belatedly reviewing lust, caution, the element i most woke up to was probably the mah jongg, a game my family played a little when i was a teen — we had a very strange set made not of ivory-bamboo or fake plastic equivalent but some curious crumbly black brick composite
as a game it has several evocative elements: problem being their evocativeness is often add-on orientalism introduced into the western version of the game; chinese mah jongg (as we saw in the film) is a fast-played social gambling game; i imagine ang lee had layered in certain plot/atmosphere/subtext elements which will have been lost on all non-players (not that i spotted any) (not that i really consider myself a player, tho i do sorta kinda remember the rules) … read on …
Follow up to last nights Lollards. It is difficult to describe the horror of something visual on the radio. My dislike for the Randy Newman penned, Sarah MacLachlin sung “When Somebody Loved Me” from Toy Story 2 is less about the song itself, but rather its role in the film. So here is an in context clip for you:
In particular look at the deathlike glassy mask on Jessie’s face when Emily is playing with her on the horse.CREEPY! Now clearly I have more ontological issues with this than the average eight year-old kid, but nevertheless even taken as it is within the film the subtext of this song is appalling. … read on …
So let us round up some of the “problems” people have with Cloverfield, bearing in mind that it is a MONSTER MOVIE set in New York. The Camera Battery wouldn’t last that long.
Maybe he had spares. Maybe he picked up spares in the shop. Maybe its a really good DV camera.
ITS JUST A FILM, GET OVER IT.
How could you walk up from Spring Street to 59th Street on the subway tracks and not come across a train.
Dudes, people will be using the trains to evacuate, and probably cancelling the trips back into a monster ravaged New York.
Also ITS JUST A FILM, GET OVER IT. … read on …
It surprised me to realize that I have seen most of Susanne Bier’s recent films - considering I don’t see an awful lot of Dutch movies. Nevertheless Brothers and After The Wedding had marked her out as a serious talent, and so I was tentatively looking forward to Things We Lost in The Fire. Tentatively because it has being marked as a “recovering from grief” film coupled with a “rehab” film. And neither of these Hallmark movie of the week subjects really appeal to me. My tentativity was mildly justified.
There is a sequence in the middle of What We Lost In The Fire where the eldest daughter of murdered David Duchovny asked Benicio Del Toro’s recovering smack habit the following: “Do you ever feel like you’re living in a movie?”… read on …
General impressions of 2007 though was that it was a pretty good year for US film. Hence a lot of people saying it was a high water mark for the decade. Not sure if I quite agree, but certainly the bog standard quality of the films I saw last year seemed that little bit more competent and indeed interesting. Films like Control, Superbad and Hot Fuzz which I saw with people and could have really quite long pub conversations about - which didn’t make the top ten. There just seemed to be a few more risks being taken, and that little bit more fun being had. Which I think this top five underlines. … read on …
So you saw the worst, here and here. Same details apply, the films in this list are films I saw in the cinema in 2007. Which means there are some 2007 films which won’t apply because I didn’t see them in 2007 (a good example would be Planet Terror which would have made this top ten easily, but I only saw last week. If it doesn’t make next years list, then next year will be a pretty good year - and January has been pretty damn good).
Its harder to write about why something is good, as opposed to why something is bad, so I’ll be restricting myself to a sentence or two, just to get it out of the way. There are a few big names in there, which is nice to see - in as much as a sometimes the mainstream can really provide the magic of cinema it promises with its flashy big screeniness. The small number of non-English language films on this list is also interesting, partially due to what seemed to be a shrinking set of releases last year (nary a good Korean film). Anyway - here is the rundown 10-6 with the top five coming tomorrow. … read on …
AVPR, or Alien vs Predator: Requiem was always going to be a terrible film. There was probably no way of making it any good, as a sequel to a double franchise smooshing melange of an idea already done better in a comic. The gestation of such a film is almost as complex and unlikely as the very gestation of the Alien (something which gets slightly tweaked here - as if any Alien film needs to make the exceedingly complex EVEN MORE COMPLEX). Unlike the artificial Pyramid Of Doom set-up of AVP, AVPR finally answers the fanboy cries of what would happen if the Aliens got to Earth. And it would be exactly as Sigourney Weaver always predicted - kinda boring. But then both the Aliens and Predators gave up the ability to scare beyond surprise, and a film which has dark, complex and frankly unengaging sequences of two alien creatures fighting each other is not going to emotionally grab you easily. But then the town which this epic battle ranges over is full of even more unengaging people, to be picked off. And you don’t care, not just because they have elected the most inept sheriff for their town ever seen in a film. You don’t care because there has been no attempt to give them characters beyond names and what they are wearing: and half the time what they are wearing has to do double duties. Mysterious returnee, school jock, hottie, returned soldier, obligatory female child are all dangled to die - and perhaps the biggest shock in the film is how many of them survive. Alien films have never had a survival rate like this.
