herbiehancock

No 96 - American Beauty Director - Sam Mendes And so continues my tiny run of 'films narrated by dead characters'. Here we get to enter the gloriously misanthropic, seedy underbelly of suburbia. This is a film that celebrates the fact that nobody really likes anybody, including themselves. It is a film which has a great story, wrapped around a terrific cast. Even the tiny roles are exciting. See the likes of Scott Bakula , Allison Janney and Peter Gallagher crop up for mere minutes (if that) of screen time. It is a delight. Then there are the larger supporting roles, and of those my favourite must be Thora Birch. Recently watching Ghost World (and then this) has rekindled a feeling I had about her for a while - she is just brilliant. In both films she perfectly displays the self-loathing and exasperation of being a teenager, of being misunderstood. In this film she is just brilliant, especially when compared to Mena Suvari's character Angela Hayes. Angela Hayes just b...

No 266 - Ghost World Director - Terry Zwigoff As comic book films become more popular and as every comic book ever becomes a film, it is only natural that the less usual comics become films too. However, I am surprised that this film made it so high up the list, and that the more exciting and daring types of films didn't get onto the list at all - I don't think this film is quite as good as American Splendour for example (though that may stem from a huge admiration of Paul Giamatti ). So, here we have a film which relishes in the fact that not much happens. A film about isolation and a film about growing up. A film, in which the protagonist is really really annoying. For whilst we may follow both Enid ( Thora Birch) and Rebecca (Scarlett Johansson ) - Rebecca kind of fades out of the equation and it is Enid who is the key character in this film. She is also a bit of a twat. The problem with Enid is that she believes herself to be better than everyone and her superiority ma...