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| Syd |
 Posted: Thu Aug 10, 2006 10:47 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 12895
Location: Norman, Oklahoma
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| I've been wanting to see that, but it hasn't made it here and probably won't. |
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I had a love and my love was true but I lost my love to the yabba dabba doo, --The Flintstone Lament |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Fri Aug 11, 2006 6:31 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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| I keep postponing seeing Little Miss Sunshine because of other movies and less time to go out to the movies in general. But now I will definitely make plans, since ehle's review. Tonight, however, I fear LMS gets bumped again in favor of Half Nelson, which sounds like an Oscar nomination for Ryan Gosling. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Fri Aug 11, 2006 7:12 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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Here's an example of why I usually love Stephanie Zacharek's writing. Who else, reviewing World Trade Center, would zero in on the amazing cameo by the great Tony-award-winning actress Viola Davis? Davis is African-American, and deserves to enter that rarefied company of African-American female superstars occupied by Halle Berry and Angela Bassett and very few others. Zacharek is right on the money, and makes me belatedly ashamed that I didn't mention Davis in my original comments.
There's another actress in World Trade Center who doesn't get star billing, but who practically explodes the picture from within. In a very small part -- a scene with Bello -- Viola Davis plays a woman whose son works in the towers and who she fears is dead. She and Donna meet in the cafeteria of Bellevue Hospital, where the waiting families of some of the victims have been herded. The woman explains that her last encounter with her son had been a quarrel; he'd had to work late and had missed the dinner she'd cooked.
Davis has only a few lines, but her face is a map of grief; she's a country of one even in a world in which everyone, at one time or another, must feel pain.
World Trade Center is perhaps only a marginally effective movie about 9/11, because, I suspect, there can be no such thing as an effective movie about 9/11 -- at least not right now. Dealing with the event directly is impossible; it's like staring at the sun. The only way we can truly get at it is to come at it sideways, as Spike Lee did in his ruggedly heartfelt 25th Hour, or as Kate Bosworth's Lois Lane does in Superman Returns when she asks the Man of Steel, "Where were you?" -- and nothing more, because what more does she need to say? Similarly, Davis is, strictly speaking, on the fringe of World Trade Center. But she tells the whole story, and in less than five minutes. We're only just beginning to figure out how to translate the events of 9/11 into art. Viola Davis' face tells us that, right now, at least, we can't.
Zacharek's review of the movie is better than this excerpt makes it sound.
She admits that Oliver Stone did a really expert job with difficult material. This movie is confounding people's expectations of Stone, and will IMO completely revivify his career. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Fri Aug 11, 2006 7:15 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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| At which point he should lay off the blow. (Rumors, just rumors, but don't you love 'em?) |
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| mo_flixx |
| Posted: Fri Aug 11, 2006 8:07 am |
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Joined: 30 May 2004
Posts: 12533
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shannon wrote: I'm suprised. I didn't think I'd seen as many Almodovar's as I have. I've seen them all on that list except Law of Desire, Matador, and Flowers of My Secret. Where's Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!? Is it not considered worthy Almodovar? I liked it.
MATADOR is my favorite. |
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| mo_flixx |
| Posted: Fri Aug 11, 2006 8:10 am |
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Joined: 30 May 2004
Posts: 12533
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Befade wrote: I think Law of Desire is the only one I haven't seen. Where's High Heels?
Saw The Night Listener. It could have been a good film, but too many flaws......maybe in the storytelling and writing, well.........yes, in the directing, too. Fuzzy focus. Toni Collette with a horror movie persona. Robin Williams.............likeable.....but couldn't believe his super quick attachment to the boy. Understood the motivation (his boyfriend leaving)but it just wasn't built up on screen. From a true story.........and a relevant one after SPOILERS all the stuff about James Frey and the like. I really liked the tv show Armisted Mauplin (sp?) did featuring Laura Linney.
Agree that this movie missed. SPOILER:
Did you notice that Williams' character's name was NOONE (no one), get it? I'm not sure if this was supposed to be meaningful or not. |
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| smoot |
| Posted: Fri Aug 11, 2006 9:22 am |
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Joined: 28 Jul 2006
Posts: 11
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| I might have just missed the point of the movie, but it seemed like it was building to an ending and then they realized they couldn't figure out how to end it. Maybe the ending will take on more meaning when I see it again on video later. |
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| Joe Vitus |
| Posted: Fri Aug 11, 2006 10:38 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 14498
Location: Houston
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Billy,
I thought you agreed with me about the general abysmal nature of Stephanie Zacharek's writing. She's a pseudo Kael who's embarrassing replication of the great critic's turns of phrase are embarrassing. I agree that she goes easy in this column, but more often then not, she's dreadful. |
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You've got a great brain. You should keep it in your head.
-Topher |
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| Marc |
| Posted: Fri Aug 11, 2006 11:24 am |
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Joined: 19 May 2004
Posts: 8424
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| Zacharek iS one of my favorite critics. She's smart, a very fine writer and she knows pop culture. |
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| Marj |
| Posted: Fri Aug 11, 2006 11:36 am |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 10497
Location: Manhattan
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Joe,
This is one of those times we are going to have to agree to disagee. I love Zaharack. Whether she's panning or raving, she never goes the way of Dargis. And by that I mean she is ultimately fair by discarding her personal biases.
When she first began reviewing, I too felt she was too harsh. But over the last year or so, I've found that she really analyses her films, and more often than not catches things we either miss, or we find too, but fail to recognize. JMO. |
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| jeremy |
| Posted: Fri Aug 11, 2006 12:25 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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| For me, many of the more interesting film critics are women. |
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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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| Joe Vitus |
| Posted: Fri Aug 11, 2006 1:03 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: Houston
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I find her insufferable. I can't read a review without getting angry, so I had to stop reading her. But what's odd to me is that Billy's previous posts on her (I remember his particular dislike of Zacharek calling Brokeback Mountain a "closeted movie," whatever that means) seemed to agree with me, but now he has become a real fan. I wonder what changed his mind.
By the way, Kael would have hated Zacharek. When asked what she thought of critics mimicking her style, Kael said, "It creeps me out." I wish Zacharek would discover a style of her own. |
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You've got a great brain. You should keep it in your head.
-Topher |
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| Marj |
| Posted: Fri Aug 11, 2006 1:22 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 10497
Location: Manhattan
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Joe,
That's precisely why I answered your earlier post on Zacharek. I used to find her unsufferable too. But her style, her appoach and her reviews have changed a lot IMO. Of course I don't know if the reasons I've changed my mind are the same as Billy's but the reasons I didn't like her before are the same as yours. [Well, perhaps with the exception of the Pauline Kael reference.] Now I love reading her. She may be the only reviewer who mentioned Viola Davis. And I love reviewers who make note of good actors. |
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| Joe Vitus |
| Posted: Fri Aug 11, 2006 1:40 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 14498
Location: Houston
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| Maybe I should start reading her more often again? I did go see Clerks 2 because of her review. Perhaps she has evolved her own voice. |
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You've got a great brain. You should keep it in your head.
-Topher |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Fri Aug 11, 2006 1:50 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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| Joe--Somewhere along the line we had a breakdown of communications re Zacharek. It's true I sometimes--maybe more than sometimes--find her Kaelisms annoying, maybe even insufferable. But there are many, many times I think she's one of the best critics operating today. Today's love letter to Viola Davis was one of those times. |
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