The Road: Human Interaction.

The Road pg. 60-150

So now the story has finally led to what the first quarter or so was foreshadowing. Our protagonists have finally encountered other humans on their journey, and they are very very dangerous. The first human we see them encounter is a man wandering down the road horribly injured after being struck by lightning. The boy wants to help him but his father knows they can do nothing, they pass the man, never quite looking at him. Soon later, a much more dangerous encounter occurs and picks up the novels pace tremendously. The father and son see what I will refer to as "wanderers" since the book gives them no specific title. They are driving a truck on diesel and have guns, we have no idea why. They wear paint masks and have tattered clothes. We ultimately know nothing about them but Cormac McCarthy describes them in such detail that they seem terrifying. When they encounter one of the wanderers close up, they begin a scuffle that ends with the father shooting the wanderer and covering his son in brain matter. These few pages were very intense and may actually convince me this book could work as a film.

Besides the encounter with the wanderers there is another notable thing about this portion of the book. The first being that the dialog between the father and son increases and we find that their relationship isn't as great as it could be, especially in terms of his son wanting to die.

Games as Art Debate Research Part 3

Game: Grand Theft Auto IV
Link #6
The criticism this article brings to light in interesting because it does not address the violence of the Grand Theft Auto series and more of what people see in the story. He rants about how the story is nothing special and "Sub-Tarantino" but also admits that he never gets very far in the games at all. This is a common pattern against people who criticize the value of gaming, they rarely ever put a lot of effort into finishing the game or never play the game at all. In this case the writer is criticizing those who are impressed with GTA IV's story, even though he has no idea what it is.

Game: Metal Gear Solid Series
Link #7
The Metal Gear Solid series has been a big component of the "games as art" debate. With it's sprawling story of political espionage along with the brilliant writing and directing it is often considered the absolute best you can get out of a game. Director of Metal Gear Solid, Hideo Kojima, often thinks differently. He is notorious for being very critical and negative about his own work even though it is almost universally praised. It is a shocking blow for the man behind some of the greatest games of all time to declare that he does not think games are art. It is his belief that artists try to appeal to one specific group, while game creators try to appeal to a broad group. Once again his opinion is subjective, but nonetheless it is shocking to hear this coming from the creator of a critically hailed game series.

Link #8
This article addresses how in America specifically, games are being given limits that do not allow them to become art. The ratings system is broken, the creativity is too far and between, and no one seems to be arguing against it. If a game receives an AO (Adults Only) rating, no store will carry it, the developers censor their game to avoid the rating. How can the art form grow if someones creative vision is automatically limited by the ESRB?

The Road 1-60

The Road by Cormac McCarthy is a story about a father and son. Some implied tragedy has burned across America, leaving nothing but ash in it's wake. So far we do not know their names or much about them at all except that they are heading south to get warm. The first 60 pages focus mainly on their journey and introducing their characteristics. We find out that the son is easily scared and that the father, while comforting to his son, is more scared of their possible death than he lets on. "If we get wet, we'll die" he says. It is interesting how Cormac McCarthy describes nothingness. All around the father and son is a baren wasteland but he finds a way to describe the ash flowing through the air and the glassy ground.

The novel appears to be building up to something. There is frequently very short moments of suspense that so far have led to nothing. The father hears drums in the distance, the boy suspects someone of being in his fathers old house. I am excited to see what happens when they finally encounter another human, I have a feeling it is not going to be a peaceful situation. There is a brief flashback of the father remembering going to a concerty with his wife. This part is interesting because we find out that whatever happened surely happened recently. Although it appears that the son only knows this post-apocalyptic America, this is most apparent in a scene where he does not recognize what a Coca-Cola is.

I am intrigued by The Road, but I can definitley feel it building up to something much bigger.

Slutlamp - A bottle of oil with a cloth wick.(From: Dictionary of Caribbean English Usage)

Games as Art Debate Research Part 2

Game: Shadow of the Colossus
Link #4:
Controls as an exercise in art
This is interesting because we see a new side to how games can be labeled as art. Sure the visuals of the game are astounding but the controls which are arguably the most important part of any game are sparsely discussed in the games as art debate. This article takes Shadow of the Colossus and shows us how through subtle tweaks in how the game handles, it becomes a work of art.

Game: Okami
Link #5
The Game of Art
Okami is one of the most discussed games in this debate because of it's revolutionary paint brush gameplay mechanic. What this Wired article asks is if the game feels like art or if the art feels like a game. Attempting to answer the question appears to be futile, since everyone will have something different to say.

Game: Bioshock
Link #6:
Objectivism in Bioshock
This article approaches different literary and philosophical connections within Bioshock. Approaching the story of a game is where most "games as art" debates lead to, but there are so few games that really try to have a good story like Bioshock. This game singlehandedly raised the stakes for stories in games and it's effect will be long lasting.

Games as Art Debate Research Part 1

Link #1
Games vs. Art: Ebert vs. Barker
by Roger Ebert

This is Roger Ebert's response to Clive Barker after Clive commented on Ebert's "video games are not art" stance. Roger easily wins this argument as Clive is clearly not suited to be the one defending artistic video games. Clive's argument is weak and full of holes making it easy for Ebert to pick it apart. On the other hand Ebert also seems ignorant in how he talks about games(something he clearly has little knowledge of) and is obviously categorizing them all into more mindless fodder. In all honesty while Ebert's argument is stronger, both sides go about the issue the wrong way.

Link #2
The Arty Party
by Jim Preston

This piece by EA producer Jim Preston does not so much address the "games as art" debate as much as it addresses controversy over what art is in general. The article makes the question "what is art?" and ultimately comes to the conclusion that art in America is so many different things to different people due to our rich cultural landscape. We cannot define one thing as art and another thing as not, because everything is art to somebody. A urinal becomes art when it is placed in a museum, but as Jim Preston says, you can find Pac-Man in the Smithsonian.

Link #3
Once Upon A Time, Will Video Games Ever Have Their "Moby Dick" or "Citizen Kane"?
by William Vitka

This piece focuses more on the story aspect of video games and how it needs to be improved if it wants to be considered art. Story in most video games comes in as an afterthought to the game design, this is of course a large problem. Games have come very close to art but as long as the story sits behind concept and design, we will never get our "gaming classic". The article also addresses player control and actually argues that it provides a stronger narrative, not the other way around.

