“Summer of Film #13 of 100”:http://www.devanshanu.com/things/2005/06/12/2005-summer-of-film/
The only way I can talk about Love Liza is to talk about Philip Seymour Hoffman. In his films he seems to operate in one of two modes- there is the Hoffman (of say Owning Mahoney or Magnolia) that shrinks while on screen, that is so subtle, understated that you would not notice him if he wasn’t a character in the film. Then there is the larger than life Hoffman (of Punch-Drunk Love or Almost Famous that demands your attention every frame of every scene). This movie has him operating in the first of these two modes. The movie stars Hoffman as Wilson Joel failing to deal with the suicide of his wife. Continue reading →

“Summer of Film #12 of 100”:http://www.devanshanu.com/things/2005/06/12/2005-summer-of-film/
Before I get into anything else- what is the connection between ‘The Sopranos’ and 1995’s ‘Basketball Diaries’? Three actors from ‘The Sopranos’ are in this film- Lorraine Bracco (Dr. Melfi from ‘The Sopranos’), Michael Imperioli (Christopher Moltisanti on ‘The Sopranos’) and Vincent Pastore (Big Pussy on ‘The Sopranos’). Then I’m reading a bit more about these people and come to the realization that all three of them were in Scorsese’s ‘The Goodfellas’ as well! No explanations yet after a little time researching and googling.

Basketball Diaries is a story of a kid- Leonardo DiCaprio playing real-life writer Jim Carroll- who nearly loses everything he has when drugs threaten to take over his life. This has the potential to be a spectacular story- and it is, since it actually happened. The problem is in execution. The movie doesn’t take it’s subject matter seriously enough. It pulls its punches- keeping most of the violence, suffering and consequences off screen, to the effect that to a youngster the worst effect drugs would have on you was that you felt like you had a bad case of the ‘flu. And you couldn’t play basketball. Continue reading →

“Summer of Film #11 of 100”:http://www.devanshanu.com/things/2005/06/12/2005-summer-of-film/
Robert Altman (MASH, Gosfod Park) is the master of fly-on-the-wall cinema; the brilliant ability to make films about ensembles rather than follow individual characters. The opening scene of The Player has the camera drift on a movie studio lot for 8 minutes without a cut, catching glimpses of inside deals and snippets of only-in-hollywood conversations. This sets the stage for a film that draws us behind the closed doors of doublecrossing Hollywood players. Continue reading →

“Summer of Film #10 of 100”:http://www.devanshanu.com/things/2005/06/12/2005-summer-of-film/
Easy Rider is more about a generation, a time, a place. A lifestyle.

Easy Rider is a film that creates a mood and builds on it for its duration with the sole purpose of giving people everywhere an understanding of a lifestyle that existed for a few years and then vanished to only become part of the American mythology. This was the time when “peace, love and music brought people to the town of Woodstock”:http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050522/REVIEWS08/505220302/1004 , when “riots brokeout at the cinenmatheque in Paris”:http://www.devanshanu.com/things/2004/04/25/the-dreamers-2004/ and when a guy named Captain America (Peter Fonda) with his friend Billy (Dennis Hopper, also the director) rode across America’s south in search of a way out of the system. Continue reading →

“Summer of Film #9 of 100”:http://www.devanshanu.com/things/2005/06/12/2005-summer-of-film/
The advent of sex, lies and videotape in 1989 caused three things major events to occur:

1. It brought the attention of the world upon the great Steven Sorderbergh who not only lived up to his indy protégé status but soon surpassed it with his back-to-back Oscar favorites Erin Brokovich and the brilliant Traffic and his bringing together one of the great ensemble casts in modern motion picture history for Ocean’s Eleven.
2. It lended it’s title to countless unimaginative gossip rags, entertainment mags and scandalous newspaper stories. You could almost hear the editor say, a few minutes before going to press: ‘What are we going to call this article? If you can’t think of anything, I’m going with sex, lies and …‘ you know what. And very rarely do those articles have anything to do with sex, lies and videotape; but who cares? It sells.
3. Finally, and probably most significantly, sex, lies and videotape brought on the independent film revolution that arguably hasn’t ended yet. And for that, if for nothing else, this movie is a classic. It made the ’90s a great time to start my film life.

Having said all of that- the movie failed to impress. It is intriguing, challenging and has one of the most eerily endearing performances on film (James Spader) but for me, there was no connective tissue. Continue reading →