Okay, so I'm a terrible malcontent-y liar. Oh, and ~Review: Invincible~

Alright, so when I said "later," that ended up being over 24 hours later, but what with Thanksgiving preparations occupying most of my time (these preparations are mostly mental, as there will be tiny, screaming children and lots more late nights; but then again, don't we kind of ask for it around the holidays?), I haven't had much inclination to log on lately. Anyway, I'd just like to give y'all a new review, a Werner Herzog film made in 2002, entitled "Invincible."

Now, I've been aware of the name Werner Herzog for quite a while, but since his films are more on the obscure side, it's taken longer for me to get around to seeing them. I have since slapped myself, hard, for not bothering sooner. Invincible is basically the (true) story of a Polish Jew who works with his father as a blacksmith in their cozy village. After gaining the attention of a talent agent from Berlin with his enormous strength, the man, Zishe Breitbart, becomes one of the main acts at the clairvoyant Erich-Jan Hanussen's theater. Now, the story is certainly weird enough to be a Herzog film, and is interesting up until the end, as there are more plot twists than one might expect from a seemingly predictable film.

But one of the things that makes Invincible interesting beyond the story is that tried-and-true Herzogian thing of using actors that aren't really actors in major parts, in this case, real-life German weightlifter Jouko Ahola playing the part of Zishe. Herzog has been known to use anyone from regular civilians to, in one case, idiot savants to play his characters, using moon-man logic that he and Shigeru Miyamoto probably came up with together. Ahola, to his supreme credit, does a better job than I expected, giving some serious depth to his character while still performing, like, legit performing, some real weightlifter-y feats. The rest of the ensemble are mostly played by utter unknowns, which is always nice. In fact, the only "big" names involved are Udo Kier, in a pretty minor police chief role, and Tim Roth, the only English actor in the entire film, playing Hanussen, who was an actual Berlin-based performer in the years preceding World War II, and who became a good friend of major members of the National Socialists (the Nazis, for those not so versed in WWII culture), like Goebbels and Himmler.

The film's screenplay was written in a mind-boggling 10 days by Herzog himself, in his weird dedication to his films, but it's easy to see that a lot of thought went into the writing. The dialogue is all very natural and unlabored, with all of the tense pauses and fluidity that make the actors really bring out their best performances. Another point that makes the viewer really buy into the whole experience is the surgical precision of the direction, and also the exhaustive attention to detail.

This is not to say that Invincible is not without a few bugs. The obscurity of the story is one that really has the potential to both turn people onto or off of the film, but this isn't so much the fault of Mr. Herzog so much as the fault of history books for not recording it. Also, there are a few weaker performances, but one can't always get everything they want, I guess. All in all, Invincible is thoroughly enjoyable and interesting to the right crowd, just approach with caution if you have doubts.

Not the funniest review, but it's really not the funniest movie (the ending is actually pretty tragic). I liked it, so did my parents when I showed it to them. Try it out, maybe you'll like it too. The beauty of Netflix... Ahhhh... Anymoose, I promise the next review I post will be something other than a movie, just in case you're getting tired of 'em (I hope not, but I'm always up for new stuff).

Oh! That's the other thing. If any of you readers have suggestions for reviews, or things that you'd like reviewed before you watch it, play it, read it, whatever, send me an email at bomablack@hotmail.com. Okay, thanks. Have a badass Thanksgiving. More stuff coming during the festivities. Peace.