Review: The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

Directed: Julian Schnabel

Written: Ronald Harwood and Jean-Dominique Bauby(novel)

Starring: Mathieu Amalric

For the majority of The Diving Bell and the Butterfly we see through the eyes of Jean-Dominique Bauby editor of Elle magazine. When we aren't seeing things through his eyes we are seeing things he remembers or imagines. "Other than my eye, two things aren't paralyzed, my imagination and my memory. " Bauby says as he lays in a hospital bed, completely paralyzed except for his left eye. How did he get in this position? Jean-Dominique Bauby had a stroke at the age of 43 and ended up with the very rare "locked in" syndrome, a syndrome in which the patient retains almost all memory and recognition but remains paralyzed. Through a system developed for those with locked in syndrome, Bauby can communicate by blinking. At first they use the simple system of "One blink means yes." and "Two blinks mean no." Eventually a system is worked out where a person works with Bauby by reading out an alphabet in order of how commonly a letter is used. Bauby blinks when they read the letter he wants and they can eventually form whole words and sentences. It was this system that allowed Bauby to make his memoir "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly". This provided an insiders view of "locked in" syndrome and when the memoirs were adapted into film the "insiders view" is absolutely retained. When I say "see through the eyes" of Jean-Dominique Bauby I mean it in a very literal way. As in, we see every time he blinks, we see his eyelids being sewn shut, and we hear his inner monologue desperate to speak out. It is these portions of the movie with their cinematography that make the film literally one of the most involving movies I have ever seen.

Not only do we get to see Bauby's time in the hospital, we also see flashbacks of his life as the rockstar-like womanizing editor of Elle magazine and of his life as a loving father to his children. I felt a deep feeling of sadness after seeing a flashback of Bauby so vibrant and full of life, and then cut back to him after the stroke with a lifeless expression on his face. Bauby's inner monologue serves as the films narration as we see him visit his kids, see his friends, make friends with his stenographer, and even see his condition improve. We see all these moments of his life and they are countered with the voice telling us how he longs to play with his children or make love to a woman. This provided a much more emotionally effective experience than I anticipated and could even leave more sensitive viewers shaken by how intense the emotion can become. Mathieu Amalric does a good job as Jean-Dominique Bauby but in all honesty there is not a lot that he does that isn't a testament to the excellent writing. Do not take this the wrong way, he was better than decent, but the writing and narration are the real stars of the movie and I don't see a lot that Mathieu adds to those things since he spends the majority of the film off screen.

Julian Schnabel shows off some very impressive direction in Diving Bell. The style of the movie being pulled off this well overall is not something that is common in even some of the artsiest corners of cinema. The film essentially became his baby and he has taken very good care of it. Interestingly enough the screenplay adapted from Bauby's memoirs by Ronald Harwood was written completely in English, it was not until Schnabel came aboard that the decision to film the movie in Bauby's native tongue of French was even put on the table. It is such a sad sight to see Bauby's condition improve in the later half of the film only to see him quickly be taken away by pneumonia. Thank God he could finish his memoirs and that they could be adapted into this magnificent film. Lots of movies like to take a long hard look at the human psyche and give their take on it. The difference between those films and The Diving Bell and the Butterfly is that in this film, the human psyche is taking a long hard look at us from the inside, and for the first time we get to see through his eyes.

9.7/10

Metaphor in Mark Doty’s "Difference"

In Mark Doty's poem "Difference" there is a very interesting statement about jellyfish. The first half of the poem focuses on several metaphors for jellyfish such as "this one a breathing heart, this a pulsing flower. This one a rolled condom, or a plastic purse swallowing itself,that one a Tiffany shade" (17-21). These metaphors are obvious and provide some easily imagined imagery, each one is relatable to the look and/or shape of a jellyfish. It is not until around the halfway point of the poem that the speaker uses the metaphors to his advantage when he says "sheer ectoplasm recognizable only as the stuff of metaphor." (31-33) It is at this point that the reader can begin to understand how the speaker looks at jellyfish.

Imagine a young child at an aquarium. He is looking into a tank full of jellyfish with big eyes full of wonder. Imagine what is going through his mind. He is not thinking "Look at the beauty of marine life." he is thinking "Wow, those look like floating glowing grocery bags!" Most poems are entirely dependent upon the use of metaphor and there is no shortage of school assignments begging students to "Find the metaphor!" Metaphors, after all, are the basis for all education. We learn how one thing works by pointing out its similarities to something we already know. You could say there is an often childhood-like feeling accompanying metaphor even when using metaphors for very adult things like war or death. "Difference" follows the basic rules of using metaphors, but is different for how it dissects what metaphors mean. The speaker is using jellyfish as something that automatically applies itself to metaphor. It is almost impossible to look at a jellyfish for a period of more than a few seconds and not think of what else it looks like besides a jellyfish. By using such an easy metaphor and comparing it to things like condoms and opera, the speaker is representing the imagination of the world itself.

"Hear how the mouth, so full of longing for the world, changes its shape?" (58-60). We see all these things in jellyfish, because our imaginations want to see it. Is that not what fuels our imagination, the longing to see what is not there? Jellyfish as a metaphor for metaphors? All I see is a floating grocery bag.

Exercise I in Poems: Fourth Edition

Pleasures of Recognition:

The Double Play by Robert Wallace

The pleasure of recognition is notable here in how the poet takes a simple game of baseball, something we have all seen and compares it to something more elegant and beautiful like a ballet. It in a way makes baseball seem much more wonderful and less boring than the average viewer would think at first glance.

Because River-Fog by Fukayabu Kiyowara

The reader would gain pleasure of recognition in this poem by possibly remembering moments they have had in which they are entrenched in nature. I was immediately reminded of a camping trip in 8th grade in which I climbed up a small mountain and went back down on the river enjoying the view in silence.

A Foreign Ruler by Walter Savage Landor

A different kind of pleasure from recognition is found in this poem. Not pleasure in the sense that you are reminded of something and then feel better for it. Pleasure in the sense that through most political quandaries, feelings have felt the same. The poem was written centuries ago but could easily be applied to several leaders throughout time, all the way up to the leaders of today. There is something strangely comforting in seeing someone who has been dead for hundreds of years share a connection with today.

Not Drunk by Thomas Love Peacock (wow)

It is hard for me to find a connection with the novel, but imagining it from an adult drinker perspective I would probably say that it accurately relates back to often loose definitions of "drunk" that people supply as excuse for whatever they may do next in their stupor of Bud Light.

The Chinese Checker Players by Richard Brautigan

This poem appealed the most to me. I never had any relationship with an old woman and Chinese checkers but it takes me back to childhood games. The innocence of a child who cheats at a game is difficult to look at, they believe they are cunning when their plan is so obvious. I have to wonder if the old woman knows the boy is cheating, and cheats along with him, Chinese checkers is not what matters but more of the loneliness she feels after her husbands death combined with the ever listening ears of the cheating child. A good pair.

