River ,'Objects In Space'
A place to talk about movies--old and new, good and bad, high art and high cheese. It's the place to place your kittens on the award winners, gossip about upcoming fims and discuss DVD releases and extras. Spoiler policy: White font all plot-related discussion until a movie's been in wide release two weeks, and keep the major HSQ in white font until two weeks after the video/DVD release.
Michael Phillips from the Chicago Tribune very rarely gives out 4-star reviews, but Moneyball got one from him this week.
I also just read a really good review from the Flick Filosopher for Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy which I am now trying to see when it will be released here in the States.
December 9: [link]
dammit. I thought it was coming out in October.
The one I keep hearing I need to see from people I know is DRIVE. I'll forgive them stealing Tim's show's name from what I've heard.
For fuck's sake, why didn't someone warn me about Warrior? I haven't cried that hard or long during a movie since Amistad. Of which I remember little, because that was like a hotbutton blackout.
This was like...I dunno. But it was a movie made to wreck me, yet without slavery or significant female characters.
WRECKED.
Good god.
Oh, and it had one of my krav instructors in it. So that's cool, except...WRECKED.
Just saw "A Pain in the Ass" on on-demand. Hilarious film (French with subtitles - I don't speak French and I still wonder why someone translated "Mierde, Mierde, Mierde" as "Damn, Damn, Damn". )
About a hit-man and a suicidal photographer. The stars are not only good actors but amazing physical comedians. They even found a way to make a ledge scene seem fresh.
Described as a black comedy, and though every single person (no exceptions) behaves badly, there something in the outlook that is not quite cynical enough for what I normally think of as a black comedy. A certain lack of despair? But I've seen cheerful black comedies before. I dunno, maybe the feeling it gives that even though people are depraved there definitely are limits to human depravity?
I think the distinction I'd make is that it is a cheerfully tough-minded comedy rather than a cheerfully cynical one. I'm not 100% sure how to define the difference, let alone defend my position, but that is my impression.
dammit. I thought it was coming out in October.
It keeps getting pushed back, which is frustrating. I think maybe originally thought nobody would care and now they're angling for awards buzz.
And I saw Drive on Saturday and loved it. Be aware that it's not a thriller/action movie like the trailer suggests. It's LA noir, it's slow and stylized, it's got some brutal scenes, and the protagonist is basically a Vachss character. It probably helps to like crime fiction because a lot of my friends hated it -- and I get why, honestly. It just worked for me.
The more I hear about Drive, the less I want to see it. I heard it compared to The American recently, and ugh, that movie. And Vachss is Just Too Much for me! I dunno, I'll probably still see it.
Well, the plot is not as inherently disturbing as Vachss stories are. But Gosling's character reminded me a lot of his. The comparisons I've seen to Eastwood in the Leone movies are about right, too. This isn't a guy you're meant to relate to.