Adolescent Critic

Barry Lyndon (1975)

Out of all the films I viewed for Kubrick-athon, this was the one I knew the least about. I didn’t know the plot, the characters, it’s release date, or even the novel it was based off of. So it was kinda pleasant watching a film with no prior knowledge and seeing how it goes. For the most part it’s a really good movie, great cinematography, direction, acting, plot, sets, costumes, lighting, score, etc. The plot follows Barry Lyndon (played by Ryan O’Neal), a young Irishman who lies his way from peasant, English soldier, Prussian soldier, spy, and husband to a rich, entitled woman. The plot has a mind of it’s own and takes its time to develop the character.  Being the longest Kubrick film at a runtime of 3hrs and 23m.  However, it never feels as though it’s too slow, there’s enough stuff going on to keep your attention. Our protagonist is such a fascinating character, he can be a charming man or a drunken slob. He’s almost dislikable as he’s a liar, cheater, adulterer, and child beater.  But it’s just so intriguing to see his life go by. The highlights are the gun duels, especially the one at the end. The film is competently made, especially shown in its lighting techniques.  In order to feel as though you’re in the 18th Century, the lighting is comprised of candle light.  The costumes are also very authentic to the times, winning it an Oscar. Some critics have said that O’Neal’s performance has no depth on screen, which I can agree with. Overall, the film is very well made and I think is one of the best films of the 70’s. Though panned by some critics upon it’s release in the U.S., the film would go on to win 4 Oscars and was nominated for 3 other categories. Definitely check this one out when getting into Kubrick’s work.

The Shining (1980)

Now we’re at probably Kubrick’s most iconic film, the one that terrified audiences and spawned many theories. Based on the novel by Stephen King, The Shining centers around  a man named Jack Torrance (played by Jack Nicholson) who is given the job of the winter caretaker of the Overlook Hotel up in the Colorado Mountains. Along with him is his wife Wendy (played by Shelley Duvall) and his telepathic son Danny. A harsh blizzard sweeps up the land, but that seems to be the least of their problems as several hauntings keep occurring. The acting is top notch here, especially from Nicholson. You truly believe he’s going crazy, and when he snaps it’s almost terrifying to watch. The improvised scene where he breaks down the door and says “Here’s Johnny!” is one of the most memorable sequences in all of cinema. Duvall also does a great job as the broken housewife. Apparently Kubrick stressed her out on set in order to make her performance more believable. I kinda think it was worth it because in the end it was nailed perfectly. Danny was also well performed as well, he could be creepy and innocent. Though I will admit I kinda thought his voice sounded a bit annoying when he shouted “Redrum!”. There’s just so many memorable, scary visuals in this movie. Like the dog man, the elevator of blood, the twin girls, the ending photo, Nicholson’s creepy face, and many more. The eerie music also helps make the film scary as well. Speaking of which, the score was done by Wendy Carlos, who also did the soundtrack for another Kubrick movie, A Clockwork Orange! And just like any Wendy Carlos album, it’s impossible to find a copy digitally, but there’s always Vinyl! The cinematography is also fantastic as well, being one of the first horror films to utilize the steadicam. Just like any Kubrick movie, there’s always theories about it. There are so many theories that there was even a documentary about it, Room 237, even if it’s full of crazy idiots. The best theory is that the film is about the genocide of the Native Americans. There are Natives in paintings, on products, the main theme has chants in it, and there’s a line saying how the Overlook Hotel was built on a Native burial ground. There’s also references to the Holocaust as well, but I won’t get into that. Stephen King panned the movie for being unfaithful to his book, though I personally think that was a smart move on Kubrick’s behalf. As seeing how the more direct adaptation of the 1997 TV miniseries went, I think he made the right decision. Overall the film manages to be scary and is one of the best horror films of all time, up there with The Exorcist and Psycho. It’s sad because a film like this could never be made today. Audiences nowadays are so hardwired to crappy, CG, jumpscare fests that it’s hard for a more intelligent horror movie like this to fit in. But the film is still good, no matter what.

