I wish I had minions.

Usually, I am all about the villain. If I was ever in a movie, I would definitely be the villain. When I'm watching movies, I tend to pay really close attention to the villain. If I know who it is, I study their every move. If I don't have any idea, I try to figure it out. Sometimes I'm surprised, sometimes I'm not. Unfortunately, the villain in Chinatown was kind of disappointing.

Noah Cross. Rich, power-hungry, incest, overall jerk. Just not the best villain. Now, I cannot deny that he gets the job done. He starts strong by indirectly getting Gittes to investigate Mr. Mulwray (I'm still not entirely sure why). He continues his positive streak with murder. So far, even though it's unbeknownst to everyone else, Noah Cross is doing a pretty good job at villainy. After Mulwray's murder, Cross begins to slip a little. Enter the minions on cue. Normally, I have no problem with the use of minions for shady deals and dirty deeds. In the context of the film, however, it was not ideal. Considering that the identity of the villain wasn't revealed until the end of the film, nobody knew who the minions were working for. It seemed as though they were acting of their own accord, although this is rare for minions and such. I don't think that the minion-Noah Cross relationship should have been shown explicitly, but it would have been nice to have a clue or two as to who they answer to. Although the presence of the minions wasn't perfect, it wasn't a disaster. They added style to the villainy. Nobody really expected the midget minion (Polanski) to actually cut Gittes, but he followed through (which of course resulted in a horrified gasp from the audience). That is the mark of good villainy. Unfortunately, Cross' minions have hardly any screen time and the audience is forced back into guessing the villain's identity. When Noah Cross is finally revealed as the bad guy, it's a bit of a disappointment. Clearly he's bad. He raped his daughter, killed her husband, and seriously messed up Jack Nicholson's face. But there isn't anything really memorable about him. He didn't have any weird little quirks or trademarks, he didn't do anything so paramount that the entire world was in danger, there just wasn't anything that set him apart from all of the other villains in the world. A bit of a let down.

And has anybody else noticed that Jack Nicholson is a total creeper in most of his films? Yeah. Think about it...

Remember Me.

If you read my last blog post, you know that I was embarrassingly shocked by the end of Out of the Past and Jeff's death. So as not to make a fool of myself once again, I hardened my outlook on the film, prepared myself for the imminent death of Mike Hammer. It didn't come. Of course. Well, I suppose I have learned my lesson when it comes to films noir. Granted, I thought I learned it after the last film we viewed, but clearly I was mistaken. I know not to expect anything specific when it comes to this genre. Who knows what will happen to the characters? Clearly not me.



Anyway, I enjoyed myself while watching Kiss Me Deadly. It was an intriguing tale that successfully held my attention. The only problem that I had with the film was the villain. Now, I'm not trying to say that Dr. Soberin was a bad villain. Quite the opposite, in fact. I thought he was an exceptionally devious villain, clearly skilled in his field. He was also intelligent to boot (at least in the area of Greek mythology). My only complain is that the audience did not get the chance to get to know Dr. Soberin very well. Almost the entire film passed without showing his face, which only added to his mystery. But once he was finally exposed, there wasn't much more development of his character. We see him in his last moments, warning Gabrielle of the dangers of the box. Other than that, we don't get to find out much about him. Now, this was by no means the most disappointing villain I've ever encountered (that would have to be from the movie The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen where the bad guy turned out to be M, their mentor of sorts....stupid), but I was sad at the lack of exploration his character was given. Dr. Soberin clearly had depth along with a devious mind, so it's a shame that the audience wasn't able to see more of that. Anyway, at this point I feel like I'm running in circles. In short, Dr. Soberin = awesome villain who just didn't get enough explanation or screen time.

"He got careless and fell in the river."

