Indie Gems: 25th Hour

-
What would you do if you had 24 hours until your life was about to change?
This is the situation Monty (Edward Norton) is faced with. After being ratted out to the DEA, Monty has one last day to re-evaluate his life before he goes to prison for 7 years on a drug charge. He spends it with his friends, Jacob, (Philip Seymour Hoffman) and Frank (Barry Pepper) They eventually meet up with Monty's girlfriend, Naturelle (Rosario Dawson) and on their way to a club, cross paths with Jacob's young student, Mary (Anna Paquin) who he seems to be fascinated with. There's plenty of flashbacks throughout to show us how Monty got to this point.

This is my favorite Spike Lee movie. The acting is strong, the writing wonderful, and the score is fantastic. Ed Norton does a great job with Monty. (There's a really brilliant scene where he's talking to himself in the mirror) Even though he has clearly done bad things, we feel sorry for him because we know that seven years in prison will change his life drastically. Naturelle will more than likely move on. Who knows what his friends will be doing. There's a subplot between Seymour Hoffman and Paquin that I enjoyed as well. It may come off as typical teacher has a crush on a student schtick, but they take it to just the right place without going too far. (Although I would've preferred some follow up with that story)

This film really is the whole package, and is a must see for fans of Norton, Seymour Hoffman and Paquin.

Grade: A

Memorable Quote: "Fuck Francis Xavier Slaughtery my best friend, judging me while he stares at my girlfriend's ass." - Monty  (Edward Norton)

Comments

  1. m.brownMarch 16, 2013 at 8:16 PM

    My brother absolutely swears by this film, and for whatever reason, I have never seen it.

    With the two of you backing it so fondly, I'm in.

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousMarch 18, 2013 at 1:35 AM

    This really is a great movie. I agree with everything you said. I like the quote you picked too.

    ReplyDelete
  3. JoshMarch 29, 2013 at 10:34 PM

    I love this movie. It's definitely one of Spike Lee's best.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Thanks for stopping by, let's talk movies!
(comments are moderated to reduce spam)

Popular posts from this blog

Random Ramblings: The Radio Flyer Conundrum

-
Image
Recently, I was talking to someone about who I thought were the best child actors when I was also a child.  Two that really stood out to me were Elijah Wood and Joseph Mazello, and one film those two were in together was called Radio Flyer.  Then I was reminded about the uniqueness of this film. Instead of reviewing the film, I wanted to have an open discussion about the ending. It deals with a tough issue; child abuse. What I’ve noticed is the way that the film ends is interpreted many different ways, and the filmmakers never came forward to say what was right and wrong. I’m interested in hearing everyone’s opinions on it. How did you interpret the ending? Obviously spoiler alerts will follow.. For those of you who haven’t seen the film, the basic premise is this: Two young boys, Mikey (Wood) and Bobby (Mazello) move in with their single mother and her boyfriend, who refers to himself as ‘The King’. It doesn’t take long for The King to start physically abusing ...
Read more

Indie Gems: Behind The Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon

-
Image
Passionate about your profession? I had never heard of this film until it ended up on one of Jason's favorite horror movie lists around Halloween. It immediately sounded interesting to me, so of course I threw it in my Netflix queue. (and if I'm just now watching it after adding it around Halloween, you know how ridiculous my queue is) Taylor (Angela Goethals) is a journalist who, along with a film crew decides to follow around a serial killer named Leslie Vernon. (Nathan Baesel) He plans on doing the typical slasher thing - getting a bunch of drunk teens in an abandoned house and knocking them off one by one. He gets advice from a retired serial killer, Eugene (Scott Wilson) and is threatened by a man who's on to him, Doc Holloran (Robert Englund) Taylor and crew are there capturing it all. Leslie Vernon is fucking hilarious to start with, and clearly very passionate about what he does. He tells Taylor all of his secrets and can barely contain his excitemen...
Read more

My Favorite Movie Youtube Channels

-
Image
Starting around 2018, I started watching Youtube for more than just movie trailers or music videos whenever a new one dropped. Now I'm in full blown subscription mode and don't bat an eyelash at watching a Youtube video that's over an hour long. I watch Youtube for a few different categories of content, but one of them that I love most is movie/TV essays and commentary, and that's what I'm going to talk about today. Below is a list of my favorite movie related Youtube channels. Let me know if you're familiar with them too, or if you have any you'd like to recommend to me.  Double Toasted - I'm honestly surprised this channel isn't bigger. I first came across Korey and Martin when they reviewed War for the Planet of the Apes a few months before it hit theaters and I thought they were hysterical. While their full length videos stream on Twitch, they often upload their movie reviews and commentary on youtube and they're always hilarious. They've...
Read more