| Author |
 Topic  |
|
|
Joe Blevins 
"Don't I look handsome?"
|
 Posted - 23/02/2014 : 23:15:29
|
Here's a link to my article on the 2014 Best Picture Showcase.
Here's the text of the article:
I spent all day Saturday at a place called the Northbrook Court, a million-square-foot shopping plaza about 19 minutes from my apartment.
Wikipedia calls it "a very large, upscale super-regional mall in Northbrook, Illinois" and "one of the most upscale collection[s] of shops in the United States." I guess that's about right. The description makes the place sound a little more hoity-toity than it really is. I mean, a mall is a mall is a mall, upscale or not. A little marble, a tasteful color scheme and some parquet flooring won't turn your shopping center into the Guggenheim. Bottom line: malls are tacky. That's why they merit an entry in Jane and Michael Stern's The Encyclopedia of Bad Taste (HarperCollins, 1990) between "Macrame" and "Mansfield, Jayne." Trying to build the world's classiest mall is like trying to see who can fart the quietest. Northbrook looks huge from the outside, stretching on and on forever like the bad guys' ship in the opening shot of Spaceballs. But once you get inside, where everything is smooth and shiny, you'll feel as closed-in and claustrophobic as you would at any other mall. The dump has some history, though. Some scenes from Ordinary People were filmed there, as was the "Icee dumping" scene from Weird Science.
Who knows? Perhaps at some point during my many circumnavigations of the Northbrook Court yesterday, I may have unknowingly trodden over the same ground as Robert Downey, Jr. or Anthony Michael Hall. The heart races. The mind reels. Anyway, I was at the Northbrook Court for Day One of the AMC theater chain's annual Best Picture Showcase, a marathon of all the movies nominated for the top prize at the Oscars this year. In years past, when there were only five nominees, you could watch 'em all in a single, exhausting day. Now that there are nine flicks up for the statuette, the event takes two non-consecutive days to complete. The second and final day of the 2014 BPS is this Saturday, March 1, 2014. I've been doing the Showcase since 2009, when Slumdog Millionaire took home the prize. Goddamn, this is my sixth time through the process! I'm not sure exactly why I started or why I've continued. Maybe I thought it would be a convenient way to catch up on all the critically-lauded movies I should have seen by the end of the previous calendar year. Maybe I'm a pop culture masochist and just like the idea of subjecting myself to a cinematic endurance test. However you slice it, the Best Picture Showcase is a great big hunk of what I'd call Middlebrow Respectability. These are flicks that critics and audiences can feel comfortable praising -- not too crude, not too artsy, and usually with some kind of socially redeeming value. From having watched a bunch of them, I can tell you a few things about Best Picture nominees. Almost all dramas, they tend to be longish (somewhere between 2-3 hours is the sweet spot), stately (read: a little dull), and preachy, commenting on the great issues of our time (and of all time) with lots of heartfelt speeches and crying. These films are attractively, carefully photographed and usually feature a lot of syrupy, manipulative music on the soundtrack. An inordinate amount are based on true stories and end with those captions telling you whatever happened to the characters in real life. Most of the plots conform to a simple formula: "____________ is bad." You know, war is bad, racism is bad, slavery is bad, greed is bad, politicians are bad, alcoholism is bad, the Catholic Church is bad, corporations are bad, etc., etc. South Park's Mr. Mackey would have no trouble churning out Oscar-winning screenplays.
So how is this year's crop of nominees? Eh, pretty typical, I'd say. Maybe a little better than usual. Here's my recap of Day One:
PHILOMENA
Director: Stephen Frears (High Fidelity, The Queen)
Based on a true story: Yes, specifically Martin Sixmith's The Lost Child of Philomena Lee.
These things are bad, m'kay: The Catholic Church (duh), mean nuns, old-timey Irish orphanages and workhouses, British politics, a value system which demonizes female sexuality, having your children taken from you, Republicans, homophobia, AIDS.
