The Machinist: A review. And Tery is fed up with Ellen. Read why.

[grrgoyl]

Based on my good friend Gerry's recommendation (partly) and the description at Netflix, I rented The Machinist.



I liked this movie much better when I saw it the first time. Of course, back then it was called Fight Club. My warning buzzers went off when I selected this for my queue and Netflix helpfully suggested Fight Club as well as Memento, both of which rank among my Top Ten Favorites of all time. I asked Gerry at work if The Machinist stole Fight Club's twist, and he begrudgingly admitted it did but was still worth watching. So the ending was absolutely no surprise to me, but I probably would have seen it coming even without these clues. I'm so tired of directors and writers blatantly stealing this twist and then patting themselves on the back for their originality. It happened in Secret Window and more enjoyably and effectively in Identity, just to name the ones I've seen.

As far as I can tell the only thing that merits a nod to Memento is that they are both "film noir" and that Machinist has a tiny bit of fun with the timeline, but not anywhere close to the extent that Nolan does in Memento.

What mystifies me are the people at Netflix reviewing Machinist who acknowledge that it steals from other films, yet still give it 5 stars and gush about it like giddy schoolgirls. How is this movie so great if you saw the ending coming as soon as the opening credits were over?

It was an alright film. Christian Bale plays a machinist plagued with insomnia for a year now. As a result he's become deathly gaunt and lifeless, and now is hallucinating an imaginary co-worker, causing him to question his sanity until he comes close to snapping, thus solving the mystery. Sound familiar at all? Yeah, if Chuck Palahniuk's lawyers should be arranging a meeting with Stephen King's lawyers for Secret Window, they'd better already have a court date with the screenwriter of Machinist.

Oh, yes, and Trevor spends a lot of time cleaning his hands with bleach, and at one point, with pure lye. This is so the audience knows he's done something bad. The overdone "out, out, damn spot!" reference would only be lost on an illiterate moron.

The movie was very film noir, using bleak, monochromatic palettes to convey the sleepy, unreal half-world of the insomniac. As it was described so eloquently by Edward Norton's Narrator, "with insomnia...everything's a copy of a copy of a copy." Trevor Reznik (no similarity to "Trent Reznor," no, not at all) floats from his apartment (awash in whites and grays) to work at the factory (colored black and charcoal gray) to his girlfriend's place, Jennifer Jason-Leigh the hooker (done in washed out, sickly yellows). The only spot of color in the whole film is the red Corvette driven by Ivan, his nonexistent nemesis.

The movie laboriously builds its atmosphere of dread to the utterly predictable climax, with very few surprises along the way, using the same puzzle pieces as its predecessors, only fit together slightly differently (and not as snugly). For instance, the waitress and her son's presence are explained, but we are never told where the inspiration for Ivan came from. Although in all fairness, Tyler Durden is never given a real-life counterpart either, so in that respect it is very true to its source material. And Reynolds, the arc welder, never has his part explained in all this nor his criminal offense that lands him in jail for a day, allowing an opening for Ivan to step in.

By far the only thing that makes the movie truly remarkable is the much-talked-about willingness of Bale to lose 63 pounds for the role to fit the screenplay's description of a "skeletal" protagonist. He says he "just didn't eat" for months to attain this girlish figure. The first time I saw him without his shirt on, I literally gasped. He looked absolutely horrific. Near the end of the movie we finally get to see a "before" image in a flashback, thank god. I really wanted to see him at the end of the behind-the-scenes footage diving into a French bread and potato chip salad with Heineken dressing -- this guy DESPERATELY needed to carbo load. But alas, it wasn't to be.

Still, having such a dedicated leading man does NOT make you Hitchcock, which is who the filmmakers had the audacity to compare themselves to.

My favorite review on Netflix pointed out the huge discrepancy between Trevor being able to quote OSHA regulations to the shop steward, yet insisting on working heavy machinery, even after not sleeping for a year. I would add to this that a man as exhausted and dangerously emaciated as Trevor would have a mighty hard time (no pun intended) having sex, which is what he's doing in the second scene. Research department, anyone?



