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| Marc |
 Posted: Fri Apr 19, 2013 4:58 pm |
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Joined: 19 May 2004
Posts: 8424
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| A second viewing of A PLACE BEYOND THE PINES has only confirmed it as one of the best American films of the new century. |
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| inlareviewer |
| Posted: Sat Apr 20, 2013 2:27 pm |
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Joined: 05 Jul 2004
Posts: 1949
Location: Lawrence, KS
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| jeremy |
| Posted: Sat Apr 20, 2013 8:16 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 6794
Location: Derby, England and Hamilton, New Zealand (yes they are about 12,000 miles apart)
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I reamin unconvinced that Tonto will be the new Jack Sparrow. Leaving aside that the charge of 'black-face' will take the shine off the role, I struggle to sense what way this story is ready for a re-boot. The swashbuckler was long overdue a successful re-invention. The cowboy with his loyal Indian side-kick (albeit inverted for modern sensibilities)...Hmmm, I'm not so sure.
Also, this film has taken a long-time to appear, which is never a good sign. |
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I am angry, I am ill, and I'm as ugly as sin.
My irritability keeps me alive and kicking.
I know the meaning of life, it doesn't help me a bit.
I know beauty and I know a good thing when I see it. |
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| Syd |
| Posted: Sat Apr 20, 2013 10:26 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
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Location: Norman, Oklahoma
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Oblivion is pretty good, if a bit incoherent. I confess I watched the entire movie under the impression that Andrea Riseborough was Emily Blunt, I guess because I got that impression during the preview and was never corrected. Actually, they're pretty similar, and Riseborough is quite good.(And I see Emily Blunt everywhere.) Yes, James Berardinelli, that is exactly the performance the part requires. The plot eventually gets too complicated for its own good, but it's a good ride.
Previews:RIPD (Rest in Peace Department) looks like a lot of fun. It looks like an afterlife Men in Black, but in a good way. It also looks like Ryan Reynolds is turning into Ben Stiller, but an improved one. Jeff Bridges is his partner. Apparently the living world sees Ryan as an elderly Chinese and Jeff as a sexy blonde. (In the afterlife, Bridges looks more like Colonel Sanders.)
On the other hand, Hangover 3 looks so astonishingly bad, it may swep the Razzies and compete for Golden Turkey awards. Zach Galifianakis has got to be about the most annoying and talentless actor I've ever seen. |
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| marantzo |
| Posted: Sun Apr 21, 2013 7:49 am |
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| I just about hated the first Hangover so I'm not surprised that II and III are even worse. |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Sun Apr 21, 2013 1:00 pm |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
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Location: Black Hills
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Quote: Oblivion is pretty good, if a bit incoherent. I confess I watched the entire movie under the impression that Andrea Riseborough was Emily Blunt...
Almost spit-take here. I used to confuse Sally Kellerman and Peggy Lipton, and I'm still not quite sure they were two different people. Apparently, Lipton married Quincy Jones and bore the lovely Rashida Jones, but there are days when I see Rashida in "Parks and Rec" and think, hey, she looks like Sally Kellerman.
Sorry, bit of digression. Will see Oblivion soon. Want to make a morbid joke here, but this time I'm resisting. |
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He was wise beyond his years, but only by a few days. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Sun Apr 21, 2013 7:13 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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marantzo wrote: I just about hated the first Hangover so I'm not surprised that II and III are even worse.
Here we agree (as opposed to Bridesmaids). |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Mon Apr 22, 2013 8:21 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9010
Location: Shanghai
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Marina Abramovic: The Artist Is Present could be retitled Marina Abramovic: The Artist Is Persistent.
The main focus is her installation at MOMA, with a number of actors reenacting performances from Marina's career. These include nudes mounted on the wall, a nude lying under a skeleton, and two nudes at standing in the entrance so people coming to the exhibit have to squeeze between them.
The centerpiece is Marina, present, sitting at a wooden table while members of the public sit across from her as long as they want without speaking. This goes on for 8 hours a day 6 days a week for 3 months. The last month, the table is removed and it's just two chairs.
The problem is capturing this on film. Mostly we just see a few seconds of various faces one at a time and cuts to Marina stonefaced. It's mostly an endurance test for her, and kind of unclear what it is for the public. I would have included a perhaps 5 minute segment of just Marina's face, as though we, the film viewers, are there sitting across from her.
Maybe a bonus scene with 5 minutes of a random visitor's face.