My take: Basically, an odd couple/road movie with Steve Coogan as a disgraced spin doctor who comes crawling back to journalism and finds an intriguing "human interest story" in the form of a retired Irish nurse named Philomena (Dench), who was forced to give up her out-of-wedlock child decades ago and now wants to find him. The movie has a sort of Rain Man-type feel, except that it comes slathered in Catholic guilt. Where Dustin Hoffman was wowed by Kmart and Judge Wapner, Philomena rhapsodizes about Big Momma's House, romance paperbacks, and hotel breakfast buffets. Coogan is the snarky, sarcastic one, and they have a few squabbles over religion and God. Philomena is a lot like a Payday candy bar. Coogan is salty, and Dench is sweet and nutty. This is the kind of movie you can feel safe recommending to just about anyone, even elderly relatives, unless they're really offended by profanity (both Coogan and Dench cuss on occasion). It seems like every Best Picture Showcase starts with a well-made "little" movie that has no chance at winning the prize. In years past, it was Milk, Amour, and An Education. This year, it's Philomena. Tell your grandmother about it. She'll love it.
My grade: B
DALLAS BUYERS CLUB
Director: Jean-Marc Vallee (The Young Victoria; C.R.A.Z.Y.; this is by far his best-known film)
Based on a true story: Yes. Various Hollywood types have been trying to turn Ron Woodruff's life into a film since the mid-1990s.
These things are bad, m'kay: AIDS (again), homophobia (again), the FDA, the pharmaceutical industry, the medical establishment, sexual promiscuity, cocaine, processed foods, and the overuse of AZT.
My take: This was more my speed, though if I'd been the one at the helm of this motion picture, I'd have made it less sentimental, corny, and obvious. It's still pretty good, though. Matthew McConaughey, rail-thin and dressed up like a cowboy pimp, is Ron Woodroof, a hard-living no-account rodeo hustler and electrician who finds out he has the HIV virus and only enough T-cells left to last him another month. He responds to this sobering news at first by scoffing at the diagnosis and partying even more heartily, but he quickly jumps from Denial to Bargaining and spends most of the rest of the movie there. A quick study in AIDS research, Woodroof stumbles onto a business opportunity as he provides other HIV-positive Texans with experimental, non-FDA-approved treatment, thereby rankling the stuffy medical community and the corrupt pharmaceutical industry. Along the way, he forms unlikely partnerships with a cross-dresser named Rayon (Jared Leto), who lives even less responsibly than Woodruff, and a legitimate physician (Jennifer Garner), who is wary of Woodruff's rogue actions but is undeniably impressed by his courage and efficacy. The very best stuff in this movie is the interplay between McConaughey and Leto, both surprisingly excellent, and I kind of wish the movie had not tried so hard to mold their story into an inspirational tearjerker. Like I said, though, it's quality stuff.
My grade: B+
THE WOLF OF WALL STREET
Director: Martin Scorsese (Goodfellas, Raging Bull, Taxi Driver)
Based on a true story: Yes. It's based on Jordan Belfort's similarly-titled 1998 autobiography. Belfort himself plays a small role in this film.
These things are bad, m'kay: Wall Street, stock brokers, greed, materialism, cocaine (again), expired Quaaludes, the American legal system, having your children taken from you (again).
