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| bartist |
 Posted: Wed Aug 25, 2010 9:01 am |
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No posts exist for this topic.
Hard to believe. |
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| Syd |
| Posted: Fri Aug 27, 2010 9:08 pm |
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Restrepo is a documentary about a US Army company that spent 16 months in the Korangal valley, which is in eastern Afghanistan not far from Pakistan border. At the time it was perhaps the site of the most active fighting against the Taliban, and several members of this company were killed in the fighting. The first of these was Juan "Doc" Restrepo. During the fighting, the comapny established a forward outpost that commanded a good part of the valley, under withering fire, and they named it Outpost Restrepo.
Tim Hetherington and Sebastian Junger were a journalist photographer and writer, respectively, who were spent time with the company. Hetherington won the World Press Photo competition for a photo taken during the embedding, and Junger wrote the book War based on his experiences, and they co-directed the film. Junger is better known as the author of The Perfect Storm.
Much of the film footage comes from the campaign, including quite a bit with hand-held camera which is hard to watch ,as in, bring dramamine if you have motion sickness. However, there is excellent footage of the soldiers in outposts Korengal (more established and not so far into the valley) and Restrepo, showing how they built the outpost. There is also footage of an expedition where one of the company is killed (not killed on camera). There are interviews with four or five of the survivors, including their accounts of this expedition.
The documentary doesn't really have a story, and doesn't have a position for or against the war. The soldiers simply view it as a job, and don't come across as gung-ho or neurotic (although one soldier talks about how he can't sleep because of his experiences). You get to know the soldiers well enough that you're afraid there might be a footnote saying some of them have since been killed. There is footage of "Doc" Restrepo before he died, and one of the other soldiers tells how Doc was showing him how to play flamenco on the guitar.
We also get footage of the soldiers dealing with the Afghan elders after some of the locals were killed assisting the Taliban, and also after a man's cow was killed and eaten by soldiers after it was trapped and injured in a fence. (Apparently a mercy killing rather than a let's eat steak killing.)
There is an endnote informing us that the United States withdrew from the valley in early 2010.
I confess I did find myself checking my watch during the film, but still it's a valuable and unusual record of the experiences of war. It won first prize for documentary at Sundance and I expect it to be a front-runner at Oscar time. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Sun Aug 29, 2010 6:24 am |
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This is part of a thread begun in Television which really belongs in Current.
carrobin wrote:
"Well, I'm still waiting for Jim Carrey's "I Love You Philip Morris" with Ewan McGregor, which was made two years ago and has already been seen in a number of other countries, but has been delayed here for various reasons. Now it's scheduled for a December release but I'm not betting my condo on it."
billyweeds wrote:
I suspect the release will happen and that there will be a big push for Carrey to be Oscar-nominated. The reviews are by far the best of his career. And the gay theme is particularly timely in view of the defeat of Proposition 8.
I notice that they've changed the spelling of Philip to two L's since the movie was made, semi-confirming the suspicion that there was a legal problem with Philip (one-L) Morris cigarettes.
This should be in Current Film, and I'm copying this post there. |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Sun Aug 29, 2010 7:05 am |
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Location: Shanghai
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| I think the dvd of I Love You Phillip Morris turned up here last month though I'd have to check to be certain. |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Fri Sep 03, 2010 10:24 am |
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Another film with release problems: Manolete.
Seems it was filmed in 2005 and copyrighted in 2007, but has been dribbling out in '09 and '10, according to IMDeebee.
Adrien Brody as Manolete. Penélope Cruz as the bull who gores him to death. I don't care for Brody much, but love me some Penny Cruz.
Maybe I'll pick this up just because no one has seen it. Anyone with any info? |
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Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Fri Sep 03, 2010 10:27 am |
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gromit wrote: I think the dvd of I Love You Phillip Morris turned up here last month though I'd have to check to be certain.
Someone sent me a download, and--apologies to Marc--I plan to watch it. |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Fri Sep 03, 2010 10:35 am |
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My Own Love Song sounds fairly bad.
From an I'M-DB review:
Quote: French director Dahan's first film set in post-Katrina Louisiana and shot in English is a rambling, overly sentimental road picture about two damaged individuals who go on a quest. Renee Zellwegger's paralyzed from a car accident seven years ago, when she met Forest Whitaker in the hospital. He was there for mental problems. He still thinks he hears the voices of angels. They go off in an old Seventies car ...
