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Here's Some Movies (Week Five) by Eric Tatar

12/8/2015

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It’s a shame that animation, a style that avoids many of the problems traditional filmmaking has to grapple with, is known as the medium primarily used for kid’s films. What’s more unfortunate is that Disney/Pixar and Dreamworks (whose films form this public notion of animation) have transitioned into using CGI for all their releases, limiting what can be accomplished with the format’s immense capacity for creative storytelling. With this week’s list, I’m recommending films whose unique designs showcase the diversity animation holds for telling stories visually. I’m not trying to paint the style these studios use as being creatively bankrupt (most of their classics were done using similar technology, and I love those now as much as I did growing up), but this recent trend has left me worried that someday we’ll become so accustomed to one kind of animation that all the interesting experimentation in the genre will fizzle out. Before we get to that point, watch these five films and enjoy their different ideas for what animation can be. They might not all be instantly appealing, but give them a chance: maybe you’ll end up being as captivated by them as I was.

It's Such a Beautiful Day

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Directed by: Don Hertzfeldt
Written by: Don Hertzfeldt
Released in: 2012
IMDB Page

I always drew little scenes of stickmen interaction in my notebook’s margins during the more boring classes of my middle school career, so seeing Don Hertzfeldt take what was a fairly easy way to distract myself from learning anything and build an extraordinarily compelling story of existentialism and acceptance from it was pretty amazing on my first watch. The second time I saw it, I noticed how many different ways he was able to take the simple animation and include a small new aspect that would form the scene to come: blues and reds setting the mood for a melancholic or uplifting moment, pinpricks of light gliding over a sleeping head, burning film strips tightening the frame’s grip on a cowering figure. The film is a feature length version of Hertzfeldt’s last three shorts, each of which he shot with a 35mm camera and through clever trickery inserted all these extra elements. Every section is by turns introspective, witty, and saddening, and it’s the meeting of the three that makes everything work so well; the film’s questions aren’t thrown at us but spread through the often intersecting humor and hopelessness of a simple line drawing, with moments spent examining both the ridiculousness and fragility of his existence.

Mary and Max

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Directed by: Adam Elliot
Written by: Adam Elliot
Released in: 2009
IMDB Page

Done in the claymation style of the Aardman classic Wallace and Gromit (and this year’s awesome Shaun the Sheep) known for it’s grueling production time, Mary and Max is the story of two pen pals drawn together by chance: one an 8 year old Australian girl from a suburban family, the other an obese 44 year old New Yorker living alone with his mental health issues. Neither of them seem to be able to find a place in the world, and as their respective social and mental problems grow, their letters becomes the only way they can express themselves. The heart of the film lies in this correspondence and the relationship that builds from it, but it isn’t some unrealistic perfect escape from their dreary lives: they get angry with each other, their words become filled with spite, and their exchanges dry up. The quality of the film lies in how much it makes us want them to find happiness and remain friends. It does get very heavy and depressing, especially coming up to the finale, but that’s what makes it a great example of the emotions claymation is able to convey when it’s not being used for more lighthearted stories.

Redline

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Directed by: Takeshi Koike
Written by: Katsuhito Ishii, Yoji Enokido, Yoshiki Sakurai
Released in: 2009
IMDB Page

Seeing contemporary animated films awkwardly incorporate CGI into their story due to budget and time constraints is always disappointing. The magical quality of hand animation, that ability to create a sense of movement which appears hyper-real, gets muddled by glossy polygons and jerky models. Redline is lucky enough to escape these failings thanks to its unique position of having a seven year development period which gave the film’s studio, Madhouse, the space needed to fully achieve its vision of a high speed alien-globetrotting race. The cars move so smoothly that it’s easy to miss how good the characters look: they’re constantly expressive, and the smallest details of their conversations are full of motion. While the story of a disgraced driver set on finally winning the glory he always falls short of is simple and nothing new, it’s only there to lay the tracks for the roller coaster of a film speeding over it. As our boy JP’s pompadour stretches further in front of him with each hit of boost jammed into the engine, we’re eager to find out the same thing he is: how much faster can we go?
This movie was also reviewed as part of Carter Sigl's Guide to Animeland.

