| Author |
Message |
|
| Joe Vitus |
 Posted: Fri May 17, 2013 10:04 am |
 |
|
Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 14498
Location: Houston
|
I agree. Bart's post is stoking my curiosity. Though it bothers me that I keep reading Carraway is telling his story from inside a sanitarium. Why? There's no suggestion of his having a physical/mental breakdown in the book.
But sorry, no, Maguire after a promising debut has proven himself to be one lame ass actor. There's nothing going on behind his empty fixed gaze, and his voice contains no genuine emotion. Which is I guess why he did best in his obsessive/disturbed roles for Cider House Rules and maybe Wonder Boyz (which I hated but doesn't mean he was bad in). He seemed so off-kilter we just assumed he was successfully playing characters trapped in their own addled consciousness. In fact a mediocre actor was extremely well-cast. |
_________________
You've got a great brain. You should keep it in your head.
-Topher |
|
| Back to top |
 
|
| billyweeds |
| Posted: Fri May 17, 2013 11:42 am |
|
|
Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
|
Hard as it is to say this, Joe may have a point about Tobey Maguire. He was sort of a one-trick pony in those early roles.
But about Wonder Boys Joe is 1000 percent off base. It's a near-great film. |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| Joe Vitus |
| Posted: Fri May 17, 2013 1:35 pm |
|
|
|
Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 14498
Location: Houston
|
I'll accept that partial agreement.  |
_________________
You've got a great brain. You should keep it in your head.
-Topher |
|
| Back to top |
|
| billyweeds |
| Posted: Fri May 17, 2013 3:24 pm |
|
|
|
Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
|
| One of my most reviled films of the 60s is being revived and praised to the rooftops. Scarecrow is the 1960s version of The Master, a pretty terrible movie featuring two excellent actors virtually jacking off on camera, narcissistically reveling in their own technique. It's like an acting exercise masquerading as a film. In The Master it was Philip Seymour Hoffman and Joaquin Phoenix; in Scarecrow it's Gene Hackman and Al Pacino, who clearly had fashion-photographer-turned-director Jerry Schatzberg by the balls; no self-respecting director would have let actors be this self-indulgent. For Pacino it was a foreshadowing of his later excesses; for Hackman it was an anomaly. For both of them it was clearly a chance to say "We're superstars and can do whatever we want." |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| bartist |
| Posted: Sat May 18, 2013 10:29 am |
|
|
|
Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Posts: 6948
Location: Black Hills
|
Joe Vitus wrote: I agree. Bart's post is stoking my curiosity. Though it bothers me that I keep reading Carraway is telling his story from inside a sanitarium. Why? There's no suggestion of his having a physical/mental breakdown in the book.
It's a bookend thing. He's not in a padded room or anything. He is depressed and he tells his story to a shrink. It was a cheap device, but didn't really distract from the story.
Hoo-ah! |
_________________
He was wise beyond his years, but only by a few days. |
|
| Back to top |
|
| gromit |
| Posted: Sat May 18, 2013 12:21 pm |
|
|
Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9008
Location: Shanghai
|
| This Gatsby uses 21st C music?? |
_________________
Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
|
| Back to top |
|
| Syd |
| Posted: Sat May 18, 2013 4:07 pm |
|
|
Site Admin
Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 12893
Location: Norman, Oklahoma
|
gromit wrote: This Gatsby uses 21st C music??
Baz Luhrmann strikes again! |
_________________
I had a love and my love was true but I lost my love to the yabba dabba doo, --The Flintstone Lament |
|
| Back to top |
|
| knox |
| Posted: Mon May 20, 2013 12:00 pm |
|
|
|
Joined: 18 Mar 2010
Posts: 1245
Location: St. Louis
|
Baz-A-Nova!
I enjoyed it. No worse than Sofia's use of non-period music for Marie Antoinette. Leo gave great Gatsby, nailed it. Mulligan perfect as Daisy. By my count, Befade isn't a "contrarian" anymore. |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| marantzo |
| Posted: Mon May 20, 2013 4:48 pm |
|
|
|
Guest
|
Here's part of a review of The Great Gatsby by Chris Hewitt of the Pioneer Press (St. Paul Min.):
Trouble is, the houses, rooms and clothes are so eye-poppingly gorgeous that you barely notice there are people in them. Luhrmann lavishes care on the look of the movie but, especially in the early scenes, his camera is so busy zooming all over the place and the editing is so busy carving up even a simple conversation into disorienting rhythms that it's as if he forgot to help the actors create characters. You leave this version of what may be the most thoughtful and richly American novel thinking that it was made by someone with a deep understanding of fabrics and chandeliers. |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| bartist |
| Posted: Mon May 20, 2013 5:15 pm |
|
|
|
Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Posts: 6948
Location: Black Hills
|
marantzo wrote: Here's part of a review of The Great Gatsby by Chris Hewitt of the Pioneer Press (St. Paul Min.):
Trouble is, the houses, rooms and clothes are so eye-poppingly gorgeous that you barely notice there are people in them. Luhrmann lavishes care on the look of the movie but, especially in the early scenes, his camera is so busy zooming all over the place and the editing is so busy carving up even a simple conversation into disorienting rhythms that it's as if he forgot to help the actors create characters. You leave this version of what may be the most thoughtful and richly American novel thinking that it was made by someone with a deep understanding of fabrics and chandeliers.
This is bullshit, from start to finish. JMO. See the movie. |
_________________
He was wise beyond his years, but only by a few days. |
|
| Back to top |
|
| marantzo |
| Posted: Mon May 20, 2013 6:36 pm |
|
|
|
Guest
|
| Hey, I saw Moulin Rouge and it was a waste of time and money so I won't be seeing this Laz product. |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| Befade |
| Posted: Mon May 20, 2013 8:22 pm |
|
|
|
Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 3784
Location: AZ
|
| The pomposity! |
_________________
Lost in my own private I dunno. |
|
| Back to top |
|
| marantzo |
| Posted: Mon May 20, 2013 9:44 pm |
|
|
|
Guest
|
Oh yeah, I'm pompous. Sorry if I am not going to see a movie that you want me to.  |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| gromit |
| Posted: Mon May 20, 2013 11:24 pm |
|
|
|
Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9008
Location: Shanghai
|
knox wrote:
I enjoyed it. No worse than Sofia's use of non-period music for Marie Antoinette.
Of course, I skipped that ...
I'm not saying that non-period/anachronistic music can't work or make a statement -- butsoever, it often is distracting in a period film and this specific setting is the Jazz Age where a particular style of music is tied closely to the period/themes. Which I suppose is true also for MA.
I've heard some other complaints about the choppy quick-editing. Anyway, I plan to see this GG, so I'm trying not to read too much about it. |
_________________
Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
|
| Back to top |
|
| Befade |
| Posted: Mon May 20, 2013 11:32 pm |
|
|
|
Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 3784
Location: AZ
|
| Gary.....I think I steered you to Trance.......I don't care if you see Gatsby......just making fun of your attitude........... |
_________________
Lost in my own private I dunno. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