It was interesting to see AVPR near Planet Terror, Robert Rodriguez’s (far superior) half of Grindhouse. … read on …
Thinking about how to write about I’m Not There has been almost as entertaining as watching the admittedly already very entertaining film. First I considered taking a director heavy view. No huge fan of Todd Haynes, I was toying with comparing and contrasting the film with his last stab at a rock biopic - Velvet Goldmine - which I hated. One of the plus points of I’m Not There is that is has made me consider that maybe I was wrong about Velvet Goldmine. Indeed there are similar tricks in both films (the lead character is rarely referred to by name), but Velvet Goldmine’s biggest failing was the inability to use the original Bowie music. I’m Not There has no such problem, and delights in shoehorning the odd Dylan lyric into the dialogue as well as plenty of music.
Then I thought maybe the six actors who play Dylan needed their own critique. Or perhaps a review in the style of six different critics. … read on …
So the sharp end then. All the caveats still apply from the previous list which if you haven’t read, shows the eternal battle between Vampires and Werewolves in the wars of rubbishness. All left in the shade by this batch however. Perhaps I should explain what I mean by bad, since a lot of the films I saw last year were mediocre. Indeed the lack of many comedies, say, in this list is not to say it was a bumper year for comedy (though, actually it was a pretty good one). I suppose these films are the ones which offended me the most, the ones where the time wasted in seeing them felt like an actual affront. Hate is an extreme emotion after all, so the directors and crew of these films can be content that they provoked a reaction in me. Though as that reaction was generally to tell people to stay away, it is not clear that this underpins a successful business model.
So here were the worst five films I saw last year. … read on …
Sometimes I do year end lists, sometimes I don’t. I saw 124 films in the cinema last year. Of those, I am pretty sure I missed some really good ones (personal circumstances limited ability to see stuff near the end - some I have yet to see). However it is one thing to puff out a list of what you thought were your ten best films of last year (I’ll do that next week). It is much more of a service to compile a list of the downright, lousy stinkers I put myself through. Bear in mind that as a bottom ten there are even some films I didn’t go and see because the reviews put me off (I have no doubt that this list topped by Norbit is by and large reliable) . But I did see these (and some of them got quite good reviews) and I thought they stunk! For a useful barometer with a film you might have seen, I thought all these films were worse than Pirates At The Caribbean: At Worlds End (my 11th worst film of the year*).
So here are number 10 - 5 of the WORST films I saw in a cinema last year. … read on …
belatedly reviewing lust, caution, the element i most woke up to was probably the mah jongg, a game my family played a little when i was a teen — we had a very strange set made not of ivory-bamboo or fake plastic equivalent but some curious crumbly black brick composite
It surprised me to realize that I have seen most of Susanne Bier’s recent films - considering I don’t see an awful lot of Dutch movies. Nevertheless Brothers and After The Wedding had marked her out as a serious talent, and so I was tentatively looking forward to Things We Lost in The Fire. Tentatively because it has being marked as a “recovering from grief” film coupled with a “rehab” film. And neither of these Hallmark movie of the week subjects really appeal to me. My tentativity was mildly justified.
AVPR, or Alien vs Predator: Requiem was always going to be a terrible film. There was probably no way of making it any good, as a sequel to a double franchise smooshing melange of an idea already done better in a comic. The gestation of such a film is almost as complex and unlikely as the very gestation of the Alien (something which gets slightly tweaked here - as if any Alien film needs to make the exceedingly complex EVEN MORE COMPLEX). Unlike the artificial Pyramid Of Doom set-up of AVP, AVPR finally answers the fanboy cries of what would happen if the Aliens got to Earth. And it would be exactly as Sigourney Weaver always predicted - kinda boring. But then both the Aliens and Predators gave up the ability to scare beyond surprise, and a film which has dark, complex and frankly unengaging sequences of two alien creatures fighting each other is not going to emotionally grab you easily. But then the town which this epic battle ranges over is full of even more unengaging people, to be picked off. And you don’t care, not just because they have elected the most inept sheriff for their town ever seen in a film. You don’t care because there has been no attempt to give them characters beyond names and what they are wearing: and half the time what they are wearing has to do double duties. Mysterious returnee, school jock, hottie, returned soldier, obligatory female child are all dangled to die - and perhaps the biggest shock in the film is how many of them survive. Alien films have never had a survival rate like this.
Thinking about how to write about I’m Not There has been almost as entertaining as watching the admittedly already very entertaining film. First I considered taking a director heavy view. No huge fan of Todd Haynes, I was toying with comparing and contrasting the film with his last stab at a rock biopic - Velvet Goldmine - which I hated. One of the plus points of I’m Not There is that is has made me consider that maybe I was wrong about Velvet Goldmine. Indeed there are similar tricks in both films (the lead character is rarely referred to by name), but Velvet Goldmine’s biggest failing was the inability to use the original Bowie music. I’m Not There has no such problem, and delights in shoehorning the odd Dylan lyric into the dialogue as well as plenty of music.
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