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| Nancy |
 Posted: Sun Apr 01, 2007 11:13 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 4607
Location: Norman, OK
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jeremy wrote: I have absolutely no interest in seeing Blades Of Glory. For me, the premise and the hammy casting just doesn't add up to 90 minutes of fun. You should hang on to catch Hot Fuzz - I'm beginning to believe that Simon Pegg has the makings of a great comic actor.
I'm waiting to see Hot Fuzz. I'm into foreign language films. |
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"All in all, it's just another feather in the fan."
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| gromit |
| Posted: Sun Apr 01, 2007 12:35 pm |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9010
Location: Shanghai
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I mentioned Andrea Arnold's Red Road a few days ago, and provided a link to her short film, Wasp.
Today's NYTimes has an article about Arnold and Red Road.
I picked up the dvd, but haven't watched it yet.
Should get to it soon. |
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Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
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| marantzo |
| Posted: Sun Apr 01, 2007 1:59 pm |
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| I'm also in the middle when it comes to Brick. I did write a review of it. Some very good scenes and some very bad ones. My opinion was that it was a decent attempt by a first time director, and it shows. He may turn out to be good. |
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| Befade |
| Posted: Sun Apr 01, 2007 3:08 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 3784
Location: AZ
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Quote: BRICK was gimmicky, phony and tiresome.
I agree with Gary. I don't have to think a film is a masterpiece to enjoy it. I thought Brick was innovative enough to be interesting. Any artist who goes out on a limb with a new idea is subject to ridicule.
Is L'Aura related to Laura? |
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| mo_flixx |
| Posted: Sun Apr 01, 2007 6:22 pm |
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Joined: 30 May 2004
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Befade wrote:
Is L'Aura related to Laura?
NO. The title is "El Aura" (or "The Aura"). It was Argentina's entry for the 2006 Acad. Awds. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Sun Apr 01, 2007 6:33 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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You are going to be reading many glowing reviews for Charles Burnett's 1977 feature Killer of Sheep. They do not exaggerate. Saw the film this afternoon and it is a masterpiece. Virtually no plot--make that no plot at all--but possessed of as sure a sense of time and place (Watts in the 70s) as any movie I've ever seen. Photography and music are wondrous, the acting by a group of non-professionals as good as most pro acting, and the (I think they call it) mise-en-scene flawless.
It was Burnett's thesis film at UCLA and won the Berlin Film Festival award in 1981. Apparently the major reason for its lack of distribution--aside from the black-and-white non-professional no-plot reasons--was that it took this long to clear the music rights. It was worth the wait, because the music provides a large part of the effect. Dinah Washington and Paul Robeson never sounded this good. Washington's rendition of a song previously unknown to me called "This Bitter Earth" is a revelation, an epiphany. A scene where two people dance to it is one of the most effective single scenes in my moviegoing life. |
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| Nancy |
| Posted: Sun Apr 01, 2007 7:42 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 4607
Location: Norman, OK
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| Sounds interesting, billy. I'll put it on my list of Films to Watch For. (I've gotten a lot of good suggestions from the members of this forum, and the ones I've checked out have usually been worth it.) |
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"All in all, it's just another feather in the fan."
Isaacism, 2009 |
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| Earl |
| Posted: Sun Apr 01, 2007 8:51 pm |
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Joined: 09 Jun 2004
Posts: 2621
Location: Houston
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billyweeds wrote: The Lookout is a disappointment. It is thoroughly okay, but that's not what I was expecting. It starts very slowly (for a moment or two I snoozed) but the characters are well developed and Joseph Gordon-Levitt is as excellent as I had hoped. Then the story kicks in, and there is a certain amount of suspense, but nothing special. Jeff Daniels is as terrific as usual, but his part is somewhat one-note (he's blind and sort of wise and humorous and a quintessential Jeff-Daniels-role).
In short, this is the very essence of a must-rent.
Different strokes, perhaps. I saw The Lookout today and thought it rocked on every level.
I agree that Gordon-Levitt is excellent, but there we seem to part company. Jeff Daniels' portrayal went deeper than "somewhat one-note" particularly in the scene in which he talks to the stripper, Luvlee Lemons, in the kitchen. The crime suspense drama was melded beautifully with the character study of the boy, Gordon-Levitt's character, who wants his life to be the way it was before his terrible accident.
Two surprises came for me after I got home and started reading about the movie. First, I knew I had seen the actor Matthew Goode, who played the leader of the group that lures Chris into the scheme, somewhere before, but just couldn't place him. What a delight to discover he was also in Woody Allen's Match Point as the tennis pro's brother-in-law. Here, in The Lookout, he is an ocean and half a continent away from that character. What remarkable range.
Second, the movie was written and directed by Scott Frank. He also wrote the script for Dead Again, my favorite of Kenneth Branagh's non-Shakespeare movies and another story about someone trying to recapture a former life. |
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| Marc |
| Posted: Sun Apr 01, 2007 9:32 pm |
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Joined: 19 May 2004
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| It is EL AURA, but the French in me misspelled it. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Sun Apr 01, 2007 10:17 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: New York City
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Earl--Interesting that you loved Dead Again, which I really didn't like at all. I did, however, quite like Scott Frank's screenplays for Out of Sight and Get Shorty. And I did like Matthew Goode in both The Lookout and Match Point; the fact that I did know he was in MP enhanced my appreciation for his performance here.
