30 dAyS oF cRaZy: The Shining

And so...it ends. 30 crazy days. 30 days filled with memorable characters and memorable movies, all overloaded with nuttiness. With schizos and serial killers and "happy friendly" insanity and "angry scary" insanity.

My many thanks, once again, to the 25 people (I think I counted right - a few super awesome folks did more than one) who contributed to this madness. All kinds of movies and all kinds of writers = all kinds of styles and all kinds of awesomeness. We cap it off today with Jason (of Invasion of the B Movies) and his "review" of The Shining.

Click here for the full lineup, and click here for prior entries.

Based on a true story...



The Shining.

The Shining, The Shining, The Shining, The Shining.

The Shining.

The Shining was at first a novel by Stephen King, which I've read and enjoyed. Then Stanley Kubrick decided to turn it into a movie. And that movie is what I'm talking about now.

Ok, let's be honest. It's the fucking "Shining". Everybody seen the fucking "Shining". Even anti-horror people like Dylan here seen "The Shining". What could I possibly say about it? It's a classic movie with great performances.

But I was not about to flake out on this review. Dylan is counting on me, and dammit, I must get a 300 or more word article about "The Shining" to him. So while looking at the DVD and the release year (the '70's), I had an idea.

I'm about 30 years old, give or take. Of course I'm gonna love "The Shining". But what does the youth of today think? I decided to go out onto the streets and grab two random teenagers. And they are over 18. Cause anyone younger kinda freaked out when I ran up to them and said "You must come to my place so I can show you something old!" Didn't help I forgot to put a shirt on.

So I got two guys named Brent and Tyler.

Brent (top) and Tyler (bottom)

They are 18 years old. I sat them down and they watched The Shining. Afterwards I simply asked them "Tell me, in your own words, what you just saw." The following is what they said, word for word.

Brent: "So, like, this movie starts off and I thought it was like a drama or something. Cause it's about this dude-who played that dude?"

Tyler: "Jack Nichol-something."

Brent: "Oh. He's that golfer guy, right? Anyway. He was a drunk but now he's not and he gets a job to live in a hotel for a year or something."

Tyler: "Dude! Is that an actual job? Can you really just live in a empty hotel for a year?"

Brent: "I don't know but we should get that job. Just live in a hotel, party, and drink! WOO!!!"

Tyler: "Anyway, like, I guess this Jack guy is a hipster cause he had a typewriter. Why he didn't bring his computer is confusing."

Brent: "Well, duh. Computers were, like, huge back in like the 60's or whenever this movie happened! They had to leave them at home. Plus I doubt they got wifi up in the mountains."

Tyler: "'ight, 'ight. So Jack is married to this skinny chick, I think she was a model-"

Brent: "Yeah, dude, she was a judge on America's Next Top Model. Twiggy or something. Bree watches it."



Tyler: "Oh. Well, so Jack, Twiggy, and this kid named Danny all live in this hotel. And Danny he's like psychic or something cause he can read the thoughts of this old black dude."

Brent: "Yeah. And not a whole lot happens in the first hour of this movie. Just Jack writing, Twiggy being skinny, and Danny riding this weird bike thing."

Tyler: "But then, he comes across twins! And they came out of fuckin' nowhere, dude!"



Brent: "It was intense!"

Brent & Tyler (Singing): Double girls alll the way across the hall!!!!

Tyler: "They talked and it turns out...they're fucking ghosts!"

Brent: "Yeah, and this entire hotel is haunted! There's ghosts all over the place! And Jack is talking to them like they're still alive. Danny keeps seeing them. The only one who didn't was Twiggy."

Tyler: "Probably cause she was too skinny. When you're hungry, you can't see ghosts, dude."

Brent: "Tru dat, tru dat. Oh, so winter arrives and Jack is going crazy or something. He walks around. More ghosts. Twiggy is skinny. Danny talks in this demon voice. It's all kinda slow. Then, fuckin' Jack goes into this hotel room."

Tyler: "Oh dude. That scene, man. That chick was all hot at first. Then she turned into Kathy Bates! I guess this was before that one movie where she got naked in that hot tub with that guy. What was his name?"

Brent: "I don't know what the fuck you're talking about, man. Anyway, so Kathy Bates is a ghost and she's all rotting and shit and this freaked me out. Then it got boring again. I was like "Dude, why do you bore us for an hour, scare us for 5 seconds, then bore us again? The fuck kind of horror movie is this?"

Tyler: "Yeah, dude. Like where were all the scenes of cats scaring people or it only being a dream! That's a fuckin' horror movie right there!

Brent: "More stuff happened and a bunch of blood came from an elevator. Jack just loses his shit and-oh dude! The Simpson's did this movie! Remember? Homer was like out of beer and shit so he went crazy! I thought this movie seemed familar!"

Tyler: "Ohh, yeah. That episode was funny. This movie...not as much."

Brent: "There was an interesting chase scene through some bushes."

Tyler: "No, dude, you forgot something. Danny psychically calls the old black dude and the old black dude spends half the movie driving to this hotel in a blizzard and the moment he walks into the hotel, he gets fuckin' stabbed. Like mothafuckin KA-BAM! In the FUCKING CHEST! I mean, Jesus, what a fucking waste of time!"

