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| Joe Vitus |
 Posted: Sun Dec 27, 2009 12:53 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 14498
Location: Houston
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Thanks, Gary. I didn't expect the movie would work, but I really wanted it to.
I can totally understand the Oscar buzz, Billy. In the first place, if you just consider the sets, costumes, cinematagraphy, it's all of a very high level. And the cast is too competant to make fools of themselves. Kate Hudon handles her number nicely. Even Day-Lewis does the best that he can, though the restrained structure and pacing of the movie prevent him from being comic or dramatic enough for us to care about his inner struggle. The choreography is a repeat of Chicago with touches of Cabaret and (a more offensive steal to me) the Prologue from Follies. But that doesn't make it technically bad. I imagine if I was on the set as a number was being filmed, or I caught some scenes in dailies, and putting that together with a major cast, I'd think it was going to be a flim of the year, too.
The weirdest thing about this movie is that it's supposed to be an interior journey into a harried man's mental collapse, but it's all exteriors. Elaborately realistic locations and dialogue, outside the numbers, shot in a stately, frustratingly rational way. It's like a Merchant-Ivory adaptation of Ulysses.
But Sophia Loren is the saddest thing about the movie. The woman who personified earthy, natural sexuality is now rail thin and mummified into an expressionlessness by too many severe face lifts. And the treatment of the character perfectly illustrates the odd wrongheadedness of the whole thing. She's supposed to be a mother, and if you know Fellini or the whole Italian mother complex thing, you know what that should mean. But she's treated as an elegent seductress—which kills the whole mother-whore dynamic that between herself and Saraghina is supposed to have set Guido careening down path he's now at the end of, and which is recreated in his relationship with his wife and his mistress. It puts a Freudian twist on the material that, like everything else in the movie, is never really explored or resolved or even exploited. It's just limply there. And why is the poor woman from a small village costumed throughout as if by Chanel? But the whole movie genuflects to her, and she wanders through in a stately, elegant, pointless fashion. Visually, she comes to represent the debacle of the movie. Can an actress recieve a bigger insult? |
Last edited by Joe Vitus on Sun Dec 27, 2009 1:01 pm; edited 1 time in total
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| Joe Vitus |
| Posted: Sun Dec 27, 2009 12:54 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 14498
Location: Houston
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Marc wrote: Joe,
your entertaining and impassioned review of Nine belongs in films I hate as well as Current.
I'll do a cut-and-paste. |
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| Befade |
| Posted: Sun Dec 27, 2009 7:01 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 3784
Location: AZ
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Gary and Joe..........I am the least memorable person you will ever meet. So nondescript........I could be a spy....Wade.......noone recognizes me ever and I never forget a face......but haven't you gone through some weight changes that could explain this?
Quote: I still prefer Farmiga as an actress to Morton, because even when Morton is as out of this world as she is in The Messenger, she still leaves me emotionally respectful rather than fully engaged. Maybe it's a personal thing.
Morton is a unique. Her face captures the imagination. She isn't pretty in the way Vera F. is and she isn't sexy in the way Vera F. is. But I think Vera is fairly run-of-the-mill good-looking. And the characters she plays do have a hard edge. Recently I saw her as a Russian (?) prostitute in Breaking & Entering. She was very interesting and very sharp with her dialogue. Morton plays characters who are so much more pensive and quiet. Why would they ever be considered for the same roles? I last saw Morton in Cracker.....the BBC mystery staring Robbie Coltrane (my new heartthrob). She played a vulnerable teenager who was in way over her head with a preditory minister.
Billy.......Glad you liked The Messenger. I hope more people see it. |
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| Marc |
| Posted: Sun Dec 27, 2009 8:40 pm |
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Joined: 19 May 2004
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| Nine is a boxoffice disaster. Therefore, I predict that, despite the hype, it will not receive Academy support. It may get a few nominations in the technical categories, but no major nominations. It might have been a contender, bad reviews notwithstanding, if it was making money. This baby's a loser. |
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| Syd |
| Posted: Sun Dec 27, 2009 9:46 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 12921
Location: Norman, Oklahoma
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Marc wrote: Nine is a boxoffice disaster. Therefore, I predict that, despite the hype, it will not receive Academy support. It may get a few nominations in the technical categories, but no major nominations. It might have been a contender, bad reviews notwithstanding, if it was making money. This baby's a loser.
I was thinking the bad reviews were so bad that they would kill any momentum (except maybe in a supporting category). I'm expecting Avatar and Inglorious Basterds to do pretty well in the technical categories. Where the Wild Things Are might get several nominations--I'm thinking costume, set design and visual effects. Avatar's obviously going to win the last.
I'd like to see a couple of animated films make the ten Best Film nominations.
