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DVD Northfork
Following their super-quirky films Twin Falls Idaho and Jackpot, the Polish brothers take a leap of faith with their third picture, Northfork. And it pays off handsomely. Somewhere in the desolate Midwest, the town of Northfork is about to be drowned in the waters held back by a new dam. It's up to a group of men (in identical black suits and fedoras) to clear out the last stubborn landowners. Meanwhile, a deathly ill boy bargains with a delegation of heaven-sent searchers--at least that's what they seem to be. Is this Fargo meets Touched by an Angel? That's the peculiar feel of this otherwise unclassifiable movie, which veers from academic artiness to wacky blackout humor. Who can explain the restaurant where diners must guess the lone menu item? And who would want to? James Woods and Nick Nolte lead a game cast through this oddly winning enterprise. --Robert Horton
but thats about it Dont get me wrong I try to get into these weirded out movies like "Brazil" where everything can be a metaphor for something else. Like when your talking to someone and they mention the big mac they had yesterday when an obese person walks by but its gotta MAKE SOME SENSE! C'mon folks 'Northfork' made none it was just a trippy flashback of times when the directors played with LSD in college. And the joke HAHAHAHAHAH. We've all heard it 'God says I already sent a boat and a helicopter dummy' did that have to be such a drawn out scene? No but it was because they were short on dialogue. It started out on paper as something that couldve been special but winded up with everyone being happy with Noltes, Woods, Hannah and Edwards performances which were well acted out pieces of insanity. 2 stars.
look out for Purgatory
There is a strange beauty and subtle intrigue to this film that could have been developed into a real movie. What emerges, though, is esotericism to the point of annoyance and quirkiness to the point of becoming soporific. No, all you so-called enlightened reviewers, who cast aspersions at the purported twenty-somethings with dull perspectives who did not enjoy this film...many of the viewers of this film are actually well versed in good movies and really gave this one a chance. Unfortunately, many of you hubris peddlers seem to carry around so much intellectual haughtiness in your brains that you always mistake strangeness and originality for genius. Yes, many of the movies we see today are stupid - but the solution doesn't immediately lie in morphine-like flighty, abstruse David Lynch rip-offs.
We really attempted to stretch our imaginations around such vague scenes as the one with the "men in black" ordering at the diner. When we saw the luminous alien vixen played by Hannah, we hoped that we were going to take part in something as magical as Bladerunner. We deftly ignored much of the idiotic dialogue with pointless pop culture references and talk of smelly outhouses.
There were some scenes that delighted. The libertarian bible-thumping man who had built the ark for he and his two wives was on to something and amused us. The child speaking of his extricated wings, and his longing to belong, was touching (and we ignored that the zany Nick Nolte was taking care of him). In fact, we were compelled to root for Nolte in his seemingly genuine love for the child.
But you are asking too much to deal with so many loose ends and questions unanswered.
Yes, the film is beautiful and yes, it is unique; but is it really a complete film? I perceived it as an incomplete dreamscape that annoyed more than it satisfied and induced exhaustion more than it stimulated.
The film does, however, leave an unmistakable opium-like malaise which is appealing at certain levels...almost powerful enough to forget that it annoyed you before putting you to sleep!
Utterly absurd reviews
We are so fortunate that any filmmakers are taking genuine visionary risks today; trying to create unique moods and impressions. This is a wonderful film, slow paced and artful, dense and oblique, and filled with wonderful surprises and screwball humor. Quite a juggling act and not an obvious one--that's a tribute to the skills of the filmmakers. I was totally delighted when I saw this, I've watched it several times, it gets better with each viewing. Parts are exceptionally moving.
You'll notice similarities in the language used in most, if not all, of the negative reviews of this film. As a whole, they make for an illuminating read, an index of the Pandora's Box we've opened by allowing pop culture to be treated seriously ("Graphic Novels" instead of comic books, as if "Sandman" is the equivalent of "Don Quixote") and permitting kiddies to feel their strong yet ill-informed opinions about anything and everything were somehow highly valid.
