Reviews
I’ve decided that, in an effort to slowly catalogue my basic feelings on all sorts of media, I am going to start arbitrarily picking movies, records, and books to review. These will include new media as well as stuff that is older that has stuck with me. Inevitably, the older bits will probably receive very positive reviews, because I wouldn’t be thinking about them unless I liked them. I typically consume films and albums like a Hungry Hungry Hippo consumes a food pellet, but I would never pretend that I’m even close to being the most informed or culturally savvy person I know (or even the most avaricious reader/listener/watcher in my apartment). I am, for better or for worse, a guy who wants to share his opinions with the people who visit this site, a practice that will hopefully elicit some responses.
Feel free to make suggestions as to what you’d like reviewed. In general, I think I’ll make it a weekly feature (or I might even up the number to TWO per week, gosh darn it).
S.O.P.: Standard Operating Procedure
S.O.P. is a movie that is going to be released in 2008. It is a documentary by Errol Morris. The subject matter will be the impact of the Iraq War (the one that took place post-millenial marker), specifically the aftermath of the Abu Ghraib scandal.
I loved The Fog of War, another Morris film. It is one of those movies that I can watch repeatedly and basically never tire of. Others on that list include Comedian, Back to the Future, and Dr. Strangelove. I’ll review those later.
But, the long and short of it is, keep an eye out for this movie; I suspect it is going to be unbelievably important.
Watched Terrence Malick’s The New World last night and was never bored.
Don’t be fooled, though. Very little happens in the story, the acting is largely wooden, the script incredibly bare, and Colin Farrell’s eyebrows seem to get closer and closer together throughout the film.
However, every shot it is virtually a masterpiece of composition and movement, so if you like looking at films just for the pleasure of seeing nifty shapes, colors, and vaguely choreographed motion, this is a movie for you.
Otherwise, if you’d like to try the “I’m going to make this movie hilarious, just try to stop me” route, just get your copy of Chicago’s Greatest Hits out of the closet and pull a Wizard of Oz/Dark Side of the Moon-esque tandem. I assure you that one song in particular seems to fit at any given moment throughout the film:
This is a movie I can watch on infinite repeat without ever tiring of it.
It is a documentary, the camera a doting hanger-on of Jerry Seinfeld as he strikes out into the wilds of New York City and attempts to reformulate an entire act. He retires all of the bits that made him famous and goes to various comedy clubs in New York to work out new material, eventually settling into wider orbits and taking his embryonic act to exotic places like East Orange, New Jersey.
Also, the film decides to follow another comedian, a young guy named Orny (a waitress at one point says, “No mother would name their child Orny”) Adams. His story serves as a counterpoint to Seinfeld’s; Orny’s raw ambition (and considerable dearth of talent) often irritates viewers, but his emotional transparency and his underlying insecurity seem to me to be a wonderful window into the basic personality of comedians.
The breathless, angst-filled struggle to craft fledgling ideas into fully formed acts stems from an animating, discontent force that pushes from the inside out. The opening line of the film features a gentleman (who I ashamedly do not recognize) noting the “compulsion” that drives comedians to get on the stage and dangle themselves in front of a teeming swarm of carnivorous jackals, the artist unsure if his efforts will result in humiliation or fleeting glory.
This basic tension is even apparent when Seinfeld (who is the most popular comedian in the world) takes the stage. He forgets his punchlines, stumbles through jokes, loses track of which bit follows another. Colin Quinn, who is a recurring figure in the film, explains it (roughly) this way:
“Ultimately, [stand-up] is closest to justice. Not that it is ultimately just, but it is closest to justice….You get about five minutes of grace. Even Jackie Gleason, who everybody loves, only gets about five minutes. After that, people are like, ‘Jackie, if you’re not making us laugh, [get out of here].’”
I really do adore this film for a variety of reasons, but I think primarily I love it because it explores the nature of comedy and, implicitly, the nature of how to make art.
Also, as you might suspect in a movie that features Jerry Seinfeld, Chris Rock, Gary Shandling, Kevin Nealon, Colin Quinn, and Bill Cosby, the movie is pretty funny too.