Your Donations support the Site

Buy Cranky stuff


Buy Movie Posters

Top Selling DVD     Books

        BLU-RAY DVDs:
Avatar
Bad Teacher
Batman Begins
Big Lebowski
Blade Runner
Conan the Barbarian
Cowboys and Aliens
Dark Knight
Fifth Element
The Hangover
James Bond 11 disc coll.
Lord of the Rings trilogy
Star Wars Saga
Super 8
Ultimate Matrix coll
X-Men First Class
X-Men Trilogy
X-Men Wolverine

BLU-Ray for Family DVDs
Alice in Wonderland (2010)
Bambi
A Bug's Life
Cars
Chronicles of Narnia set
Coraline
Ghostbusters
Harry Potter 1-8 collection
Iron Man 2 combo
Kung Fu Panda
Lord of the Rings Trilogy Pinocchio
Pirates of Caribbean trilogy
Pixar short films
Ratatouille
Shrek the Whole Story
Sleeping Beauty
The Smurfs combo
Snow White & 7 Dwarfs
Star Trek motion pictures set
Star Wars Saga (1-6)
Toy Story combo
Toy Story 2 combo
Toy Story 3 combo
Wall-E SE

Search engine by FreeFind

click to search site

      Now in Release:
Adventures of Tintin
Albert Nobbs
Anonymous
The Artist
Carnage
Change-Up, the
Chasing Madoff
Cook County
Crazy Stupid Love
The Descendants
The Double
50/50
Hanna
Hugo
J Edgar
Killing Bono
Kill the Irishman
Machine Gun Preacher
Melancholia
Mission Impossible GP
The Muppets
Passion Play
Puncture
Rampart
Sherlock Holmes
The Son of No One
Super
That's What I Am
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
Trust
Tucker and Dale vs Evil
What's Your Number
Winnie the Pooh
Young Adult

Click for full sized poster

Elephant Starring nobody Written and Directed by Gus Van Sant website: www.elephantmovie.com

IN SHORT: They loved it in France . . . [Rated R for disturbing violent content, language, brief sexuality and drug use - all involving teens. 81 minutes]

. . . and we remind you all that it was a French critic who posited the idea that the best films were the ones which recreated life in a manner as close to the "real thing" as possible. With the advent of steadicam technology, which has been with us for a number of years now, this theory of film making can be well explored. Gus Van Sant's Elephant -- not from the old story about blind men describing an elephant but from a BBC documentary about neverending and pointless violence in Northern Ireland -- displays this stream of life as well as anyone can. We've written it before and we'll do it again here: Life is boring. This film is boring and if there is a reason why two kidlets should take pleasure in trying to burn down their school and kill their fellow students, nothing in this film gives you the slightest reason as to why. Thus, "elephant".

Of course, we don't get to hear the conflicting descriptions of the perceptions of the participants and/or victims of shootings at Watt High, somewhere in Oregon. That's a deliberate choice of the filmmakers; not to write a dialogued story, but to let their novice actors improvise as if to recreate life. Not to show cause, just effect. Actually, we don't get to see much effect, either. The film goes to black even as the killings continue. That's what happens when you have no point to make, no story to tell, nothing but the craft of making the film. Thus, France.

We begin a day before and meet a whole passel of potential victims, each of whom get their own titled portion of the film: John McFarland (John Robinson), whose father is a drunk; Elias (Elias McConnell) a budding photographer; Carrie and Nate (Carrie Finklea and Nathan Tyson) who discuss "the appointment" [wink wink]; Benny (Bennie Dixon) the one black student we meet; Eric and Alex (Eric Deulen and Alex Frost ) who arrive in camouflage gear lugging duffel bags and warn John to "get the hell away"; Michelle (Kristen Hicks) a nerdish girl; Brittany, Jordan and Nicole (Brittany Mountain, Jordan Taylor and Nicole George) the most popular clique in this crowd of kidlets. They've got their own disorder but, since it's the high point, comedy-wise, in this film we'll leave it to surprise those who plant.

Well, someone out there likes deliberately point-of-view-less films. If that's you, you'll be in hog heaven. Buy your cappuccino and discuss motives and perspective and all those lovely film theory things long into the night. Those that sat through Van Sant's last epic, another point-free waste of time called Gerry, know from comparison whether or not they'll enjoy the equally point free Elephant.

On average, a first run movie ticket will run you Ten Bucks. Were Cranky able to set his own price to Elephant, he would have paid . . .;

$0.00

Avoid. Just like the bullets flying through the halls.

Click to buy films by Gus Van Sant