My take: "Heaven... I'm in Heaven!" Occasionally, I like to pretend that certain movies were made specifically for me because they so closely conform to my interests or sensibilities. The Wolf of Wall Street is such a film. Martin Scorsese has given us another heaping slab of sleazy sex, brain-scrambling drugs, and raw, bluesy, primordial rock & roll. I think this was the only movie of the day which didn't have that "serious Oscar movie" music in it. You have no idea how much that helps its case. Just look at the artists on the soundtrack: Bo Diddley, Howlin' Wolf, Elmore James, Romeo Void, Me First & the Gimme Gimmes, Jimmy Castor, and so much more! That's what I'm talking about! Jesus Christ, there's even a marching band in this thing! And Popeye -- my favorite cartoon character ever -- is here, too! Of the four films I saw on Saturday, this is the only one I'd ever want to see again. I kind of wish I were watching it right now. Let's not kid ourselves about one major point, though: The Wolf of Wall Street is definitely Goodfellas version 2.0. Anyone who tells you differently, even Scorsese, is bullshitting you. And, yeah, it's three hours. Think of it as shotgunning an entire season of a premium cable TV show in one sitting. Someday, I may have to write an essay about a prominent motif throughout Scorsese's career about many of the male-female relationships in his movies. I call it "the princess and the guttersnipe" plot, and it goes all the way back to Marty's debut, Who's That Knocking at My Door? with Zina Bethune as the princess and Harvey Keitel as the guttersnipe. You can find versions of this theme in Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, The King of Comedy and even Hugo. Anyway, I'm drifting away from the main point, which is that I give my highest recommendation possible to The Wolf of Wall Street. See it, ya fuggin' bagadonuts!
My grade: A+
12 YEARS A SLAVE
Director: Steve McQueen (Shame, Hunger)
Based on a true story: Yes, the film is an adaptation of Solomon Northrup's 1853 autobiography, Twelve Years a Slave.
These things are bad, m'kay: Slavery (duh), racism (double duh), rape, the Old South in general, whippings, lynchings, dehumanization, crazy white people, having your children taken away from you (yet again!)
My take: Okay, class, let's have a show of hands. Who here didn't know that slavery was evil and degrading and cruel and violent and morally unjustifiable? Anyone? No hands? Steve McQueen's 12 Years a Slave strikes me as the kind of film everyone admires and no one enjoys. File it alongside Gandhi and Schindler's List among the movies that people will feel obligated to sit through once and then never revisit. But don't we need an occasional reminder about the visceral horrors of slavery? Don't we need to see the blood and the welts and hear the anguished screams? Well, yeah, I suppose so...if maybe you were thinking of starting up a plantation next week. Under those circumstances, you might see Steve McQueen's film and think, "Oh, right! Slavery is bad! I nearly forgot!" The movie's artfulness works against it. The cinematography is often postcard-pretty, and the compositions have a fastidious, fussed-over quality to them. The dialogue, likewise, is stilted and poetic rather than naturalistic and conversational. Maybe that's just how people talked back in the mid-1800s, but even then, I doubt that they would address the issues of slavery so directly, as if they knew they were elucidating certain points for the benefit of a listening audience. Much like Philomena and Dallas Buyers Club, 12 Years a Slave is altogether too concerned with providing "teachable moments" for the viewer. Without them, the movie would be little more than gourmet torture porn. Thanks largely to the actors inhabiting the roles, especially Chiwetel Ejiofor, Lupita Nyong'o, and Alfre Woodard (whose scene is a stunner), several of the film's African-American characters are vivid and memorable. The film's white characters are largely muddled non-entities, like Brad Pitt's liberal do-gooder, or grotesque cartoons, like Michael Fassbender's sadistic plantation owner, yet another iteration of black-hatted, mustache-twirling Simon Legree. And thanks to composer Hans Zimmer's heavy-handed score, we're never in doubt as to how we're supposed to feel... as if we couldn't just arrive at that conclusion on our own. The film's most effective passages occur when McQueen shows rather than tells, especially a nerve-jangling scene in which Ejiofor must stand on his tiptoes with a noose around his neck for what seems like an eternity. What makes the moment so effective is all the background activity, with extras going about their business as if nothing horrific were occurring.
My grade: B
Next week: Nebraska, Captain Phillips, Her, American Hustle, and Gravity.
|
|
|
BaftaBaby 
"Always entranced by cinema."
|
Posted - 23/02/2014 : 23:21:46
|
quote:
Originally posted by Joe Blevins
Always fabulous to get your take on films, Joe. Bigtime thanks.
|
 |
|
|
Joe Blevins
"Don't I look handsome?"
|
Posted - 02/03/2014 : 22:08:53
|
(PART TWO IS AT MY BLOG NOW. THE TEXT IS BELOW.)