Spotlight on: Persepolis and The Benefits of Film Adaptation

Spotlight on: Persepolis and The Benefits of Film Adaptation

A trend has developed in recent film adaptations of graphic novels that worries me. Popular films such as Sin City and 300 are panel-to-panel exact copies of the novels they originate from. While this is often fun to look at and even amazingly done in most cases, it has led to a movement that worries me. When I think about adaptation of a novel, I imagine something that takes from the book, but also has an identity of its own. Recently a film adaptation of the critically acclaimed Watchmen graphic novel went into production. Director Zack Snyder, a big fan of the book, admitted that he would have to make a few changes in order for the novel to work as a film. There was a major backlash. People cried that Watchmen was unadaptable if the entire novel couldn't fit into one film. I say, why can't anything be changed? The medium of film is just a few steps above the experience of reading a comic book style novel, but the story can benefit so much from having visuals and narration separate from each other that it can create an entirely new experience altogether. The film that showed me that a graphic novel adaptation can have several omissions and changes from the book and still be a great experience, and even improve upon the novel in some ways, was the animated film adaptation of Marjane Satrapi's autobiography graphic novel, Persepolis.

Persepolis tells Marjane Satrapi's story of growing up in Iran and later Austria from the 70's up until present day. It addresses the political conflict of Iran and the sadness of a girl who has to grow up so far away from her home and her family. Eventually Marjane returns to Iran to see that the home she so longed for, no longer exists. There are three specific examples of benefiting from film adaptation in Persepolis. The first being after a scene in which Marjane overhears some girls at a cafe talking about her. The night before Marjane had pretended to be french while a guy hit on her, the girls at the table across from her were laughing at the thought of her pretending to be French. She angrily walks over to the table and yells "I AM IRANIAN AND PROUD OF IT!" and storms off. Now in terms of the book and the movie, there is no difference in this portion of the scene, it is a word for word copy. When we see Marjane thinking about the incident later while walking down the street she is reminded of her grandmother, and what she would think about Marjane pretending to be French. In the book what we see is Marjane's narration simply state that she was reminded of her grandmother and how upset she would be if she found out about Marjane hiding her Iranian heritage. In the film however, we are treated to a scene that replaces the simple narration with an artfully done scene where Marjane's shadow turns into the shape of her grandmother, and Marjane shares a discussion with grandmother's shadow that looms over her, disappointed in her for denying her roots. The creativeness of the scene along with the beautiful black and white 2D animation that keeps the movie still looking like the book, adds so much to the novel that we couldn't get before.

The second example is a musical number that happens shortly after Marjane attempts to commit suicide. In the novel it is shown over several pages how Marjane improved her life, going to school, starting up a dancing class, and just learning to be happy again. At one point in the book we see a radio in the studio of Marjane's dance class that has "Eye of the Tiger" playing. In the movie however, these pages are molded into one sequence where Marjane sings "Eye of the Tiger" as she improves her life in various ways. This is easily the most uplifting part of an often depressing movie and it expresses the happiness of Marjane much more fully than the novel. The third example is the largest. For the film, an entire extra layer of story was added with Marjane sitting in an airport in present day, thinking about her life. This provides an explanation of where the narration is coming from and a much more satisfying, if not more depressing ending than in the novel. It also provides an added artistic quality, as the present day scenes look beautiful with their partially colored in look. The only real advantage that the novel has over the film is that it can present a more detailed and long look into Marjane's life and that it can provide notes on specific events. Many times throughout the novel Marjane makes notes outside of the panels giving cultural information to explain certain events. Such as in a scene where one of the nuns at the board house Marjane is staying insults her in a different language and specifically calls her foreigner in a harsh tone. A similar event happens later involving her then boyfriend's mother. In the novel there is a note explaining the specific meanings of the words and often add some more humor or insight to the situation. Of course this cannot happen in the film and through careful changing of dialog, it is ommitted.

Besides those two minor differences, Persepolis really stands a strong companion piece to the novel. I can only hope people become more accepting to changes and sacrifices made to adapt a graphic novel to film, it is the only way the genre can branch out in the film world. Persepolis is a large step forward in the right direction, for proving how original a graphic novel adaptation can be.

Picks for the 80th annual Academy Awards

BEST MOTION PICTURE OF THE YEAR - 5 points
No Country for Old Men


ACHIEVEMENT IN DIRECTING - 5 points
Joel Coen and Ethan Coen - No Country for Old Men


PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE - 5 points
Daniel Day-Lewis - There Will Be Blood


PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE - 5 points
Ellen Page - Juno

PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE - 5 points
Javier Bardem - No Country for Old Men


PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE - 5 points
Cate Blanchett - I'm Not There


ADAPTED SCREENPLAY - 5 points
Joel Coen & Ethan Coen - No Country for Old Men


ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY - 5 points
Diablo Cody - Juno


BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM OF THE YEAR - 5 points
The Counterfeiters (Austria)


BEST ANIMATED FEATURE FILM OF THE YEAR - 3 points
Persepolis

ACHIEVEMENT IN ART DIRECTION - 5 points
Sweeney Todd The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
Art Direction: Dante Ferretti; Set Decoration: Francesca Lo Schiavo


ACHIEVEMENT IN CINEMATOGRAPHY - 5 points
Robert Elswit - There Will Be Blood

ACHIEVEMENT IN COSTUME DESIGN - 5 points
Colleen Atwood - Sweeney Todd The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE - 5 point
Sicko


ACHIEVEMENT IN FILM EDITING - 5 points
Christopher Rouse - The Bourne Ultimatum

ACHIEVEMENT IN MAKEUP - 3 points
Ve Neill and Martin Samuel - Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End

ACHIEVEMENT IN MUSIC WRITTEN FOR MOTION PICTURES (ORIGINAL SCORE) - 5 points
Dario Marianelli - Atonement

ACHIEVEMENT IN MUSIC WRITTEN FOR MOTION PICTURES (ORIGINAL SONG) - 5 points
"Falling Slowly" - Once
Music and Lyric by Glen Hansard and: Marketa Irglova


ACHIEVEMENT IN SOUND MIXING - 5 points
Skip Lievsay, Craig Berkey, Greg Orloff and Peter Kurland - No Country for Old Men

ACHIEVEMENT IN SOUND EDITING - 5 points
Matthew Wood - There Will Be Blood


ACHIEVEMENT IN VISUAL EFFECTS - 3 points
Scott Farrar, Scott Benza, Russell Earl and John Frazier - Transformers

BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT SUBJECT - 4 points
Freeheld

