Jonas Ferry’s blog

Patton (Franklin J. Schaffner, 1970). The war-obsessed general Patton does everything to get to command forces in battle during World War II, but have a hard time dealing with politics. It’s nice to watch someone so completely enjoying what he’s doing, and it’s fun to see Patton as an example of the warrior poet. His poems are available online if you search for them. [8/10]

The Quiet Earth (Geoff Murphy, 1985). A man wakes up a finds himself being the last person on Earth. This is science fiction without the ray-guns and the furry bears on forest planets, but leaves it ambiguous whether things are actually taking place or if it’s a symbolic struggle between the main character’s masculine and feminine side. [8/10]

Repo Man (Alex Cox, 1984). A young delinquent is tricked into “repossessing” cars and selling them on, but it all turns dangerous when a car with a deadly government experiment in the trunk is stolen. I liked the nice 80s feel and the story is good up to a point, but when it turns out that the fool no one listens to is right after all it all feels a bit obvious. [7/10]

Flightplan (Robert Schwentke, 2005). An airplane engineer loses her daughter on a plane, and no one seems to believe the daughter was even on the plane. It’s nice to see a competent female engineer as the main character, but the story seems to go in straight lines between each turn which makes you just sit back and await the next twist. [6/10]

Kontroll (Nimród Antal, 2003). A bunch of subway ticket inspector in Budapest tries to compete against each other, fall in love and catch a killer. I like these urban-mythic films, this one with a Lynch-like ending that I feel I should give more thought, and the setting for this film is just spectacular. [8/10]

The Five Senses (Jeremy Podeswa, 1999). Intertwined stories each related to a different sense, mostly about different forms of love and how to get it. Films with multiple interconnected stories sometimes feel forced, but this one managed to keep them related, but not tie together each different strand. Had the guy from story A met the girl from story B at the end that would’ve dragged the impression down, but The Five Senses avoided that trap. [8/10]

The Godfather: Part III (Francis Ford Coppola, 1990). Michael Corleone are old and his children are adults, but he still has troubles staying legit. This is my least favorite film of the three, but it’s still a masterpiece. [10/10]

Alice (original title: Neco z Alenky) (Jan Svankmajer, 1988). The story of Alice in Wonderland told with a live actor and a lot of animated puppets. This is something to show a kid to scare it like nothing before. The rabbit is scary, just look at the image in Helena’s review, and Alice is really assaulted by these strange creatures. Some say it’s the version closest to the novel, but I haven’t read it. [9/10]

We were also treated to Darkness/Light/Darkness (original title: Tma/Svetlo/Tma) (Svankmajer, 1989) directly after Alice. It’s an animation of formless clay turning into a man. It’s fun. [8/10]

Brick (Rian Johnson, 2005). Classic film noir transported to a present day high school, with everything revolving around bricks that might be worth killing for. This is really, really good. The transition is seamless, and it’s fun to watch the schoolyard tough-guys and the fatales who borrow their parents’ house for parties. But it’s not a comedy, and the themes explored are quite dark. I first read about the film in Judd Karlman’s blog and realized it was something me and Helena couldn’t miss. Judd, among others, noticed the dialog, and since the author/director has put the shooting script online for free you can have a look for yourself. Or better yet, see the film. [9/10]

Arsenic and Old Lace (Frank Capra, 1944). A just-married man finds out his aunts have a habit of killing old men. I really didn’t care for the upbeat tempo or Cary Grants silly character, but what saved the film was his nemesis, the unwanted and evil brother Jonathan. [7/10]

Mortimer Brewster (Cary Grant) and his two aunts from Arsenic and Old Lace (1944).

Ukkonen (Jalmari Helander, 2001). A man working for a shady company is exposed to deadly radiation, but lives and wants revenge. A Finish independent short that’s remarkably well-made for, what I guess, no great budget. [7/10]

The Brown Bunny (Vincent Gallo, 2003). Something has happened to a man that travels cross country in search of his girlfriend that leaves him incapable of sustaining relationships. This is similar to Buffalo ‘66, which is better than this, and has the same brooding loser of a main protagonist. Very beautiful, with long sequences of just driving around in a car. I understand those long sequences were impossible long in the film festival version and later cut, which still leaves enough in to feel like you join the man on his journey. [8/10]

Spider-Man 2 (Sam Raimi, 2004). Dr. Otto Octavius works on an incredible power source that, incredibly enough, malfunctions at the main presentation and transforms him to the evil genius Dr. Octopus. A well-made fast-paced action movie. [7/10]

