Kyle Phoenix Reviews Silence of the Lambs

Enjoy your own copy below!

Killer Joe, Movie Reviews By Kyle Phoenix

 I've seen this movie twice within a few weeks.  The second time I went with a female friend and I warned her continuously that this movie was lurid.  By the time we were at the theater I had to upgrade it to vulgar.  This movie is intentionally all of that and slightly more.  But it's also a good movie.  It's virulently misogynistic and gory and each character is a sociopath in their own way, hence why this movie is NC-17. 

The plot is simple, Killer Joe played by Matthew McConaughey  is hired by Chris Smith played by Emile Hirsch to kill his mother for the insurance money that his slightly spacey sister Dottie Smith played by Juno Temple  is the beneficiary.  Their father Ansel played by Thomas Haden Church and stepmother Sharla Gina Gershon are also in on it.  But Chris lacks the money upfront to pay Joe so Joe takes Dottie as a sexual retainer.  Chris though has an incestuous flavored relationship with his sister and eventually the insurance scam unravels and the mutual chauvinistic possessiveness erupts into all out warfare within the family.

We want the characters to be simplistically "stupid" but they all act out of their motivations and even Ansel, the father who's willing to forsake everyone else stays to the side like a smart rabbit, who knows he can't beat any of the tigers but can survive if he aligns properly.  Sharla and Dottie are constantly degraded by the men around them though they have an affection and caring between the two of them that may work out in the end.  Chris, as the drug dealing, money owing, sister pimping/incestuous matricidal brother is so grimy and yet pathetically sad as he explains how his life has fallen apart.  We get to see in a brief scene with him and Killer Joe his simple humanity, his desire for a life of some value and how circumstance and happenstance robbed him and forced him back into the dysfunctional world he's grown up in.

The question the audience is left with though is how naive is Dottie.  In the end, originally a sexualized object by Joe, her father, her brother, she makes her move for liberation.  She even warns out of nowhere earlier in the film that no one should make her "mad".  She's even good with having her mother killed.  On initial viewing Dottie seems like another victim of all of these out of control people but by the end, no money in sight for any of them, Dottie takes advantage of a chaotic situation as well as uses everyone's underestimation of her to lash out at them.  The most pivotal scene is at the end when Dottie's finger goes from outside of the finger hole to within at the gun trigger, her target lined up.  Does Dottie fire?  I think she does and with that, there's a pyrrhic victory for the women.

Why pyrrhic?  Because Gina Gershon,a  good actress, a pretty woman, goes to the edge of morality and viciousness and brutality in the film.  She's forced to perform the most outlandish and graphically humiliating sexual act, which besides the constant nudity of all the major stars, garners the NC-17 rating.     

It's shocking and startling and there are only two choices: go on the roller coaster and laugh in shock or get up and walk out.  Stay, I suggest, watch the art that this film, directed by William Friedkin and written by Tracy Letts, based on his play.   With a running time of 103 minutes the rated NC-17 (for graphic disturbing content involving violence and sexuality, and a scene of brutality) isn't a date film but you'll never forget having seen it.  And McConaughey, a very good, generally likable actor will probably be a shoe-in for an Oscar nomination from this and Magic Mike.


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The Last Seduction, DVD Review

I can't say enough about this film.
It is my favorite. It's such a favorite film of mine that when I came to New York and didn't have a "drink" when going to bars, I ordered a Manhattan like Bridgette and to this day I still drink it.

 What makes this film so good to me is one, she's smart and two she doesn't pull back. It would've been easy to have her chicken out and go good girl at the end. But Bridgette  has her eyes on the prize from beginning to end. Whether you consider her the Devil or a tarnished angel she doesn't stop.
Also she thinks.
It’s so wonderful to see someone sit down and have to figure out a problem, to have to plot a manipulation, to leap at opportunities that may mean nothing and MAKE them mean something.
I like the fact that she plays every card in the deck: sex, homophobia, lust, and race, anything it takes to in a sense stay alive.

