The Limey

Steven Soderbergh, 1999

IMDB

4/5

There’s a reason that film schools study The Limey. Its taking a simple premise and building a sophisticated visual construct around that premise. Something that amateur filmmakers wouldn’t be capable of doing. But someone like Soderbergh can. Soderbergh is one of the more prolific directors working, maybe the most. And I will admit right off the bat, I consider him to be a bit overrated. I am not a fan of all of Soderbergh’s films. While everyone raves about Out of Sight, I am not one of those people. I didn’t care for it. I thought Contagion was dull. I thought Gina Carrano’s distractingly bad acting killed Haywire, which felt too much like Out of Sight for me at times. In fact, in memory the two movies blend together for me in my mind. Girlfriend Experience felt empty and forgettable. And the Ocean’s sequels just lacked that same allurement that the first one had. But then there’s the original Ocean’s Eleven. One of the best remakes ever made. I saw it three times in the theater back in 2001. Side Effects was a really well crafted film, was really able to display some of Channing Tatum’s acting chops while giving Rooney Mara another avenue to display her natural abilities. Behind the Candelabra was an HBO release but that should have had a wide theatrical release. It’s unforgettable. That’s the thing with Soderbergh. You can rattle off a few of the films of his that you really care for and any director would kill to have those films in their filmography. He’s not out there to please everybody with every film. He takes risks and jumps around to vastly different material and that’s admirable.

You can really just boil down the plot of The Limey to a father wanting some closure for his daughter’s death. And Soderbergh is able to build this captivating, tense stylistic film around that premise. Precise editing, great performances, a hypnotic score with haunting piano, this sort of yellowish haze that seems to pour over the screen. It has remarks about social hierarchy and the whole wealthy class on the mountaintop. The complicated nature of a father and daughter relationship. There's even a subtle indictments of Hollywood and celebrity culture. In a sense the Limey is what Pierre Morel’s Taken would be in the hands of an auteur rather than an action director.

Big Daddy

(REWATCHED)

Dennis Dugan, 1999

Can I Stream It?

3/5

Sonny Koufax is a law school graduate aiming low with a job at a New York City tollbooth. When a child belonging to his out-of-town roommate appears at his doorstep, he decides to use the opportunity of fatherhood to prove himself to some of the disappointed people in his life. 

Big Daddy represents a period in time where Adam Sandler was still using his creative energy to star in films that had a simple construct but delivered a fulfilling story. And although it's a flawed film, it sets you up, pulls you in, and leaves you quite satisfied after it's over. He is basically the same character in every film that he stars in. The lazy guy, who has a niche talent with a short temper and manages to overcome an obstacle and surprises everyone in the end. Oh yeah, and he always gets that girl that he didn't stand a chance with early on. Big Daddy is of course no different. In fact, the flaws in this film may be more frustrating than those in Billy Madison or Happy Gilmore. Sonny and Kevin (John Stewart) manage to have this apartment that would likely cost upwards of $5000 a month. Kevin may be able to carry that weight, but he would likely not be willing to carry his college buddy who only can offer a simple tollbooth income. Well, maybe he's the nicest most generous college buddy in the world. Then there's the social worker Arthur Brooks, played by the great Sandler-centric Josh Mostel. Arthur is a bit too facilitating, simply agreeing on a handshake to quietly set up a family for Julian while he can play Dad for a few weeks. Sonny is also this lawyer in hiding who his working friends ask for legal advice at cocktail parties and he seems to know of the one case that they didn't. And there's the bad acting by Julian, played by the McGrath twins. Perhaps it's unfair to judge them harshly. They are kids.

With all the flaws, there is still something not only entertaining but endearing about this film. You like Julian. You're rooting for Sunny. You want to see it work out. If the film was that bad, you wouldn't give a shit. Perhaps that's the saving grace. The one redeeming element. You want Sonny to have this sudden successful evolution. This life-changing, maturity-forcing break. It's one of the last good films for Sandler. After this he seemed to devolve even further, although he ironically went on to deliver the best performance of his career in Punch Drunk Love (of course with the best direction of his career). Real-life fatherhood seemed to change Sandler. He continued to linger on that whole not horrible film, but not really that great trend for a few more films (50 First Dates, Click, Mr. Deeds). But then it really went south. Luckily, some of these not-so-bad films are preserved. At least we can file this one under Guilty Pleasures. 

eXistenZ

David Cronenberg, 1999


4/5

Allegra Geller is a video game designer who is very proud of the new incarnation of her virtual reality game titled "eXistenZ". While showing the game to a group of enthusiastic fans, a mysterious assassin interrupts the presentation. Searching for clues, she figures the only way to get to the bottom of who is after her is to go into her own game and see what she can find.

If The Fifth Element and The Matrix had a baby, it would be eXistenZ. This is a film that perhaps can only be created by Cronenberg. The film is very Cronenbergy; absurd visuals, bizarre stop motion animation similar to his oddball creations in Naked Lunch. At times the film has a very The Fly-like feel to it combined with a very cerebral and intricate story. While a film like History of Violence likely took Cronenberg out of his comfort zone, eXistenZ is a film right in his wheelhouse. It's satirizes humans obsession with technology, specifically with video games and the sense of escapism involved in playing them - but doesn't stop there.  Allegra (Jennifer Jason Leigh) is an enigmatic, yet accessible character. Because of the hours spent in seclusion developing her game, she lacks proper social skills and has an odd demeanor to her. When she pairs up with Ted Pikul (Jude Law) to search for the mysterious assassin (or assassins), it's really two opposites coming together. She is the quiet, awkward type and Pikul is the over-cautious extrovert. Jude Law, who is a quite consistent actor, was clearly still working on his American accent while working on this film (the process was quite humorous actually). Cronenberg does a great job of building up the anticipation of actually seeing the virtual world created by Allegra. When you do finally see it, it doesn't disappoint. You enter another dimension and you quickly indulge in the elaborate digital world constructed by Allegra. Just like a video game, the characters even have their A.I. limitations (ie. going off script to an in-game character may throw them off). The comprehensive story maintains it's pace all the way to the climax, and the ending is surprising yet very satisfying. This is a Cronenberg film that probably slipped through the cracks for a lot of people. It reminds me that he's probably one of the more under-rated directors out there. His unusual visual concepts can be compared to Lynch or Burton, and he doesn't just lean heavily on the visuals - with this film specifically he works off of a sophisticated screenplay that should leave viewers feeling satiated. Or at least the ones who like the weird, heady stuff.