Raising Arizona

It's hard to imagine a sharper left turn taken by a director than from the Coen brother's debut, Blood Simple, to their sophomore picture, Raising Arizona. Where Blood Simple was dark and mostly serious, Arizona is the closest a film has ever come to capturing a Tex Avery cartoon in live action - with the possible exception of some parts of The Mask.

The Piano

First off, an apology for the forthcoming review. I watched the film three months ago, and have gotten so far behind on my post writing that I've not had any real desire to review it, as to be honest it wasn't that inspirational of a film. Nonetheless, I shall do my best, but I'm relying almost solely on the notes I made during the movie, as I can't for the life of me remember very much of it. As you can probably guess, this isn't going to be much of a recommendation to watch the film.

Holly Hunter plays Ada McGrath, a woman who, aged six, willed herself mute, and has since never spoken a word. She moves from Scotland to New Zealand for an arranged marriage with Sam Neill's landowner/writer Alisdair, and brings her young daughter Flora (Anna Paquin in her first live action picture) and their piano, Ada's pride and joy. Neill is less than impressed with his new bride-to-be ("You're small, I never thought you'd be small"), and refuses to cart her piano across the difficult swampland between the beach and his home, so they abandon it on the sand, much to Ada's discontent. Fortunately local plantation worker George Baines (Harvey Keitel) takes a shine to Ada, and trades some land with Alisdair for the piano, and agrees to trade it back to Ada in return for 'piano lessons,' during which George will get to know Ada far more intimately than she'd like.

Crash (1996)

I’ve previously mentioned that I’m not overly squeamish about violence and mutilation in films, but I’m afraid this was more than I really wanted to take. This is a story of a movie producer (James Spader) who, after surviving a car crash, discovers a cult of car crash enthusiasts and proceeds to have as much sex as possible with every member of the cast, predominantly in cars. The sex is far more graphic than it needs to be, and involves, if not is stimulated by, the wounds and scars of the crash victims. Other than joining the club, there is no real narrative drive of the film, as the characters move from one orgy to another. Elias Koteas however is hypnotic as crash club leader Vaughan, but I’m not a big fan of nudity in general, and this film is little short of needlessly pornographic.

Choose life 3/10