Posts tagged money
Nightcrawler “Good and Creepy”
Nov 12th
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
NIGHTCRAWLER is a fascinating and dark movie that affects you the way passing an accident on the highway does: You want to look at it, but you feel a little bit guilty in doing so.
Jake Gyllenhaal stars as Louis Bloom, a petty thief who does come across an automobile accident in Los Angeles, and the experience changes his life so much that he becomes a different man because of it.
It is the middle of the night, Lou stops his car to observe what is happening at the scene, he watches a videographer record footage for morning news programs, and when he sees the footage on television, Lou decides that he can do that, and so he buys himself a camcorder and a police scanner and sets out to become a freelance videographer specializing in accidents and crime scenes that happen in the middle of the night.
Lou makes his first sale for $250, and when the news director tells him he has a good eye, Lou says, “I’m a very, very quick learner; you’ll be seeing me again.”
A carjacking crime wave going on in the city causes business to be so good for Lou that he hires a young homeless man for $30 a night to be his assistant.
Rick’s job is to ride shotgun, watch the traffic, give directions, and handle a second camera for different angles at the scenes.
Well, one night Lou and Rick come onto a crime scene that will change their lives.
It involves shootings during a home invasion, and because Lou and Rick arrive on the scene before the police do, they see the shooters leave the house, and Lou even records them.
Then Lou goes inside the house to get exclusive footage of the victims while Rick stays outside and stands watch.
Lou has no compunction against moving evidence inside the house for better camera angles before the police arrive and gets away with it.
For now.
Lou establishes a business relationship with the news director of one of the TV stations, who is Nina, played by Rene Russo, but he would like their relationship to be more than just business.
Rick wants more money, the police question Lou, and then all hell breaks loose.
NIGHTCRAWLER is fascinating to watch, very good, but very very very very creepy.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
“Inside Llewyn Davis” Tries Everything to See What Sticks
Jan 13th
“See What Sticks”
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
Inside Llewyn Davis is the latest film written and directed by Joel and Ethan Coen, and the story follows a weekend in the life of the title character as he tries to become a success as a folksinger in New York City.
As with most Coen Brothers movies, this one has already won some awards, been nominated for more, and will probably win a few more during this awards season.
Also as with most Coen Brothers movies, audiences love them, hate them, or can take them or leave them. This one, I can leave.
The time is February 1961, and we see Llewyn performing at a cafe in Greenwich Village for bucket money. While he is singing, a bucket is passed around the audience, and he gets to keep whatever money is left in the bucket after the house takes its cut.
Llewyn doesn’t have a regular place to stay, and he depends on the kindness of friends to be allowed to sleep on their couches. So, he wakes up one morning after being awakened by the owners’ cat, and when he leaves the apartment, the cat follows him outside.
Unfortunately, the door locks behind him, and a running motif in the story has Llewyn carrying a cat around with him until he can return it to the owners.
Other friends of Llewyn’s are a folksinging team of Jim and Jean, played by Justin Timberlake and Carey Mulligan, and when Llewyn goes to see Jean at their little apartment, Jean shows him a note that says, “I’m pregnant.”
Jean doesn’t know who the father is, it could be Llewyn, it could be Jim, or it could even be someone else.
Then Llewyn goes on a road trip to Chicago, where he hopes to advance his struggling career, and he meets Roland Turner, played by John Goodman in yet another of his many roles that steal scenes and even movies.
Well, Chicago doesn’t work out for Llewyn, either, and he goes back to New York City, only now he is so despondent that he tries to become a sailor in the merchant marine again.
The Coen Brothers seem to throw everything at the wall just to see what sticks, which includes bookends to the movie that don’t make much sense.
Inside Llewyn Davis is too “inside” for my taste.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”