2011 was probably the biggest year for me and movies. I saw my first films from directors who are now among my favourites, such as Ingmar Bergman, Krzysztof Kieslowski, and Jean-Luc Godard. I learned a lot from them, and they helped me shape my love of cinema today. Recently, Stevee at Cinematic Paradox wrote a […]
Blog Archives
Gus van Sant’s Death trilogy
Dec 22
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Gus van Sant is known by many as a fairly mainstream director. But in the last ten years, he has shifted his focus noticeably from mainstream movies to indie and/or minimalist features, which has created a balance in his fan base by alienating mainstream viewers and inviting new indie ones. Perhaps most divisive among fans […]
Five Movies That Make Me Want To Become A Filmmaker
Oct 30
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I’ve always had some sort of desire in me to be a filmmaker. Just to work behind the scenes doing something. Being a cinematographer or cameraman would be my ideal job, and over the last few years I’ve had a go at making short, experimental films with a cheap video camera. They were all very […]
How To “Get” Minimalist Movies
Sep 28
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Something which really angers me (as I’ve spoken of before) is people who are unable to understand a movie, and thus label it bad or poorly made. I’ve written in length about the over-usage of the word ‘pretentious’ as a go-to word for critics and writers who don’t understand a film. I’ve tried to think […]
Review: Gus van Sant’s “Gerry”
One of the most widely disputed of Gus van Sant’s films is the 2002 movie Gerry. It’s on a lot of lists of slow, boring, uneventful and time-wasting movies. After seeing (and reviewing) van Sant’s brilliant high school shooting spree thriller Elephant, I decided to check this out and see if it was as underrated as I suspected. I was surprised at how much I enjoyed it.
Casey Affleck and Matt Damon are two men, both named Gerry, who go hiking with no supplies in Death Valley one day and get mindlessly, hopelessly lost. Starvation soon sets in, as does desperation, but don’t worry, this isn’t going to turn into Alive or something like that. Gus van Sant keeps it incredibly simple, and his movie just shows the men walking, and never really getting anywhere. Sounds boring, right? Well, take it from me, it’s not. Some people might find it boring, but those with an eye for art will recognize some really amazing techniques being used here, even if some of the characters’ actions don’t make sense.
I suppose my enjoyment of the film was heightened by the fact that I went in expecting a really boring movie, but in every single minute of this beautiful movie, I was riveted. Van Sant intends it to be a character study, but the stunning visuals and flooring cinematography are the real stars. The film also makes very good use of the music of Arvo Pärt, the Estonian composer. Two of his pieces appear here, Spiegel im Spiegel and Für Alina, and the absolutely haunting feel they possess makes the movie and its situation even more desolate and remote.
Sure, it’s slow-paced. The film in itself contains exactly 100 shots, and no more. Pretty incredible when you consider most films of its type contain thousands. Some of these shots are of the coldly beautiful landscape that surrounds the stranded men; some are of the men just walking; one is a shot which pans dead slowly around Casey Affleck’s contemplative face, and perhaps the longest shot in the film is near the end and features them trudging incredibly slowly, almost dead, across a vast white surface.
Yes, the movie is sombre, and emotionally evocative (especially the aforementioned use of Arvo Pärt music), but it’s fantastic. Though there is very little dialogue (especially in the second half), we learn so much about these characters, most notably a repressed homosexual bond which is never physically expressed, but hinted at ever so slightly by van Sant.
Everyone should be able to find something to look at within this small indie gem, and if you find yourself getting tired of the long shots and dully slow-pace, then re-examine it, look at it from a different angle. There is a lot of unacceptance for this film, but the simple fact is that getting lost-really, seriously lost-is not what it looks like in most movies. There are only a tiny handful of movies that really pinpoint the emotional struggle of these disastrous situations. When people think of that sort of thing, movies like 127 Hours come to mind, but when I really focus on it, the truest, most evocative film ever made about getting lost just has to be Gerry.
My Rating:
Is It Worth Adding To Your Netflix Queue?:
Have you seen Gerry? What did you think of it? Leave a comment below. Thanks.
Five “Bad” Movies That I Think Are Actually Quite Good
As perhaps a “sequel” to my earlier post 5 Really Bad Good Movies, here are five movies that the general public (but certainly not everyone) have declared to be really awful movies, that I think have artistic merit as a film and are well within the range of that ambiguous defining categorization of “good.”
1: Gerry (2002)
The first instalment in a trilogy by Gus van Sant is perhaps the best. It’s plot is simple, and some will say unoriginal, but the way Van Sant does it makes it different from all the other rubbish. It’s about two men, both named Gerry (played by Casey Affleck and Matt Damon), who go on a hiking trip in Death Valley and get mindlessly, hopelessly lost. Van Sant relishes in showing countless beautiful shots of the Valley, and likes to linger these shots for quite a long time. In fact, the film contains exactly 100 shots, no more no less, whereas a normal film of its length contains thousands. Many have criticised it for being boring, slow-paced and uneventful, but I see it as a beautiful work of art that sucks you in with its raw, subtle power. Gerry is, for better or worse, the most accurate and precise description of getting lost.
2: The Brown Bunny (2003)
Perhaps the movie with the worst reputation on this list, and one which I will continue to persevere with and try to understand is Vincent Gallo’s seminal, brutally subtle but hugely affecting drama which deals with the raw hurt and heartbreak of a man whose past is so bitterly latching onto him and eating away at him, that in every single frame we see the enormous toll it has taken on him. I wrote a review of the film not too long ago, and hopefully that’s enough to convince people who couldn’t see the sense in this movie to revisit it like I did. When I first saw it, I despised it. But in time, and by rewatching it, I soon began to see what Gallo was trying (albeit inconsiderately) to get across, and it blew my mind.
3: Funny Games (1997)
Okay, maybe this isn’t a hated film, but I’ve read more bad reviews than good and I seem to be the only person I know who really liked it. This is the first in a trilogy of 3 movies which I refer to as the Mid-Career Passageway, in which Haneke directed his three best movies, this, The Piano Teacher and Cachè. Funny Games is both a condemnation and tribute to cinematic violence. There is no real plot here; just mindless, senseless violence and a menial excercise in the pointlessness of it all.
4: Vanilla Sky (2001)
While certainly paling in comparison to its highly superior original, Abre Los Ojos, Cameron Crowe’s 2001 remake is nevertheless, not crap. It manages to retain at least some of the feel of the original, and is every bit as provocative and original as Abre Los Ojos seemed to its target audience at the time. How this got 40% on Rotten Tomatoes is beyond me.
5: Pink Flamingos (1972)
Okay, this is more of a so-fun-even-though-its-disgusting-Divine-makes-me-laugh-so-fucking-hard-with-her-accent-and-oh-my-god-just-look-at-the-shitty-cinematography-of-this-ugly-underground-film-is-that-no-no-no-she-isn’t-o-m-g-she’s-eating-a-dog-turd-oh-my-god-that-must-taste-awful-I-feel-kinda-dirty-for-watching-this-it’s-really-bad movie. It’s bad, sure, we know it’s bad, but we’re compelled to watch anyway.
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What are some ‘confirmed’ bad movies that you enjoy? Do you like/dislike my choices? Leave a comment below.
Thanks for reading.