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| marantzo |
 Posted: Sun Nov 17, 2013 8:54 am |
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So now Current Films also jumps to another page that doesn't have a comment.
I saw Gravity last week. It was a visual ride that keeps you fixated. George Clooney is George Clooney and a pleasure to watch and listen to. Sandra Bullock on the other hand, runs the gamut of emotions and carries the movie all by herself. It's a stunning performance. Unlike some others, I always like her, even in movies that aren't very good.
Sandra Bullock and Marisa Tomei are actresses that I can watch any time. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Sun Nov 17, 2013 9:36 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: New York City
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| I have never been a big fan of Sandra Bullock until Gravity. Now she's suddenly a favorite. Marisa Tomei, on the other hand, is one of the great actresses of her generation and has always been on my "must see" list. |
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| Befade |
| Posted: Sun Nov 17, 2013 1:39 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: AZ
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| All these films about survival.... Is there an underlying message here? |
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Lost in my own private I dunno. |
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| marantzo |
| Posted: Sun Nov 17, 2013 1:49 pm |
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| When I went to see Gravity, I didn't know if she was going to survive or not. I'm glad I didn't know because otherwise I would have known how it ended. |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Sun Nov 17, 2013 2:10 pm |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
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Location: Black Hills
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Befade wrote: All these films about survival.... Is there an underlying message here?
You, Knox, and I have all commented on the abundance of ordeal movies this fall. Seems coincidental and, after all, the ordeal theme is a basic one in drama. But, yeah, you notice when that many are clustered together.
Just caught the SNL spoof of "Gravity," where they get stranded in their spacesuits and nobody is at Mission Control when they call (due to the government shutdown....the show ran a few weeks ago) except for a couple janitors who try to assist. |
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He was wise beyond his years, but only by a few days. |
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| Befade |
| Posted: Sun Nov 17, 2013 3:45 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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| I think government and survival might be linked.......in people's consciousness somehow. Personally I don't want to see any of these films including the Robert Redford one. |
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Lost in my own private I dunno. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Mon Nov 18, 2013 7:34 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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| Seeing Nebraska this afternoon. Psyched to say the least. |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Mon Nov 18, 2013 9:24 am |
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Befade wrote: I think government and survival might be linked.......in people's consciousness somehow. Personally I don't want to see any of these films including the Robert Redford one.
Could be. The long recession, the economic ordeal, filtered through various dramatic themes.
"Nebraska" is in Omaha, but not here (one of the film's locations is Lincoln) until next week. |
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He was wise beyond his years, but only by a few days. |
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| marantzo |
| Posted: Mon Nov 18, 2013 1:37 pm |
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 I was going to correct you with, "Omaha is in Nebraska!"
Good thing I realized you were talking about the movie. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Mon Nov 18, 2013 4:41 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Nebraska is a beautiful movie--sad, heartwarming, and sometimes hysterically funny. Bruce Dern is wonderful as an old codger who delusionally thinks he's won a sweepstakes. Will Forte of SNL is his younger son, Bob Odenkirk of Breaking Bad is Forte's older brother, and June Squibb is their mother. The whole cast is superb and the story is slight but riveting. In the hands of Alexander Payne (Sideways, Election) the film moves at a leisurely pace which is just right, and the black-and-white cinematography is perfect. It sometimes threatens to become extremely depressing, but always pulls itself back from the brink. And some scenes are beyond hilarious.
The shifts in tone, which might comprise a debacle in some hands, are astonishingly well handled by the prodigiously talented Payne. And Dern, who won the Cannes award as Best Actor, is marvelous in the lead role, which is largely composed of reaction shots. Bruce Dern has been on my top-five-living-actors list for decades, ever since his sensational work in Smile. Will he finally make the Best Actor cut at Oscar time? Don't count on it. His performance in Nebraska is very subtle and may not grab some voters. It certainly grabs me. |
Last edited by billyweeds on Fri Nov 22, 2013 8:19 am; edited 1 time in total |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Tue Nov 19, 2013 8:27 am |
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Marc wrote a terrific putdown of 12 Years a Slave on Facebook. I'm copying it here since Marc seems to be boycotting this space.
