Lots of offensive jokes said by characters you weren't supposed to like anyway, so who cares, right? (Subtext here-- wrong.)
Really stupid story, really annoying Jesse Eisenberg, really pointless overall.
Don't see it, even if you want to.
Showing posts with label Thriller. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Thriller. Show all posts
25 August 2011
14 April 2011
Source Code (2011)
Inception meets Groundhog Day meets Sisyphus. Plus a little self-indulgent wish fulfillment thrown in for good measure.
I don't want to tell you much about the plot because you'd probably be able to figure out the ending if I gave you even just a few basic details, so I'll just keep it mysterious.
All I want to say about this movie, besides what's above, is that it was pretty entertaining, even to someone who doesn't really like action movies at all. However, it made me really want to smack this lady because she is annoying.
Overall--pretty OK.
I don't want to tell you much about the plot because you'd probably be able to figure out the ending if I gave you even just a few basic details, so I'll just keep it mysterious.
All I want to say about this movie, besides what's above, is that it was pretty entertaining, even to someone who doesn't really like action movies at all. However, it made me really want to smack this lady because she is annoying.
Overall--pretty OK.
13 February 2011
Winter's Bone (2010)
Unique story, uncommon setting, great acting.
Dragged in some parts, somewhat unconvincing as a whole.
Best picture? No. Totally worthwhile? Depends on your taste.
Overall—pretty good. Watch it if you like a feeling of brooding, the Ozarks, and very strong female protagonists.
Dragged in some parts, somewhat unconvincing as a whole.
Best picture? No. Totally worthwhile? Depends on your taste.
Overall—pretty good. Watch it if you like a feeling of brooding, the Ozarks, and very strong female protagonists.
02 January 2011
04 October 2010
Fault Line (2009)
Fault Line is a gem of a short-format crime narrative that was written, directed, and produced by Garrison Comstock. The film tells the story of two brothers who find themselves involved in an investigation of a crime that could land one or both of them in jail for a very long time. As the story unfolds, details come increasingly into focus, but the question as to who is really to blame remains even after the credits.
Now I’ll concede that Fault Line is definitely a beginner work shot on a minimal budget, and that you can feel this pinch at certain levels throughout the eighteen minute film. Most regrettably, some of the acting is amateur to a distracting degree—particularly the performance of Garry Myers, who plays the older detective. Additionally, at certain moments the dialogue dealing with heavy-weight subject matter ranging from homosexuality to drug abuse thins, causing it to suffer blows to its credibility, but this may also be a result of poor delivery on the part of the actors.
However, I would argue that Comstock shows great potential in this short work on a number of important counts. In terms of narrative he interweaves complex questions of fraternal responsibility and loyalty, as well as what it means to be guilty in general. A deeper layer of rumination on American masculinity is also at play.
Visually the film is very well done. The color palette and the cinematography are areas in which the limitations of the budget are not at all apparent. Each shot is carefully choreographed and each shot is clearly thought through to the end. Restraint, taste, and intelligent decisions characterize the aesthetic and visual unity of Fault Line.
On a related note, the editing is also top notch. The use of flashback shows a level of mastery that is not often seen in student work. Comstock takes tropes used in the industry for thrillers and crime dramas, shows that he understands them very well, and then makes them his own. On top of all of this there is a shockingly good score that ties the editing and the story together, and makes the whole thing gel very well overall. Hugely impressive, Mr. Comstock. I commend you.
So I have to say that overall, Fault Line definitely makes me want to see more from Comstock. I would be excited to see what he could do with a bigger budget and better actors should he get the opportunity. And that is saying something coming from me, who does not usually like crime dramas or “serious” movies in general.
Well done.
--
Where can you see Fault Line? Ask the board of your local film festival to screen it!
Link to it on Vimeo here.
The password is watchfaultline
Now I’ll concede that Fault Line is definitely a beginner work shot on a minimal budget, and that you can feel this pinch at certain levels throughout the eighteen minute film. Most regrettably, some of the acting is amateur to a distracting degree—particularly the performance of Garry Myers, who plays the older detective. Additionally, at certain moments the dialogue dealing with heavy-weight subject matter ranging from homosexuality to drug abuse thins, causing it to suffer blows to its credibility, but this may also be a result of poor delivery on the part of the actors.
However, I would argue that Comstock shows great potential in this short work on a number of important counts. In terms of narrative he interweaves complex questions of fraternal responsibility and loyalty, as well as what it means to be guilty in general. A deeper layer of rumination on American masculinity is also at play.