A Scanner Darkly

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Directed by: Richard Linklater
Written by: Richard Linklater, Phillip K. Dick
Released in: 2006
IMDB Page

Made with the rotoscoping technique that recalls graphic novels and cel shaded art, Richard Linklater’s take on the Phillip K. Dick novel of the same name looks at how a widespread drug addiction would be perceived through the eyes of an undercover cop inching closer to solely becoming a user. Linklater already had experience using rotoscoping for his film Waking Life, with the style’s incorporation there aiming to create a dreamy aura for the main character to wander through. Here it adds another level to the surreal mood made up of drug trips, hallucinations, and swirling body projections. It’s definitely the hardest visual style to get used to on this list, since you’re able to recognize Robert Downey Jr., Woody Harrelson, and Keanu Reeves even as they’re hidden behind shifting paintings, creating an initial disconnect that might prevent you from connecting with their characters at all. Once you attune yourself to the film’s bizarre wavelength, though, the crisp dialogue and compelling acting from Reeves will keep you held there for what becomes a beautiful story, not just visually but in it’s final message as well.

The Secret of Kells

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Directed by: Tomm Moore, Nora Twomey
Written by: Tomm Moore, Fabrice Ziolkowski
Released in: 2009
IMDB Page

A beautiful interpretation of Irish folklore told with the aesthetic of a child’s storybook, the kaleidoscopic geometry of The Secret of Kells makes its flat planes of chilled stone and bright forest ground feel like a return to the ideals of traditional animation while embracing contemporary stylings. Brendan, a young boy living at the remote monastery of Kells, is enthralled by the tales he hears of an unfinished book whose completion will bring peace and understanding to the troubled world of Vikings his people hide from. When it’s creator brings the fabled book to the abbey and asks Brendan to find him a few berries from the surrounding forest to be made into ink, the breathtaking flurry of colors and shapes morphing into trees, flowers, and animals that soon rush past him evoke the young wonder felt when turning a page to discover the next meticulously detailed picture. The film’s historical influence provides another compelling layer to it’s story, with the bewitching spirit Brendan encounters in the forest coming from Celtic mythology and the all important book actually having existed as a Latin manuscript of the New Testament. Combine that with it’s great vocal cast and a nice short running length, and you get another transfixing animation from a year that was rife with them.
It’s Such a Beautiful Day and The Secret of Kells are available on Netflix, and you can find Redline on Hulu, but you’ll have to seek out Mary and Max and A Scanner Darkly someplace else. Have a good winter break and watch the best movies you can find!
This article is part of an ongoing series. Click here to read last week's article, and check back next semester for more awesome movies!
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Here's Some Movies (Week Four) by Eric Tatar

11/23/2015

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While trying to find five films that could fully represent this week’s theme of music, the issue I kept running into was what type of movie to include. Should I focus on musicals with their stories told through elaborate song and dance routines? Would a list of great concert or band documentaries work better? What if I only looked at films where music acted as its own character, forming the focal point of the surrounding plot? The ones I finally decided on draw from all these styles, with an overarching similarity: they portray the emotional influence great music creates in people. Each of them focus on a separate musical genre as well, so if you find yourself indifferent to a particular film’s score, there’s four others to try out.

Three Colors: Blue

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Directed by: Krzysztof Kieślowski
Written by: Krzysztof Kieślowski, Krzysztof Piesiewicz
Released in: 1993
IMDB Page

After losing her husband and daughter to a car accident, Juliette Binoche’s Julie doesn’t have happiness ripped out of her life so much as all emotion together. All she manages to feel is contempt for the classical piece her husband had been composing, despite the beautiful music it holds swelling past us as her life previous to the accident is slowly replaced with the new one she’s trying to assemble in Paris. Even with all her efforts to finish the transition, though, the incomplete work leaves her unable to fully sever the past. This is the first in Krzysztof Kieślowski’s Three Colors trilogy, a set of films known for being steeped in symbolism and recurring images, and Blue is certainly full of both. It’s also extremely engaging and not immediately digestible, a combination that demands repeat viewings.