It would hardly be a Best Picture Showcase if I didn't have to drive slowly and anxiously in a snowstorm at least once. I don't know what it is exactly, but I've been attending the AMC movie theater chain's annual marathon of Best Picture nominees for six years now, and the stressful pattern keeps repeating itself. Sometimes, it's on the way there. Other times, it's on the way back. On extremely unlucky days, it's both. Maybe the Academy Awards anger the gods or something. And now that the number of nominees has almost doubled and the event takes two days to finish, the odds against me are stacking up. This year, I was fortunate enough to avoid the snow until the end of the second day. But it was still no fun to have to dig out my car late Saturday, then crawl home at an average speed of 15 mph on streets where there weren't as yet any good ruts to follow. I guess I had been oblivious to what was happening outside yesterday because I was cozy and warm in the hermetically-sealed environment of the ritzy Northbrook Court shopping center. When I wasn't watching hour after hour of award-nominated entertainment, I was dazedly staggering around the wood-and-marble-bedecked corridors of the mega mall, schlepping past Louis Vuitton, Cartier, and Burberry outlets, trying to clear the cobwebs out of my brain.
Let me say that I'm not a great believer in movie marathons. In fact, I think they're a pretty crummy and unfair way to see films. The analogy I always make -- and I'll do it again -- is to eating contests, which are to cuisine what events like the Best Picture Showcase are to cinema. Movies like these, which tend to be serious and on the longish side, suffer a bit when they're stacked one on top of the other. Some of the same basic themes (AIDS, racism, the elderly) and even some of the same actors (Amy Adams, Matthew McConaughey) start to reappear, which may make the audience feel like they've seen the same basic movie two or three times. Still, I plan to keep doing the BPS for the foreseeable future, since it's an efficient way to catch up on a lot of flicks I missed. And speaking of those, let's get to 'em, eh?
NEBRASKA
Director: Alexander Payne (Election, About Schmidt, The Descendants)
Based on a true story: Nope. This is an original script by Bob Nelson, a writer whose most prominent credit before this was the sketch comedy series Almost Live!
These things are bad, m'kay: Getting old; losing your mental faculties; greed; old rivalries; getting shot down in the Korean War; PTSD; direct mail schemes which prey on the elderly; the economic decline of small Midwestern towns; nursing homes.
My take: Not long ago, the TV series American Dad did a quite-funny and perceptive episode called "Independent Movie" which parodied the conventions and tropes of "indie" films. What's especially notable for this discussion is that the episode was structured as a "road movie," an idiom that indie writers and directors have returned to again and again. Alexander Payne's Nebraska is yet another example of the durable form, and it makes a good companion piece to last week's Philomena, as both films concern oft-exasperated middle-aged men chaperoning their oft-stubborn elders through improbable, long-shot quests. While Judy Dench traveled from the UK to the US in search of her long lost son, Bruce Dern wants to travel from Billings, Montana to Lincoln, Nebraska to claim a lottery prize he thinks he's won. There are significant differences, though. Dench's character, while slightly dotty, was still very much in command of her faculties. Dern, however, is a shell-shocked, delusional Korean War vet who only seems vaguely aware of his surroundings most of the time. In last week's movie, Steve Coogan was a snarky, sarcastic journalist who accompanied Dench so that he could turn her experiences into a story and, thus, possibly salvage his own career. In Nebraska, Will Forte is Dern's sad sack son, who agrees to accompany his aging dad on what he knows is a hopeless journey, partly to humor the old man in what might be his final days and partly to spend time with the father he never really got to know. In the true spirit of indie films, Dench and Dern are neither wholly successful nor wholly unsuccessful in their missions. They don't actually get what they went looking for, but they do get some redemption and