Welcome to The Penny-Pinching Cinephile, a weekly spotlight of the best free flicks on the web. ‘Cuz sometimes you gotta eat.
1.) Oldboy
Park Chan-wook’s savage revenge story Oldboy is a modern cult classic. Before Hollywood releases its remake this year, watch the original for free on Hulu. Oh Dae-su is imprisoned for fifteen years without knowing why or by whom. When he is suddenly released, Dae-su goes on a violent quest to track down those men involved in the conspiracy to torture and imprison him. While doing so, he falls for a young sushi chef who is not who she appears to be. Featuring the now-famous, single tracking shot of Dae-su fighting his way through a hallway of bad guys with just a hammer and his fists. The revealing twist ending remains one of the most devastating (and sickening) in recent cinema.
2.) Close Encounters of the Third Kind
This suspenseful sci-fi classic from Steven Spielberg stars Richard Dreyfuss as an ordinary Joe who stumbles upon an alien visitation, leaving an irrevocable mark on his life. Dreyfuss’ Ray begins seeing the image of a tower everywhere–even in his mashed potatoes. Meanwhile, a group of international scientist lead by non other than Francois Truffaut converge on Devil’s Tower, Wyoming where the extraterrestrials seem to congregate. Spielberg wields these two threads–the personal and the scientific–with deft skill that announces, two years after Jaws, his dominance as a blockbuster auteur. It’s a position he has retained for nearly forty years.
3.) War Requiem
Avante garde British director Derek Jarman’s War Requiem is an unconventional musical, set to Benjamin Britten musical piece of the same name, which was itself inspired by the poetry of WWI soldier Wilfred Owen. Owen (played here by Nathaniel Parker) became one of the leading poets of WWI, despite being killed in action during the conflict’s final week. Jarman’s film moves from re-enactments of battle and mourning to reminiscences of an aging soldier (Laurence Olivier in his final film). The film also features Tilda Swinton as a nurse and Sean Bean as a German soldier. Although there is no spoken dialogue in the film, War Requiem is a powerful anti-war art piece, an essential work of great beauty, passion and pain.
4.) Surfwise
Behold the strange tale of “Doc” Paskowitz, a Standford Medical School educated doctor who quit his practice, sold his house and moved into a 24-foot camper to live and surf with his wife and nine children. Dubbed “the first family of surfing,” the Paskowitzes established a surf camp and lived as transient bohemians for a quarter of a century, emphasizing healthy living and spiritual well being over material wealth and traditional education. Crazy? Maybe. Doug Pray’s documentary doesn’t shy away from the psychological affects Doc’s unusual child-rearing had on his nine children, some of whom resented him for never providing them with an education, while others adored their bohemian parents’ ways. It’s an unusual and gripping subject for a documentary, and Pray tells it beautifully, balancing the holistic, one-with-nature teachings of the Doc with the more immediate and pressing needs of the grown-up children, now having to fend for themselves in a world they never experienced as children.
After being unceremoniously dumped by her husband, filmmaker Nina Paley channeled her anger into an immensely charming and ingeniously creative film called Sita Sings the Blues. Paley wrote, directed, animated, and did everything else on this DIY, 2D animated feature that brings together her own life experiences with the ancient Hindu epic Ramayana. Sita, like Paley, wants to join her husband on his adventures in India. However, the tale for both women ends unhappily. Incorporating a dazzling array of visual styles and storytelling techniques (shadow puppet narrators, 1920s jazz musical numbers), Paley’s film is a gorgeously-rendered, colorful delight.
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One thought on “The Penny-Pinching Cinephile (6/11/13–6/17/13)”
Just curious, is the Oldboy stream on Hulu subbed or dubbed? Considering how awful the dub is, and the fact that Netflix Instant only allows for the dub, I really hope it’s in its native language.