Visually the film is very well done. The color palette and the cinematography are areas in which the limitations of the budget are not at all apparent. Each shot is carefully choreographed and each shot is clearly thought through to the end. Restraint, taste, and intelligent decisions characterize the aesthetic and visual unity of Fault Line.
On a related note, the editing is also top notch. The use of flashback shows a level of mastery that is not often seen in student work. Comstock takes tropes used in the industry for thrillers and crime dramas, shows that he understands them very well, and then makes them his own. On top of all of this there is a shockingly good score that ties the editing and the story together, and makes the whole thing gel very well overall. Hugely impressive, Mr. Comstock. I commend you.
So I have to say that overall, Fault Line definitely makes me want to see more from Comstock. I would be excited to see what he could do with a bigger budget and better actors should he get the opportunity. And that is saying something coming from me, who does not usually like crime dramas or “serious” movies in general.
Well done.
--
Where can you see Fault Line? Ask the board of your local film festival to screen it!
Link to it on Vimeo here.
The password is watchfaultline
15 August 2010
The Girl Who Played with Fire (2009)
Pretty good overall. Noomi Rapace was awesome, again. And in the first few seconds of the movie it became clear that I’d misjudged the ending of the last one by a lot. All kinds of kick-ass going on in this movie, and no watered down B.S. romantic imperatives. What a relief.
The Girl Who Played with Fire, just like The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, will make you consider what it means to watch brutal violence, specifically against women, on the big screen. Not necessarily a bad thing, but definitely difficult to watch at times. Worth the effort for the story and the compelling lead character.
Go see this (and rent the first one too) if you can, before Hollywood churns out its sure to be disappointing adaptation.
The Girl Who Played with Fire, just like The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, will make you consider what it means to watch brutal violence, specifically against women, on the big screen. Not necessarily a bad thing, but definitely difficult to watch at times. Worth the effort for the story and the compelling lead character.
Go see this (and rent the first one too) if you can, before Hollywood churns out its sure to be disappointing adaptation.
27 July 2010
Inception (2010)
My feelings toward Inception are not unlike a teacher’s toward the student who sets the curve for the class. Sort of a “hooray, you were totally the best out of the group” attitude balanced with a good dose of “you (and everyone else) really could be doing a lot better.”
That being said, I think the movie had a ton of really impressive aspects to it. The intensity was staggering—I was unable to break concentration for a second, because I felt compelled to fully invest in its details and all the questions it was asking. At the same time, such concentration and investigation was almost immediately rendered irrelevant because we were encouraged to keep diving further and further into the maze without trying to remember the way out. Just as for the main characters, the best way out of the welter was to plunge further in, forgoing any attempt at leaving a trail of breadcrumbs.
I also found that the story felt very personal, but sort of effortlessly so. I wasn’t drawn into it by knowing all the details of the time period it was supposed to be set in, or by knowing each character’s back story. Rather, I suspect that my willingness to go along with the emotions and interests of the characters is the result of a well written screenplay combined with some seriously great acting. I can’t even pick out one performance that I thought was particularly well done—every single actor in the movie delivered on his or her role completely and fully.
And lest you begin to suspect that this is just a fan-girl, stars in her eyes over JGL/Leo workin’ together like some kind of fantasy designed just for me moment, let me point out that my favorite scene of the movie had nothing to do with the attractiveness of anyone, and more to do with the level of thought put into both the dialogue and the acting. The hands down best moment of Inception, for me, was when Cobb takes the dying Mal in his arms and explains to her that she’s not his real wife. He says something to the effect of “you’re not half of what my real wife was, because you’re just my own memory/interpretation/reproduction of a sad shadow of the real her.” Hello awesome metaphor for a lot of stuff! (Film/acting/artistic representation/memory/relationships/etc)
Yes indeed, through and through Inception was a really smart, thoughtful, and creative film on questions that the noir genre has been working through since it first reared its difficult to define head way back in the ‘40s.
Why, then, did I start out this review by saying that it sets the curve but doesn’t go far enough? I don’t really know and it’s hard to explain. I’d definitely give Inception an A when compared to the movies that have been coming out so far this year. However, I’d probably assign it a solid B when compared to my favorites picked from cinema from all over the world since the beginning.
Maybe it was because the dreams weren’t weird enough to suit my fancy. Nolan did an excellent job re-creating the feeling of the dream—the disorientation combined with total normalcy, the changes in perspective, the emotions that were made metaphors of. But I’m the kind of person who has bizarro epic nightmares about being Johnny Depp and a vampire in a movie that I’m also watching. So for me, these ‘dreamscapes’ were surprisingly mundane, in a way.