In knew I would enjoy studying film noir. Out of the Past was an excellent place to start, considering how full it is of classic noir elements. What I didn't expect was that I would get so wrapped up in the characters and the story that I would forget the aforementioned film noir elements and grab onto a tiny bit of hope. I cannot deny it: I completely expected Jeff to somehow turn in Kathie, save the day, and survive to leave his dark life behind and run off with Ann to live happily ever after. For anyone who has seen the film, this is not how it ends by any means. In short, everyone dies. It was not only surprising to me that Jeff was unable to worm his way out of death, but also that the film wrapped itself up so successfully without any main characters. Every character of note except for "The Kid" met an untimely demise. Jeff's partner was shot by Kathie. Joe was hooked off the cliff by the Kid. Whit was shot (a second time) and killed by Kathie. Jeff was shot by Kathie. And finally, Kathie was shot by some creeper in a hood hiding behind a tree. This is a ridiculous amount of main character death to experience in one film. But I guess I should expect it, considering we're dealing with film noir. Logically, seeing as I've been fooled once, I should expect a bleak outcome from Kiss Me Deadly (which we are currently watching). We'll see which wins: my logical reasoning, or my ever optimistic hope.

"Where's the self-help section?"

"It's going to be gone soon."

"I know."

"What do we do?"

"Enjoy it."

The film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is far deeper than a simple plot summary would suggest. It is more than just a romantic comedy about an absurdly impulsive woman and a more shy, reserved man. It is an adventure into the psyche of two people who love each other. It is an exposure of their deepest passions and hatreds. It is a vision of personalities clashing, resulting in brawling emotions and sometimes harmony.


This film can even be viewed as a social commentary of sorts. In it's examination of the good and the bad of relationships, Eternal Sunshine brings to light much of what generally gets brushed under the rug in romantic movies. The relationship between Joel and Clementine is nowhere near perfect. She is impulsive to the point of recklessness and he is timid to the point of apathy. This film dares to delve into these sort of nuances. The film goes on to pass judgement, in a way, on relationships and humankind. Confused? I'll try to explain.


As the relationship between Clem and Joel deteriorates, Clem chooses the track of the chronic impulsive and has her memory erased of all evidence that Joel ever existed for her. Joel, hurt and infuriated beyond words by her actions, has the same procedure done. Both Clementine and Joel use the memory erasure as a form of revenge (here is where the judgement comes in). Instead of working out their problems like mature adults (and maybe severing ties, if that's what needed to happen), they avenge their scorned dignities by stooping to the lowest of lows and taking the easy way out. By erasing their memories, Joel and Clem didn't have to deal with their problems at hand. Clearly, neither character had learned in their life thus far the old cliche: "it is better to have love and lost than never loved at all." Although it is absolutely a cliche, it's a relatively poignant one. In the story, Joel decides to go through the same erasure procedure as Clementine did. He seems confident in his decision until the procedure actually starts to occur and he is being chased through his own memories. Looking back on his various memories of Clementine, he sees how much he loves her, how much she has impacted him. He begs the omniscient presence to let him keep just one memory, just one. Unfortunately, that is not an option. However, somehow (magically, divine intervention, fate, it doesn't really matter) Joel and Clem are able to hold onto one thought of each other. In doing so, they meet again and begin to fall into the spiral of love, having no conscious knowledge of the other person.


Now, hopefully (I realize that hopefully isn't actually a word in this context...I don't care) it is easier to understand my "social commentary" mindset. The one thing that could carry this even further is the alternate ending we fleetingly discussed in class. It wasn't included in the final cut of the film (which was probably a good call on Gondry's part), but it continued the story of Joel and Clementine. They fall in love again, only to fight again, only to have their memories erased again, only to meet again, only to fall in love again.....the cycle is endless. This proves the point of the futility of relationships, the absence of some people's ability to handle situations, to cope with what comes their way. Overall, I venerate this film. To some people, it is simply a romantic comedy. But to me, it is more than that. It is the tragic story of two people who cannot appreciate the love that they have for one another until it is being forcibly ripped from them. But maybe I'm just looking too far into this.


P.S. Undoubtedly, my favorite part of the film was when Joel was wearing his awesome sweater - the one that was covered in galaxies. I seriously want that sweater.