Full Metal Jacket (1987) 

30 years after Kubrick made his epic, anti-war film, Paths of Glory, he’d make another war based film that’d be more brutally honest called Full Metal Jacket. A Vietnam War film that was praised for it’s brilliant first half, and sort of for it’s second. We follow our protagonist, Pvt. Joker (played by Matthew Modine), as he’s drafted into the Vietnam War and we chronicle his life from bootcamp with his hot headed drill sergeant, Hartman (played by the late R. Lee Ermey), to his time in Vietnam as a photographer. The best part of the film is the first half in bootcamp. Ermey’s improvisation as Sgt. Hartman is so great that when anyone thinks of this movie, they immediately go back to his performance. Another performance everyone remembers is Vincent D’Onofrio’s as Pvt. Pyle. He’s the weakling of the core who always screws up and everyone gets mad at him. At one point everyone holds him down and hits him with bars of soap. Just like Jack in The Shining, we see him go insane to the point where he talks to his gun and kills Hartman. The first half is easily the best part of the movie, it mixes comedy, drama, and horror and gives us memorable characters. Then when you get to the second half, while still good, can’t compare to the first. Pvt. Joker goes to Vietnam and meets up with his old bootcamp buddy, Pvt. Cowboy and his platoon. There’s a theory that the platoon is actually a reflection of the one at bootcamp, due to them sharing the same number and the similarities between Pvt. Pyle and the gun wielding Animal Mother (played by Adam Baldwin). A lot of Kubrick’s movies have hidden depth in them, many of them require analysis in order to discover, but here they just spell it out. Like how the relationship between the Americans and Vietnamese is like the one between the Whites and Native Americans. There are subtle hints at it, but it’s completely spelled out in the scene where they’re being filmed on the battlefield. I would have been fine if we just saw Pvt. Joker’s peace sign pin with his “Born to Kill” helmet, but they stopped to explain it twice. Overall the film is great, the first half is fantastic, while the second half lets you down just a little, still is great.

Eyes Wide Shut (1999)

Finally we have Kubrick’s last movie, Eyes Wide Shut. The Blu Ray I have of this movie didn’t work too well, it would come to a certain point where’d it started to glitch. Luckily it is available on Netflix, so I was able to watch it. Bill and Alice Harford (played by Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman) are a couple who’s relationship is starting to crumble. Once Alice reveals that she has sexual fantasies of another man, Bill is furious and wants to get back at her. So he sets out to find a sexual experience and comes across a cult. Once he is discovered though, he ends up putting his family’s life in danger and might have cost another one in the process. Now I know I have been rather harsh on Cruise, for obvious reasons of course. Cough, The Mummy, cough! But he can be a good actor when he has something to work off of, here he does really well and is very convincing, though you’ll never refer to him as his character’s name. Nicole Kidman is great here as well, the scene where she breaks down while talking about her dream is such a shocking moment, and her acting helps make it that way. I guess the part I really should talk about is the cult scene. It’s the best part of the movie, and everybody remembers that the most. It’s such a creepy scene, the masks, music, and chants just give you a sick feeling in your stomach. When Cruise gets caught and is led to the main room, when you see the crowd just staring at him in those haunting masks, you immediately feel nervous about what’s going to happen to him. There’s a theory that it’s all about the Illuminati and since the film was too revealing, they murdered Kubrick before anything else could be given away to the public. Seeing how Kubrick wasn’t finished with the final cut of the film. I honestly never take Illuminati theories seriously and have always seen them as mumbo jumbo. Going back to the movie, the twist about the women’s death and what happened at the party, while I’m not gonna spoil it, is very surprising and catches you off guard. The lighting and cinematography is good here, just like the other films I’ve reviewed on Kubrick-athon. Sometimes it’s reminiscent of Barry Lyndon, with the shots of the Christmas lights being the only light source. Oh yeah, this takes place around Christmas time. Isn’t this what you think of when you think of Christmas, marriages falling apart, satanic cults, how jolly! Overall the film has great acting, lighting, cinematography, etc. Kubrick would go on to say this was his best contribution to film, which I do disagree with. But it’s sad, because he died of a heart attack four months before the film’s release. Though he passed away at age 70, his legacy still lives on. He has inspired many filmmakers, and his movies are still masterpieces.

So that’s Kubrick-athon part 2! Maybe I’ll do a part 3 where I’ll go over his early work like  Spartacus, The Killing, etc. Hope you enjoyed it and follow me on Twitter @BenSuey. This is the Adolescent Critic signing out.

