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| Marc |
 Posted: Fri Dec 11, 2009 5:20 pm |
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Joined: 19 May 2004
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| marantzo |
| Posted: Fri Dec 11, 2009 6:38 pm |
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marantzo wrote: The previews I saw of Avatar make it look terrible. Maybe it is going to be the reverse of my experience with TTRL.
As per a previous post, I thought the same thing. We'll see. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Fri Dec 11, 2009 10:38 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: New York City
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| Got sucked in to the Avatar buzz and bought my tickets for December 20 tonight. Also saw Precious, which is good but not great. More later. |
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| Marc |
| Posted: Sat Dec 12, 2009 2:16 am |
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Joined: 19 May 2004
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God gawd almighty! The Bad Lieutenant, Port Of Call-New Orleans is the most fun I've had at the movies in a long long time. All shows were sold-out in Austin. I have a hunch that Austin may help establish this film as a new cult phenomenon. The audience ate it up.
They sat the theater for the 10:30 show at 9:45 and showed 45 minutes of clips of Nicolas Cage at his wackiest. Scenes from Vampire's Kiss, The Wicker Man, Deadfall, Wild At Heart, had the crowd howling. Of course, it helps that the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema has a full bar.
When Cage's action roles are long forgotten, his weird performances will live on. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Sat Dec 12, 2009 6:44 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: New York City
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Marc wrote: God gawd almighty! The Bad Lieutenant, Port Of Call-New Orleans is the most fun I've had at the movies in a long long time. All shows were sold-out in Austin. I have a hunch that Austin may help establish this film as a new cult phenomenon. The audience ate it up.
They sat the theater for the 10:30 show at 9:45 and showed 45 minutes of clips of Nicolas Cage at his wackiest. Scenes from Vampire's Kiss, The Wicker Man, Deadfall, Wild At Heart, had the crowd howling. Of course, it helps that the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema has a full bar.
When Cage's action roles are long forgotten, his weird performances will live on.
The weirdest thing is that Cage at his wackiest can be great (Vampire's Kiss) or terrible (Deadfall). There is no in-between. The Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans is Cage at the very, very top of his form, his all-around "best" performance since Leaving Las Vegas.
The Cage performance that tends to get lost in the shuffle because it's from a very mainstream movie is his great turn in Guarding Tess, as a Secret Service man in charge of guarding the former first lady, Shirley MacLaine. MacLaine and Cage have chemistry to burn, and his one-sided phone conversation with the president is mainstream acting at its best. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Sat Dec 12, 2009 7:20 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: New York City
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billyweeds wrote: Also saw Precious, which is good but not great. More later.
It's now "later." Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire (whew!) is certainly a worthy film, with several much better than good performances by actresses we either didn't know (Gabourey Sidibe, Paula Patton) or didn't know were this talented (Mo'Nique, Mariah Carey). It tells the story of a morbidly obese teenage incest victim (Sidibe) who has borne two children who are the products of rape by her own father, and who lives with her sadistic, psychotic mother (Mo'Nique) in a hell on earth.
It's one of the potentially grimmest movies imaginable, and yet the film is not unentertaining. It's well thought out and well paced, and occasionally even funny. As noted, the performances by Sidibe, Mo'Nique, Patton as a Halle-Berry-level beauty of a teacher, and Carey as a no-bullshit social worker are precise and telling, and in the cases of Mo'Nique and Sidibe, Oscar-worthy.
There's also a very small but notably charismatic bit by Lenny Kravitz as a male nurse who excites every female in the area. He's terrific. Carey, meanwhile, drops every trace of glam diva in a remarkable performance.
But the movie never rises above a kitchen-sink realism to the level of art. It's well done in almost every respect and yet never genuinely kicks in. You can admire it but it never becomes transcendent or moving, even in the schlocky manner of The Blind Side. It's "better" than The Blind Side, but not necessarily more "recommendable."