More interesting really was Marina's several day training session she holds for the performers at a country house. I would have liked to have seen more of that, and we hear some of her philosophy/approach to her performances. She has them fast for 3 days, stare at each other in pairs for long periods, swim naked, meditate.
One thing that makes the whole sit-in-front-of-the-artist event so artificial is that most people are really tired form sleeping out overnight to get a number, or at least waiting in line for hours, and they have to enter a large square filled with bright lights and hundreds of people watching. I think it would have been more interesting if Marina did this in the MOMA coffee shop at a random table, low-key. Or if she picked a new place in the museum to sit everyday -- including in other exhibitions on non-Marina floors -- and visitors had to find her (with a chair opposite her for visitors).
I was amused when one young girl walks up to the chair and proceeds to whip off her dress. This to sit opposite Marina, in a Marina Exhibit with at least a half dozen nudes in other rooms imitating earlier Marina nude stunts. It fits right in, and you'd like to see Marina's reaction when she looks up and sees a nude young woman sitting across from her at the Marina Retrospective. And the MOMA response is to have a half dozen male security personnel rush up and form a wall around the undressed woman, get her to put her dress on and escort her away, not giving her a chance to sit with marina after waiting hours. Booooooo!
As for the documentary, I found it a bit unsatisfying. They never find a way to really engage with the MOMA exhibition in a way which works for film. And that's the second half of the film. We never really engage with the other young performers. Would have been nice to hear what their views of the work they are portraying, or about the demands of the performance, public reaction, etc.
The first part on marina's life/career could have been more insightful. Overall, the film remains essentially a surface treatment of both the artist and the MOMA show, only occasionally going slightly beyond. it's still interesting to meet and somewhat engage with an interesting committed artist, but I wish the filmmakers went for a deeper understanding and figured out how to translate the performances to film better. Likely such a simple minimalist performance was hard to translate into film, but I had a number of ideas on how to try. |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Mon Apr 22, 2013 8:26 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
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Location: Shanghai
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This poster/Dvd cover kind of captures the problems with the film:
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Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
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| Marc |
| Posted: Thu Apr 25, 2013 4:41 am |
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Joined: 19 May 2004
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| OBLIVION is dreadful on so many levels it's hard to know where to start...Let's just say Tom Cruise is awful, the story is incoherent, the pacing has all the snap of a used condom and the sets look like scenes from a Calvin Klein commercial. Puke-inducing. |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Thu Apr 25, 2013 9:01 am |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Posts: 6958
Location: Black Hills
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| (see Film Squawks, Marc....) |
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He was wise beyond his years, but only by a few days. |
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| Befade |
| Posted: Fri Apr 26, 2013 11:04 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 3784
Location: AZ
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Thank you, Marc. I was bowled over by The Place Beyond the Pines. I haven't been moved like that by a movie since I don't know when. I don't know if the fact that I'm a mother of 2 boys has anything to do with it.......but it's on by best ever list. I wouldn't even want to talk about the acting or the key moments or anything more. It needs to viewed without expectations.......it's a ride. I can't stand that it got any negative reviews.
Bart........You might like Trance......it's very cerebral work to watch......If you liked Memento you'd probably like this.
Hitchcock was okay.......but I think Anthony Hopkins blew it. He's just too much Hannibal Lector.......he doesn't have the humor in his eyes that Hitchcock had.
Another Beat Generation movie on the way........About how they all met at Columbia and there was a murder........100% on Rotten Tomatoes. |
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| Marc |
| Posted: Sat Apr 27, 2013 4:27 am |
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Joined: 19 May 2004
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Befade,
I'm thrilled that my enthusiasm for The Place Beyond The Pines compelled you to experience the film. I wish some of the slackers on this forum would get off their asses and check it out. This American masterpiece will definitely be in my top ten of 2013. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Sat Apr 27, 2013 4:51 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: New York City
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Marc wrote: Befade,
I'm thrilled that my enthusiasm for The Place Beyond The Pines compelled you to experience the film. I wish some of the slackers on this forum would get off their asses and check it out. This American masterpiece will definitely be in my top ten of 2013.
Don't get your panties in a twist or a bunch or whatever. I'm seeing it tonight. Give me a break. Just kidding. (But I am seeing it tonight.) |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Sat Apr 27, 2013 4:55 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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| Also cannot wait to see--salivating in anticipation for--Mud and At Any Price. McConaughey in the former and Quaid in the latter sound like great performances. And AAP was directed by Ramin Bahrani, the man behind Goodbye Solo. Ebert raved about it in one of his last reviews. |
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