"Boring" is the most frequently used word in these short stammering tantrum-like reviews (and in others like them elsewhere--read some Guy Maddin reviews sometime, it's depressing). "Artsy" is the other perjorative of choice (Today the word simply means "Over my head"). "Boring" is not an aesthetic judgement, it's a subjective impression and these days it's most frequently used by intellectually "youngish" people (unfortunately aged 14 to 50) who are equally "bored" by the "artsy" Beethoven or Shakespeare not to mention the ten million other major works of art that fail to titilate them in an ADD adaptive way. The Mona Lisa is boring, as are the Parthenon and Taj Mahal. Nowadays, one always senses a bag of weed, a bottle of beer, and an upcoming MBA hovering over that word; the fact that it may be an expensive imported beer and Ivy League frat-boy Colombian that cost more than most people's monthly food budget changes nothing. None of this would or should matter but the reason I'm making a big stink here is that marketing people, advertising geeks, the media, and politicians determine the texture of our entire culture by listening to kids of all ages weigh the universe in their boring/not boring scales. That's why our culture is almost complete candy-coated garbage nowadays, why childlike primary colors dominate in every sense, why the media is ignoring frontal lobes entirely, zeroing in on the back brain, the Reptilian part that deals solely with "Do I eat it, kill it, or have sex with it?"
I sense this film's severest and most incoherent critics therefore are the same twenty-something "yoots" who burbled and drooled delightedly over immortal classics like "Fight Club" and "Kill Bill." In other words, what I'm saying is that due to bad marketing (I saw this DVD for sale at Target at the mall for Pete's sake!) Northfork accidentally fell into the hands of a lot of toddlers. Normally, we genuinely serious adult weirdos and artists try very hard to prevent that sort of dreadful thing from happening: it's like letting a ten-year-old who's been eating ice cream handle Medieval manuscripts. Confronted with a complicated object that challenged them (rather than merely amuses them or validates a corporate-approved "bad-boy" lifestyle), they got all cwanky, dug out their cwayons, and wrote bad tings on the walls. If the Polish brothers had sensed the way the wind was blowing and included some, say, bondage sex or sex in a dumpster, hyper-violent fights of any type, obscenely large guns, hot chicks in stileto heels and skimpy outfits and other "freaky scenes" the negative reviews would never have materialized; instead there'd be contented cooing. I believe one of the future "Fangoria" magazine contributers or mass media tycoons described this film as a "crap-sandwich." This isn't criticism, this is letting the family dog rate restaurants.
I write this to help any individual here make a genuinely adult decision about trying this movie. If you're mature, intelligent, and sensible, and enjoy unique and imaginative film experiences you'll probably get something out of Northfork, in fact you'll probably be wowed by it. If you think yellow Hummers, violent Japanese cartoons, and "Sin City" are peak moments of Western Civilization do stay away and do keep your juvenile opinions about grown-up things you'll probably never understand to yourselves. For you guys the helpfulness "No" button is below just to the right, unfortunately there's no "Boring" option. Choosing "no" should indicate that the review was not helpful for you in making a decision about the film unless you're a politically correct, terrible-two drone and you get all itchy if a reviewer "flushes" Michael Moore's holy work down a toilet ("No! No! Make bad naughty Michael Moore review go 'way!). Or you can always register displeasure by simply throwing the remains of your Hot Pocket at the monitor screen--you were planning on upgrading to a flat screen anyway, weren't you?).
