#100. Dogtooth - Review

Dogtooth film

Few films demand a sincere exhortation before I recommend them to someone. I immediately think of Lars Von Trier’s disturbing meditation on marriage counseling, 2009’s Antichrist, or Michel Haneke’s Funny Games, a film so devious it knows what the audience wants before they do, and then takes it away from them with a smile on its face. These films were thoughtful, excessive, and brutal, requiring fair warning to any potential viewer that what they were about to watch may effect them in ways they may be ill-prepared. Dogtooth is one of those films.Dogtooth film poster

The film opens with two girls in a bathroom; in their late-teens it looks like, receiving a vocabulary lesson via a tape-recording. Their young faces look nervous while they seem to be listening quite intently, as if there will be a very important test on these new words in the future. The camera focuses on the eldest of the two girls, content to sit idly by while she memorizes her new terms. The gruff voiced man coming out of the speaker sounds intelligent enough, so it seems odd that he defined “sea” as a type of armchair. Well, this is a foreign film from Greece, so it is not unreasonable that the word “sea” in that country may have more than one meaning. The monotone voice quickly moves on to the next word, “highway.” The man reads, “ … a very strong wind.” “Carbine – a beautiful white bird.” Unaware the definitions are wrong; the girls’ attention disappears when they decide to play a game of endurance by seeing who can hold their finger under the hot water tap the longest.

You have to wait until the last frame of the film if you want to find out who won. It turns out these young ladies are actually sisters, and they have a brother, around the same age, who must play this game as well. They are the children of a man and a woman referred to only as “Father” and “Mother.” In fact, no one in the family has been given a name. Father provides his children with a gorgeous home, a generous backyard with grass and a swimming pool with which the children can lazily play, and a strong wooden fence that encloses they entire compound. They can never leave; they have never left. There is mentioning of a fourth brother, and a noticeable empty space at the dinner table, but the siblings are not sure of his whereabouts or his condition. The oldest sister sometimes sneaks food into the backyard and throws it over the wall.

Dogtooth film

To watch Dogtooth to its climax is not unlike the game of endurance the siblings play. There are questions that remain unanswered, and motives that are never quite made clear. Dogtooth could simply be a 90-minute defense against parents that home school, but I don’t think so. Perhaps it is a brutal allegory of fascism; the father rules over his household with complete control, attempting to deny his family any essence or knowledge of the outside world, demanding perfection and never hesitating to use force to maintain control.

Dogtooth film 2010

Whatever the film’s themes or motives, what director Giorgos Lanthimos creates is as spectacular as it is exhausting and bewildering. It maintains a controlled elegance throughout, finding beauty and intrigue in the most unsettling of situations. Lanthimos is able to evoke utter chaos while maintaining complete control. The film never loses focus, and blissfully slips in and out of joy, laughter, and Hell whenever it sees fit. 

I am being vague, I know. I fear discussing the plot anymore will spoil an experience you may never have had. If you enjoy hypnotic, experimental storytelling than just dive into Dogtooth. If taboos of any kind make you uncomfortable than you have been warned. 

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#99. The Fighter - Review

The Fighter film posterOf all the sports movies I love, boxing films are my favorite. They strip away all of the nonsense associated with team sports like baseball and football. With a boxing flick, it forgoes common tropes and focuses on the man, and how he succeeds or fails in and out of the ring. The Rocky franchise is the most famous, and Ron Howards Cinderella Man is a personal favorite, but David O’ Russell’s newest film The Fighter is the best.

Marc Wahlberg plays “Irish” Mickey Ward, a struggling boxer who unfortunately is often hidden by the crack-addled shadow of his older brother Dickey Ecklund Jr. (Christian Bale). Once referred to as the “Pride of Lowell” (Massachusetts), Dickey was an upcoming boxer himself whose claim to fame was knocking down Sugar Ray Leonard. Regrettably, Dickey’s potential in the ring was stolen by an addiction to crack, an addiction that he hasn’t kicked some 20 years later when The Fighter takes place.

