Star Trek (2009)

One of those summer blockbusters I missed, Star Trek was as full of action as I anticipated, but not quite as good as I had hoped.

Ok sure, it's visually stunning. Planets turn into black holes, the fighting scenes are exciting, oh, and there's some time travel too.

The plot unfolds extremely quickly, leaving little down time to explore the characters, instead leaving most of this up to our previous knowledge of them in the original show. Watching Captain Kirk's team come together to form the crew we know from the early original series is good fun though. They also do go into some of the background of our two leads, Spock and Kirk...

... and like their friendship, some of the plot elements seem too forced. With time travel loops and concepts of destiny, we find our lead heroes in the same exact position over and over. The most forced plot device though was also the most enjoyable. The return of Leonard Nimoy - as Spock from the future - adds a degree of calm and wisdom that the rest of the film lacks. The original series was not all about action and speed, but about debating values and morals. Director JJ Abrams has created a Star Trek that's hip and sexy, which is good in many respects, but it's not the same.

Rachel Getting Married (2008)

It may seem inappropriate to over-think an Anne Hathaway film, but director Jonathan Demme gracefully allows for intellectual debate. With Rachel Getting Married, we may be talking about a kind of post-melodrama genre. We're talking about characters based on "drama queens" who learned their dramatic prose from melodramatic film.

Shot on handle-held camcorder, Rachel Getting Married reminded me of the Dogme 95 film Festen (Celebration, 1997), a Danish film about a family that comes together to celebrate a father's 60th birthday. The Dogme 95 film movement preaches a natural mise en scene and a bare-bones production process. Of course, no "Anti-Hollywood" film would feature Anne Hathaway as the lead, but it's the tone of this film that feels familiar to that Dogme 95 thesis. The setting, the plot, the way it was shot, and the stakes and urgency of the moment, feel pretty similar to Festen. Like Festen, Rachel Getting Married is a true, modern melodrama.

The main character of Rachel Getting Married is not Rachel but her sister Kym, played by Anne Hathaway. Kym's intent on stealing the spotlight of the wedding makes Kym appear despicable and completely unlikeable. Her actions are classless and her manner is, well, melodramatic. It's not that her problems aren't real or don't deserve honest consideration, but she's clearly a drama queen, and it's evident this is her way of getting attention.

The typical melodrama film is sore and overwrought with unbearable exaggerations of suffering and self-loathing. Even though Anne Hathaway's character fits that description, the film does not. As annoying as her character is, director Jonathan Demme doesn't let the character completely ruin the film, surrounding Kym with wonderful people and films them with rapturous energy. Not that it stops him from ending the film with a character painfully playing violin in the background. How melodramatic.

Tape (2001)

A one-room, one-act screenplay is converted into a low-budget movie produced by the Independent Film Channel. So why did I care? It's directed by one of my favorites, Richard Linklater, and stars just three people: Ethan Hawke, Uma Thurman, and Robert Sean Leonard (Dead Poets Society, Dr. House's only friend in the TV show HOUSE). I knew what I was going to get, and that's exactly what I was going for: an edgy film that uses dialogue to progress a story, and challenges me as a viewer.

It's also exactly what I got, plus more. Tape is not written by Linklater, but it feels like it. In fact, the directorial aspect, which Linklater does influence, felt very unlike him, though still well done. Instead of steady, fluid shots we get something more experimental: new perspectives, choppy cuts - the camera doesn't move much, but the angles change frequently. That dialogue is sharp as hell, and dares to go into places and spaces most films avoid to tread, like old friends discussing a possible date rape, and levels of trust amongst friends disrupted by betrayal. All of it unfolds in the dialogue.

The 'plus more' I refer to is the element of surprise. The screenplay is so smart in the way disguises are peeled away to reveal something entirely different than what one could have expected. I was also surprised by the intensity of the acting. Hawke is conniving, immature and unpredictable as a drunk, Leonard is steady and strong, and Thurman comes in as a lamb but leaves as the lioness, all of them riveting.

Most importantly, it made me think about my own life, which I always love about a good indie film. So powerful and convincing is Hawke that he doesn't just guilt Leonard's character into apologizing for things he never expected to, but also has me wanting to brave-up and apologize for mistakes I've made long ago. I wouldn't recommend this film to many, it's brave and edgy, but even though it features some famous actors it's not a mainstream feature. Actually, probably a good watch for those in theater.

