Rushmore (1998)

“Maybe I'm spending too much of my time starting up clubs and putting on plays. I should probably be trying harder to score chicks.”

            Do you remember that one kid who was a smooth talker and always had the attention of the teacher? They were the kids who never really did too well but for some reason everyone knew them and the teachers liked them. There are not many types of people I have patience for in life those kids and even adults I have zero patience for because the good students and workers kind of go unnoticed. These students/workers are usually involved in certain extracurricular activities that seem totally crazy. We all know people like this they are all over the place. The 1998 comedy Rushmore takes a look at a student who sucks at school but has his fingers in every kind of extracurricular activity you can think of and even ones you don’t.

            Max Fischer (Jason Schwartzman) attends the prestigious Rushmore Academy for boys. He is there on a scholarship. Instead of spending his days studying Max spends all his time on extracurricular activities in clubs such as the Calligraphy Cub, Backgammon, Bee Keeping, etc. He also writes and directs plays. Since his grades are terrible Max is put on academic probation. Max is not happy but instead of trying to up his grades he takes on a ridiculous task and focuses his energy on something he can never win.

            Max found a book in the library that had something written in it. He finds out the last person who wrote in the book is a teacher named Rosemary Cross who works at the school. Max goes to see what she looks like and finds himself falling in love with her. He starts trying to woo her by saying he is smarter than he is and even trying to get some kind of aquarium built on the school’s campus.

            He also becomes friends with the father of twin boys who attend the school named Herman Blume (Bill Murray). Herman likes Max because he is not an idiot like his sons are. He decides to back Max in his plan for building an aquarium on campus especially after he meets Rosemary.

            The story gets a little crazy. Herman and Rosemary begin to have an affair and Max finds out and then he goes out his mind trying to get her back.

            Rushmore was alright. I did not really care for it but I did not hate it. Max is such an annoying character. I actually found myself rooting for him to get egg on his face by everyone he pissed off. Wes Anderson has a very unique of telling stories with his writing and direction that I like. Rushmore is worth watching at least once. 

Grand Budapest Hotel (2014)

 “You see, there are still faint glimmers of civilization left in this barbaric slaughterhouse that was once known as humanity. Indeed that's what we provide in our own modest, humble, insignificant... oh, fuck it.”

            I like a good whimsical, silly, adventurous movie. I did not really know what The Grand Budapest Hotel was going to be about. But as I say with certain movies not knowing the plot can be a lot of fun when you watch a movie especially when the movie turns out to be good.

            The movie begins in the year 1985 when an author sits down at his desk and begins describing the story of his book The Grand Budapest hotel. He explains that many authors draw the inspiration for their works from the stories of other people.

            In 1968 he had traveled to a small country and stayed at the hotel the title of his book is named after. The hotel had seen better days. No one ever really visited the hotel anymore except for an older man named Zero Moustafa. The concierge of the hotel told the author that Mr. Moustafa was once an immigrant and now he owns half the country. The author is invited by Mr. Moustafa to dine with him that night to hear his story.

            Mr. Moustafa recounts how he had been a lobby boy in the 1930s at The Grand Budapest Hotel. He was taken under the wing of the then concierge M. Gustav (Ralph Fiennes) and taught the ways of being an educated sophisticated young man and excellent lobby boy. M. Gustav was close with one of the older ladies who frequented the hotel named Madame D (Tilda Swinton). Before she left the hotel she told her him that she did not want to leave because she was afraid she may die. M. Gustav tells her, her fears are nothing and she will be fine. A few days later M. Gustav reads that Madame D was found dead her room at her home. He confesses he loved the old woman to Zero and that he has to go to see her one last time.

            Madame D’s will is read. Everything is left to her son Dmitri (Adrian Brody) who is the biggest, greediest jerk ever. To Gustav she leaves a very valuable painting. Dmitri is pissed about the painting and wants Gustav arrested because he suspects the concierge had something to do with killing his mother and swindling her out of her painting. Everything Dmitri believes and says out loud is pure lies.

            Gustav and Zero leave discretely with the painting back to the hotel. Not much longer after they return to the hotel Gustav is arrested on charges false charges of murder. The real murderer is known to the police as well as Madame D’s lawyer but it eventually becomes up to Gustav himself and Zero to find the real killer and prove the painting does rightly belong to him.

            There is so much more to this story but why give it all away when you should just go watch it yourself.

            The cast was very much star powered. Besides Ralph Fiennes being the main character he was the only big star in the cast to be consistently seen on screen. The other big named stars such Jude Law, Tilda Swinton, Bill Murray, F. Murray Abraham, and Edward Norton they really did not have large parts. They just kind of showed up here and there. Fiennes was hysterical. I love how he played M. Gustav. I liked how he was a bit stiff yet his dialogue was so loose in some parts. I was laughing with most of what came out of his mouth.  It was a very good cast though and they were all in parts that, I think, are a bit unusual for them.