Now this may seem like a thoroughly evil person but there points in this film where Bridgette  does "crack" or try to really be herself. There's the one where Mike asks who she is, what she's doing and she tries to explain to him about her husband and the money while playing pool. He doesn't take her seriously. For two reasons, he doesn't think she's that smart or capable and he can't fathom himself doing it either. One thing I've learned is that the smarter you see yourself. The more capable you feel about yourself the easier it is to understand others even if their goals and methods are opposed to your own. It takes smarts to see smarts.

There's also the point where Bridgette  has been forced to fake the accident with the private investigator. Before she leaves and is caught, she tries to have Mike comfort her, to really listen to her. But two things have happened. She's played the game so well that her sincerity comes across as false and two; he doesn't want someone without secrets. Who doesn't have the upper hand? Some people are drawn to being destroyed by others because it validates their existence. If someone would take the time to destroy you it means that you exist, that you have meaning. But Bridget does crack here, she's ready to fess up and be with Mike as an equal and he blows her off to play hockey. Her voice even cracks and in some ways we can see how Bridgette  is the way she is because no one is a race horse like she is. That she is tougher because the disappointment of others has made her tough to begin with. That honest emotion I can relate to and it's why I like Bridgette   If she was just uncaringly evil, she'd be no fun but you understand why Bridgette  is the way she is if you look at when she lets her defenses down.

Above all else she is the consummate chess player, understanding that the game is never to the pieces your playing with but to destroying the other side. Being cut off from running because of her husband's debts and her desire NOT to run has boxed her in into not so much fighting in the way that men or women perceive fighting but the way thinkers do. A thinker knows that everything and everybody is a weapon or a defense in a fight. That each word is a calculation, that each action should mean or be about something and seeing that ability on screen is what makes this film on my top 3 favorite films of my entire life.

And I've seen tooooooooooooo many movies to say that lightly. Another film on that short list is Fresh.


Thank you for reading,
Kyle Phoenix
Email: kylephoenixshow@aol.com
Website: http://kylephoenixsite.com/
Blog: http://kylephoenixshow.blogspot.com/2012
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The Final Fantasy, DVD, Animated Movie

I was very impressed with this movie, it coming on the heels of having seen the Matrix: The Osiris with Dreamcatcher in theaters. There were of course technical/graphic image things that were similar to the advanced displays of the Matrix short, made years later.  But this actually went into having a plot and humanization (if such a word exists). The main deficit to this form of design seems to be the effort to make younger people appear perfect. Dr. Sid tends to look the best because he has wrinkles and frown lines. That’s mainly my visual critique. It’s apparent that this computer rendering is much cheaper than physically trying to create these images and can be done on a much grander scale.

The plot was pretty good too. Though I still don't get the Spirit Hunt----that part of the metaphysical science is left a little vague. And the fact that their hypothesis is doubted is honestly right. How the spirits of some animals and vegetation on Earth are special versus say those of other living people is not fully answered so that this group of people can risk their lives. The concept of the Phantoms being a cosmic accident and not an invasion was original but I thought it a little slow that no on else thought of them as ghosts beforehand. What I'm mainly saying is that a lot of these plot points took a back stage to the computer elements and most importantly there being a sense that more than a handful of people on the entire planet had the ability to think. That made the overall plot a little simplistic to me but I still enjoyed it.


Thank you!
Kyle Phoenix
kylephoenixshow@aol.com
http://kylephoenixsite.com/
Thanks and enjoy! You can Like Us/Share this post on FaceBook, LinkedIn, Google+ or Follow Us on Twitter! Don't forget to watch The Kyle Phoenix Show on Channel 56 (Time Warner), 83 (RCN), 34 (Verizon) and the Thursday/Friday 12am/midnight simulcast on http://kylephoenixsite.com/

Tears of the Sun, DVD Review

I was deeply moved by this movie. Here in NYC its 10 dollars to see a movie and I saw this twice and bought the soundtrack----a [big]investment. I do like Bruce Willis as an actor and Monica Belluci who I first saw in Under Suspicion, here and now in the Matrix Unloaded is a total knockout, not just because she's pretty but because you can see her thinking. Much the way Catherine Zeta-Jones acts in films ---you can see even if this person is pretending they are thinking about this scene as if it is reality and their characters are infused with the hesitation, the deliberation of intelligent people who don't blurt all they know or suspect.
Willis as always is yet another shade, another degree, another facet of an accomplished actor who is striving for a versatility that is ingratiating.

