reviews
1: Jaws
Jaws is a very impactful and deep film that shows lots of expression and different elements than any other movie. This film was very important to many people, and it became a big hit as soon as it was out in the world. Every scene is very important and shows a slight deeper meaning. Stanley Kubrick, the director, brings in different aspects of color in his film to capture the important pieces. For example, the beach scene where all the children go out in the water, there are certain things that people don’t take a lot of consideration of. One piece would be the yellow raft or board, while the boy wearing red trousers tells us that those two colors are very detrimental to what will happen later in the scene. During this part, you can already tell that the director is trying to pull the audience towards the boy, as the bright colors in the shot capture a clever sensation. While talking about the scene, other aspects can be shown to scare the audience, as this scene is supposed to be very tense. One aspect could be when the couple is yelling, as this can say to an audience that a climax is going to happen, but when we actually see the shot, a couple is just playing around. Stanley chooses to incorporate this and different people in the film to bring the audience more emotion and to capture something that isn’t actually that important. The film jaws also captures many shots, such as low, dolly zoom, and medium shots to show the setting, characters, and to bring more depth into a scene rather than keeping it in one shot the whole film. Kubrick’s expertise in the film industry is incorporated in this film, as the plot and storyline is one of a kind, and overall the film comes together very nicely and clean towards the end of the film. All in all, this film captures a lot of tension as the director captures effective shots, while also trying the best at making it a complete thriller. There's a lot of character development, and a great capture of how people in real life would truly react to this situation. Lastly, the effective role in music plays a heavy part in the film, as the film mostly focuses on the shark, so the film needed to effectively capture a similarity and connection with the animal and music that would follow his footsteps. In one of the scenes, you can see this play in effect as the shark is trying to grab a human, they first need to show angles from the shark’s perspective and as this is happening. Deep suspenseful music needs to be in the background to tell the audience that danger is in place at the moment. Jaws is a perfect capture of the real world as the setting is captured in a small town, with real characters with true personalities, while a mix of plot stirs with the intense addition of the shark making this film a lasting hit.
rj; school purposes only.
2: Lost Highway
David Lynch’s Lost Highway is a mesmerizing film that deep dives into paranoia, memories and identity, driven by its hypnotic and illusive cinematography. The film's main characters would be the Mystery Man, Fred Madison, and Renee Madison, as they are the most significant and connect deeply with the psychological storytelling. The films concept of color and its mystery with the connection of deep shadows, glows, and strategic contrasting colors are creating a world where reality feels constantly on the cliff of collapse, and that there are certain visuals that are created to have a deeper meaning, such as the house burning on fire, and towards the end you can see this unfold and recast into the fire getting swallowed right back into thin air, leaving the house normal. This could represent the dream coming and leaving, as the “mystery man” correlates with this house since towards the end it is morphing back to normal visions, telling the audience that it reversed and now is back into the more real world; representing the reverse from the dark subconscious of Fred Madison's mind. The director David Lynch, masterfully manipulates light, color and space as he can make a scene seem like we are devlving and watching through a actual dream,exploring dark corners of people’s experiences but also he strategically involves realism to pull slowly towards a deeper situation. The plain highways stretch into creating the film more dreamlike and uneasy, as this highway is shown towards the start and end of the film. The use of extreme close-ups and oblique shots adds to the disorientation, establishing the story’s themes of identity loss and psychological distortion/thrill. An example within the film would be when Fred Madison’s younger self, gets trapped into a room with different doors, unfolding a secret meaning with the other girl in the fake universe, showing certain cinematography that captures interpretation from the scene, without actually telling the audience the true meaning. This provides the audience with many answers and questions and can bring in a vast variety of views and how others created meaning. One interesting thing about this film is that it’s hard to fully grasp on the first watch. The story unfolds without clear answers or conclusions, making it feel elusive and open-ended. But with each rewatch, new details can be spotted, leading to deeper insights and fresh information that help uncover its true meaning in your opinion which is what the director wants. With its eerie visual language, unsettling camera angles, and meaningful contrast with colors and scenes, Lost Highway feels less like a film and more like a waking nightmare the more you delve deeper into the actual significant meaning within characters and the storyline. David Lynch perfectly replicates paranoia and unsettling imagery with his use of interpretation and visual effects, allowing the audience to bring in many opinions and creations of their own explanation.
-rj; school/works purposes only.
