The Machinist
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Movie Reviews of The Machinist
Movie Review: TRIPPY.
Summary: 5 Stars
This movie does more then show you what its like to be suffering from sleep psychosis.. it actually imposes the problem on you. If your seeing it for the first time, you can expect to enjoy a movie where you really have to pay attention to every detail. A movie where you have to watch it mutiple times to unlock all the hidden riddles and nuances a intellectual piece. Christian Bale's acting is cutting edge.. no actor can pull off these complex roles like he can. The Bale factor brings this movie up to elite standards for psychological horror. The fact that Christian starves himself and really gets into his character makes the likeness of Trevor Reznik very palpable and captivating. The dark depressed mood of the film is instantuated not only by Trevor's listlessness but also by the setting of the movie in Los Angeles where Trevor works in a monotonous factory working on machines. Trevor's life is purposelessly drifting, from coffee shops to bars to whores. Something seems to be bothering Trevor and he's like a ghost haunting his abysmal surrounding with no inkling, except the mysterious notes he writes in his moments of lucid intellection amidst his hallicinations. The clues he unearths in his psychotic sleep deprived delusions, day by day in his dismay and suprise he discovers these little notes, slowly these little clues chip away at his pysche. As his repressed past that he has buried in self-defense in his sub-concious, begins eating away at him like a worm in a rotten apple. Soon Trevor can't hide anymore and he is forced to face the truth. The truth that has drove him into a year of insomnia and denial, the truth that he's not even aware of until the movie completely unfolds. This movie takes you through the unraveling of pyschological states. This movie very eloquently shows the viewer what sort of dark things lay in the sub-concious, and the power of the sub-concious to make one aware of it. The beauty of this movie is you get to feel like its happening to you. Above all else this movie is philosophically insightful if one takes it seriously, the pyschological states explored give one a unique perspective on the influence of sub-concious states and their role in dream states and concious cognitive states. The lines are blurred in this film and the checks and balances are confounded because some acts such as the one Trevor Reznik commits overwhelm the sub-concious mind, and in order to balance the system of pyschological processes the repression has to be acknowledged and come to terms with on all three levels. In the end of the movie Trevor restores that balance and finally goes to sleep. I recommend this movie to anyone who likes intelligent cinema, and can appreciate a movie that'll make you think and not just take up your time like so many other films.Movie Review: Amazing
Summary: 5 Stars
'The Machinist' is easily one of the best films I have seen in a long time. So, of course, critics and viewers seem to be lukewarm or downright critical of it. Maybe it was too dark for them. Maybe it was too confusing. Maybe a protagonist that looks like a walking skeleton was too much for them to handle. Still, the main criticisms I've read about 'The Machinist' are the very reasons people like myself love it. The 2-star review from "A. Vegan" says it all:
"The movie doesn't let you know what is happening until the last few minutes of the film, so it requires that you sit through almost an hour and a half wondering what is going on. The dark gloomy atmosphere, together with the dark gloomy characters in the film help make it even more unpleasant. We know something is going on, but there is no hint of it until the movie is over."
That's not really a valid criticism since that was kind of the point: to figure out what is going on. You truly are immersed into the shoes of the protagonist (Christian Bale, in a career defining performance.) The viewer feels just as lost, confused, and helpless as sleepy, skinny Trevor Reznik does. Which, as my vegan friend didn't quite grasp, is part of the point of this film and is the main storytelling device. You are supposed to feel the pain and anguish of a man who has not slept in a year and is slowly but surely losing his mind. You may or may not enjoy the plot and subject matter, but you cannot deny that the film succeeds wonderfully in what it is attempting.
Throughout the film, I found myself asking many of the same questions Reznik was asking himself: Why can't he sleep? What's the deal with the mysterious Ivan? Are his co-workers really messing with him or is Trevor just paranoid? Why is it always 1:30 when he looks at a clock? How do the hooker and the waitress fit into everything? Above all else....what's in the fridge? Thankfully most, if not all, of your questions are answered in the spectacular ending that makes all of the puzzle pieces fit together nicely. It will surprise you, but not in the typical Hollywood gimmicky "Gotcha!" kind of way (M. Night Shamalyan, I'm looking at you.) It is both surprising and satisfying.
If you can't handle movies where the plot isn't spoon fed to you and you're pretty much in the dark until the last 5 minutes, then you probably won't enjoy 'The Machinist'. If you enjoy movies that provide a good slow boil instead of a greasy flash fry, then you don't want to miss this instant classic.
Movie Review: Stop reading reviews and just watch the movie!
Summary: 5 Stars
There's so much I'd like to write about this movie, but I can't. I don't want to give even the slightest bit away. Yeah, it's cheap, I know, but I saw it with pretty much a blank slate and I think that's absolutely the best way to do. You must see this movie. Then come back and read some of these reviews, like I did (some of the reviewers give away WAY too much, I felt).
This movie is a feast for all the senses. Christian Bale plays a frighteningly emaciated industrial worker lives like an apparition in a washed out, grimy world. This reminds me of Orwell's vision of postwar England as portrayed in "1984" - grim, bleak, washed-out, bleary-eyed, ephemeral and unreal, like being stuck in a perpetual hangover in an old war zone. For a while this movie was billed as a "horror" movie but it's really psychological horror that manifests itself in a few conventionally horrific ways. It does have similarities to "Sessions 9" as others have pointed out, by the same director. Internal angst and self-discovery juxtaposed against a decaying old backdrop.
