Quarantine Reviews 9: Six Recommended by Jim Cameron Stan

In honor of my good friend, Jim Cameron Stan, here are six movies he recommended to me and now I recommend them to you all. The reviews are listed in the order they were recommended to me.

Enjoy my reviews, thank you for J.C. Stan, check these films out, and Happy Viewing everyone.

The Half of It, released 2020, Ryan's Rating ✯✯✯1/2 (out of four, highly recommended)

Leah Lewis as Ellie. credit: Roger Ebert.com

Ellie Chiu (played by an excellent Leah Lewis), is the only Asian in her very small rural town and longs of going to art school but does not have the money. Her father, still mourning the years ago death of Ellie's mom, runs the freight train crossing at the edge of town where Ellie works late at night. She is extremely smart, and she is secretly paid by classmates to ghostwrite their school papers. Ellie also has one other secret, she is gay and has feelings for her classmate, Aster (Alexxis Lemire), the daughter of the town's church Deacon. Enter, Paul (Daniel Diemer), a football player who is kind and shy and also has a crush on Aster. He doesn't know how to express himself so he pays Ellie to write Aster some love letters. She reluctantly agrees and the story expands from there. While the plot is a modern variation on Cyrano De Bergerac (or if you prefer a younger version of Steve Martin's Roxanne) writer/director Alice Wu and a great unknown cast fill the movie with so much honesty and heart it made me forget any familiarities of the story and allowed me to truly enjoy an excellently made film. It is rare to see a film of such nuance in today's cinema and I highly recommend this one. [Side note: This film reminds me of another Asian American independent gem called Eve and the Firehorse, directed by Julia Kwan, from 2005. I saw it at the Hawaii International Film Festival and I wish this movie as well was given a platform like Netflix]. 

   

Frequency, released in 2000. Ryan's Rating ✯✯✯.

Dennis Quaid in Frequency. credit: IMDB

I saw this when it came out on VHS but didn't really remember the full story, so it was fun to watch again like it was the first time. In 1999 (present day when the movie was released) a New York police detective (played by Jim Caviezel) finds his father's old ham-radio in the basement and magically the radio allows him to talk to his long deceased New York firefighter father (Dennis Quaid) in 1969. This crux of parents, their children, and time lost is the heart of the story. There is a police investigation plot involving a serial killer that feels a little too much like a standard tv cop show (not surprising director Gregory Hoblit directed and produced a number of episodes for Hill Street Blues and NYPD Blue) and at times this police story feels like a distraction from the father/son story but if I didn't focus too much on the police aspect it worked fine. Another distraction is the attempt at New York accents by the two stars (they aren't very good at the accent), but that's nitpicking. The film also tries to explain some of the magical happenings which seem unnecessary, for instance a phenomenon with the northern lights that happens every thirty years has something to do with the time traveling radio signal. One thing I did appreciate is the nod to the creation of new memories when the past is altered allowing the future to change. In many time travel movies when the past is altered the main characters apparently lived a whole different life that they have no memory of (for instance Marty McFly has no idea what happened in his first eighteen years of life after he changes the events of 1955; he doesn't recognize his house, his family, etc.). If you stick to the heart of Frequency and don't get weighed down in examining the logistics this is a very enjoyable little film and you'll be glad to have seen it. I know I'm glad to have seen it.

Enemy at the Gates, released 2001. Ryan's Rating: ✯✯1/2.

Jude Law as the Soviet Sniper credit: PrimeVideo

During WWII, a Soviet sniper (Jude Law) is built up by a writer in the war department (Joseph Fiennes) as a folk hero to boost the morale during the Nazi invasion. In turn the Nazis bring in their own sniper (Ed Harris) to hunt down this Russian hero. The movie feels like three stories that could have worked well together but never really gel like they should: First story, the two snipers hunting each other (which should be the main story but really doesn't come until maybe forty minutes in); second story, there is a historical drama aspect about the effects of war on the regular people and seeing the war from the Soviet/Russian point of view (this includes an epic opening battle sequence reminiscent of Saving Private Ryan's D-Day opening); and then the third story (personally the least interesting) is the triangle between the Fiennes and Law characters (Fiennes's character eventually resents the fame he's given to this sniper) and a volunteer female soldier (Rachel Weisz). Each sort of work in and of themselves, but they never combine into a single film like the makers want. The best sequence is a stand off between the two snipers in a bombed out factory involving reflections in panes of broken glass. My least favorite of the  movies listed here.