Lolita (1962)

Kicking off our list is the controversial film about an old man lusting for a teenage girl. Stanley Kubrick at this point was coming off the heals of films like Spartacus and Paths of Glory, both of the starring Kirk Douglas. This is the movie that synonymous with being an arthouse risk taker. The plot, like I said earlier, is about a professor named Humbert (played by James Mason) moving over from Europe to America. While looking at a house he comes across a adolescent girl named Lolita (played by Sue Lyon). Humbert’s lust for Lolita drives him mad as he causes Lolita’s mother (played by Shelley Winters) to kill herself, drags Lolita all across the country, and constantly keeps a close eye on her. The film is competently made with great acting, a good score by Nelson Riddle, and a unique plot. It has that stamp of classic cinema on it, from the black and white, the music, and the performances. It’s weird seeing this seemingly innocent style clash with a dark plot. The film is basically an analysis of human behavior, and how far sexual urges can drive a person, or at least that’s what I got from it. It was even nominated and won some awards, including one for actress Sue Lyon. The best performance definitely goes to Peter Sellers as Clare Quilty, a genius playwright who Lolita has a crush on. Sellers was such a great actor and some believe his involvement in the movie was the main reason it sold tickets. I genuinely felt bad for the mother character, she puts up with Lolita’s crap, lost her past husband, then gets remarried to Humbert who has the hots for her daughter, and then dies. My only problem with the film being that it feels like there’s a little restraint in some scenes. I know you have to be careful with a subject like this, but I feel like there was some stuff that wasn’t expanded upon, as if it was missing. It turns out that a lot of scenes had to be cut or shortened due to complaints from Catholic foundations. Overall the film is probably my least favorite one on the blu ray collection, though that doesn’t mean it’s bad.

Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)

At the height of the Cold War, an angry brigadier general by the name of Jack D. Ripper (played by Sterling Hayden) sends his B-52s out to bomb Soviet Russia. The government officials at the Pentagon try to stop him, but he refuses to recall his planes. So it’s up to them, and the Russian ambassador, in the War Room to decide what happens next, take down the planes, or let the world be plunged into nuclear armageddon. This film is heavily known for it’s “grade A” satire of the U.S. in the Cold War. A very ballsy move for its time, though there were those who supported America and hated seeing it being portrayed like this on the silver screen. But there were those who absolutely loved it and laughed alongside.  Peter Sellers, just like in Lolita, is the highlight of the movie. It’s amazing seeing him do so many different roles perfectly. Obviously he’s the title character, Dr. Strangelove, but he’s also British, Group Captain Lionel Mandrake; and U.S. President Merkin Muffley. He also would have played the hillbilly pilot but couldn’t do a Southern accent to well, so that role was given to natural redneck, Slim Pickens. Sellers is so good in the movie that not only is every character funny, but I didn’t even know he was the president on my first watch. That’s how great he was! Interesting fact, the character of Dr. Strangelove, though being in the title, isn’t in the film for that long. He sort of plays an important part, but only has like little over 5 min. of screen time.   Dr. Strangelove isn’t even in the novel the film is adapted from, Red Alert. George C. Scott is also in the film as a gruff general named Buck Turgidson. Scott was another great actor and plays his part splendidly. I especially love his banter with the Russian ambassador, completely summing up America’s relationship with Russia during the Cold War. Though not having a dark and serious tone, the ending is actually a bit mean. The film literally ends in the world being destroyed by nuclear weapons. I like it, because I thought it was a very good point to end on and is better than the original ending. That ending would basically be a huge, glorified pie fight between everyone in the War Room, which I think would have been way too silly for the movie. Overall the film is very enjoyable to watch with its memorable and funny characters, great satire, and it’s guts to make a comedy out of a subject that everyone was crapping their pants about back in those times. And who can forget the classic line, “Mein Fuhrer! I can walk!”? Oh, and the film’s a metaphor for sex.

2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) 

I’ve never seen a film as breathtaking as this film, the sets, effects, and camerawork are all magnificent. There wasn’t a single moment where I felt bored or disinterested. The visuals are so astounding that I’m immediately entranced whenever I look at the screen. I would usually tell the plot by this point, but it’s a little hard to follow in this case. One moment where at the dawn of man where our species first learns how to use tools, then we’re in the fictional future of 2001 where men are investigating a strange asteroid on the moon, then we see a mission to Jupiter where the super computer named Hal 9000 goes rogue and starts killing the crew, next we jump to the last surviving crew member who makes it to Jupiter and goes beyond through a colorful vortex and sees his future selves, and yeah, it’s complicated. But I  don’t care because the film is so gorgeous to look at. The vortex scene just hits you with vibrant colors and beautiful visuals. Even when it’s just a space ship trying to land in a station, it’s so pretty. The use of Richard Strauss’ music also helps to give it that feel. The thing that ties the events of the stories together is a tall, iPhone looking machine called a monolith. The machine is sent from an unseen extra-terrestrial species to influence humanity’s use in technology. Whenever it shows up, we hear a creepy choir accompanying it that gives it this foreboding presence. The characters aren’t that memorable, apart from the super computer Hal 9000. He’s so creepy, even when he’s supposed to be friendly, that flat toned voice just gives him a nerve wracking presence. Spoilers, the ending where the survivor, named David, becomes the Star Child has always been up to interpretation. There’s a lot of theories about God, the aliens, and what the ending actually means. I kind of took it as the monolith made him the next step in our evolution. We see how it helps early man use tools and influences our interest in technology. Then again, that’s just what I got from it. There was a sequel, 2010: The Year We Make Contact, but Kubrick didn’t do it, so I’m not gonna go over it. Overall despite it’s lack of a consistent plot, the film has great visuals, good acting, fantastic set design, and good use of music. A film that still holds up after 50 years.

