Wise Blood

This horrifying movie about small town America's obsession and saturation with religion is based on Flannery O'Connor's novel of the same name. With a ridiculous original score it seems perhaps a dark comedy about the illness which so fully plagues the South in the name of Jesus. A young man returns from a stint in the army to find his childhood home abandoned and a new interstate dumping country folks into the city. The protagonist soon ends up in the city himself, and in the midst of a spiritual crisis he is flung from the arms of a godless prostitute to a preacher con artist father/daughter pair. It seems that this world is a mean, lonely place with God or not. The young man's life goes downhill as he kills a man, loses his car, and becomes both blind and more insane. I suppose this slow, confined story could have its place in cautionary tales about America but perhaps its message lacks clarity and concision. Worth watching if you have an interest in American literary history, but boring at times and maybe a little too true to the novel to make a compelling film.

Um?
2 out of 5
Buy this film: Wise Blood

Plot: 2
Imagery: 2
Originality: 2
Soundtrack: 1
Overall: 2

Velvet Goldmine

This is a glittery, sequined, spandex-filled tale of glam rock, its idols, followers, and the scene in which they thrive. Christian Bale (Batman) plays a reporter who, given an assignment to cover the 10-year anniversary of a Bowie-esque glam rock star's career-ending faked public assassination, finds himself in the midst of countless suppressed memories. While investigating the disappearance of this fallen hero Bale is reminded of a self he has stifled for years - tight, revealing outfits; drug use; the shame of his parents; a love affair with a famous Iggy Pop-ish American glam rocker (Ewan McGregor); a lifestyle of shallow relationships; sexual confusion; freedom; and very few consequences. Has Bale's character lost his true self by taking a responsible job? Threaded throughout with both allusion and direct references to Oscar Wilde - was he gay/bi? Maybe I learned something from this film and, told in the Citizen Kane this-has-happened-now-go-back-and-report-on-it-tell-the-story format, Velvet Goldmine is occasionally entertaining, though sections of the film were overdone, held too long or seemingly irrelevant.

Um?
2.5 out of 5
Buy this film: Velvet Goldmine

Plot: 2
Imagery: 3
Originality: 2
Soundtrack: 4 Buy the Soundtrack or download it
Overall: 2.5

Smart People

This movie is awful. Having watched it recently, the plot is already almost forgotten - something about a curmudgeonly (but not very old) widower and professor; his prudish, pedantic, annoying daughter; a nurse; and a lazy bum of a brother. While such a combination of characters seems like a fail-proof concoction for fun and exciting scenarios, somehow it completely misses. There may be one or two amusing quips, but for the most part the dialogue is flat. A dry, offbeat feel is striven for but not obtained, and overall it seems to have been a poor attempt at mimicking the more entertaining film The Squid and the Whale.

BOOOOOOOO!
1 out of 5
Buy this film: Smart People

Plot: 1
Imagery: 1
Originality: 1
Soundtrack: 1
Overall: 1