StumpTown Entertainment

Just saw a couple movies from my Blockbuster queue and if you like weird movies that make you wonder if it is even possible, much less desirable to understand what is going on, these movies are for you. I’m not going to do a full review, just because I don’t have the energy and I’m not sure I could do it without giving too much away. But, here’s a bit of info on a couple movies in case you’re wondering what to add to your queue....or not.

The Machinist.

This movie stars an emaciated Christian Bale as a guy who can’t sleep and pays the price of extended insomnia. Bale (the most recent Batman) is an actor I really like and so I thought I would check this movie out. He starved himself for this role and became freakishly thin, I mean, can see every bone, think he’s going to just break in half, makes Ally McBeal look like Rosanne kind of skinny. It is hard to look at and really the most memorable thing by far about the movie.

Bale plays a guy who can’t sleep and is literally wasting away as a result. To make matters worse he begins to crumble mentally as he can’t tell if he is seeing things or at the center of a conspiracy. The movie leads the audience down the same path of confusion as you wonder what is real and what is imagined while desperately wanting to feed this poor guy. The movie is dark, intense and disturbing. The ending actually fairly well redeems an otherwise unpleasant movie, but I’m not ready to call it “good.” On my scale I think I will give it a 6.5, which doesn’t actually exist on my scale, but it is better than your typical 6, but probably not quite a 7…I think. If you like small, dark psychological thrillers, it is worth renting, but not with children. Take that R rating very seriously.

November

If you watch The Machinist, but decide it was really too light and “normal” for you, check out November. Courtney Cox plays a woman trying to put the pieces together to understand her husband’s shooting in a convenient store robbery.

As an aside, I never got why so many people thought Jennifer Anniston was the “hot one” on friends. She is not even in the same league as Cox. I don’t get this one at all. But anyway…

This movie is one of the most vague, difficult to follow, impressionistic movies I have ever seen (at least that was made by Americans in America). If you get to the end of this movie and understand exactly what is going on, my hat’s off to you, but I sure didn’t get there. That said, the movie was fairly captivating to watch. Visually, it grabs and keeps your attention with changes in color, lighting, lenses, perspective, etc. And it presents just enough of the story to make you really want to know what on earth is going on, or to break the dvd up into little tiny pieces and mail them with a strongly worded letter expressing your displeasure to the director. I sort of felt both at the same time for most of this movie.

The movie is told in 3 acts and when you get to the beginning of the second act, the presented reality is so altered, that you really have nothing but pure speculation to help you figure out what is going on. Then when you move to the 3rd act, you will likely become angry as you realize that even the bits you thought you understood, you really didn’t. It was at this point while I was watching that I was very thankful I had decided to watch this one without my lovely wife Tanya. She wouldn’t have liked this movie even before the final act, but she might have kept watching, because there was something engrossing about it and then she would have become angry and maybe violent and frankly, I couldn’t blame her.

Then the movie ended and I was pretty lost. The ending provides some “real” answers finally, but it doesn’t really help you understand little details like the chronology of the story or even what actually happened. I was so baffled, that I watched the entire movie again with the director’s commentary on, foolishly forfeiting sleep in hopes of finding out what I had just invested the last 2 (and then 4) hours on. Turns out the director commentary was very helpful. There was a whole lot going on in that movie and the sometimes nauseating ambiguity it turns out, was entirely purposeful.

I have to say that while I did not enjoy the movie really before the commentary, after the commentary, the movie really got me thinking. I’m going to give it a 7 even though without the commentary it would have been a 3. It is brutally difficult to understand, but it turns out there is a pretty good reason for that and to do it any other way may have defeated the purpose behind making the movie. That said, it was hard to watch.

If you’re a film buff and you like weird, experimental movies, this one is worth checking out and then once you do, watch it again with the commentary. Maybe I’m just an idiot and you won’t even need the commentary, but it is worth hearing anyway. If you just can't wait for the next Michael Bay or Jerry Bruckheimer movie, you may want to take a pass on November.