The Shining - Cause It's Halloween This Month

Film analysis for me has always been a sincere pleasure for me ever since I was introduced to it the freshmen year of my high school year. The teacher told us that we had to write an essay after watching each movie and this was the first time in my life that I had to reflect and put thoughts on paper about how I felt about movies. I wrote about a lot of movies in that class, everything from Singin' In The Rain to Days Of Heaven. This opportunity was the beginning of me starting analyze films, looking for the deeper meanings and appreciating cinema's finest productions ever put on celluloid. I still look for it no matter what movie I'm watching, hell if you didn't see the ideas of rebirth, death, religion, and grief throughout last week's Gravity then I do not know what movie you were watching! So why am I talking about film analysis because today I am writing about the film that has been analyzed more than any other film ever made: The Shining. Now why has this movie been obsessed over and studied like some holy text? Well I will tell you soon so keep reading about a movie impactful on its audience that it still is debated, wrote about, and documentaries made about it to this day.

The Shining is Stanley Kubrick's 11th feature film released in 1980 starring Jack Nicholson and Shelly Duvall. Nicholson plays a young writer, father, and husband who decides to take up a job to watch over the Overlook Hotel, a large mountain resort, during the winter months while it is closed. While accepting the job he learns that the previous housekeeper had murdered himself and his family during their stay at the hotel. Jack brushes it off as nothing and decides to bring his wife, Wendy, and young son, Danny, up with him to stay in the hotel for the winter as he tries to write his new novel. Then things slowly start getting weird as Danny starts to see things and Jack begins to lose his grip on reality and his sanity. 

Gravity

There are lots of reasons I fell in love with movies. It has a lot to do with growing up watching Jurassic Park and being mesmerized by the spectacle of dinosaurs being brought back to life. It also has to do with an Introduction to Film class I took Freshman year of high school thinking it would be easy and then realizing that film was something bigger and better than I could have ever imagined. Still there you can't beat that some movies became a cinematic experience, breaking the fourth wall of the screen and soaking me into a world I had never seen before and actually experiencing it. It has those moments where you forget you are watching a movie and become part of that reality. With this I think about movies like 2001 A Space Odyssey, Jurassic Park, Star Wars, and many more. It becomes awe-inspiring that a film can break through and become something more than moving pictures that they can place us in the middle of these amazing places. Now we have a new kind of experience, one unlike anything I have ever experienced, with a little movie called Gravity. 

Gravity follows the space shuttle Explorer and it's crew as it attempts to update a satellite for medical reasons. Specialist Ryan Stone (Sandra Bullock) is a rookie astronaut in space for her first time but luckily she has Matt Kowalski (George Clooney), a veteran astronaut who wants to break the record for most time in space, to help and assist on the mission. As the repairs and updates commence on the satellite the team gets a report of a Russian satellite being destroyed and the debris heading their way. The team must then rush back onto the shuttle before getting hit by the debris. Soon things turn for the worst and Stone and Kowalski must work together in order to have any chance of survival in the bare, scary, empty space that surrounds them.

The Wind That Shakes The Barley

One of the funny things about being a movie maniac in my opinion is that I never once thought that I would reach a point in my life where there would be too many movies to watch. Then as I grew older and I learned more about film, I realized that there are times when there are too many movies to choose from at times. Some movies I want to watch to study the history of cinema, some movies I want to watch to enjoy, and other movies I take a chance on to see if they are any good. So as I came across The Wind That Shakes The Barley I thought I might give the movie a chance and see if its any good. I only know that it won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival so it has to be somewhat good. I also saw that it was directed by Kes director Ken Loach so I know that the film was in good hands. So what could go wrong?

The Wind That Shakes The Barley follows the relationship between Damien O'Donovan (Cillian Murphy) and Teddy O'Donovan (Padraic Delaney) during the early 20th Century rebellion of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) against the British Empire. The film explores the bloody and tyrannical rule the Brits had over the nation of Ireland. The two brothers decide to take an oath with the IRA and begin fighting back slowly through guerrilla warfare. As the time passes and the Irish begin to have victories, the two brothers see different views of the future for Ireland. Damien more of the democratic type wants absolute freedom for Ireland while Teddy is more militaristic and is willing to somewhat compromise for any freedom. As tensions rise in the conflict and the brothers deepen their lives into the fight for freedom, the war splits these brothers apart and leads to an unfortunate end.

