Skip to main content

De Palma (2016), R, ★★★★

Brian De Palma.
This is a short documentary review.

Brian De Palma was a controversial director that takes important and/or fun topics and heighten to a whole other level with combinations of violence, sex, drugs and music. This documentary only has De Palma himself talking about his movies and topics surrounding the behind-the-scenes of his beloved films and his not-so-beloved films. It is a movie for cinephiles to watch and behold and make you want to revisit some of his classics and maybe look at a few scenes from his bad movies because some of the filmmaking is spectacular. If you are a fan of the director, you'll love this. If not, you'll still be interested and will be grown to appreciate him and his work.

From the time he saw Alfred Hitchock's masterpiece, Vertigo, when he was 18, it set the stage for his entire life. Directors Noah Baumbach and Jake Paltrow interview him without any of his actors, directors and filmmakers backing him up to tell other stories. It is just him and his anecdotes are fascinating to listen. It is like a TED talk that you want to be a part of because his wry and honest personality is based on how he feels if he made the right or wrong decision towards a scene in a movie and whether if it is a bad movie overall.

He wrote some alternative material regarding some scenes of his beloved films that thankfully did not get on-screen and also he reviles and gossips a bit of Cliff Robertson's material and personality and makeup preferences that it seemed that he did not get along with him during the shoot. We may never know because it's between them. But, that reveals how personal he can get to engage us into that conversation.

After the movie was over, I wanted to revisit some of his movies such as The Untouchables, Scarface, Carrie, Mission Impossible and the opening sequence of Snake Eyes. But, unfortunately his later films have not much the successful fruition that he wanted audiences to take away from. This documentary treats him as an insightful ingenue of cinema that will get you to study why De Palma  did what he wanted to do mixed with humor and revolt. It's a fascinating portrait of a filmmaker that is both classical and controversial in his own right.

****


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

2015 Documentaries

I have only seen 6 documentaries this year which also includes Amy and I Am Chris Farley . But, I have to be honest, this has not been a particularly strong year for documentaries except for onethat got me emotionally and mentally as what I examine for when they uncover the truth or some facts from the people involved in these documentaries. But, here are the four I have seen this year: Listen To Me Marlon, Unrated, 4 stars This is the most insightful documentary of the year as we only hear Marlon Brando narrating his life and experiences what he has gone through regarding his family, his private life and his film experiences regarding The Godfather , Apocalypse Now , Last Tango in Paris , etc. It is like Marlon Brando came out of his grave to give us another profoundly moving movie only we hear his voice and scenery and nothing else. The Look of Silence, R, 3.5 stars Joshua Oppenheimer's follow-up documentary is a light-hearted but still-disturbing film regarding a ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Daddy's Home 2 (2017), PG-13, ★1/2

The first Daddy's Home was surprisingly a financial success as I thought it was not as bad as many people thought. I thought it was a solid cable watch because it had enough laughs for that sort of mixed recommendation. I was not craving for a sequel for this movie because again, comedy sequels have a very bad record, however, the only difference is that it is not too late since the first movie came out a few years ago. But, this sequel is a reminder as to why we do not need a sequel to a hit comedy because this is a pretty much forgettable comedy, especially a holiday comedy...which I hade a guilty pleasure for. This did not work for me. Brad and Dusty (Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg) have become friends after the events of the first film and they set up a co-dad system where their two children, Megan and Dylan, spending time at each father's home. Dusty has re-married to writer Karen (Victoria's Secret model Alessandra Ambrosio) and he is step-dad to Adrianna, Karen...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Wolf of Wall Street (2013), R, 4 stars

The stockbrokers worshipping Jordan Belfort (Leonardo DiCaprio) like a god. Wall Street. The clients, the adrenaline, the stocks, the money, the power, and the decadence. The former three pertains to the man's job, but the latter three pertains what any stockbroker wants in order to have the freedom to do whatever they want with the client's money. As Mark Hanna (Matthew McConaughey) would say, "The name of the game is: move the money from your client's pocket into your pocket." We basically spend three hours seeing all of these Wall-Street scumbags steal the clients' money into their own pockets and spend it on booze, drugs, women, and other insane things in more insane activities. I have witnessed here is a great movie that I would not watch repetitively. The movie starts with Jordan Belfort (Leonardo DiCaprio) blowing cocaine onto a hooker's butt and he and his brokers throwing a little person onto a board with a dollar sign in the center. It'...
Post a Comment
Read more