The Princess Bride (1987)

USA
directed by: Rob Reiner
written by: William Goldman (+ book)
starring: Cary Elwes, Mandy Patinkin, Robin Wright, Peter Falk
seen: 29th November, 2017

I'm trying to imagine that I'm an american young adult who grew up with The Princess Bride as the ultimate from-the-heart-feel-good film who would see a czech from-the-heart fairy tale film for the first time. Would my feelings be similar to those I have as a czech young adult with czech fairy tales deeply in my heart, seeing The Princess Bride for the first time? Because, frankly, my TBP impressions are as follows: "My oh my, eighties must have been a terrible time" plus "a lot of that violence is both harmless and unwarranted" and mostly "all those people on the internet with their enormous praise for The Princess Bride created a colossally impossible to fulfil expectations on my part".

Or perhaps my nationality and my favourite films aren't as important as the saddening fact that I am no longer either a child or a teenager so all I can do is to laugh at the few crafty jokes and ask myself the philosophical question who I find more attractive, Robin Wright or Cary Elwes, because they are both really almost unbelievably beautiful, but the magic of the film itself leaves me completely unaffected?

Brokeback Mountain (2005)

USA/Canada
directed by: Ang Lee
written by: Larry McMurtry, Diana Ossana + Annie Proulx (a short story)
starring: Jake Gyllenhaal, Heath Ledger, Michelle Williams, Anne Hathaway
comment: 29th November, 2017

One of those film where I'm watching it and something just doesn't sit well with me, and I'm wondering what it is, because some parts I like a lot, like really like. And then I read somewhere on the internet that Gus van Sant was interested in directing it, a real gay with real experiences with films about people wandering about in nature, being silent and/or mumbling to themselves, and right after that I imagine how gorgeously would this nature and these people and their silence and speaking and inexpressible feelings look under van Sant's direction, and right after that I understand what didn't sit well with me, it was Ang Lee and his dull style.

-"Friend, that's more words than you've spoke in the past two weeks." -"Hell, that's the most I've spoke in a year."

Taxi Driver (1976)

USA
directed by: Martin Scorsese
written by: Paul Schrader
starring: Robert De Niro, Jodie Foster, Cybill Shepherd
comment: 27th November, 2017

I have a suspicion that almost every essential film of the New Hollywood movement gives me absolutely nothing. Taxi Driver is just another nail in the coffin, confirming my words. I learned about it in film school, I read how this is ground-breaking and that is raw and everything is career-defining and all, but when I'm watching it, I just don't see what is it about and what is going on, plain and simple, I don't see it.

I learn nothing about the protagonist and he goes through everything without any change at all. He doesn't get wiser, he doesn't get stronger, he doesn't cure himself, he doesn't find a connection with the world outside his head, he doesn't go really bonkers, he doesn't die. Nothing. Jodie Foster's character (and that goes for Cybill Shepherd as well) is present so little on screen that I wander why do people even mention her when talking about the film's reputation. Well yes, it's her life that changes the most because of the events of the film, but it happens off screen and we only hear an unreliable emotionless voice describe it in a letter. I don't understand this film.

WALL-E (2008)

USA
directed by: Andrew Stanton
written by: Andrew Stanton, Jim Reardon + Andrew Stanton (story), Pete Docter (story)
starring: Ben Burtt, Elissa Knight, Jeff Garlin
comment: 25th November, 2017

-"I don't wanna survive. I wanna live!"

I very much appreciate the immaculate and precise combination of probably the most cynical and the most naive stuff american creators can risk putting in a film "for children". Despite WALL-E being that kind of protagonist who is so nice that he's almost boring, one has to admire his ability to inspire and gently point the humans and robots alike towards self-awareness and self-realization. Perhaps WALL-E himself is not important so much as an interesting (or uninteresting) character, but rather as a personification of ideas explored in the film narrative. So I grew to like him and the film and of course I cried, mainly when Also Sprach Zarathustra started playing.

West Side Story (1961)

USA
directed by: Jerome Robbins, Robert Wise
written by: Ernest Lehman + Jerome Robbins (play), William Shakespeare (play)
starring:  Natalie Wood, Rita Moreno, George Chakiris
comment: 22nd November, 2017

Looking at myself in the mirror today, it's clear that I managed to overcome the pure undiluted hatered I had towards "classical" musicals (although from all those made before the year 2000 I still truly like only Jesus Christ Superstar). I'm not sure if that's a character development worth a pat on the back, but given that thanks to that I managed to quite enjoy an unbiased repeat viewing of West Side Story, maybe it is.

One of the undeniable positives of the film is the creative use of dancing as a means of communication and demonstration of characters backgrounds (and not just as a pretty, meaningless ornament - see my recent angry review of vanity in La La Land). Here, music and dance help the hooligans to engage non-verbally and with a clear message and universal understandability. And isn't that all we really want from films? It is for me.

I am also extremely satisfied by the dominant colour palette (purple, crimson, orange and turquoise forever), because often with films that are widely regarded as visually beautiful I get the feeling that their colours either turn my stomach inside out or are just simply tacky and illogical (such as the trendy desaturised blue grays - see for example Wan's horror flicks - or tawdry primer blues, reds, greens and yellows of Avatar and other mainstream "exotics" - that's one palette abomination that never stops to haunt me). West Side Story also helped me to discover the painter Robert Vickery and his work full of light and shadow, so a big thank you is due here.

The one thing I could ironically imagine this film without is the whole main Romeo and Juliet allusion, or should I say the two main lovers and their antics together. Their chemistry is weak and unconvincing, their characters are not particularly distinctive or interesting, their songs are the most boring parts of the film for me, and their love is not even the main point of the film in my eyes. I was at my happiest when it was a lively drama about all immigrants being equal in America, except when some are more equal than others.

Avatar (2009)

USA/United Kingdom
written and directed by: James Cameron
starring: Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Michelle Rodriguez
comment: 11th November, 2017

Originally, I had prepared notes for a very long and detailed list of everything that upset me about Avatar. But then I watched WALL-E, teared up a bit and realized that those are basically the same films and that where Andrew Stanton did everything right, James Cameron did everything wrong. I also realized that I, as a viewer, a self-appointed critic and, last but not least, a human being, should not dedicate so much of my attention to hateful stuff, but rather I should happily cry about things that are worth it and that's it. So I'll limit myself to describing only the most fatal flaw I see in this Cameron's creation, and of course that is the screenplay. Because a fundamentally flawed script  is the only answer to the question whey didn't I enjoy a film about my two favourite subjects: 1. "People, what a bunch of bastards." and 2. "Our civilisation is doomed."

Had Cameron built a functional dramatic and emotional arc for his film, I might have had (I hope that's the corret grammar) forgiven everything I found poor and shallow. But Jake's story bears no sings of thorough design and/or execution (because the authors rely on the weakest means of telling a story, such as training montages (the only acceptable training montage is found in Zoolader - "relax and kill the prime minister of Malaysia", every other training montage signifies weak storytelling and that's a statement I firmly stand by) or unnecessarily explanatory voice-over diary. And that's why I cannot forget and forgive the bad stuff about Avatar, but I am rather inclined to percieve even the few good things as belittled and clueless. So fare thee well and should you wonder what will I do while Cameron supposedly coughs up four more of these (was?! - german for what?!), know this: I'll be rewatching "Fantastic Planet" and "Princess Mononoke" for the seventh time.