Down By Law review

 Number 424 on the top 1000 films of all time is the independent noir comedy 'Down by Law.'

Zack (Tom Waits) a disc jockey and Jack (John Lurie) a pimp, are both set up and sent to jail. There they meet optimistic Italian Bob (Roberto Benigni.) The three of them stage a jailbreak together.

This was a strange film that dallied with the surreal even if it never quite crossed that bridge. The film subverted the odd couple trope by inserting a third member - the insufferably optimistic Bob - Roberto Benigni in his first American film.

Benigni really shone in this film helping to bring a lot of the off-beat comedy to what could have otherwise been quite a dour film. He also served as a foil between the warring Zack and Jack. Neither character liked each other very much, but Bob served as the glue which held the trio together. He has many endearing traits from his joie di vivre, but also his notebook full of English and Italian translations. The role wasn't unlike Benigni's Oscar-winning performance in Life is Beautiful.

Tom Waits is better known as a blues and rock singer, but he brought that same brooding mentality to the role of Zack. Waits also put his trademark deep, gravelly voice to good use. Zack is an angry, bitter man who is resentful toward the world, not unlike Jack in that regard.

As well as eschewing the odd couple trope, Down by Law also minimises the jail break itself in favour of focussing on the begrudging relationship that forms between the three men. As much as they don't want to admit it, they all need each other to survive. All this is captured in black and white, which stripped away any excess and helped to focus the off-beat humour of the film.

Down by Law was certainly an unconventional film that deliberately eschewed established norms, but it was enjoyable nonetheless.

Clerks review

 Number 421 on the top 1000 films of all time is Kevin Smith's slice-of-life comedy film 'Clerks.'

Clerks follows a day in the life of best friends supermarket cashier Dante Hicks (Brian O'Halloran) and video shop employee Randal Graves (Jeff Anderson,) as they navigate the challenges, customers and struggles of their own personal lives.

I've been fortunate enough to have never worked a retail job. There is no shortage of stories entailing the horrors of working with the general public. It is for that reason that I failed to properly connect with this film. Not to mention, it just wasn't funny.

I had my first chuckle at minute seventeen, my second at minute twenty-nine and I don't think there was a third. If a comedy film only makes you laugh twice in its ninety-minute run time then it has failed. It didn't help a lot of the humour was immature and juvenile.

It also didn't help that the main characters weren't characters I wanted to laugh with or at. Dante is constantly bemoaning how he wasn't supposed to be working that day, but was called in to cover a colleague's shift. At the film's conclusion, Randal correctly admonishes him on his self-pitying behaviour. Yet by this time I had grown weary of both characters. Randal's immaturity was equally annoying.

If I were to say anything positive, it would be about Kevin Smith's vision. He directed, produced and wrote a critical and commercially successful film for a miniscule budget of $27,000. To cut costs, he filmed in black and white, cast his friends and set the film in the video store where he worked during the day. His efforts worked as the film went onto gross almost $4,000,000. All credit to Kevin Smith.

Clerks was not a film that landed for me. It was funny with annoying, unlikeable characters.

The Artist review

 Number 304 on the top 1000 films of all time is Michel Hazanavicius' 2011 silent-film 'The Artist.'

George Valentin (Jean Dujardin) is a silent film-star who finds himself at crisis when the film industry is slowly transitioning to talkies. Will his relationship with rising star Peppy Miller (Berenice Bejo) help to save his career? John Goodman, James Cromwell, Penelope Ann Miller and Malcolm Mcdowell co-star.

Since beginning this challenge, I have seen my fair share of silent films from Charlie Chaplin to Fritz Lang's Metropolis. Yet the Artist failed to capture the same magic. It lacked the same physical comedy or emotional tenderness that you would get in a Charlie Chaplin film.

The first half hour of the Artist was painfully dull as we took too long getting to George Valentin's conflict. In many ways, you can argue he is a dinosaur - desperately clinging to a life that no longer exists. Sure, it would have applied to many silent-film stars, but this type of resentment to embrace the future that turned him into an arrogant, archaic fossil. Hell, even after much resistance even Chaplin started making talking pictures.

I understand this was all part of George's character-arc, but it did make him unlikeable. I'm going to be even more controversial and argue whether Jean Dujardin truly deserved the Best Actor Oscar. He was quite over-the-top, although I guess that would have been the expectation of the time and medium. And it wasn't like he had that much more competition during that year's Oscars.

More convincing was Berenice Bejo, as Peppy Miller, who brought a certain charm to the film. James Cromwell who played Valentin's fiercely loyal manservant was also good. But Malcolm Mcdowell and John Goodman could have had more to do.

The Artist was enjoyable enough for what it was, but it didn't match up to the silent films of old.