Saturday, April 12, 2008 

Five by Five

25TH HOUR (2002), “You can be from wherever you want. I was just curious.”


Spike Lee follows the last day of freedom in drug dealer Monty Brogan’s (Edward Norton) life before he heads to Otisville prison to do a seven-year bid. The movie is one of Spike’s best (BAMBOOZLED being my personal fave) and contains one of his strongest casts but the reason this clip is here is because watching this the other day I never realized that in this scene (a flashback to when Monty first meets his current girlfriend, Naturelle Rivera) Rosario Dawson and Vanessa Ferlito share screen time long before they starred in Tarantino’s DEATH PROOF together (though they have no scenes together in that). It’s also hilarious that Monty literally picks up a much younger woman ON A PLAYGROUND.


OUT OF SIGHT (1998), “Let’s get outta here.”


When bank robber Jack Foley (George Clooney) escapes prison he takes a hostage, US Federal Marshal Karen Sisco (Jennifer Lopez) and the two end up sharing trunk space and being inexplicably attracted to one another despite being from two very opposite worlds. After chasing Jack across several states (to apprehend him, for other, more personal reasons or both), Karen is having a drink alone at a posh hotel when Jack suddenly and very suavely appears. Anyone who has seen the movie will also note that this is the point when the numerous flashbacks get closer and closer together until we are in the present and the flashbacks cease. Meanwhile, “Gary” and “Celeste” allow themselves to enjoy one night of passion together before going back to who they really are immediately after.


ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND (2004)


I was surprised to find that someone liked this scene as much as I did enough to post it on YouTube. It’s not even an integral or important piece of the movie but one that I just found very cute in a relationship sort of way. In it, Joel (Jim Carrey) and Clementine (Kate Winslet) take turns smothering each other, a silly and playful game, something between lovers that some might find odd but it’s “theirs”, ya know? It’s a shame it’s dubbed in French because I love the part where Winslet says, “Okay, one more then it’s my turn.”


CLOSER (2004), “You're phenomenal. You're so clever.”


This is one of the most brutal and heart-wrenching breakups in a movie EVER. Larry (Clive Owen) returns home from a business trip, ready to confess to wife Anna (Julia Roberts) that he cheated on her with a prostitute while he was away only to have her hit him with an even bigger bombshell: she’s leaving him for Dan (Jude Law, who is simultaneously breaking the news to his girlfriend Alice, played by Natalie Portman). Owen launches into a downright scary interrogation of Roberts that’s part justified, part sad, part sadistic and masochistic but all the way nasty. I think Julia’s final retort will take almost anyone who figures her only an onscreen sweetheart by absolute surprise.


I HEART HUCKABEES (2004), “You're a hypocrite. You're misleading these childen.”


In this clip Albert Markovski (Jason Schwartzman) and Tommy Corn (Mark Wahlberg), Albert’s “other”, both of whom have hired a pair of “existential detectives” (played by Dustin Hoffman and Lily Tomlin) have dinner with the adopted family (consisting of Jean Smart and Jonah Hill) of an African doorman, who Albert is convinced holds the key to one of his many “coincidences.” Hilarity ensues when the head of the family’s occupation turns out to be at direct odds with the idealogy of Albert’s “Open Spaces” coalition and everyone disagrees with Tommy’s take on the use of petroleum.