Nic November: Gone in 60 Seconds and Lord of War

Just in case you didn't get the message in my last "Dipping My Toes" post, November will be dedicated to the work of everyone's favourite actor, Nicolas Cage. Throughout the month, I will be subjecting myself willingly watching eight Nicolas Cage movies, so I can figure out whether I love him or I hate him. Starting off the month I have 2000's Gone in 60 Seconds and 2005's Lord of War. Brace yourself, this is going to be an interesting month...

Also, while we're at it, this month I'll be giving all of the Nic November movies their own specialised ratings. They're called the "Cage Rage" scales, which I used a long time ago, but am bringing back for this. You'll see them below, but the more on the Cage Rage scale, the more raged it is. It isn't a reflection on how good the movie is, just how crazy Cage is.

The Hairstyle: Yes, Peroxide Makes Me Look More Badass.

Gone in 60 Seconds is exactly the kind of movie that they play thousands of times on TV, pretending like it is a "Premiere Movie" when in reality, it has been a "Premiere Movie" the first 13 times they played it on a Saturday night. But that doesn't matter, because it is so forgettable that people will go on thinking that it is a "Premiere Movie" until the Friends reruns stop being aired at 6.30pm every weeknight.

Classic--Requiem for a Dream

or: The most depressing film. Ever.

One word to sum it up: Depressing.

How about this for irony? At Christmas, the happiest time of the year, I asked my friend to get me Requiem for a Dream, since I had wanted to see it for a long time. Just a little under a month later, it finally got posted and I received it as my Christmas present. Little did I know that that Christmas present wasn't really the happy gift that I could rejoice over. Instead, I literally felt drained of all happiness when that movie ended. I don't think I have ever cried so much during a movie!

Pills and heroin offer fulfillment of the dreams of four residents of Brooklyn's Brighton Beach in the shadow of a crumbling Coney Island amusement park. Sara (Ellen Burstyn) dreams of appearing on television wearing a red dress that's a bit snug. So she starts a diet assisted by uppers. Her son Harry (Jared Leto), his girlfriend Marion (Jennifer Connelly), and his best friend Tyrone (Marlon Wayans) pin their hopes for money on moving up from pushing nickel bags of heroin to buying in bulk. They also deal to support their growing habits. Things are going well: Harry buys his mum a new TV, she's losing weight, she has status among her friends, Tyrone's girlfriend is cool, and the team has money in a shoe box. These dreams are addictive.

Jesus Christ. This movie is not one I want to watch again anytime soon. It was far too traumatic. I have to admit, with the R18 rating heavily slapped on it, I feel as if I was too young to watch this movie. And I never admit defeat to a censors rating. I was watching it, thinking, 'this isn't too depressing...' However, once I got to the scene where Harry injects heroin into a decaying hole in his arm, I was watching this through my fingers. Seeing the end to each characters story thrown together in that beautifully edited climax tore me to pieces. I knew the effects of drugs, but I think I was too naï­ve to believe that it was quite that heartbreaking. My warning for this movie is: it's ultra depressing, on an epic scale.

Besides the shocking story, this movie is very well made. Darren Aronofsky, in his early years of film making, created a movie which is a lot like being high (I guess). The editing is perfect, and there are such quick cuts that the movie just blows away from you in no time. Aronofsky uses every trick in the book: split-screens, time lapsed photography, extremely tight closeups, long tracking shots, hip hop montages...it's the kind of film making that is truly amazing to watch. Set to a soaring score by Clint Mansell, the momentum this movie builds up is the type I could expect from an epic action film rather than a drama, which is something that happens too rarely. In short, the style of this movie is the kind that I go for. If I were to ever make a movie, then it would probably be similar to this.

The performances, too, are phenomenal. Especially the one from Ellen Burstyn as the tragic Sara Goldfarb. She is the main emotional arc in this movie, and her slow burning insanity is heart breaking to watch. The unfortunate thing is that her characters dream is immensely close to reality. Jennifer Connelly is wonderful as Marion. I absolutely adored the bath scene she's in which is a slick copy from a Japanese movie called Perfect Blue. Jared Leto isn't fantastic in this movie, but its the type of movie which makes you think that he should really still act. Marlon Wayans is surprising, and proves that he shouldn't really be doing...whatever it is that he does these days. The performances, the direction, the music...they're all at great form. And that's why Requiem for a Dream rocks, even if it's emotionally rattling.


THE VERDICT: Darren Aronofsky's talents are well on display here, with some clever visuals that help tell a tragic and depressingly true story of dreams shattered.

9/10