The film was incredible because it so accurately dealt with the murky complexity of war. Suddenly on a simple mission to snatch 4 missionaries out of a hospital village that is in the line of the now killer spree military, Willis's small force finds themselves with loads of moral dilemmas. Belluci won't go without her patients and three of the missionaries refuse to go at all so strong is their commitment to the African people they tend. To get them moving Willis lies to Belluci and then can't live with the lie when they leave behind dozens of helpless people. What drove me in this film is what would I do, what is the military's responsibility, what is a human being's responsibility to another? Do we just abandon each other on "orders" or political ties that may not even touch us personally or is every life valuable?

When this film came out, the Iraq attack was on and people were literally screaming in the streets about kill, kill, kill.

War is an abomination. It is literally the raping of the human race as an action to take against another. And yet we not only do it but produce it as entertainment. What made this film stand out, I generally don't go to war films nor gangster films, is that the very message of this film is about the people who are caught in between all of this drama. People who are just drinking a glass of water, raising their families, tending their fields.

The film also demands a conclusive answer to a central question, a presupposition of war----you must be able to kill women and children. Put a gun to their heads or allow them to die. And there comes a point when the soldiers can not do this, nor watch it be done. That's what makes this film stand out and why I heartily recommend it to people who don't get off on war, on gore, on watching the pantomime of people dying.

I cried during the movie because I knew that a few thousand miles to the East people, just normal folk, were being slaughtered much as the people in the film were, simply for being caught between two armies/ideologies.

Akosua Busia plays one of the rescued villagers, she was Celie's sister in the Color Purple and did a heavy re-write on Beloved the screenplay. She is a commendable actress though her part here has to embody such positive African sentiment that it does seem maudlin, or too "cloying" of gratitude. She is an excellent actress and the best twist of all is how Belluci's character makes it clear, without regards to race, that these are HER people and she will not be safe if they aren't safe.  And it soon becomes apparent during the film that she will even lie to the American soldiers to protect her adopted people. That form of not simply heroism but diverging from the norm stance----a character willing to die, to put it all on the line without even having a weapon for the racial "other" is wondrous thing to see.

I also recommend the soundtrack which is moving and haunting and foreboding and as lush as the jungle these people move through. I enjoyed Antoine Fuqua's direction, particularly the African military being portrayed as a force so intent, so massive that literally the only thing that saves anyone from them is a deux ex machina.  The title Tears of the Sun literally refers to the final ten minutes of the movie when the whole world has gone to hell and a battle breaks out that can't be won.  I also like a good chase film, where someone is being chased and must compensate for the fact that they are outnumbered or outgunned.

This is a classic film and I don't use that lightly----particularly for the timeframe that it's come out in.

Thank you!
Kyle Phoenix
kylephoenixshow@aol.com
http://kylephoenixsite.com/
Thanks and enjoy! You can Like Us/Share this post on FaceBook, LinkedIn, Google+ or Follow Us on Twitter! Don't forget to watch The Kyle Phoenix Show on Channel 56 (Time Warner), 83 (RCN), 34 (Verizon) and the Thursday/Friday 12am/midnight simulcast on http://kylephoenixsite.com/

Kyle Phoenix Review of Swordfish Movie (John Travolta, Halle Berry, Hugh Jackman)

There's lots of style and flash in this film. A topless Halle Berry---I really didn't see the hoopla over her boobla-------and some interesting special effects with computers and graphics but ultimately it’s a Mission Impossible episode gone on too long. John Travolta over acts----hopefully on purpose. Halle Berry plays sultry and shocked---two notes, and Jackman plays reluctantly moral. Everyone is "playing" something and why is that?  I think it's because Dominic Sena's direction is really great here. The use of slow motion and angle shifting is really inspired and it's very difficult to create balance. Great direction may mean lackluster acting or a shoddy script. It takes a lot to bring all three of these elements together into a synthesis. It’s a little scary when I actually liked the special effects more than a film.