Up and Fantastic Mr. Fox are the two obvious candidates. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Mon Dec 28, 2009 12:02 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: New York City
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| Avatar will clearly be nominated as Best Picture as well, and may very well win it. If it does I will not be the least bit unhappy. |
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| Syd |
| Posted: Mon Dec 28, 2009 12:35 am |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 12921
Location: Norman, Oklahoma
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| What would be fun is if Avatar wins best picture and The Hurt Locker best director. |
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| Marc |
| Posted: Mon Dec 28, 2009 1:53 am |
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Joined: 19 May 2004
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| and Kathryn Bigelow can proclaim "I'm the queen of the world". |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Mon Dec 28, 2009 5:17 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: New York City
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Marc wrote: and Kathryn Bigelow can proclaim "I'm the queen of the world".
That would be great. Probably won't happen, though. In the olden days they used to split Best Picture and Best Director a lot more than they've done recently. The last time it happened (I think) was in 2002 when Chicago won BP and Polanski won BD. If Avatar wins BP Cameron will probably pick up the director award as well. |
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| Syd |
| Posted: Mon Dec 28, 2009 10:47 am |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 12921
Location: Norman, Oklahoma
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Befade wrote: Morton is a unique. Her face captures the imagination. She isn't pretty in the way Vera F. is and she isn't sexy in the way Vera F. is. But I think Vera is fairly run-of-the-mill good-looking. And the characters she plays do have a hard edge. Recently I saw her as a Russian (?) prostitute in Breaking & Entering. She was very interesting and very sharp with her dialogue. Morton plays characters who are so much more pensive and quiet. Why would they ever be considered for the same roles? I last saw Morton in Cracker.....the BBC mystery staring Robbie Coltrane (my new heartthrob). She played a vulnerable teenager who was in way over her head with a preditory minister.
Samantha Morton has one of my favorite faces in film. She does have a sweet sex scene in In America when she sends the kids downstairs to get ice cream. Quite a bit of ice cream, as it turns out, |
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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: Mon Dec 28, 2009 6:02 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 3784
Location: AZ
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| My next Morton will be Longford.......a British production based on the story of a real-life child murderer defended by a Lord. |
Last edited by Befade on Sat Jan 02, 2010 3:26 pm; edited 1 time in total
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Mon Dec 28, 2009 7:37 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: New York City
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Befade wrote: My next Morton will be Longford.......a British production based on the story of a real-life child murderer defended by a priest.
It's quite remarkable, and she is a huge part of the remarkability. |
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| carrobin |
| Posted: Mon Dec 28, 2009 8:05 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
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Location: NYC
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Well, I'm finally back from my South Carolina holiday and I saw a movie, though not one of my priorities--I went with my sister and mother, and there were time limits and multiplex considerations, and we ended up at "It's Complicated."
It's not really very complicated--everyone knows the plot, that Meryl Streep finds herself being courted by Alec Baldwin, her ex-husband who's remarried to a rather testy Lake Bell, and Steve Martin, the architect of an addition Streep's building on her house. And it's a fun ride, sweet and sexy and cute and funny--we all enjoyed it. (Though my 89-year-old mother admitting to dozing off at some point.) Streep was wonderful--she seemed to be wearing no makeup at all in most scenes, her hair straggling around, looking every day of her age--in other words, she was the opposite of glamorous, the total opposite of the sleek Bell, who even sported what Martin called "a scary tattoo." It also gave her a chance to look brighter and perkier when the romance started bubbling. Baldwin was hilarious and Martin was adorable. (My sister said she'd choose Baldwin but I'd go for Martin anytime.) The plot was pretty predictable, including the moment when Bell realizes she's losing her husband and you feel sorry for her--it wouldn't work if she were just a cliched shrew, and that moves her closer to reality. It's well crafted and funny and has a hopeful ending, and what else can you ask these days. (Sherlock Holmes, that's what I wanted to ask, but it was on at the wrong time.) |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Mon Dec 28, 2009 8:59 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: New York City
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| I too saw It's Complicated and enjoyed it more than I expected to. My main problem was the waste of Steve Martin's comic talent. He was the straight man to Streep and Baldwin, both of whom were excellent. The movie is far from great, but it's very pleasant while it passes. |
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| Syd |
| Posted: Mon Dec 28, 2009 10:07 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 12921
Location: Norman, Oklahoma
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Up in the Air has a great script, is impeccably directed, has an interesting premise well-executed, and three major performances that are all just about perfect. I like Kendrick better than Farmiga, but that's partly because she has a better developed role. It's the chief competition to Goodbye Solo for my #1 movie of the year.
I mostly enjoyed Sherlock Holmes, which does have quite a bit of action, but does a good job of integrating it into its reimagining of Holmes. Downey is fine as a scruffy Holmes, as is Jude Law as pretty intelligent Watson. Rachel McAdams has more difficulty with the Irene Adler character; that may be a problem with the writers' conception of her. She's certainly sexy enough, but doesn't come across as clever enough to be Holmes' femme fatale. The story is about an occultist who comes back from the dead to lead a sinister magical conspiracy. As you can imagine, this is quite a challenge for Holmes to fit into his rational worldview. Interestingly, in many ways this is more faithful to the Holmes stories than most movie versions.
This was obviously made with the intention of starting a series, and I look forward to it. |
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