Brent: "The ending I didn't really understand. Ok so Jack is chasing Danny around the bushes with an ax. Danny and Twiggy reunite and they kinda leave. Jack is just frozen and we get a picture of Jack back in like some olden time. Like 1980 or some shit. So...did he time travel? Is that what happened?"

Tyler: "Dude! He froze himself...backwards! That's so awesome!"

Brent: "So is this movie going to be remade? That 'Transformers' guy could remake this movie! And get Justin Bieber to play Danny!"

Tyler: "Dude, Bieber would so kill in this role!"

Brent: "Anyway, that was this boring ass movie. Where's our money?"

So I paid them in 200 Twitter Bucks (That's a real thing, right?). Goes to show you what this generation knows.

For real, "The Shining" is pretty good. Brilliantly acted and filmed. And it is creepy as hell. If you honestly haven't seen this movie, and you're over the age of 25, then do yourself a favor and watch this movie. You won't regret it.

-Jason

Tomorrow: Is October. 30 Days of Crazy be finished. Back to regular programming.

And then...

30 dAyS oF cRaZy: Nurse Betty

Remember back when Neil LaBute had a good reputation? Ah, those were the good old days. Steve Miller of Cinema Steve is back and takes on his third feature - after In the Company of Men and Your Friends and Neighbors - the black comedy Nurse Betty.

Stay tuned throughout September for nuttiness and zaniness of all varieties - click here for the full lineup, and click here for prior entries.

Nurse Betty (2000)
Starring: Renee Zellweger, Morgan Freeman, Chris Rock, Greg Kinnear, Tia Texada, and Crispin Glover
Director: Neil LaBute
Rating: Seven of Ten Stars

The shock of witnessing her husband's murder drives Betty (Zellweger) into a fantasy world where she believes she is the first love of her favorite soap opera character. She sets off for California to reunite with him. Meanwhile, two hired killers (Freeman and Rock) are tracking her, intending to eliminate the only witness to their crime and to recover drugs they believe she has stolen.


"Nurse Betty" is a sharply written comedy that delivers a multi layered message about how expectations and dreams drive us forward and shape our actions. Three of the film's major characters are in love with an ideal that has a physical counterpart but really doesn't exist outside their imagination. (Betty is in love with a kindhearted, romantic heart surgeon whose personality is very different from the actor who portrays him; Betty comes to represent the perfect woman to the hit man played by Morgan Freeman who falls in love with her picture as he tracks her westward; and Greg Kinnear comes to view Betty as his ticket to the next stage of his career, as he believes her to be a fantastically talented improv performer instead of a poor woman suffering from a dissociative disorder).

As is often the case when supported by a good script, every actor in this film is at their best. Even Chris Rock, who usually annoys the heck out of me, is funny at the right times and dramatic at the right times.

Of particular note in this stand-out cast is Morgan Freeman. While Freeman is playing the character he seems to play most often--a professional killer who is smarter and a little less psychotic than is typical for members of that profession--he is perhaps better here than any other of the times he's played it. While he usually manages to present a charming and somewhat sympathetic character no matter how amoral he ultimately turns out to be, his character here is one that you will find yourself having real sympathy for when all his hopes and dreams are shattered toward the end of the movie, and he ends up paying a heavy price for his life of violence.

This is one of those movies I sat down to watch with no idea what to suspect--the leads have all appeared in a wide variety of genres--but it was a pleasant surprise. The script is well written with not a single moment wasted, and every performer featured gives a top-notch performance. It's definitely worth checking out by anyone who enjoys a well-crafted romantic comedies. While "Nurse Betty" might not have a storybook ending, every character who deserves a happy ending gets one, and you're guaranteed to be left feeling warm and fuzzy as the end credits roll.

Tomorrow: Jason finishes this thing with The Shining.

And then...

30 dAyS oF cRaZy: Taxi Driver

I did not receive a post from Travis today for Taxi Driver, but at the least, I can offer you this sequel that will never happen.




Tomorrow: Steve returns fresh from a visit to Nurse Betty.

And then...

30 dAyS oF cRAzY: Primal Fear

It was a wise choice casting an unknown for the part of Aaron Stampler in Primal Fear, but it was a downright genius move to have that unknown be Edward Norton. I hope that whoever made that decision won the award at that year's Casties or something, and that they get perks to this day from Ed. MovieNut14 explains why.

Stay tuned throughout September for nuttiness and zaniness of all varieties - click here for the full lineup, and click here for prior entries.

I like seeing or reading debuts. Some authors (The Catcher in the Rye, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest), directors (The Shawshank Redemption, Moon) and actors (To Have and Have Not, Primal Fear) seem to get off on the right foot. Then again, it isn't the case for all.

Arrogant high-powered attorney Martin Vail (Richard Gere) jumps at the chance to represent Aaron Stampler (Edward Norton), an alter boy accused of murdering the Archbishop. As Vail gets more into the case, he discovers there's more than it seems...

Much like how Vail learns more about the case, as I get more into the movie I learned more about Norton's role. When we're first introduced to Aaron, you couldn't believe that he would be responsible for such a vicious murder. But as the movie goes on, your thoughts drastically change.

The main reason for why Primal Fear hasn't slipped into obscurity is because of Norton's performance. I'm trying not to give away too much, but I can honestly say that Norton deserved the Oscar instead of Cuba Gooding, Jr.. Much more.

As for the rest of Primal Fear, it's a very good courtroom drama. Gere and Norton act alongside a good supporting cast including Laura Linney, Frances McDormand and Alfre Woodard. When it's over, expect to have your mind blown.

