The Fountain

 The Fountain 2006

• Director: Darren Aronofsky
• Seen by this director: Black Swan, The Wrestler, Requiem for a Dream
• Based on the book: no
• Cast: Hugh Jackman, Rachel Weisz, Ellen Burstyn, Sean Patrick Thomas, Cliff Curtis
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Hugh Jackman – The Greatest Showman, Wolverine etc, Chappie, Les Misérables, Australia, Kate & Leopold
• Rachel Weisz – The Favourite, The Deep Blue Sea, The Constant Gardener, About a Boy, Beautiful Creatures, Sunshine
• Ellen Burstyn - Interstellar, The Devine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, Requiem for a Dream, Walking Across Egypt, Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, The Last Picture Show
• Sean Patrick Thomas - Honeydripper
• Cliff Curtis – Doctor Sleep, Sunshine, Whale Rider, Once Were Warriors, The Piano
• Why? Interesting film
• Seen: Once before. Now14 August 2022      

       A queen condemned to death for heresy. A conquistador killed by a Mayan priest. A man under a vast starry sky, scraping bark of a gigantic tree and eating it. An irritable scientist urged by a smiling woman in white to take a walk with her in the first snow. A woman, perhaps dying, on a bed.

       Hugh Jackman and Rachel Weisz play these two in intertwined stories, the main one being a scientist trying to find the cure before his wife dies of cancer.

       Mayan myths, Christian myths, eternal life.

       This is neither a masterpiece nor a turkey. It has strong moments, dull moments, pretentious moments. Jackman and Weisz are always good.

       It’s an honest, if not completely successful attempt to once again tell this ancient and universal story.      

 

3 ½ * of 5   

 

 

Donnie Darko

 Donnie Darko 2001

• Director: Richard Kelly
• Seen by this director: The Box
• Based on the book: no
• Cast: Jake Gyllenhaal, Jena Malone, Mary McDonnell, Holmes Osborne, Maggie Gyllenhaal, James Duval, Patrick Swayze, Jolene Purdy, Beth Grant, Drew Barrymore, Katherine Ross
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Jake Gyllenhaal – Life, Zodiac, Proof, Brokeback Mountain, Day after Tomorrow, Moonlight Mile, The Good Girl, October Sky
• Jena Malone – The Hunger Games 3+4, The Soloist, Into the Wild, Cold Mountain, The United States of Leland, Ellen Foster, Contact
• Mary McDonnell – Battlestar Galactica, Matewan
• Holmes Osborne – The Box, Identity, TV series
• Maggie Gyllenhaal – Hysteria, The Dark Knight, Stranger than Fiction, Paris je t’aime, Sherrybaby, Mona Lisa’s Smile, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, Adaption, Riding in Cars with Boys, Waterland
• Patrick Swayze – Keeping Mum, Ghost, Dirty Dancing
• Beth Grant – The Artist, No Country for Old Men, Factory Girl, Little Miss Sunshine
• Drew Barrymore – He’s Just Not That into You, Music and Lyrics, Riding in Cars with Boys, Ella Enchanted, ET
• Katherine Ross – Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Graduate, Shenandoah
• Why? Remember it as good.
• Seen: Once before. Now 13 August 2022      

       High school student Donnie (Jake Gyllenhaal) sleepwalks and has a scary friend he calls Frank, who tells him the world is going to end in twenty-eight days and makes Donnie do bad things.

       And that’s just one of the weird things in this jumble of a film. Time travel, concerned parents, youthful rebellion, ultraconservative politics, young love, rich white American suburbia, love messiah/anti-Christ/child pornographer.

       The film has achieved cult status and for good reason. It’s complex, enigmatic, unexplainable, and captivating.      

 

4* of 5   

 

 

 

 

 

 

Disco Pigs

 Disco Pigs 2001

• Director: Kirsten Sheridan
• Based on the play by: Enda Walsh
• Cast: Cillian Murphy, Elaine Cassidy
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Cillian Murphy – Dunkirk, Transcendence, The Dark Knight Rises, Broken, In Time, Inception, Perrier’s Bounty, The Dark Knight, Sunshine, Breakfast on Pluto, Batman Begins, Cold Mountain, Girl with Pearl Earring, Intermission, 28 Days Later
• Elaine Cassidy – Felicia’s Journey
• Why? Cillian Murphy
• Seen: 12 August 2022      

       Baby Pig and Baby Runt form an alliance as new-borns. They grow up in neighbouring houses, sharing a wall in which they’ve cut holes so that they can hold hands at night.

       At sixteen they get into trouble. Repeatedly. Adults despair of them and separate them by sending Runt (Cassidy) to a school in the country. Pig (Murphy) goes off the deep end.

       This is one of the weirdest films to come out of Ireland. Are these two kids psychopaths? Misunderstood soul mates? Violent thrill-seekers? Lovers? All of the above?

       It splits the viewers. Some regard it as genius, others filthy rubbish.

       It certainly is fascinating. But odd. But fascinating. But a little bit scary. But fascinating.

       Brilliant? Rubbish? Brilliant? Rubbish?

       Definitely not rubbish. So, it must be brilliant. Or something. Murphy is clearly brilliant. And terrifying.      