satisfaction along the way. Nebraska is quite an enjoyable, if slightly contrived "movie with a touching, vulnerable performance by Bruce Dern and Forte and a crackerjack supporting cast, including Stacy Keach as Dern's conniving, blustery ex-partner and Payne veteran June Squibb (who played Jack Nicholson's wife in About Schmidt) as Dern's long-suffering wife, an undeniable force of nature who is not the least bit shy about expressing her opinions. Fans of Mr. Show and Breaking Bad will also be glad to see Bob Odenkirk as Forte's successful news anchor brother. Some critics have quibbled with Payne's portrayal of small town folks as ignorant, money-hungry rubes, but I would say that Nebraska presents a wide range of characterizations, both positive and negative and everywhere along the spectrum. Not everyone in this movie behaves like Will Forte's bumbling criminal cousins. Pay attention, for instance, to the sweet-natured newspaper editor who has a poignant personal history with Dern. Besides, seemingly more than any major director in Hollywood today, Alexander Payne truly captures the texture of everyday life outside of the major cities. He pays more attention than anyone to how people really dress and what people's houses really look like, both inside and out. There's a definite "lived-in" quality of his movies I truly cherish. And, without spoiling one of the movie's best speeches, I can say that Nebraska has changed the way I look at Mount Rushmore forever.
My grade: B+
CAPTAIN PHILLIPS
Director: Paul Greengrass (The Bourne Ultimatum, The Bourne Supremacy, United 93)
Based on a true story: Yep. But you knew that.
These things are bad, m'kay: Somali pirates; the terrible economic conditions which must exist in Somalia; walking through broken glass; being kidnapped; (maybe) American imperialism.
My take: It's no surprise to learn that this movie was directed by the same man at the helm of two of the Jason Bourne movies. It's a taut action thriller with lots of quick cuts and music that ramps up the tension. You probably already know the broad outlines of the story: Somali pirates hijack an American cargo ship and take its captain hostage, leading to a tense standoff with the US military. Really, the basics were all I knew going in to this thing. I kind of expected this movie to be one of those queasy, uneasy "fly on the wall" experiences in which the viewer is made to feel like he or she is living this nightmare along with Tom Hanks and experiences the kidnapping from his perspective. But Captain Phillips isn't really like that. For one thing, it moves very quickly and doesn't really prolong the agony of any one situation for a long time. Hanks says goodbye to his wife (Catherine Keener, largely wasted -- and not in the fun way) and gets on the ship, and just a few minutes later, we get one of those scenes in which the approach of a mysterious enemy is monitored on a beeping radar screen. (Fun fact, according to Roger Ebert's Bigger Little Movie Glossary: "Radar screens don't beep. Not now, not ever.") From there, it's boom, boom, boom. The pirates are on the ship. Boom. They've taken Hanks hostage. Boom. They're on a lifeboat now. Boom. The Navy shows up. What can I say about a movie like this? It's not really the kind of thing I'd go see on my own, but it's fine for what it is. Weirdly, and I don't know if this was intentional, Tom Hanks' character was not that appealing or ingratiating. The actor speaks with an affected, pseudo-JFK-type accent and has kind of a haughty, cold manner. But, still, he's the guy from Big and Forrest Gump and Philadelphia, so we're predisposed to like him. The script labors to humanize Phillips while emphasizing the alien "otherness" of the Somali pirates, but the movie's most compelling character ends up being Muse, the leader of the hijackers, played by the almost-skeletal Barkhad Abdirahman, who sarcastically nicknames Phillips "Irish." The most effective moments in Captain Phillips occur when the movie slows the hell down and allows for real-time interaction between Hanks and Abdirahman. I wish director Greengrass had included more of that in the finished film.
My grade: B-
HER
Director: Spike Jonze (Being John Malkovich, Adaptation, Where the Wild Things Are)
Based on a true story: Nope. This was based on an original screenplay by director Spike Jonze.
