SWITCH (1991)

 

Written & Directed By: Blake Edwards  Cinematography: Dick Bush  Editor: Robert Pergament 

Cast: Ellen Barkin, Jimmy Smits, Perry King, JoBeth Williams, Lorraine Bracco, Tony Roberts, Bruce Payne, Lynette Anthony, Victoria Mahoney, Basil Hoffman, Catherine Keener, Kevin Kilner, David Wohl, Tea Leoni, Jim J. Bullock, Rick Aiello 

Steve Brooks is a sexist and the prototype macho. Unfortunately one day he is killed by one of his girlfriends. In heaven, though, there is no place for men like him and he is sent back to earth in the body of a woman so that he can see how women are treated by men like the one he once was.

SICARIO: DAY OF THE SOLADADO (2018)

Directed By: Stefano Sollima 
Written By: Taylor Sheridan 
Cinematography: Dariusz Wolski 
Editor: Matthew Newman 


Cast: Benicio Del Toro, James Brolin, Catherine Keener, Jeffrey Donovan, Isabella Moner, Matthew Modine, Shea Whigham, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, Elijah Rodriguez 


The drug war on the U.S.-Mexico border has escalated as the cartels have begun trafficking terrorists across the US border. To fight the war, federal agent Matt Graver re-teams with the mercurial Alejandro.

ELEPHANT SONG (2014)

Directed By: Charles Biname 
Written By: Nicolas Billon 
Cinematography: Pierre Gill 
Editor: Dominique Fortin  

Cast: Bruce Greenwood, Xavier Dolan, Catherine Keener, Carrie Anne-Moss, Colm Feore 


A psychiatrist is drawn into a complex mind game when he questions a disturbed patient about the disappearance of a colleague.

FULL FRONTAL (2002)

Cinematography & Directed By: Steven Soderbergh 
Written By: Coleman Hough 
Editor: Sarah Flack 


Cast: Julia Roberts, Blair Underwood, David Duchovny, Mary McCormack, David Hyde Pierce, Catherine Keener, Enrico Colantoni, Nicky Katt, Erika Alexander, Jeff Garlin, Terence Stamp, Brad Rowe, Rainn Wilson, Sandra Oh, Justina Machado, January Jones, Brad Pitt 


A day in the life of a group of men and women in Hollywood, in the hours leading up to a friend's birthday party.

BEGIN AGAIN (2014)

Written & Directed By: John Carney 
Cinematography By: Yaron Orbach 
Editor: Andrew Marcus 


Cast: Keira Knightley, Mark Ruffalo, Adam LeVine, Catherine Keener, Hailee Steinfeld, James Corden, Yasiin Bay (Mos Def), Rob Morrow, Cee lo Green, Maddie Corman, Aya Cash

DEATH TO SMOOCHY (2002)

Directed By: Danny DeVito
Written By: Adam Resnick
Cinematography By: Anastas M. Michos
Editor: Jon Poll

Cast: Edward Norton, Catherine Keener, Robin Williams, Danny DeVito, Vincent Schiavelli, Jon Stewart, Pam Ferris, Danny Woodburn, Michael Rispoli, Harvey Fierstein, Todd Graff

8MM (2012)

Directed By: Joel Schumacher Written By: Andrew Kevin Walker Cinematography By: Robert Elswit Editor: Mark Stevens Cast: Nicholas Cage, Joaquin Phoenix, James Gandolfini, Peter Stomare, Anthony Heald, Chris Bauer, Norman Reedus, Catherine Keener Private investigator Tom Welles is hired by the recently widowed Mrs. Christian who has found a startling pornographic film in her late husband's possessions. In the film a teenage girl is apparently killed and Welles is pretty sure it's a genuine snuff film. He takes the case, first going through records of runaways finally identifying the girl and learning that she may have run off to California. There he enters the seedy underworld of pornography with the help of Max California, a porn store clerk. His principal clue is the masked man who killed the girl as he has a unique tattoo on his hand. He soon finds the culprits but there is little satisfaction in resolving the mystery. There is a really good film in here. The script is good I delves into the darkness that Screenwriter Andrew Kevin Walker (SEVEN) usually likes to explore. Though it feels like it needs a little more defined characters and refinement. It might nor actually be the fault of the writer more the Director’s interpretation of his original screenplay and not fully understanding or feeling the material. Not communicating his ideas in the way they should be to fully interpret the material. The film feels like it would be more powerful in the right hands, like David Fincher who turned down the film. The actual script by Andrew Kevin Walker was reworked by Joel Schumacher and Nicholas Kazan after Walker left the project in disagreement with the director. The film's production encountered concerns regarding the dark subject matter, and the studio asked Andrew Kevin Walker to lighten the film's tone. With Joel Schumacher as director, Walker felt a rewrite would no longer be needed. But as it turned out, Schumacher supported the studio and made changes of his own, leading to a much-publicized fallout between the two, with Walker virtually disowning the film and walking away from the set. He refused to even watch the film. The enema porno film seen at the porn swap meet is a genuine S&M film that was heavily edited for inclusion in the main movie. This is a dark detective story that I feel just fell into the wrong hands to bring it to the screen. Joel Schumacher is a good popcorn movie director. I am in the minority of film fans out there that doesn’t hate him. None of his films are begging to be put as a social change film or any greatest film list. He makes popcorn entertainment plain and simple. His films follow and jump genres and are meant to entertain that’s it.Sorry he messed up the batman series of films. He’s not a deep director nor would any person who made ST ELMO’S FIRE, But he has a stylistic eye as a former Interior Decorator. This was not the type of film for him. The plot is extremely similar to that of Hardcore in which a man (George C. Scott) hires a private detective to track down his daughter after she runs away and he sees her in a 8MM porno movie. The plot is also very similar to a book called "The Cutting Room" by Louise Welsh in which an estate auctioneer finds disturbing photos among a client's porno collection and endeavors to find out if the girl in the pictures was actually killed. This is a well structured film that involves a seedy underground world and characters. This film needed to be more mid-range budgeted and have a director who is used to material like this. Here the film tries, but comes off a little too polished and the underground here looks too mainstream. Like what a person in the suburbs would picture it with designer clothing, Especially Peter Stomare. Nicholas Cage should being his element in a film like this, but he looks constipated and bored. He gives a similar flat performance. Joaquin Phoenix in a role first offered to Mark Wahlberg seems to be at least having fun with his role, but… SPOILER When he dies. So does most of the films good graces and credibility. END SPOILER The film has some good stand alone scenes. Like the battle of Nicholas Cage Vs. The Machine. I was even intrigued by the character of the machine, but for the most part the film felt off. In full disclosure. I did read the script before seeing the film. So maybe I am bias of having a picture in my head that didn’t match what I saw on screen. The film has so much potential that you can see trying to bust out. It seems to be a matter of wasted talent. I wish someone could come along and remake it. The film is not horrible it may even be a satisfying rental for you, but to me it is a very flawed piece of work. I saw this in the movie theater for free and still felt disappointed as the film kept going. I just sank deeper and deeper in my seat. GRADE: C+

