In a variation of The Announcer’s “album swap,” Senior Nathan Walloch swapped favorite movies with French teacher, Ms. DeMay.
Nathan Walloch’s review of Rosemary’s Baby
One of my favorite things to do in my free time, other than doing homework of course, is to watch a good movie. Movies have always been a way for me to relax and unwind after a hard day at school, and when I was told that I was going to do a movie swap with Mrs. Demay, I was excited. I have never had Mrs. Demay as a teacher, but I heard through my various sources that she is an avid movie lover. I was not sure what movie she would pick for me to watch. Was it going to be a romance, comedy, or an action packed Nicholas Cage film? No, it was Rosemary’s Baby and let me just say it was the creepiest/scariest 136 minutes of my life.
I had never seen nor heard of the movie Rosemary’s Baby but from the title it sounded like a romantic comedy about a sweet young woman and her husband having their first child. Boy, was I way off. The movie takes place in New York in 1965 and features a young couple–played by Mia Farrow and John Cassavetes–buying a new apartment. All seems well in the beginning but their neighbors are a bit off because they are part of a satanic cult–no biggie. Later in the movie, Rosemary, played by Mia Farrow, becomes pregnant and her neighbors feed her strange food and drinks that are supposed to be “vitamins.” Rosemary becomes suspicious that her neighbors are up to something and no one believes her when she says they are witches part of a cult. Rosemary then has the baby and it turns out not to be human, but the son of Lucifer. Least to say, I was very surprised and very scared to talk to my own next door neighbors after watching this film.
Even though the movie was very scary and very different from what I have watched before, I am happy to say that I liked it. The acting in the movie was so real that it kept me on the edge of my seat and even made me believe the movie was based on real events, which I hope it wasn’t. All in all, I am glad to have watched this movie that Mrs. Demay recommended for me and I hope she enjoyed the film I recommended for her. Hopefully my movie didn’t scare her as much as Rosemary’s Baby did to me.
Ms. DeMay’s review of The Town
The French have an expression, “Si on aime la vie, on va au cinéma”. “People who love life, go to the movies.” In fact, the French respect movies so much, they recognize the cinéma as the septième art, the seventh art. For the French, seeing a movie is not just about being entertained, but more about being provoked to think and feel. They do not identify movies by the stars who are in them, but rather by the cinéastes who direct them.
With that said, I was glad when Nathan Walloch, a fellow cinéphile approached me about doing a movie exchange. We were each asked to recommend one of our favorite movies to each other that we would watch and critique. My recommendation for Nathan was Rosemary’s Baby, a film directed by Roman Polanski and his choice for me was The Town, directed by Ben Affleck.
Even though I had already seen The Town, I was looking forward to seeing it again. It was especially fitting to be watching it on the day of the death of the beloved film critic Roger Ebert was announced. What better way to pay tribute to a man whose passion for film was inspiring and infectious. I am sure he admired Ben Affleck’s directorial oeuvre as much as I do.
The Town is Ben Affleck’s second film as a director and a film in which he also acts. In The Town, Ben Affleck plays Doug MacRay, the next generation of a bank-robbing family in a Boston area of Charlestown. We are told that this square mile contains more thieves and bank robbers than anywhere else in the country. Bank robbing is a family trade for the MacRay family. Affleck heads a four-man crew, whose most notable character is Jem played by Jeremy Renner. They plan their jobs meticulously, careful to eradicate any DNA evidence and confiscate security tapes. Unfortunately, Jem has an unpredictable wild streak. He injures innocent bystanders when it is unnecessary, and during one job, Jem does the unthinkable: he takes a hostage, Claire, played by Rebecca Hall. Kidnapping is a serious felony.
They release Claire unharmed, but obviously shook up by the ordeal. Jem becomes paranoid when he discovers Claire lives in Charlestown. Doug follows her to a Laundromat, meets her by “accident”, gets to know her and quite unexpectedly falls in love with her. His relationship with Claire is the heart of this movie. By getting to know Claire, Doug realizes he has missed a fullness of a life that his heritage has denied him. Affleck pulls back on the growing love story and focuses on more crime. We meet Doug’s father in prison and an unrelenting crime lord. We follow an FBI team led by Jon Hamm who has a good idea who they are looking for, but lack the evidence they can take to a jury. The dénoument leaves us wanting more.
The Town shows, as his first film Gone Baby Gone and his Oscar winning film Argo did, that Affleck has the stuff of a real director. In The Town, several marks of a great director are there. It is an effective thriller, where Affleck brings out the best in his actors, and has a feel for pacing an unpredictable turn of events. While The Town was not Affleck’s tour de force (Argo was) it is a well-made crime story and at its heart a love story that audiences can enjoy at those levels.
See you at the movies Nathan, and here’s hoping that the balcony never closes.