Fruitvale Station

It seems that a lot of things we learn in life pile on. For example if you learn about human trafficking you might see a movie about it in the same week or hear about it in news stories for the next month. While the truth is that stuff like that has been happening your whole life, you finally are acquainted with it's presence and begin to become fully aware of its impact on the world. While this might be getting deep for a movie review, I feel like something like this has been happening to me recently. See I grew up in middle class suburbia and was taught that policemen are honest, good working people that have the best intentions for protecting civilians. Over the past year though my eyes have been slowly opened to the falsity of this idea. While certainly not every policeman is corrupt, I am becoming aware that there are bad cops out there who have done some horrible atrocities over the years. It all started with my Criminology class that showed me how many innocent people were set up and how huge corporations get away with mass murders yearly. Then two movies I saw recently helped me grasp a personal perspective on this corruption, first In The Name Of The Father and now recently Fruitvale Station.

Fruitvale Station follows Oscar Grant (Michael B. Jordan) a young 22 year old in Oakland, California who is just trying to find a stable job while making his girlfriend, mom, and most importantly daughter happy and give them the life they deserve. Oscar may not be perfect and has a troubled past, but he is trying to get his life back together and have an optimistic future. On the night of New Years Eve 2009, Oscar heads out with his girlfriend to enjoy the night and party in the new year. As they try to head back home, Oscar comes face to face with people from his past and one thing leads to another putting him and his future at risk.

End Of Watch

Suggesting films is a tough thing because you can't just tell people to go see movies that you enjoyed. For example, I really enjoyed Lars Von Trier's Anti-Christ but I will rarely suggest that to people because its a unique film to say the least. You got to make sure that you know the tastes of the person you are talking to and see if the film your talking about will fit those tastes. Its complicated when you really think about it but once you get used to a person's tastes you can find a good exchange of films that you can suggest to them. For me I love hearing what people suggest because it will tell me more about a person than most conversations will. So what does all of this have to do with End Of Watch? Well one of my fellow film aficionados whose knows my tastes pretty well highly suggested this to me saying that it was great film and wasn't getting enough credit. While I certainly was not going to pay to go see it, I was definitely interested in watching this on Netflix or maybe Redbox. Why was I interested? Who knows maybe I was willing to give Jake Gyllenhaal a chance. End Of Watch taught me a very important lesson, no matter how well some one knows you sometimes they will misread you.

 End Of Watch follows two young patrol cops Brian Taylor (Jake Gyllenhall) and Mike Zavala (Michael Peña) as they travel the streets in South Central LA. Along the way they must deal with the clashing personalities of their fellow officers and the constant danger of criminals. They handle everything from hand to hand brawls to discovering drug cartel houses. Besides patrolling the streets they also deal with their personal life, Taylor dealing with young love and Zavala dealing with his pregnant wife. Unfortunately as the cops start to pile up victories against the drug cartels, they get hits put on their heads. The partners must find a way to protect civilians against Big Evil and his gang while also protecting themselves to go back to their families.

In The Name Of The Father

Criminology was one of my favorite classes in school mainly because I got to get a look behind all the bullshit of the justice system, well hopefully it was honest. Still I got to read some great books about people who had been imprisoned for crimes they did not commit. It was sad to realize how many people had been set up under false pretenses and had to stay in prison for years even though they were innocent. Even more than that it really showed me that I couldn't trust cops or anyone in the justice system at any time. Now I am not trying to say everyone is innocent all the time, but there have been so many innocent people that have served jail time that it could really happen to anybody. So then we throw Daniel Day Lewis in the mix and we have In The Name Of The Father which came out in 1993. It truly is weird seeing a younger Daniel Day Lewis and thinking about all the fame and honors waiting ahead for him. He teams up here with Jim Sheridan, the man who directed My Left Foot, so things look good.

The year is 1974 and at the Guildford Pub in London has been attacked by a terrorist bombing all while London and the IRA are constantly fighting in the streets. Unfortunately for Gerry Conlon (Daniel Day Lewis) he was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Gerry gets arrested for the crimes and after days of senseless physical and emotional abuse is forced to sign a confession to the crimes. Then in court Gerry, his father, family, and friends all get charged for terrorism, Gerry specifically getting 30 years to life. They face their time but along the way meet the man who actually bombed the Guildford Pub and a lawyer looking to help fight for their innocence. Gerry must find the strength to fight for his family, his name, and for justice.

