00s Movie Review - Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

Director: Michel Gondry
Genre: Drama/ Romance/ Science Fiction
Runtime: 108 minutes
Year: 2004
Starring: Jim Carrey, Kate Winslet, Tom Wilkinson, Kirsten Dunst, Mark Ruffalo, Elijah Wood, Jane Adams, David Cross

Description: When their relationship turns sour, a couple undergoes a medical procedure to have each other erased from their memories forever.

Review: What I would call this genre? Science Fiction/ Romance maybe? “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” explores the value of painful memories. Joel and Clementine are in a relationship, but when things turn bad they decide to erase each other from their memory. Director Michel Gondry and screenwriter Charlie Kaufman created a visually striking, dreamlike film.

Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet should not be matching, but they do. Perfectly so. Carrey shows a surprising subdued side of himself, while Winslet brings color and energy to the film. It’s a unique, sometimes chaotic film about the complexity of love and the resilience of the human spirit. It prompts reflection on whether erasing painful memories is desirable.

I think we can say the “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” can be considered a modern classic. I believe everyone who loves cinema should see this film at least once.

Rating: 5/ 5

10s Movie Review - Brigsby Bear

Director: Dave McCary
Genre: Drama/ Comedy
Runtime: 97 minutes
Year: 2017
Starring: Kyle Mooney, Mark Hamill, Jane Adams, Greg Kinnear, Michaela Watkins, Claire Danes, Beck Bennett, Andy Samberg, Matt Walsh

Description: After being freed from his life in an underground bunker, a man (Kyle Mooney) sets out to make a movie of the only TV show he has ever known.

Review: Twenty-something James’ life is all about the fictional bear Brigsby. Every week a new adventure awaits him, in the form of a VCR tape on his doormat. Brigsby Bear teaches its viewers life lessons, math and morals. James’ bedroom is filled with Brigsby Bear stuff and you would think a toddler lives there. But James doesn’t know anything outside the bunker he lives in: his parents and the Brigsby Bear TV-show.
“Brigsby Bear” is the type of film I love to watch the most: light drama with a subtle hint of comedy. James’ life inside the bunker is interrupted and he has to try and survive in the real world. But is it necessarily better for him?
The film has a high level of feel-good and you want everything for James that he is fighting for. Two world come together, instead of exchanging one for the other. Because why shouldn’t James introduce the people in his new life to Brigsby Bear. His transition to this reality can go much smoother this way.
In director Dave McCary’s film, there is no room for misunderstanding and intolerance. It never gets mean or hostile. And I loved that about “Brigsby Bear”. There is so much hatred already, it’s great to see a film without any of that nasty behavior.
“Brigsby Bear” is movie that probably not a lot of people saw and that’s such a shame. It’s a movie that shouldn’t be left unseen, I loved this film. Never lose the child within yourself.

Rating: 5/ 5

100 Movie Challenge 2017 - # 68: Happiness

Director: Tod Solondz
Genre: Drama
Runtime: 134 minutes
Year: 1998
Starring: Jane Adams, Dylan Baker, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Jon Lovitz, Jared Harris, Lara Flynn Boyle, Molly Shannon

Description: The lives of several individuals intertwine as they go about their lives in their own unique ways, engaging in acts society as a whole might find disturbing in a desperate search for human connection.

Review: Looking for a film about happy families, happy relationships and happy people. Then “Happiness” is not your movie. It’s a very misleading title. The people in this movie are anything but happy and happiness is not present.
We follow several people. Like Joy Jordan, who claims to be very happy but isn’t everything but that. She is super nice, but is humiliated and broken over and over again. Her sister Trish thinks she has it all, but she doesn’t know that her husband jerks off to teen magazines and likes young boys. And he openly discusses sex with their young son. And then there is Alan, a lonely single man, who calls random women and talks dirty to them.
I guess “Happiness” isn’t for me.

Rating: 2/ 5