The Devil and Daniel Johnston

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Directed by: Jeff Feuerzeig
Written by: Jeff Feuerzeig
Released in: 2005
IMDB Page

The notion that truly important art comes from pain and suffering encapsulates the tortured artist motif in Daniel Johnston: his pain is inherent, just as his music’s importance is. Jeff Feuerzeig’s documentary about the manic-depressive that produced thousands of individually recorded mixtapes in the early eighties comes across more like a folktale sprung from the indie music scene than an account of an actual person’s life, but Daniel’s story is real and the legacy he left behind with his career is a fascinating subject. As he swings from local Southern success to star record label prospect before being confined to a mental institution, Feuerzeig is able to find the path through Daniel’s hectic story with a wealth of content, using cassette recordings he made while dealing with his developing disease, archival footage of his public performances, and interviews with his friends, parents, and Daniel himself.

Almost Famous

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Directed by: Cameron Crowe
Written by: Cameron Crowe

Released in: 2000
IMDB Page

What else does a great coming-of-age story need besides classic rock and radiant girls? Cameron Crowe’s story of a young journalist touring around the Southwest with the fictional seventies rock band Stillwater comes from his own experiences on the road with acts like Led Zeppelin and The Allman Brothers, which could explain why the film he’s made is so enjoyable: he wants to relive those memories as much as we want to experience them. If you can forgo going straight to Netflix, look for Crowe’s extended cut of the film. It doesn’t add any new plotlines or characters, but it gives us an excuse to exist in the wonderful world he’s created for a little while longer.

Interstella 5555: The 5tory of the 5ecret 5tar 5styem

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Directed by: Kazuhisa Takenôchi
Written by: Daft Punk, Cédric Hervet
Released in: 2003
IMDB Page

Billed as a visual realization of Daft Punk’s second album, Discovery, Interstella 5555 is essentially an extended music video connecting their songs through the fantastically animated concept the duo created to honor their childhood hero Leiji Matsumoto, who they also brought on as a visual supervisor for the project. Following a blue-skinned alien band called The Crescendolls after their abduction at a concert, the story functions secondary to the music as each scene is designed chiefly to fit the next song, but the strength of the animation and the many great moments the band members share make the visuals as important as the music they’re created for. Obviously, if you don’t like Daft Punk, there’s really no reason for you watch this, but with the film being so enjoyable to the fans of their work, the only question is: why don’t more bands do this?

Dancer in the Dark

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Directed by: Lars von Trier
Written by: Lars von Trier
Released in: 2000
IMDB Page

Musicals are magic. With enough emotion packed into their numbers to lift any low spirit, they give Björk’s Selma, a single Czech immigrant living in the US, the necessary escape from her daily struggles in providing for her son. Working off the small noises provided by whatever place Selma finds herself in, Lars von Trier orchestrates her intricately choreographed daydreams to an environmental rhythm, and while the shift between these scenes and his Dogma-style camerawork of her actual life as a factory worker is initially jarring, their inclusion becomes the only comfort given to us as Selma’s situation becomes increasingly distressing. I’m avoiding specific details with this one because the film works much better if you go in knowing as little as possible, so please don’t let my lack of description turn you away from what is an exceptionally affecting movie.
While Almost Famous is on Netflix, they only have the theatrical version which, while still a great movie, I hope you’ll drop in favor of the longer cut. You can usually find it as Untitled: The Almost Famous Bootleg Cut. Interstella 5555 is on YouTube, and The Devil and Daniel Johnston, Dancer in the Dark, and Three Colors: Blue are all somewhere else. I was hoping to include Paolo Sorrentino’s new film Youth on the list as well, but unfortunately the screening I’m going to isn’t until Tuesday. If it’s anything like his last film, The Great Beauty, then I’m sure to recommend it in the future. In the meantime, enjoy these movies!
This article is part of an ongoing series; click here to read last week's article, and check back every Monday as Eric covers a new theme.
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Here's Some Movies (Week Three) by Eric Tatar

11/17/2015

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For this week’s list, I’m focusing on movies with tragic main characters, specifically ones who have their actions place them into unfortunate situations. One quick warning: most of these films, especially Come and See and Perfect Blue, contain some pretty disturbing subject matter and imagery. If you’re able to handle that, and I hope you can, you’ll find five extremely well-told stories, all with distinct looks at the nature of human suffering.

