Two Fives

Netflix has a very cool rating system. With the click of a mouse, you can rate any movie you've seen from 1-5 stars. When choosing a movie, the average user-rating is displayed, giving an idea of what most people thought of the film. Additionally, the site makes recommendations based on how the individual member has rated movies. Therefore it's more important to rate subjectively, so that recommendations are more tailored to your individual tastes. The Transformers: The Movie is, by no stretch of the imagination, a five-star movie. In 1986 it was at least a “4”, and by today's animation standards it would probably be a “3”. Yet it was something I loved as a child and says a lot about my tastes, so it's important that I give that sort of thing a “5”. Most of the movies I've seen since joining have been 3's or 4's, with 5's and 2's more rare and 1's virtually nonexistent. As I watch a movie, various plot turns can make my rating fluctuate until the end, and I've been known to add or subtract a star based on a single facet of the movie that impacts me strongly enough, positively or negatively. 5's are so rare that when they come along, it's generally a no-brainer. Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Back to the Future. The Empire Strikes Back. Spider-man 2. Cabin Boy. OK, maybe not Cabin Boy, but certainly films like that and UHF get higher ratings from me than other people would give them. Yesterday was a rare occasion in which I found myself watching not one but two 5's, and 5's I think a majority of people would be hard-pressed to dispute.

A Simple Plan is a quiet, brilliantly acted piece with a deceptive title. Bill Paxton and Billy Bob Thornton play two very different brothers who, along with a good friend and Paxton's wife, played by Bridget Fonda, stumble upon something that will make all their lives a lot better, so long as everything goes according to plan and no one finds out. One tragic turn after another makes things more and more complicated, and their lives are all ultimately changed, just not the way they had planned. A decidedly-different Fargo-esque turn for director Sam Raimi, I pondered as the credits rolled whether there was any reason I could think of to give the film anything less than a 5. Sam's ”Classic”, a 1973 Oldsmobile Delta Royale that appears in every film he makes, has a much smaller cameo in this film than it usually does, and I had to go back and look for it. Then find a page with a list of the movies it's been in to confirm it. Still, even that didn't cost the movie a star. The performances and expressions of the principal actors dominate here, and more is said with silence than with dialogue.

Mulholland Dr. was not immediately a 5 for me. Though on the surface it didn't seem as complex as David Lynch's earlier Lost Highway, a film I had to work very hard to understand, the movie takes a surprising “wtf?!” turn near the end which could make or break it for some people. Lynch is famous for incorporating generous amounts of metaphor and symbolism, and nearly every detail is an important clue to what's really going on. Something as simple as a key on an end table, or a character's name can be important. It wasn't until researching online and finding a site dedicated to the movie that the full brilliance of it unraveled. I don't recommend anyone visiting the site unless you've seen the movie first. I was surprised at the level of biblical metaphor hidden within the sinful, noiresque so-not-for-children thriller. Unlike Lost Highway, this film makes complete sense to me now, although I found it impossible to watch it again and again and not notice something subtle I hadn't before on every repeat viewing.

Naomi Watts(of The Ring fame) demonstrates a remarkable range here, and it's nigh impossible to take one's eyes off of Laura Elena Harring's mysterious character, the amnesiac key to the true plot. Every role, no matter how small, is an important piece to the puzzle, including Melissa George, a name Alias fans should be familiar with. The cinematography is trademark Lynch, with possible nods to Pulp Fiction, both through a decidedly hilarious sequence involving a hitman with extraordinarily bad luck, and with the challenging non-linear aspects of the last twenty minutes. I had actually given it a “4”, but after doing some research and watching it again, realized what a solid masterpiece it is. It takes work to appreciate it fully, but it's definitely worth it when you get there. I know Lynch primarily from his films, Lost Highway, Dune, and Blue Velvet, and I've never seen Twin Peaks. The show is on my queue but I keep giving cinematic releases priority over television I've missed, a priority I may have to revise.

A friend with a ten-dollar bill asked me on Wednesday for “two fives”, and the answer to the question would have been “yes” yesterday, for a very different reason.