My Rating: ****1/2

Tomorrow: Travis takes a ride from the infamous Taxi Driver.

And then...

30 dAyS oF cRAzY: A Beautiful Mind

So, John Nash - crazy, genius, conspiracy theorist, schizophrenic? More like all of the above.  Today, Jess from A Nerd Like Me gets inside his...no, I just can't say it.

Stay tuned throughout September for nuttiness and zaniness of all varieties - click here for the full lineup, and click here for prior entries.



I have a confession to make... I chose 'A Beautiful Mind' as my blog-a-thon film because I thought I hated it.  I'd popped the film into the little box in my head marked 'crappy' and left it there since I first watched it years ago.  For some reason though, I was looking forward to re-watching it for this post, and here is the conclusion I have come to... it's bad... really really bad.

'A Beautiful Mind' tells the story of John Forbes Nash Jr.  He looks like this.



The film is based on a biography of the same name, written by Sylvia Nasar. It tells of his struggles to achieve greatness in the field of mathematics and, more interestingly (apparently) with his struggle to overcome paranoid schizophrenia.  It's written by Akiva Goldsman and directed by Ron Howard.

The film opens with Nash studying at Princeton.  He is coarse and uncomfortable and Russell Crowe festoons the character with a remarkable array of ticks.  He doesn't make eye contact, rubs his forehead, stutters and is painted with 'crazy' from the start.  His eccentric English roommate Charles is a lovely contrast to John's awkwardness. John is obsessed with having an 'original idea'.  He doesn't go to his classes, doesn't eat and takes his work to the campus bars.  The pretense of the film is therefore, ruined from the start.  John Nash is so obviously crazy that the audience immediately begins to question the set up. Why do none of his other friends talk to Charles?  

By the time I got to the main event - John's obsession with the Russians and certainty that he is being followed, the rest of the film is completely obvious.  What follows is a patronizing rundown of 'crazy man' cliches.  He's laughed at and mocked by students at the university.  He leaves his baby in a bath of water.  He falls out of his wheelchair in the mental hospital.  He realises his imaginary friends aren't real. He asks for another chance at Princeton.  He wins a nobel prize! Victory!  All is well again.  And he does all of it with perhaps the most syrupy, overly sentimental soundtrack I've ever heard.



The film takes a number of liberties with its source material.  Firstly, Nash's hallucinations were only ever auditory.  He never actually saw things that weren't there.  This would obviously present the filmmakers with a huge challenge and so the characters of Charles and Parcher were included to show his breakdown in a much more dramatic way.  The film describes Nash as taking 'newer medications' later in life when in fact he took none after 1970.  This was changed by the screenwriter in order to avoid the suggestion that denying medication can work for all schizophrenics. The film also misses out that Nash fathered a child before meeting Alicia but abandoned the family before the baby was born and that he and Alicia divorced in 1963, remarrying in 2001.  Again, I understand the reasons for missing out these facts but I can't help but feel, had they been included, the film would feel more real and less cliched.

I realise that many people love this film so, to make this a little more well rounded, there were things I liked.  The film looks lovely.  The period details are spot on - I love the Nash's kitchen.

You can't deny that Crowe puts in an impressive performance, especially in the later part of the film.  When they begin to age him and he returns to Princeton, his performance feels much more authentic and calm.  



Paul Bettany is wonderful in most things and he doesn't disappoint here.  The character was originally American but, after seeing Bettany in A Knights Tale, Howard and Goldsman changed their mind.  And who can blame them? If he played a variation of that character in everything he'd do all right.  



I think the heart of film belongs to Jennifer Connelly.  She won an Oscar for her performance and I really think she deserved it.  She is strong, vibrant and a pleasure to watch.  



I've been trying to decide what this film adds to the debate about the portrayal of the mentally ill in Hollywood.  I think films which deal with subject in a realistic way can be powerful and interesting, as well as entertaining.  Unfortunately 'A Beautiful Mind' is the other kind.  It’s a film that exploits sentimentality and cliché in an attempt to win awards.  It's a shame that the story of an obviously brilliant and complex man can be reduced to this.

Tomorrow: MovieNut14 isn't scared of Primal Fear.

And then...

30 dAyS oF cRAzY: Falling Down

There's a point where something crosses over from beyond a black comedy into something darker, where you go from laughing ath things you probably shouldn't be laughing at to catching yourself thinking "whoa, this isn't funny anymore." Falling Down is all over that point, that place of darkness, and today, The Lightning Bug examines just why that is. Great movie - I really could go for another viewing.

Stay tuned throughout September for nuttiness and zaniness of all varieties - click here for the full lineup, and click here for prior entries.

From the first shot, a intense close-up of teeth that pulls out slowly to reveal the sweaty upper lip, the eyes, and the horn rim glasses of William ‘D-Fens’ Foster, director Joel Schumacher establishes the pressure cooker feeling pervades his 1993 film Falling Down. As he sits in a traffic jam, the inside of his car seems to be visibly steaming with heat as he sits motionless. The world is a cacophony of sound. The air conditioner doesn’t work. The window won’t roll down. A child stares. The sharp, pointed,painted on teeth of a stuffed Garfield doll suddenly become filled with malice. William Foster has had enough, and all he wants to do is go home. So he gets out of his car and begins a journey that will take him far into the depth of Los Angeles and far out of his mind.