Calvary

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Directed by: John Michael McDonagh
Written by: John Michael McDonagh
Released in: 2014
IMDB Page

Casting a critical eye at the reputation assigned to anyone associated with the Catholic Church after the institution's years of abuse scandals, John Michael McDonagh casts Brendan Gleeson as a priest battling to keep his unruly town in order despite it’s growing resentment towards him. While Calvary retains the small Irish village setting of McDonagh’s comedic debut, The Guard, that film’s irreverent script is here placed into the hands of the townsfolk and becomes directed at Gleeson’s Father James, with the previously humorous lines now full of vitriol and bite. Like any tragic figure worth his suffering, the Father constantly strives to do the right thing, even in a time when the people around him fail to see any need for his teachings.
You can read Carter Sigl's and Brandon Isaacson's discussion of Calvary here.

Come and See

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Directed by: Elem Klimov
Written by: Elem Klimov, Ales Adamovich
Released in: 1985
IMDB Page

With a grin splayed across his face and a weathered rifle in his arms, the young Belarusian boy Flyora eagerly joins the ranks of the Soviet Partisan forces in this Russian film created as a commemoration for the 40th anniversary of the country’s victory in World War II. Writing with Ales Adamovich, whose teenage experiences the film is based on, Elem Klimov brushes past the massive battles at the front line in favor of depicting the backstage horrors of the war: roving bands of Nazis demolishing hundreds of small towns in Belarus, churches burning with corralled villagers inside, and bands of survivors sneaking through German lines in hopes of recovering any food. The roundabout ending of the film lets us know that what’s been shown is only a sliver of the atrocities the Germans left behind in those villages.

The Hunt

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Directed by: Thomas Vinterberg
Written by: Thomas Vinterberg, Tobias Lindholm
Released in: 2012
IMDB Page

A lie universally perceived as a truth is a powerful influence. In The Hunt, the misconstrued comments of a young girl at her kindergarten turn a close-knit Danish town against one of their own, leaving him out of control of his own life. Prior to the accusations, Mads Mikkelsen’s Lucas seems to have things going his way as his estranged wife finally allows their son to live with him and he finds a new girlfriend in one of his coworkers at the kindergarten. Once he’s labelled as a sexual predator, however, his friendships are destroyed, his son is shunned by the community, and he can’t go to the grocery store without the fear of being attacked. Even holding a trial where he’s proven innocent does nothing to lessen the hysteria against him, as his life previous to the incident has become shrouded by an accepted pretense.

Perfect Blue

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Directed by: Satoshi Kon
Written by: Sadayuki Murai

Released in: 1997
IMDB Page

The diffusion of reality and dreams is a common theme throughout Satoshi Kon’s fantastic filmography, and Perfect Blue presents his take on the human psyche at it’s most paranoid. When a young Japanese pop idol’s decision to become an actress creates tension among her fans, a stalker obsessed with her old persona leaves her questioning which version of herself is real. Moments of Mima Kirigoe mistaking her apartment for a production set or having her side-long reflection turn to face her force her to wonder if she’s really uninvolved with the murders that have begun surrounding her show. After the filming of a rape scene thrusts her further into paranoia, Kon’s matched cuts and looping sequences present a shared psychosis to the viewer: will this day turn out to be real, or are we still lost in Mima’s mind?

