All About Schmidt

“All About Schmidt” was a really interesting movie. I liked the beginning and loved the ending, but I think that the movie is about half an hour too long. I kept waiting for something else to happen. It was very hard to watch, partly because of the hot tub scene, but mostly because Warren’s life was so pathetic. I felt so awful for him, and watching his life slowly get worse was painful. I guess the ending of the movie wouldn’t have been so cathartic if Schmidt hadn’t spent most of the movie being miserable, but after a certain amount of time, I was ready to move on to the next step in the plot.

I thought it was interesting how the movie treated marriage. I don’t think that Randall and Jeanie will actually be happy together. Maybe their marriage will resemble Warren’s marriage to Helen. If it does, Randall will be the one “waiting on” Jeanie, but I think they’re both too good-hearted to descend to that. I loved their wedding scene though, especially Randall’s vow at 1:44:29.

I really disliked Jeanie’s character for most of the movie, and I still don’t really like her. When Warren asked her who was going to take care of him and she didn’t volunteer (at 0:35:40), I knew I was never going to like her. When she told him he couldn’t come stay with her early (at 0:53:20) I really couldn’t stand her, and when it became clear that she was lying about hr wedding plans being under control, that was the last straw. Even though, according to Jeanie, Warren was never there for her, it should have been obvious to her that he cared about her. She should have treated him with more respect. He even paid her bills!

I did really like how, when Jeanie told Warren he couldn’t come early to Denver, he lied to Ndugu and told him that Jeanie had begged him to come early but he had more important things to do. That did make me more sympathetic to Jeanie, because it showed how Warren was used to twisting the truth. Warren’s letters to Ndugu were my favorite part of the movie. I loved when Warren told Ndugu (at 0:59:10) to be sure and pledge to a fraternity when he went to college.

I think that this movie was so hard to watch because everyone’s afraid of ending up like Warren. I think that, deep down, everyone’s scared of marrying someone and staying with them for the wrong reasons, sticking with a job that eventually leaves them dissatisfied with your life’s work, seeing their child marry someone they don’t approve of, being widowed and lonely, and in general, living a pathetic life. Almost everyone has one or more of those secret fears. This movie makes the people who watch it get up close and personal with failure. It makes them acknowledge the possibility of living and dying without ever being truly satisfied with the lives they’ve lived.

I think that the movie makes an interesting point about the connections between people. It’s nice that such a depressing movie ended on such a wonderful note. I cried when I saw Ndugu’s painting. Strangely, I didn’t feel like the movie was an advertisement for charity work. Instead, I thought it emphasized the importance of any sort of connection between humans. Warren and Ndugu will never meet one another, and even if they did, they don’t speak the same language. They’re so far from really knowing one another, and yet, the connection between them was palpable. Warren can die peacefully, knowing that he made a difference in Ndugu’s life. I think that’s amazing.

The 25th Hour

This was an interesting movie. I liked it a lot, although I thought that the plot had some random parts. I still don't know if Naturelle sold out Monty. I also don't know how the movie ended. I like how it has a purposefully open ending; that made me think. I'd like to think that Monty and his dad did drive west, and that Monty eventually established a family there, but somehow I don't think so.

This film definitely had showed some clashing moral values. I would have expected myself to automatically dislike the drug-dealing character the most, but I really sympashizd with Monty. I thought it was interesting that other characters kept referring to how his money was earned through other people's suffering. The beginning of the film (where Monty is sitting with Doyle, around 0:08:00) was effective in that it showed how Monty really had profited from others' pain. It was strange to see Monty sitting with Doyle, a dog he went out if his way to rescue, ignore the desperate pleas of someone he used to deal drugs to. I even wondered once or twice if that guy was the one who turned Monty in, but I think it was Costa.

I didn't understand why, at 0:30:00, Naturelle never got busted for the drugs. The apartment was Monty's and hers, so I would have thought that she'd be punished too.

I have to say, I really hated the subplot with the teacher and the student. I thought it was completely unnecessary, overdone, and irrelevant to the film as a whole. At least the similar scenes in American Beauty are justified by the fact that they're important to the movie's plot. It also confused me to have all of that Ground Zero footage of the World Trade Center reconstruction--I didn't see what that was trying to prove.

Overall, I really enjoyed this movie. My favorite part was around 0:37:00 when Monty is cursing the city of New York. Even though the movie occasionally goes on irrelevant tangents, it's a great movie overall.

American Beauty

This was one of the most bizarre films that I've ever seen in my life. It was a crazy confluence of incredibly awkward storylines. There were so many awkward moments during which I was frozen, unable to bring myself to watch the movie until they passed. It did have some funny moments, some deep moments, and a lot of interesting social commentary.