Btw, to reiterate, I did not dislike The Lookout--not remotely. I just didn't think it rocked on any level except for Gordon-Levitt's performance. |
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| movielover14 |
| Posted: Sun Apr 01, 2007 10:50 pm |
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Joined: 07 Mar 2006
Posts: 160
Location: Salt Lake City,Utah
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| Yesterday I saw the film Peaceful Warrior. I had gotten free tickets for it. I didn't know much about it before seeing it but I did like it. It was very good. I would recommend you go see it. Has anyone else seen it yet? |
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| Marj |
| Posted: Sun Apr 01, 2007 11:19 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
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Location: Manhattan
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Nancy wrote: Sounds interesting, billy. I'll put it on my list of Films to Watch For. (I've gotten a lot of good suggestions from the members of this forum, and the ones I've checked out have usually been worth it.)
Word. And Wow! |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Mon Apr 02, 2007 1:12 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
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Location: Shanghai
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billyweeds wrote: You are going to be reading many glowing reviews for Charles Burnett's 1977 feature Killer of Sheep. They do not exaggerate. Saw the film this afternoon and it is a masterpiece.
Dinah Washington and Paul Robeson never sounded this good. Washington's rendition of a song previously unknown to me called "This Bitter Earth" is a revelation, an epiphany. A scene where two people dance to it is one of the most effective single scenes in my moviegoing life.
I've heard alot of good words spoken about Burnett's To Sleep with Anger.(1990).
On the lookout for that. I'll add Killer of Sheep to my imaginary want list as well.
This Bitter Earth is a great tune. Always makes me think of Ray Charles a bit. I can picture him singing it. Some other Dinah Washington recs if you are interested:
- I Remember Clifford
A moving tribute to trumpeter Clifford Brown who died too young.
- I Thought About You
Beautiful
- A Sunday Kind of Love
Ditto
- What a Difference a Day Makes
Her pop break-through and one of her best known songs
- Don't Know Whether to Laugh or Cry Over You
- The Sun Forgot to Shine this Morning
Elegant
Dinah also does a fine All of Me and Stardust.
I got turned on to Dinah Washington when I was in college.
I was working part-time as a security guard (getting paid to study), and one older African-American was surprised at the jazz tapes I was listening to. So he lent me some Dinah Washington, Dakota Staton and Willis Jackson records. I still have and lsiten to the mix tape I made from that. Cool guy, with an absolutely amazing whistle. Prior to that encounter, I only knew Dinah's post-war R&B, alot of it written by Leonard Feather. |
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Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
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| Trish |
| Posted: Mon Apr 02, 2007 7:33 am |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 2438
Location: Massachusetts
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billyweeds wrote: The Lookout is a disappointment. It is thoroughly okay, but that's not what I was expecting. It starts very slowly (for a moment or two I snoozed) but the characters are well developed and Joseph Gordon-Levitt is as excellent as I had hoped. Then the story kicks in, and there is a certain amount of suspense, but nothing special. Jeff Daniels is as terrific as usual, but his part is somewhat one-note (he's blind and sort of wise and humorous and a quintessential Jeff-Daniels-role).
In short, this is the very essence of a must-rent.
I think it suffered from a critical overpraising - I think One critic called its a masterpiece which was ridiculous. But putting that aside it was an okay film and mainly due to Joseph Gordon Levitt who was very good (though it almost makes you cry when you think what he might be capable of doing with a true masterpiece).
The problem (what kept it from being a truly memorable film) in my opinion was
1. bad guys weren't bad enough or interesting enough, they didn't present enough of a temptation (and in one case was hysterically underwritten - guy with sunglasses -what the hell - stupid)
2. the femme fatale so to speak wasn't hot enough - they should have sexed it up a bit in my opinion - think Body Heat, thinkThe Last Seduction - it was way too tame
I liked Jeff Daniel's character - I would have like to have seen a bit more of his challenging Levitt's character
But what the film did accomplish was whet my appetite that much more for that young seriously talented actor - he's got something special - but this won't be the film that causes the rest of world to sit up and notice unfortunately we'll have to wait a bit longer for that |
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| Trish |
| Posted: Mon Apr 02, 2007 7:55 am |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 2438
Location: Massachusetts
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Earl wrote:
Two surprises came for me after I got home and started reading about the movie. First, I knew I had seen the actor Matthew Goode, who played the leader of the group that lures Chris into the scheme, somewhere before, but just couldn't place him. What a delight to discover he was also in Woody Allen's Match Point as the tennis pro's brother-in-law. Here, in The Lookout, he is an ocean and half a continent away from that character. What remarkable range.
Second, the movie was written and directed by Scott Frank. He also wrote the script for Dead Again, my favorite of Kenneth Branagh's non-Shakespeare movies and another story about someone trying to recapture a former life.
See I don't think Goode's performance worked - he wasn't appealing enough, seductive enough to make the set up believable - something didn't work there - although i think the reverse could be said with what he did in Matchpoint.
and I did love Dead Again - which was consistently suspenseful, and well written with interesting supporting characters
I think the potential poignant story of this kid , his fall from grace so to speak, his guilt, his everyday struggle with his injury - was NOT served well by this somewhat simplistic (even lame) bank heist/seduction scheme with stock, predictable bad guys - which is sort of sad because that means the director got half the film very right and seriously dropped the ball on the other half |
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