Quote:
Originally Posted by Ro
Sounds like a must-see Itse! I will have to check it out and let you know what I think. Maybe it was the mention of De Sica's Bicycle Thieves in that review you quoted that sole me.  |
Hey, if I get someone to see Aki Kaurismäki films, I'm always delighted
Such a brilliant filmmaker.
If you like Bicycle Thieves, Kaurismäki-films are propably not a waste of time. Tulitikkutehtaan tyttö (The Match Factory Girl) is also one of my favourites, although it's a lot more cynical and has about the least dialogue I've ever seen in a non-silent film. (I believe the first piece of dialogue is spoke at about the half-hour mark.)
Anyway, time for me to make a pick, and if I'm right and this hasn't been picked yet, I'm simply stunned.
First, I'll
move Bound from Drama to Wildcard #3 (we got more of those now, right?).
As our
17th round pick, the surprisingly accurately named
Selfmade Heroes is delighted to pick
Stand By Me (1986) in the
Drama category.
Gordie: Do you think I'm weird?
Chris: Definitely.
Gordie: No man, seriously. Am I weird?
Chris: Yeah, but so what? Everybody's weird.
Not seeing this film should be made a criminal offense for everyone who has ever been twelve years old, more so for those who have been twelve year old boys.
It's the only really good depiction of childhood I remember ever seeing, the only one that manages to capture what childhood felt like. (And I can't emphasize enough how good it feels to see it in pictures.) It was such a different time, and yet if you knew someone in that age, you'll know them forever.
Stand by Me is a rare gem among films, so perfect in style, with great acting and excellent writing (among the only things by Stephen King I actually like).
The basic story is really simple: four young boys, driven mostly by curiousity and a sense of adventure, set out to find the body of another kid, apparently hit by a train somewhere in the woods.
The kids are a wonderfully archetypical collection. Gordie (Wil Wheaton) is sensitive, intelligent and painfully ignored by his parents. Gordie's best friend Chris (River Phoenix) is the leader with the bad family background who feels he'll never get out of the town. Teddy (Corey Feldman) is the weird kid who obsesses over his abusive father. Vern (Jerry O'Connel), the fat one is "the easy target", the one with more imagination than brains, but nevertheless a part of gang just like everyone else. All roles are played to perfection by kids only a few years older than the actual characters, and supported by a equally good actors, most notably Kiefer Sutherland as the leader of an older gang of bullies and Richard Dreyfuss as The Writer who provides us with the voiceover as he's telling us this story from his own childhood.
Teddy: I'm sorry if I'm spoiling everybody's good time.
Chris: Its ok, man.
Gordie: I'm not sure it should be a good time.
Chris: You saying you wanna go back?
Gordie: No. But going to see a dead kid... maybe it shouldn't be a party.
"[voiceover] Finding new and preferably disgusting ways to degrade a friend's mother was always held in high regard. "
What's the movie about? Growing up, mostly. About being human, and starting to realize what the world around you is like, about how growing up has it's ups and downs, and it was really like to be a kid. Life.