Random Review of the Week(6/20)
This is a new column that I'm going to be starting right now. I will try to make it weekly, but if it veers from that, oh well. In it, I will be reviewing a random movie, a random CD, and that's pretty much it. The only requisite for it is that I need to have had some contact with it within the week of review. Without further ado, on to the review
This week, I will be reviewing:
The Usual Suspects
The Usual Suspects holds a special place in my heart, and I believe it always will. When I first saw this movie, I was only 13 years old, and this was the first movie that I saw that made me realize how much I love movies. The moment this movie started to the second Kevin Spacey says, "And like that-He's gone." I was in a trance. The way this movie reveals information to the audience is remarkable. Nothing is left to chance, nothing is out of place. Every camera angle, every line of dialogue is carefully scripted to build up to those last few minutes. A lesser movie would have realized it had itself backed into a corner and thrown together an ending. The ending we think we are getting when Agent Kuljan says that Keaton was Keyser Soze is the lesser movies ending. Had we ended there, it might have made sense, but we wouldn't have felt that pay off. It shows us some scenes of Keaton perhaps being Soze, but a lot of these are not shots from the movie, just forced shots of Keaton because Kuljan is forcing this ending. He wants it so desperately to be true, and for the moment, we buy it. But it is the moments after this, when Verbal leaves the office, that this movie becomes a classic. When Kuljan starts going over things in his mind, and then noticing the wall of lies that Verbal has built, we are never shown any forced shots, because there is no need for them. Upon watching this movie again, everything is in Spacey's performance. You can see him reading everything and building his story up. The most telling moment in the movie, to me, is when Kuljan is going off about how Keaton was the mastermind and Keaton did this, and Keaton did that, and all we see is Spacey's face and the smile and nods that he does show us a man who is thrilled that this idiot cop is buying everything he is saying. And as soon as Kuljan comes into shot, Verbal's face tightens up like he is learning something new for the first time. He is playing everyone like a fiddle from the moment you see him to the very last frame. And we all buy it.
And it isn't just Spacey who is mesmerizing in this movie, but literally every character that says anything in this movie is fantastic. All of the suspects are perfect in their part, forming an odd family of ciminals. Even Stephen Baldwin, who is pretty much shit in everything else he has ever done, is fantastic. And Benicio del Toro will flip you for real in this movie. This was the first part I ever saw him play, and it is so different from everything else he has ever done. But following his career, most roles of him are different from each other. He refuses to be type cast and continues to do phenomonal jobs in everything he is in. Dan Hedaya also does a good job, and I believe he should do more dramatic work. While I love his dad in Clueless, it is great to see him in roles like this, and even in Mulholland Dr. where he just scares the hell out of me for th 5 minutes he's in the movie.
The Usual Suspects is that rare crime film that manages to be complex, but never buckles under the weight of what is trying to do. If not everything about the movie was perfect, it could have easily collapsed towards the end and turned into just another forgettable crime movie(Christopher McQuarrie's Way of the Gun comes to mind). Bryan Singer knew exactly what he wanted out of this movie, and he got just that. A perfect cast, a perfect script, perfet cinematography, perfect editing, perfect music. This is the kind of crime movie that every other crime movie after it must be compared to. And The Usual Suspects has set the bar so high, that few movies will be able to come close to the genius of it, but I look forward to the ones that do.
This week, I will be reviewing:
The Usual Suspects
The Usual Suspects holds a special place in my heart, and I believe it always will. When I first saw this movie, I was only 13 years old, and this was the first movie that I saw that made me realize how much I love movies. The moment this movie started to the second Kevin Spacey says, "And like that-He's gone." I was in a trance. The way this movie reveals information to the audience is remarkable. Nothing is left to chance, nothing is out of place. Every camera angle, every line of dialogue is carefully scripted to build up to those last few minutes. A lesser movie would have realized it had itself backed into a corner and thrown together an ending. The ending we think we are getting when Agent Kuljan says that Keaton was Keyser Soze is the lesser movies ending. Had we ended there, it might have made sense, but we wouldn't have felt that pay off. It shows us some scenes of Keaton perhaps being Soze, but a lot of these are not shots from the movie, just forced shots of Keaton because Kuljan is forcing this ending. He wants it so desperately to be true, and for the moment, we buy it. But it is the moments after this, when Verbal leaves the office, that this movie becomes a classic. When Kuljan starts going over things in his mind, and then noticing the wall of lies that Verbal has built, we are never shown any forced shots, because there is no need for them. Upon watching this movie again, everything is in Spacey's performance. You can see him reading everything and building his story up. The most telling moment in the movie, to me, is when Kuljan is going off about how Keaton was the mastermind and Keaton did this, and Keaton did that, and all we see is Spacey's face and the smile and nods that he does show us a man who is thrilled that this idiot cop is buying everything he is saying. And as soon as Kuljan comes into shot, Verbal's face tightens up like he is learning something new for the first time. He is playing everyone like a fiddle from the moment you see him to the very last frame. And we all buy it.
And it isn't just Spacey who is mesmerizing in this movie, but literally every character that says anything in this movie is fantastic. All of the suspects are perfect in their part, forming an odd family of ciminals. Even Stephen Baldwin, who is pretty much shit in everything else he has ever done, is fantastic. And Benicio del Toro will flip you for real in this movie. This was the first part I ever saw him play, and it is so different from everything else he has ever done. But following his career, most roles of him are different from each other. He refuses to be type cast and continues to do phenomonal jobs in everything he is in. Dan Hedaya also does a good job, and I believe he should do more dramatic work. While I love his dad in Clueless, it is great to see him in roles like this, and even in Mulholland Dr. where he just scares the hell out of me for th 5 minutes he's in the movie.
The Usual Suspects is that rare crime film that manages to be complex, but never buckles under the weight of what is trying to do. If not everything about the movie was perfect, it could have easily collapsed towards the end and turned into just another forgettable crime movie(Christopher McQuarrie's Way of the Gun comes to mind). Bryan Singer knew exactly what he wanted out of this movie, and he got just that. A perfect cast, a perfect script, perfet cinematography, perfect editing, perfect music. This is the kind of crime movie that every other crime movie after it must be compared to. And The Usual Suspects has set the bar so high, that few movies will be able to come close to the genius of it, but I look forward to the ones that do.
posted by Matt Lemos @ 10:01 PM
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