"12 Years A Slave" is a slick bit of work that is grueling, shallow and manipulative. Director Steve McQueen lays on the arthouse veneer so thickly that it has a distancing effect completely at odds with the gruesomeness of what the movie is depicting. The film has the glossy look of the soft-core films of Zalman King and Radley Metzger. McQueen is peddling a form of s&m titillation with a heavy dose of guilt tripping thrown in to remind us that slavery is a bad thing. He does the same thing in his flick "Shame", a pointless pile of crap that seems to exist for the sole reason of showcasing Michael Fassbender's dick and making us feel bad about fucking. His pretenses are toward art, but his gut is in the gutter. He's a bad boy who hasn't the balls to admit it.
"12 Years A Slave" brings no new perspective to slavery. McQueen seems to think that showing Black people being whipped, humiliated and raped by white people is enough of a statement in itself that nothing else needs to be said. But rubbing our faces in the ugliness over and over again is just plain lazy and, worse, it teeters on the brink of exploitation. Doing it with the aesthetic of a fashion photographer makes the whole thing seem like high-minded torture porn.
I walked out of "12 Years A Slave" feeling empty and angry. Angry not with the horrors of tyranny depicted in the film (I'm angry enough about that as it is), but angry at a film maker who has nothing to say but says it with such style and authority that for a moment you mistake it for something profound. McQueen may trick white folks into thinking they're having some kind of significant experience. But I bet a lot of Black folks are tired of slavery as entertainment. "12 Years..." doesn't go any further into the heart of the matter than to repeatedly show Blacks being lashed to trees or hanging from them and Black women being slapped around and sexually abused. And it does so with a disturbing gusto.
When it comes to digging deeper into this vile part of America's history McQueen brings nothing new to the mix other than better lighting. The movie has no soul. It's a wretched wallow in pain for pain's sake.
At least "Mandingo" was honest exploitation.
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| marantzo |
| Posted: Tue Nov 19, 2013 10:20 am |
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You have to admit that Marc is a very good reviewer, even if you don't agree about a movie he is reviewing. I haven't seen 12 Years A Slave, (and don't plan to see it), I had the same feeling about that movie and reading Marc's review I was happy that I had the correct feeling about it. Good guess on my part and I'm sorry that he had to sit through it.
Marc is boycotting? Well, he is very intelligent, but he's touchy. |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Tue Nov 19, 2013 10:28 am |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
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Location: Black Hills
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If he's boycotting, we are losing some straight-shootin' film talk. My copain and I watched 25 minutes of 12YAS last week, as we'd gotten to "Wadjda" way early and so went over to the other theater room. Our impression was that we had seen enough, and that the movie did lack soul, and anything new to add to the mix, beyond the "aesthetic of a fashion photographer."
Personally, I don't like McQueen's style. And, FOR FUCK'S SAKE, WOULD YOU USE A MIDDLE INITIAL?? OR anything to distinguish your name from one of the 20th century's fine actors. It's an insult. Show some fucking respect. |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Tue Nov 19, 2013 12:51 pm |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
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Location: Shanghai
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I had my fill of Steve McQueen with Hunger.
A film of artfully shot ugliness, with a real wallow in the ugliness.
Seemed fairly shallow to me, despite the real IRA prison story. Too much gloss, too much showing the brutality/ugliness in detail.
So I skipped Shame -- did we really need another film about "sex addiction" -- and will not volunteer for 12 Years A Slave |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Tue Nov 19, 2013 2:24 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: New York City
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I had already reviewed 12 Years a Slave and decried its ugly and hard-to-watch torture scenes. I wasn't as negative as Marc even though I share his views on it. The movie is so well made that it's hard to knock totally. But I definitely did not really like it and I think it bids fair to be one of the most overrated movies in years, with performances that are nothing more than competent but are being pumped for Oscars and will most probably win a couple. Makes my blood boil.
Totally agree about Steve McQueen's lack of respect for the late great movie star who went by the same name. Add a middle initial! Change your first name to Stephen! Do something! |
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