            The story was so different. I enjoyed how if played out from beginning to end. I liked the way it jumped back and forth between 1968 and the 1930s to tell Zero’s story with M. Gustav. The story is entertaining and exciting and even whimsical but it is not really very happy. The unhappiness of the story did not bother me at all to me it just added to how great it was.

            Wes Anderson I have not seen too many of his movies. I have seen parts of Fantastic Mr. Fox and I the parts I saw were really cool. Like the dialogue the direction was fast paced and I am even going to say witty. It was just fun there was nothing artistic or trying or boring about it. Every shot of the actors was perfect.

            The Grand Budapest Hotel is wonderful. It was very whimsical, very silly, and a lot of fun. I believe had I known the plot beforehand I would not have enjoyed it as much because I would have gone into thinking it was another dramedy hipster-type movie. I highly suggest seeing The Grand Budapest Hotel it is one of the most creative and entertaining movies I have ever watched. 

Monuments Men (2014)

“You can wipe out an entire generation, you can burn their homes to the ground and somehow they'll still find their way back. But if you destroy their history, you destroy their achievements and it's as if they never existed. That's what Hitler wants and that's exactly what we are fighting for.”

            I believe as Americans we do not value culture as much as other countries do. There is Americana in the form of certain objects such as cars, surf boards, and Palisades Amusement Park, but there is no truly great symbol of American culture in art and architecture. Yes, we have the Statue of Liberty but she was actually made by a Frenchman. The Smithsonian Institute proudly displays American achievements. But ask yourself this, what or who can most clearly define our culture in terms of art, technology, and architecture in this museum? If war were to ever, God forbid, come to American like it did in Europe during the World Wars what would be most valuable to us Americans that an invading army could plunder and we would miss that part of our culture?

            Art in its various forms carries a nation’s identity. Art history teaches more social history than we here in America could ever hope to learn in classrooms growing up.  Art carries the pride of nations. It also carries emotional bonds. Have you ever stood in front of a painting by an artist from your country and felt a sense of pride and emotional attachment? It is one of the most thrilling senses to feel. I well up with pride whenever I see works by John Singer Sargent, John F. Peto, Winslow Homer, and Frank Lloyd Wright. To think Americans could create such incredible works of art is amazing because the world is always focused on European art. For me if works by these artists were to be plundered and destroyed a part of me would be missing.

            Imagine living in a European country during World War II and everything your country holds dear art wise is taken by a mad foreigner. Almost your entire cultural identity has been stolen because some lunatic believes your people are inferior and should not be in the hands of who he sees as barbarians. Imagine how that would make you feel having someone not from your own country, your own culture, coming in and taking your people’s precious objects because he deems you as inferior. Think about this scenario and how you feel if America were stripped of its cultural objects.

My heart aches for the lives lost during World War II and it aches for the art that was stolen. It aches for the art that for years was removed from its home and it aches for those works that are still missing. You may be asking yourself why I feel so deeply for art. I am an art historian and I am currently working on my MA in Museum Registration. Art moves me and museums feed my passion for cultural intellect and knowledge. My classes have discussed countless times the plundering of art in Europe during World War II. In an article I had to read for a class the author wrote that Nazi looted art is one of the greatest unresolved issues of the War. Almost eighty years later Hitler is still creating problems.

Fortunately all art was not completely lost. Thanks to a group called The Monuments Men much of the valuable and well known works of art from Europe were found and returned. These dedicated men of the arts were not soldiers they did not sacrifice their lives as other men did. They saw the importance of saving culture. They knew that without culture there would be a great sense of loss to the people when war was but a distant memory.

The movie Monuments Men loosely follows the book of the same title. Of course, I have read the book and it was utterly fascinating. Instead of me giving a long winded summary that will most likely make no sense please visit The Monuments Men website to learn more.

The real Monuments Men. James Rorimer is behind the other men

The characters in the movie are based on the real life men and women in the book but they unfortunately, go by different names. The character of James Granger is based off James Rorimer. Like Rorimer, Granger is curator of Medieval Art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. There was a young man named Harry Ettlinger from Germany who immigrated to Newark, New Jersey and signed up to fight against his mother country. He assisted in translating, naturally. The one character I was upset with the name change was Cate Blanchette’s Claire Simone. Claire is based off France’s hero Rose Valland. Valland single handedly saved France’s most important modern art works. She worked at Jeu de Paume where Gobbles and another Nazi would come and pick art they wanted for their own home, as if the museum was a store. Valland wrote down every detail about every painting that was stolen and where it was going. Valland is a hero to the French and to the world of art history. All the characters are forgettable because they are so one dimensional. There is so much missing to the movie characters. Their one dimensionality and what they are missing leave nothing for you to remember them by.