These days Joel Schumacher is best remembered as the man who put nipples on Batman, but in the late ’80’s he was on an incredible run of films that conventional wisdom would say started with 1985’s St. Elmo’s Fire. If you ask me it kicked off two years earlier with D.C. Cab. I mean that film had Busey in it, and that alone merits it a mention in a post about crazy people in films. After looking at all sides of death with Flatliners, The Lost Boys, and Dying Young, Schumacher turned his eye to the world of the living with Falling Down. The script by actor and occasional screenwriter Ebbe Roe Smith was so prescient of the tension building on the streets of L.A. that while the film was being shot, the riots that followed the O.J. Simpson verdict broke out.

After Falling Down came out, Michael Douglas’ performance as the out of work defense worker William Foster became the poster child for the “angry white man”. In many publications his character was cast as the embodiment of the marginalized white male. A man feeling attacked by the wilting economy, his broken marriage, and the perceived infringements of his liberty by government, immigrants, and big corporations. While there is always a fringe element that’s political or moral beliefs stray outside the norm, it always scared me that Foster was sometimes perceived as a heroic character. Falling Down is being included in 30 Days of Crazy not because the world around the protagonist had gone mad, but rather because Foster becomes completely unhinged, disregarding anything but his own rapidly warping moral compass. In simple terms, he was a massive, massive wing nut.

Many of us might have a passing daydream that we could leave our car in traffic, demand that the fast food place serve breakfast after the cut off time, or call shenanigans on a construction crew repairing a road that seems just fine. The average person will stay in their car, settle for an apple pie and just call it breakfast, and just find an alternate route around traffic all the while saving up their anger to take out on friends, wives, husbands or other relations like normal people do. ‘D-Fens’ Foster felt that the world had taken everything from him and it was time to take something back. When I watch the news and see some extremist, homegrown or foreign, taking lives to prove their point or moral stance, my thoughts instantly go back to the special insanity exhibited by Michael Douglas’ character.

While Falling Down also features an excellent performance by Robert Duvall as the cop spending his last day on the job following Foster’s bloody path, Duvall’s solid acting is quickly overshadowed by Douglas’ more inspired character and performance. In 1993, Falling Down served as a warning to a world that would see homegrown terrorism and radicals rise up in the next few years during events such as Waco, Ruby Ridge, and the Okalahoma City bombing. All of these groups were lead in some way by white American men who felt like their voice had gone unheard and had clearly also gone Kookoo for Cocoa Puffs. Today we live in a world where folks regularly show up at political rallies with a firearm in tow, and people like William Foster that sit in their homes absorbing a stream of politically television designed to feed the ostracized‘s paranoia. Falling Down should serve as more than just a reflection of the early nineties tensions. It is also a warning that there will always be a danger in society lurking as close as the next disturbed person that gets pushed too far.

Tomorrow: Jess gets all cozy inside A Beautiful Mind.

And then...

30 dAyS oF cRaZy: Secret Window

What is it about writers and insanity?  There are lots of famous ones, and there are plenty of famous fictional ones.  Mort Rainey might not be all that famous, but Stephen King is pretty familiar with the concept of nutty authors, as is Johnny Depp.  Steve Miller of Cinema Steve gets inside Mort's head.

Stay tuned throughout September for nuttiness and zaniness of all varieties - click here for the full lineup, and click here for prior entries.

Secret Window (2004)
Starring: Johnny Depp, John Turturro, and Maria Bello
Director: David Koepp
Rating: Six of Ten Stars

Mort Rainey (Depp) is a novelist on the verge of a burn-out when his life gets even worse: A maniac (Turturro) accuses him of plagiarising a story he wrote, and begins an ever-increasing campaign of violence and terror against Mort and those closest to him.


Based on a short story by Stephen King, "Secret Window" features a number of themes related to the darker side of the basically lonely professional life that every writer leads... and if one is familiar with those themes and how they've played out in King's works, where this movie ultimately goes is very predictable.

However, the cast is made up of competent actors--Depp once again shows what an excellent actor he is, and Turturro was downright frightening in most of his scenes--the script is well done, and the director clearly knows how to use all the tools in his bag of tricks to keep the suspense up.

Even if I realized early on that I was watching yet another movie about a crazy writer being stalked by himself, through a twisted part of his broken mind that has taken over, Koepp delivered a film that kept me watching due to nicely staged scenes and by managing to provide enough twists to keep me wondering if I was wrong about my assumptions. The script was also well enough written that I cared about the characters. I didn't want Johnny Depp's beleaguered writer to be a maniac, because
I liked him, and I certainly didn't want Maria Bello to end up in a shallow grave. It's one of those rare mystery movies where there really is no mystery if you've seen enough of them, but it is still well-crafted enough to make it worthwhile.

And it could be that this film was predictable to me because I've seen so many horror, mystery, and suspense films. Maybe viewers who haven't watched quite as many movies, or are as familiar with Stephen King's Package of Repeated Themes and Stereotypes would be taken aback by the "shocking twist ending."

Tomorrow: The Lightning Bug keeps Falling Down.

And then...

30 dAyS oF cRaZy: Girl, Interrupted

I'd offer up something witty or meaningful about Girl, Interrupted, but frankly, I've not seen it and have never really had a desire to do so. Perhaps filmgeek's (of Final Cut) well-researched article will help to change my mind on that point (it has).