Inside Llewyn Davis

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Directed by: Ethan Coen, Joel Coen
Written by: Ethan Coen, Joel Coen
Released in: 2013
IMDB Page

While decidedly less visually intense than the other films on this list, the Coen Brothers’ story of a despondent folk singer whose partner’s suicide leaves him alone in their act doesn’t shy away from expressing the pitiful depths of human existence. As a folk artist himself, Oscar Isaac portrays the turbulent Llewyn Davis perfectly: a man gifted with the talent to express his sorrows, but unable to stop them. With 1960’s Greenwich Village moving through the folk revival behind him, Llewyn travels from studio to studio looking for the music deal that’ll help him with his monetary troubles while his personal life continues to flounder. By the time he returns to the coach he began his journey on, it’s clear that Llewyn is stuck in the catch-22 presented by his profession: if everything worked out for him, he wouldn’t have anything to sing about.
You can read Brandon Isaacson's review of Inside Llewyn Davis here.
You can find The Hunt on Netflix, Come and See on YouTube (Part 1 and Part 2), and Calvary, Perfect Blue, and Inside Llewyn Davis somewhere else. Again, there is disturbing content in these films, but I’d ask you to at least try to watch them and then stop if you feel it’s too intense. Thank you for reading and enjoy the movies!
This article is part of an ongoing series. Click here to read last week's article, and check back each week for a new article covering a new theme.
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Here's Some Movies (Week Two) by Eric Tatar

11/9/2015

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Onto the second batch of movies! Hopefully you’ve gotten a chance to check out at least a few of my suggestions over the past week, but if none of them appealed to you, maybe these ones will be more your style. Just to clarify for any new readers, this column is a way to introduce a selection of movies that share a weekly theme for you to enjoy. Again, if you have any suggestions (ideas for themes, films you want people to know about, etc.) feel free to email them to me at tatar.e@husky.neu.edu. This week, the focus is on movies that create unique atmospheres through stylistic choices. Here are the five I’ve seen that do it the best.

Enter the Void

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Directed by: Gaspar Noé
Written by: Gaspar Noé, Lucile Hadzihalilovic
Released in: 2009
IMDB Page

A film as vibrant as the neon lights layering it’s Tokyo skyline, the creativity that Gaspar Noé brings to telling the story of a pair of orphaned siblings, one a drug dealer and the other a prostitute, gives Enter the Void’s tremendously edited scenes of debauchery a mesmerizing beauty. From drug trips seen as swaying kaleidoscopic structures and rays of lights flashing across club backlots to the backroom violence of expensive strip clubs, we are taken on a visually splendid tour of the emotional fissures caused by the existences the siblings have chosen. The camera shifts perspective three times, first giving us the brother’s first person viewpoint, blinks and all, before moving us farther back to view his memories from over the shoulder of a growing boy, and finally losing all sense of physicality in favor of becoming akin to a spirit, brushing through buildings on it’s way to examine the inner happenings of a luminous sex hotel.

Apocalypse Now

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Directed by: Francis Ford Coppola
Written by: John Milius, Francis Ford Coppola
Released in: 1979
IMDB Page

The atrocities men commit in the name of war has been a frequently tapped source for filmmakers, and no conflict has proven as rich a well for authentic savagery as Vietnam. Francis Ford Coppola’s idea to adapt the hazy boat ride deep through the Congo in search of a madman from the 1899 book Heart of Darkness into a Vietnam narrative of Martin Sheen’s Willard leading a convoy into Laos to assassinate Marlon Brando’s Kurtz allows the infamous setting to encompass the entire film rather than acting as a backdrop. Throughout the journey, the madness of the jungle builds and warps the men who have fought through it, but it is not until the final act when Willard reaches his target’s compound that true insanity is thrust upon both him and us through haunting lectures on humanity and deranged ethereal visuals. There have been a number of great movies about Vietnam released over the years, but, as Coppola put it, “Apocalypse Now is not about Vietnam, it is Vietnam.”