4: Rock and Roll Highschool
The film, "Rock and Roll Highschool," created in 1979 by Allan Arkush, is a story about a highschool class that is intrigued in a new upcoming genre of rock and roll and a new principal arriving to town, Ms Togar, that tries to command the students to stop their horrible music and chaotic behavior. A rebellious student named Riff Randall, stands up for herself and tells the teacher that she can't stop her students from listening to what they like, and she gets all the students on her side to stick up to this oppresive opinion and still goes on to celebrate the power of rock and roll with the entire class. Throughout the film, there are many obstacles the main character, Riff Randall stumbles upon such as trying to get to get tickets to the ramoes concert, having to make excuses to call in as sick, a lady trying to cut her in line to see them first, someone stealing her lyrics, and having the entire staff of her school getting her and their students to burn their vinyls and bring an end to their disruptive behavior. All together, the shots the director mostly used in this film would be medium, long, close up, and others such as pan, tilt, and visual effects. One scene that shows a camera angle would be used during the last half of the scene, where the students set fire to the school. And in doing so, the angle shown in this particular scene mostly uses the long shot to showcase the background and what is going on around the characters. Another shot used would be the medium shot, shown in the middle of the film where riff randall finally gets to see the ramones performing and the capturing scenes showed the band performing and really only showing their waist and above. An observation that mostly caught my eye would be the gym scene in where the pe teacher leaves the gym for a moment, and they all start putting on rock and roll music and the main character starts singing her own lyrics that she later shows to the band. This is one of my favorite scenes, as it is very eye capturing, has music, and visually is just very colorful and there is a lot of stuff going on. At the end of Rock n Roll High School, the students get fed up with the strict principal and totally take over the school with help from the ramones. It all ends with them blowing up the school, showing that rock music and freedom win in the end and in addition to that, the overall meaning can show that this new genre of rock and roll really has took a toll on the younger generation and that can impact their behavior and cause them to rebell against others who oppose their views which can cause destruction, and so people should really keep their opinions to themselves, cause you never know what your words and actions can actually do to others.
-rj
5: Fire Pozar
The short film, FIRE (POZAR) By David Lynch, is a ten minute film that captures many deep interpretations and uses only symbolic characters and items that represent the depression of the world. It shows his unique, dreamlike style. Lynch drew the pictures by hand and gave them to connect back to lots of deep and emotional music and sounds to capture what the director is trying to express, and to match the images. The film moves slowly and makes viewers think about big ideas like destruction, nature, and change. The film begins with a character walking through an empty, ruined place. Soon, the scene turns into strange and creepy images with fire, broken buildings, and moving shapes. There are no words or talking, which makes it feel even more mysterious and the black and beige animation is rough and adds to the feeling of chaos and things falling apart and th eoverlay of the images and characters can bring more addition to contrast with the characters and background. Underneath the images, the film talks about deep topics like damage to the environment, mental health struggles, and inner conflict. The fire in the film can mean both destruction and a chance to start fresh. Like much of Lynch’s work, this short film doesn’t have a clear meaning. Instead, it leaves room for each viewer to think about what it means to them. But some people can go and interpret some images, such as the character putting his hands on his face with a wide expression, can show a significance to the painting, "The Scream" and that can atleast tell the audience what is happening at the base, that is shown mostly through the film. The eerie music makes the film even more powerful. It adds emotion, tension, and a rhythm that fits the images. Together, the music and drawings tell a story through feeling instead of words. Overall, the short film is a strong example of experimental and deep art. It shows Lynch’s interest in dreams and the hidden parts of the mind, giving viewers a short but powerful journey through a strange and haunting world that can signifify both depression and world corruption without actually stating a meaning, which gives the views different ways on how they interpret or translate the short.
-rj
6. La La Land
The movie La La Land, with Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone is a very creative and exquisite film for all aspects of cinematography, plot, music, etc. The filmmakers introduce us to the film, Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling, by showing a shot of never ending traffic which will end up being the scene where they meet, and the film cuts to Emma, holding a piece of paper and has a very wise and uplifting personality at the start when she is first introduced. Rather later in the scene, Ryan Gosling is sitting in his car irritated by all the traffic, listening to jazz, and is waiting for the traffic to clear. Both Emma and Ryan have polar opposite features and this is shown through the scene, by comparing both Emma and Ryan's life through the inside of both their cars. This scene slowly fades through to them meeting up by Ryan honking the horn, and Emma lets go of her paper and is very confused. This makes her interested to see what he looks like, and then it cuts to them meeting at the cafe at last, where she recognizes him from the freeway. Overall, the start of this scene really brings in the audience as the scene itself is very different from any other movie, and instead of bringing in the characters from the start, the director chooses for them to meet later on, showing that it is fate that they met. Also in general, as the characters are polar opposites from each other, and later on in certain scenes they find out how different the other person is, this is appealing to the other character as this makes the other want to get to know them more for their likings, hobbies and their job. The movie is set up like this as if the two characters were alike, this would not appeal or bring in any interest as they wouldn’t have anything to talk about since they already might think they know each other well enough. So, the director brings Ryan and Emma as two different people, and the fact that they kept spotting each other in different areas pulls the story forward, and brings in plot points for both the characters that bring their relationship closer and closer. In the end, there is a very devastating point and most interesting point, as during the start of the movie, they were very interested in getting to know one another, but as they get closer and know more about each other, this builds a sort of annoyance and dissociation from one another, and they go their separate ways towards the end of the movie. At the very end of the scene though, it turns very emotional as they meet again after a long time, sharing empathy for one another and in the blue room scene, the filmmakers show them communicating through their eyes to show the characters that they miss and feel for each other throughout a long duration of time of not seeing each other. The director’s message is basically saying the right person at the wrong time, and additionally, maybe the moral of the story would be that hard work pays off, but can later on pull on some strings that can be painful, even when you pursue your dreams, there are sacrifices that have to be made from time getting spent on other places than another.
-rj
