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| gromit |
 Posted: Tue Jul 01, 2014 5:07 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9008
Location: Shanghai
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I can see how GBH could annoy one.
In some ways, it's kind of a fairy tale like Hugo.
With almost the same kind of anonymous cute competent female.
I was on the fence about Hugo which seemed a bit too cutesy and had too cartoonish a villain. GBH's villains(s) are cartoonish too, but have less screen time.
I didn't care for all the ending stuff, say everyone going to the mountain and the shenanigans there. |
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Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Tue Jul 01, 2014 6:00 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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| Also hated Hugo, so the bottom line seems to be that twee and me don't agree. |
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| jeremy |
| Posted: Tue Jul 08, 2014 3:05 am |
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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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Calvary is a film centred on the life of a priest of a small rural parish in the west of Ireland who is threatened with murder. It is Michael McDonagh’s second film as a director and something of a follow-up or companion to “The Guard”, which was also set in the west of Ireland. If you count, “In Bruges”, for which he wrote the screenplay, “Calvary” is also McDonagh’s third collaboration with his leading man and fellow Irishman, Brendan Gleeson. All three films have been made in what seems to be becoming McDonagh’s signature style - a series of vignettes and literate exchanges woven with sardonic humour act as the main motive force for the plot and also as an exploration of the human condition, particularly morality and mortality. Though far from being genre films, “In Bruges” and “The Guard” could be described, at a stretch, as either crime thrillers or black comedies or both, with their philosophical elements just providing extra heft rather than being central. “Calvary” is also about crime, huge crimes, but it is not a crime film, and it is only a comedy in as much as life is innately both comic and tragic. Rather, the film is something of a morality play and an excoriating lament about the church and the state of modern Ireland. It seems that McDonagh now feels he has the freedom to express himself directly, without wrapping himself in a genre cloak or catering to the expectations of a wider film-going audience.
With its knowing literacy and eschewal of much of the faux-realism of modern cinema, “Calvary” reminded me of that other recent, cinematic morality tale, Cormac McCarthy’s “The Counselor”. Both films concern themselves with the wages of sin, however, “Calvary” is more coherent, relevant and purposeful and funnier than “The Counsellor”, which was more loquacious and given to metaphysical introspection, and is therefore unlikely to suffer the same (unjustified) critical drubbing and disappoint at the box office.
McDonagh’s work in “Calvary” also reminded me of that of David Lynch. Archly-drawn, the lesser characters, were sometimes as much cyphers, or personifications from a morality play, as fleshed-out people, which, together with the theatrical lighting and staging, especially in the night scenes, made it seem that they were interacting in the psychic realm as much as the real world. McDonagh was making it plain that his film was a representation of a bigger whole.
Without giving too much away, the film starts with one of the most arresting opening lines in film history. A man, repeatedly abused by a Catholic priest as a boy, tells Father James Lavelle (a controlled, but monumental Brendan Gleeson) of his intent to murder him after mass “a week on Sunday”; not because he has done wrong, but because he is a good priest. In a parallel to another big story, a good man has to die to atone for the sins of others. What follows is something of a half-hearted, ‘who will do it’. We see Father James undertaking his pastoral duties amongst his flock, in part trying to determine who his would be killer might be. However, what we are really shown is a damaged Ireland stripped of respect, moral certainty and leadership. It is rare these days that a film can provide true insight, however, it took this film to make me consider just how devastating the scandal of the abuse of children and others by those in Catholic Church charged with their care has been to the Irish sense of self. The priesthood of the old God have been shown to be empty vessels and the new gods of mammon – the country’s feel-good bubble of tigerish optimism and booming pride deflated along with house prices and the economy – have been shown to be false. McDonagh is saying Ireland is a country in need of redemption. We witness the sage and stoic Father James driven to the brink of violence and tested to the edge of faith as he weathers a personal passion. The film concludes without answering the question of whether these current sins will be wiped clean as they were on Calvary 2,000 years previously.
****(out of 5) |
_________________
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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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Tue Jul 08, 2014 5:32 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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| Obvious Child is a comedy with very few laugh-out-loud moments, and yet it's still very good. Jenny Slate plays a stand-up comic who gets pregnant from a one-night stand and has a abortion. That's really all that happens, except that her character is nicely conflicted and the acting throughout is excellent, by Slater herself, the baby daddy Jake Lacy, her parents Polly Draper and Richard Kind, and everyone else. The attitude toward abortion is very much of the moment and the conclusion is warm and fuzzy, so it's a real feel-good movie. There aren't all that many laughs, but there's a lot to compensate. It's the real anti-Juno. |
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| Marc |
| Posted: Tue Jul 08, 2014 2:16 pm |
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Joined: 19 May 2004
Posts: 8424
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Three very good current films that deserve your support:
LIFE ITSELF
UNDER THE SKIN
SNOWPIERCER.
