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| Ghulam |
 Posted: Thu Sep 23, 2010 12:46 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 4742
Location: Upstate NY
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| As an actor, Affleck does not come off at all well in The Town. As a director, the set up of the plot seems contrived. The heist and car chase scenes are very good. I wondered if someone specializing in such scenes had taken over from Affleck for those scenes. |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Thu Sep 23, 2010 8:31 am |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Posts: 6967
Location: Black Hills
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| I hope you all caught Joaquin last night on Dave. All doubt is removed, as to the genre of I'm Still Here. I suspect little brother Casey won't rake in quite as much as BO as big Ben. |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Fri Sep 24, 2010 3:01 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9016
Location: Shanghai
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I thought Mr. Nobody threw too much into the blender (and had too many borrowed ingredients). It's not enough that we have the last mortal on his deathbed in a futuristic world retelling his life (a Benjamin Button or Titanic conceit). But he retells it to a weirdly face-tattooed psychologist in hypnosis and separately to a greenhorn reporter (whose job it seems is to obviously point out the obvious contradictions). And as a child he has the ability to see the future (presumably because time happens to reverse at the moment of his death). And in one of his lives, he is a television host presenting ideas of string theory and weird science.
One of his lives? We get three possible lives he led, all simply delineated by being married to either a blonde, brunette or Asian, all of whom mostly wear one primary color. One problem is that none of the personal issues any of them -- or his parents -- face, have much emotional impact because we visit with these characters so briefly. This is most obvious when his blond wife is having a breakdown and cycles rapidly from paralyzed depression to manic party leader (seemed like recycled&condensed Woman Under the Influence), and we know nothing about her, so we have no involvement or context for her mental problems.
After a while, the film reminded me very much of The Fall, where technical camera ability and pretty shots seemed to overwhelm any story and became the purpose of the film. It seemed to me the film would have been much stronger if the filmmakers had decided to go with one or two connected storylines rather than the ultimate mishmash they settled for.
I'd have preferred a film about choice, and possible parallel lives lived out, abandoning the sci-fi hokum. Or just the sci-fi story of a boy who can see the future and an old man who is about to be the last to die, but then things regress nicely for him. The all-in approach they chose didn't do justice to any of the concepts and the film felt ADD and jumpy, not to mention overlong. |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Fri Sep 24, 2010 4:14 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9016
Location: Shanghai
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| Btw, part of my language uncertainty with Mr. Nobody was that only a French dvd edition is here. It turns out it also has a French dub soundtrack. |
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Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Fri Sep 24, 2010 5:26 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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| Without having seen The Social Network (the Facebook movie), just having read about it, one can safely predict the directing Oscar for David Fincher. FIncher has been nipping at the golden boy's ass for a few years, and this is the year he grabs on. Bet the farm on it. The initial reviews for the film are not just good, they're the best of the decade. It sounds unbelievable in several ways--but memorable and magnificently acted. |
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| lshap |
| Posted: Fri Sep 24, 2010 7:23 am |
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Site Admin
Joined: 12 May 2004
Posts: 4248
Location: Montreal
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Gromit - I had almost the identical take on Mr. Nobody as you. Characters overwhelmed by the cleverness of the plot.
Jared Leto played 'old' pretty well, though. |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Fri Sep 24, 2010 9:07 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9016
Location: Shanghai
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It's not a bad film -- it's technically accomplished if a little showoffish -- and there were likable parts and ideas. I might have been more involved if there weren't so many tonal shifts and an excess of invention. I'd like to say that it was overly ambitious, and it probably was, but so many of the techniques and conceits and music cues seemed borrowed from other films.
It's kind of a quirky indie dysfunctional family film (Running with Scissors-ish) mixed with a sci-fi film.
It's like two scripts passed in the night.
And fused into one film. |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Fri Sep 24, 2010 9:26 am |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Posts: 6967
Location: Black Hills
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this chat is helpful to me, as I am moving away from science fiction, generally -- there was a time, in the 70s and early 80s, when films like Silent Running, Blade Runner, and 2001 came out, and it seemed like a genre to really explore ideas, social trends, and human nature.
Now, I often encounter this phrase that Gromit deployed, "...mixed with a sci-fi film..." or similar, and it just doesn't seem to mix well. I think good science fiction requires a dedicated and serious approach to a central idea about how technology and new social trends will affect our lives -- I just don't think you can toss in sci-fi elements and deepen or improve something that is not essentially about sci-fi. Or just use sci-fi cliches as a vehicle for razzle-dazzle CGI effects. |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Fri Sep 24, 2010 9:38 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9016
Location: Shanghai
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| I recently enjoyed Fassbinder's World on a Wire, though that was made in 1974. I thought Moon was pretty well done, a bit low-key, but focusing seriously on one aspect of bio-technology and exploiting resources on an extra-terrestrial sphere. |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Fri Sep 24, 2010 11:03 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9016
Location: Shanghai
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Was very disappointed with Herzog's My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done. I assume this was pretty low-budget, but it really looked and felt like an early 80's TV cop drama. It has a pretty mediocre structure, with friends of the killer talking to the head detective so we can get flashbacks. It's based on an interesting/odd story -- would Werner be attracted to any other? -- but the film they made out of it is fairly dull and uninspired.
Then again, I thought Port of Call and Rescue Dawn were pretty awful, with the latter even being fairly embarrassing, imo.
Herzog's recent documentaries have been much better than his fiction films -- Encounters at the End of the World and Grizzly Man were interesting and well-done. And I'm hearing good things about his latest Caves of Forgotten Dreams. |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Fri Sep 24, 2010 11:10 am |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Posts: 6967
Location: Black Hills
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gromit wrote: I recently enjoyed Fassbinder's World on a Wire, though that was made in 1974. I thought Moon was pretty well done, a bit low-key, but focusing seriously on one aspect of bio-technology and exploiting resources on an extra-terrestrial sphere.
Yes, Moon really was exceptional -- 2009 did make me wonder if real science fiction was going to be resuscitated. Alas, 2010 has only yielded silly crap like Repo Men.
I like Herzog for docs, too. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Fri Sep 24, 2010 12:51 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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| This Sam Rockwell fan couldn't abide Moon. Obscure and boring at the same time. |
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| whiskeypriest |
| Posted: Fri Sep 24, 2010 12:55 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 6916
Location: "It's a Dry Heat."
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| I can't abide Sam Rockwell. |
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| lshap |
| Posted: Fri Sep 24, 2010 3:03 pm |
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Site Admin
Joined: 12 May 2004
Posts: 4248
Location: Montreal
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whiskeypriest wrote: I can't abide Sam Rockwell.
I'll second that raw emotion.
Rockwell is plastic, which, ironically, works for him in Moon. |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Fri Sep 24, 2010 4:07 pm |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Posts: 6967
Location: Black Hills
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| I don't get the anti-Sam Rockwell thing here, unless people are still raw and sore from Hitchiker's Guide. I was too absorbed by Zooey Deschanel's hair to mind. Moon wasn't obscure, it was a marvel of clarity as it took on the issue of worker exploitation in the future (resonating nicely with the present) and the legal status of clones. We just didn't see the same movie. |
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