QUICK FIX Movies To Watch #26-30

QUICK FIX Movies To Watch #26-30 look at a crazy mixed up world

Quick Fix Movies To Watch is a weekly column of mixed movie suggestions for both the avid film fan and the casual movie-goer. Dive in, swim around a little bit, and come up with a new movie or two you think is worth watching. They’re all great!

This week’s Quick Fix takes a look at Brick, 9, Leaving Las Vegas, Blindness, and Spun.

QUICK FIX Movie To Watch #26: BRICK

Release: 2005    Rating: R    Director: Rian Johnson

Stars: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Lukas Haas, Emily de Ravin, Nora Zehetner, Noah Segan, Richard Roundtree

Let’s take a step back in time and look at Rian Johnson’s first film, Brick (mwahaha Looper zing) This quick-talking, smooth playing look into a fantastically intricate suburban high school underbelly turned me on to Johnson’s play-like sense of style and dialogue. Rolling out like a high-stakes stage play, Brick builds tension as we watch gangsterish high schoolers navigate around (what I’m assuming is) a missing brick of heroine and what that entails. I know people who feel the dialogue is too “elevated” and “doesn’t quite fit”, but I liked the cleverness of it all and would recommend this one to any play/film fan.

HIDDEN GEM: Brick paired Rian Johnson with Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and dare I say brought JGL back into a unique spotlight. They’d go on to make Looper, which was huge for both of them, so I call that a win by any definition.

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QUICK FIX Movie To Watch #27: 9

Release: 2009    Rating: PG-13    Director: Shane Acker

Stars: Elijah Wood, John C. Reilly, Jennifer Connelly, Crispin Glover, Christopher Plummer, Martin Landau

This movie started life as a 10 minute short film about a living voiceless burlap doll adventuring through a building in a post-apocalyptic, destroyed city.  (View the short film here) Fortunately the folks over at Focus Features found Shane Acker’s short and before long the man was working on a feature-length adaptation for the big screen. Granted, adding voice talents takes away from some of the magic that the short film captured, but the voice talents on display are pretty great nonetheless. How did these dolls come to life? What is their purpose? Can they help save the world? Fans of animation will dig this one.

HIDDEN GEM: Finding talent and letting it flourish, as was the case with Shane Acker, is the real hidden gem here. Sometimes it’s simply putting the right tools in willing hands to create something beautiful.

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QUICK FIX Movie To Watch #28: LEAVING LAS VEGAS

Release: 1995    Rating: R    Director: Mike Figgis

Stars: Nicolas Cage, Elisabeth Shue, Richard Lewis, Julian Sands, Steven Weber

Oh Nicolas Cage, why did you become the running-joke of “I’ll take anything that comes my way” and stray so far from the talent you once were? It’s films like Leaving Las Vegas that keep that withered, dry, aching for life seedling inside of me reaching with hope that one day Nicolas Cage will make another great film. Leaving Las Vegas follow’s Cage’s character on one last hurrah in Vegas where he’s resigned to the idea that he’ll die soon. It’s heavy and heartfelt at times, and Elisabeth Shue’s prostitute characters is along for the ride. This is Cage, dare I say, at his best (which we rarely get to see) and comes highly recommended.

HIDDEN GEM: For some sad, strange reason the greatest thing I got out of this movie when I first saw it was Michael McDonald’s rendition of Lonely Teardrops. It’s pretty much the theme song, and I’ve listened to it countless times since. That said, it’s a twisted pleasure of sorts to watch Nicolas Cage’s downward spiraling tornado whip up and essentially destroy everything around.

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QUICK FIX Movie To Watch #29: BLINDNESS

Release: 2008    Rating: R    Director: Fernando Meirelles

Stars: Julianne Moore, Danny Glover, Mark Ruffalo, Alice Braga, Gael Garcia Bernal, Sandra Oh

I have friends who found this movie hard to watch. While I find the material in this movie to be a fascinating look at human nature and its many twists and ticks, the degradation, brutality, and rawness of it all isn’t for everyone. The movie focuses on an almost community-sized number of random people who, suddenly blind, are quarantined inside a multi-story building by those who fear the blindness spreading. Day-to-day existence in this quarantined building slowly crumbles, and pretty soon you’ve got naked people walking around, people defecating wherever they want, and a system of barter and trade for food and essentials. The kicker? Julianne Moore’s character can still see.

HIDDEN GEM: Gael Garcia Bernal plays the leader of what I’m going to call quarantined pirates, pillaging and plundering wherever he and his gang see fit, but it’s really the way large groups of humans interact when stripped of their humanity that makes this movie stand out to me.

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QUICK FIX Movie To Watch #30: SPUN

Release: 2002    Rating: R    Director: Jonas Akerlund

Stars: Jason Schwartzman, Mickey Rourke, John Leguizamo, Brittany Murphy, Patrick Fugit, Mena Suvari, Eric Roberts, Josh Peck

If you’ve never heard of this movie imagine it as a feel-good Requiem for a Dream. Alright, that might not be completely accurate, as it deals with crystal meth and those who indulge in such crystals, but it did leave me feeling much better than the heroine-fueled Requiem for a Dream. Drug pun intended? You’ll find some quick cuts and sped up interactions between some crazy characters, and all-in-all you’ll be left without that “oh god, my arm” feeling while getting somewhat satisfying resolutions. Just like Requiem, Spun is a well-made glimpse through a drug-addled looking glass. It’s pretty messed up at times, but that’s the nature of the beast. If you’re into these kinds of movies you’ll enjoy the out-of-control-under-control spiral that is Spun.

HIDDEN GEM: John Leguizamo’s Spider Mike is the kind of methed-up gangster redneck sort that is all too familiar if you’ve ever floated through or by some of these circles, and he’s probably my favorite character on display. Also, and I’ll stand by this until I see one better, Brittany Murphy and Jason Schwartzman share a kiss that’s one of the best on-screen lip locks I’ve ever seen.

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