BEST ANIMATED SHORT FILM - 5 points
I Met the Walrus


BEST LIVE ACTION SHORT FILM - 5 points
Le Mozart des Pickpockets (The Mozart of Pickpockets)

Oscar Review: Atonement

Atonement
Directed: Joe Wright
Written: Christopher Hampton and Ian McEwan (novel)
Starring: Saoirse Ronan, Keira Knightley, and James McAvoy

Blech! Period pieces are something I do not often enjoy. They all follow the same basic rules:
1. Have every actor involved go by the classical standard of "victorian" acting.
2. Be nominated for best costume design no matter what.
3. Have Keira Knightley on the cover.
4. Focus on a rich family.
5. Make sure it is a love story.
Atonement breaks none of these rules, and to the untrained eye looks like just another sappy old love story that we have heard several versions of before. The truth is that Atonement breaks new ground in an endless cycle of period piece love stories with its touchy subject manner, creative directing, and bold ending. The tragic story begins at the large estate of the Tallis family. Briony Tallis(Saoirse Ronan) is a writer who at the age of 13 has already completed several stories and plays. Today her cousins are coming over(while their parents are getting divorced) and she has a play prepared to be performed that night. Her three cousins, a 15 year old redheaded girl named Lola Quincey and her two younger twin brothers; are not very interested in Briony's play despite her pleading with them to pay attention. Meanwhile Briony's sister Cecilia is preparing for the arrival of her brother who is bringing his best friend who runs a chocolate factory. Cecilia is being bothered by her classmate/landscaper Robbie (James McAvoy) who later that day confesses his love to Cecilia in a note he gives to Briony. Unfortunately he accidentally gives Briony a highly sexual and crude note that he wrote as a joke. Cecilia seems undisturbed and shows her love to Robbie in the library of their mansion. Cecilia walks in on this and is highly shaken up, this and a case of mistaken identity later in the night lead Briony to accuse Robbie of being a sexual predator. Robbie is arrested and eventually joins the army, being separated from his lover Cecilia. Atonement focuses on the tale of Robbie and Cecilia craving to be back with each other as well as Briony's growing guilt for falsely accusing Robbie over the course of several years.

The first act of Atonement feels very typical, but interesting to watch. A rich yet troubled family and their sexual adventures! We have seen this story before, but the acting helps this part of the story rise above conventional standards. Saoirse Ronan in particular is wonderful as Briony (the real star of the movie) her portrayal of the innocence yet ignorance of a little girl will really affect you. Keira Knightley nor James McAvoy really impressed me and seemed very plain and simple with their performances. This may just be the fact that the story of the character Briony is much more interesting than the love story that the film so heavily advertises. The middle act shows off the more impressive technical aspects of Atonement. A single several minute shot on the beach of Dunkirk is breathtaking, the constant moving camera that goes across the beach, along with the moving score complimenting the singing soldiers in a choir, all mixing with Joe Wright really showing off his talent.

The final act is what really brings this movie over the edge of being typical to its genre (as could be said for many of the best films of 2007) Atonement has an ending that is so astonishingly brilliant, it improves everything in the film tenfold in a single moment. So while Atonement may at first come off as typical, good things come to those who wait, in this case the good thing would be a revolution of consequences in period piece romance.

9/10

Oscar Review: Michael Clayton

Michael Clayton
Written and Directed: Tony Gilroy
Starring: George Clooney and Tom Wilkinson

The words "legal" and "thriller" mixed together have produced some very mixed and boring results before. When I saw the trailer for Michael Clayton I was less than excited. It had a great cast, but the story seemed typical (Network, anyone?) and none of it looked very interesting. I wasn't even tempted to take a look at it until Oscar nominations were being thrown at it. To be honest, the only reason I decided to watch it was because I was dedicated to seeing every best picture nomination. To my surprise, Michael Clayton is much more daring than your average legal thriller. Not so much in the point it tries to make, but in how it focuses on it's characters and their glaring faults. Be it how far they will go to succeed, or how they can fix every single problem but their own; Michael Clayton is a fascinating character study.

Michael Clayton (George Clooney) is what people in the business(the legal business, I guess) call a "fixer". His job is to come up with quick solutions for rich clients under high pressure situations. Now one of the top attorneys at the firm Clayton works at, Arthur Edens (Tom Wilkinson) is having a breakdown. During an important deposition for the firms #1 client U-North a pharmeceutical company, Edens begins to strip naked and seemingly goes insane. Michael is sent in to rectify the situation and take care of his long time friend. Everyone thinks Arthur has simply snapped, but it becomes apparent that U-North is hiding something, something that made Arthur deeply question his own morality, and U-North's chief counsel Karen Crowder (Tilda Swinton) will do anything to hide it from the public.

I started to appreciate Michael Clayton during a scene where Michael pulls over his car to take in the beauty of some horses standing in a field. It is kind of odd, me finding appreciation in a movie that didn't seem like anything out of the ordinary during a scene in which the main character is finding appreciation in horses that weren't really doing anything out of the ordinary. I kind of find it amazing that Michael Clayton is not based on a book. I actually thought it was based on a book up until I started looking for that "based on the best selling novel" label. The fact that Michael Clayton is not based on a book is a testament to the film itself, the dialog feels straight out of a great novel, while the cinematography contrasts it with the kind of beautiful shots we go to see films for (in particular the scene with horses I mentioned earlier). Tony Gilroy has proven his writing skills before by adapting the Bourne screenplays but here he shows that his directing is just as good and compliments his writing very well. The acting here is phenomenal, George Clooney once again proves that he can play any role he wants and often does so, he carries the film very well. I think Tilda Swinton has won me over in just about everything she has ever been in including the mediocre comic book adaptation Constantine and she is just as good here. Tom Wilkinson's role may seem sort of like a show off "give me an oscar" role to some, but I think he genuinely does well here and avoids the oscar grabbing you would see from actors like Russel Crowe(I love you Russel, but don't you ever tell me Cinderella Man was a good movie).

So it is not when the legal plan all comes together, or when justice is served that Michael Clayton becomes a good movie. There is a moment where you realize this is much more than a legal thriller. It is during a scene in which Clayton's son is explaining a popular children's trading card series to Arthur Edens that involves everyone in a town having the same dream, but no one knows it because everyone is afraid that they are crazy. There is something oddly powerful about a moment like this, and seeing Edens react with interest and find such meaning in what is seemingly a stupid trading card game. It is just something you have to stop, look at, and appreciate.