Some of my favorite deep moments had to do with Ricky and the films he made. I loved what he said at 59:33 about filming the homeless woman who froze to death. I also loved 1:0:59, when he's talking about the most beautiful thing he's filmed. It's such an interesting clip to choose; it's like he's demonstarting a more urban version of the saying "stop and smell the flowers". Also, I'm a sucker for when teenaged boys actually let themselves cry.

The film's title made me think that the homophobia and the dysfunctional families that it depicts are social commentary about America. I was shocked when Carolyn hit Jane at 1:08:30 and when the Colonel repeatedly hit Ricky, but I thought that the film did a good job of portraying really dysfunctional households in an almost realistic way. Lester's sarcastic, articulate voice made the events of the movie seem much more realistic, because his voice was so natural.

I thought that Colonel Fitts' storyline was interesting and thought-provoking. I was completely floored at 1:41:27 when he kissed Lester. I thought that the point was to showcase homophobia in the military, and didn't think that the film would push the envelope further than that. I assumed that Carolyn shot Lester, and I think it's an interesting twist that the Colonel fired the gun. The actual murder scene was very well done and not overly When Carolyn hides her gun in the closet at 1:54:30, does she alread know that Lester's dead, or is she deciding not to kill him?

Overall, I really enjoyed American Beauty even though it was difficult to watch at some points. It featured memorable characters and storylines, and it made me reconsider the value of the American Dream.

Shawshank Redemption

I enjoyed the movie "Shawshank Redemption" more than I expected to. Most movies about prisons don't interest me very much, but this one caught and held my interest. I'm not sure how realistic it is, though. I wonder how many prisoners have ever been forced to serve a life sentence and then been found innocent? I'd like to think that most prisoners actually have committed their crimes. I also don't think that the prison is run in a realistic way. I don't think that guards would be so violent towards prisoners, and I'm not sure that the money laundering scheme could possibly worked as well as it was portrayed in the movie.

Part of the reason I enjoyed this movie so much was because it had so many funny and/or dramatic moments. A few of my favorites were Red's speech about prison life at 0:59:30, when Andy plays the record to the entire prison over the intercom at 1:08:30, and when Red makes his parole speech at 02:08:05. I also really loved the ending.

I want to discuss what happens at 1:03:42, when the prisoner who's on parole kills himself. It's ironic that he's released from prison because of good behavior, and that prompts him to behave badly for the first time in years so that he can return to prison again. Is it common for paroled prisoners to commit suicide? I know that some people in really bad situations commit crimes because they know that they'll have cells to live in if they go to prison, so I wasn't too surprised when he wanted to break parole and go back to Shawshank, but I was surprised that he chose to kill himself.

I also don't understand how Andy escaped so completely. How did they fail to catch him? It's not like the warden didn't know the name of the fake identity Andy had created. I thought that that was an implausible plot twist.

Shawshank Redemption gave me a glimpse of what life in prison is like. It's an engaging, suspenseful, dramatic movie. It made me laugh, cry, and appreciate my life. Any movie that can do all of that is pretty great.

Donnie Darko

This was a confusing, interesting, bizarre movie. I'm not sure I really understand what happened. After watching the end of the movie, I guess Donnie died when the "artifact" (aka plane fuselage) landed on his bedroom, and everything that happened in the film after that was...time travel? Even though it was confusing, I loved the movie. Parts of it, like the subplot with the girls' dance troupe and the part where Donnie tells his teacher to shove it, were hilarious. The idea of time travel was intriguing, and I liked the social commentary about the teaching methods in Donnie's high school.
I had a few questions about specific parts of the movie. At 1:38:57, for example, when the teacher talks about the phrase "cellar door"--is that really just foreshadowing? If so, that's a little annoying. I didn't like how this movie tried to tie everything into the plot in a meaningful way. Every twist has to have some deep significance.
Also, at 1:43:33--why does the doctor give Donnie placebos? Doesn't he qualify for some real meds? If they are placebos, then what was the point of the emotional scene where the doctor told the parents that she wanted to give Donnie more medication? I also didn't like how she kept trying to figure out if he believed in God. Donnie never once brought up God that I can remember, but his therapist kept trying to pin down his beliefs. Then again, I think she was probably right to tell him he was more agnostic than atheistic.
I completely didn't understand what happened in the scene that started at 1:52:55. What kills Gretchen? Is she shot, stabbed, run over, or all three? For much of the movie, it was so dark that I couldn't really see what was going on.
And my final, most important question is: did Donnie actually die when the fuselage hit his room? Did Frank ever actually exist? Was most of the movie a dream?During the movie, I kept expecting for Donnie to have one of his eyes cut out so that he could become the next Frank.

Although I didn't fully understand "Donnie Darko", I thought it was a moving, funny, and intriguing film and I'm excited to discuss it on Thursday.
--Sarah