2013 Summer Movie Wrap up! Big year for sequels and stand alone films alike.

Well first and foremost, sorry for the lack of previews and reviews here. It’s been a rather busy summer for me, with several life changing events (some minor like a move to a new location; to more major like getting married!) But despite these changes I was able to squeeze some film watching here and there. 

Gran Torino: Shows that sometimes the simple message is better

I’ve been debating for a while on how to approach this particular film. With all the hype with all the sci-fi superhero films with heavy CGI out now, sometimes we overlook the simpler films that are also out there. 

The ones that many not have the flashy CGI or over-stimulated action sequences with explosions galore, yet send a quiet but powerful message. No, this isn’t about “Passion of the Christ”, (I think one of our other bloggers will post on that film later on if not already) this one is about “Gran Torino” one of the 2008 films directed and started Clint Eastwood. Why this film you ask? 

The Soloist and the dignity of non-judgment

 

The Soloist, based on a true story, shines a heart-warming ray of light into squalor, blight and hopelessness.

The backdrop is Los Angeles, which ultimately serves as a metaphor for the human condition, and it's depressing. 

Throughout the film we are shown alternating images and vistas of beauty and ugliness, order and chaos, light and darkness: in one scene, the camera pans upwards from the literal underbelly of streets where the homeless Mr. Nathaniel Anthony Ayers (played by Jamie Foxx) lives to the bright shiny streets of downtown Los Angeles where Times writer Steve Lopez (played by Robert Downey, Jr.) works. There are plenty of more visually disturbing scenes to offset the bright, sunny beautiful scenes worth seeing almost for their own sake. But the screenplay is not the driving force of this movie. The driving force of this movie is, absolutely, the story - no car chase, no explosions, no '"big reveal" twist ending...just a heartwarming story.