The 3 Amigos: Inarritu, del Toro, & Cuaron

The 3 Amigos: Inarritu, del Toro, & Cuaron

Host:  Tanner

Freddy's Take: Tanner decided to go off the beaten path and stole three directors on one day. LOL! That's OK though, because that's what we do. We don't really set limits to how we conduct our day and we all know that if one of us wanted to revisit a director it's alright to do so. Exposing each other to what we love or have interest in is a big part of why we do this. 

I enjoyed the films from all of these directors that I have seen. Individually, their body of work is impressive, but together, it's a collection of diverse, interesting, and complex film from three men who are among the best in the world at what they do (each has at least one Academy Award for directing). Tanner chose del Toro's "Pans Labyrinth", Cuaron's "Roma" and Inarritu's "Biutiful". All three are excellent choices, but let's face it, could he have gone wrong picking ANY film that one of these gentlemen have directed?

I have watched "Pan's Labyrinth" multiple times and love the rich storytelling. It ties in real events with the fantasy (or is it?) world of a little girl trying to cope with her life being turned upside down. It has the signature creatures that del Toro is famous for, but the story of the girl trying to figure out who to trust and manage her feelings in a situation where she feels (rightfully so) in the way is what stands out to me and keeps me going back to the movie. 

"Biutiful" is a movie that I had seen once before and remembered it being gritty and short on being an uplifting film. It sort of reminds me of "Taxi Driver" in that way. Javier Bardem is terrific as a man who can "see" death and suddenly has to come to grips with the imminent reality of his own demise. In a more mainstream film, the main character would have been able to provide his family with the means to carry on and he would know they were OK, but this isn't that movie. Inarittu doesn't let us off the hook, as he keeps Bardems character rooted in his world of hiring cheap labor along with creating and selling bootleg products. He isn't a good man, but he tries to be and it's just not possible to live in that world without things going wrong. Great movie from a director (Inirratu) that has several honest to goodness "great" films in his arsenal such as "The Revenant", "Birdman", and "Babel". 

Finally, that brings us to Cuaron's "Roma". I hadn't seen this film and was a little uncertain of what we were getting into as it is basically a "Netflix" movie. I won't sight unseen wave off a Netflix movie again. This was a terrific piece of work, albeit a little strange. It's set in 1070's era Mexico City and is strongly rooted in reality. There is an attempt to get the audience to see the differences in classes from a societal view, but it also does a good job of portraying how class plays a role in how we perceive each other on a personal level, day to day. I highly recommend this one. 

Another enjoyable day with my friends watching movies! Thanks Tanner!  

Roma

Biutiful

Pan's Labyrinth

Akira Kurosawa

Akira Kurosawa

Host: Tanner

Tanner's Take: Akira Kurosawa had been in my mind since the beginning but I never knew what the reaction would be from Freddy or Chris, so I stayed clear. His movies tend to be very long, and being Japanese the films would be very different from what we had previously seen. But I had to choose him due to the fact that he is one of the most important and influential directors of all time. Seven Samurai is a fantastic film that I had seen before so that was an easy choice to add in there. It's a very entertaining movie that moves along at a steady pace and is filled with adventure, humor and action. That was the only Kurosawa film I had seen, so the other two were a difficult choice for me. Seeing as how Seven Samurai was a 3 1/2 hour long film, I knew I had to pick two that would bring that night to a close at a good time. Rashomon and Ikiru were two films of his I had wanted to see most and their runtimes worked in perfectly. I feel like I had never quite seen a film like Rashomon before. It touched on a lot of issues that would have been taboo back then and seeing a lot of the Japanese culture working in that time period was very interesting. Ikiru was a film that a lot of us as Americans could relate to due to it's subject matter. And although I feel the ending tended to drag on a bit, it was a fantastic film none-the-less. I'm glad I had the chance to show Freddy and Chris these films because I feel the chances of them watching them on their own was rare. Kurosawa is a very important director, and anyone who has a respect for film needs to indulge themselves in his movies.

Rashomon

Ikiru

Seven Samurai

The Films Of Akira Kurosawa