Upstream Color

When I first saw Primer it was the first experience for me where I walked out having no clue what was going on. I had at least a grasp of that plot in a majority of films but with Primer it was a completely different experience. I had to do extensively research and rewatch it few times and I am sure that I still am missing stuff about that movie. That said I was glad to see a movie, especially a sci-fi time travel movie, trust its audience so much and didn't feel the need to explain every single detail of the plot. It is a film that wants you to become engrossed in its world and then figure out all the clues. It was an enriching experience as a cinephile to see a movie challenging me and making me analyze everything instead of being spoon fed everything. Now come to the present and it seems like forever since Primer came out and I know I wasn't the only one dying to see what else filmmaker Shane Carruth, he wrote, directed, editing, and did basically everything on Primer, had up his sleeve of visual storytelling. So it takes 9 years of waiting to see what else Carruth has to bring to cinema and he gives us Upstream Color. 

Upstream Color stars Amy Seimetz as a young woman who finds her life turned upside down but horrific event out of her control. An unknown man comes into her life and takes her savings, house equity, and more while she is powerless. As she tries to rebuild her life after the traumatic events she meets Jeff (Shane Carruth) who seems to have a emotional but also metaphysical connection with her. After times passes the two become close and fall in love with each other but then strange things begin to happen. Memories collide and strange noises come from no where as together they must discover about their past and connection to each other. Meanwhile, a strange man takes care of some very unique pigs.

The Piano Teacher

Speechless. Utterly and completely speechless. I think we all want to have this feeling at the end of the film. We want stories to shock and rock our world to the core and make us question ourselves and everything we just sat through and yet few movies are able to achieve this feat. Well to give cinema a fair fight it is pretty hard to do this. In the past two or three fews I can only think of a few films that actually felt like a punch in the stomach at the end, films like Inception, Incendies, and Kill List. Look at that list though, even though its not a comprehensive list of what I am discussing it shows the power that affect has on film goers. Those three films have been some of the biggest critical successes of the past few years. What does it take to have that great gut punch and leave jaws on the floor? Well for one you need deep, thoughtful characters that feel real and that the audience wants to root for or at least sympathize for. Next you need a well crafted story with a great pull the rug from under your feet moment that is the least thing anyone would have suspected. So when a film comes around with the gut punch it is a wonderful experience especially when you are least expecting it. It makes me think "this must've been what it felt like when Darth Vadar said I am your Father for the first time". So why am I talking about the drop your jaw moments? Well I want to talk about one of my favorite filmmakers Michael Haneke who time and time again dominates the visual storytelling medium unlike any other filmmaker. He is brutal, honest, thought provoking, brave, but most of all he is raw. He takes life as we know it, especially the parts of life we are afraid to face in the mirror, and shoves it in our face and says "Deal with it". His films stick with you for days and you become obsessed with them and over analyze them. Or maybe thats just me. Either way there is no debate on his pure genius and skill. I say I love filmmakers but I exhalt Michael Haneke.

The Piano Teacher follows Erika Kohut (Isabelle Huppert), who is surprisingly a piano teacher, licing a trapped life with her overbearing and obsessive mother. Her students frustrate her and resembles all of your most strict teachers combined into one. Rarely smiling or even showing signs of life, we soon learn that there is more than meets the eye when it comes to Erika. That is when Walter (Benoît Magimel) comes into her life, a prodigy student who wants to be taken under her wing, and makes it very evident that he has romantic intentions for her. As he continuously forces himself into her life, she slowly but surely lets him in. We discover Erika's dark, deep secrets and how Walter reacts to them leading them into a dark rabbit hole together.

Why Cinema?

I often wonder what about cinema draws me in so passionately. What about movies makes me constantly want to talk and discuss it with everyone. Why do bad films annoy me and why do I spend thousands of dollars on going to theater and buying movies so I can watch them over and over again. Why do I push myself as an editor to be better and improve everyday so I can improve my skills? Do I want to achieve such glory as the people that have lived before me and made some of the greatest stories ever told? Do I see movies as an escape from my own life? To answer any of these questions would take longer than a simple blog post but today I feel inspired to write, to write about why I love movies. I must admit that watching a recent video on youtube (Birth to Death as told by Cinema - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BppqSwvuLRA) is what caused this burning inside of me to write so check it out for yourself it is a great video.

