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inlareviewer

Posted: Wed Feb 17, 2010 5:37 am

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

The Broken Embraces screener finally arrived. Will see it tomorrow, and then, we'll just see.

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

ehle64

Posted: Wed Feb 17, 2010 10:02 am

Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 7149 Location: NYC; US&A

Enjoy the reds!
(no, not the commies, silly goose -- the Colours)

_________________
It truly disappoints me when people do something for you via no prompt of your own and then use it as some kind of weapon against you at a later time and place. It is what it is.

carrobin

Posted: Wed Feb 17, 2010 10:19 am

Joined: 21 May 2004 Posts: 7795 Location: NYC

Yesterday I took advantage of the snow to hit the movie theater, but the timing still wasn't right for "Avatar," so I caught "Up in the Air." Loved it. I'm still going through my backpack.

Befade

Posted: Wed Feb 17, 2010 2:09 pm

Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 3784 Location: AZ

Quote:

Liberal, in a nutshell, is "Live and let live." Tolerant is the key word. You don't have to accept new concepts or ideas if you don't agree with them just because you are a liberal. You just tolerate them, unless they are being enforced upon others.

Gary........I think this is a good topic for The Lobby.....when I have time.

_________________
Lost in my own private I dunno.

inlareviewer

Posted: Thu Feb 18, 2010 2:27 am

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

Perhaps the best way to indicate my reaction to Broken Embraces is that it's a good thing I didn't see it in time for Blanche nominations. The slates were overpacked already, and it would certainly have made a mess of my cinematography, score and directorial nods. La Belle Penélope is here rather more iconic than virtuosic, but try not to look at her as she sashays past La Belle Carey in the 2009 Audrey Hepburn Reborn Derby. There are few plot twists that aren't foreseeable, yet that is a perverse pleasure in itself. Ditto the auteur's tightly controlled aesthetic playground, whether self-referencing or riffing on other filmmakers, an assured display of stylized cinematic formalism to set beside last year's Ford debut and the Gilliam and Tarentino offerings. Particularly appreciated the quiet investment of Lluís Homar's dualistic directorial surrogate and Blanca Portillo's long-anguished agent Judit. And even if they are more surface dazzling than substantially deep, the quotations from Hitchcock, Sirk and Nicholas Ray -- not to mention the whole film's indebtedness to Godard in Contempt mode -- and the sheer audacity of the various angle, camera set-up, change of film/video stock, and counterpoints -- fleeing lovers Homar and Cruz watching Rossellini's Voyage to Italy, for instance -- are pretty darned entertaining. The use of Red as focal point and sensory signal was almost unprecedented, even for this crimson-addicted director. Hardly Almodóvar's greatest film, didn't emotionally impact anywhere as much as, oh, Talk to Her or even Volver did, let alone the earlier, funny works (thank you, Stardust Memories). And Pedro's latter-day backpedalling of gay characters as active narrative/erotic components continues vexing. And yet, it elicited a near-consistent visceral charge, with some delicious, typically puckish Almodóvar dialogue -- favorite line: "A man can skip the kissing, but it's very difficult to skip the blowjob" -- and it finally sustained my interest more than somewhat.

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

Marc

Posted: Thu Feb 18, 2010 2:45 am

Joined: 19 May 2004 Posts: 8424

Broken Embraces = a lot of movie but not enuff move me.

inlareviewer

Posted: Thu Feb 18, 2010 2:55 am

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

Well, no, it didn't really move me, but it did intrigue and entertain me.

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

gromit

Posted: Thu Feb 18, 2010 1:08 pm

Joined: 31 Aug 2004 Posts: 9016 Location: Shanghai

Where the Wild Things Are didn't do much for me.
I felt like I was trying to like it more than I actually got engaged. Probably a better film to see on a Big Screen.
It probably didn't help that it reminded me of The Banana Splits at times.
Would it have been better if one was stoned?
I'll search back and see what folks here thought.

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

Befade

Posted: Thu Feb 18, 2010 2:13 pm

Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 3784 Location: AZ

Broken Embraces was a delicious, enjoyable film. I'd watch it again.

_________________
Lost in my own private I dunno.

Marj

Posted: Thu Feb 18, 2010 5:17 pm

Joined: 21 May 2004 Posts: 10497 Location: Manhattan

gromit wrote:

From what I hear, a lot of films would be enjoyed much more if one were stoned. Notice I said, from what I hear ...

I am now going to watch A Serious Man - sober. Well, kind of.

inlareviewer

Posted: Thu Feb 18, 2010 5:24 pm

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

I first saw Where The Wild Things Are on the big screen while on Dayquill. (I wonder if that counts as stoned, or merely pebbled?) Had some quibbles at the time, that mainly disappeared when I saw it a second time on a screener. Very singular, self-delineated film that came perilously close to bumping some top-category contenders in my Blancheville rankings.

A Serious Man, well, spent a whole day editing what began as a quest to correct grammatical/punctuation typos on prior comments, so will just repeat that I admired it, found Mr. Stuhlbarg excellent, yet at the same time, it didn't exactly send me. Whatchagonnadooo?

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

Marj

Posted: Fri Feb 19, 2010 12:50 am

Joined: 21 May 2004 Posts: 10497 Location: Manhattan

That's kind of the way I felt, Inla. But I do want to see it again. I was, to be honest, a little the worse for pain medication.

Ghulam

Posted: Fri Feb 19, 2010 2:49 am

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

An Education is at heart an old style morality play told with a comic flair. It is well directed, the characters are interesting and the performances are excellent.

billyweeds

Posted: Fri Feb 19, 2010 9:32 am

Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 20618 Location: New York City

Largely lousy reviews for Shutter Island coupled with the fact that it's opening in throwaway February plus the fact that the book was unreadable spell "proceed with caution" for me. I would bet the farm that it's closer to Cape Fear than GoodFellas.

carrobin

Posted: Fri Feb 19, 2010 9:37 am

Joined: 21 May 2004 Posts: 7795 Location: NYC

When I saw "Up in the Air," the trailer for "Shutter Island" looked grim but the trailer for "The Ghost Writer" was intriguing. (Also, it was the second trailer with Pierce Brosnan. He must be pretty busy these days.)

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