SLC Punk

SLC Punk is directed by James Merendino and is his most well known film, probably his only known film and it was released April,16 1999. SLC Punk was nominated for and won only a few times, it was nominated for 2000 Independent Spirit Award best screen play, won Mar del Plata Film Festival 1999 best actor and 1999 best film. This movie really touches on an almost untouched subject in the media, which is anarchists punks who are located in Salt Lake City.

SLC Punk makes Salt Lake city look like a gloomy city with strange people and hypocrites. At the same time its funny and shows hard core punks doing whatever they want to do; partying, beating random people up, and having the main character, Steve-O narrate the movie ranting about civilians, government, and posers the whole movie. The movie always kept me interested but I think this movie had a little bit too much monologues and voice over narrations which gets on my nerves sometimes. Overall the film has a lot of energy but the central character is always aggravating.

The story takes place in Salt Lake City in 1985 and Steve-o, the main character, just graduated from school and along with a few friends decides to show how rebellious he is and show off his anarchy by basically wasting the education he had and do nothing but part and cause trouble.Steve-O’s best friend, Heroin Bob was his most reliable friend is in a relationship with a girl named Trish and wants to be in a steady relationship which is almost breaking the law of anarchy and after Steve-O sees his friend that  is a bum now and starts to realize something that changes his life forever at the end of the story.

The moral of the story is that as we grow older, we abandon the patterns and ideals of our youth. Due to the activities that happened at the end of the movie he started to drift away from his anarchist, punk, and rebellious ways.

I rate this movie 7.5/10

Trainspotting

 

 Trainspotting is directed by Danny Boyle and is one of his most well-known movies along with Slumdog Millionaire, 127 Hours, 28 Days Later, and Sunshine and it was released July, 19th 1996. Trainspotting won many awards and was nominated for even more, It was nominated for the 1997 Oscar Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium and won 1997 best film for the Boston  Society of Film Critics Award. This movie takes you into the depths of heroin addiction and many other problems associated with the drug and with any other drug in that matter.

This movie, such as in Clockwork Orange is very strange but in a very different way. This movie is very much different than any of the recent movies that Danny has done, he puts scenes in the movie that keep you wondering of why he put it in there but you know that it has an actual symbolic meaning to it, for example when Mark Renton (the antagonist) drops his suppositories into the toilet and dives in to catch them and when he dives in the toilet becomes an a large body of water, many people do not understand what it means but what you saw was in his mind and he was just imagining to cover up what he was really doing which was sticking his hand in a filthy toilet full of feces.

Trainspotting tells a story of a group Scottish herion addicts and how their lives twist and turn.The very different group of addicts which is Mark Renton, Spud, and Allison, men whose drug is hurting people which is Begbie and the clean ones, (Tommy, Gail, Lizzy.) Mark Renton attempts and attempts to quit heroin and his friends are trying to also. While not on the heroin,the group go through some tragic events that just make them resume their habit and start new ones. A massive turn around with Marks life causes him to leave his past and go to a new job in London and he figures out wherever he goes he cant leave his past behind.

This movie can be compared to A Requiem for a Dream, not just because of the drug addiction both main characters had in the story but the moral they both had that drugs, mostly heroin which is portrayed in both movies can really mess with your life. Boyle really portrays this when he has the scene then Mark is on his comedown and he is having hallucinations of regretful and bad memories, which is a very good way to portray a comedown of heroin.

This movie shows drugs addiction and friendship through drugs on a totally different level. It gets deep and dirty into each one of the characters life narrated by the main character, Mark Renton. I really appreciate the camerawork and the little things the director did, just to make the movie that much better. This is one of my all time favorite movies and recommend it to anyone who isn’t offended from explicit content.

I rate this movie 8.5/10

A Clockwork Orange

 

A Clockwork Orange is Stanley Kubrick’s ninth film which was released February 2nd 197. A Clockwork Orange won the best film of 1971 from New York Critic Film Awards. This film  has a very morbid comedic feel and when you see the subjects it gets into you may hesitate to watch the movie (especially women).

This movie is very strange but the irony and the directing of the movie is just absolutely amazing. This movie goes into a vast variety of subjects ranging from rap to mind control that I thought I would never see in one movie but in this movie I saw it and it keep you in awe the whole two and a half hours. I honestly can not compare this movie to any other It is very unique and the direct must have a very strange mind to think about this concept, but the way he put it together it is brilliant. The movie leaves you with a great impression of “what goes around, comes around”.

This movie portrays a group of violent kids based in a futuristic Britain and the main character who seems like the leader of the group, Alex, go on these sprees murdering, beating, and raping random innocent people for example they go around knocking on the door asking people to use their phone, saying someone is hurt and the person opens the door and they run in raping and beating the victims just for their own pleasure. Then a problem happens between the group and Alex and the group knocks him out right after a murder causing Alex to go to prison for murder and rape while in prison Alex agrees to the government research program that will make non evil with a few phsycological tests and he is released from prison after that and as I said before the audience and Alex learn “what goes around, comes around”

A Clockwork Orange is about the climax and the downfall of Alex. Through every diabolical moment throughout the movie there is a sense of beauty whether its the colors he uses, the camera angles he uses, and especially the music. The music is one of the best characteristics Kubrick put in this movie, the music he puts inside the movie is very ironic during scenes of raping or hurting someone their is always classical music or uprising music for example Singing in the Rain, 9th Symphony, William Tell Overture, Pomp And Circumstance No. 1 In D Major, and many more.

Stanley Kubrick created a movie that portrays the vast variety and the mystery of morality. For this movie it really demand to keep a tight hold on things and be ready for a lot of explicit disorienting viewings all for the cause of a great experience. :)

I rate this movie a 9/10