10:01 p.m. - 2003-03-19
review of punch drunk love (this is not a call for u to watch the film)
we got free tickets to watch a new film because of the "Media Culture and Analysis" module we're taking. but after that, we had to write a review.
so here's it.
A review of Punch Drunk Love.
Adam Sandler.
That was the first thing that struck me as I looked at the postcard advertising Punch Drunk Love, the movie. To me, the words �Adam Sandler� is an amalgam of the loser, retard, misfit, boy-from-hell, boy-trapped-in-adult roles the actor has taken in his previous films, almost all of which are comedies. Hence, I was much surprised when Punch Drunk Love played, and an hour into the film I was still looking at Adam Sandler�s alienated-awkward character and waiting for that big punchline, the one that would tell me, �hey, this is going to be funny!�
Well, I did laugh, like any of the preview audience, at some of the �jokes� that sprung up� but after each laugh, I sort of looked around nervously.
Adam Sandler punching and smashing glass windows to smithereens at a family gathering.
Adam Sandler going berserk in the men�s restroom at this posh restaurant, and he is attacking the soap dispenser after killing the cubicle door.
Adam Sandler screaming vulgarities with very great force into a telephone, his face red and his throat muscles straining around his neck.
I wondered if I was laughing at the wrong places.
It was violently mad.
The eclectic soundtrack consisting of a retro-cabaret song about love, incessant piano keys dancing to a circus melody, and some liquid glops of sounds, heightened the dark madness creeping out visually.
The whole effect was carnival-like, added with it a lurking suburban landscape of isolation and ridicule.
Perhaps because I am a guy, and that�s why I laughed quite loudly whenever Adam Sandler erupted into a violent fit of aggression.
But I�m not sure� because sometimes we laugh as a defense mechanism, as some way to ease the tension. And I think I did feel some tension in the dazey swirl of anger, dangerous calm and cute love portrayed in the film.
Indeed, Punch Drunk Love is not a normal comedy.
I wouldn�t call it a dark comedy even.
I think
it�s not a comedy.
-----------------the end
yea...punch drunk love.
the last time i checked, you can download it from kazaa. but they;ll probably show it in singapore some time.
it won best director in the 2002 cannes film festival.