Stalker

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Directed by: Andrei Tarkovsky
Written by: Arkadiy Strugatskiy, Boris Strugatskiy
Released in: 1979
IMDB Page

Rumors of a mystical room that grants the wishes of whoever enters prompts two desperate men to accompany a guide through the treacherous “Zone” in this Russian science fiction milestone. While the Zone’s lush environment and unbound physics provide plenty of visual interest, the film is more concerned with the psychological conflicts the group find between each other through their journey that would prevent their perceived redemption. Thanks to Andrei Tarkovsky’s sparse use of music and focus on sequence shots, the film functions analogous to a dramatic stage play as well as making it a pleasure to watch, and the resulting exchange when the men finally reach the edge of the room feels straight out of a classic tragedy.

Upstream Color

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Directed by: Shane Carruth
Written by: Shane Carruth
Released in: 2013
IMDB Page

Shane Carruth’s Primer was an enigmatic, low budget time travel narrative that intrigued festival goers so much back in 2004 as to develop a loyal cult following. Upstream Color is his follow up, and the 9 years he spent crafting it have given us a film that retains the elusive nature of his first venture but distinctly defines itself by its warmth and focus on human connection to such a degree that it’s startling this came from the same mind behind the phlegmatic air of his debut. Despite all the abstract shifts through space and reality Carruth takes, the essence of the film lies in exploring the fragile relationship of two people who have found each other through a shared tragedy. Serenely shot glimpses into the lives of the small cast form the sense of a story, but Upstream Color is an experience defined by the emotions and actions of its characters rather than what they say to each other.

Spring Breakers

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Directed by: Harmony Korine
Written by: Harmony Korine

Released in: 2012
IMDB Page

A Lite Brite dark comedy of four girls looking for ways to enjoy their spring break, Harmony Korine’s commentary on social obsession with artificial meaning utilizes the cinematographer of Enter the Void to showcase a hedonistic approach taken to the extreme. Florida is a world separate from the girls’ humdrum college reality, a place where the bright pinks and oranges of their swimwear pop off the screen and sobriety is a passé existence. While certainly featuring scenes of their various degenerate acts, Spring Breakers drifts over those moments in as superficial a manner as their content. Once James Franco’s rapper/drug dealer Alien arrives and begins to wax poetic on his achievement of the American dream, all semblance of a “party movie” has been lost, and from there we only descend further into the deformed ideals of a society given nothing but monetary success to aspire to.
You can find Upstream Color and Enter the Void on Netflix, Stalker (Part 1 and Part 2) on YouTube, and Apocalypse Now and Spring Breakers somewhere else. If you don’t have a Netflix account, you can always head over to Snell and see if they have any copies in their extensive DVD collection. Once again, thanks for reading and hope you enjoy the movies!
This article is part of an ongoing series. Click here to read last week's article, and check back each Monday for a new one.
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Here's Some Movies (Week One) by Eric Tatar

11/2/2015

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We all love good movies, and in an ideal world, we would constantly be aware of every movie worth our time. The hectic lives we live as college students, however, rarely grant us the time necessary to seek out what might become a new favorite. Over the summer, I had the idea for this column as a way to introduce a selection of movies for you to enjoy throughout the week. Maybe you'll find yourself with some free time before class or after work, scrolling through repetitive Twitter posts or Facebook videos shared by people you talked to once in 9th grade. Great! That means it's prime time to stop doing any of that and instead watch one of these movies! I'm starting off with a weekly theme for the list as a method of organization, but if you have any suggestions (ideas for themes, films you want people to know about, etc.) feel free to email me them at tatar.e@husky.neu.edu! For the debut week, I wanted to focus on movies that combine suspense and violence in interesting ways. Here's five of the best.

Elephant

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Directed by: Gus Van Sant
Written by: Gus Van Sant
Starring: Alex Frost, Eric Deulen, John Robinson
Released in: 2003
IMDB Page


School shootings have been a touchy subject since Columbine in 1999, so the idea to create an extensively realistic, multi-angled look at a normal school day disrupted by two vengeful teens while supposedly taking direct inspiration from the Colorado tragedy could have been a prime target for public outrage. Fortunately, Van Sant handles the subject matter with such great care and finesse that it elevates Elephant above simple controversial filmmaking into a spectacular minimalist experience. The impassive camera shows us each event in the same clinical manner, choosing not to condemn or promote but to display, whether examining a girl jogging around a soccer field trying to catch up with her gym class or bullets tearing through the school library where she works to escape her social problems.

