Lambie Reviews: Films He Watched in September and October 2010

Fashion, writers, the supernatural, and many more feature in the roundup of films I watched over these past two months. As always, you can see where everything falls into place on my checklist here.


The Devil Wears Prada (2006)

Another one of those "The fashion industry is evil and eats your soul" type works. Andrea (Anne Hathaway) wants to be journalist, and so works as the PA to the head of a fashion magazine, Miranda Priestley (Meryl Streep). The idea is that Miranda is so influential that she'll open doors, or something.

The problem is that even though you can see Miranda Priestly's demands consume Andrea to obsession, Andrea's friends were also so unintentionally unlikeable and pissed off over her transition that for a good portion of the film part of me wanted Andrea to stay in the fashion business. The other problem is that the film uses the same old cliches to show us how brutal fashion is, and we've seen it all before. Still, the final couple of scenes resolve most of it decently enough.


Adaptation (2002)

This film was written by Charlie Kaufman, so if you've seen other Kaufman films you should already have some idea of what it's going to be like. Kaufman was asked to adapt the book The Orchid Thief into a screenplay, and had tremendous difficulty in doing it. So instead of writing a straight out adaptation, he decided to write a script about him writing the script and how hard it was. So this is a film that details (albeit fictitiously) how it's own script got written. Confused yet?

Nicholas Cage plays Kaufman and his twin brother Donald. Donald isn't a real person, despite the writing credit to his name, the memorial for him at the end, and the Academy Award nomination alongside Kaufman for screenplay. Susan Orlean (Meryl Streep) is a real person, but is not depicted entirely accurately by Kaufman. Nor is Kaufman, for that matter. Scriptwriter guru Robert McKee is also a real person, and even chose Brian Cox to play him, but despite what this film implies he doesn't mind voiceovers. Confused now?

In other words, it's a hideously complicated film, but that's what makes it intelligent and clever, and ultimately a fun thing to watch.


The Exorcist (1973)

You can read what I have to say about this film in the more detailed review here.


Touch of Evil (1958)

Famous for probably two things: for being directed by Orsen Welles and then re-edited by the studio somewhat against his wishes, and for having the three minute continuous tracking shot through the streets of a busy border town as it's opening sequence. Basically, after investigating a car bombing, Charleton Heston's narcotics detective guy must outwit Orson Welles' corrupt cop. The first and third acts of the film are tense film noire thriller type stuff. The middle act is a bit of a complicated mess that at times feels like it's only going somewhere very, very slowly. Apparently Welle's wanted the film to be frustrating for audiences. Apparently the studio cuts made it even worse. I'll let you be the judge of whether it was intentional.


Sintel (2010)

If you still haven't watched this 15 minute short film about a girl and her dragon, then you're seriously missing out. (It's available as a sort of open source project here.) Watch it and be amazed at how much emotion talented film-makers can cram into 15 minutes. Or just learn how to make a damn good film.


Night of the Living Dead (1968)

Duane Jones spends 90 minutes either boarding up windows or shooting at the reanimated dead. Judith O'Dea spends 90 minutes catatonic on a couch after seeing her brother get attacked by a dead man. A few more people spend 90 minutes in a cellar or wishing they were still in the cellar. George Romero spends 90 minutes defining an entire genre.

Oh, and don't you dare start shouting "BRAAAAIIIIIINNSS!" The concept of brain eating zombies is due to John Russo's sequel, not this film. These zombies eat flesh, not brains. They are dead, and the people they eat do turn into zombies, but they don't eat brains.

Actually, that's not entirely true: They might not even be zombies. They're never actually called "zombies" in this film. (Having not seen any of the sequels, I can't say whether it's cleared up in those.) They're either called "ghouls" or simply "those things out there".