This movie is like what Henry James might have written if he were alive today! The cinematography is great, the settings are excellently done and quite creepy and unsettling, even as they are familiar. And the music! The music is great, it's about time someone gave some love to the theremin again. The acting is top-notch from everyone involved, especially Christian Bale. A scene-grabber for sure.
Every facet of the movie was executed in a professionally frightening and somewhat hallucinatory manner. But don't be fooled by that term. There really is very little David Lynch and such style in this movie, in my opinion. It does more showing and less telling, yes, but it does so in a more straight-ahead approach with less cloying. If the movie has a weakness, which it may very well not, it's the ending; however, I congratulate the writers, because this was an extraordinarily difficult movie to write a conclusion to that doesn't cheat the audience or leave things too open-ended (the famous "draw your own conclusions" ending that give critics something to rave about and writers and easy out).
In conclusion, "The Machinist" deserves 5 stars on virtually every level, and as a whole. Watch it as soon as possible, I don't think you'll be disappointed, and I'd be surprised if anyone feels "cheated" like you do with some ambitious movies.
Movie Review: Dostoyevskian
Summary: 5 Stars
Christian Bale's performance as Trevor Reznik, a somnambulist with the appearance of a concentration camp refugee, defies criticism and deserves all the acclaim he has received across the world.
Trevor Reznik is a character that is reminiscent of the strange characters of great literature, such as Dostoyevsky's Prince Myshkin in the novel, The Idiot, the saintly epileptic, Christ-like figure whose hallucinatory visions haunt the entire novel. Franze Kafka's Gregor Samsa also comes to mind in the novella, Metamorphosis, where he awakes one morning to find that he has transformed into a giant insect. All these characters move in and out of reality, as the line has blurred, existing in a world of sickness and suffering, struggling to attain some kind of insight, as to who they are and what is happening to them.
The Machinist unfolds through the eyes of Reznik, a man who hasn't slept in a year, and whose only real friend is a prostitute, (Jennifer Jason Leigh) and as the story propels forward, the nightmare becomes more complicated, much more intense, as we the audience attempt to decipher Reznik's situation: are these hallucinations due to lack of sleep or something more sinister?
A new character enters the scene - a dangerous looking man who claims to be working at Reznik's machine shop. The man appears on the shop floor one day and a terrible accident occurs because Reznik is distracted, a co-worker's arm is mutilated and severed in one of the machines. We discover later that this new character doesn't exist, however, Reznik later spots his car, and chases him through the streets of the city. (This scene reminded me of Dostoevsky's novel, The Double) Who is this strange man and why does he seem to know more about Reznik than Reznik himself?
This film is a well-constructed psychological thriller, scattering clues throughout, where only at the end, do we discover the cause of Reznik's unique nightmare.
One should also mention the soundtrack, an eerie, at times intense piece that underpins the tale, creating the desired, lingering effect. The film's images should remain with you long after its surprise ending.
The Machinist would have to be one of the best films produced in 2004.
Movie Review: Brilliantly executed
Summary: 5 Stars
Brad Anderson has the potential to be that rare breed of artist: a great horror movie director. This breed is even rarer nowadays, when the temptation of big budget Hollywood crapfests like "Scream" and "The Exorcist III:The Beginning" loom so large, promising millions for anyone involved just as long as
the blood flows aplenty, the actresses are well known and have bra sizes exceeding the standard, and some reference to great horror flicks of old are contained in the title/dialogue.
"The Machinist", when all the desperate illusions are stripped away, is essentially about a man in denial. Christian Bale's performance as Trevor Reznick, a not-so-generic industrial worker, is so good that at times he is actually frightening. Not having slept in a year, his ghostly existence is punctuated only by moments of hope. He looks like he just escaped from a Nazi death camp, and becomes more pale and impoverished as the film rolls on. The observant viewer will notice more than a little of Dostoevsky in this film: at one point we catch Trevor reading "The Idiot" at home, a book which in fact is entirely inappropriate for his real situation. Later on, in a very fleeting moment, we see "Crime and Punishment", which is much more appropriate. This film could easily be seen from a religious angle, although I think this would be wrong: Trevor is an ascetic of the most dementedly enthusiastic sort, throwing himself in front of cars and immolating his life in a thousand ways in order to atone for an act which can can never be really forgiven.
The meaning of the movie aside, everything about it is so Kafka-esque, laced with paranoia of the most dreadful kind, and hallucinatory that one is hooked from the moment the film begins. During the course of it a man loses his arm due to Trevor's "negligence": he goes on a Halloween carnival ride which quickly becomes an excrutiating peek into his tortured subconscious:and above all, he engages in a strange pursuit of Ivan, a tall, bald, recklessly honest figure, the one factor in his life he desperately wants to be rid of.
Far better than "Memento", which I believe it is patterned after somewhat, this is yet another horror masterpiece by Brad Anderson. Not to be missed.