Duel

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Directed by: Steven Spielberg
Written by: Richard Matheson
Starring: Dennis Weaver
Released in: 1971
IMDB Page

A TV-only movie where a traveler on a long drive notices a truck following him a little too far, Spielberg’s first work as director stretches the tension across its entire duration through terrified looks in rearview mirrors, diner scenes with mysterious patrons, and dirty shrubs zipping past the seemingly unending road. Watching the story unfold creates the feeling of being a passenger riding alongside the traveler in his car, given as little information about our pursuer as he is. The simplicity of the setup gives Spielberg the room to build a crushingly uncomfortable atmosphere around the primal fear of being hunted.

The Conversation

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Directed by: Francis Ford Coppola
Written by: Francis Ford Coppola
Starring: Gene Hackman, John Cazale, Allen Garfield, Cindy Williams, Frederic Forrest, Harrison Ford
Released in: 1974
IMDB Page

Coming two years after the Watergate scandal, Coppola strings together the themes of wiretapping and paranoia felt by the entire nation through Gene Hackman's character of reclusive "master tapper" Harry Caul, whose frequent slipups make us question just how much of his praise is deserved.  The recorded exchange during a public eavesdropping causes such a moral conflict for Caul that he finds himself constantly daydreaming of the surveyed couple, unable to cope with his inability to influence the coming events despite having created the catalyst for them. When his obsession turns him to action, we feel as helpless as him trying to navigate the polished corporate boardrooms, the grimy hotel suites, and eventually his own stifling apartment.

Blue Ruin

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Directed by: Jeremy Saulnier
Written by: Jeremy Saulnier
Starring: Macon Blair, Devin Ratray, Amy Hargreaves
Released in: 2013
IMDB Page

One man's grudge, spawned from a decade old familial conflict where bloodlines have determined sides and pride is set before reason, provides the driving force for this sophomore film from Saulnier, whose Kickstarter origins allow him plenty of freedom to create his unique take on the corpse-laden revenge story. The conflict our "hero" (he often resembles a spineless office worker dragged into his first hunting trip) Dwight involves himself in is one of exceptional ugliness and brutality, and Saulnier has the intelligence to keep the violence contained inside the frame of the two rival families. While every scene is shot beautifully, the opening third deserves a special amount of praise, particularly the nights Dwight spends on and around his beach, when bright boardwalk rides are misplaced by his hunched figure digging through trash bags for half-finished burger stand orders.

You can also check out Carter Sigl's review of Blue Ruin from its release at the Boston Underground Film Festival 2014.

There Will Be Blood

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Directed by: Paul Thomas Anderson
Written by: Paul Thomas Anderson and Upton Sinclair
Starring: Daniel Day-Lewis, Paul Dano, Kevin J. O'Connor, Ciarán Hinds, Dillion Freasier
Released in: 2007
IMDB Page

The thing I love most about all these movies is their simplistic approach with how contained their stories feel, focusing on a single character's struggle or the interactions of a small cast. On the surface level, There Will Be Blood is about the conflict between oil prospector Daniel Plainview and local preacher Eli Sunday, but in Plainview's mind, the battle never even started: he's always been on top. While Sunday hides behind the guise of holiness to trick his audience into some form of trust, Plainview leaves his ambitions naked for all to fear. Paul Thomas Anderson's orchestration of the madness that unfolds between the two leads to an ending sequence of such shocking and disturbing nature that it serves as the perfect completion to the whole twisted affair.
You can find The Conversation, There Will Be Blood, and Blue Ruin on Netflix, Duel on YouTube, and Elephant somewhere else. Be sure to check them out soon, because I’m going to try to write an edition of this article with a new theme every Monday and you won’t want to get left behind. Thanks for reading and hope you enjoy the movies!
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