Eh. A 2.5 out of 5, just because I've seen it all before.


Tery's on a crusade against Ellen Degeneres. She says that every time she sees her talk show, she's hanging all over men, dancing with them, kissing them, commenting on their "hotness," etc. The breaking point came when she saw a commercial that was literally a montage of Ellen and her men. She feels strongly that Ellen sold out, and I tend to agree. She got me worked up enough to write to her:

Hi Ellen
My girlfriend and I love you. We've watched you and cheered for you throughout most of your career. But lately we're seeing a trend, most notably in how your talk show is marketed, that disturbs us. You probably don't have a lot of say over commercial content, but it seems like the network is constantly showing clips of you dancing with men, kissing men, gushing over men, etc. We understand (even if we don't agree with) your decision not to have a "gay" talk show. But this aggressively false portrayal is going too far in the opposite direction. "Look at Ellen! She's the lesbian who loves men!" It sounds like a badly-written SNL skit. What happened to the Ellen who wasn't afraid to be herself, who thought being honest on the air, even if it meant cancellation, was better than having her show run for 10 years? You changed the lives of thousands of gay people by being brave enough to come out. You were a symbol of hope and moving forward. Then you ran right back into your closet and slammed the door. Yes, it's important that America sees that we're just regular people like them. But not if it means having to denounce our sexuality completely. It seems like you've turned your back on your long-time fans just to kiss up to Middle America. We're not asking you to force homosexuality down people's throats. But we're tired of you forcing heterosexuality down our throats instead. You've become innocuous to the point of being ineffective. It really seems like you've sold out, and this saddens and disappoints us.
Elaine and Tery

(I didn't add Tery's suggestion for a P.S.: Sleep with us!)

A little harsh? We don't think so. Especially when Tery pointed out how much it would have meant to her as a young lesbian in her formative years to have such a prominent role model as Ellen first promised to be, and how confusing to then see that role model appearing to "bat for the other team." For her to make herself palatable to midwestern housewives, she's whitewashed over and ultimately erased her lesbianism, leaving behind the gay community that supported her so fiercely when she first came out. Like I said in the letter, we aren't asking her to French kiss women weekly on her talk show. But a little less acting like a total breeder (or "Uncle Tom" which was Tery's name for her) would be a nice start.

This topic was raised at the hospital, where unfortunately Kay (the makeover queen of insensitivity) felt the need to get involved. She saw no problem with Ellen kissing men all the time. I'm proud of Tery for completely smacking her down in her tracks, saying that she would never understand until she'd walked a mile in Tery and Tabby's shoes. Which is true. I would draw some heterosexual comparisons but I feel I've made my point. To further illustrate her cluelessness, she absolutely doesn't believe Jodie Foster is gay (but she so totally is).

Finally, I donated to the Red Cross today for the Katrina relief fund, only $20, but that's really all I can spare this month. So all those motherfuckers blaming the disaster on homosexuals, godless liberals and worst of all, the victims themselves, can suck my (figurative) dick and go straight to hell. (I'm looking at YOU, Rush Limbaugh, you big fat idiot.) Shame on all of them.

I also have high hopes that this might be the wake-up call Bush supporters needed to return to the side of Reason and Sanity. If one good thing comes of this horrible tragedy, please god, let it be this. See anne_jumps's journal for many, many interesting and informative links.

Comments

[velmaneuwirth.livejournal.com]

Wow. See we don't get Ellen's talk show over here. I've only seen 2 episodes of it that I managed to download because it had certain people on them. So I obviouslly haven't noitced all what you've mentioed. But if she is doing that then I agree. It's like what Tery was saying about what a role-model she would've been to her as a young lesbian. Well, I AM and I think Ellen was/is that to me, so.. That makes me sad.

But I DO love Tery's P.S. Hehe!

Oh and my girl's added you to her friends list. ;-) So, if you want to add her bact at all, her username is 'life_on_stage'

[grrgoyl.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it is terribly sad. Maybe when (if) this country's attitude becomes a little more tolerant, she'll feel brave again.

Thanks for sending her my way. I surely will add her back. : )