Friday, March 29, 2013
movie 14: Killing them softly
It wasn't quite as bad as i was expecting...I was expecting horrendous. But what the hell were they doing with all that Gandolfini material?? The movie just wan't any good.
Monday, March 11, 2013
Movie 12: Amour
Amour
A wonderfully made movie that got into my guts and twisted them all around. Also had me thinking about death a great deal. Yay!! : )
A wonderfully made movie that got into my guts and twisted them all around. Also had me thinking about death a great deal. Yay!! : )
Pixars Rules of Storytelling
http://aerogrammestudio.com/2013/03/07/pixars-22-rules-of-storytelling/
Monday, February 25, 2013
Movie 11: Side Effects
More fun for the craft of filmmaking than an actual immersive story oriented experience. Catherine Zeta Jones and Jude Law both come of as plasticky caricatures. But - I enjoyed watching the movie well enough and it was fun to talk about afterwards. But the movie will not stay with me in any kind of meaningful way what-so-ever.
Saturday, January 26, 2013
Movie 10: Escape from Tomorrow
A surreal portrait of a guy losing it on a family trip to Disneyworld
Movie 9: Toy's House
Underwhelming. Bad attempt at an indie movie about becoming a man and the relationship with father and son. Bad emotional development. Felt untrue and just really didn't go anywhere. Lots and lots of montage sequences that felt like they were just taking up space because the movie was underwritten.
Thursday, January 24, 2013
Movie 5: A.C.O.D
Adult Children of Divorce
This movie was very well cast and made.
It's about a son dealing with the psychological damage inflicted upon him by his parents divorce and their continuing to act like children throughout his adult life.
What struck me most was how effective each scene was. The guy made things very tight. There was always a strong objective in each scene - a tension. It makes for a very watchable movie.
Movie 4: The Look of Love
Michael Winterbottom directed this movie with Steve Coogan as the star.
I've never seen Steve Coogan play a semi-straight ahead kind of character well. The guy is all schtick. Beyond that this movie never goes anyplace. I thrusts you into a world fairly effectively and then fails to tell you any kind of story, give you any characters to root for have much emotional content what-so-ever.
The boredom of the movie is made tolerable by the amount of bare breasts exposed.
I've never seen Steve Coogan play a semi-straight ahead kind of character well. The guy is all schtick. Beyond that this movie never goes anyplace. I thrusts you into a world fairly effectively and then fails to tell you any kind of story, give you any characters to root for have much emotional content what-so-ever.
The boredom of the movie is made tolerable by the amount of bare breasts exposed.
Movie 3: Running from Crazy
A doc specifically about Mariel Hemingway - but in a larger sense about the depression and suicide that has sewn itself into her family's genetic code.
I didn't think too much of the movie. Mariel Hemingway never knew Ernest and very little of how she lives her life seems to be connected to the great man. And- it would seem- any chances at success that the Hemingway scion have been given are a direct result of Ernest. None of them have succeeded in much.
In the end the movie is about a woman who, though she seems to have reined in the depressive tendencies inherent in her family's line, still seems quite crazy. She's a mess - clinging to a variety of self-help mantras to keep her "cheerful" on a day to day basis.
The movie didn't tell me anything much new and really seemed pretty superficial.
I didn't think too much of the movie. Mariel Hemingway never knew Ernest and very little of how she lives her life seems to be connected to the great man. And- it would seem- any chances at success that the Hemingway scion have been given are a direct result of Ernest. None of them have succeeded in much.
In the end the movie is about a woman who, though she seems to have reined in the depressive tendencies inherent in her family's line, still seems quite crazy. She's a mess - clinging to a variety of self-help mantras to keep her "cheerful" on a day to day basis.
The movie didn't tell me anything much new and really seemed pretty superficial.
Sunday, January 20, 2013
Movie 2: Zero Dark Thirty
I enjoyed watching the movie. It was fairly engaging...moderately anyway. Of course - i already know the outcome - so it's the procedure which must really pull me in. It didn't really. Nor was there much of an emotional story for me. I felt as if the movie was trying to be a little bit documentary - a litte bit feature fiction film and got caught in the middle.
