this post for holly's wallowing pleasure
Status update: I did nothing all day. And the world didn't end. I feel strangely calm and liberated. Thanks everyone for your hand holding, and your insanely patient treatment of my Crazy.
I wasn't going to write these up, since apparently my brain requires screencaps to properly literary analyze (and Netflix is cap blocking me), but Holly needs a little Val time, so here we go. By some fluke, I will now be reviewing two movies in which Val plays a character named "Chris." Unintentional; perhaps subconsciously I am so lazy that I cannot be bothered to remember two separate names . . .
Remember two of the themes of these little recaps: Val often plays smart characters, and I find virtuosos very sexy? Oh, yes, everything's coming together.
I want to start by saying that this is a really sharp script, and I would like this movie even if Val Kilmer wasn't in it. Thankfully, I've got ninety-nine problems but a lack of physicist Val Kilmer in his underwear ain't one of them.
Also, I feel I should point out this movie was released the year I was born. (And you know, now that I think about it, I do not have enough evidence to suggest that Real Genius isn't a gift to all my adult aesthetics. So.) Val was about my age when he made it; for those of you with the math skills, that does make him, like, twice my age now, but somehow that doesn't make me feel dirty at all. Is that weird?
The whole irreverence as stress relief thing? I find that insanely attractive, also; he can only get away with it because he's so good, and you know how that works for me. Also, probably Route One to my heart is a quick wit, and boy, howdy.
I love Chris's reaction to the whole sleeping through the top ten minds in the country thing; "She killed that guy with . . . ? Okay, I'm in. Fringe benefits indeed."
Homigod, he's doing the coin over the knuckles thing. With both hands. Is it getting hot in here?
I love being able to write, I do. And I really was mostly frustrated by physics. But I really wish I was good at something demonstrative, something where you can build and compete with other people. Instead of being so insular all the time, by nature.
One thing I really like about this movie is how they show all the students are smart, but keep the intelligence focused in their area of study. Here's what I mean: most movies, when you have a Smart Person, they are completely knowledgeable about everything (except maybe pop culture or something "pedestrian" like that.) Think about Brennan on Bones; she knows shit about everything. In Real Genius, the physicists (Mitch, Chris, etc) are smart about physics; the mechanical engineers (Jordan) are smart about engineering; the chemical engineers (Ick) are smart about chemical engineering. It's not that they're stupid about other things; it's just really rewarding when you can tell what a character is studying by what their hobbies and discussions are. It's more real; people, especially of that age, who are in a competitive program like that are super serious about what they're doing; they really buckle down on their field of interest. They're not eclectic. Even when Chris is going slightly outside his field of study, making those toys (those are more purely mechanical engineering, but they are physics-based, so it's not beyond the realm of possibilities) he couches his interest in terms of his field of study: "Would you say that was a launch problem, or a design problem?" And he doesn't know how Ick made the snow (or, I'm sure, how he engineered that giant cherry) because to be able to extrapolate that information from the data available to him requires too much knowledge in a field that is not his focus of study. Really good.
"Given the type of people you are, and the environment you're in, you have to admit the strong possibility that this is the only chance you will have in your entire lives to have sex." Look! Couching it in scientific terms again! Also: he can couch me in whatever terms he'd like? No, that's too much of a stretch, even for me. Strike that.
Kent destroys the laser by smearing an opaque substance (probably grease) on the lens. This causes refraction; the laser, instead of passing through the clear glass, is stopped by the opaque substance. Its only recourse is to beam back to the power source; concentrated heat and light (i.e., the laser) fry the power source.
That's right, bitches. I did learn stuff in physics.
I get that Kent is a nasty little shit, but fucking with Chris by messing up the laser is really just shooting himself in the foot. Kent needs the laser to work to graduate and secure his career, and Chris is much smarter than he is; Chris can advance the project in ways Kent cannot hope to do, himself. ("I've advanced this project more than any three students," Chris says, and I believe him; Hathaway believes him, too, which verifies his statement.) It would be smarter for Kent to just ride Chris's coattails.
