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Syd

Posted: Mon Jan 28, 2008 9:23 pm

Site Admin Joined: 21 May 2004 Posts: 12921 Location: Norman, Oklahoma

Last weekend three friends and I went to the Cosmosphere in Hutchinson, Kansas to see the premiere of The Wonder of It All. The film was shown on the Omnidome there, which was not the best way to see it because it was intended for a flat screen. I believe this was the national premiere. I think it may have had some spot showings in Europe.

This movie consists of interviews of the Apollo astronauts of Apollo 8, 10-17, which are the ones that went around the Moon. As such, it is comparable to In the Shadow of the Moon, the British documentary that came out last year. This one started filming earlier for a smaller budget. I was reluctant to see it because I'd seen the other film, but there is enough difference in emphasis that this film works as a companion piece to the other. In many ways, it's more interesting.

This one goes more into the lives of the astronauts before their voyages and the impact going to the moon had on their lives. Alan Bean, I think it was, observed that although none of the astronauts had a religious revelation, the experience tended to intensify the beliefs that were already there, whether they were mystic, philosophical, agnostic or atheist. Eugene Cernan particularly seems to have gotten more religious. Alan Bean has turned to space art and is very successful with it. A lot of the changes happened after they returned from the Moon, since while they were there, they were too busy to stop and gaze philosphically into the distance.

The intervals with Buzz Aldrin were a bit distracting since he had several books on a desk beside him, and one of them kept changing from "The Moonlandings" to "Lost Satellites" and back again. Once it changed in the middle of an interview.

You don't have much of the exclusive NASA footage from the other film, but the more intimate look at the astronauts makes this very worthwhile. If there is a major flaw in it, I think it's a bit too rah-rah in places. The documentarian is obviously a space enthusiast. He had a Q&A after the film showed and said he found most of the astronauts approachable, but the intensity of John Young was intimidating. He does have the advantage that the astronauts like the film and are willing to make public appearances to help promote it. Walt Cunningham (Apollo 7) gave a speech before this showing

I have no idea what the national distribution of this will be like. In the Shadow of the Moon, which was a higher profile documentary, nevertheless had a very limited run in theaters in the US. You may have to look for this one at science museums and art houses.

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I had a love and my love was true but I lost my love to the yabba dabba doo, --The Flintstone Lament

Syd

Posted: Mon Jan 28, 2008 9:27 pm

Site Admin Joined: 21 May 2004 Posts: 12921 Location: Norman, Oklahoma

PS: I think this is the first time I ever saw a film that didn't have a single review on IMDb. I'm sure Lady W. has had that experience many times.

_________________
I had a love and my love was true but I lost my love to the yabba dabba doo, --The Flintstone Lament

Rod

Posted: Mon Jan 28, 2008 9:47 pm

Joined: 21 Dec 2004 Posts: 2944 Location: Lithgow, Australia

InLA:

Très apprécié.

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A long time ago, but somehow in the future...It is a period of civil war and renegade paragraphs floating through space.

inlareviewer

Posted: Mon Jan 28, 2008 10:13 pm

Joined: 05 Jul 2004 Posts: 1949 Location: Lawrence, KS

Je vous en prie, Roderick. Vous pourriez écrire pour le Sight and Sound.

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"And take extra care with strangers/Even flowers have their dangers/And though scary is exciting/Nice is different than good." --Stephen Sondheim

Rod

Posted: Mon Jan 28, 2008 10:25 pm

Joined: 21 Dec 2004 Posts: 2944 Location: Lithgow, Australia

Actually my critical faculties are likely to spend the next three years facilitating my attempt to become a half-assed college student.

_________________
A long time ago, but somehow in the future...It is a period of civil war and renegade paragraphs floating through space.

inlareviewer

Posted: Mon Jan 28, 2008 10:34 pm

Joined: 05 Jul 2004 Posts: 1949 Location: Lawrence, KS

Excellent.

_________________
"And take extra care with strangers/Even flowers have their dangers/And though scary is exciting/Nice is different than good." --Stephen Sondheim

Ghulam

Posted: Wed Jan 30, 2008 9:29 am

Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 4742 Location: Upstate NY

Not having read the novel, I liked The Kite Runner much better than most critics did. The depiction of the boyhood friendship of the rich kid and the servant' son is perfect. The episode showing a Middle Eastern family displaced to California seems more authentic here than in House of Sand and Fog. The kite flying tournaments were very nostalgic for me. January 14 is a kite flying holiday (Utraan) all over India, and my city is the kite flying capital of the world. Everyone on that day is on the roof or the terrace of their own house or the house of a neighbor or a friend. Kids are runing in the streets to capture the kites that have been "cut". All actors acquit themselves well. An excellent movie.

gromit

Posted: Wed Jan 30, 2008 10:16 am

Joined: 31 Aug 2004 Posts: 9010 Location: Shanghai

I thought the Kite Runner was too pat and the last 1/4 was awful. But it did have a nice look to it (I noticed a few cinematography Blanches noms).
I liked some of the music as well.

Watched No Country for Old Men, and found it a somewhat pointless exercise. Yup, violence is more violent than it used to be.
Sure the film is well put together, and looks good, with some small touches like the shot of Chigurh rifling his way through the drawers of a bureau. But besides a cool murder weapon/passkey, and TLJones being folksy, I'm not sure what there was to latch on to.

I'll probably re-watch it after a bit .. and do wish I was able to see it on a big screen. Maybe I'll see if I can watch it at my friend's bar, with projection screen.

