More Everything!

Watching ‘Amores Perros’ is like watching a ticking time bomb. You know how it will end, but you delude yourself into thinking there might be a happy ending. Then *BOOM!*

The bomb in this film is a car crash that ties three different stories together into one tragic opera about life in Mexico City. It’s as if you are watching a documentary unfold. Several times while viewing it I had to remind myself that I was watching a work of fiction. Everything seems so real.

With a two and half hour running time, things are given the chance to unfold. The lighting all seems natural. Effects are seemless (especially the dog-fighting scenes and the aftermath of carnage left behind - very hard to watch).

I give credit to all involved. From the director, Alejandro González Iñárritu, to the writer, Guillermo Arriaga, who make the film feel so fresh and raw. Also, the lead actors Gael Garcia as Octavio, who starts fighting his dog to raise enough money to run-away with his sister-in-law; Goya Toledo as Valeria, a model who’s new perfect life is shattered after she is injured in an accident; and, Emilio Echevarría as El Chivo, a homeless man who surrounds himself with stray dogs, rather than his family who he abandoned; all give extraordinary performances. 

Throughout the course of the film, the characters all experience life as it unfolds and they realize that you ‘can’t always get what you want’ but life can always get worse!

‘Amores Perros’ is a film you have to sit back and experience. Let its thoughts and ideas gestate. Think about what your priorities are and how quickly life can change.

I look forward to watching again ever few years and reminding myself about what is important in life. KEEPING

As I previously mentioned, here is the list of DVDs I am considering purging and links to what I have reviewed so far:

1. Storytelling (d. Todd Solondz) DISCARD
2. Good Night, and Good Luck (d. George Clooney) DISCARD
3. Punch-Drunk Love (d. Paul Thomas Anderson) DISCARD
4. Timecode (d. Mike Figgis) DISCARD
5. The Fountain (d. Darren Aronofsky) DISCARD
6. American Splendor (d. Robert Pulcini & Shari Springer Berman) KEEP
7. Your Friends & Neighbors (d. Neil LaBute) DISCARD
8. Wonder Boys (d. Curtis Hanson) DISCARD
9. Way of the Gun (d. Christopher McQuarrie) DISCARD
10. American Beauty (d. Sam Mendes) KEEP
11. The Princess and the Warrior (d. Tom Tykwer) DISCARD>
12. Amores Perros (d. Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu)

‘The Princess and the Warrior’ was German writer/director Tom Tykwer’s follow-up to his international smash-hit ‘Lola rennt’ (Run Lola Run). Unlike his prior film, it has a much more conventional story-line and linear narrative structure. It stars Franka Potente as Sissi, a nurse in a Psychiatric Hospital, who, through either fate or her own personal decisions, becomes involved with Bodo (Benno Furmann), a petty criminal with a….you’ll never guess… mysterious past.

Even though the film is told in linear fashion, it does go on little tangents that explore Bodo’s relationship with his deceased wife, Sissi’s experiences in the Psych Hospital where she works and lives, and a crime that Bodo and his brother Walter (Joachim Krol) are planning.

Like all of Tom Tykwer’s recent films, it is photographed beautifully by Frank Griebe, with most of the stand-out shots revolving around the scenery of Wuppertal, Germany. Tykwer loves the spectral overhead trains of the Schwebebahn Wuppertal and spends a lot of time showing the town off as we follow the winding paths of the trains above the cities rivers.

Ultimately, the film listfully arrives at its conclusion and ties everything up in a nice, albeit surreal, bow as the heroes, litterally, ride off into the sunset.

I am not sure if the film really serves much of a purpose, other than to show that Tykwer can make a slow and leisurely paced film that is the antithesis of ‘Run Lola Run.’ If so, it succeeds in that goal.

This film is an important part of Tykwer’s development as a great director, but I don’t think this film will warrant another viewing. I will, however, continue to be excited when Tykwer releases new projects. Keeping in the DISCARD pile.

As I previously mentioned, here is the list of DVDs I am considering purging and links to what I have reviewed so far:

1. Storytelling (d. Todd Solondz) DISCARD
2. Good Night, and Good Luck (d. George Clooney) DISCARD
3. Punch-Drunk Love (d. Paul Thomas Anderson) DISCARD
4. Timecode (d. Mike Figgis) DISCARD
5. The Fountain (d. Darren Aronofsky) DISCARD
6. American Splendor (d. Robert Pulcini & Shari Springer Berman) KEEP
7. Your Friends & Neighbors (d. Neil LaBute) DISCARD
8. Wonder Boys (d. Curtis Hanson) DISCARD
9. Way of the Gun (d. Christopher McQuarrie) DISCARD
10. American Beauty (d. Sam Mendes) KEEP
11. The Princess and the Warrior (d. Tom Tykwer)
12. Amores Perros (d. Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu)

American Beauty, is one of those films that seems to exist perfectly at its point in time. It is a snapshot of the late 1990s, yet doesn’t feel dated. You watch it and are instantly transported into that year of events that is happening on screen, yet it feels like it could be happening today, tomorrow, or even 20 years from now. It just feels right! There are so many stories and ideas on the screen, but none feel rushed or under-utilized, even though there really is no clear resolution. It mirrors life so well, we go about our days, meet new people, grow, change our views and then we are gone.

The film follows Lester Burnham (Kevin Spacey) as he lives out his final year of life in a beautiful suburb with his wife (Annette Benning) and daughter, Jane (Thora Birch). He announces during the opening naration that he will be dead in a year.

What follows is a pretty standard story of the middle-aged man going through a mid-life crisis. He has fallen out-of-love and into apathy with his wife. His daughter, a pseudo-goth-lite teenager, has no respect for him, etc, etc, etc. But the story doesn’t get stale. All of the charcters are fleshed out so fully. The supporting cast is amazing, with many heavy hitters (Allison Janney, Chris Cooper, Peter Gallagher, et al). Even though most of the characters have very little screen-time, you feel their pain and struggles as they attempt to live their lives. The film is a great mix, of wonderful writing (Alan Ball’s script), great direction and scene composition (Sam Mendes’ first time behind the camera) and lush photography and lighting (one of Conrad L. Hall’s last films as cinematographer).

Chris Cooper’s turn as Jane’s boyfriend’s father, is some of the most powerful, yet restrained acting, I have ever seen. He makes it look so easy, to play someone so torn and conflicted. The scene with Lester in the garage, during the rain, is so moving, I could teach a master class on acting with that!

And I can’t not mention Annette Benning’s portrayal of Lester’s wife. She takes what was most like a typical supporting role and elevates it to that of an equal.

Right before the ‘shocking conclusion’ is my favorite scene of the film. Lester is in the kitchen talking to Jane’s friend Angela, and he asks:

Lester Burnham: How’s Jane?
Angela Hayes: What do you mean?
Lester: I mean, how’s her life? Is she happy? Is she miserable? I’d really like to know, and she’d die before she’d ever tell me about it.
Angela: She’s… she’s really happy. She thinks she’s in love.
Lester: Good for her.
Angela: How are you?
Lester: God, it’s been a long time since anybody asked me that… I’m great.
Angela: I’ve gotta go to the bathroom.
Lester: I’m great.

Lester is able to confirm that his daughter is living her life the way she wants to. She has problems, she thinks she’s in love, but she is living life. Life goes on. And with that he realizes, that that is what makes him happy.

American Beauty is a film I imagine revisiting often. I wonder what parts of the movie I will connect with when my children are older and starting to live there independent lives…I can’t wait to find out. KEEPING this DVD (maybe even upgrading to the BLU-RAY!)