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| Nancy |
 Posted: Wed Mar 05, 2008 3:57 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 4607
Location: Norman, OK
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mo_flixx wrote: What about the Boleyn sluts? Haven't heard a thing about that one.
I saw it. The costumes were quite good. The story is a soap opera that apparently takes considerable liberties with history. Natalie Portman plays a bitch, Scarlett Johansson plays her mousy younger sister, Kristin Scott-Thomas is largely wasted as their mother, and Eric Bana is woefully miscast as Henry VIII. Wait for it to get to the dollar house, then go to look at the costumes and settings and ignore everything else. |
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| carrobin |
| Posted: Wed Mar 05, 2008 4:24 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 7795
Location: NYC
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| I recently proofread a novel--the first of a trilogy, I think--about the Boleyn sisters; nine-year-old Anne is in France, where her slightly older sister is the belle of the court and becomes the mistress of the king--then is passed on to one of the king's friends, to her chagrin and embarrassment. The book ended with the sisters returning to England, and I've been meaning to do some research about them, since the story was very interesting (though not very well written, unfortunately). I haven't read the book that the film is based on, though. |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Wed Mar 05, 2008 4:51 pm |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9010
Location: Shanghai
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My Blueberry Nights comes off as something of an episodic, slight film. I'm usually an advocate of shorter films, but here perhaps the hour and a half run time should have been extended to add more depth to the characters and sub-plots.
The film starts off with Norah Jones being obsessed/depressed over getting dumped. Jude Law as the proprietor of a pastry shop/cafe lends a sympathetic ear. Then she drifts out of NYC and does some waitress/barmaid stints around the country where we meet several other characters who have their own problems, which Norah observes.
David Straithern is pretty good as a cop with a drinking and wife problem. Rachel Weiss is pretty bad as the problem wife. I've never really cared for her acting. Somewhat a contrived and schematic episode.
Next up, Norah moves along and starts working in a casino, where Natalie Portman has an interesting role as a gambling risk-taker full of sass, better at reading people than dealing with them. I didn't find the gambling scenes interesting, but Portman's character was about the most intriguing in the film. But again, it's one lesson learned, and time to move on to the next chapter.
In many ways, it's like a series of short films strung together by Norah Jones' observer/bit player. Jones herself has a low-key role, and isn't called upon to do too much, which seems about as much as she can handle. A decent debut, but she seemed like she wasn't that comfortable.
Good music put together by Ry Cooder, but I didn't like the way the music was used. For instance, Cat Power's The Greatest has a nice melacholic atmosphere which seems perfect for film, but the lyrics "the greatest" seemed awkward both time sit was used. [Chan Marshall has a cameo somewhere in the film]. Similarly, Otis Redding's Try A Little Tenderness is a great song and serves as shorthand for "we're now in soulful Memphis," but it seemed awkward how the song re-started three times when we re-entered the bar.
I also found the montage blurry close-up editing of neon casino lights reflected in a Jaguar coupe, and of ice cream melting on pie, to be fairly distracting and annoying. More of a dessert movie rather a main course film, the ingredients don't always seem fresh or mixed well. |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Fri Mar 07, 2008 9:49 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9010
Location: Shanghai
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Paranoid Park is Gus van Sant's latest about teenage angst and uncertainty, with an unfortunate accident stirring the pot. The high school setting recalls Elephant.
The film is mostly from the high school student's perspective. Few adults are seen, and, when present, frequently are not in focus or stay in the background. So the film replicates how the teenage world is self-centered and tunes out adults. No Charlie Brown style Waa-wa-waa's, but there is an amusing scene when the lead kid's girlfriend is talking to him about something she considers very important, and we just see her talking but don't hear a thing. Our protag's mind is elsewhere. How or why our skater-slacker hero had such a high maintenance valley-girl girlfriend is hard to say.