Stay tuned throughout September for nuttiness and zaniness of all varieties - click here for the full lineup, and click here for prior entries.

Girl, Interrupted

Say what you like about Girl, Interrupted – ‘it’s historically inaccurate’, ‘it’s an unfaithful adaptation’, ‘it glamorizes mental illness’ – it boasts career-best performances from most of its primarily female cast.

The film is based on the memoirs of Susanna Kaysen, who spent 18 months in a mental hospital as a teenager in the sixties. Despite the fictitious elements of the adaptation and the way each young actress plays a different ‘type’, I can’t help but feel that they did the issue of mental illness amongst teenage girls justice. As Winona Ryder notes in the DVD’s ‘making of’, this film could have been set in any time period and it would still resonate with viewers.

Ryder, along with Angelina Jolie and Brittany Murphy, gave her best performance to date in this film, yet all too often this is a mere side note in most articles on a film that ‘turns to melodrama’ (Ebert).

Winona Ryder – Susanna Kaysen

Pre-Girl, Interrupted films: Beetle Juice, Heathers, Edward Scissorhands, Beaches, Reality Bites, Little Women, Alien: Resurrection.

Post-Girl, Interrupted films: Autumn in New York, Mr Deeds, The Darwin Awards, A Scanner Darkly, The Private Lives of Pippa Lee, Star Trek, Black Swan.

What I love most about Heathers is the concept and story, as opposed to Ryder’s role. As in Edward Scissorhands and Little Women, I had more of a fondness for the film as a whole than her performance. However, there’s no denying that her leading role in James Mangold’s drama marked a turning point in her career. She was offered more adult parts although her private life overshadowed her on-screen career and she quickly fell into obscurity. She arguably made a comeback with the animation A Scanner Darkly and her supporting role in Black Swan could see her edge her way back onto the A-list.

I found her performance in Girl, Interrupted to be subtle, vulnerable and under-stated and her career-best.

“In conveying her character's volatile emotional life Ms. Ryder gives her most penetrating screen performance, one that deserves extra credit for not pleading for our love.” – Stephen Holden, NY Times

Angelina Jolie – Lisa Rowe

Pre-Girl, Interrupted films: Hackers, Foxfire, Gia, The Bone Collector.

Post-Girl, Interrupted films: Gone in Sixty Seconds, Lara Croft: Tom Raider, Life Or Something Like It, Lara Croft Tom Raider: The Cradle of Life, Beyond Borders, Taking Lives, Shark Tale, Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, Alexander, Mr and Mrs Smith, The Good Shepherd, A Mighty Heart, Beowulf, Kung Fu Panda, Changeling, Wanted, Salt.

Jolie won the SAG, Golden Globe and Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her role in Girl, Interrupted and it’s not surprising that the only other Oscar nomination she has received was for Changeling. Jolie excels in strong dramatic roles yet she always seems to end up in Hollywood trash like Tomb Raider, Mr and Mrs Smith and Salt. In Girl, Interrupted she was smart, funny and sexy and portrayed Lisa as both feisty and emotionally detached.

“Girl, Interrupted is always worth watching when Angelina Jolie steps to the fore. Somehow, she takes a thuddingly ill-conceived role and turns it into gold.” – Stephanie Zackarek, Salon

Brittany Murphy – Daisy Randone

Pre-Girl, Interrupted films: Clueless, Bongwater, Drive, Falling Sky, Zack and Reba, Drop Dead Gorgeous.

Post-Girl, Interrupted films: Cherry Falls, Sidewalks of New York, Don’t Say A Word, Riding in Cars With Boys, 8 Mile, Just Married, Uptown Girls, Little Black Book, Sin City, Never Was, Love and Other Disasters, The Dead Girl, The Ramen Girl, Deadline, Across the Hall.

Considering her break-through role was as alternative teen ‘Ty’ in Clueless, Murphy quickly went down the typical Hollywood starlet role. Following Girl, Interrupted she tried her hand at horror with Cherry Falls, thriller opposite Michael Douglas in Don’t Say A Word and went ‘edgy’ with 8 Mile. Then followed a string of under-the-radar rom-coms, the most noteworthy being Just Married which I have a particular soft spot for. With the exception of her supporting role in Sin City, Murphy went pretty much unnoticed on the big screen until her tragic and unexpected death last year. I’ve always favoured supporting characters in films and Daisy was the most interesting in Girl, Interrupted. The others didn’t have much of a back story (Lisa’s was never explained, Georgina’s and Polly’s varied depending on who was telling the story and it was never clear if there was actually anything wrong with Susanna besides a bit of acting out and a refusal to accept the way her life was turning out) and, in the wrong hands, Daisy could have been hard to identify with. Murphy’s performance was heartfelt and heart-breaking.

“No less effective is the sad and spooky Brittany Murphy as Daisy, a blank-eyed abuse victim.” – Liese Spencer, Sight & Sound

The trio’s personal lives may have received more media coverage than their film roles but more than ten years after the release of Girl, Interrupted, maybe it’s about time we remembered what they are (or, in Murphy’s case, were) capable of.

