PJH Studios

Category: Movies

Movies high, low, action, adventure, comedy, drama, sci-fi, horror, western, zombie, samurai, dvd, blockbuster

  • Movie Bar Codes

    Slice a frame from a movie, stitch ’em together, you’d get something that resembles a bar code. A bar code that illustrates the color palate of the film. Here’s Singin’ in The Rain.

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    Prints are for sale, too.

  • Catfish

    Catfisha movie about the Facebook age and tells a story about identity, truth, love, art and perhaps mental illness. It’s shot in a documentary style and works best if you know nothing of the plot. The suspense builds, peaking on a horse farm in Michigan, and then the twist arrives, bringing a cautionary and emotional denouement too soon. Too soon because, depending on your point of view, it’s either a pitiful story or cynical fable or plain stupid hoax.

  • True Grit (2010)

    True Grit, as remade by the Coen Brothers, is ok. It’s less hokey than the original with John Wayne, but plods along with a series of events strung together. Jeff Bridges as Rooster Cogburn works well as he fully embraces the character, and Hailee Steinfeld plays the spunky Mattie Ross with conviction.

    I think the issue is that the movie is made to be a serious western but the incongruity of a 14 year old girl marching a one-eyed, drunken federal marshal is anything but serious. Further, the snake pit scene still feels tacked on for the sole purpose to completely redeem the Cogburn character.

    The visuals and cinematography are well done and evoke a western feel.

  • Black Swan

    The ballet Swan Lake by Tchaikovsky serve as both a back drop and an allegory for the film, Black Swan, directed by Darren Aronofsky. Natalie Portman’s Nina Sayers is turned against herself in the ultra competitive, cutthroat world of ballet. The supporting cast of Mila Kunis, Vincent Cassel, Barbara Hershey and Winona Ryder serve only to add to the psychological transformation Nina undergoes, from innocent, hardworking dancer, to a self destructive presence, intent on seeking the dark, black goal of perfection. Hershey plays the vicarious, over protective mother who pathologically dotes on her daughter who wails during a key scene later in the movie, “What has happened to my sweet Nina?”

    For the acting, Kunis is good as Lily, seducing Nina to embrace her darker side. Cassel manipulates scenes with Machiavellian intent as the dance director Thomas Leroy. The film is emotionally intense, and visually dark and surreal, and at times jarring with outlandish visuals designed to create a nightmarish fever dream for Nina.

  • Scott Pilgrim – The Movie

    Scott Pilgrim – The Movie is a fun, hilarious adventure, action, nerd fest. Colorful visuals and engaging action sequences support a well directed cast as Scott Pilgrim must defeat seven evil exes. Indeed, Michael Cera plays the same character he always plays, but Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Ramona steals the movie with a great performance. Purists will decry that the plot differs from the books and lacks the emotional core Brian O’Malley conveyed in the original plot, but the core of the story–an apathetic, mooch of a loser, learning to love others and respecting himself–is still there.

  • Salt

    Salt, with Angelina Jolie, is pretty much a Bourne movie with the main, tortured hero as a female.  And to think, Tom Cruise was once considered for the part.

  • Inception deconstructed

    The Awl deconstructs Inception as a movie about making movies, or the act of creation.

    Like 8½, Inception is a movie about making movies; it’s not that the whole movie “is a dream,” though, but rather that the whole movie is an allegory of creation.

    Upon second viewing, the metaphor for creation makes sense across the entire 2.5 hours–seeking a muse, finding inspiration beyond that muse and persevering to bring your vision to reality.