Tag / 1992

by Jaime Rebanal

‘Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me’ Review: The Death of Innocence in a World of Blue

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NOTE: This is a revised review that best represents my current thoughts on the film as opposed to my previous review. You can read the original right here.

Twin Peaks is one of the most influential television series ever made but the prequel film Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me has never enjoyed the same sort of acclaim – having been met with harsh reviews and also having flopped at the box office. I’m fairly biased in the favour of Twin Peaks as it is my favourite television series of all time but throughout the show you could always tell that Lynch had a particular love for the character of the deceased Laura Palmer. In fact, there are few people whose entire mystery has impacted an entire culture the same way that Laura Palmer has done so, and no one understands the effect her death has left upon many that same way David Lynch does. Yet few people knew her as a person too, which emphasizes the tragic beauty of Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me.

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by Jaime Rebanal

‘Candyman’ Review: When Generations of Horrific Prejudice Become Eternalized

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Clive Barker’s The Forbidden is one of the most tragic stories in his own bibliography, but seeing how Bernard Rose had adapted it to the screen in 1992 is a whole different story. Candyman carries everything that made Clive Barker’s stories so wonderful, but it’s also quite stunning to see how the film’s social commentary can play in today’s age, especially given the nature of its concept. This isn’t so much a horror story all about the impact that urban legends have upon the communities where they originate, but also the ways in which generational racism has bled its way into the minds of those who have still suffered at its hands. Yet knowing what it is that the Candyman himself has represented for the many people who’ve believed in him and been terrified of his existence over the years, Clive Barker and Bernard Rose have not only formed one of the defining horror films of the 1990’s but also one of the most tragic stories of its own sort, given the circumstances behind the birth of his legendary status.

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by Jaime Rebanal

The Long Day Closes – Review

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I still remember that feeling of first discovery being made for myself at a young age. I came across Casablanca on Turner Classic Movies when I was 12 years old, and it was a moment that changed my life. And prior to getting into movies, I still found myself a sense of comfort from playing video games. It was a discovery of feeling that has only furthered where I wanted to go with my own life, being behind a shelter the whole time at the fear of what public perception would have brought upon myself. I was only discovering what films could speak large volumes for oneself, no matter what sort they were. And if any other film had spoken large volumes about what that sort of experience was like, there’s a reason I point to Terence Davies’s The Long Day Closes above all else: not only does it remain my favourite of the director’s work but an experience that came right at the perfect moment.

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by Jaime Rebanal

Chaplin – Review

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Film lovers should already be familiar with the name of Charlie Chaplin considering the huge impact he has laid upon the comedy genre over the years. Richard Attenborough’s biopic comes along the same veins where his Oscar-winning Gandhi has come from and although not nearly as long, it’s in part an entertaining one but at the same time too by-the-numbers for its own good, which is the last thing I’d even want for a film about Chaplin. I don’t wish to dismiss Richard Attenborough’s Chaplin as the sort of film that does present itself as a disservice towards Chaplin’s legacy because in part it feels like it can excellently recreate that joy, although there’s another degree to where I’m not even sure what Attenborough intended his viewers to make of the life of the man behind the Tramp himself. What may have worked for Gandhi didn’t transfer well for a tale about Chaplin.

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by Jaime Rebanal

Malcolm X – Review

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The closest that Spike Lee has ever gotten to touching what he managed to leave behind in Do the Right Thing was his own presentation in Malcolm X, a biopic about the famous Afro-American activist. I still remember when I first watched Malcolm X quite vividly, I was only reading about him during one of my history classes and in order to prepare for an essay, I turned on Spike Lee’s feature about the man, for I didn’t see only what I would have thought I could learn about Malcolm X only from reading a textbook. By the time I came out, I still found it hard enough even attempting to finish the essay although it seemed I knew what Malcolm X was like and I got a greater understanding of how he succeeded. He was not a man without his controversies but it’s amazing to see what Spike Lee made of his own life story in here: arguably one of the most important American films of its time, and still a subject worth noting in the present.

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by Jaime Rebanal

Basic Instinct – Review

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In his Hollywood years, Paul Verhoeven has been able to make some of the smartest social satires of the period through science fiction but he comes back to a sense of what had defined him during his years making films in the Netherlands through Basic Instinct. With Basic Instinct he returns to a form that has defined him during his early years but even here his biting satire can still be felt in a most unexpected sense. If something were to stand out about Paul Verhoeven, there’s an incredible feeling of self-awareness lurking within his work that never feels afraid to lash out at one. If there were much to say about said power, it gives his own work a delicious taste and a certain exotic quality becomes all the more abundant there. At times I think I underestimate my love of Paul Verhoeven but I can never help it.

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by Jaime Rebanal

The Muppet Christmas Carol – Review

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I get odd looks in some circles whenever I mention that The Muppet Christmas Carol is my favourite screen adaptation of Charles Dickens’s classic story. Yes, we also have the greatness in Alastair Sim’s portrait of Ebenezer Scrooge but Michael Caine’s performance always remained rooted in my heart. Maybe it might be a statement I’m making from pure bias but my heart has always stayed in favour of The Muppet Christmas Carol for I have grown up with the Muppets since I was a child and my love for the franchise has retained through all the years. With the many cinematic takes on A Christmas Carol out there, nothing comes out the same way The Muppet Christmas Carol does for with all the smiles that the Muppets have brought me over the years, this one will always be the best in my eyes.

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by Jaime Rebanal

Bob Roberts – Review

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Tim Robbins knew what was coming. Back in 1992, the same year in which he starred in Robert Altman’s The Player, he wrote, directed, and starred as the titular character in this mockumentary Bob Roberts – a political comedy which may or may not have revealed something telling about where the nation is set to go. That’s the scary part of the effectiveness of the satire that Bob Roberts is presenting, at first the image that we are looking at is so funny and then when looked at in comparison to world events, suddenly all that humour becomes something more than just a funny moment – it was a warning. It was funny then, but when we look at where we have all gone now, it might not have been so much of a joke as it initially may have been seen as.

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by Jaime Rebanal

Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me – Review

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It’ll be rather difficult for myself to speak of Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me from the perspective of an outsider as Twin Peaks is my favourite television series. It’s clear that coming into Fire Walk With Me without having watched the series prior is not particularly as great an idea given as the ideas will remain clear especially to Twin Peaks fans, and for those unfamiliar, the results will just be on a mere baffling end for it is not accessible to anyone who has not seen the series. Normally I’d refer to the criticism that it’s a longer episode of the series for film, but Fire Walk With Me isn’t that, for there’s a lot that still works even without any connection to the series. It was what I would have wanted as a fan, though if it were a single episode, it wouldn’t be ranked among my favourites. Continue reading →

by Jaime Rebanal

The Player – Review

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It’s nice to see a film that plays with the usual Hollywood tropes yet at the same time expose something rather truthful about the way the system works, and suddenly the in-joke being presented hits you. Robert Altman, a director who always was searching for a manner to go against the norms amidst the studio influence gives a clear picture of what harm it does to the most valuable thing behind what forms what we come to view; the visions. Amazingly, The Player chooses never to head into the territory where it would highly offend anyone working within the business, but there’s a uniqueness to the satire we’re finding here that just allows it to stand out from other films that poke fun at the system, especially with what it hides under. Continue reading →