The Hours

The hours was a definite favorite of mine. Although many people thought it was long and boring, I thought it was one of the years best films. The story follows three women, each in a different era of time. The most famous woman in this story is Virginia Wolf. A famous writer, a poet, and a manic deppressant. The director does an excellent job of showing the different states of mind that Virginia goes through. How she goes from independent strong woman, to the confused and scared mentally ill patient. She struggles with her desease for a long time before deciding to commit suicide.

All of our characters in this movie struggle with an internal conflict, a mental despairity if you will. Our 1950's character played by Julianne Moore is depicted as having the "all- american" life. She is a typical housewife living in suburbia, finding that she is deeply unsatisfied with the life she leads. Apparently being a wife and a mother was not as fulfilling as she thought it would be. This character is constantly taking valium and contemplating deserting her husband and young son. She even goes as far as leaving the boy with a babysitter while she goes to a hotel room and contemplates suiced by overdosing on valium. The scene is illustrated with her lying on a bed as the camera pans out above her. After swallowing her pill and closing her eyes, the hotel room begins to flood from underneath the bed. A hhuge swell of water is uprising underneath her. I believe this represents the torment and unhappiness she had inside her, she allowed it to accumulate and now it was swelling out of her.

Our last character, played by Meryl Streep, was set in modern times in upbeat New York city. Her story is somewhat different than the rest of the women. But her internal conflicts has to do with a man she loves deeply, whom is dying from the AIDS virus. Although a lesbian in this movie, she still carried feelings for this man she used to be with. And unlike all the friends that shut him out once he became sick, she would visit him all the time. She cared for him in a way that was unconditional and beautiful. In the end, the man sees that his state is depleting and decides that he doesn't want to suffer, nor does he want his love to suffer. So the last time she visits him, he is sitting on his window ledge. They speak for a brief moment, and while at first Meryl Streep tries to talk him out of suicide, she sllowly begins to understand his pain as the scene progresses. So she sheds some tears and tells him she's always loved him. In that split second, the camera moves away from him and then goes back to show an empty window ledge. As terrible as it sounds, there is almost a serenity or peace that overcomes our character after her love is dead. Perhaps is was illustrating unselfishness or a profound sense of understanding suffering. Like many of the indie films I like to watch, I enjoyed this film because of the directors ability to portray deep human emotion and internal conflict.

Fear and Loathing.....in Las Vegas :)

Fear and loathing in las vegas is by far Johnny Depps best work. He's been a pirate, a chocolate factory man, a mad hatter and countless other shirtless and buff characters. This movie, somewhat like requiem for a dream, also illustrates drug induced states of mind. But rather than being a "drug bashing" flick, this simply shows an unbiased and realistic perception of drug use. Sure the movie is super weird and kind of obscure, but then again..... what else is your mind like on drugs? Oh yea, weird and obscure. My favorite line from this movie, which I try and use on a daily basis is "We can't stop here, this is bat country!" Johnny Depp says this after hallucinating behind the wheel, he thinks he sees giant bats circling the car and flying overhead.
Once our loaded drug users reach their vegas destination, they check in under a fake name and continue to drown themselves in drugs. As if vegas weren't a weird trip all on its own, add uppers, downers, some alcohol, and a paranoid personality. This movie depicts the vegas experince through the drunk and intoxicated eyes of a drugee. The best part of the film is when they are in the bar and both our characters decide to take a lot of acid. One minute they are sitting amongst normal people in a casino, but when they look up again, they've all been turned into giant reptiles/dinosaurs. So they get down low and try to escape without being noticed. This is when the director decides to throw in a dinosaur orgy before our characters exit the scene.
The rest of the movie pretty much follows our charcters in their drug induced adventures around Las Vegas. I personally like this movie because the director is able to capture "altered states of mind" in a realistic and artistic sense. Like in many independent films, the direcotr isn't worried about appealing to the masses, he's worried about bringing his twisted drug story to life. He's not worried about casting young hip actors to glorify the use of drugs, he wants weirdos. The socially awkward, paranoid, balding type. And I guess possibly, because it's so anti-norm and anti-mainstream, that's why the film captivated my attention.

Requiem for a Dream

Requiem for a Dream is another perosnal favorite of mine. Unlike many of today's mainstream movies that glorify the use of illicit drugs, this movie puts the end spectrum into perspective. The movie unravels around a cast of drug using characters. They do everything from cocaine, to marijuana, to heroin. In the movie the director does an excellent job of capturing their "moment of highness", and while it's brief, he illustrates the euphoria and satisfaction that each character experiences. Thus showing why each of our characters have developed an addiction for their drug of choice.

Once the focus moves away from our younger group of drug users, the director zero's in on the main characters mother, Sarah Goldfarb. She is portrayed as a frumpy old woman, unhappy with her life, and on a quest to lose weight. As a result of her dedication to her "diet", she see's a doctor that prescribes diet pills to aid her in her weight loss. Funny enough, these diet pills carry the same lethal dosage that a lot of street drugs do. Sarah begins to experience weight loss, but also dimensia, schitzophrenia and withdrawls. But even this was not enough for her to stop taking her pills. In the end she is committed to a psychiatric ward and receives shock therapy to try and stimulate her brain back to normality.

As for the rest of the cast, their addictions catch up to them by the end of the movie. The one female character ends up trading sex for drugs. Although only 19 or 20 years old, she follows a fraternity of men that give her drugs in exchange for sexual favors. Our two other male characters try to become drug distributors, but like all good things, it had to come to an end. One ends up developing a terrible necrotic infection in his arm from re-using dirty heroin needles and has to have his arm amputated. The film ends with our character lying in his hospital bed, coming to terms with the loss of his limb, his social life, and his friends. I really like how this movie had a more gruesome or realistic ending than the rest of the "stoner" movies out there, which happen to glorify the ecstacy of being "high" to the masses. After watching this movie, I'm sure you wont be tempted into doing these hardcore drugs.

Buffalo 66

Have you ever notice how kids can watch disney movies loop on end, again and again and again? Buffalo 66 is my disney movie. I can watch it over and over again, in spanish, in french, and sometimes english. It's a twisted love story between a degenerate man imprisoned for losing a bet, and a tap dancer in a short blue teddy. What I believe makes this movie extraordinarily different and beautiful, is the different stages of human emotion displayed throughout the film. The director has a very creative and artistic eye for portraying human torment, hate, and in the end, love.

It's not typical of a "blockbuster" film to show such complexity. I assume that the general american public doesn't posses the attention span nor the care to follow the feeble and weak character played by the director himself. In this type of movie, the weird scronny guy that's super uncool, is the main character. The film goes on to explain why he is internally unhappy with himself and why he treats his kidnapped tap dancer so badly. But despite all the harrassment and kidnapping, the tap dancer is able to see past his social awkawardness and begins to develop a romantic relationship with him.

Throughout the movie, Vincent gallo's character has a plot for revenge. He wanted to seek revenge from the man whom was responsible for losing the football game in which he bet $10,000 he didn't have. So in turn for his fradulent bet, the men had billy do their prison sentence in exchange for his debt. The whole movie Billy is attemtping to track down all the mobsters and the football player that had a hand in his imprisonment. He planned to kill them all and dissappear. But after he met Layla the tap dancer, his lust for revenge began to dwindle. In the end she talks him out of it and instead they stay in their hotel room cuddled in each others arms, and simply enjoy the silence.