It reminded me in many ways of a movie with an overlapping theme that I think tops it. For a funny, entertaining, tear-inducing artistic achievement that is available on DVD, I say rent Up the Down Staircase, the shockingly underappreciated 1967 masterpiece directed by Robert Mulligan and starring Sandy Dennis. It's a beaut. |
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| Syd |
| Posted: Sat Dec 12, 2009 8:08 pm |
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Drive-by posting: The Princess and the Frog didn't grab me as much as I thought it would, maybe because there were a lot of jazzy Randy Newman songs that didn't quite work for me. Big exceptions are "Ma Belle Evangeline," a love song sung by a Ray, a firefly with a lot of missing teeth, and "Dig a Little Deeper," by Mama Odie about getting what you need as opposed to what you want. The male frog prince sounds too much like Pepe le Pew; I found it distracting. However, Louis the trumpet-playing alligator is one of Disney's greatest creations, which I wasn't expecting from the trailers.
On the other hand, Brothers spent the first half hour putting me to sleep (maybe I shouldn't have taken a Loritab right before), and the second half heading toward the inevitable explosion of hystrionics. The idea is that the good brother goes off to Iraq and gets shot down and is pronounced dead while the irresponsible brother stays here and gets responsible, becoming a surrogate father to his nieces while the other brother is captured and broken becomes the one in trouble; so the two brothers exchange personalities. I felt like I'd seen this movie under many other titles. It reminded me of Casualties of War, as if Toby Maguire had taken some acting lessons from Sean Penn. |
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| Joe Vitus |
| Posted: Sat Dec 12, 2009 9:33 pm |
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Location: Houston
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| Do not rent wildly uneven and oddly unfunny Up the Down Staircase. Read the marvelous book on which it is based. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Sun Dec 13, 2009 12:42 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: New York City
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Joe Vitus wrote: Do not rent wildly uneven and oddly unfunny Up the Down Staircase. Read the marvelous book on which it is based.
How about do both like I did (and loved both)? It's possible. |
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| Joe Vitus |
| Posted: Sun Dec 13, 2009 5:00 am |
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| I don't know. I thought the movie missed the humor, and the plot development, entirely. It seemed trying to hard to be an inner city drama and missed both the comedy and the teacher's ability to impart education. Glad you liked the book, though. And I do think Sandy Dennis was perfect casting. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Sun Dec 13, 2009 7:36 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: New York City
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Joe Vitus wrote: I don't know. I thought the movie missed the humor, and the plot development, entirely. It seemed trying to hard to be an inner city drama and missed both the comedy and the teacher's ability to impart education. Glad you liked the book, though. And I do think Sandy Dennis was perfect casting.
I will agree that the movie was more earnest than the book, partially because there are several highly dramatic incidents in both book and movie, but the book has a structure--everything is told through memos and letters and written missives--which constantly plays against drama and toward whimsy and humor.
The best single element in the movie for me was the musical score by Fred Karlin, which captures the whimsical element beautifully and which also stands on its own as a wonderful musical accomplishment.
And the ending, a straight transcription of the book, is one of my top ten. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Sun Dec 13, 2009 7:51 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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The preceding post (and thread) rightly belongs in Couch. But such is the way of threads in the real world.
More currently (in fact, as current as it gets) Frank Rich's column today in the NYTimes analyzes Up in the Air and its relevance to today's world. It's a very good column which makes me want to see the movie again right now.
The Best Actor Oscar is sewed up. It's Clooney by a mile. And, though my vote would go elsewhere, I will not complain. Clooney's performance is immaculate, actorly, and as quintessential as can be. |
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| Syd |
| Posted: Sun Dec 13, 2009 10:19 am |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
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billyweeds wrote: billyweeds wrote: Also saw Precious, which is good but not great. More later.
It's now "later." Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire (whew!) is certainly a worthy film, with several much better than good performances by actresses we either didn't know (Gabourey Sidibe, Paula Patton) or didn't know were this talented (Mo'Nique, Mariah Carey). It tells the story of a morbidly obese teenage incest victim (Sidibe) who has borne two children who are the products of rape by her own father, and who lives with her sadistic, psychotic mother (Mo'Nique) in a hell on earth.