These things are bad, m'kay: Loneliness; divorce; becoming too reliant on technology; withdrawing from society and the company of real human beings.
My take: Earlier, we discussed the tropes of indie movies as they appeared in Nebraska. They appear again in Her, whose main character, played by Joaquin Phoenix (who looks eerily like a combination of Johnny Galecki and Groucho Marx in this movie) is another dreamy, sad dude like Will Forte's character in the Alex Payne movie. Judging by their respective apartments, though, Phoenix's writer is in a much higher tax bracket than Forte's speaker salesman. But they're both going through rough times in the romance department. In Nebraska, Forte has just broken up with his longtime, live-in girlfriend (Missy Doty), while in Her, Phoenix is dragging his feet in divorce proceedings with his soon-to-be-ex-wife (Rooney Mara). While Payne's movie sends Forte on a road trip, Jonze's sci-fi flick gives Phoenix a Manic Pixie Dream Girl of sorts in the form of "Samantha" (voiced by Scarlett Johansson), a computer operating system which possesses its own evolving consciousness. For decades, sci-fi filmmakers have been debating the ethics of creating machines who can think and feel like human beings. Generally, from HAL-9000 in 2001: A Space Odyssey to David in A.I.: Artificial Intelligence, it seems like a really bad idea. I mean, can you imagine being cooped up inside a smartphone in Joaquin Phoenix's shirt pocket? That doesn't sound like fun. No wonder Samantha soon outgrows her limited, humdrum life, answering her owner's e-mails and such. Her plays like an indie romantic spin on Kubrick's 2001. What if, instead of working together on a space station, astronaut David Bowman and the HAL-9000 computer were involved in a complicated romantic relationship on Earth? Kubrick, though, wouldn't likely have made a movie as self-consciously pretty as Her, which often looks like it was based on a glossy full-color catalog full of furniture, clothes, and technology I could never afford. In fact, aesthetically, the picture-perfect Her is the opposite of the grainy, workaday B&W mundanity of Nebraska. While Spike Jonze has commissioned a soundtrack by Arcade Fire, for instance, Alex Payne takes his characters to a steakhouse where lumpy patrons croon "Time After Time" and "In the Ghetto" at the karaoke machine. Anyway, I was torn between thinking that Her was a moving, highly original parable about the role of technology in our lives and suspecting that it was twee, precious hipster bullshit about a whiny, over-privileged creep who doesn't know how good he has it.
My grade: B+
AMERICAN HUSTLE
Director: David O. Russell (The Fighter, Silver Linings Playbook, Three Kings)
Based on a true story: The film begins with the caption, "Some of This Actually Happened," which is a good, accurate start. There really was an Abscam in the 1970s, and some of the characters in this film do have real-life counterparts. Most of the Best Picture nominees are based on true stories, and they've all been dogged to one degree or another by complaints that they take great liberties with the facts. Why this still surprises anyone is a mystery to me. Spoiler: movies are fake.
These things are bad, m'kay: Taking bribes; lying to friends; using a child as leverage in a marriage; government agents becoming drunk with power and abusing their authority.
My take: On American Hustle's IMDb trivia page is a little nugget of information which, to me, says it all about this film. "According to Christian Bale," reports the IMDb, "much of the movie was improvised. So, during the shooting of the film he noted to David O. Russell, 'You realize that this is going to change the plot greatly down track.' To which the director replied, 'Christian, I hate plots. I am all about characters, that's it.'" There have been grumblings, both by critics and viewers, that the plot of American Hustle doesn't really coagulate and that the script clumsily employs a lot of obviously Goodfellas-inspired narration to hold itself together. I'm here to tell you that none of that bothered me in the least. I think the naysayers and complainers are really missing the point. What David O. Russell has done here is to assemble a cast with some of the best actors working today and then to give them lots of situations in which they can interact in interesting and entertaining ways. Who gives a rat's ass if it makes any sense? This is about watching actors act. From an emotional rather than an intellectual standpoint, I very much responded to the way this movie looked and sounded: the sets, the costumes, the cinematography, the music (which ranges from Duke Ellington to Elton John), etc. I'd liken Russell's efforts to those of a jeweler, taking his gems (the actors) and putting them in the best possible setting. American Hustle doesn't really have much of a lesson to teach us all, other than offering us a series of vignettes which demonstrate the eternal folly of the human condition. Russell's own assessment of his movie is uncannily accurate. American Hustle doesn't really care about its plot but is very concerned with its assortment of colorful characters: politicians, G-men, impostors, and swindlers, all trying to get over on each other. My recommendation is to lighten up and just enjoy this.