“Two reasons to see the film: Winona Ryder and Angelina Jolie. Their characters never really get a plot to engage them, and are subjected to a silly ending, but moment to moment, they are intriguing and watchable. Jolie is emerging as one of the great wild spirits of current movies, a loose cannon who somehow has deadly aim. Ryder shows again her skill at projecting mental states; one of her gifts is to let us know exactly what she's thinking, without seeming to. Their work here deserves a movie with more reason for existing.”

Roger Ebert

Tomorrow: Steve Miller enters Bruce Springsteen's Secret Garden Johnny Depp's Secret Window.

And then...

30 dAyS oF cRAzY: Apocalypse Now

Stay tuned throughout September for nuttiness and zaniness of all varieties - click here for the full lineup, and click here for prior entries.

I just finished watching Apocalypse Now - for the first time - about 20 minutes ago. I feel like I need to watch it about seven more times and wait about three more years before I could even begin to write something about it, but I'm afraid I've painted myself into a corner with this blog-a-thon.

As I've stated a number of times over the years, it's difficult for an as-yet-unseen "classic film" to deliver shock and awe to viewers that have seen their clones for decades - carbon copies of Xeroxes of scans of screenshots. What was once brilliant and new is now (or was eons ago) commonplace; what was once controversial is now the norm, if not passe. On top of all that, mountains upon mountains of hype and praise are thrown into the mix, convincing the new viewer that what they are about to see is the apex of cinematic glory, or at least something like that. Frankly, the odds are stacked against the new viewer towards experiencing the film sans baggage.

Visit IMDb's trivia section and you'll see the following (truncated, to be sure) list of accolades heaped upon Apocalypse:

* Voted #7 On Empire's 500 Greatest Movies Of All Time (September 2008)

* The movie's line "I love the smell of napalm in the morning." was voted as the #12 movie quote by the American Film Institute, and as the #45 of "The 100 Greatest Movie Lines" by Premiere in 2007.

* In 2007, the American Film Institute ranked this as the #30 Greatest Movie of All Time.

* The movie's line "The horror... the horror..." was voted as the #66 of "The 100 Greatest Movie Lines" by Premiere in 2007.

* Voted No.1 in Film4's "50 Films To See Before You Die".

* Was voted "Best Picture of the last 25 years" by the Dutch movie magazine 'Skrien' on December 3rd 2002.

* IMDb Top 250: #38

So, I'm sure by now that you're all wondering what the verdict is - did it live up to the hype?

It did. From the opening scenes of the face of Martin Sheen juxtaposed with the blades of a fan set to The Doors classic opus "The End" to the final shots of Martin Sheen's face juxtaposed with the face of a statue set to The Doors classic opus "The End," I was sucked into this portrait of two men on the verge of insanity (or quite possibly, well beyond it). This was Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, minus Sin City and some of the drugs, plus a water buffalo and Dennis Hopper. No amount of Hot Shots or Tropic Thunder could steal away the significance and power of the sights on display, and the iconic lines - so many of them - only managed to become more powerful, my anticipation for them somehow making them better.

What I found most surprising and striking was that, when I had thought of this film in the past, of course the "crazy" label would be applied to Marlon Brando's Colonel Kurtz and potentially to Sheen's Colonel Willard, but the true standout of the film for me - and quite possibly the craziest of them all, was Robert Duvall's Lt. Kilgore, a psycho that's at once menacing, caring, and out of his mind, intent more on surfing than anything else. His lack of flinching with shells landing mere feet from him killed me, as did his infamous "Charlie don't surf!" line, which I had forgotten about. He was far and away my favorite character.

As for the main loon in question - Colonel Kurtz - I loved the setup of the film and how it was more about the journey than the destination. What we learn about Willard and the War prior to his arrival at Kurtz's base seemed much more important than what was actually going on there. Kurtz might have been dangerous to his bosses at the bases, but his clarity of vision made him seem more a tragic figure than a nut job. Willard sees this and empathizes with him, all the while conflicted about his mission, one that is simultaneously driving him mad. The third act is lengthy but offers a satisfying conclusion.

Which leads me to where I might have started here. It seems as though, thirty-one years later, writing about Apocalypse Now is akin to shooting at a moving target. With multiple versions of the ending being seen even upon its release, not to mention the Redux version and any subsequent editions, it can be confusing to know what you're reading about, much less which version you're watching. Far as I can tell, I saw the original version with the original ending, and I'm glad for that - aside from not being psyched about the prospect of another hour's worth of material tacked onto an already 2.5 hour movie, it sounds as though the original original has the most apt ending. Getting all this straight could drive one mad.

Tomorrow: filmgeek hangs out with Winona and Angelina in Girl, Interrupted.

And then...

30 dAyS oF cRaZy: The Talented Mr. Ripley

Based on the 1955 novel by Patricia Highsmith, the 1999 thriller The Talented Mr. Ripley was well-received (earning five Academy Award nominations) and served as another stepping stone for Matt Damon to cement his status as an acting star. Here, Alex from Film Forager takes a look at the inner and outer beauty of the film, as well as what drove Ripley mad.

Stay tuned throughout September for nuttiness and zaniness of all varieties - click here for the full lineup, and click here for prior entries.

Gee, I guess we're getting into the long haul now, huh? You've had quite a few days of crazy already, but hopefully you're not weary of it yet because today's entry concerns a lengthy, beautifully shot, impressively cast, lengthy story of obsession, longing, and delusion: The Talented Mr. Ripley. Writer/director Anthony Minghella adapts Patricia Highsmith's 1955 novel with a weird-teethed Matt Damon in the title role. Tom Ripley starts off as a polite pianist who works in an opera house lavatory, but with his impressive skill for falsehood and impersonation, he's able to con his way into a free trip to Italy.

