Tag Archives: Movie Review

Movie Reviews: Buried

BURIED (2010) – On DVD

Paul is a U.S. contractor working in Iraq. After an attack by a group of Iraqis he wakes to find he is buried alive inside a coffin. With only a lighter and a cell phone it’s a race against time to escape this claustrophobic death trap (IMDb).

2010, Starring Ryan Reynolds.

“170,000 square miles of desert. 90 minutes of Oxygen. No way out.”

Every semester, BU requires its Film and Television majors to attend two Cinematheque events.  Cinematheque is a BU-run evening program that invites filmmakers to share their work and talk about their process with us students.  This week, I attended an evening with Chris Sparling, writer of the 2010 film Buried.  Buried, as Sparling mentioned, was a very difficult film to write– the entire movie takes place inside a coffin.  I was already amazed by the ability of Danny Boyle to bring 127 Hours to the big screen, but at least in that film Aron Ralston is out of the canyon for a good 20-30 minutes.  Buried takes this concept to the next level and is also able to achieve what is seemingly impossible– keeping an audience entertained for an hour and a half in only one location with one character.  Of course, you hear other voices through Paul’s cell-phone, but you never see them.  Sparling said that he originally wrote this film because he wanted to shoot something EXTREMELY low-budget himself– and the most low-budget thing he could think of was a film with one character and one location.

On the one hand, I was very impressed by this film.  As I mentioned, it takes a pretty good screenwriter to make one location and one character work for the majority of the film.  Ironically in film school our teachers are always urging us to avoid cell-phones / voicemails, etc. as narrative devices, but this film uses it very well.  Even though the quality wasn’t very high (maybe it was the DVD copy, maybe not), I very much enjoyed the cinematography in this film.  It might have been less obvious to non-cinematography people, but Buried smacked you across the face with color temperature changes in its lighting scheme.  You basically had four devices with Ryan Reynolds in the coffin and they were established primarily through different colors of light: his lighter (orange), cell phone (blue), glow sticks (green), flashlight (light orange or red, depending on the setting).  This almost seems too obvious or basic, but it worked really well.  The awesome thing about this movie is that it is lit entirely with practicals– Paul’s 4 tools, and for this reason underexposure-connoisseurs will also love this film.  On set, they had 7 different coffins to choose between, varying in size based on necessity or degree of claustrophobia they wanted to convey.  I certainly do NOT envy Ryan Reynolds at all.  Even though he wasn’t actually buried for the shoot (wouldn’t that have been interesting?), it must have been incredibly stressful– especially scenes where sand starts leaking in through the cracks of his wooden coffin.  Of course, even more so than cinematography I must commend the screenwriter– there were so many instances in the film that I was on the edge of my seat.  He did a great job revealing information throughout the course of the film and raising the stakes higher and higher and higher for Ryan Reynolds.

On the other hand, there was one aspect of the film which almost completely ruined it for me.  And you’ll have to watch it before I tell you what it is– Don’t want to spoil it for you.  Also, there were a few parts of the movie that were just way too clichéd / corny for me.  For instance, a scene where a poisonous snake gets into Ryan’s coffin, he sprays it with vodka from his flask and then throws his lighter at it to burn the snake RIGHT before it is about to strike.  Really?  First of all, I think a burning snake would be more likely to bite you, especially in closed corridors like a coffin, instead of just eventually slithering out the side of the coffin like it did.  Second of all– vodka + lighter + wood coffin = bad idea.  Realistically, his coffin should have been more damaged by this incident.  To be fair, however, the writer did mention that he disagreed strongly with the director on this scene.  The scene was originally scripted to be about ants getting into the coffin, but apparently that wasn’t high-stakes-enough for the director.  That is fair, yes, but the corniness of the snake scene (especially since the camera tracked the snake slithering INSIDE Paul’s pants from his crotch to to his foot and out) was out of character compared to the rest of the film.

Regardless, I really hope all of you can watch it and tell me what you think!  Especially so we can discuss your opinions on that one aspect that I hated… In many ways it was the twin sister of 127 Hours, my favorite film of 2010, so it is interesting to compare and contrast those two films.  The main difference, I would say, is the performance.  While Ryan Reynolds did a good job, he just wasn’t James Franco.

Bottom Line: A very good, very tense thriller.  Add it to the top of your Netflix queue so we can discuss :) 3/5 stars.

An after-thought: I LOVE the movie poster for Buried.  Very old-fashioned, very Hitchcockian…

Movie Review: Exit Through the Gift Shop

EXIT THROUGH THE GIFT SHOP (On DVD & Netflix Instant)

Originally started as a long-term documentary project on the street art movement by amateur French “filmmaker” Thierry Guetta, internationally renowned street artist Banksy took over and turned the camera on the cameraman himself when he realized Guetta had no abilities as a filmmaker.   Banksy documents Guettas almost instantaneous transformation into a phony but successful
“artist” who copies everyone else’s work and sells it under the name “Mr. Brainwash.”

2010.  Directed by Banksy

Oh, burn!

Exit Through the Gift Shop is one of the most excellently crafted documentaries I have seen in recent history.  Banksy uses a combination of Guetta’s footage and first person interviews with very successful street artists (most of whom thrive anonymously because of the illegal nature of their work, including Banksy himself, who is disguised throughout the entire film) to establish Guetta’s intentions to film the movement and be the right hand man of the major players.  It is only after Banksy agrees to help the filmmaker that he realizes Guetta is a complete fake– over the years he has recorded literally THOUSANDS of tapes under the pretenses that he is making a documentary– but he stores them, unlabeled and unorganized, in boxes in his house.  He has no intentions of making a documentary, and when Banksy tells him to wrap it up, the results are unbelievably bad.  So, Banksy takes over the project and we are left with this: “Exit Through the Gift Shop,” a bloody brilliant documentary that seamlessly turns against its own protagonist (Guetta) partway through the film, and exposes him for the fame-seeking phony that he actually is.