Dangerous Beauty (1998)

This is not a film I would normally watch. Not because I'm opposed to watching romances or dramas, but mostly because these types of period-piece films don't really appeal to me. The courtesans and kings and the dated form of romancing that I don't have much personal interest in just doesn't normally intrigue me.

Dangerous Beauty is basically the sort-of-true story of a young, highly-paid 16th century Venetian courtesan/hooker who is convinced to start that line of work because her mother and grandmother did it, and well, she's really hot, so why not. I mean, I guess she had some motives involving a lost love and all that, but that's not really the interesting part.

Turns out, Dangerous Beauty is a pretty good film. It's very pretty, with a decent plot. Mostly though, it's a film with fun characters - and the viewer has fun as the characters have fun. It's entertaining how they battle with poetic rhymes and the lead female - played by Catherine McCormack - is so sexually presumptuous it's comical. Oliver Platt and Rufus Sewell play friends who compete for her love, and a young Naomi Watts plays a jealous wife. So, while I enjoyed watching, to me, it's still just a pretty film about pretty people doing meaningless things.

After Life (Wandâfuru raifu) (1999)

What a treat this was to watch. I watched After Life on a whim, based on a recommendation a friend made to me years and years ago, but the concept of the film as it was explained to me stuck with me. So when I randomly remembered it, I decided to check it out.

After Life is a Japanese film with a fantastic idea, wonderfully executed. It's theory is that when you die, you come to a dorm in a forest where you think about your whole life, and then pick one moment to relive for the rest of eternity. Once you've chosen, the people who work at this facility literally recreate the scene like a Hollywood studio might, and then films that moment for you to relive. It's simplicity and absurdity is nearly comical, and yet it feels earnest and true. It is shot almost like a documentary, and the setting so plain and simple that all former associations we normally have with heaven are immediately discarded.

The best part of After Life is the grim insight we get watching people consider their entire lives. The moments they pick are so overwhelmingly revealing of who they are - they hint to us what moments, sensations and interactions really mean the most to us when all is said and done. After Life is subtle but powerful. It's also a fitting Halloween review.

Everyone Says I Love You (1996)

Well, I am seriously running low on things to say about Woody Allen, and I'm only barely halfway through his catalogue! Everyone Says I Love You is an especially light-hearted film for Allen. It's a musical romantic comedy, yes a musical, in which Allen gives each character an opportunity for a solo singing part - for better or worse.

The cast is sincerely packed: Drew Barrymore (dubbed singing voice, the rest of the cast apparently actually sing themselves), Edward Norton, Alan Alda, a young Natalie Portman, Natasha Lyonne (who narrates) Tim Roth, Goldie Hawn, Julia Roberts, and of course Woody Allen. Julia Roberts is especially funny as a married woman wooed by Allen's "mystique."

Woody Allen takes themes about how we're all running out of time in life, and the frivolousness of the words "I love you," and makes them humorous and light, whimsical and comical. For all its whit and cynicism, as well as all the goofy over-the-top dance sets, the film is actually so light and so frivolous that's it's altogether forgetful. (Woody Allen count: 21 down, 18 to go).

Conversations with Other Women (2005)

I expected a romantic comedy of sorts. I anticipated Helena Bonham Carter and Aaron Eckhart to tease and trouble and fling around Manhattan, but Conversations with Other Women is a actually a relationship drama that is complex in so many wonderful ways.

The concept suggested to me is that Conversations with Other Women is a romantic comedy filtered through a cinematic version of Cubism. This Cubism concept, as it originated in painting at least, is about emphasizing multiple viewpoints of the same thing, and showing these multiple depictions of the same object on a single picture plane, making all relevant angles visible at the same time.

One film immediately comes to mind when I think of this concept in film: the Tracey Fragments (2007) takes numerous camera angles of the exact same moments and splices them and repeats them all over the screen at the same time, combining the effects of taking a panorama shot and shattering a mirror. Conversations with Other Women involves less angles of each single moment, but does something Tracey Fragments does not. Conversations shows us the present, but at the same times gives us glimpses, if not parallel moments, of the couples past, thereby giving us all the relevant faces of our characters in a single moment. The effect was not just creative, but also effective.

Incorporating this dynamic element also assisted the director to spotlight the complexities of the couples relationship, and why they are meeting again for the first time in a long time. Conversations successfully asks questions about the motives of infidelity and also about regret. This original film was truly a treat to watch.