Dangerous Lives of Alter Boys (2002) This movie's title coincided with the Clergy sex scandal that rocked those Catholics to the bone. When I first heard of this film I thought it was some documentary about the whole mess, but actually it is a story of some boys dealing with coming in age in a strict environment with their creativity.
Kieran Culkin, whose brother was the Home alone kid, plays a tragic and disturbed young man whose appetite for chaos and sensitivity to beauty will eventually get the better of him. Emile Hirsch plays his friend who embodies all his friends as super heroes versus super villains. The villain being Jodie Foster as the nun who the boys have choosen for a symbol of order and authority.
Mirroring the live action are several animated features that presumably show what is going on in the head of Francis, Emile Hirsch. These scenes translate the story of the movie into comic book action where the boys are the heroes and the nun is the enemy. Todd McFarlane was tapped to create the animation and did an excellent job. The animation strengthens and makes the movie stand out in the bloated genre of comming of age films.
Velvet Goldmine: (1998) This bazaar movie centers around a guy named Arthur(Christian Bale) digging up a bi-sexual rock star's past and staged assassination. The bi-sexual rock star in question is one Brian Slade (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) as a thinly veiled David Bowie. Most of the plot centers around Brian's relationship with a guy named Kurt Wilde (Ewan McGregor), who is described as equal parts Iggy Pop and Kurt Cobain.
As Arthur digs deeper into Slade's past we find out that he himself was caught up in the 80s teenage revolution of glam-rock, cross dressing, and general odd behavior. Of course I've totally skipped over the gay space aliens and Oscar Wilde.
Velvet Goldmine is a visual and audio feast with a great sound track. The plot is difficult and may require multiple viewings to follow, some parts of it are left up to interpretation.
Titus: (1999) I recently got into a disagreement with a friend about this movie. We were talking about Shakespeare and he said something like, "I like Shakespeare movies when they are done right but I hate stupid ones like Titus. I think that Titus is one of the greatest movies I've ever seen.
First off before you watch this you have to understand a few things. First off the play is set in ancient Rome. The movie is set in a modernized ancient Rome, so while there is a Senate and an Emperor there is also motorcycles and videogames. Secondly the language is more Old English then new Modern English. Thirdly it's a big, overbearing but greatly rewarding plot. The plot is so big I am not even attempting to summarize it, lets just say it is about, duty suffering, fate, revenge and human frailty.
In my mind there are two different flows of this movie, one is the plot which like I was saying is big and complicated but oh so satisfying. The other is a wave of strange and sometimes disconnected sets and images. Occasionally they work together to make the whole movie better. For example Titus' daughter is raped and her hands and tongue are chopped off. When she is discovered in this state she is standing on a stump in a dead surreal swamp, dead twigs and sticks jut out where her hands should be. Her discoverer Marcus begs her to speak but when she opens her mouth a stream of blood flows out in slow motion, this is by far the most touching moment of cinema I have ever experienced.
Sometimes the two flows don't seem to work together so well but the strange images never seem to mess up the movie for me. I have only seen this movie a few times but I can conjure up more grand visuals in my mind from this then any other film. I think that this is a movie that will challenge you and a weaker person would turn it off early but you aren't weak, you'll watch the whole thing!
In this Issue
Movies you need to see
Bicycling: Remembering a weird guy from SIU
Asheron's Call: The best ten dollars a month you'll ever spend
Special Feature: Anatomy of a Cavity