There are interesting elements to the film. And Chris Doyle films are always well-lensed. But it wasn't really a story that got my interest. This is partly because I find skateboarding rather boring, but also due to the use of sound throughout the film. I knew I might have trouble when I muted the white noise for a few seconds during the opening scene so that I could appreciate the visual of a scraggly beach. I also wasn't too fond of the occasional switches to Super 8 or whatever lower grade film, and some of the slow-motion didn't seem necessary.
The plot is somewhat thin, as the film seeks to explore the feelings of being a teenager in trouble who doesn't even really know his own thoughts. In many ways, not really my type of film. Like Blueberry Nights, PP came off more about technique than story, and both felt somewhat slight. Both films have been criticized as retreads of what these directors have done well in the past. |
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Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
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| mo_flixx |
| Posted: Fri Mar 07, 2008 9:58 am |
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Joined: 30 May 2004
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gromit wrote: Paranoid Park is Gus van Sant's latest about teenage angst and uncertainty, with an unfortunate accident stirring the pot. The high school setting recalls Elephant.
The film is mostly from the high school student's perspective. Few adults are seen, and, when present, frequently are not in focus or stay in the background. So the film replicates how the teenage world is self-centered and tunes out adults. No Charlie Brown style Waa-wa-waa's, but there is an amusing scene when the lead kid's girlfriend is talking to him about something she considers very important, and we just see her talking but don't hear a thing. Our protag's mind is elsewhere. How or why our skater-slacker hero had such a high maintenance valley-girl girlfriend is hard to say.
There are interesting elements to the film. And Chris Doyle films are always well-lensed. But it wasn't really a story that got my interest. This is partly because I find skateboarding rather boring, but also due to the use of sound throughout the film. I knew I might have trouble when I muted the white noise for a few seconds during the opening scene so that I could appreciate the visual of a scraggly beach. I also wasn't too fond of the occasional switches to Super 8 or whatever lower grade film, and some of the slow-motion didn't seem necessary.
The plot is somewhat thin, as the film seeks to explore the feelings of being a teenager in trouble who doesn't even really know his own thoughts. In many ways, not really my type of film. Like Blueberry Nights, PP came off more about technique than story, and both felt somewhat slight. Both films have been criticized as retreads of what these directors have done well in the past.
Sounds similar to Larry Clark's WASSUP ROCKERS. Have you seen it? |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Fri Mar 07, 2008 10:21 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9010
Location: Shanghai
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mo_flixx wrote:
Sounds similar to Larry Clark's WASSUP ROCKERS. Have you seen it?
Nope.
Btw, Paranoid Park is the name the skaters use for the hardcore skateboarding park in town (Portland?). |
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Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
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| mo_flixx |
| Posted: Fri Mar 07, 2008 10:44 am |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Fri Mar 07, 2008 11:06 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9010
Location: Shanghai
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Thanks Mo.
Dargis obviously liked it more than I did.
All the camera trickery and sounds from ambient to white noise to metal didn't do it for me. I'm surprised she doesn't mention the sound and music more.
She does make her own Charlie Brown reference with regard to the parents.
Oddly, her conclusion is:
Quote: No one is ever really ready for Paranoid Park, but neither do you have to go there alone.
Which I think gets it exactly wrong.
It's precisely the fact that Alex goes there alone which causes his crisis of self.
And I'd argue that the film itself advocates throughout that you are essentially on your own growing up and figuring out your limits and abilities. Not only are Alex's parents peripheral characters, but so is his girlfriend and his best friend. The experience, meaning and effect of entering this dangerous adult world is a solo effort. |
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Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
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| Rod |
| Posted: Sat Mar 08, 2008 8:09 am |
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Joined: 21 Dec 2004
Posts: 2944
Location: Lithgow, Australia
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| American Gangster rocks. The Roaring Twenties meets Prince of the City. |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Sat Mar 08, 2008 1:40 pm |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
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Location: Shanghai
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Taxi to the Dark Side won the Oscar for Best Documentary, and it is a very professional examination of US torture/interrogation policies.
