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| marantzo |
 Posted: Wed Oct 05, 2011 9:17 am |
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"Clooney's direction is okay but relies too much on closeups."
What is it with some directors that makes them think the more closeups the better. They get annoying very fast. |
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| whiskeypriest |
| Posted: Wed Oct 05, 2011 9:30 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 6916
Location: "It's a Dry Heat."
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marantzo wrote: "Clooney's direction is okay but relies too much on closeups."
What is it with some directors that makes them think the more closeups the better. They get annoying very fast. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Wed Oct 05, 2011 10:33 am |
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Location: New York City
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| Interesting--and disappointingly--in the Q&A Clooney didn't come across as quite the brain trust one hoped he would be. Next to Giamatti, Hoffman, Tomei, and even young Wood he seemed sort of a generic H'wood hunk. |
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| carrobin |
| Posted: Wed Oct 05, 2011 10:36 am |
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| Good thing he's got another one coming out that has some Oscar buzz for him. Not that I'm any less interested in seeing "Ides of March." |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Wed Oct 05, 2011 12:48 pm |
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What's the other Clooney? Is it The Descendants?
Gosling is more effective in Drive than he is in The Ides of March, btw. |
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| carrobin |
| Posted: Wed Oct 05, 2011 12:57 pm |
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| "The Descendants" is the one. I couldn't remember whether it was "Descendants" or "Dependents," but I know it's about his efforts to deal with his children while his wife is in a coma. |
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| marantzo |
| Posted: Fri Oct 07, 2011 4:52 pm |
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| I went to see Captain America this afternoon. Had a good time. It is an old fashioned type of super hero movie that uses modern cinema technology of course. It has a few very good comic bits. It's well written. Lots of neat powerful weapons. |
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| knox |
| Posted: Sat Oct 08, 2011 11:36 am |
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| marantzo |
| Posted: Sat Oct 08, 2011 1:43 pm |
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The film critic in the Free Press here, gave TIoM a negative review ** out of *****. Said he's not voting for it.
Peter Travers called it a "Pulse-racing thriller!" That's enough for me to be wary of its quality. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Sat Oct 08, 2011 2:39 pm |
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| Read the Free Press review. Pretty much on the mark. And, although I don't think the movie is exactly bad, "pulse-racing" is not even close. |
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| marantzo |
| Posted: Sat Oct 08, 2011 3:24 pm |
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| How nice of you to read my paper. Allison Gilmore doesn't do the Free Press reviews anymore. She does pieces in the food section. She does pieces on entertainment and other things but she was my favourite critic so I was sorry to see her shift. She does some reviews on CBC radio every once in a while. |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Mon Oct 10, 2011 6:03 pm |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
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Location: Shanghai
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I thought The Conspirator was tremendously mediocre, terribly middlebrow. Really seemed like a TV movie to me. Some nice costumes. A nice exterior or two. Never cared for MacAvoy. The Mary Serratt character was almost interesting. I was annoyed that all that time and effort and money was put into the service of something so uninspired. I should have known to avoid a Redford film.
What really didn't work was how the other defendants were barely distinguished props -- did they even have lawyers? who would know from this film? -- and then we are suddenly supposed to care about 3 of them (which 3 was hard to recall) being hanged. And that's not just my interp, but how it's portrayed, and what Redford says on the commentary track. I listened to about 5 minutes of Redford explaining things at the end of the film (including misusing the term irony) and realized from his dull presentation that this film was aimed at 8th graders or USA Today readers or someone other than me.
It's certainly competent enough, and I seem to recall liking one or two brief moments, but it's fairly trite and clumsy in presenting the conflicts, and overall rather boring. |
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| marantzo |
| Posted: Mon Oct 10, 2011 7:07 pm |
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Once again we are polar opposite regarding a movie.
I don't remember any Redford explanation. I either forgot or didn't care.
One thing we seem to be in concert about is the hanging scene. Way too drawn out and reminiscent of the execution scene in Paths of Glory which was just annoying in it's overdone yanking at the audience's heartstrings. |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Tue Oct 11, 2011 2:52 am |
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marantzo wrote:
One thing we seem to be in concert about is the hanging scene. Way too drawn out and reminiscent of the execution scene in Paths of Glory which was just annoying in it's overdone yanking at the audience's heartstrings.
No we're not.
I thought the hanging scene was okay, though trite and unsubtle as the rest of the film. Case in point: three grown condemned men sniffling and crying, but Mary remaining dignified (until a little flinch before the hood goes on). My complaint was we don't know anything about the three others being hanged -- I couldn't even remember their names or roles in the conspiracy -- so showing their reactions was ineffective. The hoods going on to end their lives was supposed to remind us of the hoods coming off to introduce them in the courthouse. Problem is we never get to know them at all in the interim.
But I didn't think the hanging scene was overdone or overlong. Redford compliments himself on wrapping up the hanging quickly, after he gets the inside-the-hood view which was what he wanted from that scene. He seemed to find it real interesting to show the last thing a person would see. But of course we know it's the crowd we've already been seeing, so I don't see how this can really be effective. Something covering up the vision didn't come across as dramatic, or like a death, or whatever. Actually it just came across as a somewhat cheesy albeit sincere attempt to do something different with the camera.
I did like the photographer with a fairly big unit on top of a carriage taking a picture with the new invention. And then we briefly see a live version of the famous picture of the event. That was one of the small things that I did like in the film. Redford got his shot and added that photography angle and didn't want to linger. I could have done with some lingering. Instead of the hood gimmick, I might have tried to linger on the scene in long distance, resembling the still photo, to give a feeling of solemnity and finality, and then after 6-10 seconds had one of the bodies twitch/spasm briefly. If done right that might have gotten the message through, but then remind us that these were real people struggling for life.
I've been trying to remember another film which covers some of the same ground. Specifically, I recall a better scene with the young lawyer getting the writ from the old judge. .... |
Last edited by gromit on Wed Feb 08, 2012 4:58 am; edited 1 time in total
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Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Tue Oct 11, 2011 5:05 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: New York City
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| For what it's worth, and although I disagree with gromit, most of the mainstream critics were in his camp, which means The Conspirator will probably come up short at awards time. Too bad; I think it's Redford's best film (including the Oscar winner Ordinary People). And for the record, Redford's commentary track may be dull and he may misuse "irony," but commentary tracks should not be held against a film. |
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