My grade: A-
GRAVITY
Director: Alfonso Cuaron (Children of Men, Y Tu Mama Tambien, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban)
Based on a true story: Uh, nope. The director wrote this with his son, Jonas.
These things are bad, m'kay: Killer floating debris; extreme isolation, namely being stranded in outer space with very limited supplies of oxygen; watching your coworkers die right in front of you; the feeling that your life isn't all it should have been.
My take: I have already reviewed Gravity, so I will refer you to my previous article about the film. The gist of it is that Cuaron has made a movie which, first and foremost, sets a new benchmark in special effects, though I hate to think of his poor actors dangling from harnesses in front of a green screen somewhere. Visually, Gravity is a pure triumph. Other directors will now have to play catch-up to Cuaron. Storywise? Well, let me say this about that. This is a very intimate, modest movie which tells a small, human story against an overwhelmingly huge backdrop. The script is hokey and melodramatic, but a career-best Sandra Bullock does everything in her power to sell it and make it seem believable. I'm not surprised that, of the nine films, this one is by far the most financially successful. I have no idea how it will hold up over the years, but I don't regret having seen it.
My grade: B+
All in all, not a bad crop of films for the Best Picture Showcase. I think 12 Years a Slave will probably win for Best Picture, though the movies I personally enjoyed most were The Wolf of Wall Street, American Hustle, Her, and Nebraska. See you next year, Oscar. |
|
|
|
randall
"I like to watch."
NYC, USA
|
Posted - 03/03/2014 : 12:44:06
|
I agree with you wholeheartedly about movie marathons: they're a lousy way to evaluate individual flicks because exhaustion and even impatience tends to set in, and before long it takes actual work to push yourself into that anticipatory feeling you should have before any screening. The same goes for film festivals: sudden binging doesn't help the digestive system at all, and can in fact render a movie tiresome or overwrought when it might feel much better when seen alone. IOW, I would expect your personal take to be more stern than if you'd seen these same flicks months apart.
The difference with a just-before-Oscar marathon is that you may have some expectation, maybe even orientation, on most of the flicks because these days one just can't escape pre-Oscar buzz. At an indie festival, most everything is a blank slate -- all you really have to go on is proper names.
That said, I enjoy reading your very personal take every year and I hope you can manage to keep it up. |
|
|
|
BaftaBaby
"Always entranced by cinema."
|
Posted - 03/03/2014 : 16:45:45
|
It's always so great to read your film-takes, Joe. Your cold-weather starts warm us up 
|
|
|
|
Joe Blevins
"Don't I look handsome?"
|
Posted - 27/03/2014 : 01:21:00
|
quote:
Originally posted by BaftaBabe
quote:
Originally posted by Joe Blevins
Always fabulous to get your take on films, Joe. Bigtime thanks.
Thanks for reading! |
|
|
|
Sean
"Necrosphenisciform anthropophagist."
New Zealand
|
Posted - 07/04/2014 : 01:58:40
|
Well Joe, your new username confused me for a few seconds! You know about the other Alan Smithee though, the one where disowned reviews end up?
Alan Smithee
|
|
|
| |
Topic |
|
|
|
2014 Best Picture Showcase: my write-up
