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| gromit |
 Posted: Tue May 31, 2011 11:37 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9010
Location: Shanghai
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I liked Cold Souls.
If I recall it had a nice build up and didn't really do that much with it. But overall was fairly good. I kind of lumped it together with Moon which was another good low key indie sci-fi from the same year.
How cheap is the cheapie bin? |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Tue May 31, 2011 11:48 am |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Posts: 6958
Location: Black Hills
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One bin was $2, the other was $4 -- Cold Souls was in the $4 bin. I think the bins work on the scratch factor, more than quality of the film.
I still don't have PC/broadband at home, so I've held off joining Netflix, as I'm reluctant to do transactions with my debit/credit card on a public computer (and would like to do the streaming, more than the mailbox thing) Also want to see what other options are. Might get broadband at home and just have a Roku box, no computer.
I think the chickpea thing must be derived from Woody Allen's famous dream. IIRC, Allen somewhere describes dreaming that he saw his own soul and it looked exactly like a chickpea. |
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He was wise beyond his years, but only by a few days. |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Wed Jun 01, 2011 9:53 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
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Location: Shanghai
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So what was the problem with the Coenheads True Grit? Finally watched it and there just isn't much spark or chemistry. The costumes and locales look great, Bridges is fun to watch in the role of Rooster ...
Hailee Steinfeld looks too pretty for the role, and seems to always have her lips and eyebrows cosmeticized.
I saw her on a vid extra, and indeed she is a Brooke Shields type beauty.
I thought a lot of the dialogue seemed like ... well, dialogue. The pace and delivery didn't allow me to believe in it. It all seemed like something someone from the time might say, rather than what these characters would say, or how they would interact.
I think that was my main problem -- the characters didn't really feel real. More like types set in motion in a plot.
There were a few Coen Bros touches which seemed superfluous, starting with the tight focus on Damon's boots as he walks across the room towards Hattie early in the film. Sort of a trademark moment for no discernible reason.
Not a bad film, and the action sequences were certainly more realistic than in the original film.
But there was something perfunctory about all of it, as though just an exercise in ... something. |
Last edited by gromit on Wed Jun 01, 2011 1:26 pm; edited 1 time in total
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| grace |
| Posted: Wed Jun 01, 2011 10:15 am |
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Joined: 11 Nov 2005
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Quote: There were a few Coen Bros touches which seemed superfluous, starting with the tight focus on Damon's boots as he walks across the room towards Hattie early in the film. Sort of a trademark moment for no discernible reason.
I can see that the scene was useful for effect and setting the character, but I believe that in the book, the spurs made a big (and negative) first impression on Mattie, so they're not completely irrelevant. The Coens stayed very true to the book compared to the Wayne version, and IMO that's one way they did so. Also, the spurs come into play in a later scene where it's dark and Mattie and Rooster are a distance away - and they (and we) identify the stranger in the distance as LaBoeuf by the distinctive sound of his spurs. So in my mind, not that superfluous.
I liked the Coen TG much better than the Wayne version; for me it had more of a Deadwood gritty-realistic feel than the early one. |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Wed Jun 01, 2011 11:27 am |
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| Gromit, you're a hard man to please. But I agree that Steinfeld was a weaker link and didn't handle her lines that well. I liked the cinematog more than you - Grace makes a good point about the adherence to the book in many of the shots. The film won me over, more for its visual art than its acting. Which I realize may be "damning with faint praise." Still, I too prefer it to the original. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Wed Jun 01, 2011 12:38 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: New York City
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| I was stunned by the fact that i actually preferred the Wayne movie to the Coens. IMO it was one of the Coens' weaker recent efforts, for most of the reasons gromit cited. Looking at the Wayne version again, it certainly is no classic, but the story is IMO better told, and Kim Darby, for all that she's too old for the part, is a better Mattie than Steinfeld. Glen Campbell, however, is hopeless, and even Damon's rather blah performance is a step up. |
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| grace |
| Posted: Wed Jun 01, 2011 1:21 pm |
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Joined: 11 Nov 2005
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| I agree that the Steinfeld performance wasn't nom-worthy, but I also - perhaps incorrectly - think that the Coens get out of their actors almost exactly what they want, and will take the time and effort to do so. So Steinfield's mannered performance may have been exactly what they wanted. I agree it was a weak link in the film, though I think the waste of Matt Damon is a weaker one. I would hope Darby would have given a better performance, as she was in her early 20s with numerous credits under her belt. Steinfeld was 13 at the time of filming IIRC, with a handful of credits, mostly in shorts. |
Last edited by grace on Wed Jun 01, 2011 1:34 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Wed Jun 01, 2011 1:32 pm |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
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Location: Shanghai
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I thought the film was all right.
But I do prefer the original adaptation.
Damon was indeed blah.
The relationships and conflicts never came to life.
I enjoyed Bridges a good deal -- especially the early courtroom scene -- but otherwise found myself just getting by on the plot and the look of the film. Just wasn't really engaged with the characters. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Wed Jun 01, 2011 2:49 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: New York City
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grace wrote: (Steinfeld) was 13 at the time of filming IIRC, with a handful of credits, mostly in shorts.
Yes, so it was probably a stretch for her to appear fully clothed.
Sorry. |
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| grace |
| Posted: Wed Jun 01, 2011 3:36 pm |
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Joined: 11 Nov 2005
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It's common knowledge that acting in petticoats is much more difficult than acting in shorts. I rest my case.
(yes, tongue is in cheek here) |
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| Ghulam |
| Posted: Fri Jun 03, 2011 12:56 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: Upstate NY
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Claire Denis's White Material is set in an unnamed African country. After the French troops leave the country. the rebels and those who used to work for the French coffee planters are at war, most french farmers leave, but a brave woman, played by Isabelle Huppert, decides to stay. Interesting but slow. The directorial flourishes of Denis's previous 35 Shots of Run are very much in evidence here too.
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Fri Jun 03, 2011 6:34 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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| Finally saw Fellini's early beauty I Vitelloni, which I first heard about while reading Pauline Kael decades ago. It's the tale of a bunch of young and aimless Italian guys who hang around their smallish town talking about how they're going to leave some day. In this way, it's somewhat Chekhovian, except there is no particular "Moscow" these 20-somethings are talking about, they just want to move out. But of course most of them don't. There are touches of the later Fellini-esque grotesquery, but largely it's in the more neo-realistic La Strada style I personally prefer. Enjoyed it immensely, though in truth I was expecting something a little edgier. |
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| Joe Vitus |
| Posted: Fri Jun 03, 2011 7:03 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 14498
Location: Houston
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I liked it the first time I saw it (I discovered it a few years ago when I read George Lucas cite it as inspiration for American Graffiti), but it didn't hold up for me on later viewings. And probably for that very lack of edginess you cite. Also, the fairly obvious symbolism of the child one of them keeps meeting in the morning, who's earnest and hardworking. I guess that's the forerunner of the blonde at the beach at the end of 8 1/2.
In general, whether we're talking early neo-realistic or later fantasmagoric Fellini, I just don't care for his work. I seem to always like what he's going for much more than what he actually achieves. Granting some amazing moods and sequences. |
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| whiskeypriest |
| Posted: Fri Jun 03, 2011 9:52 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 6916
Location: "It's a Dry Heat."
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| What I wouldn't give for a large sock with horse manure in it! |
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| whiskeypriest |
| Posted: Fri Jun 03, 2011 9:53 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: "It's a Dry Heat."
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| Nothing personal; I just cannot read any criticism of Fellini without thinking that. |
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