So what got me into film into first place? Well as a little kid I grew up watching Jurassic Park from age two when my father put me in front of the TV and played the movie for me. I didn't realize it for a long time but this was the beginning of my love for cinema. I would watch that movie every day countless times waiting for the huge T-Rex and stealthy velociraptors to show up. I was entranced and fixated on the screen whenever it was playing. From there I would constantly try to watch any movies I could find, everything from Disney films to Small Soldiers. As I grew up the fire inside me grew, any time my family went to the movies I was ecstatic and I wanted to talk about them afterwards non-stop asking everyone what their favorite part was or what they did/didn't like about it. I also grew up with a father who would always talk films with me, quoting his favorite lines and telling me some of the great movies I would have to watch when I got older. It was a great way for my Father and I to connect.

Nothing else happened for me until I reached high school and I saw a class called "Intro to Film Studies" and being a dumb freshman I thought watching movies for class was going to the be the easiest thing ever. Little did I know that from there I would become a cinephile and it was really all thanks to a film called Pickpocket. Released in 1959, Pickpocket was written and directed by Robert Bresson and in those short 75 minutes I was in awe of this movie because of the simplest little thing, the noise of shoes tapping against the ground as people walked. I am sure I had heard this noise before but something about Pickpocket fascinated me and from that day on I was engulfed in a world I still am gladly in today. The rest of the class taught me to look at film as an art rather than pure entertainment. I saw a wide range of films from Singin' In The Rain to Days of Heaven. I was experiencing a whole new world and loving every second of it. I was fascinated by this visual medium that was showing me such beauty that I never knew could exist in this world whether it was the beauty in nature or the beauty in humanity.

I started to watch films more critically and becoming a fanatic, trying to find more people who felt the same way I did. I couldn't stop thinking about movies, day and night they would play in my head. I was obsessed but I still hadn't had that moment of realization. Something was missing for me and I had no clue what it was. Then one fateful night when I was 16 I was flipping through channels on TV and came across a film I had never heard of before, Requiem For A Dream. My world would be changed forever. No longer did I look at the world or film the same. While most people get depressed after seeing Requiem For A Dream I was inspired and awe struck. Never before had I seen a film perfectly blend everything together so cohesively. The music, the people, the editing, the dialogue, the story, and the climax was on a whole new level of cinema that I was just beginning to grasp. From that day on I knew that my life would be surrounded by movies. Ever since then I have been a movie addict, watching movies obsessively and uncontrollably and loving every second of it.

So I still haven't really answered why. Why movies? Is it the exploration of worlds unknown to us? Well that certainly plays a part because while we can never see everything life has to offer us, film gives us a little insight into worlds that we may never have the chance to see otherwise. Is it because film brings us together? Undeniably film speaks a universal language that brings people together unlike any other medium in my opinion. These questions and more could serve the answer but I look at a quote from Michael Haneke that explains to me why I love film so much.


"Film is 24 lies per second at the service of truth, or at the service of the attempt to find the truth."

Truth. This is what burns the fire inside of me when it comes to film. I am in the never ending search for truth. It could be the truth of the human experience or of the universe around us. Film is constantly attempting to find that truth. When I watched Chasing Amy recently I discovered truth about myself and my own personal problems that I let get in the way of relationships and it spoke to me like few films could. You can also look at films like The Breakfast Club and American Beauty that speak truths of life and how we as humans work unlike anything else could. Its more than just that though. For me action films speak truth to me about the inner warrior in me that wants to go out and kick ass like in The Raid Redemption. Films like The Tree of Life make me explore my personal views on the universe and existence. Comedies like Groundhog Day help me rediscover laughter and what affect humor has on life. I could go on but for me films speak to us on a personal level unlike any other medium. While some could argue video games are a step above movies because of the interactivity and I understand that argument but nothing impacts me more than watching characters on a screen and watching a story come to life. I learned in Psychology about mirror neurons, neurons that are activated in our bodies like for crying or laughing when we see someone crying or laughing. So when watching someone cry on screen our brains are activating the neurons in our brains that make us cry. On a biological level whether we know it or not we are connecting with characters no matter what the go through. It makes sense then why we get pumped up watching 300 or sad when watching Awakenings. In my opinion it is because of that connection where we are able to find that truth in cinema.

Nevertheless I have no idea whether any of this made sense or if anyone will read it but I wanted to write it. Films speak to me about human truths more than anything else in the world. Humans creating stories for the world to see. Characters being brought to life in front of our very eyes and making us question our own life. With me there is no such thing as  "fourth wall", in my opinion film is just as much a part of the real world as we are.