9.1/10

Oscar Review: Juno

Juno
Written: Diablo Cody

Directed: Jason Reitman

Starring: Ellen Page and Michael Cera

"Honest to Blog" There it is, the line that made me cringe the most in Juno. Some others had it much worse, being annoyed by every "quirky" thing about the film from Juno eating lunch in her high school trophy case or her having a plastic phone shaped like a hamburger. I am not writing this review to argue against these people, the thing would have to be pages long. I have been an avid defender of Garden State, Little Miss Sunshine, and many others that receive the "quirky" complaint. So let me just get out of the way that yes, Juno is a very quirky movie that may have a few too many weird lines of dialog that seem to "hip" and that no one really says in real life. Let me also get out of the way that even though writer Diablo Cody is getting criticized by a few people for her writing, she is essentially doing the same thing Quentin Tarantino does with his writing. She creates a hip lingo that doesn't really exist, and I(as do most) marvel at Tarantino...so why not Cody?

Now that we got that out of the way lets get on to the actual film. Juno Macguff (Ellen Page) is a 16 year old junior in high school who is probably the coolest girl to never exist. She is witty, loves good music, and coincidentally is pregnant. The father is Paulie Bleeker (Michael Cera) who is Juno's best friend. He runs track and is addicted to tic-tacs. Juno claims that she had sex with Paulie out of sheer boredom but Paulie was hoping that much more was involved than just boredom. Juno decides to have the baby, but instead of raising it she wants to let a family adopt it. After searching she comes across Mark and Vanessa Loring, a somewhat typical young suburban couple. While Vanessa is nice and almost tries too hard sometimes, Mark seems unhappy with his current lifestyle and misses his rock and roll days from when he was younger. He sees this personified in Juno and as she moves throughout her pregnancy her and Mark see more and more eachother culminating in a lesson in maturity for the both of them.

Juno is a very funny movie. All of the characters are lightning fast with their responses and everyone seems to play off of eachother very well. Ellen Page especially deserves her oscar nod for creating one of the most likable characters of the year without seeming too cheesy with most of her delivery. The only problem with most of the humor was that it seemed almost toned down at points that took me out of the film. There is an excess of the word "friggin" throughout the film, but we all know what they would be saying in real life. Despite that I enjoyed a lot of Diablo Cody's dialog, she is not a master writer but for a first screenplay Juno is certainly very impressive(much more impressive than what I could churn out). Just about all the acting is enjoyable. Michael Cera as usual is very funny with his standard facial reactions mixed with awkward dialog. I am not a big Jennifer Garner fan but she really shines in this movie especially in a scene that takes place in a mall where she feels the baby kick for the first time. Jason Bateman and Michael Cera do not share any scenes together so there is no Arrested Development references, even so Jason holds his own and I am glad he is getting some better roles now(The Ex and Smoking Aces bleh) Juno pulls no punches when talking about music or movies either, extended conversations about Sonic Youth and rare horror gems like The Wizard of Gore are all over the place, causing some awkward moments of only 2 or 3 people in the theater getting the joke.

Despite it's humor and silly exterior, Juno has some very touching moments within, almost all of them accentuated by former Moldy Peach, Kimya Dawson doing the soundtrack. There is a performance of "Anybody Else But You" that is a key moment of the film and challenges anyone not to crack a smile at how sweet it is. The film is not afraid to go deep with some of it's emotions and it definitley works well, making a much more serious movie than most would expect. 2007 has been the ultimate year for "having a baby" movies and Juno brings it to the teens. It almost takes me back to when I was in 9th grade and had a lot of friends that were "hip" like Juno, none of them pregnant of course. These people shaped my taste in just about everything and Juno makes me miss them terribly. If anything can tug on my heartstrings hard enough to make me think of all my friends from back then and focus on pregnancy in a humorous and serious way without a moments hesitation between the two...It is definitley one of the best films of the year.

9.7/10

Oscar Review: No Country For Old Men

No Country For Old Men
Written : Cormac McCarthy(novel) The Coen Brothers (screenplay)
Directed: The Coen Brothers
Starring: Tommy Lee Jones, Javier Bardem, Josh Brolin

America has become sort of a rough place. So many films have had specific statments about America, and what it is becoming. Be it Crash with its statement on the racism that still exists after all these years and might be getting worse, or Requiem for a Dream's take on the drug problem in America. All of these films have a clear straight message of how bad America is becoming. No Country For Old Men has a similar message, but it is not clear, and it is not warning of us how bad America will become, it is showing us how bad it was 28 years ago. Leaving us alone to realize how bad it is now. The thing that is most scary about No Country For Old Men is not it's nail biting scenes of suspense that bring a whole new standard to the thriller genre. It is the thing that transcends the thriller genre, transcends the film altogether really, it is the portrayal of the rising violence and insanity in America and how that the picture perfect baby boomer generation of America has now faded into a dark and scary place with little remorse for the lives of others.

The film is about three different men, who are all chasing eachother, rarely interacting head on, if ever. The first is Sheriff Bell (Tommy Lee Jones) a small time sheriff in West Texas who opens the film with a voiceover about a horrible crime committed by a teenage boy, which compliments the wide open shots of desert. Then we have Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin) a vietnam veteran who goes out hunting one day and spots the aftermath of a drug deal gone bad, all that is left is tons of drugs, a pile of dead bodies along with an almost dead body, and a satchel filled with $2 million dollars. Llewelyn takes the money, ignoring the pleas of the last man alive who is begging for water. Later his guilt gets the best of him and he drives back to the scene only to be discovered and shot at by a third party checking out the drug deal. He ditches his truck, gets his wife out town, and starts hiding but now they have access to all his information and have send someone to get their money back. That man is Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem) a purported hitman who personifies unstoppable evil, Anton is not in this for the money, he is in it for the hunt, the money being a nice bonus. Anton sadistically kills people for little to no reason going as far to even kill some of his own allies. His weapons of choice are a cattle gun, a gigantic silenced shotgun, and a coin. Anton flips the coin on those he is not sure he needs to kill, allowing them to choose their own fate. It as almost as if that he has to leave it up fate, since no matter what he is driven to kill them, he can't make the decision despite what one of his victims claims otherwise. He is literally a killing machine.