It mostly centers around one victim, an Afghani taxi driver who was picked up along with his three passengers, and wound up dead after five days in custody. Essentially, he was kicked in the legs and repeatedly kneed in the thighs while chained to the ceilings, and an embolism reached his brain. He was subjected to this treatment mostly to shut up his wimperings and protests.
The film interviews a number of the guards who were convicted of mistreatment, dereliction of duty, and I believe involuntary manslaughter in one case. The film also interviews ex-military personnel and some experts. Most of it is informative.
The film connects the dots between Baghram-Abu Ghraib-Gitmo (and Cheney-Rumsfeld). The main problem I had was that it was similar to the Enron doc and No End in Sight in that it recapitulates alot of what has been made known already. I think these films are important documents and records, but feel more geared at present to classroom study or for those who weren't paying attention when this stuff went down.
An important sub-theme is how important discipline and clear rules are in the military especially in high stress positions, manned at the prison level by young, aggressive, poorly trained soldiers. Poorly trained in terms of interrogation techniques and military policing.
It also struck me how much US culture is obsessed with violence and sexuality and the ways in which this manifested itself in the treatment of prisoners (especially when dealing with "sexually repressed" Muslims).
One sad footnote to the murdered taxi driver saga is that he was stopped by an Afghan militia checkpoint who allegedly found some electronic control device in the trunk that could have been used in a recent rocket attack on the nearby US base. [note: that this would be a small and cheap device of the sort that could easily be planted]. One NYTimes reporter asserts that the militia group that detained and turned over the taxi passengers as possible terrorists were later arrested for firing rockets at the US base and were alleged to detain and turn over random innocents in order to cover their doings and remain on good terms with the Americans (whom they would rocket-attack occasionally).
In fact, favors and cash rewards made it increasingly common that random innocent people would be turned over to the US as suspected terrorists. Estimates in the film are that of the roughly 80,000 apprehended (I think that is both Afghanistan and Iraq and parts of Pakistan), only 7% have anything to do with Al Qaeda, terrorism, sabotage, etc.
Diliwad the driver was beaten to death, while his three passengers were sent to Guantanamo for years.
The film is sad and detailed, and highly relevant as Bush just today vetoed a bill which would have disallowed the CIA from using "harsh interrogation methods" (read: torture). |
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| carrobin |
| Posted: Sat Mar 08, 2008 2:03 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 7795
Location: NYC
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| Obviously a film a lot more people should see--especially those who "weren't paying attention when it was going down." But those are the ones who probably will never see it, of course--unless they're in a cell with their hands tied while it's being shown on a screen in front of them. |
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| mo_flixx |
| Posted: Sat Mar 08, 2008 4:51 pm |
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Joined: 30 May 2004
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carrobin wrote: Obviously a film a lot more people should see--especially those who "weren't paying attention when it was going down." But those are the ones who probably will never see it, of course--unless they're in a cell with their hands tied while it's being shown on a screen in front of them.
I'm hoping to see this film tomorrow in Sta. Fe. |
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| marantzo |
| Posted: Sat Mar 08, 2008 4:55 pm |
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| I tend to avoid movies about torture. I guess it's my "Why spread the torture around?" attitude. |
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| mo_flixx |
| Posted: Sat Mar 08, 2008 5:03 pm |
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Joined: 30 May 2004
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marantzo wrote: I tend to avoid movies about torture. I guess it's my "Why spread the torture around?" attitude.
That explains BROKEBACK MTN. (ouch!)
P.S. I hate to see scenes of REAL cruelty to animals.
Any kind of fake blood or violence doesn't bother me. |
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| Marj |
| Posted: Sat Mar 08, 2008 5:14 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 10497
Location: Manhattan
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Mo,
I'm the same way. And I feel the same way about endless battle scenes. Actually those as well as endless chases bore me. Of course the first time I saw The French Connection is an exception. But seeing it again wasn't the same.
And this may sound funny, but I find the horror flicks like The Ring and others torturous too. Maybe The Ring isn't a great example. But I'll bet you know which movies I mean. |
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