Competition

Three very different movies but at the root a single theme. Over the last couple days I watched Word Wars: Tiles and Tribulations on the Scrabble Competition Circuit, Murderball, and the Longest Yard. The first two were particularly intriguing as they were both documentaries.
In Word Wars, there was no glamour in the competition, these were thirty year old spelling bee champs. I didn't get the impression that the main characters did much other than play Scrabble and study words. These were people you admired only for their insane devotion to this game which frankly didn't provide much monetary incentive in the competitions. Really the best reason I can see as to why they compete is because they can. This game requires a very specialized skill set to be one of the elite players and somewhere along the line these people achieved it. Surely they chose to compete at Scrabble, but at the point in their lives that was shown in the film, it was hardly a choice.
This ties in nicely to Murderball where the initial catalyst to become a wheelchair rugby player was certainly not a choice. The way the movie portrays the players is definitely not to elicit pity for them but unexpectedly to drive respect and even envy for the players. It succeeds so wonderfully in making you forget that all the players are in some way handicapped, and for the majority of the movie they are viewed only as athletes and competitors. I can't say their livestyle was particularly glamourous either, but none of them seemed to let their conditions which make them suitable for wheelchair rugby (the paralysis) define them. The movie shows great candor and truth and reminds you that they are still very human. They want to compete because they can. Not because they need to prove anything to their more able bodied brethren, but because they are good and can.
The Longest Yard also touches on the idea of competition, but it's really overshadowed by 'Remember the Titans' messages of teamwork and such. For no good reason, the prisoners are pegged as the underdogs throughout the film. And thus, these prisoners eventually feel the need to be competitive because they can be competitive. I just can't really see this message in the film because I don't know what assumptions lead to the thought that a trained small staff of guards are THAT much more capable than an entire prison worth of athletic talent. Oh well, at least the movie wasn't bad.
Word Wars: 4/5
Murderball: 4.5/5
Longest Yard:3/5

2005

I've come to realize this blog (weblog) will be mostly for me. An archive if you will. Out of respect for my leaky memory, I'll list the movies I've seen since I went on christmas (holiday) break.
Theatrically: Syriana, King Kong, Squid and the Whale, Brokeback Mountain
DVDally: Wedding Crashers, Kung Fu Hustle, Eyes Without a Face, Puddle Cruiser
Otherally: Safe, Thumbsucker, Word Wars, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
This, for me, movie watching spree has left me with very few movies from 2005 that I want to see. The number goes from few to too many if I start considering foreign or documentaries, but I won't. Listed I think it is Match Point, Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada, Munich , Good Night and Good Luck and 40 Year Old Virgin. This is a nice solid change from years past where I'd be dogging DVD releases until midsummer to pull this off.
Onto more pressing issues, I'm attempting a film review.
Thumbsucker (2005) - I was really anticipating this though I'm not exactly sure why. It looks all quirky and indie and it has a solid cast and I guess in those respects it lived up what I expected. It just never went anywhere. I'm the kind of person that usually appreciates slow movies, but Thumbsucker wasn't trying to present some realistic picture of high school life, slow times and all. Actually, I couldn't figure out what it was trying to show. If was at times surreal and others really down to earth, but it never came together. The parts were far more than the whole, but without making much sense, it all kind of fell flat in the end. I was generally satisfied throughout but near the end you could feel it was going to keep some ends loose and some questions unanswered. 2.5/5

Introduction

Welcome to this contentless blog which may one day serve as a resource for discovering films or gaining new insights. Film criticism can be hard, but this is the internet so it doesn't matter. Movies matter, but they shouldn't be treated as sacred (that does not mean they should be allowed to be remade). This blog aims to bring out some of the little things in movies that detract from the experience. Nitpick if you will. I'm thinking the way it works is if you liked the movie then the nitpick points didn't bother you, but conversely if didn't like it, the nitpick things may have been what brought the ship down. Surely there will be more as I can envision this blog fighting the cliches and waging war against movies that think the audience dumb.