SYNECDOCHE, NEW YORK (2008)

CAST: Philip Seymour Hoffman, Catherine Keener, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Samantha Morton, Emily Watson, Tom Noonan, Michelle Williams, Diane Wiest, Hope Davis, Josh Pais, Stephen Adly Guirgis, Jerry Adler, Lynn Cohen

Written & Directed By: Charlie Kaufman
Cinematography By: Fredrick Elmes
Editor: Robert Frazen
Production Design: Mark Friedberg
Art Direction: Adam Stockhausen
Original Score By: Jon Brion

I’m not going to lie this is not a film for everyone it is a very strange film and I consider myself smart and I didn’t even understand the film completely is film has a abstract and surreal quality. It’s almost like watching a daid lynch film but not as dark and scary

This film started off as a collaboration project by Charlie Kaufman and Director Spike Jonze to make a horror film while Charlie Kaufman came up with the idea of the horror of life and the absence of family and the degenerative state of the body. Spike Jonze went off to make the movie “Where The Wild Things Are” while Charlie kept on trying to finish this project. I have to say for a first time director he is very impressive. Not over abundance on style or trying to cram too much into the film to tell a story. Charlie Kaufman had intended “Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind” To be his directorial debut but decided better to let Michel Gondry do it as it was a more Visual story that involved emotional truth and nakedness. This film has amazing visuals but is more invested in the emotions and situations the characters find themselves in.

As usual the film has a depressing protagonist expertly played by Philip Seymour Hoffman in one of his performances I actually like a lot who is a playwright who discovers he is slowly dieing whose wife leaves him with there daughter for Berlin with her strange friend he wins a grant and decides to make a theater production of his life it is housed in a warehouse and everyday he directs actors playing himself and the people in his life as well as his neighbors and the actors playing all the characters and each day he adds to it and adds anyone he comes into contact with over the years he decides to try and find his daughter and is kept from her at every turn until near the end where the reunion doesn’t go the way he planned. As a sidenote I have to say that Jennifer Jason leigh plays the most evil character I have ever seen on the screen even worse then action movie villains. The film is and has plenty of absurdism his wife is a miniature painter. His wife’s back tattoo that he strangely never noticed. The woman who lives in a house that is always on fire and smoking. The same woman in life playing her role in the play within the play within the play.

If that sounds confusing that is only the start of it. The film is a great meditation on life and all it’s trappings it is a depressing tale mixed with humor. The tone of the film is a Woody Allen movie that he wishes he could make with plenty of offbeat and sometimes out of place humor. Mixed with some of the most depressing scenes ever committed to film but this was strangely a film I could identify with. It doesn’t fit easily into any mold even though you could characterize it in many. It’s a heartbreaking film with a magnificent score. Great art direction and tremendous acting. This is a film that as a chameleon I think will get more appreciated over the years, it’s like a film that feels like you are reading a book learning more and more about fate and life. Like reading a classic book that you don’t fully understand but know there is something special about it and if you could figure it out you would like it more but frustrates you the more and more it goes on.

Another interesting tidbit of the film is the casting of emily watson and samantha morton two actresses who resemble each other smaantha morton who in real life is the younger one out of the two of them plays the older character that emily watson is playing but in the film she is younger then her. i just thought that was interesting and the type of absurdism the film finds itself in constantly.

The Film feels autobiographical though may not be as Charlie Kaufman is infamously reclusie or this may all be a comedy as this is just his type of humor.

I would definitely recommend this film but warn you. It’s very arty and independent I stopped trying to figure it out a half hour into it. But if you give it a chance the film starts to grow on you and after it is over the more you think about it the more you find yourself likeing and impressed with it