"Hey, Lazlo! Wanna see a demonstration of gravity?" LOL I really like Chris and Lazlo together, and I was delighted to see Val work with Jon Gries again four years later in Kill Me Again. <3
He's picking Hathaway's lock! I love a man with minor espionage skills.
I like how Kent even lies to Jesus about his relationship to Dr. Hathaway. Also: why is he wearing a dickie on the outside of his clothing? (Also: he is a dickie, LOL)
This script is so beautifully constructed. Every facet of the ending has been set up ages ago, but not in big, bold letters.
Chris's little hop over Hathaway's fence makes my heart flutter every time.
Living well is not the best revenge. Filling your enemy's house with popcorn is the best revenge.
(Dear picture: Um, yes please.) I am not the target audience for this film; this is a boy's movie, hardcore. My first indication of this was maybe fifteen minutes in, when Al Pacino is hardcore macking on some younger chick, and I could not force my gear out of "ewwww."
This movie is overly long; the hooker-killer and Natalie Portman's bad dad plotlines could have been culled with no real detriment (and in fact, the hooker-killer plotline isn't really adequately closed; yeah, we know the guy's dead, but the police never actually close that case). That said, I do like that they took the time to make the story about something other than cops and robbers.
Here's how I really knew it was a boy's movie; when talking to Amy Brenneman, Robert DeNiro says he's "got a brother somewhere." In the American male's heirarchy of interpersonal attachment, "Brother" trumps "Wife" every time; since DeNiro was set up to find some mystical brotherhood with Al Pacino, this was a sure sign not only that this is a Boy Movie, but also that every single romantic relationship would fall by the wayside in favor of Male Bonding.
I know I'm biased, but I think Val's really good in this. He's playing against DeNiro and Pacino and their Enormous Seriousness and Machismo, but he still stands out. It's a really subtle performance, but very good. His last interactions with Ashley Judd are especially good; there's no dialogue, and they're physically stories apart, but you understand the whole story of what's happening just from their regarding one another. I also really like that Charlene, who let's face it was not the best wife ever, stands by Chris in the end, because she really does love the son of a bitch; if she didn't, he couldn't make her hate him the way she does.
(Also: two blondes together, with a blonde kid! Thank you, Heat!)
I find it interesting that Chris, whose "sun rises and sets" with Charlene, is the only member of the crew to make it out alive, and he has to give up the girl to do it. Actually, strike that, he doesn't give her up; they give each other up. He actually was stupid and went back for her. I only mention this because it's antithetical to the inner morality established by the film; you leave everything when the heat is onto you. DeNiro did, and he died. Chris didn't, and he lived. I am not sure how I feel about that.
The scene after they crew has discovered the heat is onto them, and they're discussing whether or not to do the bank job: I don't know if it's just me, but whenever they'd cut to a long shot I became very distracted by how much taller Val is than everyone else (and how nice he looked in that all-black number. Shut up; this is the filmmaker's fault for giving me all those shots from behind. Erm. That sounds bad. You know what I mean.)
My favorite part of the movie, though (you liked something better than Val's ass? This must be good!) was how DeNiro, all the while preaching to Chris that you cannot form attachment to things you would be unwilling to leave in thirty seconds, clearly thinks of Chris as a son. He lets him sleep it off on his lack of couch; he calls Charlene to try and fix things, and then when that doesn't work, he confronts her and reads her the riot act; when Chris is shot, he should run, but instead he goes back for him. One of the first things he asks Nate is where Chris is, how he is. I know I knocked the whole Male Bonding thing, but I really did love this aspect of it. <3
But who's going to take care of him now? Charlene's right; Chris is just "a child grown older." He isn't smart, and his entire life is built around Charlene, guided by DeNiro. What's he going to do now that he's walked away from his whole life? (I guess he has a duffel bag full of four million dollars to help ease the pain, but still.)
The last scene, Pacino and DeNiro hunting for each other, is really well-choreographed, and the ending, with the lights suddenly illuminating the field, is perfectly telegraphed.
And what did I tell you? It ends with Brother Love. Boys are so predictable.