What's Eating Gilbert Grape?

In this month's installment of Nothing to Watch on Netflix, I chose to watch What's Eating Gilbert Grape?

I picked this movie mostly because of the cast. It features Johnny Depp and Leonardo DiCaprio, two actors I generally like. (John C. Reilly is also inexplicably in this movie) Since this movie came out in 1993, Depp and DiCaprio are twenty years younger, long before Depp completely lost his mind and Leo snorted coke out of a hooker's ass. It was fun to see these actors when they were relatively nameless, as you can really see their potential. 

Depp plays the eldest son of a dysfunctional family living in a mid-western one horse town . DiCaprio plays the mentally handicapped younger brother who could "go at any minute." After seeing this movie, I am convinced that DiCaprio will never get an Academy Award. If you aren't getting an Oscar for playing someone who's disabled, you're not gonna get an Oscar period. 

I liked this movie. However, I want to make it clear that WEGG? is an extreme bummer. It follows a young man who is trying to hold his family together at a massive personal cost. His father is dead. His mother is morbidly obese and doesn't leave the house. He's got a retarded brother who can die at any moment. Apparently, a LOT is eating Gilbert Grape.

The characters are the driving force behind this movie. The plot is loose, centering around Arnie's (DiCaprio) upcoming 18th birthday party. There's a clear timeline of events, but things still feel episodic. You're really just trying to see what makes this characters tick. This is especially the case for the titular Gilbert Grape, but all of the characters get their share of development. 

I can't say it was particularly well shot. I don't mean that it was awkward or disorienting. I just mean that there wasn't anything that visually wowed me about this movie. One thing I will note is that there is a TON of foreshadowing and symbolism. It's subtle, but it's there. For example, the name of the town that Gilbert Grape lives in is called "Endora", which sounds a lot like the word endure, which is what Gilbert has to do in order to survive. 

Overall, I would recommend this movie if you're trying to watch something that makes you think and feel. It's not much of feel-good and it's not mindless. This is a movie to sit and watch and pick up all the nuances on. 

Check it out!

Visioneers

I wasn’t sure what to expect when I selected this movie. Really, the thing that made me pick this one was the cast. I like ZG. He’s a funny guy. He’s also kind of weird, so I figured that any movie featuring him as the starring actor is going to be a little off-beat.

Welp. I was right. This one is definitely well off the beaten path.

That’s not to say that I didn’t enjoy this movie. It’s just…different.

Visually, I would place this somewhere between American Psycho and American Beauty. There are many scenes that are just…barren. Austere offices and homes with neutral tones. For the first half of the movie, colors are washed out. The only time they ever seem to pop is on a television program or in a dream sequence.

In terms of narrative and plot, this movie reminded me of Mike Judge’s work. It was a little more heavy handed in some respects, but there was definitely a clear sense of social satire similar to Idiocracy‘s or Office Space.

Basically, Visioneers is about a world where intimacy and independence are rapidly disappearing commodities. People spend all their time worshiping television personalities, binge eating, and being productive employees.

Everyone lives in constant fear of…well…exploding. I don’t mean that as a metaphor- people fucking explode in this movie.

And what’s great about this plot element is that everything is permeated by a thick layer of tension and anticipation. It could happen at any moment and people go to great (absurd) lengths to avoid it.

It’s kind of a self-fulfilling prophecy, as people explode because they’re stressed (and repressed, and forced to behave as a cog in a machine) and they’re stressed because they might explode.

A lot of the humor in this movie comes from the sheer absurdity that is played with a completely straight face. The very first scene has the main character greeting his coworkers at the Jeffers Company with a good morning and a middle finger, which has become the “Jeffers Salute.”

There were some issues with pacing, and as I said before, things were pretty heavy handed in some respects. But in all, this is a pretty good movie. I would say if you’re looking for something watch and reflect on a little, Visioneers would be a good choice.

Robot and Frank

In my period of sickness, I got the chance to watch the movie Robot and Frank.

Keeping with the theme of old people meeting robots, Robot and Frank is much happier than the short I shared last week.

This one tied for the Alfred P. Sloan Prize at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival.

Taking place in the distant future, Robot and Frank is about an old man whose son buys him a robot helper. Frank is the epitome of a grumpy old man. He grumbles, he rolls his eyes, and he goes on about how he doesn't need help from some newfangled bucket of bolts.

However, Frank is slowly slipping into senility and actually does need the help. He is resistant until he realizes that Robot doesn't have to obey the law. Frank, being a retired jewel thief, realizes that Robot is the perfect accomplice.

Going on in the background is the political implications of widespread use of robots. Frank's daughter is an avid anti-robot activist and gets thrown into the mix while Frank and Robot are planning heists.

Be sure to send recommendations for next month to my email

Pi

This month, I watched the movie Pi, recommended to me by my roommate, Dan. Pi is the breakout film of Darren Aronofsky. You might remember the name because he also directed Requiem for a Dream, Black Swan, and the newly released Noah.

Pi was his first film to hit theaters and you can definitely see the flight path of his work.

Pi is shot in high contrast grainy black and white, making everything seem all the more surreal, as though it were a fuzzy memory or a bad dream.

The film follows Max Cohen, a brilliant young man with a mind for numbers. However, Max's passion borders on obsession as he works to find a pattern in the apparent chaos of the stock market, which is somehow connected to a mysterious 216 digit number.

As the movie goes on, Max becomes more unhinged, experiencing nightmarish hallucinations and bouts of paranoid psychosis. While he struggles to keep his head, he is also pursued by people who are interested in using the 216 digit number for their own ends.

Now, I'm not gonna give everything away, but I will say that Pi's ending is way less depressing than some of Aronofsky's other films, so there's that.

I definitely enjoyed this film. Even if some scenes were slow, the pure aesthetic of what was on the screen was enough to keep me entertained.

Be sure to send recommendations for next month to my email