Drive 3/10 After the awesome opening car chase it goes down from there. You can't suspend disbelief once the plot thickens. The main character walks around in a bloody jacket and isn't found out. Gangsters that should have bodyguards and guns don't. I'm really getting burned with these "critically acclaimed" movies that suck. Massively overrated. Oh that 80's song at the end of the movie made me laugh.
Really dug this one a lot. Worth it for Olson and Hawkes' performances alone, but there's a lot more to enjoy than that. Some great suspense in here, and the score nearly gave me an anxiety attack at times.
The Princess of Montpensier 7.5/10 - Good swordplay, Catholic vs. Protestant, and arranged marriage disputes. The public marriage night penetration is apparently historical to prevent marriages being cancelled.
Road to Nowhere is a fascinating comeback for Hellman. Somewhat disappointing if only because it's not Two-Lane Blacktop or The Shooting. It doesn't have a Warren Oates, that's for sure. But it fits extremely well within his oeuvre, existential queries, meta cinematic playfulness, the image itself as a form of being, etc. The digital photography makes for an inherently contemporary mirror picture to Hellman's earlier work, itself ingrained in the material of the "film," a film as much about filmmaking and technique as anything, as well as simply being visually stunning. The film seems a bit unsure as to where it's actually heading for a fair bit of its duration near the center, fittingly I suppose, but it comes together in a very typically Hellman-esque finale, itself with a distinctly digital twist. Lovely stuff.
Perhaps the most unmissable theater event so far this year, if only because you need the score booming at full volume and the low rumbling of the apocalypse through your bones.
The two certainly have a lot in common in certain superficial ways. Intersecting the cosmic with the intimately personal, lots of classical music cues and special effects. I think the creation sequence from Tree absolutely demands a theatrical viewing, but I find it less vitally connected to the overall film experience than I do with Melancholia's spectacle, though the comparison still isn't quite right. I'd say the majority of material in Malick's film could live and breathe just as well in other formats, whereas Trier's film might lose a little something on home video... which is more a testament to the former's quality in a way. I don't know. I'm just absolutely thrilled I decided not to go with a screener for this one, even the great HD one floating around out there now.
I certainly wouldn't say this is a better film right now, but I'd put the finale right up there with any other top moment in a film this year or the last.
Cave of forgotten dreams 7.5/10 - Decent documentary. Some of the personal metaphors Herzog uses are bizarre (especially the crocodile one) but the view of cave paintings from 32,000 years ago and the detail that was preserved is mindboggling. Definitely recommended.
Source Code 7/10 - This film takes elements of quantum theory and just goes with it. The end is satisfying but it isn't as meaty as it should be. Worth a rent but not much more than that.
The Adventures of Tintin 8.5/10 - This is a short but great introduction to Tintin and leaves you wanting more. Some of the negative reviews regarding the humour I feel are off. It was pretty funny to me. The pirate scenes and Raiders style cartoon action was thrilling. I can't wait for another episode. This is how I wanted Indy 4 to be like. That old Spielberg joy in filming action is still evident in this movie. The character development is average but with Haddock it's spot on.
Right. No telling if you'll get much out of this one either. Made me re-evaluate Antichrist to a certain degree though, definitely a film I still believe to be a bit misunderstood, or at least undervalued. I'll probably revisit that one some time this week now.
Perhaps the most unmissable theater event so far this year, if only because you need the score booming at full volume and the low rumbling of the apocalypse through your bones.
I certainly want to see it in a theater. Its not in my area, yet.
The previews I have seen on a big screen look great. I've tried to stay away from detailed reviews. It does seem to be in a similar vein as T of L. I hope I enjoy it more than that one.
I stuck w/ watching Melancholia OnDemand on home theater, considering the opportunity to see it far earlier, and without having to go to the obnoxious theater that it was inevitably destined to end up at in the Boston area, which it did yesterday. I think this is the first time where von Trier's ambitions come to fruition as an enjoyably (if watching emotional breakdown can be called 'enjoyable') cohesive film, for me. More later, off to dinner.
Oh, but I will say I wish Dunst had more traction in the awards season, but again that's just b/c the prestige they hold w/ people who wouldn't know the films left out drives me nuts.
I think it is going wider, next week. I will see it on the big screen, then.
I've seen all the LVT except AntiChrist. I've liked them all. Some quite a bit.
I think this one will be in the latter category.
better than I expected, Leo continues to prove he is one of our best actors working. Steady, not too controversial, and a bit sympathetic. I think an acting nom is possible.
Speaking of Melancholia, I watched it again tonight, and I concede that Charlotte is quite devastating in this, not that I wrote her off before, but I still pick Dunst as MVP, & think its been a long time since Kiefer has been this restrained & in something of weight.
Watched both The Great Dictator and Unforgiven last night, both first time viewings, and both additions to my favorite movies ever.
