Martina`s film guide

Rushmore
One of my all time favourites. I fell in love with Max Fischer in an instant, before the film started and when they were just counting how many clubs he belonged to. Passionate about his school, Max does not want to leave it and thoroughly enjoys his time at Rushmore by engaging in so many extra curriculum activities and eventually falling for a teacher.
Max Fischer is a boy I’d fallen in love with at school and probably even now, well possibly definitely.
He is resourceful, imaginative and bold, with a stubborn streak and will try everything to get what he desires. He is also playful and vengeful and slightly unusual. Unique.
And dead cute.
The scene where he climbs the ladder and pretends he was hit by the car, then puts the romantic tape on whilst waiting for the object of his affection to come back with a sanitary wipe to tend to his ketchup produced sore...tells you that he is no ordinary boy.
This is by no means a deep film but is one worth seeing if you, like me, have a heart for something out of the ordinary.

You, me and everyone we know
Found by accident, totally random choice that turned out to be deliciously superb.
What is it about? It is about human misfortune, quirkiness and uniqueness in all its glory.
I don’t think I can choose just one character I liked best, they are all so amazingly defined but at the push it would be the little boy that strikes the internet conversation with a woman in her late thirties by mistake. It amazes me that someone of his age could pull this off, act as good, show such emotion through some sort of non apparent habitual apathy.
The hope chest girl wins my appreciation too. Passionate about household appliances and her future life, complete with imaginary kitchen and children, she shows that even simple pleasures count in life and someone will love you for being exactly who you are even if what you are is so far removed from any real ambition and admiration set by society’s standards.
Video artist’s cerise bedroom sets the mood that will stay with you for the duration of the film, her obsessive tendencies and phone habits will be understood by every girl that ever liked a boy in this World...

Punch drunk love
What does one write about a film like this? Adam Sandler at his best, I watched this with Oli one Sunday night and we fell in love with it.
It starts in a rather boring way and one only gets a slight hint of the subliminal levels it will take you to if you persevere with it.
Film made with very little story, basically it is all about a guy and a girl and at times it is not all that obvious that is what it’s all about.
But in the end it all comes together.
There are some obsessive tendencies, some unexplained erratic behaviour and some property being damaged but at the bottom of all of it there is a love story that knows no bounds.
This is a film for quirky romantics.


Life Aquatic
Wes Anderson at his best, there is nothing I can say about this movie that will do it justice.
Full of unique characters, all different, a great cast and many quirky and symbolic things, it also has a sad undertone throughout the whole movie. A hint at first, that becomes apparent at the end, this is also a story about the beginnings too and realisations and forgiveness.
Soundtrack is awesome, the idea behind it highly imaginative and there are many moments that are really well defined and special.
It is also cast in beautiful locations and incorporates love, action and underwater adventures, making them unite in this truly beautiful and lucid moment of cinematographic history.
A must see for those of you that fight the everyday things like one would fight the plague.


Harold and Maude
I saw this when I was about 15 or so. I now own it on DVD.
Somebody once told me that this film is predictable and maybe it is but it is about an idea and how it is cast, moulded, created. Sure...there is that shocking component of a young guy falling for this old woman, but there is more to it.
There is the fact that he is someone not easily understood and his world is about pushing the boundaries to the furthest extremes, always finding ways to shock and astonish in order to find himself, to find life behind the realm of everyday existence, to forever antagonise his mother, the shrink and his uncle, hardened by his duty to the army. Harold finds small pleasure in attending the funerals and staging suicides. All very dark, you might think, but then there is also a love story that tells of understanding, a deeper level of connection. Not a hint of that force-feeding of Hollywood fairytales of pretty boys meeting pretty girls with perfect breasts that live in a trailer parks and they eventually realise love is all that counts and are together forever, without the fear that their differences in socio-economic backgrounds will eventually be the death of them as it almost always the case in the real world.
No, none of that, and appallingly sad ending too.
A must see for those that loved Max Fischer in Rushmore...Harold eventually makes his way into Life aquatic too, older, balder and with a moustache.

Betty Blue
A fine love story with a hint of real, clinical madness thrown in, this film was probably enjoyed by majority of men for Beatrice Dale’s naked ambition and by women for the loyal, patient and special guy that is her boyfriend in this complicated story.
Not a lot I can say about this movie, poignantly sad story.

Blade Runner
I have seen this when I was 6 or 7 with my father. We had a passion for Bond movies as well as science fiction and we would go to cinema at least once a week, always seeing good movies.
My father believed that children should not watch crap and I agreed, hence me being allowed to watch an 18 rated movie.
I remember not remembering that Harrison Ford was in it until I saw it many years later, but I remembered the mood of the film, the sad quality it has...some underlying deeper level at which things happen.
Someone once told me that my choice of films is slightly unusual as I combined Blade Runner with Betty Blue but I will argue that both are fine love stories, only this one is not so obvious as the preceding one. It is more subtle and hidden but it is all about that. (And some fine robot action)

Ghost World
Discovered one night whilst my brother and I could not make a choice what to rent out, we first thought this will be some teen movie but as it unravelled in front of us, we enjoyed highly amusing and painfully different experience that transformed us forever.
A fine transition from childhood to adulthood with all the necessary components, this movie will uplift, provoke thoughts and sadden the best of humans.
The scene that incorporates the guy that comes into the store, complete with a vest pattern on his chest due to exposure to UV rays all day as he works in the fresh air, no doubt, is priceless as well as a scene when Seymour freaks out in a car whilst watching people cross the road. This film is for everyone. This could only leave my father cold as he discriminates against everything and everyone due to old age.

Napoleon Dynamite
I am not sure what is the best point in this movie, there are so many moments that provoke the well-being in my heart when I watch it.
Different, diffident and slightly deranged young man partial to chap sticks, called Napoleon, lives with his brother, an internet addict, their grandma and a llama that goes by the name of Tina.
Story comes alive when Napoleon’s grandma has an accident and uncle Rico is sent to look after the boys instead.
Stuck in 1987, completely with cool, tight t-shirts, a wig and exhibiting excellent salesman strategies in order to sell Tupperware...uncle Rico adds pezzaz to this story just by being there.
This film is highly misunderstood in my opinion. I believe that not everything should make sense as life seldom does, so I will say I loved this film.
Watch out for the scene when Napoleon drags action man doll out of the school bus and you’ll understand the whole movie a whole lot better.
Definitely a must for all the quirky people.

Dreamcatcher
Biggest shite I ever saw so I feel compelled to add it to this selection.
A Stephen King story, which should never been made into a film. Why? Well because it should have been a 20 episode series at least but some brave director wanted a challenge.
Budget was most certainly spent on purchasing acting skills of Morgan Freeman, which by the way, immediately makes you think the movie must be at least decent.
It is a story with many levels, combining psychic/mystical powers shared by young friends and their mentally impaired friend that gives them the power of reading thoughts, and alien invasion of such unbelievable destinations that one can hardly stay serious.
Dialogue is so bad that one feels exhilarated at the thought that anyone can make it in Hollywood with a bit of luck.
There is a scene where a gun rings like a phone and people belch and fart when infected with some alien seed that produces fat snakes with sharp teeth.
Bits of the film are so tense and it generally starts reasonably well and then takes such turns that even people on strong hallucinogens could not do it better.
A must see, as you will not believe I am telling you how bad it is.
This film is a prime example that even talented people make bad mistakes, needless to say I lost all respect for Morgan.


Madagascar
Enjoyed for the penguins. Dive, dive, dive, dive.