This weekend in movies

I saw three movies in the theater this weekend (it's my goal to see 100 in theaters this year, which is an expensive, but really desireable, goal), here's a brief recap of one and a deathmatch of the other two. Smokin Aces (Joe Carnahan, 2006) Much like Let's Go to Prison, I felt like I was on another planet from all the reviewers I read of this film. It's not boring, nor the bland Tarentino rip-off you might expect (Tarentino never made a film this octane-driven, nor really this entertaining). Characters come in and out of the movie, but never feel extraneous, and the performances are all-around top notch. The best come from Jason Bateman (a brilliantly hilarious, although much too small performance as an alcoholic lawyer), Ryan Reynolds (who really isn't smarmy at all as a young FBI agent), and Jeremy Piven as Buddy "Aces" Israel himself. Piven (who I never much cared for before this movie and last week's Saturday Night Live, now I'm drooling at the prospect of watching all three seasons of Entourage) gives a tremendously funny and pitiful performance as Israel, who I think is one of the most interesting characters of the past ten years. Buddy is in constant fear of his life, yet is a reprehensible douchebag who you somehow care about. Plus, he's probably done a kilo of coke in the past day, and has that insane paranoia/dementia that only comes with a lot of cocaine. The movie could have been all about Piven's Buddy and I would have been very happy, but everyone in the film is great (including Common and Alicia Keys' acting debuts). Forget the reviews, if you're looking for a fun, tense, incredibly entertaining film with a hiigh body count, this is for you. vs. Almodovar knows how to write women and Godard doesn't. I really think it's as simple as that. Volver has the most realistic, amazing female characters ever written by a man, ever. Almodovar makes these women infinitely complex, bruised, and yet so strong; not only are they amazingly realistic women, they're a great family who hate each other, but love each other even more in the end. The women in 2 or 3 are just mouthpieces for Godard's pretentious world view; they are prostitutes or salesgirls who alternately hate themselves and love their lives, which is completely realistic, but Godard's dialogue just drips intellectual elitism (it's not a problem to make films about wanting to be more than a common person, but NOT when you so obviously disdain the common person). I didn't, couldn't, believe anything these women said - the dialogue and scenario was all inorganic. That was probably Godard's point, but I just don't give a fuck. Why he decided to stop making movies about people (A Woman is a Woman is truly amazing!) and instead about abstract ideas (hello, Hail Mary and Notre Musique) is an understandable choice, but he went about it in the wrong way, and totally sucks. Final note: in a battle royale, Truffaut would roundly kill Godard, who I am starting to think, while enjoying some of his films, is one of the most overrated filmmakers of all time. Anyway, Almovodar and Penelope Cruz are an unbeatable match, her Raimunda ridiculously sexy and almost unbearably real. Afterthought: I don't hate Godard as much as this livejournal rambling makes it seem, but I did also see2 or 3 in an upper-class neighborhood theater with 50-something liberals, which more or less castrated the revolutionary nature of Godard's experiment. My thoughts on Almodovar's brilliance still stand, though.

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Matador (Pedro Almodovar, 1986)

Being a big fan of Almodovar, I was more than thrilled to learn about the Sony Classics 'Viva Pedro!' series, which, along with rereleasing more recent Almodovar such as Talk to Her and Bad Education, was finally rereleasing a few obscure, unavailable on DVD films, like Law of Desire and this one. While I have some issues with the films chosen (why those new ones and not way harder to find others like Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! or Labyrinth of Passion?! But I digress), I appreciate the great opportunity to see a movie like Matador, which both fits right into the Almodovar canon and stands bravely outside of it at the same time. Matador is the story of Angel, an aspiring bullfighter driven crazy by his highly religious mother, Maria, his lawyer (Angel admits to murders he may or may not have committed), and Diego, a former bullfighter and Angel's instructor. All three people have serious obsessions with sexuality and violence, and most of the problems in the movie stem from the inability to distinguish between the two. Violence is sexy, and most sex is violent. There are some very disturbing images, from the first scene of a man masturbating to a slasher film (which reminded me very much of Patrick Bateman's obsession with Body Double), to a montage in Angel's mind of rape and murder. This is the least female-focused Almodovar picture I've seen, and also the most upsetting - coincidence? I don't think so. Although Maria has this obsession as well, Almodovar seems more to be speaking to male sexuality in the modern world. Although it's set in 1980s Spain, it could be present day America. The performances are almost universally very strong - who knew Antonio Banderas could be so believeable (as Angel)? Carmen Maura, whom I have said before I really like, brightens up the second half as a psychologist. Nacho Martinez as Diego is effectively obsessive and creepy, and Eva Cobo as the immature model Diego dates is impressive as well. As always, Almodovar really gets the best out of his ensemble cast. Matador is a movie where not only is the boundary between sex and violence blurred, but that between truth and fiction, as well. The middle of the movie drags a little, as the story is so dense that it's cumbersome to tell, but once the characters' motivations begin to reveal themselves behind the layers of lies many of them hold up, it is fascinating. Matador brings into question the very notions of truth and sanity themselves; do they truly exist, or are they things that are made up by some external force? 7/10

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