A number of questions, with MINOR SPOILAGE involved:
1) Why would Brolin go back hours later to a crime scene to bring water to a dying drug dealer? Wouldn't it be easier just to call the police from a pay phone?

2) If Chigurh is so ruthless and capable, how was he captured by the young deputy in the first place?

3) Why go to Mexico where an American stands out more, where corruption and killing are more easily accomplished?

4) What's the point of the Woody Harrelson character? Just to show that he's impressive and Chigurh can rub him out without much effort? Seemed pretty lame the way Woody was taken.

_________________
Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number.

tirebiter

Posted: Wed Jan 30, 2008 10:26 am

Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 4011 Location: not far away

gromit: All good questions. With some SPOILAGE, here are my takes.

1) his conscience was eating at him. Maybe it was dumb (and he realized before going that it very likely was), but he felt he had to go.
2) Chigurh's capture is unexplained, but in the book there's some sense that he did it just to see if he could get away. He draws a line in every situation where, by flipping a coin or relying on his "philosophy," he decides how to act. I can just see him get pulled over for some reason and not resist just to see what would happen.
3) Llewelyn crosses to Mexico 'cause he's been shot and figures he'll be harder to track there. A US hospital would ask all sorts of questions-- he avoids these in Mexico. At that point, he's just running-- not a lot of forethought there.
4) Woody's character is a fixer like Chigurh, probably contacted at the same place Stephen Root found Chigurh when his drug deal went bad. He figured it would take an SOB to track down an SOB, and he was right. Everyone underestimates Chigurh's lethality, tho, and they ALL die for their mistake, with the exception of TLJ, who backs off in the face of such mystery and power.

I think there's a lot to admire about the book and the film, and I've seen it twice. I'll be seeing it again on DVD.

jeremy

Posted: Wed Jan 30, 2008 10:31 am

Joined: 21 May 2004 Posts: 6794 Location: Derby, England and Hamilton, New Zealand (yes they are about 12,000 miles apart)

Rod,

I always assumed you were already an English graduate of some sort.

I have just finished reading the second installment Clive James' autobiography, Falling Towards England. Already a graduate from Sydney something or other, the book deals with the rather feckless period of his life spent in London prior to his gettng his 'stuff' together and going to Cambridge. From there he went on to...well to be Clive James.

I wonder how he views his career. I think his first love was poetry, but he never achieved much recognition for this - who does these days. Where I thnk he deserves recognition is in essentially reinventing television criticism during his time spent at The Observer in the seventies - he was one of the first to understand the place of popular culture in the arts and give it its due. In comparison, I think his later forays into tele were a disappointment.

His autobiographies were great reads, if a little heavy on the self-deprecation.

Any parallels Rod?

_________________
I am angry, I am ill, and I'm as ugly as sin.
My irritability keeps me alive and kicking.
I know the meaning of life, it doesn't help me a bit.
I know beauty and I know a good thing when I see it.

carrobin

Posted: Wed Jan 30, 2008 10:32 am

Joined: 21 May 2004 Posts: 7795 Location: NYC

On my flights to London and back, I managed to see "Ratatouille," "Casino Royale," and "Stardust." I liked them all, but didn't see great Oscar potential in any of them. Of course I was just looking for mindless entertainment--a long flight isn't conducive to mental or emotional commitments, at least for me. (Though if "NCFOM" had been available, I'd have watched it.)

tirebiter

Posted: Wed Jan 30, 2008 10:38 am

Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 4011 Location: not far away

NCFOM is no movie for an airplane.

What was in London anyway, carro?

jeremy

Posted: Wed Jan 30, 2008 10:40 am

Joined: 21 May 2004 Posts: 6794 Location: Derby, England and Hamilton, New Zealand (yes they are about 12,000 miles apart)

Ratatouille is nothing if not well-crafted. But I left the cinema feeling that the whole thing had been so painstakingly carved from a wooden block of a premise that all the joy, inventiveness and spontaniety of the earlier Pixar films had been whittled away. Apologies for overdoing the scultpor metaphor thing.

In short, I found it contrived, slow and formulaic. It was no kid's film.

Shorter still: Monsters' Inc. good, Ratatouille bad.

carrobin

Posted: Wed Jan 30, 2008 10:46 am

Joined: 21 May 2004 Posts: 7795 Location: NYC

Jeremy: I liked "Ratatouille" better than you did, but agree that the previous Pixars were better.

Tire: What's in London? Rain--but I saw three plays, had lunch with a couple I know there (she was Alan Bates' secretary, and Vivien Leigh's before that), bought an expensive useless beautiful art object at the V&A gift shop, ate a good bit of roast beef and Yorkshire pudding, and coaxed my uncertain companion to a day trip to York. And spent way too much money, of course.

jeremy

Posted: Wed Jan 30, 2008 10:52 am

Joined: 21 May 2004 Posts: 6794 Location: Derby, England and Hamilton, New Zealand (yes they are about 12,000 miles apart)

I also caught a few films on my flight back to a surprisingly warm and sunny London. One of which comprised a second viewing of Atonement.. Watching with fore knowledge of the 'twist', I wondered whether it would sag through lack of tension. If anything, I found it a better film second time round, I was better able to see and appreciate what the filmmakers were trying to do.

I think Atonement may have been underestimated in America, where contrary to the normal way of things, the film appears to have been discounted for its British credentials. This backlash may have been deserved, but they picked the wrong film to pick on. Atonement is much more than your standard, worthy period piece; people are failing to see past its immaculately polished surfaces.

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