-William McAbee

Chasing Amy

I am a big fan of Kevin Smith but not necessarily his films. While i enjoy hearing his opinion and analysis of films like Superman Returns, I didn't love Clerks and Cop Out was hard to watch. That said I don't blame him for Cop Out and I personally thought Red State was a great flick. So after hearing about Chasing Amy multiple times I finally decided to check it out to see if Kevin Smith could win me over.

Chasing Amy follows Holden (Ben Affleck) and Banky (Jason Lee), two best friends who write and draw their own independent comic book, who one day run into Alyssa Jones (Joey Lauren Adams). After a great night and game of darts, Holden quickly becomes interested in Alyssa and wants to have a shot at her. Unfortunately for Holden he learns that Alyssa is a lesbian who isn't interested in men at all. While Banky tries to convince him to give up, Holden stays persistent and eventually falls in love with her and ends up winning over Alyssa. The rest of the film explores the dynamic relationship between Holden and Alyssa, the changes and challenges they face, their own personal issues, and how their relationship impacts the friendship between Banky and Holden. The films battles the themes of trust, friendship, love, forgiveness, and our own personal demons.

Zero Dark Thirty

In her previous film, Kathryn Bigelow captured modern warfare unlike any other director. While others had made fast paced, action packed, gun blazing films, Bigelow focused on the slow, tension building, patient driven action that defines the state of modern war. She also was rewarded for her efforts by dominating awards season and winning the Best Director and Picture oscars over her ex-husband James Cameron. Needless to say when the news was released that Bigelow and  Mark Boal, who also wrote The Hurt Locker, were working together again I was excited. Add to the mix that the film was about the hunt for Osama Bin Laden and you have cinema gold in your hands. Featuring a stellar cast including Jessica Chastain, Kyle Chandler, Chris Pratt, and Joel Edgerton and it seems that it is almost impossible to fail. With the potential through the roof, Bigelow has the potential to make an instant classic and capture one of the most important manhunts in recent history.


Zero Dark Thirty follows the driven Maya, a young recruit into the CIA after September 11, 2001 who has been assigned to the case of finding Osama Bin Laden. Starting at 9/11, the film follows the hunt and the long road to capturing the mastermind behind the attacks. Covering everything from detainee tortures to following bad leads, the hunt pushes Maya to her limits as she has to fight back doubters and her leaders working against her. After losing friends through the war and almost losing hope, after almost a decade of looking, Maya believes she has found the house holding Osama Bin Laden. Maya must now work fast to get the facts to back up her beliefs and to convince the bureaucrats in Washington that she is correct in hopes to capture Bin Laden before it is all too late.

Run Lola Run

 Just when you start to think that the recent rapid increase in speed of Hollywood’s editing is a bad move for film making, a film comes along to show you how that editing can be done right. With 1,581 edits and an average shot length of 2.7 seconds, Run Lola Run is an absolute fun thrill ride that sucks you in immediately into a roller coaster of a film. Multiple timelines, loads of interesting characters, a suspense filled plot, and ultimate superior filmmaking at its finest make Run Lola Run an unforgettable cinematic experience that few movies can offer. Its a kick to the balls that cinema needs while also giving a nod to the classics of the past.





The film follows Lola, a red headed high pitch screaming girl, who receives a phone call one day from her boyfriend, Manni, who has failed to complete a 100,000 marks gangster deal and will be killed if he cannot collect the money by noon. Giving Lola 20 minutes, she must figure out how to collect the money and save Manni before things turn from bad to worse.

Beasts Of The Southern Wild

One of my favorite things about watching independent films is that we get to see creativity and imagination not suppressed by the studio system. I’m not necessarily critiquing the studios at all just nothing that independent films have a certain freedom that creates some of the best films we have ever seen. I think of Blue Valentine, Little Miss Sunshine, Shame, Hunger, and many more as just a few examples of how much power a film can have when art is prioritized above money. This becomes much evident in Beasts Of The Southern Wild as another great example of independent film having all the power and story that studios spend hundreds of millions of dollars to create.

Beasts Of The Southern Wild follows Hushpuppy, a young girl in Louisiana, who lives with her father Wink in Bathtub, an island off the coast of New Orleans. Bathtub is wild and energetic community full of bright characters who live each life to the fullest with plenty of food to go around. Wink tries to help grow Hushpuppy into a strong person and be able to take care of herself when he passes away. Things seem good in Bathtub until a horrible storm passes through and floods the entire island. With their home destroyed and resources quickly depleting, Hushpuppy must learn to grow up and take care of her dying father all while confronting her fears and dealing with the absence of her mother.