5 Razors

Marie Antoinette

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Marie Anoinette
  • IMDb: link

For a historical perspective almost every choice is head-scratching.  Kirsten Dunst in the lead role?  A supporting cast featuring the likes of Rip Torn, Molly Shannon, and modern pop music?  Many thought Marie Antoinette was going to be a disaster.  Well, let me tell you a little secret for those of you thinking Sofia Coppola was ready to stumble with her third film.  Not only does Marie Antoinette not fail, but Coppola produces one of the most original films of the year, in fact of our time.  Is it a traditional historical perspective?  No, it’s something much more interesting, that defies all expectations, and leaves us wondering if Kirsten Dunst might actually have given the best performance in films this year.

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A Shared Moment

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Chasing Amy
  • IMDb: link

chasing-amy-poster

I came into the View Askew Universe in the middle.  I hadn’t seen Clerks or Mallrats and didn’t even really know much about this filmmaker named Kevin Smith.  I was in college and over winter break a friend had recommended this film called Chasing Amy to me (thanks Mary!!).  She wouldn’t tell me much about it except that it was something she wouldn’t recommend to everyone but thought it was something I might like.

Back at school a month or two later I discovered that for two nights the university movie theater was showing that same film.  Remembering the recommendation and with nothing better to do I went and I went back the next night to see it again.  I can’t remember a film that touched me on so many levels and I’ve been a supporter of Kevin Smith ever since hoping one day he’ll find the magic he weaved in this film.  Over the years I’ve been entertained by Smith’s later work and enjoyed his two previous films but sadly none would measure up to the one so dear to my heart.

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A Moral Issue

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: An Inconvenient Truth
  • IMDB: link

An Inconvenient Truth is the single most important film of the 2006.  Global Warming is real and it’s happening right in front of us – despite what the nice man who sold you your Hummer lead you to believe.  In fact the signs are becoming so evident that the younger generation is looking to the older with increasing skepticism and questions on how they could let such a thing happen (and are still allowing it to continue).  This is the first of two important documentaries that looks at the problems of our culture and solutions that are both being ignored by those with deep pockets who want to squeeze every last red cent out of the Oil Industry and the planet before even contemplating change (the second Who Killed the Electric Car? will be out by the end of the month).

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Thank You for Smoking

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Thank You for Smoking
  • IMDB: link

“Death is easy; comedy is hard.”

“Satire is fascinating stuff…it’s the only thing that makes any sense.”

Big Tobacco is constantly under attack from all sides.  That’s where Nick Naylor (Aaron Eckhart) comes in.  He’s their chief spokesman who can spin any situation to his advantage making both himself and the Tobacco Lobby look good in the process.  How does he do it?  It’s a gift.

At the same time Nick is trying to help raise his impressionable 12 year-old son Joey (Cameron Bright), giving an interview to an attractive young reporter (Katie Holmes), fighting a Senate Investigating Committee headed by anti-tobacco Senator Ortolan K. Finistirre (William H. Macy) and trying to pay-off the Malboro Man (Sam Elliott) who is dying of cancer and ready to speak against Big Tobacco to the press.

Aaron Eckhart is the heart and soul of this film as everything rests on his performance, and he delivers an Oscar caliber performance.  Not only does he make Nick Naylor compassionate but he actually starts to persuade you with his arguments as well.  With a warmth and charm he actually makes you believe Big Tobacco isn’t really that bad.  Is it?

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Nowhere Man

/ / Home Video
  • Title: Nowhere Man – The Complete Series
  • tv.com: link

“My name is Thomas Veil, or at least it was.  I’m a photographer, I had it all: a wife – Alyson, friends, a career.  And in one moment it was all taken away, all because of a single photograph.  I have it.  They want it.  And they will do anything to get the negative.  I’m keeping this diary as proof that these events are real.  I know they are… They have to be.”

nowhere-man-dvd

In the fall of 1995 those words were first spoken as a legion of small but vocal supporters tuned into what was to be one of the best television shows ever made.  Nowhere Man follows photographer Thomas Veil who loses his entire life all in the blink of an eye for reasons he can’t even begin to understand.

In much the same way The Prisoner (check out that review here) dealt with the individual versus society Nowhere Man became a show about a man alone in the world unable to trust anyone or anything even perhaps his own sanity.  A man who clings to his identity and individuality, something that belongs to him and no one else, and refuses to give in and turn over the negatives losing that last true part of himself and admitting defeat to “them”.

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