You can't judge a DVD by its cover. Look at this one. A wide-eyed young woman shoots the camera a cheeky, naughty look and the tag line warns that "she'll change your life." The easy assumption to make is that Amélie is a movie about a flirtatious little French heartbreaker, a simple "manic pixie dream girl" rom-com before it was a beaten down trope. Not so! I mean, yes, it is a romantic comedy of sorts and the title character is mischievous, but only in the sense that she goes around helping people without their knowledge. Furthermore, Amélie is a well-developed character rather than merely a quirky object of desire for a dopey male protagonist.
What I'm trying to say here is that this is more than just a French precursor to Garden State.
Yeah, Amélie is eccentric, but so is this entire movie. It's bright, cheerful, and at times downright cartoonish. Exaggerated sound effects and bouncy accordion tunes provide a pleasant ear-feel, and little bits of imagination and fantasy are played out in the best CGI available in 2001, which added even more charm to the movie without outright dating it.
I'm left without much else to say about Amélie. It was a fun little movie and it wasn't nearly as basic or predictable as I figured it would be, so praise and kudos. All the same, I can't pretend it's even remotely essential viewing. There are many better foreign films out there than this one, which might only be as popular as it is in America because it's a foreign film - and a token foreign film at that. Still, not bad. Not bad at all.
Love this movie. If you're curious for more like it, try (director) Jean-Pierre Jeunet's previous film, The City of Lost Children - if you already haven't. Stars Ron Perlman. Need I say more?
ReplyDeleteAlso, I've always been curious if Jeunet could handle a comic book movie. He just has some much style and flair behind the camera. Would love to see him helm The Flash for 2014. How would he show a man he could run so fast he can literally cross different dimensions? Unfortunately we're getting the rom-com director to Heigl's masterpiece, Life As We Know. Smart move. Smart move.
Trev, as you know more about movies than anyone I know, you should totally participate in this March Madness style tournament for "Best Movie of the 2000s" (http://ranksfornothing.blogspot.com) Amélie is a contender! Then again, what isn't?
ReplyDeleteAh, Sween's alerted to these rankings before. Although I always have fun seeing what other websites (whether it be IMDb, RT, or whomever) have for listing on movies, I honestly would never know what to put down. I mean, my favorite movie of all time is a shoddy B-grade horror movie with a lead who has a chainsaw for a hand. Don't think I exactly exude stellar taste. But, then again, I'm aware that there's real no point to these. It's just for shits-and-giggles. Still...
ReplyDeleteHow the fuck do I compare The Incredibles to the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy? Or The Departed against The 40-Year-Old Virgin? I'm at a lost here. Not to mention I have some clear decade favorites never even getting a nod (28 Days Later, The Royal Tenenbaums, Babel, Zoolander).
Then there's personal relationships that cannot be truly explained or justified. For me, it's The Ring. Went to a horror movie convention with Paul to meet the Evil Dead cast. While there, some random dude handed us a blank video tape and walked away never mentioning what it was suppose to be. We flew home and forgot about it. A week later, Paul calls me and explains I need to come over immediately. I arrive to find him sitting on the couch really weirded out. He asks if I remember that random tape we received. I told him I did. Then he puts it on. Although we didn't know it at the time (as we were still months away from seeing any trailers on The Ring's release) we were watching the famous Ring video tape. There were no credits. No mark of DreamWorks Pictures. No explanation. Nothing. We must have watched it dozens of times trying to figure it out then left it as it must have been some weird-ass student film some creep was trying to distribute at the convention.
Then the movie hit theaters. Blew our fucking minds that we had been watching this fabled cursed tape the whole time. Also, hands down the scariest experience I've ever had in theaters.
You can't rank this shit. It just is what it is. And it's awesome.
So, for all it's worth, I wouldn't know where to begin with these rankings. Movie knowledge means nothing when it comes to taste or enjoyment. But for the sake of facilitating interesting dialogues in the effort to put together meaningless lists, best of luck to ya! Curious at how it'll all end.
What the hell... Best film is The Dark Knight. (Would love to say The Matrix, but it looks like it's eight months premature. Bummer.)
Facilitating dialogues by means of a meaningless list is really the exact purpose of the tournament (and so many before it). You are right to suggest that The Departed and the 40-Year Old Virgin are entirely different films, and that each excels at what it does and can't be directly compared against the other, but in forcing yourself to come up with a definitive "winner" among that pair and explaining your reasoning, you're thinking critically about what makes movies great. Or shitty. Or whatever.
ReplyDeleteSo if I say, "The Departed was a better movie. Look at all those stellar performances! Plus, 40-Year-Old Virgin kick-started the trend of two-hour comedies that have become the norm in recent years," and you say, "Au contraire! The Departed was simply an inferior remake of an Asian movie with an all too neat-and-tidy 'everybody dies' ending. And 40-Year-Old Virgin may have been followed up by some lesser efforts, but don't hold those movies against its merits as a legitimately funny comedy," then regardless of which film "wins" and moves on in the tournament, we've both gained some insight and shared opinions. Honestly, for me, doing tournaments like this one force me to consider things I never had before, such as (for instance) 300 vs. Cast Away. I know what I like and dislike about each movie, and maybe that's enough, but I still think there's something to be gained, even just in an introspective sense, from coming up with a reason for declaring one "superior" to the other.
Anyway, that's how I see it, but I totally understand your polite decline. This thing will run all month if you change your mind, particularly once we're down to the final 16 movies or so.