'Mulholland Drive' review

If you don’t know who David Lynch is, stop reading now and google him.

David Lynch directed and wrote the 2001 film Mulholland Drive (or Mulholland Dr.) after already having success with his previous films, Eraserhead, Blue Velvet, and the Twin Peaks television series. For the film Mulholland Drive, it was originally set to be a spin-off based on one of his characters from Twin Peaks. However, executives decided against it. Lynch’s style is very artistically different from most creators. The film’s meaning has been left up for various interpretations, even the cast has no clue what the film truly meant.

Mulholland Drive is about a woman, who after being in a car accident, is left with no memory. In order to figure out what happened to her, she joins forces with an inspiring actress. It’s really difficult to explain the plot of the film because there is so much going on all at once. There is a subplot, a cowboy, a mysterious blue box and doppelgangers? What? In order to explain the film, I have to discuss the dream aspect of the film. The film, in my opinion, is a dream. The aspiring actress, Betty, falls into a deep sleep (not completely sure if it is drug-induced or not) and she embarks on a journey in her dream, in which everything is sort of perfect for her. She has an amazing audition and begins a relationship with the amnesiac, Rita. However, when “Betty” wakes up from her slumber, reality is kicked in and she is actually “Diane” and her lover in her dream is actually her ex-girlfriend, Camilla. Diane is an actress, but not as successful as her ex, Camilla, who has a relationship with her but then later dumps her for her bigshot director, Adam. Diane, who put out a hit on Camilla, because she is angry with her, has to deal with the consequences of her action. Camilla, who is now dead, makes Diane feel completely distraught and because she cannot deal with her actions and the guilt overwhelms her, it leads to her suicide.

The film does an excellent job at exploring identity through the form of doubles. Betty is the ideal version that Diane wants to be and everyone else in her dream state is who she prefers them to be. She manipulates this in her dream and becomes so involved in it, that she nearly loses herself. This is very similar to Lynch’s other film, Inland Empire. The overall message that I believe that Lynch is trying to offer is that as much as you try to change the past or make yourself the perfect version that you want, perfection is not real. He exposes the sad part of relationships and Hollywood. Hollywood can change someone and make them better or worse. It requires good morals and strength in order to stay true to yourself. Diane was unable to face her fears and guilt, which led to her breakdown.

'Pulp Fiction' review

“And you will know my name is the Lord when I lay my vengeance upon thee”

Sometime in 2016, I watched Pulp Fiction for the first time with a friend of mine and always wondered to myself, “What is this movie even about?” To break down that question, you have to watch the film and then piece it all together like a puzzle. The film itself is nonlinear, but each story somehow fits with the other. The director, Quentin Tarantino makes this work, even though it is confusing.

Out of all the stories, “The Bonnie Situation” is most likely my personal favorite and makes sense with the plot. In “The Bonnie Situation,” the two main protagonists, Vincent and Jules have accidentally killed someone, associated with an earlier character, in their car and are desperate to have it cleaned. Vincent and Jules drive to a friend, Jimmy, who is played by the director himself, Tarantino. At Jimmy’s house, they try to figure out how to get the car cleaned and dispose of the body. However, this all needs to be done before Jimmy’s wife Bonnie comes back home from work. Bonnie works the graveyard shift at the hospital and does not need to be put in a situation that might end up with her divorcing Jimmy, so he says. Jules calls his employer, Marsellus, and he sends his personal “cleaner” to fix the problem. The car is cleaned and the situation is resolved before Bonnie arrives home.

In “The Bonnie Situation,” it stands alone as an entire story. It contains humor, crime and somewhat mystery as to what is really going on in Vincent and Jules’ line of work. The plot of the film in general could be described as a crime drama, but it is so much more and complex than that. Pulp Fiction is mainly about people making the wrong decisions and being at a location, at the wrong time. All of the characters are put into situations that they manage to get out of, but it also takes a lot of time in order to do so. Tarantino made a film that is a sort of cautionary tale to people who make poor decisions, without even thinking about it. “The Bonnie Situation” is so important to the film, because a character that is not even shown on screen, but is talked about, holds the control of the events that take place during her absence. Although Bonnie is not present, her husband is extremely worried about how everything will turn out, if she were to arrive home early. Literally, the entire process of the car cleaning would have never happened, if Bonnie was home. It would have even been unentertaining if Jimmy were single. The idea of almost getting caught doing something immoral and vile, is fascinating and exciting, in a disturbing, sickening way.

The film illustrates violence and humor as something that can be coexisting and not separate. “The Bonnie Situation” is a great example of this, because of its immoral act of cleaning up a dead body. The scene is led to a small, but drawn-out discussion that is both about gourmet coffee and a dead, Black man in Jimmy’s garage. It is so ridiculous, in the sense that it is supposed to be funny, but also serious at the same time. I believe that is what Tarantino’s cameo was indicated for; to make light of a crazy situation. Tarantino’s character could have been played by anyone, but he decided to do it himself, because who can truly play an “outsider” better than he can?

Pulp Fiction is definitely the type of film people watch and wonder, “What have I just watched?” but now people know. It wasn’t a crime drama. It wasn’t a romance or a gangster film. It was just a film, a confusing one, about people being in the wrong place, at the wrong time, and most of them getting killed for it (Vincent). Lesson learned: Never go to the bathroom.

'Memento' review

“We all need mirrors to remind ourselves who we are.”

Leonard Shelby (Guy Pearce) says this line in the 2000 film Memento directed by Christopher Nolan. In the film, a man who suffers from anterograde amnesia goes on a mission to find the man that raped and killed his wife. The only things that he remembers, is his life before the accident and his wife. The idea for Memento came from Christopher Nolan’s brother Jonathan, who wrote a short story called “Memento Mori” about a man who has short term memory and uses polaroids and tattoos to help him figure out who raped and killed his wife, which is much like the film.

When watching the film for the first time, it is obviously very confusing. There are two different things going on: the scenes that are in black and white are in chronological order (but is in the past) and the scenes that are in color are in reverse order (but is in the present). After watching Memento, I read an article “Everything You Wanted to Know About ‘Memento’” by a film critic, Andy Klein, who dissected everything in the film and made it so much easier to understand. He basically created a way to watch the film in its right order. He explained that when watching the movie, to watch the black and white scenes in  chronological order, but to list every scene 1 through 21. However, there is a “special” scene at the end of the film, where it starts off in black and white, but transitions into color; this specific scene would be 22/A. Then, the color scenes would have to be watched in reverse order, or backwards, and those scenes would be B through V. In all, the complete order of how the film would be viewed, in a chronological order, would be:
1, 2, 3 ,4 ,5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22/A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, T, U, V.

One of the main themes for the film is memory. The entire film consists of the idea of whether or not Leonard, the main character, is searching for the right man who killed his wife or not. For starters, Leonard is an unreliable narrator because of his short term memory, the audience is unable to determine if his memories and his flashbacks are real or if they are fabricated. What is clever about this film is that the director, Christopher Nolan, has a man who is damaged and his short term memory is his weakness. Leonard is easily deceived by people who learn of his “condition” and they use it to their advantage, like Natalie, who has him kill her boyfriend’s drug dealer boss. Natalie and her manipulative ways definitely makes her the film’s femme fatale because she seduces Leonard and makes him trust her, only for her to use him in the end and have him kill someone for her. There are other film noir characteristics that fit with other characters, like Teddy, who resembles a rogue cop. The audience does not find out that Teddy is a cop and is the one who Leonard has been giving information to one the phone, until towards the end of the film. Teddy is taking advantage of Leonard as well, he helped him find the guy who got away from the assault, but because Leonard does not remember, he uses him to kill other men and collects money from them. This leaves Leonard… who is he? I came to the conclusion that Leonard is a homme fatale, because he is an attractive man, who is going through a rough time in his life and he can’t make any sense of what is really going on, but he is very determined and sticks to his mission.

The use of voice-over is an important device in the film as well because there are also two different types of it. For the black and white scenes, Leonard’s voice-over is more like him being interviewed, which in many cases, he already is because of the phone call that he has. The audience and Leonard are unaware, until the end of the film, of who is on the other line. The voice-over for the color scenes are more investigative, because he is trying to figure things out in his mind, as they are happening. His voice-over is his inner thoughts. The color scenes are probably my favorite ones, because the audience is just as clueless as Leonard is and we are both trying to figure out what is happening and we both get frustrated when he forgets. What Leonard knows, is what the viewers know.

The ending of the film might come as a shock for many people, but there are little clues throughout the film. One of the major clues is the “Remember Sammy Jankis” tattoo on his hand. This was most likely a way for Leonard to remember who he really is, the person that reminds him most of himself. He created Sammy to repress his guilt over accidentally killing his wife. Not only is Leonard being used by people in the film, but he, himself, is using a fictional person to carry the weight of his issue.

When Leonard remarks, “We all need mirrors to remind ourselves who we are” I believe that this means that he needs to be reminded of who he is, because he doesn’t really know himself. When Teddy asks him if he knows who he (Leonard) is, he goes on to recite real facts, but Teddy wants him to know “what he has become” which is something that Leonard will not know, and probably will never know. He is on a never-ending tunnel that leads him to kill men with the name John G. and his mission to avenge his wife’s death, becomes meaningless.

One of the last lines that Leonard says at the end of the film is, “Do I lie to myself to make myself happy?” It is one of my favorite quotes because it is something that I think everyone can relate to. The line itself is pitiful and makes the viewer feel somewhat bad for Leonard, but then you remember all the things he’s done, and you don’t feel so bad anymore. He can’t help that he has a condition and this bothers him. So when he finally learns the truth, he chooses to ignore it, because at this point in his life, he is not living his life for himself but for his dead wife. His only goal is to repeatedly get vengeance. This connects with everyone else in the world, because with little things such as makeup and cosmetics, help women feel confident and beautiful. We make up excuses and lies to help us with daily life situations. Is it a good thing? No. Though we choose to do it anyway.

'Fargo' review

5 Reasons Why “Fargo” Wasn’t Funny

A woman is cheerfully knitting and watching a morning show, when she notices a man wearing a black ski mask and holding a crowbar, approaching her back door. She watches the man with curiosity, as he peers into her house through the glass door. She continues to watch him as he breaks the glass door open with the crowbar. She jumps out of her chair and runs towards her front door, where she encounters another man identically dressed as the first one. He grabs her and she bites him, running up the stairs to the second floor. Upstairs, the second man is aiding his hand in the bathroom when the woman, who is hiding in the shower, leaps out and is completely covered by the shower curtain. In her frenzy, she tumbles down the stairs and is momentarily unconscious. The second man is shocked, as he pokes her still body.

In this film called “Fargo” (1996), directed by Joel Coen, while his brother, Ethan, co-wrote the screenplay with him, many people think that this scene is humorous. However, it was one of the many scenes that I did not laugh at. I felt very uncomfortable and I pitied the poor woman, who was not given much of a character description other than being called “Jean” and she is the wife of Jerry Lundegaard (William H. Macy) and the daughter of a wealthy family. In the film, a man hires two men to kidnap his wife and then ask for ransom money from his in-laws, who are wealthy. When the plan goes wrong, a pregnant police chief tries to solve the murder of three people that were killed, among other situations that occur in the film.

Before watching the film, I had no clue what it was about. I watched the film with brand new eyes and I believe that is the best way to watch a movie. Due to this, I had no reason to instantly dislike the movie because of the plot, actors or time period. After I finished watching the film, I looked it up online and Google told me that it is a “dark comedy, crime thriller”. This is something that I disagreed with. I felt as if the internet, the Coen brothers and everyone else in the world was playing a cruel joke on me. This movie was neither a comedy, nor a thriller; in this case, it brings me to a countdown of the reasons why I think “Fargo” is not funny.

Reason #5: Although “Fargo” is classified as a “dark comedy and crime thriller”, it is not funny because of just… that. It does not take much for me, personally, to laugh at something, but because I was not aware that this film was “dark” and “comedic”, I ignored the fact that the film was intended for me to laugh at some of the parts. Such as, Jean falling down the stairs because she got caught in her shower curtain. The reason why she is caught in the shower curtain is disturbing. She is running away from men that are there to kidnap her, an order given by her pathetic husband.

Reason #4: Mental issues and physical problems are joked about. There is a long running, belittling joke about one of the kidnapper’s, Carl (Steve Buscemi), height and appearance. He evidently appears differently than his accomplice, Gaear, who is taller, blond, quiet and seems more intimidating than Carl. Besides Carl’s height and looks being made fun of, another character, Mike, who is an old high school classmate of Marge, the pregnant police chief, has bigger issues. It was obvious to me that he had some type of issue, because not only did he call her home in the middle of the night, but he sounded extremely jittery on the phone call and was very eager to meet her in person. When they finally met for dinner, he told her details about his life that she was not expecting, not that she even wanted to know about it. He cried in front of her, as he poured his heart out to her. Many people would find this hilarious, but it worried me. Marge is a pregnant woman dealing with a mentally ill person, but she appeared calm in front of him and did not show any signs of fear. Soon after that scene, she finds out that Mike lied to her about everything, and the truth is that he is just very ill. The Coen brothers did a bad job of trying to make Mike’s situation funny, but they did a great job of creating mystery and building up Marge’s role of a “mother figure”.

Reason 3: Gore is not funny; it is gross. Not much to say about this theme of the film. There are many scenes where people get killed and they are not pretty or funny sights. I am not sure if the Coen brothers tried to make the death scenes appear “light”, but they did the complete opposite. Usually when I watch death scenes, I feel uneasy about them and it makes me physically sick. In one scene particular, a classmate of mine said that the part when Gaear is seen putting Carl’s body parts into a wood-chipper, that it was one of the best and funniest scenes in the film. Well, I don’t think so. All the viewer sees is literally, Gaear putting body parts in a wood-chipper. There is nothing funny about it, but disturbing and weird. It is weird, because it’s a WOOD-CHIPPER of all things.

Reason 2: The characters, Carl and Jerry and the situations that they’re put in are not funny. I will admit now, I was incredibly happy and excited to see William H. Macy in the film. He is one of my favorite actors, which is ironic because I KNOW that he is a funny person and actor in general. Macy is currently starring in a show called “Shameless” on Showtime and it is so amazing and odd to see him portray a character like Frank Gallagher and then see him play an almost equally pathetic, terrible, and manipulative character such as Jerry Lundegaard. However, what Jerry lacks is humor. If Jerry and Frank met in a jail cell or randomly in a restaurant in Chicago, Jerry could definitely learn a few things. Due to his character being a complete slimeball, this made him less funny and less intriguing. That goes the same for Carl as well. The actions that he carries out, killing multiple people because they “got in the way” was completely unnecessary.

Reason 1: And finally… their accents are not funny. They are very, very annoying. The film was set in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and if you didn’t know already, people who are native Minnesotans have very strong accents. Their accents sound almost Scottish or Irish, but like… worse. The characters say “Oh yeah?” in every single scene and their accents became so bothersome to me that it came to the point where I wasn’t even watching the film, I was paying more attention to what they were saying and how they were saying it. I can’t even begin to imagine why the Coen brothers chose this specific state and to actually have their actors speak in the accent for the film. I believe it’s because they think the accent sound funny, so it makes the “crime thriller” aspect of the film sound silly and ridiculous. Not only is the film not funny, but it’s ridiculous to the point of “why am I watching this?” to “what is this even really about?” The ending, just ends with Marge in bed with her husband, pretending like everything's okay, as if she did not just almost die.

I’m not sure about everyone else who has seen the film, but this is not what I signed up for.

'Blue Velvet' Review

Imagine this: Sauntering to the melodic, haunting voice of Lana Del Rey’s cover of “Blue Velvet”. Tiptoeing through a fog of red light, into the mysterious… psychedelic… disturbing world of David Lynch. Do not walk, but run.

David Lynch is notably known for his cult classic television show, Twin Peaks, which only lasted two seasons (but is returning soon at high demand). He directed many neo-noir films such as Mulholland Drive and Blue Velvet. He tends to use violence in his work, but transforms it into an esoteric, or surreal visual.

In Blue Velvet, a young man Jeffrey Beaumont (Kyle MacLachlan) comes home after his father becomes ill. He finds a detached ear in a field and he decides to work with the town detective's daughter Sandy Williams (Laura Dern) to figure out what happened. The ear guides Beaumont on an investigation, which leads him to a sensual, mysterious nightclub singer (Isabella Rossellini) and a group of psychotic men who have taken her child. Beaumont tries his very best to solve the mystery and help the woman, but is also caught in her situation. It is difficult for him to part ways, when he is deeply attracted to her.

In the film, it opens up with the title sequence, against a blue velvet background and haunting, spine-tingling instrumental music. It cuts to the soothing song “Blue Velvet”, which is the film’s theme song. The viewer sees red roses, a man smiling and waving on an electrical plant truck, accompanied by his dog. It later transitions to yellow tulips, children crossing the street heading to school, and then a house with a man watering his lawn. The music continues as the scene cuts back and forth between a woman inside the house watching a mystery film and the man watering his lawn, who suddenly has a stroke. A dog and a baby approach the man as he lays on the ground, struggling for help. Then the music becomes creepy and eerie as a close up of the grass follows a pile of bugs.

Cut to the end of the film, where a similar sequence happens. In this case, Jeffrey, Sandy and her mother are in the Williams’ kitchen looking at a bird sitting on the windowsill with a bug in its beak. Sandy asks, “It’s a strange world, isn’t it?” with no one answering her. The beginning sequence of the film is repeated, however it is shown in reverse order: yellow tulips, man with dog on passing truck, red roses… and finally a little boy running towards Dorothy, who is reunited with her son. The look on her face indicates that she is finally at ease and happy to be with her son, but there is also a sad look to it. The film closes with the last line from “Blue Velvet”, echoing “And I can still see Blue Velvet through my tears”. Which could mean that although Dorothy is safe and with her son, she still has the painful memories of the events that occurred.

I believe the film opened like it did to show in almost a sarcastic way how at peace and cheerful the town looked, but little do the residents know that there are ominous events happening. Not everyone is happy, or every situation is good, and the beginning shows this. The ending is just a repeat in reverse form but altered because it actually is a happy ending, though it raises eyebrows in which, “Is everything really okay? Is David Lynch just messing with us again? Will Jeffrey find another ear?” these are questions that some might ask, but they are unnecessary because at the end, it closed without having any loose ends.