Silent Hill (Christophe Gans, 2006). When a young child is having nightmares and walks in her sleep, her mother decides to make her confront her fears by taking her to the abandoned and monster-infested town of Silent Hill. It’s cool that all major roles are female and that the town’s based on the real, and bizarre, town Freeway (Matthew Bright, 1996). A young woman runs away from home and is given a lift by a man who turns out to be a killer. A very strange film alternating between horrific and comedic. [7/10]

The Godfather: Part II (Francis Ford Coppola, 1974). Michael Corleone is the head of the family, but struggles with treachery from within the family. The flashbacks to Vito’s, played by Robert De Niro, entry into underworld crime is my favorite part of the trilogy, and the sequence with the religious procession gives me goose bumps every time. Watch out for the oranges! [10/10]

X-Men: The Last Stand (also known as: X3) (Brett Ratner, 2006). A cure is developed for mutants, and the reaction of the mutant population is divided. A not-so interesting action-movie. I’m all for Ian McKellen getting fame and money, but he could spend his time on better movies than this. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (Tobe Hooper, 1974). A bunch of people go on a trip and end up in the hands of a chainsaw-wielding maniac. I suppose this is what happens to movies with only the shock value going for them, they become obsolete. [4/10]

The Asphalt Jungle (John Huston, 1950). Stealing diamonds is a lucrative business if you’re a German master thief just out of jail, as long as you choose the right partners and keep focused. A good film noir of the Hoodwinked (Cory Edwards, 2005). Someone is stealing all cookie recipes in the forest, and Red has to help her extreme-sporting grandmother to keep them away from the bad wolf. There are moments that are genuinely funny, the songs are ok and it’s always fun to see the old classics reinterpreted. [6/10]

The detective in front of the painting of Laura from Laura (1944). Twin Peaks, anyone? The dead women in the portraits even share names.

Laura (Otto Preminger, 1944). Laura is a woman who mesmerizes the men who come in contact with her, even after her death. Very fun to spot references from Twin Peaks (”Laura”, “Waldo”, the picture of a dead woman), and a nice mystery story.

Strings (Anders Rønnow Klarlund, 2004). A king is forced to commit suicide and it’s up to his son to set things right, with the enemies trying to seize the power. An animated fantasy doll film from Denmark, where the strings attached to the dolls have an existence and meaning in the world, that’s very interesting and cool.

Murder, My Sweet (Edward Dmytryk, 1944). A private detective accepts two seemingly unconnected cases that turn out to be more connected than he first thought. Great film noir, with Dick Powell portraying the detective Marlowe as Raymond Chandler wanted him to be: a somewhat insecure guy that overcompensates his insecurity with machohood, especially by commenting getting beaten with sarcastic wit.

Broken Flowers (Jim Jarmusch, 2005). Bill Murray’s character Dan Johnston receives a cryptic letter that mentions an unknown son, and decides to go looking himself. A low-tempo story of a man who visits his old girlfriends and finds out what has happened to them, and gets a chance to compare how his life could’ve turned out with how it actually is.

The Godfather (Francis Ford Coppola, 1972). The saga of the Corleone family begins, and we follow Vito Corleone (Marlon Brando) and his sons as they try to keep control over their parts of the illegal underworld of New York. I’ve seen the Godfather films many times before, but Helena hasn’t and no it’s time. I never grow tired of them, there are so many different stories that intersects that you always see something new and significant.

The Woodsman (Nicole Kassell, 2004). A former child-molester lives under probation and tries to stay out of trouble within a society that doesn’t forget crimes against children easily. A hard topic, and a film that walks the thin line between being too forgiving and too judgmental without falling to either side.

The Pledge (Sean Penn, 2001). A soon-to-be-retired cop promises two parents to find their kidnapped child or suffer some vague, but bad, consequences. Part of it was pretty cool, but it messed up the ending by falling back on pure chance.

Tokyo monogatari (Yasujiro Ozu, 1953). An elderly couple visits their children in Tokyo and is received differently by their families. Very nice film on human nature and respect to your elders that seems relevant still today.

Whisper of the Heart (Yoshifumi Kondo, 1995). A young girl is inspired by a boy who wants to be a violin maker to follow her own dream. A typically cute Miyazaki, a story well told..

Finding Forrester (Gus Van Sant, 2000). A young black man befriends an aging white author and gets encouraged to take up serious writing. A typical film that’s good without being great, with minus points because of the cheap trick of hiding the characters’ writing read out loud behind bombastic and emotional music instead of actually letting the audience hear it and judge for themselves.