Throughout the film Mickey has to contend with his mother Alice (Melissa Leo) who is also his manager, his brother that is also his trainer, and professional boxers who only see him as a stepping-stone to reach the top. His family shows him little respect, and has little expectations for Mickey’s success. Instead Alice and Dickey have deluded themselves into believing that Dickey is ripe for a comeback. Matters only worsen when HBO asks Dickey to star in a documentary about his life, which Dickey believes is to chronicle his comeback into the ring. Throughout it all, Mickey sits quietly in the back, too timid to speak up and too loyal to leave his family behind and try to make it big on his own.Christian Bale in The Fighter

As a fan of all of David O’Russell’s films I was excited to watch The Fighter. I was curious to see a simple boxing movie from the guy that directed the superb Three Kings and the perfectly playful/existential/philosophical I Heart Huckabees. While it is unlike anything the director has made, you really can’t say any of his films are similar to each other. Like many of O’Russell’s films, The Fighter has an ability to find humor in areas that you would not suspect, and yet the humor never feels forced or too dark. It is natural, just like every other aspect of this movie. It takes place in a reality rarely visited by O’Russell, proving the director is not only capable, but also far more versatile than many of his more respected peers.

Christian Bale and Melissa Leo are receiving most of the praise out of the cast, including the two acting Oscar nominations, and rightly so. While Wahlberg gives his best performance since Boogie Nights, Bale unsurprisingly gives a transformative interpretation of Dickey Ecklund. His dedication is obvious, but his weight-loss should not overshadow his skill. Bale is absolutely mesmerizing as the failing boxer, brother, father, and son. The film is as much about him as his brother, and that is in thanks to Bale’s abilities.

Mark Whalberg in The Fighter

For fans of sports films and melodrama alike, The Fighter choreographs the sparring between family as well as it does the fisticuffs inside the ring. The arguments and manipulations are perfectly matched by the intense battle scenes between Wahlberg and his multiple opponents. The actor’s training is evident; each match is exciting and believable. Every punch carries a weight that is both physical and emotional, and by the last match my body flinched with each swing and I was left in tears. Although it went on for too long, The Fighter was a fantastic experience. It is perhaps the most traditional of the films nominated for best picture and for that I commend it, because while it covers many of the same beats we have all seen before, it covers them perfectly and reminds me why I love going to the movies to watch a sports film; to be inspired and entertained, and The Fighter succeeds in spades.

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#98. Steamboat Bill Jr. - Review

Steamboat Bill Jr. film posterBuster Keaton made films for the YouTube and Twitter audiences. With set-ups and gags that fit nicely within the five to ten minute structure of an Internet clip, the silent auteur’s Steamboat Bill Jr. forgoes complicated plot for clever stunts and the anticipation of blood. Title cards of no more than 170 characters prove the director’s primal intuition of the forthcoming Twitter phenomenon. If he was making films today, ol’ “Stone Face” Keaton would be an online sensation, no doubt devoting all of his efforts into a personal crusade to receive a million of hits on his YouTube page.  

A crusade it would be too. Films like Steamboat Bill Jr. and the esteemed The General are perfect examples of Keaton’s complete dedication to his craft. He risked life and limb, challenged gravity, and defied Mother Nature, all in the hopes for a laugh. A master of comedy, Keaton understood it wasn’t the terrible situations his characters found themselves in; like sailing through the air clutching a tree during a hurricane, but how those characters reacted to their situations. My biggest laughs came from Keaton’s face, not whatever near-death experience he just survived. His eyes rarely express panic, barely even concern. Usually his Bill Canfield Jr. appears slightly irritated by his many obstacles throughout Steamboat Bill Jr. These obstacles very from minor inconveniences like finding a hat that both he and his father could agree on (my biggest laugh of the film), to committing felonies and fighting for his life dodging flying houses. No matter the unbelievable disadvantages blocking Bill getting the girl, or the impossible challenge of gaining the respect of his father, Keaton’s titular character is as dedicated as the director himself. Watching the lovesick graduate struggle to reach his goals is often uncomfortable, sometimes exciting, and always entertaining. 

Here is the hat shopping sequence I mentioned

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