What I love about the film is that it is an incredible commentary on the realities of the contemporary art scene from one of its most important players.  For those of you interested in the controversies of contemporary art, I highly recommend the book The $12 Million Shark: The Curious Economics of Contemporary Art. I read this book a few years ago and became fascinated by the subject.  Although many people question whether what famous contemp’s like Banksy or Hirst do is or isn’t art, there is no question after watching this movie that what “Mr. Brainwash” produces is a self-centered project that thrives on stealing– yes, stealing– other people’s work.  Banksy notes, “Warhol repeated iconic images until they became meaningless, but there was still something iconic about them. Thierry really makes them meaningless.”  What is brilliant about this film is that without realizing it, you go from thinking Guetta is weird but okay to literally hating the man.  And that’s what makes Banksy brilliant.  I’ve been a fan of Banksy’s visual art for a long time, but if Banksy can produce this quality of work on film, I want to see more of where that came from.

Of course, I have to note that many people wonder whether or not Guetta is even a real person– or just a fictional character that Banksy created for the sake of film.  Knowing Banksy, this is very likely.

Bottom Line: A fascinating commentary on the world of contemporary art– and for those not interested in the “art world,” an exquisite character study.  4.5/5 stars.

Mini Reviews: 2012

2012 (On DVD)

It’s 2012 and the temperature of the core of the earth has started rising drastically, resulting in catastrophic earthquakes, devastating volcanoes, and unbelievable tsunamis.  In wake of everything, Jackson Curtis (John Cusack) struggles to keep his family safe and out of harm.  But what will happen to humanity?

2009, starring John Cusack, Amanda Peet, Woody Harrelson and Danny Glover.

Congrats Digital Domain on a Job Well Done

There is very little for me to talk about in this review because the fact of the matter is that 2012 is a terrible script and a pretty dumb movie.  But nonetheless, I enjoyed it.  It’s one of those movies that’s fun to watch because the special effects are just that crazy (well done, Digital Domain).  In an interview, director Roland Emmerich said that this would be his last disaster movie, so he decided to jam pack it with disaster.  And, while the story in general is lacking, he did do just that.  So, my friends, sit back and enjoy the complete destruction of Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Yellowstone National Park, Washington D.C., India, Hawaii, China, and, that’s right– pretty much the whole world.

Bottom Line: This is a special effects movie.  It’s cool to see 10.5 earthquakes and super volcanoes and tsunamis that reach the height of Mount Everest, but other than that, it has little to no value.  2.5/5 stars.

Mini Review: Sicko

SICKO (On DVD)

Before Capitalism: A Love Story, Michael Moore made a groundbreaking documentary on American health care (before the reform, of course).  This doc compares the U.S. system to systems across the world– Canada, Britain, France– and accounts the horrors and injustices of the American system.

2007, Produced, Directed and Written by Michael Moore.

An Ill System

It’s been a documentary-heavy week for me and I can safely say that Sicko was my favorite.  In the past year, I’ve tried to keep up with the health reform debate, but the truth of the matter is that I’m still on parent’s policy so I just don’t know enough to fully understand the debate.  This movie, however, puts a human face on it, covering a range of issues:

  • A family who is forced to move out of their home because their medical insurance rates are too high.
  • A woman whose daughter dies in the waiting room because Kaiser refuses to cover her if she’s not at a Kaiser hospital.
  • A Doctor working for Humana who gets more money the more patients she refuses coverage to.
  • A woman who tries to marry a Canadian so she can get their free health care.
  • A group of people in France who receive 5 weeks+ paid vacation, free medical coverage including 24 hour house calls and free nanny service twice a week for new moms from the government.
  • A well-paid doctor from the so-called “socialist” National Health Service in Britain.
  • A group of 9/11 rescue workers who are not covered by the American health care system because of their serious respiratory problems, in spite of their heroic efforts.
  • Countless people who have been rejected by their HMOs because their procedures are “experimental” even if they are something as normal as a bone marrow transplant.

After hearing these dismal stories, Michael Moore decides to take a group of these uninsurable, miserable patients to Cuba to plead medical asylum and get the care they need.  Well, they get it.  No questions asked.  No charges.  One 9/11 rescue worker who was paying $120 for one type of medication in the U.S. could get it for 5 cents in Cuba.  “It’s the biggest slap in the face” she said, crying.

Though I feel terrible for these people in the documentary, it makes me question the value of a human life.  For instance, if I were the woman whose daughter was dying in the waiting room because of Kaiser I would’ve told that hospital to save my daughter no matter what.  Maybe I’d be broke for the rest of my life, but hey, at least I’d have a daughter.  It seems contrary to the Hippocratic oath for these doctors to be able to refuse medical care to someone because their insurance won’t cover it.  The doctor from Humana admitted in court that she had denied many patients procedures that would have saved their lives.  How is this all possible?  I guess we’ll just hope for the best with the new reform.  It’s about time there was a change.

Bottom Line: My favorite Michael Moore documentary so far.  Fascinating, heart-wrenching, and unbelievable.  5/5 stars.