This isn't a bad place to be. Nobody can point at the movie and call it overly patriotic or jingoistic. At least not without really going after some of the smaller elements of it. At the same time - it did not remain as detached as I remember United 93 to be. This movie had a main character who, ostensibly, had an emotional arc - though i rarely felt it.
So essentially you're trying to have a movie with no real emotional story-line and with procedural elements that were often difficult to follow and anticipated by the audience. It's a tough row to hoe.
But still - i found it engaging enough to watch. But I thought more about it - then i did feel or enjoy it. I was constantly trying to dissect what was going on and how i felt about the tone of the movie than I was involved in the story.
So in the end - I don't feel particularly moved by the movie - either as an emotional story or a behind the scenes look at how the CIA works.
This isn't a bad place to be. Nobody can point at the movie and call it overly patriotic or jingoistic. At least not without really going after some of the smaller elements of it. At the same time - it did not remain as detached as I remember United 93 to be. This movie had a main character who, ostensibly, had an emotional arc - though i rarely felt it.
So essentially you're trying to have a movie with no real emotional story-line and with procedural elements that were often difficult to follow and anticipated by the audience. It's a tough row to hoe.
But still - i found it engaging enough to watch. But I thought more about it - then i did feel or enjoy it. I was constantly trying to dissect what was going on and how i felt about the tone of the movie than I was involved in the story.
So in the end - I don't feel particularly moved by the movie - either as an emotional story or a behind the scenes look at how the CIA works.
Sunday, January 13, 2013
Cool Online Commercials I like
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Izj5FnN4dz4
http://withleather.uproxx.com/2012/08/this-week-in-youtube-commenter-outrage-vol-2-nikes-find-your-greatness-commercial
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7q02Jz4L-nc
Wednesday, January 09, 2013
2013: Movie 1 - Not Fade Away
My first theatre movie of 2013.
I saw it with Samantha.
I didn't hate it - but - kept kinda thinking "what's the point of all this?" It's always fun to watch Gandolfini - that's for sure. Everything in the movie just seemed underdone. The plot, the characters. It was a glimpse into a particular time in NJ - but there wasn't much of a story to go along with it. No real emotional content.
I saw it with Samantha.
I didn't hate it - but - kept kinda thinking "what's the point of all this?" It's always fun to watch Gandolfini - that's for sure. Everything in the movie just seemed underdone. The plot, the characters. It was a glimpse into a particular time in NJ - but there wasn't much of a story to go along with it. No real emotional content.
Tuesday, January 01, 2013
2013 Anticipated movies
The Great Gatsby
Nymphomaniac - Von Trier
Paradise: Hope - Seidl
Saving Mr Banks - John Lee Hancock
Frances Ha - Baumbach
Oblivion - Kosinski
'Like Someone in Love. - Abbas Kiarostami
Pacific Rim - Del Toro
Upstream Color - Shane Caruth
Inside Llewyn Davis - Coen Brothers
Gravity - Alfonso Cuaron
The World's End - Edgar Wright
Only Lover's Left Alive - Jarmusch
Side Effects - Soderburgh
The Place Beyond the Pines - Cianfrance
The Grandmasters - Wong Kar Wai
Hors Satan - Bruno Dumont
To the Wonder - Malick
Nymphomaniac - Von Trier
Paradise: Hope - Seidl
Saving Mr Banks - John Lee Hancock
Frances Ha - Baumbach
Oblivion - Kosinski
'Like Someone in Love. - Abbas Kiarostami
Pacific Rim - Del Toro
Upstream Color - Shane Caruth
Inside Llewyn Davis - Coen Brothers
Gravity - Alfonso Cuaron
The World's End - Edgar Wright
Only Lover's Left Alive - Jarmusch
Side Effects - Soderburgh
The Place Beyond the Pines - Cianfrance
The Grandmasters - Wong Kar Wai
Hors Satan - Bruno Dumont
To the Wonder - Malick
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