When I saw that the movie was being pushed my Oprah Winfrey, my first thought was "So the girl's pregnant with her father's child?" and I was right. All I needed to know was she was unwed and hear Oprah's name. |
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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 |
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| Befade |
| Posted: Sun Dec 13, 2009 10:19 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 3784
Location: AZ
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| As I wrote before, Precious is not anybody's typical victim. You'd have to see her to believe her. Obesity never looked this good. |
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| inlareviewer |
| Posted: Mon Dec 14, 2009 2:48 am |
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Joined: 05 Jul 2004
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Location: Lawrence, KS
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Rushing in to try and shake off the marathon L.A. Drama Critics nominations meeting -- don't ask -- the latest Culture Clash offering at the Mark Taper Forum -- worthy but inconclusive -- and the 11th-hours-twist in the Dexter season finale -- Oh. My. God. -- to say, howdy, all, and:
L.A. Film Critics Assn. picked The Hurt Locker as best film of 2009, (Up in the Air runner-up) Ms. Bigelow best director (Michael Haneke RU for The White Ribbon), Jeff Bridges best actor (Colin Firth), Yolande Moreau of Séraphine best actress (Carey Mulligan), Christoph Waltz best supphose actor (Peter Cepaldi for In the Loop ), Mo'Nique best supphose actress (Anna Kendrick), Fantastic Mr. Fox just squeaked past Up for animated, Summer Hours past Ribbon for foreign, and more. Hoo, boy, let the games begin.
L.A. Times: L.A. Film Critics announce 2009 winners
Having gone to An Education on a whim with a friend last Friday, can only echo everyone's huzzahs, it's wonderfully fresh, unprecociously witty and involving, La Belle Carey a genuine contender for the Audrey Hepburn For Today mantle, easily the Ingenue Spoiler in the awards whoopups, and altogether enchanting. Found all the surrounding performers delightful/multivalent, particularly Mssrs. Molina and Sarsgaard, but, really, everybody. It quite sent me, perhaps only rivalled thus far to my tastes by Julie & Julia for nostalgic, couture-conscious, sour-edged charm, (500) Days of Summer for quirkily nuanced female/male interplay. Would write more but it's already been said. Instantly one of inla's most favoritest fillums of 2009, dancing into the queue with Up, Hurt Locker, Julie & Julia, Wild Things, (500) Days and District 9.
Elsewhere, received opine from Industry pros and LAFCC critical colleagues re: the advance screenings of Nine are anything but encouraging. Representative comments (actual quotes): "I give it a two." "Yeston butchered his score." "Why will Hollywood keep making musicals with people who can't really sing?""Rob Marshall needs to get past Chicago, soon." "A spectacular mess." And, perhaps the most succinct: "Nine? Nein." Had such hopes, of course it has to be seen for itself, but, still. Am not getting a good vibe from fellow journeypeeps.
Most of those sources also saw The Lovely Bones, and they're less harsh in their judgments but decidedly mixed in the reactions. The culled consensus suggests that people who dug the book may be very dissatisfied, people who didn't read the book might have a better shot of going with Mr. Jackson's vision, that it's beautifully rendered, cinematically oblique, dramatically conflicted and not automatically compelling. But will certainly see it eventually.
Professional cross-pollination has opened up an Industry/Aclademy source of screeners -- It's Complicated, The Last Station and Inglourious Basterds (which seems silly, since that's rentable, but there it is) all en route; A Serious Man, An Education ('cause am gonna want to see it again) and Crazy Heart shortly forthcoming.
Am thinking it may be time to become an underpaid film reviewer instead of an underpaid theater scribe, but I digress.
Am seeing Precious in cinema mid-week. Won't catch Up in the Air before Christmas week (it's the mater's film of choice this annum), White Ribbon, A Single Man and Broken Embraces are also slated. Avatar and Invictus, they're not going to go away anytime soon. However, Bad Lieutenantand Mr. Fox must be seen sooner. Oh, it's always like this.
While I cannot imagine anything more delicious on New Year's than seeing The Apartment with Third Eyesters in Austin (instead of, as usual, in my apartment with my cat in Los Angeles), it's logistically and economically unfeasible, alas. Will synchronize my annual viewing to Texas time zone/screening schedule, and think fondly Consolidated thoughts of Baxterly Kubeliktitude. |
Last edited by inlareviewer on Mon Dec 14, 2009 1:38 pm; edited 1 time in total
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