Rose Valland

I will say that for a movie the story was entertaining and it worked for the screen. There were several aspects that bothered me besides the name changes: the pace was way too fast the whole just jumped around and did not even give you time to really digest what was going on, there was a sort of love story going on with Granger and Claire that bothered me there was absolutely no need for that, Claire could have been a very interesting character instead she was boring and I hate to say typical, there was humor which is fine the drama needs to be broken up sometimes in dramas but it seemed more silly, there really was barely any explanation of what had been taken from France and barely went into the art itself…. Which I think was based on the aspect/issue of copyrights and reproduction which can be crazy expensive and tedious to get permission to do.

The Monuments Men as a movie was not too great. I believe it is a good way to gain interest in the actual organization and the actual men and women who saved art in Europe. I felt there was so much missing with the story along with the characters that it was almost hard to follow. There was a scene with Claire where I was left thinking what the hell is going on. It was a bit ridiculous.

 George Clooney had noble intentions with this film and I feel terrible that he fell short. I feel terrible that he could not create a better story. His character stressed how art is culturally important and what it would mean to the countries who were missing their culture but it was never explained what made these works so important to the countries and to the world of art. That is the most important part of the entire story. I will thank him for making people aware of this organization and of Nazi looted art.

I am not going to say to not see The Monuments Men. Do see it because you do not know if it will pique your interest into researching looted art during World War II and learning about actual Monuments Men, Fine Arts and Archives. I can only hope that you learn how important art history is and appreciate the culture you live because you never know if one day all the objects that give your nation’s identity will be taken away.

 

Ghostbusters II (1989)

“So, you're saying that the supernatural is your exclusive province?”

“Kitten, I think what I'm saying, is that sometimes, shit happens, someone has to deal with it, and who ya gonna call?”

            So, continuing on a Ghostbusters kick here is the second movie.

            Five years after the Ghostbusters saved New York City from utter paranormal destruction they are all barely making ends meet and rarely see each other due to being run out of business by the very city they saved. Ray (Dan Aykroyd) runs a paranormal book store and dons the Ghostbusters gear on occasion with Winston to do birthday parties. Peter (Bill Murray) runs a cheap and silly psychic show on local cable. Egon (Harold Ramis) is the only one to have a legitimate job as a scientist.

            Peter unfortunately did not end up with Dana Barrett (Sigourney Weaver). She wound up marrying someone else and having a baby named Oscar. The movie begins with Dana walking Oscar in his carriage. The carriage glides over some pink goo that bubbles up out of the sidewalk. As Dana picks up her groceries the carriage takes off with the baby in it dodging people, bikes and cars before it stops just as a bus comes speeding past. Dana visits Egon at work to ask him to look into what could have happened since the carriage just took off by itself. She also asks Egon not to let Peter know what they are up to. Egon and Ray take the job for Dana and of course Peter winds up finding out.

            Dana has been working as a conservator in an art museum. She works under a foreign man named Janosz. A large painting of a creepy looking medieval guy is brought up from storage for an exhibit. The painting is of a guy named Vigo the Carpathian. Dana is not thrilled with the painting it is very unsettling. That night as Janosz is working on the painting, Vigo comes to life in a way and zaps Janosz into doing his bidding. Vigo needs a baby so he can come back to life and rule the world. Guess the baby Janosz goes after?!

            Egon, Winston, Peter, and Ray find slim underneath the city streets running through an old New York City subway line. They get arrested and the slim put into evidence in court. As the judge starts yelling, the slim starts bubbling and two ghosts pop up. The judge throws out the case if they can get rid of the ghosts. After this the Ghostbusters are back in business.

            One night while Dana is giving Oscar a bath the pink slim comes in through the spout instead of water and tries to grab Oscar. Dana takes the baby over to Peter’s. Egon, Winston, and Ray investigate the subway line with the slim. Winston gets dragged into the slim so Egon and Ray jump in after. All three come out in front of the museum where the painting of Vigo is.

            Eventually the Ghostbusters figure out that Vigo is behind the slim and they have to stop the weird Carpathian bad guy from getting to Oscar.

            Again the cast was awesome. They were all crazier than the first one. I find it funny when I watch movies over and over as I get older because I notice more things. I notice some hilarious dirty or sly lines or funny looks. Egon’s sarcastic faces were even better and so was his line delivery. I realized how annoying Bill Murray is as Peter in some scenes. It is as if he was trying to steal all the scenes away from the other actors and characters. But I still love Venkman for some reason, he will always be one of my favorite movie characters. I was totally not crazy with the whole Lewis/Janine being in love with each other. That was silly and really not necessary but the cartoon was really popular and they had to come back. Oh, and I had no idea until this viewing that Max Von Sydow did the voice for Vigo. Sydow plays the Knight in Ingmar Bergman’s The Seventh Seal which is one of my all time favorite movies. Thought that was pretty cool.

