Singin' in the Rain (1952)

4.9/5

Singin' in the Rain is an amazingly fun movie. The plot follows silent film stars Don Lockwood (Kelly) and Lina Lamont (Hagen) as Hollywood begins shifting to talking pictures after the success of The Jazz Singer. Lina has a scratchy voice and the mental capacity of a five year old. She takes the tabloid stories as fact and believes that she has an intimate real-life relationship with her on-screen partner Don. But Don hates her guts; he's closer to his best friend Cosmo Brown (O'Connor). At a party, he meets the young Kathy Selden (Reynolds) and falls in love with her. Unlike the rest of his teeny bopper fans, she doesn't even recognize him. And once she finds out his occupation, she thinks even more lowly of him. He sets out to win her over. I'll leave the rest of the story for you to discover yourself.

The movie is not without a few problems. There are some random, unnecessary scenes (like that last Broadway dance number) and the story is fairly simplistic and predictable. But those problems are masked by the fact that this movie is such a joy to watch. The characters are fairly bland, but they are portrayed with heart and emotion by each actor. You want to grab them off the screen, hug them, and tell them it's going to be all right. There are some clever twists to keep you intrigued and a wealth of absolutely delightful jokes to keep you laughing. You smile the entire time. The dances are phenomenal in every sense of the word. They are a breath of fresh air in the modern world of close-ups, quick cuts, and CGI effects. You feel the energy and vivacity at every moment. You are happy to watch this movie. And despite any nit-picky faults in cinematography or editing, that is what makes this movie great. And that is what keeps me coming back and watching this movie again and again.

IMDb link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0045152/

Ikiru (1952)

5/5

Akira Kurosawa's Ikiru, which means "to live," is a tender portrait of an aging bureaucrat (Shimura) who's wasted 30 years of his life, discovers he has cancer, and fights to reclaim meaning and relevance before he dies. Through the eyes of his coworkers and family, we see a man who has lost his excitement for life attempt to find it again--in alcohol, strip clubs, and young women--but cannot. Instead his search leads him ultimately to redemption through his job in the government, where he makes up his mind to get a park built for a local community. His achievement doesn't improve the government's inefficiency, his death doesn't change most of his coworkers' opinions of him, but for a select few, he has made a world of difference.

The structure of the film is unique, because the last hour or so takes place after his death. And this is where the film is truly elevated out of the melodramatic sentimentality modern-day Hollywood would have turned it into. At his wake we finally get to see what people really think of him, without his feelings and the possibility of hurting them to get in the way. We are frustrated at everyone who doesn't understand what he was doing, we are infuriated at them for trying to cheat him out of his accomplishment, and we want to yell at the screen: "THIS IS A GOOD MAN WHO DIED! RESPECT HIM!" But Kurosawa's brilliant directing controls it all. Our final image of the man is one of serenity, a smile on his face as he swings back and forth in the park he managed to build for people who needed it. He doesn't care about the credit; he just knows he did a good deed and can die peacefully.

The entire story is told in evocative shot compositions and Shimura's expressive face. We see a paper on improving government efficiency that he wrote 20 years prior, and we see him tear off its cover page to use as a tissue before throwing it away. Does he even remember writing that? In the waiting room at the doctor's office, he listens as a man describes the symptoms of stomach cancer and callously correlates them to life expectancy. His horror mangles his face. When he comes home to tell his son he's going to die, he overhears him greedily talking about his pension and loses the heart to tell him. Through a few quick flashbacks we see a father full of joy, pride, shame, and guilt, but unable to change how his son looks at him.

Ikiru is a slow-paced and often silent film, which demands patience of its audience for the 2 hour and 20 minute runtime. And it is a sad story for most of its length--but it ends with one of the most poignant, uplifting finales I have ever seen. Could it have stood to be edited a bit tighter? Yes. Could some short vignettes have been cut? Of course. But the picture overcomes its minor drawbacks and envelops you; it enriches your life. And after you see this movie, you might be one of the coworkers who doesn't much change, but you also might be the one who sees the whole world with new eyes.

IMDb link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0044741/