He's assigned to reclaim pampered playboy Dickie Greenleaf (Jude Law) and bring him back to New York to work for his wealthy father's shipbuilding business. Upon meeting Dickie, Tom ingratiates himself into his circle of friends- including writer/girlfriend Marge (Gwyneth Paltrow)- and experiences a finer life than he's ever known while falling in love with his charismatic host. Dickie isn't keen to Tom's romantic intentions and eventually gets sick of his leeching, prompting Tom to take extreme action and set up an elaborate hoax for the outside world. Cate Blanchett and Philip Seymour Hoffman are there too.

This is not a dramatic thriller for the unfocused. Minghella crafts his story very deliberately and gradually, exposing Tom's clinging, obsessive personality with small markers that become more obvious as he becomes more desperate. It starts out as a gay romp (not the homosexual kind [at first]) along the gorgeous Italian coast with a bunch of giddy, spoiled white people who don't even have to work. And it's the 50's so everyone's clothing is impeccable and even heterosexual sex is an act of rebellion. After a lot of sun-dappled scenery and very tan shirtlessness, it begins to becomes clearer that Tom is (a) infatuated with Dickie, (b) insanely clever, and (c) remarkably adept at killing those around him. The slow self-indulgent build-up begins to pay off as Tom's true nature is unmasked.

The elements of "crazy" in this film are extremely subtle, largely due to Damon's performance and Minghella's quiet direction. It is never 100% clear whether Ripley has been calculating certain events this entire time in an effort to completely manipulate and take over another person's life, or is simply acting out of desperation and fear. There is no doubt that he's extremely smart, but his intentions may either be malicious or despairing, and one is left to wonder if it's just his self-preservation winning out over his self-loathing. Despite his questionable motives you're still sort of rooting for him the whole time, mainly because he worked so hard to craft this intricate lie that you'd hate to see it all fall apart.

The Talented Mr. Ripley takes a long time to get going, which is probably its biggest flaw, but give it time and the complex set of relationships, characters, and deadly events will surely captivate. The performances are top-notch (though I've always found Jude Law to be a little boring) and the score effectively combines classical orchestrations and swinging jazz tunes. It works in class commentary, surprise murder, understated romance (Tom and Peter's unspoken infatuation was too cute), beautiful Italian landscapes, and a number of very tense, thrilling moments. It's a pretty good movie.

Tomorrow: I finally watch Apocalypse Now...and then write an article about it.

And then...

30 dAyS oF cRaZy: Requiem for a Dream

Looking for THE example for when the topic of "Great movie that you don't wish to watch more than once" comes up? Look no further than Requiem for a Dream, Darren Aronofsky's brilliant, soul-sucking 2000 film about...well, I'll let Less Than Three Film's Liam take it from here.

Stay tuned throughout September for nuttiness and zaniness of all varieties - click here for the full lineup, and click here for prior entries.



There's a misconception surrounding this movie that it is about drugs, in the same vein as 'Trainspotting (Boyle, 1996)'. While drugs are an integral element, director Darren Aronofsky tackles something far scarier than drugs here, something which gets under the skin much easier than any needle, and refuses to leave. The frailty of the human mind is on full display here, raw and in the open, with the uncomfortable truth that we are all imperfect and susceptible and on our own paths to self-destruction. This will not end well.

And then...

30 dAyS oF cRAzY: Identity

Any article that compares a movie to a board game is aces in my book. Here, Rachel of the aptly titled Rachel's Reel Reviews compares Identity to...well, I'm not gonna ruin it for you.

Stay tuned throughout September for nuttiness and zaniness of all varieties - click here for the full lineup, and click here for prior entries.

Brief Plot Synopsis (Spoilers): On a stormy night, a convicted serial killer awaiting execution, Malcolm Rivers, is granted a last minute hearing when new evidence could prove his insanity and need for hospitalization. Meanwhile, eleven strangers are trapped at an isolated motel, waiting out the storm, when they start dying one by one and must find the murderer among them. In trying to prove Rivers's insanity, the psychiatrist discovers Rivers has dissociative identity disorder and the eleven strangers at the motel are really his eleven different personalities vying for control of his mind.

Malcolm Rivers: A Psychopathic Serial Killer or Just an Avid Fan of the Game Clue?

Though Identity was supposedly inspired by Agatha Christie's novel And Then There Were None, if you look closely enough, and do a little imaginative stretching, you can see a lot of inspiration from the beloved board game Clue. So maybe Rivers's fractured mind wasn't the product of being abandoned at motels by his junky prostitute mother as a child, but his severe addiction to the Parker Brothers classic.

Colonel Mustard - Ed

Colonel Mustard is a military man, sophisticated and dangerous. In all the mayhem at the motel, Ed (John Cusack) steps up as the unwilling leader and his background as a cop with a dark past is revealed. He seems the best choice to pick up the yellow playing piece.

Miss Scarlett - Paris

Miss Scarlett is always portrayed as a young, cunning femme fatale. With Paris (Amanda Peet) being a prostitute with a boatload of stolen cash and the color red signifying lust, the connection really writes itself.