            For some reason when I was young I used to watch Ghostbusters II all the time. The movie is so cheesy and silly to me now! It is like to the point of campy almost but dear god do I love this movie with all my being! I love the scene where the goo kind of takes hold of the city and there is mass chaos. I always laugh when the police get a call from the docks that the Titanic has just arrived and the guy at the dock says “Better late than never.” When the Statue of Liberty walks the streets of New York City still makes me totally excited it is awesome! Again, I have fond memories of watching this with my cousin. At twenty-six (me) and thirty (him) we still love these movies maybe even more than we did when we were little. I will also repeat that if you have not seen Ghostbusters II you are un-American and should be ashamed of yourself and your childhood must have been depressing. 

Ghostbusters (1984)

“There's something very important I forgot to tell you.”

“What?”

 “Don't cross the streams.”

            When I read of Harold Ramis’s passing yesterday it was very sad. My cousin told me it is as if part of his childhood died. Ramis played Egon Spangler the super nerdy scientist in Ghostbusters. There was something about Spangler that always amused me. Maybe because he was nerdy and totally into what he was passionate about and that was science (I am no way into science whatsoever but I appreciate and love his passion). Ramis was a comedic genius. So many of America’s greatest classic comedies were either written or directed by him. I believe it should be mandatory for all Americans to watch Caddy Shack at least once their life. So in honor of Harold Ramis for this day’s post I have decided to watch Ghostbusters one of my all time favorite movies and the movie I know Ramis best from.

            When I think back to my childhood what sticks out in my mind are the movies I used to watch. There were some that I would watch over and over again. I used to watch the Ninja Turtles movie all the time and still know at least the first one by heart. There are several Disney movies I cherish and adore from when I little, but who does not have a Disney memory from when they were little. My fondest memory of a movie I have is watching Ghostbusters. This is so because I used to watch both movies with my older cousin all the time. Of course since he was older than me I adored him and wanted to do whatever he did and he used to watch Ghostbusters all the time. Even the cartoons we loved together (to this day I still have the firehouse and figures from the cartoon!). The Ghostbusters movies are cherished in my house. No matter how many times we have all seen them we always laugh hysterically.

            If you do not know the plot to Ghostbusters then there is something wrong with and means you have been a sheltered person all your life since you have never seen it. But for those sheltered individuals here is a summary.

            Doctors Peter Venkman (Bill Murray), Egon Spangler, and Ray Stantz (Dan Aykroyd) are parapsychologists. They were working at a university until they were let go when the college dropped their funding. They decide to go into the business of catching ghosts. Their first client comes from a hotel where a green ghost is causing havoc in the dining. After this they are inundated with calls for help with the paranormal.

            One day a woman named Dana Barrett (Sigourney Weaver) comes into their office seeking help. The day before she came home to her apartment after grocery shopping and the eggs she just bought jumped out of the carton and were frying. When she opened her refrigerator there was this nasty looking dog and she heard the name Zuul. Peter takes the case thinking he has a chance with Dana.

            Pretty soon the Ghostbusters figure out that Dana’s apartment is a paranormal portal that had been built by worshipers of the ancient god Gozer. And of course they wind up saving Dana and the entire city of New York.

            The more I watch Ghostbusters the more I love the characters. I love how Venkman is a bit of a jerk and seems to just be along for the ride. Ray is like an oblivious little kid. Spangler is nerdy as hell but totally funny with his dryness. Lewis Tully played by Rick Moranis is probably one of the best and under appreciated characters in all of movie history. I die laughing when he becomes the Key Master and he is brought to Ghostbuster headquarters. Janine, played perfectly by Annie Potts, asks Lewis if he wants coffee, Lewis looks at Spangler and Spangler says “Yes, have some” and Lewis repeats what Spangler said.

            The dialogue is genius. There are so many good lines it is hard to pick which line is my favorite. So much of the dialogue, especially Bill Murray’s, was adlibbed. This is one of my favorite lines: “We've been going about this all wrong. This Mr. Stay Puft's okay! He's a sailor, he's in New York; we get this guy laid, we won't have any trouble!”

               Rewatching this I love the library scene because I am currently working in one. I will admit I am a nerd because when I first went into the New York Public Library I was hoping I would see the Gray Lady that caused the trouble there, ha ha. I cringed seeing the card catalogs fly all over the place, I would not want to be the person who has to pick them up and order them again. Thank God everything is all computerized now! 

            Ghostbusters is just a genius movie all around. This is the only movie where I become a jerk and cannot even speak to anyone who has never seen it to me it is unfathomable to believe. It seems un-American to me if you have never seen this. Ghosbusters is nerdy, hysterical, wonderful, perfect, and enduring. It is a timeless movie that has become a great staple in my life.