A movie about conjoined (or "Siamese") twins and a prostitute sounds like a bad joke or a sleazy porn flick, but Twin Falls Idaho is actually an eerie, atmospheric story about love and mutual dependence. Penny (Michele Hicks) gets called to a dingy hotel room where she discovers Blake and Francis Falls (twin brothers Mark and Michael Polish). When they go into the bathroom to get her a glass of water, she flees--but forgets her purse. When she returns, Blake and Francis don't get angry; they accept her fear and horror with sad resignation. Their vulnerability draws Penny into their lives, as she learns that the illness of one twin threatens the lives of both. Twin Falls Idaho moves slowly, but the pace never drags. The lush cinematography is drenched in color; the makeup,... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Michael Polish - Mark Polish - Michele Hicks Director(s): Michael Polish DVD Release Date: Released the 18 January 2000 Usually ships within 24 hours
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Claude Lelouch may never be the most profound director in the world, but he sure knows how to whip up a catchy distraction. And Now Ladies & Gentlemen finds Lelouch in a skippy, unpredictable mode. Jeremy Irons, who seems to be enjoying himself enormously, is a thief who sets out on a sailing voyage, only to fetch up in Morocco after he blacks out at the helm. There he meets sultry singer Patricia Kaas (her first acting role); it turns out they both might have brain tumors. Did someone say this is a romantic comedy? It is, complete with musical numbers (Kaas glides through a cozy cross-section of French pop music, including the theme from A Man and a Woman, Lelouch's '60s smash). The movie's all over the place, and it spins its wheels for the final half-hour, but there are... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Jeremy Irons - Patricia Kaas - Thierry Lhermitte Director(s): Claude Lelouch DVD Release Date: Released the 13 January 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
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The United States of Leland isn't a whodunit. The opening scenes of Matthew Ryan Hoge's unusual murder mystery make it clear that Leland P. Fitzgerald (The Believer's Ryan Gosling) is the killer. But why did he kill? Now that the deed is done, Leland is staying in a detention center. Everybody, but especially new teacher Pearl Madison (Don Cheadle), wants to know why he killed the mentally challenged brother of girlfriend Becky (Jena Malone). After all, Leland seemed to genuinely like the kid. Leland is just as confused (and can't remember committing the act), but he reveals more and more clues as he gradually opens up to Pearl. His estranged novelist father Albert (Kevin Spacey), meanwhile, just wants to spin another bestseller out of his son's story. Writer-director Hoge... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Don Cheadle - Ryan Gosling - Kevin Spacey Director(s): Matthew Ryan Hoge DVD Release Date: Released the 07 September 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
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If your're going to set a movie in the 14th cenutry, you can't have brighly lit interiors. That's one thing wrong with "The Reckoning," a "Name of the Rose" wannabe without the mystery or research behind it. Notice the advances of medical science, rules of evidence at trial, and burial, exhumation and autopsy practices, all non-existent at the time. Also note the ultra-arty editing and camera angles quite at odds with the sense of period. If by the end you have figured out the backstory, which is key to plot and character, it's of little use to you then.
A rogue priest (Paut Bettany) joins some traveling actors who decide to create a real-life play about a deaf-mute woman convicted of murdering a teenage boy. In rehearsal and performance, they discover that she is innocent... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Paul Bettany - Willem Dafoe Director(s): Paul McGuigan DVD Release Date: Released the 03 August 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Mike Hodges and Clive Owen, director and star of the stylish 1998 crime drama Croupier, team again in this moody, almost contemplative thriller about a former gangster, Will Graham (Owen), who returns to London after a lengthy self-exile. In a tragic coincidence, Will's brother, Davey (Jonathan Rhys-Meyers), has just committed suicide following a rape by a wealthy car dealer (Malcolm McDowell). Convinced there is more to Davey's death than meets the eye, Will--arguing he is nothing like his old, violent, urban self--slowly evolves again into a formidable criminal. Hodges and screenwriter Trevor Preston emphasize tone and spiritual inference over precise character motivation. Not everything that can be known about Will (especially his rocky psychological state and history with a... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Clive Owen - Jonathan Rhys-Meyers - Malcolm McDowell Director(s): Mike Hodges DVD Release Date: Released the 16 November 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
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