Two fairly new films that should be avoided like a bad case of the clap:
TRANSCENDENCE
and
A WINTER'S TALE
New Blu Ray release not to be missed:
SORCERER
THE GREAT BEAUTY
A HARD DAY'S NIGHT |
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| carrobin |
| Posted: Tue Jul 08, 2014 2:19 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 7795
Location: NYC
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I just read an excellent New Yorker article about "A Hard Day's Night," one of my always-top-five favorite movies.
http://tinyurl.com/lpfwzob |
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| marantzo |
| Posted: Tue Jul 08, 2014 4:51 pm |
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Welcome back Marc. I'll check out the three movies you recommended. I don't think they are running here yet. Sadly my favourite weekend cinema where I went to many times on Saturday or Sunday afternoons to see mostly films that weren't playing anywhere else, has shut down. It was on the third floor of the downtown Mall (the only theatre that was still downtown). Didn't get a lot of customers in that area even though they gave the customers free tickets to the underground parking lot of the mall.
I saw Edge of Tomorrow this afternoon. It was good. Wild war against aliens on earth that repeated strangely with battles that changed with every repeat etc. Tom Cruise as usual gives a very good performance of the character he portrays. A movie that is worth seeing. I could do without the 3D though, but it is only in one theatre now and just in 3D. |
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| jeremy |
| Posted: Tue Jul 08, 2014 5:34 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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| The Great Beauty is a great film. I haven't seen Under Her Skin yet. It seems to be a very polarising film - some admire its artistry, others labelling it pretentious or dull. I'll guess I''ll have to make my own mind up. |
_________________
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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| gromit |
| Posted: Wed Jul 09, 2014 12:13 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9008
Location: Shanghai
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| Last Lovers Left Alive is apparently an exercise in how boring vampires can be. Stylish at times, and Tilda Swinton is all right to watch doing almost anything. But it confirms for me that Jarmusch has absolutely nothing to say. And the characters utter the most vapid dialogue. Very languid and pointless. Actually I think I still have about 20 minutes to go -- I fell asleep -- but it is really unlikely to change its tone or develop anything interesting in the remaining run time. |
_________________
Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Wed Jul 09, 2014 5:06 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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jeremy wrote: The Great Beauty is a great film. I haven't seen Under Her Skin yet. It seems to be a very polarising film - some admire its artistry, others labelling it pretentious or dull. I'll guess I''ll have to make my own mind up.
The Great Beauty is polarizing as well. Most people admire its artistry, at least one other person (me) labels it pretentious and dull. Haven't seen Under the (not Her) Skin. |
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| marantzo |
| Posted: Wed Jul 09, 2014 7:03 am |
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Gromit, LLLA is what you wrote about it. I saw it and did write about it and for some reason I didn't mind watching it. I guess you got to when the sister comes in and it does pick up a bit when she arrives. The last 20 minutes or so are a little more interesting. I wrote that it was not one of Jarmusch's better movies.  ) |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Wed Jul 09, 2014 7:31 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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Isn't the correct title Only Lovers Left Alive? I haven't checked, but I'm pretty sure I'm right.
P.S. Checked. I'm right. |
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| marantzo |
| Posted: Wed Jul 09, 2014 7:33 am |
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| Haven't seen Under the Skin. I have seen The Sexy Beast and liked it very much. Seems strange that UtS moves along slowly when Jonathan Glazer's TSB moves along quickly. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Wed Jul 09, 2014 7:36 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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marantzo wrote: Haven't seen Under the Skin. I have seen The Sexy Beast and liked it very much. Seems strange that UtS moves along slowly when Jonathan Glazer's TSB moves along quickly.
I am being a real title martinet this morning, but I was confused until I realized you were talking about Sexy Beast with no "The." That definite article changes the whole vibe of the title for me. |
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| marantzo |
| Posted: Wed Jul 09, 2014 7:42 am |
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billyweeds wrote: Isn't the correct title Only Lovers Left Alive? I haven't checked, but I'm pretty sure I'm right.
P.S. Checked. I'm right.
Yeah. I thought the gromit's title was a little off, but didn't bother looking it up. I remember when it bought a ticket for the movie, and I told what movie I was going to see, I said, It's Lovers Left Alive. I guess a lot of people mix up that title. |
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