So the film focuses on these three men, waiting until the end to reveal who the movie is really about. In between the opening and the last 15 minutes or so we are treated to one of the best suspense thrillers to come out since Silence of the Lambs. One of the more effective factors is how the film features no music at all, creating eery silence, unlike most films today that have a score trying to add an exclamation point on every scene. The silence here provides such an intense viewing experience when you first see it, that I already miss not knowing what is going to happen. For violence junkies the film will please you as well, Anton Chigurh pulls off some very nasty kills here. One thing that has annoyed me about the recent praise of No Country For Old Men is people claiming that "this is what the Coens do best" I highly disagree, while Fargo and Miller's Crossing are both classics in their own right they shouldn't always be considered the Coen's best. As a person whose favorite Coen film is Barton Fink I can say that No Country easily surpasses it and IS the Coen's most well written and directed film. From what I hear the script is a word for word adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's novel besides some small improvements or making specific things a little less clear. The movie has some great dialog, mostly coming from Anton and Sheriff Bell who both have long monologues at different points showing the duality of their two different sides.

When the film comes to a close and the real message is revealed, when we finally see why it is called No Country For Old Men that is when the film easily rises above whatever limitations the thriller genre has and becomes a much more horrifying movie. Let me just restate the film is set in 1980, if things were bad then, what kind of country are we in now?

9.8/10

Oscar Review: There Will Be Blood

There Will Be Blood
Release Date: December 26th 2007
Written and Directed: Paul Thomas Anderson
Starring: Daniel Day-Lewis and Paul Dano

Fuel powers everything we do, it gives us energy, it gives us ambition, it gives us greed, and it gives us the need to succeed. There Will Be Blood addresses fuel in a very interesting way. Paul Thomas Anderson hasn't made a movie since Punch Drunk Love in 2002, so when it comes to his fans There Will Be Blood is one of the most highly anticipated films of the year. I was just recently introduced to Paul Thomas Anderson through his 1999 epic Magnolia . So my anticipation was short lived but strong. There Will Be Blood is a story about Daniel Plainview(Daniel Day-Lewis) loosely based on the Upton Sinclair novel from 1927 novel "Oil!" We see Daniel start out as a small silver prospector and slowly rise to oil baron, all in one completely silent 15 minute scene. He is approached by a man named Paul Sunday(Paul Dano) who tells him of the town of Little Boston, California that has oil literally leaking out of the ground. Daniel and his son H.W. travel to Little Boston and meet the other members of the sunday family. In paticular Eli Sunday(also Paul Dano) who is Paul's twin brother. More importantly Eli is a preacher of a small church within the very religious town. When drilling begins Eli and the not very religious Daniel regurarily clash. Daniel is not exactly evil, but his business seems to be fueled by greed, hiding the good man within, and when this clashes with the extreme religion of Eli's church, Daniel and his family will forever be affected.

So first off, the best performances of the year is in There Will Be Blood. Daniel Day-Lewis is being nominated for just about every male acting award available and winning most of them. It is known that Daniel only takes roles that are very special to him, and he is what makes the character of Daniel Plainview show a broad range of good and evil. Child actor Dillon Freasier as H.W. Plainview shows some very early promise and is able to really show off his ability due to a plot point that I will not spoil for you. The performance I personally enjoyed the most was Paul Dano as Eli Sunday. When Little Miss Sunshine came out, I praised his performance as young angst filled son Dwayne. Some questioned the validity of his performance based on the fact that he is silent for the majority of the film, in my opinion this only adds challenge to his role and showed much more promise for him than mediocre teen movies he had been in like The Girl Next Door. Eli Sunday is hands down his best performance so far. When Eli gives his sermons he becomes eerily similar to evangelical preachers you see on TV today, screaming and yelling about "getting the demons out" with frightening intensity. It is a shame Paul couldn't pull a best supporting actor nomination from the academy, but Javier Bardem would most likely beat him anyway.

Paul Thomas Anderson proves here that his range is growing, being able to realistically portray the early 1900's in the middle of nowhere had to have been a difficult task. There Will Be Blood is not the most tightly pulled together, nor well constructed film of 2007. These faults almost add to the film, making it seem like more than your standard epic. While There Will Be Blood has a lot of factors similar to something you would see in a Scorcese biopic it also has almost Kubrick-like visuals throughout. Some might say that Paul is pulling too much from other directors, but somehow by mixing several different things together he makes a style all his own and I am sure one day a movie will be known as Anderson-like. The only minor downside to There Will Be Blood is its length. The film comes in at about 10 minutes short of 3 hours, and to some the length could be off putting. I was interested almost the entire time due to the well written dialog but those who are easily distracted will definitely be checking their watch towards the middle portion of the film.

Luckily the last 30 minutes or so take an unexpected turn that I won't give away, but I will say that the film delivers on its titles promise. Religion and Oil mixed together make blood, and when we see it run over the final frames in a deep shade of red, we need to take it as a warning about todays economy and the frequent feuds connecting religion and oil together. It is strange that a film set in the early 1900's says more about current times than any other film in 2007, but There Will Be Blood does just that and manages to be the best film of the last year.

10/10

Rambo Review

Rambo
Release Date: January 25th, 2007
Directed, Written, and Starring: Sylvester Stallone

I love action movies. I watch and enjoy a lot of action movies I have no right to enjoy. I was not born a child of the 80s where action movies reigned supreme, so nostalgia is not a factor. I am not a person who always lets action movies pass with a high score just because of the action. I think the main reason I enjoy action movies is simply because I like seeing the "good guy" beat up the "bad guy". Simple as that. In the past year I have found that two of my favorite action series were getting sequels. In the summer of 2007 we got Live Free or Die Hard but there was a big problem. A sequel to Die Hard, one of the most violent and foul mouthed series in the action genre, was slapped with a (studio demanded of course) PG-13 rating. Something had gone horribly wrong. Die Hard couldn't be PG-13, it just couldn't. So we all held our breath in July when it was released. To my surprise, it was actually good. Despite the rating Live Free or Die Hard still managed to keep that Die Hard spirit of John McClane beating up the bad guys and talking smack. If anything the PG-13 rating is forgiven with the unrated version which adds in many of the f-words that fans wanted. Around the time right before the release of Live Free or Die Hard, it was known that Sylvester Stallone was making yet another Rambo film. A clip leaked onto the internet, it was brutally violent, in particular Rambo performing a decapitation and making a person explode all in one fell swoop. Rambo was not abandoning it's R-rated roots, if anything it was upping the ante on the level of violence seen in the series, little did we know...

