Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
Starring Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet.
Directed by Michel Gondry.
Kilgore rates it: 7 (out of 10)
IMDb rates it: 8.7 (out of 10)

The Fifth Film by Charlie Kaufman, who wrote Being John Malkovich (brilliant), Adaptation (quite good), Human Nature (well worth your time, if you're unemployed and have no friends or hobbies), and Confessions of a Dangerous Mind (haven't seen it). Eternal Sunshine tells the story of the shy, colorless, self-hating Joel and his ex-girlfriend, the free-spirited, manic-depressive, irresponsible, don't-get-near-this-crazy-bitch-even-if-she-is-hot Clementine, who gets Joel erased from her memory after their breakup. Joel retaliates by going to the same doctor to get Clementine erased from his memory, and Kaufman lets the weirdness ride from there. To my relief, the weirdness here is organic to the story, as in Being John Malkovich, and avoids the self-referencing weirdness of Adaptation (which was quite good, but veered dangerously close to the masturbatory awfulness of Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill). There's a fractured timeline and a twist that you'll probably see coming, but that's okay. Kaufman weaves some interesting themes here, the kind you'll want to discuss over coffee after the show.


Pleasantville (1998)
Starring Tobey Maguire, Reese Witherspoon, Joan Allen, William H. Macy, and Jeff Daniels.
Directed by Gary Ross.
Kilgore rates it: 9 (out of 10)
IMDb rates it: 7.4 (out of 10)

I love this movie, with its bizarre and original premise: a modern-day teenage brother and sister get sucked into a 1950s sitcom set in the idyllic town of Pleasantville, where nothing burns, the books are blank, and the Pleasantville High basketball team has never lost a game. Writer-director Ross explores every angle of this concept, dribbling out little surprises as the film progresses, like the firemen who race to rescue cats from trees but don't know how to put out fires. Pleasantville asks, "Is ignorance bliss?" or, more accurately, "Are repression, simplicity, repetition, and homogeneity bliss?" I doubt I will give away too much by telling that the film's answer is a ham-handed yes. Still, Pleasantville is cleverly and humorously written, skillfully directed and paced, and features startling images and passionate acting performances. I liked Jeff Daniels' diner owner-cum-artist the best -- I felt his joy as he discovered his long-suppressed talent.

(Bonus points if you catch the John Madden reference.)

X2: X-Men United (2003)
Starring Patrick Stewart, Hugh Jackman, Ian McKellan, Halle Berry, Famke Janssen, James Marsden, Anna Paquin, Rebecca Romijn-Stamos, Brian Cox, Alan Cumming, Aaron Stanford, and Shawn Ashmore.
Directed by Bryan Singer.
Kilgore rates it: 7 (out of 10)
IMDb rates it: 7.9 (out of 10)

An inoffensive, entertaining superhero movie with some real humor and decent action.

Okay, enough analysis. Let's move along to the nit-picking!

SPOILERS! SPOILERS! SPOILERS!

When Charles Xavier concentrates on killing all the mutants, wouldn't he be concentrating on Jason, the mutant forcing him to do the concentrating? Wouldn't that interfere with Jason's powers, even more so than Storm's winter storm?

Wolverine takes a bullet to the head and goes down, apparently dead, but he recovers due to his powers of regeneration. Does this mean that Wolverine is immortal? What if you cut him into little pieces and dissolved them all in acid?

Pyro states that "the father carries the mutant gene." So just one gene controls mutant attributes? But people who suffer from genetic diseases such as hemophilia or Hodgkin's Disease suffer similar symptoms, so why does the mutant gene manifest differently in each person?

The X-Men possess a jet unlike any other on the planet. Jets are, um, sort of hard to make, so who designed it? Does Xavier hold a Ph.D. in aeronautical engineering? And who built it? Maybe the "School for Gifted Youngsters" is really an aerospace plant based on child labor. Also, where did Jean Grey learn her dogfighting skills?

Why would Wolverine turn down Mystique? Because of Jean Grey? She's with Cyclops, you asshole! Besides, Mystique is like a meta-fantasy come true: "Okay, Mystique, I want you to look like a cross between Meredith Baxter-Birney and Patricia Clarkson... nice, but a little larger in the nose and a little flatter in the chest, please... oh, that's good."

Why did Jean Grey die? Couldn't she have held back the water, or did her own power consume her? Why didn't she just lift the jet while inside it?

+posted by Lawrence @ 4/15/2004 10:44:00 PM