A Clockwork Orange (1971)

Out of all the movies on I’m reviewing, this is my absolute favorite. The music, cinematography, sets, visuals, thought provoking plot, and a magnificent performance by Malcolm McDowell. In a sexualized future England, we follow Alex (played by Malcolm McDowell), a troublemaking teen who goes out at night with his droogs and breaks into houses, assaults old men, and get into fights with rival gangs. One night he accidentally kills a cat lady and is arrested. While in prison, he jumps at the chance to be a guinea pig in an experiment to cure criminals of their madness. Once he is out however, things seem to get worse for the newly reformed Alex, as he comes across bad event after bad event. McDowell’s performance is the highlight of the movie, he can be scary and sympathetic. In the beginning, he’s a wicked little punk who is disturbing to watch, but at the end he seems helpless and is tormented by the people he wronged, which makes you feel kinda sad for him. Few actors can pull that off well! A lot of people are disgusted by the nudity and violence, but that’s what makes the film so memorable. It doesn’t hold itself back and uses shock value to it’s advantage. After all, the film was some sort of warning about teenage delinquency and what the future may hold. It also betrays the future, British government as a corrupt one full of buffoons. Maybe reflective on the British or American government at the time. The theme is about how machine cannot alter human nature. The importance of evil in man is reflected upon the character of Alex. The film is very well paced and manages to keep your attention. Besides the disturbing parts of the movie, there’s also dark comedic aspects to the film. For example, you get a scene where Alex and his droogs break into a couples’ house and beat them.  The cinematography is well shot and eye-catching.  The sets and costumes look great and give the film such a 70’s look. It’s memorable and still looks unique to this day.  I love the music most of all, it’s  given me new found respect for classical music. Wendy Carlos, who also did the score to another Kubrick film we’ll get to in part 2, did the music for this movie, which is a bunch of techno renditions of Beethoven music. The main theme, The Funeral of Queen Mary, sets the film’s tone and is one of the greatest motion picture scores ever made. What is disappointing about the score is how rare it is to find an album of it. I’ve searched iTunes, Spotify, Youtube, and came up with barely anything besides covers. However, there are CDs, Vinyl records, and cassette tapes of it available on online stores such as Amazon. I could dive more into the controversy and the behind the scenes stuff, but I have to go over more Kubrick films. Overall this is a masterpiece and Kubrick’s best film, so I highly recommend you see this movie if you want to get into his work.

So that’s part 1 of my Kubrick-athon! Sorry if this one is too long, I want to really  talk about these movies without having to do separate reviews of each of them. I promise that part 2 will come soon, I know that I haven’t been to honest in the past, but just trust me here. Hope you enjoyed it and follow me on Twitter @BenSuey. This is the Adolescent Critic signing out.

 

 

 

 

I’ve realized that I haven’t done a retro review in a while. I was originally planning to review Little Shop of Horrors due to the movie party of it I attended last month, but I found out I didn’t have much to say about it. So I went to the next best thing, I would do a marathon of films from my favorite director, Stanley Kubrick in a two-part series that I’m calling “Kubrick-athon”! Now I know what you’re thinking, “Boy, for a guy who makes fun of cliches, he sure does follow the cliche of every film buff idolizing Stanley Kubrick as the greatest director of all time”. I am aware we hear that a lot, “Kubrick is the best director, no one can compete”. Except unlike other people who only take the word of mouth, I actually watch a person’s movies before I can determine they’re my favorite. That’s the case with good, old Kubrick! I’m not necessarily going to review his whole library of films, but only the ones that are featured on the blu ray masterpiece collection. Recently I bought a limited collector’s edition of Kubrick’s best films, plus some other neat stuff I tweeted about.

If you’re interested in getting it, I’d say go for it because it’s awesome, but it will drain a lot of money out of you. Back to Kubrick-athon, I will be getting to that sometime soon and a new Comic Book Corner review I’m planning on releasing on Memorial Day. We’re going over eight movies spanning four decades, not counting the various documentaries that come with the collection. So keep in touch because part 1 of Kubrick-athon is on it’s way! This is the Adolescent Critic signing out.