Movie Club—Fargo

This month the Movie Club will be screening Joel and Ethan Coen's Fargo, starring Francis McDormand, William H. Macy, and Steve Buscemi.

Car salesman Jerry Lundegaard (Macy) dreams of becoming rich like his father-in-law, Wade Gustafson (Harve Presnell), by investing in a parking garage development. To do this, he needs cash, and the best solution he can devise is to have his wife Jean (Kristin Rudrüd) kidnapped so that he can collect the ransom money, knowing that her wealthy father would more than willingly pay it for her safe return. To do this, he hires two career criminals, Gaear Grimsrud (Peter Stormare) and Carl Showalter (Buscemi). But things go wrong from the outset, and as the body count rises the events spiral out of Jerry's control. Pregnant police chief Marge Gunderson must use all her police cunning to bring those responsible to justice.

The film has garnered universal acclaim after its release, with the reviewing duo Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel crowning it the best film of 1996. It has maintained its status, given its unique characterisations, offbeat dark humour, and exaggerated local colour.

The film will be screened on Wednesday 14 September at 6pm at Narellan Library, Corner of Queen and Elyard Street, Narellan. Tea, coffee, and biscuits provided, but BYO snacks are more than welcome. Stay after the screening to share your thoughts about the film and join in a discussion about the many darkly humourous moments in the film.

Film Review—Pulp Fiction by Quentin Tarantino

Tarantino’s pop culture fueled, non-linear, black comedy crime drama. Divided into several loosely interconnected vignettes, the film revels in the colour of L.A.’s dark underbelly. We have Jules Winnfield (Samuel L. Jackson) and Vincent Vega (John Travolta), two hitmen who are running an errand to retrieve a brief case for their boss, Marsellus Wallace (Ving Rhames). Marsellus in the meantime is discussing the fall boxer Butch (Bruce Willis) will be taking in an upcoming fight, as well as negotiating with Vincent to take his wife (Uma Thurman) out to dinner to curb her loneliness. Add in a couple of small time robbers (Tim Roth and Amanda Plummer), Vincent's dealer (Eric Stoltz), Jules’ friend who helps them in a tight situation (Tarantino), Marsellus’ "cleaner" (Harvey Keitel) and Christopher Walken as a Vietnam veteran bearing heirlooms, you have a film that celebrates its pulpy origins.

What distinguishes Tarantino is both his eye for phenomenal set pieces as well as his ear for highly entraining dialogue in all his films. It may seem trivial, spurred by the everyday, the mundane, but therein lays its value, and never more than in Pulp Fiction. The entire film can be viewed as a mediation on meaning and value.  From the petty importance of a gold watch versus the mysterious contents of a briefcase, to a pastiche Bible passage, to the significance of what the French call a Quarter-pounder with Cheese to only be told that in America names don’t mean anything. The dialogue creates an ironic cycle where things that mean nothing are given vital importance by the interlocutors, only to be relegated as meaningless by the fluidity of language, yet which in turn creates meaning for the audience, who then ponder the meaning of any of it.

An engrossing and richly vital film, Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction proves its place as one of cinema’s finest achievements, with flawless writing, perfectly executed pacing, and its colorful yet relatable characters, all of which gives it sensational rewatch value.
Andreas

Film Review—Birdman: Or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)

Riggan Thompson (Michael Keaton) once enjoyed fame as Birdman, a comic book film adaptation that garnered millions at the box office. He now wants to gain ‘respect’ and ‘legitimacy’ by writing, directing, and starring in an adaptation of Raymond Carver’s “What we talk about when we talk about love” for the Broadway stage. The production is in constant turmoil, and he enlists the help of Mike Shiner (Edward Norton), a respected stage actor, to help save the production. He has risked everything for this, and is constantly reminded that he is “not an actor”, as a prominent theatre critic states, but “a celebrity”.

Meta is at the heart of the film, from the casting of Keaton, to the interplay of the various actors and plot lines, to the realism/naturalism vs. artifice of art that unfolds within the walls of the theatre. It flirts with magic realism through Riggan’s ‘Birdman powers’, which is contrasted with the lifelike movements of the camera that moves through the cramped, gritty artifice of the stage and backstage. As well as the naturalism vs. artificiality of art, another central concern is between the showiness of Hollywood and the ‘integrity’ of Broadway. This adds to the ironic factor, the film presenting itself as a serious, Art-house style film despite its Hollywood origins. Both these strands are linked with the eye of camera, with the bulk of the film being one long, artificially pieced together take with the camera gliding through the constructed world of the stage and the backstage of the theatre, being simultaneously raw and real while entirely artificial. It contrasts the naturalism and integrity of the stage with the artifice and ostentation of Hollywood combined into one.

None of this is subtle, and the self-conscious irony that drenches the film can be fatiguing, and will (and has) put a lot of people off. But if you go past the somewhat haughty conceit of the cast and crew, Birdman provides a playful, involving, engaging, and certainly potent experience.

Andreas