The Rambo series isn't exactly the most respected series in the world, so far it has taken advantage of three serious situations (Vietnam veterans post traumatic stress, POW camps, and Soviets attacking Afghanistan) and used them to give an excuse for Rambo killing people. This time around Rambo is living on the Burmese border in Thailand, apparently catching snakes for an odd job. For those that don't know Burma(Myanmar is it's current name) Since 1948 there has been a civil war going on between Karen rebels and the Burmese military, but as the film states the war is more like a genocide. The story begins with a large platoon of Burmese soldiers working their way through villages, doing various horrible crimes against the Karen villagers. Right before we are treated to fictional horrors, we are subjected to seeing real life news footage of Burma. We see dead bodies rotting in the street, people being shot, and children being beaten in the streets. Wow, aren't Rambo movies supposed to be fun to watch? So immediately after this news footage, we get to see our "villian" and his soldiers play a game of "bet on which villager can cross the mine field without blowing up." The reason I put quotations on villian is because he is barely existent in this movie. He never speaks, never emotes, it seems his only job is to stand around and smoke a cigar while his soldiers do horrible things. So we finally get to Rambo, who is catching snakes for a living. Apparently Rambo lives in a hut of some sort with no bed, and some random work tools lying around. Our time with Rambo's introduction is short lived, because of course we have to get back to the killing of innocent villagers. So after another scene showing the horrors of war, such as children being thrown into fires, we finally get to find out what the story is about.

Rambo is approached by a group of christian missionaries from Colarado, they want him to take them into Burma, to "help" the Karen villagers. Help is a strong word though, it is almost as if the missionaries did zero research before coming all the way to Thailand. Even Rambo thinks they are stupid. "Are you bringing any weapons?" he says like the answer isn't obvious "Of course not" the balding white missionary with the familiar face says. "Then you aren't changing anything" This is a rare occasion, Rambo sharing dialouge with a person. This has to be the only movie I have seen where the main character has so few bits of dialouge. It gets worse when the action really picks up, and Rambo doesn't speak a single word for the last 15 or so minutes of the movie. Nonetheless, Rambo has never been about the dialouge, which what little this movie has, is already pretty bad, so if anythimg I am almost relieved that there is so little of it. After some convincing from a pretty blonde missionary, Rambo decides to take them into Burma anyway. Along the way he kills some pirates that attack their boat and when the missionaries question him he hiliariously and indecipherably shouts "WHO ARE YOU!? WHO ARE ANY OF YOU!?" The crowd burst into laughter at this point.

So of course the missionaries get to the Karen village, and of course the village is attacked by the military. This is the first time we really see the movies violence in full force, while the villagers seem to die less violently than others (with a few exceptions) the missionaries seem to be filled with kerosene and hamburger meat and provide some hilarious explosions. So now, Rambo has to save the day, by way of a preacher from the church in Colorado, he teams up with a group of foul-mouthed mercenaries who provide the weakest dialouge of the movie, and also the worst acting. The missionaries have been captured and taken to the military base, so Rambo and the mercenaries have to make their way to the base, killing all along the way, get the missionaries out, THEN head all the way back to Rambo's boat. I thought the violence for the deaths of the missionaries were funny, but all of the really gory explosions and deaths are saved for the evil soldiers. We see heads explode, land mines go off, arrow impalements, and a claymore explosion that could probably kill an entire forest. There are some distinctly disturbing moments, such as a scene that implies rape of several village women at once, but instead of saving them Rambo goes after the one white blonde missionary. Some characters die, Rambo never emotes, and neither do we. The film essentially builds up to a big 10 minute finale inwhich Rambo takes charge of a mounted turret and proceeds to kill the entire platoon of soldiers. He saves the last kill for the villian, but I am not sure how he even knows who the villian is.

The ending is a nice homage to the very beginning of First Blood but it attempts to portray a big emotional character choice, that essentially comes from nothing except one line of dialouge from that blonde missionary that convinced Rambo to go to Burma and caused the whole mess in the first place. I am not sure where Rambo gets off showing us real footage of Burma, when it really has no message to convey except that if Rambo was a real person, he would kill a lot of soldiers, and not really solve the conflict at all. So it is here that I realize what really makes an action movie, it is not soley the action, it is the purposes of the action and how the main character reacts to things around him. In the Die Hard series John McClane is a wisecracking bugs bunny type, Rambo barely says anything and when he does it is a cynical statement about how messed up the world is. This is not an action movie, its more like a very violent politcal powerpoint.

5.8/10

Cloverfield Review

Cloverfield
Release Date: 1/18/08
Directed: Matt Reeves
Produced: JJ Abrams

Cloverfield is the most recent film to gain massive internet hype and probably will disappoint those who have long drawn out theories of the monster and where it came from. Me, on the other hand, know too much about how J.J. Abram's Lost can hype people up and inspire horribly complicated theories, when really the explanation of what is going on is always much simpler. The monster really never gets explained, so ultimately the fanatics will be crushed that their theory isn't even explored. Cloverfield as it turns out is less about the monster and more about the characters and their reactions to the attacks. While Cloverfield delivers on the action to a pretty satisfying extent, the characters are much more interesting. We have Rob, Hud, Marlena, and Lily who get developed as much as they can in the short 80 minute running time. We care about Rob's mission to save his girlfriend and even when it gets to a pretty ridiculous extent of them entering a building thats tipping over on its side, we still hope they make it.

What I did not expect is that Cloverfield would have some clever commentary on the information age. Most notably in the now famous "Statue of Liberty" scene that we see in all the trailers, the immediate reaction of most of the bystanders isn't to run as fast as possible but to take pictures of the severed head with their camera phones. The film also cuts between the tape of the attack and some taped over footage of Rob and his girlfriend Beth going to Coney Island, this is very effective and provides the film with more emotional spark than just being a simple monster movie.

So if you go into Cloverfield super hyped up to see a big clear shot of the monster taking out buildings, you will be disappointed. There is plenty of suspense and violence to please the majority of action fans but I can already tell the viral marketing got some people way too hyped for a movie that if anything is more of a clever statement about human behavior and technology in the midst of a disaster. But if you are like me and crave a fresh new take on the monster genre, Cloverfield fills that void completely.

8/10

One Sentence Reviews of the Last Week

The Nines starring Ryan Reynolds: The metaphor the film tries to convey loses it's importance because it is so thickly disguised by stories that are more interesting separately than as a whole. 7/10

Reno 911 Season Premiere: It is funny that the season opens with a joke about jumping the shark, because as far as I can tell this first episode is darker and funnier than last season and the feature film version of the show put together. 9/10

iHome: Good sound quality and much easier to set up than all the parts it come with suggest. 9/10




Eagle vs Shark: It is essentially Napoleon Dynamite with a very real and almost sad explanation for the characters weird behavior. 8.5/10

Magnolia Review + One Sentence Reviews of the Week

Magnolia
Release Date: January 7, 2000 (USA)
Written and Directed: Paul Thomas Anderson (Oscar Nominated)
Original Songs by: Aimee Mann (Oscar Nominated)

I am a fan of great movies that I have not yet seen. There is nothing I love more than watching a highly praised movie that has been out for a long time, but I have somehow missed out on. Magnolia was suggested to me by a friend after discussing how excited I was about Paul Thomas Anderson's 2007 film There Will Be Blood. I knew nothing about Magnolia going in besides that it has multiple story threads and that Tom Cruise got nominated for an Oscar for his role in it. I was surprised by how little I had heard of this movie, a movie of this caliber not being nominated for best picture seems criminal, but just look at Children of Men. I am not going to lay out the plot of Magnolia if only because it would take much more time than I am willing to give, but also because watching the plot unfold is the most interesting part of the film.

