Saw V. Liked. May see it again next weekend, since a friend who wanted to see it couldn't make it.
One person I saw it with thought it was lovely and well done and was quite discomfited by it. She understood that the things she found disturbing were supposed to be disturbing, but even so.
I found most of the changes fairly elegant -- I was sad about losing some of the subplots, but there was really no way to include them all. Overall I was impressed with how faithful it was, really. A lot of things that I'd assumed would be dropped were in there.
I have to ruminate on it, since it's just a blur of images at the moment. But I'm fairly amazed by my newfound feelings of respect for the Wachowskis.
I generally also like Zacherek's reviews, even when I think she's smoking monkey crack. I know she and Charles Taylor (back when he drew a paycheck from Salon) were very polarizing to some readers, but I appreciate their willingness to stake so much on rather idiosyncratic aesthetics, much like I appreciate Pauline Kael's willingness to do so, even when Kael was into the 1960s & 70s version of monkey crack (which was simian acid and primate blow, maybe?).
2046 was a room number before it was a year. I felt that they were talking about love, loss, regret and the things you can't get back.
I know she and Charles Taylor (back when he drew a paycheck from Salon) were very polarizing to some readers
Can anybody tell me where Charles Taylor has gone? I always thought he had a pretty interesting take. He still occasionally does book reviews for Salon but no films.
Fiona, read this interview with him--it goes into his leaving Salon, and other stuff about Salon's Arts and Entertainment department.
Charles Taylor and Stephanie Zacharek are married? Huh.
Also, I personally can't stand Andrew O'Hehir's reviews.
I personally can't stand Andrew O'Hehir's reviews.
I'm with you there. He seems to be a decent book reviewer (and I think Taylor mentions something along those lines in that interview), but he has no deep understanding of why some movies are good and others are not. His entire aesthetic seems to be as based around the knee-jerk assumption that indie movies are good and studio movies are bad.
Oops. This totally should have been in adifferent thread.
But, um, I saw, um, some movie? Recently? And it was... okay?
I'm too drunk to think right now.
2046 was a room number before it was a year.
I believe it's also the year China's current policy toward Hong Kong expires. And WKW
is a HK filmmaker, which might (and I'm not quite sure how to put it) make the year more than doubly resonant.
