Rushmore (1998)

USA
directed by: Wes Anderson
written by: Wes Anderson, Owen Wilson
starring: Jason Schwartzman, Bill Murray, Olivia Williams, Luke Wilson
comment: 13th February, 2017

Of all the films by Wes Anderson I understand this one the least, and that's after repeted viewings during a period of many years. My standard emotional procedure with his other films (The Life Aquatic, The Darjeeling Limited and Moonrise Kingdom) was usually that I liked them with my head after the initial screening, and only with some time passing I started to like them with my heart too.

But with Rushmore I didn't even get to the first phase. It's probably because I wasn't able to connect with the protagonist and identify what was the struggle he encountered and defeated (presumably, since I didn't get it.) His emotions are a complete and utter mystery to me. I can't tell a difference between his honest reactions and his manufactured, planned and acted out responses. Does he do what he thinks he should be doing or is he doing what he really wants to do? And here lies my problem with the film, because everything he does seems false to me, and it shouldn't, should it? And when a film gives me no sense of baseline at all, I am lost.

Gone With The Wind (1939)

USA
directed by: Victor Fleming, George Cukor
written by: Sidney Howard + Margaret Mitchell (book)
starring: Vivien Leigh, Olivia de Havilland, Rand Brooks
comment: 12th February, 2017

I have a big problem with empathizing, especially with Scarlett. I certainly do not agree with opinions that she's the most thoroughly examined character to ever grace a silver screen, as some say. But when I shake this mini-feeling of grudge off, I have to admit that I was rather impressed with Gone With The Wind.

Some matters connected to the war are being presented so roughly that if they were to appear in a realistic (I use this word because I cannot think of a better one) film, they would be very, very rough and Dagmar would probably cry. The most powerful moments for me were the crying flautist, the priest administering the last rites during cannon fire and the company of singing slaves marching to the front. The trouble is that they are presented almost as nothing more than mere background noise behind the main story. And the main story just doesn't seem too interesting to me.

I already mentioned my skirmish with Scarlett. When she's confronted with prudish society, wearing her crimson dress, I admire the dress, but not the character. When shes's flirting with lads at the picnic, I admire her resting bitch face from an aesthetic point of view, but not as what it means in her current situation. She does not show much character maturation during the course of the four-hour long story and she's having cathartic moments at points where I don't understand them. I have not fallen for charms of Rhett Butler either, and Ashley is criminally underdeveloped, both by the actor and the screenwriter. Olivia de Havilland is the bright exception. I think she was simply divine as Melanie, in fact she was so good that it didn't even bother me that the part was written quite foreseeably as "nothing more" than a complete opposite of Scarlett.

I will not venture into analysing moral grounds of the story, perhaps because I'm almost sure I don't have the proper erudition. But it seems to me that the film itself is slowly replacing things like moral grounds with social primness and love affairs.

The Wrestler (2008)

USA/France
directed by: Darren Aronofsky
written by: Robert D. Siegel
starring: Mickey Rourke, Marisa Tomei, Evan Rachel Wood
comment: 6th February, 2017

There must be someone who constantly wishes to kill oneself sitting inside Clint Mansell's head. I have no idea who sits inside Darren Aronofsky's head. And I think I'm partially in love with the one talking from inside the bleached head of Mickey Rourke. And I would be much happier if the whole film was only about him walking from place to place instead of this syd-fieldian story with periodical comings and goings of manufactured plot points.

The film's structure is very much affected by this (and in my eyes that means tainted (and now for brackets inside brackets: the fact that this is the screenwriter's debut explains this)) and it even leaks into the dialogue a couple of times. When he talks to the stripper for the first time and explains his plans, he says: "Who knows. I put on a good show..." And I'm already crying, because I'm so moved by the plasticity of his character and the hopefulness of his voice and her pierced nipples and everything. But then he continues by saying: "Could be the thing that gets me back on top." And I stop crying immediately and start being angry, because that's not the character talking, that's the screenwriter explaining his intentions.

And one last thing I would like to complain about is the daughter. For one thing, I don't think she's particularly well written - out of all the characters she's the one most obviously behaving the way she is because of the needs of the story arc and not because she's driven by a psychology of a well thought-out character. My second point is that Evan Rachel Wood doesn't possess the necessary talent or charisma to carry the daughter out of the obvious paper construct into the real breathing world.

All and all, I apparently like the idea, it definitely looks like Darren tried his best to suppress his ego, but personally I would hire Gus Van Sant to direct this kind of script.