We have 7 main stories with 8 main characters. A police officer(John C. Reilly); a game show host (Philip Baker Hall); a sexual seminar host(Tom Cruise); a hopeful and brilliant game show contestant(Jeremy Blackman); a depressed drug addict(Melora Waters); a washed up game show contestant(William H. Macy); an old dying producer(Jason Robards); the producers male nurse(Philip Seymour Hoffman); and the producers young and depressed wife(Julianne Moore). Most movies with multiple story threads all build up to an event that connects every story together into one point. Paul Thomas Anderson knows we are expecting this and almost kind of taunts us throughout the movie, keeps us guessing on who is related to who. I will warn you now that the end event that puts every character through the same experience is nothing like anything I have ever seen in a serious movie. I mean its hard to compare the end event of Magnolia to the more conventional attempts at this type of movie like Babel or the best picture winning Crash.

Just about every performance is top notch, with Tom Cruise doing the best, essentially switching emotion on a cue. It is nice to see actors like Philip Seymour Hoffman before they became superstars, he shows his ability in this movie very well. John C. Reilly is essentially the straight man of the film and is the character we tend to feel the most sorry for and connect to. His story seems the most important to the audience even though it is rather inconsequential. The music by Aimee Mann is great, songs like the Oscar nominated "Save Me" to close out the film or "Wise Up" performed by the cast in what essentially serves as an intermission; either way both are great songs that now have a resting place on my iPod play-list. Magnolia has had a surprising amount of influence on films that are today considered best picture caliber, Magnolia not only beats these films in quality, it also manages to be the most epic and important of all of them. There is no underlying message about race or politics, it is just a movie about people, things that happen everyday. It is wonderful.

10/10

One Sentence Reviews of things I experienced this week:

Juno (2nd time)
Even Better. - 9.8/10

Eating at Five Guys
I could get grease anywhere, this was better than McDonald's but I wouldn't go out of my way for it. - 7/10

Watching the Zelda4in48 webcast all weekend
What started as an attempt to play all 4 3D Zelda games in 48 hours(they failed) turned into a hugely popular webcast that went on to earn over $1000 for the gamer charity Child's Play. 10/10

Jerry Maguire Review

Jerry Maguire
Release Date: December 13th, 1996
Written and Directed: Cameron Crowe

"Show me the money!" one of the most recognizable movie quotes of all time. The term has been parodied in just about every comedy show and used to sell just about every product(the player's Cuba imitation is painfully racist). Then you have "You had me at hello" the second most famous quote from Jerry Maguire, parodied on many a comedy show as well and probably used in at least one ad. Oh but thats not all, next you have "You complete me" the third most famous quote, this was found in most of the thousands of parodies of this movie that exist in some form usually accompanying "You had me at hello" My point is, Jerry Maguire is responsible for at the very least 50% of the lame sketch comedy parodies of the late 90s. So I go into the film aware of all these pop culture icons, what I didn't realize is how much deeper the film goes beyond these famous quotes.

The story is of Jerry Maguire (Tom Cruise) a sleazy sports agent who after a confrontation with the young son of a hockey player, becomes depressed and writes a mission statement entitled "The Things We Say But Do Not Do" a desperate plea for sports agents to care more about their clients and less about the money. He sends this out to everyone at his office, and when he arrives the next day he is rewarded with thunderous applause! Only to soon be fired by a former apprentice of his Bob Sugar (Jay Mohr) just like that all of his clients are being stolen in front of his eyes. In a desperate plea to keep his career Jerry calls all his clients but one client, an overly charismatic and egotistical football player Rod Tidwell (Cuba Gooding Jr) keeps him on the line for so long that Jerry loses all his other clients. As Jerry leaves the office he makes a request for anyone that wants to, to join him in creating a new talent agency based on the principles in his mission statement. Only one person does, a lonely single mother accountant who Jerry has only met once named Dorothy Boyd (Rene Zellwegger) So as Jerry and Dorothy try to get Rod famous, we get to see their rises and falls and ultimately blossom into a relationship reserved only for the sweetest of movies.

When watching Jerry Maguire it was hard not to cringe when hearing a lot of the famous quotes, just because I am so used to them in parodies its almost hard to take it seriously now. A lot of the scenes, specifically the "You had me at hello" scenes are so sugary sweet it leaves a bitter taste in my mouth. But most of the movie is so good that it is easy to forget about the bittersweet taste of Rene crying all the time about her overly cute little son played by Jonathan Lipnicki. While those two particular performances are nothing above what you would find in your average romantic comedy; Tom Cruise and Cuba on the other hand, hit out of the park. Cruise portrays loneliness very well, and you honestly feel bad at how many times he gets screwed over by his own kind in this movie, as he slowly realizes that he used be just like them. Cuba Gooding Jr. is perfect for this role and deserved his Oscar. He is so full of charisma, in yet also so full of honesty and emotion that you can't help but love him. It is depressing watching this film knowing Cuba would go on to be in Norbit and Daddy Day Camp. Cameron Crowe is a great writer, he is a rare breed, I can easily imagine Jerry Maguires screenplay, usually this would be a fault with a movie to feel like you are reading a screenplay as you watch, but somehow Cameron Crowe makes that enjoyable and uses it to his advantage for great dialog. It does become a problem during the more emotional scenes as it is hard to really take them too seriously, but again this could be at fault for me being familiar with their parodies before I saw the actual film. The only problem I had with the writing is that we don't see enough of Jerry being a real sleazeball, maybe the studio was afraid people wouldn't find Tom Cruise to be a great person for more than 6 seconds, man would that come back to bite them.

Cameron Crowe also knows how to direct his actors, especially Cuba, you become excited when he comes on screen with all the energy in the air. Cameron Crowe should cast him in another movie, maybe save his career. If you want to look at Jerry Maguire in a simple manner, it is a mix of a guy's sports movie and a girl's romantic comedy that pleases both audiences. But at it's core the film is a story about a man making a realization in his life of how to treat other human beings, making him a better, happier person for it.

9.3/10