 

4* of 5   

 

 

Twister

 Twister 1996

• Director: Jan de Bont
• Seen by this director: Speed 1 & 2
• Based on the book: no
• Cast: Helen Hunt, Bill Paxton, Cary Elwes, Jami Gertz, Philip Seymour Hoffman
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Helen Hunt – Then She Found Me, Bobby, Cast Away, Play It Forward, As Good as It Gets, Peggy Sue Got Married
• Bill Paxton – Edge of Tomorrow, A Simple Plan, Titanic, Aliens, Terminator, Streets of Fire
• Cary Elwes – Ella Enchanted, X Files, Cradle Will Rock, Lady Jane
• Jami Gertz – Crossroads
• Philip Seymour Hoffman - Hunger Games etc, God’s Pocket, The Invention of Lying, The Boat that Rocked, Cold Mountain. Punch-Drunk Love, Almost Famous, Happiness, The Big Lebowski
• Why? Remember it as somewhat entertaining
• Seen: Once before, if I remember correctly, in Minnesota during tornado season. Now10 August 2022      

       In 1998, St Peter, Minnesota, was severely damaged in a series of tornadoes. My sister-in-law lives there. She and her husband and their house survived but when we visited them that summer, we saw a town that was half demolished. Tornadoes aren’t entertaining, they’re deadly.

       With that said, I’m ready to be entertained.

       It has been noted by many that the story is lame and the acting mediocre at best. True. Even Helen Hunt and Philip Seymour Hoffman are pure cliché and Bill Paxton is just bad, so wrong for this role. I’m hoping a tornado will sweep through my TV and suck the whole thing into the land of Oz.

       Mostly it’s boring but the actual tornadoes are dramatic enough. It does get a bit exciting at then end but you know, I don’t think you can outrun a tornado that’s on your heels.     

 

1½ * of 5   

 

 

Women without men

 Women without Men 2009

• Director: Shirin Neshat Shoja Azari
• Based on the book: no
• Cast: Shabnam Toloui, Pegah Ferydoni, Arita Shahrzad, Orsolya Tóth
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• None of them
• Why? Sounded good.
• Seen: 11 August 2022   

             Four women in Iran, 1953. Merin (Toloui) whose brother is insisting that she get married.   Faezeh (Ferydoni), her pious friend.  Fakhri (Shahrzad), a wealthy middle-aged woman who leaves her husband for an old lover. Zarin (Tótj), a prostitute driven mad by her profession.

       Iran is rising against England. The CIA foments the coup and puts the Shah back in power.

       The film is visually extraordinary, stunningly beautiful. The story is vague, the loosely connecting thread the four women who find different ways to throw off the yoke of male oppression. It’s dreamlike, even hallucinatory at times, which is artistic, to be, sure, but confusing.

       No matter. It’s well worth seeing, perhaps more than once. 

4* of 5   

 

 

 

 

Insomnia (Pacino)

 Insomnia (Pacino) 2002

• Director: Christopher Nolan
• Seen by this director: Tenet, Dunkirk, Interstellar, The Dark Knight Rises, Inception, The Dark Knight, The Prestige, Batman Begins
• Based on the book: no
• Cast: Al Pacino, Robin Williams, Hilary Swank, Martin Donovan
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Al Pacino – Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, The Merchant of Venice, Angels in America, Donnie Brasco, Heat, Carlito’s Way, The Scent of a Woman, Glengarry Glen Ross, Frankie and Johnny, The Godfather x 3, Dick Tracy, Sea of Love, Author! Author!, And Justice for All, Dog Day Afternoon, Serpico, Panic in Needle Park
• Robin Williams - The Butler, House of D, Good Will Hunting, Hamlet, Hook, Dead Again, Awakening, Dead Poets Society, The World According to Garp, Good Morning Vietnam
• Hilary Swank – Freedom Writers, Million Dollar Baby, The Gift
• Martin Donovan – Tenet, Big Little Lies, The United States of Leland
• Why? Remember it as good
• Seen: Once before. Now 9 August 2022      

       Many people hate re-makes. I don’t. Some are very good, some even better than the original. However, most American re-makes of European films aren’t very good.  This one though, I saw before I knew there was a Norwegian version. Now I’ve seen the Norwegian version. Is this one as good? Better? Not as good?

       The story is moved to northern Alaska. Pacino is the cop. Swank is the clever cop guessing what really happened. The story is in some ways identical, in other major ways, rewritten. For example, the political in-office intrigue of Pacino’s work back in LA is emphasised and developed.  It’s Hollywooded up. There’s more action, less subtlety. A shame because otherwise it might have been even better. As it is, both films have their merits. Pacino is good. Skarsgård is good. They get the same rating from me. 

3½ * of 5   

 

 

Insomnia (Skarsgård)

 Insomnia (Skarsgård) 1997

• Director: Erik Skjoldbaerg
• Based on the book: no
• Cast: Stellan Skarsgård, Sverre Anker Ousdal, Gisken Armand, Björn Moan, Marianne O Ulrichsen, Björn Floberg
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Stellan Skarsgård – Dune, Mamma Mia 1&2, Our Kind of Traitor, River, Cinderella, The Railway Man, Thor, Frankie & Alice, Pirates of the Caribbean et al, Dogville, The Glass House, Dancer in the Dark, The Deep Blue Sea, Amistad, Good Will Hunting, Breaking the Waves, Falsk som vatten, Hamlet, Den enfaldige mördaren
• Sverre Anker Ousdal - Falsk som vatten, Fleksnes fataliteter
• Björn Floberg - Shackleton
• Why? The Al Pacino version
• Seen: 8 August 2022      

       Jonas Engström (Skarsgård) is a Swedish cop working in Norway. He’s sent to the far north, the land of the midnight sun, to investigate the murder of a teen-aged girl.

       Suffering from increasing insomnia because of the white nights he accidently shoots a colleague, mistaking him for the villain. He goes to extremes to cover up what he’s done. When the murderer reveals to Jonas that he witnessed the shooting, the insomnia worsens and Jonas’s brutality increases.

       Northern Norway is beautiful, and the midnight sun is indeed fascinating. But it’s just a cop film.

       Well, maybe not. It’s more a psychological study of the cop than of the case.

       Skarsgård is always good. 

3½ * of 5