If you can mentally watch The Great Dictator as though it were still the late 30s(early 40s? Can't remember the exact date), that movie is almost perfect. I wish The Barber hadn't talked quite as much as he did during his more comedic scenes, because it felt like Chaplin was just throwing dialogue in there for the sake of having it. Otherwise, I was kind of surprised by how influenced by The Marx Brothers The film was, but I love them, so that didn't hurt it. The ending though, wow...at first I thought it was going to be stupid, but when he got up there and made that speech, just realizing that the whole movie was leading up to that point where Chaplin could give that speech to as wide an audience as possible, it really gave me chills. I found the very, very end stupid, but everything else about the climax was perfect.
As for Unforgiven, I went in not knowing what it was about at all. I had no idea that he's pretty much made Gran Torino twice, just with different endings. All of the moral ambiguity of the film, the humor, drama, suspense, the levels were perfect and it was a fantastic experience of film-watching. Haven't felt that way about a movie in a while, not to that extent, it's hard to explain, but I was more than happy.
This movie was charming as hell, even more so because I've been to Paris a couple of years ago and the city montage at the very start sent me into a swoon straight away (meanwhile my Mum was also swooning over the actor who played Ernest Hemingway, having been a huge fan of Hemingway since teenage years). The theme of romanticising the past "Golden Age" did strike a chord with me, as it's something I used to do way back before I started to think of practical things like contraception, electricity, personal hygiene etc., which quickly killed the romance But I did enjoy looking at all those dreamy images of Paris from years past onscreen.
This movie was charming as hell, even more so because I've been to Paris a couple of years ago and the city montage at the very start sent me into a swoon straight away (meanwhile my Mum was also swooning over the actor who played Ernest Hemingway, having been a huge fan of Hemingway since teenage years). The theme of romanticising the past "Golden Age" did strike a chord with me, as it's something I used to do way back before I started to think of practical things like contraception, electricity, personal hygiene etc., which quickly killed the romance But I did enjoy looking at all those dreamy images of Paris from years past onscreen.
I was expecting to like it since I'm partial to most of Woody's "current" stuff, unlike a lot of old school fans, but not as much as I did.
Just fantastic. I couldn't stop smiling throughout the thing.
Isn't it amazing how Marion Cotillard manages to do so much with very small roles? In addition to Midnight in Paris, her appearances in Public Enemies and Inception? The woman has a rare talent to create a distinct emotional impression regardless of her screen time. I'd make an exception there with Contagion, but her part was drastically cut in editing.
I first saw Cotillard in A Very Long Engagement and she was easily the most memorable thing about that movie. Just a really striking, enchanting presence.
I can't say that I preferred it to Dogtooth, but Lanthimos definitely enters more emotional/humanist territory, even if the story itself has a gimmick like the previous work. And his brand of absurdity is very much intact here.
Another interesting thing I noticed is that while Dogtooth featured a lot of wider, static shots with nicely-designed compositions, ALPS deals much more in close-up, primarily with a telephoto lens. During the Q&A after the film, my observation proved correct as Lanthimos stated that he wanted to have a completely different visual approach from the last film.
And going back to Attenberg, the star of that film (Ariane Labed), a French actress who learned her lines in Greek phonetically, is also one of the main characters here as well. She's very talented. And the crazier daughter from Dogtooth is the other female lead, she's just brave and ferocious as all hell.
What's really fascinating is that this "new wave" of Greek filmmaking is made up of a tight-knit little group. Lanthimos and his co-producer Athina Rachel Tsangari (the writer/director of Attenberg) were talking about how it's hard to get financing from the government unless you're an older, established artist, and that they had to make their films on miniscule budgets without a lot of resources. So it's pretty exciting to see these guys burst onto the international scene from a DIY platform, let alone get nominated for an Academy Award (still one of the most pleasantly shocking surprises I've ever had re: the Oscars).
So I watched Melancholia via On Demand. I'm not sure what I think about it, but I can definitely say that I'm glad I watched it.
This is the second movie where I've been all "WHAT IS THIS MUSIC, I MUST KNOW" and then found out it's Wagner. (The New World was the first where this happened.) So apparently I like Wagner Ha.
My only quibble (is a spoiler necessary? oh well):
My experience with crippling depression is pretty nonexistent, other than reading about it. But I had a hard time buying that her marriage was just over like that after the disastrous reception. I got the impression that Michael knew she suffered from depression, but I guess not at quite that level.
Are we supposed to buy that he just had no idea how bad it was (and that night barely scratched the surface), and he said "welp, it's been a great run after almost 24 hours - see you around"?
Were we supposed to assume he saw her having sex with that guy? I didn't get that impression, but I can't figure out why it was suddenly over. The reception's a bust and the bride is acting mysteriously strange, so he's out?
Part of me wishes I'd seen it on a big screen, but I know myself enough to know this wasn't the type of movie I'd go see in a theater.
I'm pretty sure this is the first von Trier movie I've seen. I may have seen parts of Breaking the Waves, but I think that was it. Edit: I lied - I saw Dancer In the Dark, which I can't say I cared for.
I have a new respect for Kirsten Dunst now, too. I thought she was amazing, particularly in the first half in the worst wedding reception ever. (I was exhausted just watching them do stuff all night long. Ugh, pass. I would have been out of there before he 11:30 pm cake cutting. WTF.)
Oh, and one last question in this rambling monologue - where was this supposed to have taken place? Did they ever say, or was it just a mystery locale?
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