Classic Reviews

Guess Who's Coming to Dinner: Social Change

Written by Andrew Watson Tuesday, November 15, 2011, 12:00 AM

A white father discovers his daughter wants to marry a black man: a simple story of race tensions, right?

We all have expectations in life. They can be as small as having twenty minutes of the day to drink an all-important coffee in the morning or as grandiose as believing you will get married before you are thirty. I have an expectation that local football (soccer) team Newcastle United will win 2-1 every weekend, a series of predictions that would see them finish 1^st every season, despite seven years of crippling mediocrity (except for this season, in which we have won every game I predicted we’d lose, and storming the league in a season we were predicted to be a laughing stock). If I were a gambling man, I’d be broke and living in a box right now.

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Punch Drunk Love: The Flawed Protagonist

Written by Varun Raman, Tom Hancock Friday, October 07, 2011, 1:40 PM

Critics generally regard Punch-Drunk Love as Paul Thomas Anderson’s weakest film. Some were even foolish enough to write him off. But at no point, do you begrudge the protagonist of happiness and love, as one might in most rom-coms. This is why it succeeds at possibly being one of the most evocative, romantic films in an otherwise lifeless, bargain-bin genre.

The power of Punch-Drunk Love lies within the flaws of the protagonist, Barry Egan (Adam Sandler), and his perpetually anxious perspective of the world. He desperately needs to connect with another human being but has had a crippling insecurity instilled deep within him by his seven sisters, which manifests as a barrier between him and the rest of the world.

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Boogie Nights: P.T. Anderson's Money Shot

Written by Peter Wertz Wednesday, August 31, 2011, 12:00 AM

For my part, Paul Thomas Anderson is the most exciting director working today. I'll even go so far as to say that he could end up one of the best directors of all time. Now you and I both know how absurd it is to make this claim about any director, and that it's nothing more than an opinion. Still, it gives a pretty clear indication of my feelings on the man and his work. In fifteen years, P.T. has directed five features; one a solid genre flick which nobody has seen, another holds the clear frontrunner for Adam Sandler's best performance of all time, and the other three are Oscar nominees, the last of which won two, despite losing Best Picture. It's hard to appreciate this sort of success while still in the heart of a man's career, but assuming the trajectory holds, we'll all surely be talking about it years from now.

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Bullitt: The Essence of Cool

Written by Peter Wertz Monday, July 11, 2011, 11:31 AM

Though quantifying “cool” is and will always be more guesswork than anything, we seem to nonetheless know it when we see it. Certainly people knew it’s presence in Steve McQueen, the penultimate “cool guy” of the late 60s/early 70s. McQueen was nonchalant and effortlessly charming both in his films and real life, and with his affinity for cars and bikes, became the figurehead for celebrity leisure. Like James Dean before him, McQueen seemed to get by mostly on not giving a fuck, though McQueen’s mellow aloofness seems more natural than Dean’s cultivated independence. With Bullitt, McQueen and Director Peter Yates seem intent on bottling this charm and pouring it in large doses over the entirety of the film; a style that works pretty well, until you start worrying about those pesky little nuances like plot and character.

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Kramer vs. Kramer: One Man, Three Bouts

Written by Andrew Watson Monday, June 13, 2011, 9:42 AM

Kramer vs. Kramer. The title alone says it all. This is a film about family, about conflict, and about winning or losing the battle. But Ted Kramer (Dustin Hoffman) is not just facing one opponent; there will be three bouts of Kramer vs. Kramer: Ted vs. his wife, Ted vs. his son, and Ted vs. himself. Whether he wins each fight or not becomes secondary in the end because it’s clear the journey of taking on each obstacle will change an incredibly flawed man into someone better.

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Breathless: Cocky on the Cusp

Written by Peter Wertz Monday, May 30, 2011, 11:17 AM

There's a fine line between the reckless innovation of New Wave directors and sloppy filmmaking. In the moment, these dramatic departures from the standard must have been thrilling, but with 60 years of film bridging the gap, it's not hard to see that a film like Breathlessis flawed. But it's also explicitly clear that perfection is besides the point. Apart from the fact that this is Jean-Luc Godard's first film, Breathless isn't meant to be anything more than a joyous expression of youth; an homage to the impulse. It is a bright mélange of joy and frustration, violence and noise, action and reaction, love and longing, and aimlessness; and while no one can deny Godard's talent behind the camera, there's something that seems wonderfully serendipitous about his first and most notable film.

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