Stranger Than Fiction, released 2006. Ryan's Rating: ✯✯✯✯ (highly recommended).

Will Ferrell as Harold finding joy in life. credit: Netflix

Harold Crick (wonderfully played by Will Ferrell in a non-Ferrell performance) is a stuffy IRS auditor who lives in routine because he seemingly knows no other way. He does everything to obsessive precision from brushing his teeth to catching the correct bus and by choice never takes any days off from work. One day he hears a woman's voice narrating his life as if it were a novel and the voice informs him he will die in the next few weeks. Harold seeks out a local college English professor (Dustin Hoffman, who has a really nice office for a professor) to explain the novelistic narration Harold is hearing. This leads them to discover the voice belongs to a reclusive award winning author (Emma Thompson) working on her next book and little does she know that her writings are effecting real life. There's also a sweet and believable love story that grows between Harold and a woman he's auditing (Maggie Gyllenhaal). And that is only the beginning. I truly enjoyed this film, perfectly cast it never goes too deeply into its meta-narrative ideas but is an engaging life affirming tale fully realized by the filmmakers and cast. Check this one out if you haven't seen it.

Mystery Men, released 1999. Ryan's Rating: ✯✯1/2.

The Replacement Heroes. credit: decider.com

When a big time super hero (played by Greg Kinnear) is kidnapped, a group of amateur heroes (Ben Stiller, William H. Macy, Hank Azaria, etc.) band together to save him and the city from the clutches of a mad villain (Geoffrey Rush, clearly having a ball). These low rent heroes (sort of) have powers, with names like The Bowler, The Shoveler, and Blue Raja, but are more of a ragtag misfit team. Based on an independent comic book series the film feels like a comic come to life with its framing and shot compositions and the elaborate sets. It is a fun movie but its pace is a bit slow and like many movies about teams has to take up a lot of story time introducing the characters. My favorite (and this is not a joke toward the Jim C. Stan) is The Bowler played by Janeane Garofalo in another tailor made part. I remember this was a big hit for my freshman class when it came out in 1999.

The Vast of Night, wide release 2020 (festival 2019). Ryan's Rating: ✯✯✯1/2 

Jake Horowitz and Sierra McCormick pc: IMDB

It's the late 1950s in the small town of Cayuga, NM, and it's the night of the big high school basketball game. The town switchboard operator (played by Sierra McCormick) and her friend the local radio DJ (Jake Horowitz) discover a strange sound coming through the phone and radio lines that appears to be otherworldly. While this basic plot has been used countless times (Close Encounters, The Blob, Them, Twilight Zone, Contact, heck this could be a 1950s Stranger Things) first time director Andrew Patterson (and writer under a pseudonym) makes it all seem fresh and surprisingly original. Patterson nods to this familiarity with a framing device of a 1950s TV show "Paradox Theater" (this neat framing has meta-narrative connotations but also works to cover up some edits or possibly moments that were not able to be filmed in the budget). Throughout the film there is a tangible unsettled feeling and the tension builds and builds as the films progresses, al based the way Patterson sets up shots and uses long single takes superior yet subtle performances by the actors. There is a close up/long take of McCormick operating the switchboard as frantic calls come in that lasts for several minutes it is handled masterfully by both the director and actress. To quote reviewer Sheila O'Malley (one of the many who operate under Roger Ebert's team), "It's old-fashioned in a beautiful way: once upon a time, a close-up really meant something, and close-ups really mean something in The Vast of Night." I fully agree. Director Patterson has a great eye for framing and camera movement and while he made this film with a very small budget (apparently paid for almost entirely out of his own pocket) it always looks like a high quality film. Patterson's feature directing career (after many years making commercials) is off to a good start and I hope he has the opportunity to make more films as well put together as this one.