Crimes and Misdemeanors

 Crimes and Misdemeanors, the 1989 film directed by Woody Allen, is a heartbreaking, chilling and cynical look at a group of intersecting individuals within New York City. The film follows Judah Rosenthal an ophthalmologist who is torn after murdering his mistress Dolores Paley, and Cliff Stern, a documentary film maker trapped in a loveless marriage. Stern pines after Halley Reed, a producer, while sabotaging a documentary based on the successful T.V producer Lester who also happens to be his brother-in-law. The film manages to pervert and contradict the messages within the novel Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky. These messages include the central existentialist point of bad faith and contextualizing it in a rapidly progressing capitalist and materialistic America lead by Ronald Reagan. This essay will look at bad faith exhibited through the characters of Judah Rosenthal, Dolores Paley, and Cliff Stern. The bad faith riddled throughout this film heavily pertains towards bad judgement and non-traditional moral ethics. Additionally, we will explore how bad faith is presented through Judah's persistent sense of guilt and his conversations with a Rabbi who is a patient that is going blind and fictional bantering with his deceased family . Cliff's bad faith musings comes through his younger niece, and the Professor Louis Levy a brilliant philosopher who is the subject of his documentary. Crimes and Misdemeanors subjects the audience to Woody Allen's view of bad faith, that God is a moral burden we put on ourselves. While Crime and Punishment echoes the central theme that moral salvation and redemption could be found within God, Crimes and Misdemeanors approaches the theme from the opposite direction. Moral integrity and faith no longer can come from the message of God but rather material wealth, social status, and brevity. The individuals who pursue their own selfish actions and dismiss a religious rhetoric or a traditional moral philosophical view of life prosper. But those who cling on fate and religious beliefs are blinded or left wearing glasses, unaware and unable to see this rapidly changing world.

Last Year At Marienbad

Last Year At Marienbad (1961), is  the follow up film of Alain Resnais’ ground breaking and experimental film Hiroshima Mon Amour. Written by Alain Robbe-Grillet and starring Delphine Seyrig and Giorgio Albertazzi, it is as divisive 52 years after its release as it was at its debut. The film can be be aptly summarized in a synopsis, but it would be nowhere near a conclusive and accurate portrayal of the events that are depicted. The audience follows A (La Femme) and X (L’Homme), in the spa hotel Marienbad. X continuously hounds A with events and memories that happened last year at Marienbad, when the two were apparently lovers.  A man named M who could be a lover, husband, or guardian, but is never made clear, keeps watch and is wary of the two while the events take place. However A is unsure and unaware of these assertions and memories. Thus begins a surrealist and existentialist trip within the memory and existence of these two individuals. 

Gregory's Girl

Very few films in recent history can claim to be as touching or truthful as Gregory's Girl (1980) in regards to adolescent struggles. While "honest" portrayal of teenage life has been upon the minds of modern film makers, very few get's as close as this over 30 year old film.  The story simply follows Gregory a boy turning into a man and his shy but tenacious pursuit of Dorothy, a soccer savant.

The Last Detail

Sporting some of the best facial hair and performance we have seen from Jack Nicholson is in the film “The Last Detail” (1973), An On the Road type travel story (including a revelatory brothel scene), we are introduce to Buddusky and Mulhall. Two navy lifers who have to escort Meadows a recently convicted man to his prison.  Although Meadows is only eighteen, so  they decide to give him a life changing experience while learning new things about their selves.

The Verdict

 The Verdict  a 1982 court room drama written by David Mamet and masterfully executed by Director Sidney Lumet and world renowned and revered actor Paul Newman  manages not only to be a successful courtroom drama, but a haunting character study; While additionally it manages to expel the inherent and systematic  racism, sexism, and prejudice that is ubiquitous within our society. The plot whilst not ground breaking is a solid set up for tense and character driven drama, Frank Galvin a once respected lawyer has free fallen into alcoholism and a state of complete isolation after a messy divorce and a jury tampering case that heavily involved him. He decides to take a simple settlement case from his long time friend Morrissey, however after he visits his client in the hospital who is now brain dead from a botched pregnancy gone wrong,  he decides to take matters in his alcoholic trembling hands.

Blood Simple

Blood Simple, the Coen brothers first foray into their surrealistic and black comedy laden feature film universe comes together as a rousing success. Blood Simple follows the very staples of the genre they have patented which includes heavy doses of dark comedy, mistaken identity, and deliciously ironic endings. The story follows Julian a small town bar owner and his maniac selfish pursuits of murdering his wife Abby and her lover Ray (coincidentally a bar tender at Julian’s establishment). However things go awry when the hit men Visser decides to murder Julian after deceiving him into thinking he had committed the murders. As simple as this would sound it isn’t as the title would aptly indicate.

Aguirre: Wrath of God

Werner Herzog's, Aguirre: Wrath Of God  on the surface  is  a statement on the ineffable horrors  found in the ubiquitously terrifying South American jungle. The film and raft so prominently displayed is driven by Aguirre a man hounded by the goal of finding the lost city of El Dorado and finally conquering South America in its entirety. He does so at the behest of his own maddening delusion, even while protest from his dwindling crew ring in his ears. The jungle around him is assailing and suffocating, the danger of native tribes always on the mind and on tips of poisoned darts;  in this world, Aguirre will stop at nothing to succeed.