Review of Safe (1995) by Phil G — 08 Feb 2004

Sooooo behind, I decided I would never get caught up if I decided to do a full entry for each of these. So here, I will have to be brief but I really want to get myself back on track and up-to-date:

[I][B]The Hudsucker Proxy[/B][/I]: Man, I loved this movie. The Coen brothers have made one of the most random comedies I've ever seen, and it is hilarious. Jennifer Jason Leigh is great as a 30's-style fast-talking reporter, Paul Newman makes a great villain (and has an amazing name to go along with it, although I forget what that is at the moment), and Tim Robbins is great as the loser who becomes president of Hudsucker Industries. Amazing moments include the Eagles cheer dance (won't even TRY to spell it out) and time freezing as an angel appears playing "She'll Be Comin' Round the Mountain" on a ukelele. Hmmm.

[I][B]A Fish Called Wanda[/B][/I]: Also funny, although not nearly as much so as Hudsucker. I adore Jamie Lee Curtis, she is a brilliant comedic actress and does her best work outside of [I]Freaky Friday[/I] in this movie. John Cleese is also very funny. Some of the best moments involve Michael Palin as an animal lover who accidentally ends up killing an old lady's poodles... over and over again. Yeah, can't think of much to say about this one.

[I][B]The Perfect Score[/B][/I]: Saw this at All-State, which was pretty much perfect because if I had gone in a non-crazy mood I would have absolutely hated it. As it was, I was at the least entertained by this movie, which is why I'm giving it a 5. Sure it was crap and had horrible dialogue ("Some questions don't HAVE answers"; "You look like a slut... I like it!") and bad acting from everyone except Scarlett Johansson, but it was fun! And the screenwriters went to such lengths to make the krazy gang of felons racially integrated! Gotta give them some credit. I have to say my favorite was the brainy girl's reason for not finishing the test: she got to a story problem on the math section about some woman who gets on the subway at midnight and was so consumed by wondering where this woman was going that she JUST COULDN'T FINISH THE TEST! Ahahaha, I love it!

[B][I]Safe[/I][/B]: I was really psyched for this movie, since I love [I]Far From Heaven[/I] so much and Julianne Moore is a goddess. At first the setup of a suburban LA housewife who gets inexplicably sick is fascinating; Moore plays it very well and Todd Haynes, the director, creates a really creepy atmosphere. But about an hour in the movie turns... well, boring. Moore's character goes to this weirdo clinic in New Mexico, and nothing happens. For the rest of the movie. Oh well. Redeemed from getting a splat by Moore's performance, which is good despite not having a very well drawn character to work with, and a very interesting premise (creepy allegory for the AIDS virus). But all in all, I was disappointed.

[B][I]Monster[/I][/B]: Also disappointing, in a way. I agree with everything Trudie said in her post about this movie. We have the same opinions! Charlize was very good, but I was less impressed with her performance than a lot of people. It seems like just because she makes herself sorta ugly and talks like a trucker she's going to win the Oscar. In some scenes she irritated me, but in most of them she was quite good, definitely worthy of a nomination if not the win (I vote for Naomi Watts). The movie as a whole was pretty powerful, especially in the scenes where Aileen kills her victims. These are very intense, and are probably the most well-done scenes in the film. I didn't care for the romance between Aileen and Selby, especially in the last half of the movie. This was in large part because of Christina Ricci, who started out sympathetic but quickly grew more and more irritating and whiny ("I wanna drive the carrr!"). The exception would be the shot in which the camera is on Selby on the phone, then pulls back to show officials recording the conversation. Absolutely heartbreaking. Still, overall I did not feel as much coming out of the movie as I did in, say, [I]21 Grams[/I], or even [I]Mystic River[/I]. This by no means a great film (oh Roger Ebert, why did you name it best movie of the year? Why?), Theron's performance pretty much carries the movie, but some parts of it are very good and it is definitely worth seeing.

There, caught up in one entry! Haha. Hopefully from now on I will be able to keep up with myself.