I have no idea of what differences in story or pacing there are between it and the original theatrical version.