Here are notes that I took while watching some excellent films.

     "American Psycho" is Mary Harron's electrifyingly brilliant adaptation of the Bret Easton Ellis novel about a psychotic, sociopathic serial killer.  The movie's humor is as dry as the martinis that the characters drink during the movie.  The film is full of people with nothing to lose.  None more so than Patrick Bateman.  Devoid of emotion, they puff on their cigarettes as if there is no tomorrow.

     Patrick Bateman (Christian Bale) works in mergers and acquisitions and is assured that the account he is handling is "not great" by one of his coworkers, Paul Allen (Jared Leto).  The fellow businessmen at the meeting ogle Paul Allen's business card and start discussing their own business cards.

     The tension is heightened to the point of taught suspense, not parody, as Bateman analyzes in excruciating detail the superiority of his coworkers' cards to his own.  "Look at the ink, the tasteful thickness of it, oh my god, it even has a watermark."

     This all leads to a scene of Bateman and Allen having dinner at Texarkana.  Allen sarcastically says "This is a real beehive of activity, this place is hot."  Bateman murders Allen with an ax that night and says "Try getting a reservation at Dorsia now, you stupid bastard!"

     To cover up the murder, Bateman enters Allen's apartment and starts packing things to make it look like Allen went to London.  "There's a moment of sheer panic when I realize that Paul's apartment overlooks the park... and is obviously more expensive than mine."

     This sums up all the rampant materialism and competition for success that color this exceptionally droll film.  This is one of the most dryly comic and chilling explorations of the human condition ever committed to film. 

     "Natural Born Killers" is Oliver Stone's incendiary expose of the way the media glamorizes violence.  The juxtaposition of Leonard Cohen's songs with Nine Inch Nails compositions leads to transcendental, emotional catharsis.  The cinematography by Robert Richardson is brilliant; the photography is saturated in color and also employs black-and-white.  Robert Downey, Jr. is inspired as the ratings-hungry television journalist, Wayne Gale, who is on one of those true crime shows.  He is following the trail of Mickey and Mallory Knox, a mass murdering couple, who in Gale's words "cut their vengeance right out of the Bible."  "They always leave one clerk alive to tell the tale... of Mickey... and Mallory."

     "Punch-Drunk Love is a gorgeous-looking film with pastel colors.  Paul Thomas Anderson's film is also lovingly scored.  The stress of work and family take a holiday in favor of love.  Adam Sandler holds the screen like a modern day Chaplin.  The movie takes its cues from charming visuals that flood the screen in between scenes.

     The Sandler character, Barry Egan, has seven sisters and one calls him at work.  He says he needs to go back and chat with some customers and she says "Did you just say chat?  What are you now... chat?  Now you can go back to chatting with your customers, you chatty piece of s***." 

     The rude but caring sister sets Barry up on a date with a woman who, in a beginning scene, leaves her car key with Barry.  The first scene is dazzling, showing Barry doing some desk work and then stepping out for a breather, a quick coffee break.  He witnesses a freak car accident and then a van pulls up and drops off a small piano.  He takes the piano inside quickly as more traffic zooms by.

     Barry asks a dentist about his emotions.  He tells the dentist that he sometimes cries for no reason.  Barry breaks out into tears right after saying this.

     One key scene sets up the character-driven plot for the rest of the movie, as Barry notices that some chocolate pudding has frequent flier mile coupons.  He plans to visit the Emily Watson character while she is in Hawaii.

     Meanwhile, Barry inadvertently gets involved with a phone-sex hotline.  He gets mixed up with some unsavory characters. 

     In one of the best scenes in the movie, Barry tells one of those unsavory characters that "There's a love in my life and it makes me stronger than anything you can imagine."

Tags: Film Review

Bookmark: