Elephant (2003)

this week i'm being very lucky. every day i saw a movie that impressed me. and today is no less.



asking a friend right before watching the movie, he told me: "i didn't like it very much. i think it's just opportunist."
yes, i remember what happened in Columbine. and what happened just one week ago, again. and i never thought an american would be able to talk about it with such cold blood like Gus Van Sant did. talking about it means recreating the whole scene. no sets, no big actors, no budget almost. just two balls, a privileged mind and the virtue of not listening to others.

another friend told me: "i hated it. i don't like this kind of movies where actors look straight into the camera."
my response, now: it's kind of hard not to look into the camera when the director puts it right in front of your face during 50% of the movie. and they look just a couple of times. that's not bad. actually i kind of liked it.

there are so many details, directing details, and editing details, van sant puts inside this movie. delicate slow motion cameras, fabulous steadicam, even some characteristics of dogma films. and then there's the music. yes, we all had heard it before, but not these 'singular' interpretations, and they fit perfectly.

didn't i mention the actors are non professional? well then, they already are. if they wanted to create the true high school feeling, they achieved that from the very first moment. there's john robinson, the blond guy, and also the next joe dalessandro. and alex frost, the calmest killer ever.


i completely agree with cannes 2003 juror: this movie deserves the award much more than Dogville (2003) did. now i'm dying to see again My Own Private Idaho (1991), i thing i'll get a different feeling than the first time i watched it, years ago.
is gus van sant becoming a new genious? if he makes another movie like this one, he will be.

MY RATING: 8.5
http://spanish.imdb.com/title/tt0363589/


i forgot to say that the first draft of Elephant was written by J.T.LeRoy, the writer (and true protagonist) of ASIA ARGENTO's The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things (2004). another future genious? not yet, but...

Groundhog Day (1993)

ok great. i had written a full review of this movie, and then, right before clicking 'publish', my web browser crashes. thank you.


i knew this one would be good. many people told me it was, but i didn't expect it would be THIS GOOD!!
bill murray once again plays himself, and he's obviously the best actor to play bill murray, so his role is just perfect for him. he's a reporter and he must cover the groundhog day event, although he hates that place. next day he wakes up and realises it's not the following day, but again groundhog's day, and everything happens the same way than the previous time. and another day, and another day... just stuck in time.

this must be harold ramis' best movie. yes, definately. it's one of this movies which make you laugh even though you're watching it alone in your room. the idea of looping time looked like a plot for a short movie at the beginning, but then you see you were wrong, as the story gets more interesting while murray realises how he can handle every situation by knowing what will happen next.

and then there's andie. wow. i had never paid attention on how beautiful she is. she was already 35 when she shot this, and she looks terrific. i can't wait now to get a copy of Greystoke (1984), which she did while being 'only' 26, and to watch again Sex, Lies And Videotape (1989), Soderbergh's best movie in my opinion by far.



now i'm thinking that, taking this film and A Night At The Roxbury, many of the 'male maneuvers' we guys use to seduce girls are over. it makes you feel stupid when you behave like that again, which i think is a good thing to keep in mind. moreover, watching this makes you see that the perfect day is not the one you've planned with detail, caring for the consequences or whatever, but the one you improvise, the truly spontaneous that rushes out of your mind without thinking previously.

if you feel like watching something to cheer you up, give a try to this one. it's a new classic.

MY RATING: 8
http://spanish.imdb.com/title/tt0107048/

oh, and watch also Green Card (1990), by Peter Weir. intelligent and funny!

What should I write about?

hi you all.
right now i was thinking that, as you have the list of movies that i
have (look to the right, LINKS section), why don't you ask me which one you'd like me to write about?


it can be one of the ones there or not, as you like. if i haven't seen
it or don't have it, i'll let you know and i'll look for it.
and please, feel free to comment anything in this blog, there's no
censorship here!

see you all soon

REMEMBER: "Takeshi's Castle (Humor Amarillo)" (1990) !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

.
last night i went to some friends' house just to spend some time there. they told me to bring some 'material', which means movies or whatever to watch. and i did. after having chinese food for dinner, and burning a pizza, we looked for something we all three wanted to watch. and then we found... Takeshi's Castle!!!

don't you all remember that series? well, that contest. that bone-breaking game, actually. it's probably the only place were, even knowing that you'll hurt yourself, you'd go without a doubt. well, at least if you are like me, cause i had sooo much fun with this show when i was a kid. i guess this is one of the tv-references for my generation :P

here you have a list of 'accidents'
(or consequences) which happened
in the show:

     Broken ribs:          41
     Broken jaws:          19
     Breathing blockages: 276
     Black eyes:          112
     Injured muscles:      62


not bad uh? some pics to remember:

you can find more info both in english and spanish. and here is imdb's page about it.

try to find it anywhere! there are some episodes shared in emule. enjoy!

oh, yes, MY RATING: 10 of course!!!

A Night at the Roxbury (1998)

truly hilarious. not many movies can presume of that, but this one really can, and should. these two guys, chris kattan and will ferrel, are awesome in this movie.

yes, it is an easy-humor movie, YES. but it's great! i don't know your age, but for we young people, it shows you how stupid you can be (and many times are) when you go out at night looking for girls. of course, the movie depicts an 'extreme' case, but do not think it's so different of the way 'your friends' behave.

i understand why saturday night live didn't want to let these two guys (three, if we count molly shannon) leave the show. they play complete jerks, but you keep laughing and laughing with them.

a big reason to see this movie: the music. it has all those songs you've listened to when you go partying anywhere, absoulute clubbing anthems. get this soundtrack as soon as you can, you won't regret it.

by the way, an unforgetable scene: kattan's appearance at steve's wedding. just couldn't have been better.

curiosity: see eva mendes back in 1998, with a much 'southern' (no ofense) and no-make up look. enjoyable, as well as all the cameos (chazz palminteri, richard grieco, michael clarke duncan...)

The best scene in a long long time (picture):


one more thing: search the net to see the video of jim carrey's appearance in saturday night live, doing a sketch of the movie with both kattan and ferrel. you just won't stop laughing for a month!

MY RATING: 8
http://spanish.imdb.com/title/tt0120770/

Pieces Of April (2003)

I should have been studying, but i watched this movie instead. and... wow, this one's great!!! i proudly rated it a 9 in imdb. this is one of those movies which make you draw a smile in your face, and make you look quite stupid, but happy. it's about a family in which the oldest daughter (katie holmes) is kind of the black sheep, and lives away of the family home. she's the rebel piercing-lover girl, you'd say, but it's not that simple. for reasons she never tells (but obvious) she invites her family to her tiny house for thanksgiving lunch. her mom has some mental problems, and that makes the rest of the family doubt whether going or not. besides, as you see during the movie, the mother is the smartest one in the family, along with the daughter. the rest of family members are all different from each other but form the most typical family, and that's what causes so many usual-but-funny situations and discussions. but the daughter has one problem: they're coming for thanksgiving lunch, but what do i do if i've never cooked anything?

that would be the plot. no big thing, you'd say. wrong. you see your own life reflected in every moment of the story. the smallest things became the biggest problems, just the way it would happen to you. it looks like an argentinian movie but made in the states.
Peter Hedges, you're the man. this movie is sooo well directed and written, it leaves you astonished. with ONLY (yes, read this carefully) 300 thousand dollars) you made a movie with katie holmes, oliver platt, derek luke, patricia clarkson, a wonderful script, a great rhythm, good photography, touching ending... so many virtues it has, that i already forgot many. katie is wonderful in a role where, before watching the movie, anyone would say she wouldn't fit in. oliver platt is once more an inclasificable actor, and also great performer. patricia... what can i say about patricia, she's absolutely one of my favourite actresses, along with isabelle huppert and a couple more. the other 2 youngsters, son and daughter, also playing a great part. her boyfriend and also sisqó, in a movie i never thought he'd do (he must be way smarter than i thought). all perfect.


there are so many things i'd say about this movie, but i won't. just watch it and enjoy. this one's really worth it.

MY RATING: 9
http://spanish.imdb.com/title/tt0311648/

Starting Over

ok, this is it. this blog is being re-born right now. i guess it was never alive, well maybe only during a couple hours on january 6th, but that's not much.
i must say i'm not a big writer. in fact, i don't like writing, but i'll try to write as much as possible and use this as kind of a self-therapy. i think it's not true that i don't like writing, but i never feel like writing. i'm lazy, but i gotta change that.

ok be ready cause i think this one is gonna be a long post (it's the 1st one, so it outta be). first of all, why the hell am i writing in english? i'm not english, and english is not my mother tongue. i've been wanting to write for some time now, mainly about movies which is my biggest passion, and i never knew whether to write in spanish or catalan. so then i thought: and why not in english? i watch the majority of movies in english, and not translated, so it wouldn't be so nonsense to do that. so i'm doing it. hope it lasts long.

now i'm thinking to do a different kind of webpage. i mean a real webpage, and not only a blog. but this is so fast, i mean blogging, that probably it will stay this way. we'll see.

oh! the reason i'm creating this blog, or at least one of the main reasons: Pieces Of April. it's a movie. i just watched it and i liked it so much that i had to tell everyone, so now i'm writing this. but i'll talk more about it in the next post, which will be about the movie itself.

what else? i don't know, many things. please, if anyone sees this site, please write your comments! i wanna know what you think, like it or hate it, your opinions, anything. please don't be lazy ok? you won't regret it.

i think i'll put it somewhere in the page, but in case i don't, my email: kissoq@gmail.com .feel free to send me whatever you want. i will answer for sure.

i don't know what else now. i'll explain more things later on. i wanna see this post in the webpage :P

see you in a little while