Yuck!
Might as well see Lourdes for a recent wheelchair performance. |
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| carrobin |
| Posted: Fri Sep 03, 2010 11:41 am |
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| Sounds like it could be wonderful or awful. Not much in between. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Fri Sep 03, 2010 12:05 pm |
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carrobin wrote: Sounds like it could be wonderful or awful. Not much in between.
I could watch Whitaker read the phone book, and Zellweger--when she's on point--can be a magnificent actress. So even if the story fails, I will be catching this as soon as it becomes available to catch. The Forest-Renee combo sounds fantastic. |
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| Syd |
| Posted: Sun Sep 05, 2010 12:24 am |
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Machete is, if anything, more over-the-top violent that the trailer in Grindhouse promised. Danny Trejo is the wrong Mexican to piss off and was born to play this kind of role. Jessica Alba is an immigration agent of Mexican descent investigating Michelle Rodriguez, who operates a taco truck while running the Network, an organization to help illegal aliens find position. Both are sexy and kick-ass, and effective in their roles. Rodriguez can often be a good actress, but Alba surprised me.
Machete was a federale when his wife was murdered before his eyes by Mexican drug lord Torrez (Steven Seagal !?!); now he is an alien hired to shoot a Texas state senator named John McLaughlin (!) (Robert de Niro!). There is a group of vigilantes who like to hunt down people crossing the border, and McLaughlin likes to go hunting with them. Booth (Jeff Fahey) hires Machete to shoot the Senator, but it's a setup. Booth actually works for McLaughlin and Torrez both, and he hopes by having McLaughlin non-fatally shot by a Mexican, McLaughlin will ride to victory on a bullet.
Lindsey Lohan is Booth's daughter who likes to pose nude on the internet. She and her mother [i.e. Booth's wife, not Mrs. Lohan!] do the gratuitous nude scene with Machete from the trailer. Lohan is channelling Paris Hilton here, but Seagal is far worse. However, he's not on screen enough to fatally harm the movie. Fahey gets more time than the other villains, and he's just fine.
Lots of violence, including, appropriately, quite a bit with machetes. At one point we are told how long the human intestines are (I think they said 60 feet), and we get to confirm this a few minutes later. I generally liked the movie, and if Robert Rodriguez chooses to make either of the sequels flashed at the end of the movie ("Machete Kills" and "Machete Kills Again"), I'll gladly see them. |
Last edited by Syd on Sun Sep 05, 2010 6:59 pm; edited 1 time in total
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Rocky Laocoon foretold of Troy's doom, only to find snaky water. They pulled him in and Rocky can't swim. Now Rocky wishes he were an otter! |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Sun Sep 05, 2010 6:25 am |
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This is more "forthcoming film," but whatever.
I saw I Love You Phillip Morris, which is consistently interesting and features an excellent performance by Jim Carrey but whose story is a little too wild and woolly to be completely satisfying as an emotional journey.
It's apparently the almost completely true story of Steven Russell (Carrey), a closeted gay man who comes out and then falls in love with a fellow jail inmate. A preternaturally gifted con man, Russell goes through all manner of weird and unexpected contortions to keep his love alive and close. It would be unfair and require all manner of spoiler alerts to blow the details (they are genuinely surprising and sometimes very funny), but suffice it to say that in this case truth is indeed stranger than fiction but dramatically not quite as cathartic. The story takes some fantastic turns but not all of them are believable, no matter that they actually happened.
See it for Carrey's extremely honest and credible performance (one of his very best) and nice supporting work by Ewan McGregor as the titular lover. Release is slated for December 3. |
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| carrobin |
| Posted: Sun Sep 05, 2010 11:40 am |
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| At last, someone has seen "Phillip Morris"! Thanks, Billy--I'll have to tell my gay friend who's still skeptical that such a film exists. |
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| Joe Vitus |
| Posted: Sun Sep 05, 2010 12:49 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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| I look forward to this prison movie's release. (Enjoy the pun.) |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Sun Sep 05, 2010 6:52 pm |
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Joe Vitus wrote: I look forward to this prison movie's release. (Enjoy the pun.)
You may also enjoy several of the prisoners' somewhat graphic releases. Enjoy that pun too. |
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| Joe Vitus |
| Posted: Sun Sep 05, 2010 7:08 pm |
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Location: Houston
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| heh, heh |
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