Mr. Green - Rhodes

Mr. Green has been identified as a shady man with ties to the mob. At first it seems Rhodes (Ray Liotta) is a cop transporting a prisoner (Jake Busey), but eventually it's revealed he too was a prisoner who killed the real transport officer. His criminal background makes him the most likely to put on the green suit.

Mrs. White - Larry

Mrs. White is most often the frazzled servant of Boddy manor. Larry (John Hawkes) is the assumed owner of the motel everyone is trapped in, and must accommodate all the guests' needs when they get stranded at the beginning.

Professor Plum - George

Professor Plum is noted as an intelligent, but absent-minded scientist or doctor. Based on looks alone, George (John C. McKinley) has his name all over this one, but you could also consider the fact that though George seems smart, he is socially awkward with a touch of OCD, adding extra nerdiness to his persona.

Mrs. Peacock - Caroline Suzanne

Mrs. Peacock is always the aging socialite. With her nice limo and designer luggage, has-been actress Caroline Suzanne (Rebecca De Mornay) fills the role flawlessly.

Disregarding George's step-son and wife, who are little more than living scenery for most of the film, and the prisoner Rhodes is "transporting, who is more of a plot point than actual character, the real fly in the ointment with this theory is the newlywed couple, Ginny and Lou (Clea Duvall and William Lee Scott, respectively). There really is no place for them in the Clue realm, though ironically they are just as useless and expendable in the plot of the film as well. Maybe it is a perfect fit after all.

Disclaimer: This post in no way claims that playing the Parker Brothers board game Clue turns people into serial killers...probably.

Tomorrow: Liam tries to wake up from Requiem for a Dream.

And then...

30 dAyS oF cRAzY: Barton Fink

Ah, Barton Fink - simultaneously accessible and wildly inaccessible. The Coens set the template for their quirky, zany, philosophical brand of indie comedy with this one, and Scott of The Rail of Tomorrow has decided to take the trip into the dark hole with them.

Stay tuned throughout September for nuttiness and zaniness of all varieties - click here for the full lineup, and click here for prior entries.

It is neither a particularly new nor a particularly insightful declaration that there is quite a bit going on in Barton Fink, Joel and Ethan Coen's 1991 masterpiece. It is at once unbelievably funny, horrifying, and deeply, deeply strange. Structured as a journey into one man's soul through an ever-morphing location, it bears just as much similarity to Repulsion or Mulholland Dr. as it does a typical Coen brothers comedy (if there could be said to be such a thing). Which is to say there's a lot more mental breakdown happening here than I'd really noticed before watching it again recently; it's just not the sort typically suggested by the term.

There exists a certain subset of films in which our protagonist is quite suddenly revealed to be insane, and all of a sudden their whole world comes crashing down all at once. I wouldn't want to spoil anyone on those films, and as merely mentioning their names would do just that, you'll just have to trust me. But it's interesting, then, that for all the insanity creeping on the edges of Barton Fink that Barton himself is a relatively stable guy. His collapse is a minor one because he has relatively little on which to cling.

Now, Barton's unproduced Wallace Beery wrestling picture may in fact be the masterpiece he believes it to be. Everyone - critics and audiences alike - apparently adored Bare Ruined Choirs, the play that landed Barton a job writing screenplays in Hollywood, and Barton was likely proud of his own achievement (even if he says he's only "close" to success). But the fact is that regardless of the screenplay's quality, it is totally at odds with the medium for which he is now writing. Barton's certainty that the stories he wants to tell are in line with those the audience is ready to receive is unfounded. He should have, and could have, been able to discern this when Charlie tells him about his love for Beery and Jack Oakie, a populist comic little remembered or noted today (Oakie himself described his role in the Hollywood industrial complex as the bread and butter - that is, a reliable moneymaker).

The prior evening, Barton had found out that the closest thing he had to a friend, Charlie Meadows, is actually a deranged serial killer. The evening prior to that, he found a woman, Audrey, he was more than a little friendly with dead in the bed they had just shared for the first time. With these three successive blows, Barton is cast off to sea, 3,000 miles from home, without any friends or purpose. Worse, he's now stuck in a hotel next door to a murderer who may just be the devil himself. Less than two weeks ago he was the toast of the town. Whatever and whoever he was there is meaningless here.

And in fact, if you look for it, Barton seems to have precious little to cling to - he tells Charlie that in spite of whatever friends or family he's around, he constantly feels alone. He has no girlfriend. Nobody from New York seems to get in touch with him. Even his agent seems unaffected - either professionally or emotionally - by the idea that his client could have a major work on his hands. The one thing Barton has is his mind, and the cause to which he dedicates it. Every major spell of euphoria is triggered by his passion for what he calls "real theater," and he'll later try to equate the finishing of his screenplay with military service (an especially unpopular sentiment in the World War II era in which the film takes place).

That, in spite of his commitment to telling the story of "the common man," he never gives Charlie a moment to tell his own story has been noted elsewhere, and it reveals not only his extreme narcissism but also, more damningly, the precise reason he has no true connection. Charlie is a friend of convenience - he's the lonely guy next door - and his every interaction with Audrey is predicated on the hope that he'll gain some guidance as a writer. Everything feeds his job, which is now creatively if not financially worthless. Soon after finding Audrey dead, Barton tells Charlie he thinks he's losing his mind, and he is. It's just not happening exactly how he means.

Tomorrow: Rachel tells us all about her secret Identity.

And then...