I’m also not a huge fan of spending gag-inducing amounts of cash on movies for no discernible reason. Yeah, I know that to complain about the industry spending money is dumb. That’s like complaining about concepts with capital letters at the beginning: Capitalism, Sexism, Poverty, Ignorance! Pointless, passé, and actually hugely distracting from fresher, more pressing and nuanced debates. But I watched crews laboriously construct a set (the rooftop set that Mal, Cobb and Arthur appear on in the opening sequence for, say, five minutes total in the beginning of the movie) down the street from my house for approximately three months only to tear it down after one night of filming. The whole thing felt a smidge wasteful.
Anyway, neither of those complaints is really a solid reason for me not giving Inception a wildly enthusiastic review. But I’ll give it a solid one without any debate, because it is definitely a good example of creativity in filmmaking, pretty cool special effects, and really excellent acting. I just wasn’t hugely crazy about it, for whatever reason. Definitely worth watching though, and in theaters too.
But people, I know we can do better. Whether or not we will is a different question altogether. I’ll totally look forward to watching filmmakers try.
That being said, I think the movie had a ton of really impressive aspects to it. The intensity was staggering—I was unable to break concentration for a second, because I felt compelled to fully invest in its details and all the questions it was asking. At the same time, such concentration and investigation was almost immediately rendered irrelevant because we were encouraged to keep diving further and further into the maze without trying to remember the way out. Just as for the main characters, the best way out of the welter was to plunge further in, forgoing any attempt at leaving a trail of breadcrumbs.
I also found that the story felt very personal, but sort of effortlessly so. I wasn’t drawn into it by knowing all the details of the time period it was supposed to be set in, or by knowing each character’s back story. Rather, I suspect that my willingness to go along with the emotions and interests of the characters is the result of a well written screenplay combined with some seriously great acting. I can’t even pick out one performance that I thought was particularly well done—every single actor in the movie delivered on his or her role completely and fully.
And lest you begin to suspect that this is just a fan-girl, stars in her eyes over JGL/Leo workin’ together like some kind of fantasy designed just for me moment, let me point out that my favorite scene of the movie had nothing to do with the attractiveness of anyone, and more to do with the level of thought put into both the dialogue and the acting. The hands down best moment of Inception, for me, was when Cobb takes the dying Mal in his arms and explains to her that she’s not his real wife. He says something to the effect of “you’re not half of what my real wife was, because you’re just my own memory/interpretation/reproduction of a sad shadow of the real her.” Hello awesome metaphor for a lot of stuff! (Film/acting/artistic representation/memory/relationships/etc)
Yes indeed, through and through Inception was a really smart, thoughtful, and creative film on questions that the noir genre has been working through since it first reared its difficult to define head way back in the ‘40s.
Why, then, did I start out this review by saying that it sets the curve but doesn’t go far enough? I don’t really know and it’s hard to explain. I’d definitely give Inception an A when compared to the movies that have been coming out so far this year. However, I’d probably assign it a solid B when compared to my favorites picked from cinema from all over the world since the beginning.
Maybe it was because the dreams weren’t weird enough to suit my fancy. Nolan did an excellent job re-creating the feeling of the dream—the disorientation combined with total normalcy, the changes in perspective, the emotions that were made metaphors of. But I’m the kind of person who has bizarro epic nightmares about being Johnny Depp and a vampire in a movie that I’m also watching. So for me, these ‘dreamscapes’ were surprisingly mundane, in a way.
I’m also not a huge fan of spending gag-inducing amounts of cash on movies for no discernible reason. Yeah, I know that to complain about the industry spending money is dumb. That’s like complaining about concepts with capital letters at the beginning: Capitalism, Sexism, Poverty, Ignorance! Pointless, passé, and actually hugely distracting from fresher, more pressing and nuanced debates. But I watched crews laboriously construct a set (the rooftop set that Mal, Cobb and Arthur appear on in the opening sequence for, say, five minutes total in the beginning of the movie) down the street from my house for approximately three months only to tear it down after one night of filming. The whole thing felt a smidge wasteful.
Anyway, neither of those complaints is really a solid reason for me not giving Inception a wildly enthusiastic review. But I’ll give it a solid one without any debate, because it is definitely a good example of creativity in filmmaking, pretty cool special effects, and really excellent acting. I just wasn’t hugely crazy about it, for whatever reason. Definitely worth watching though, and in theaters too.
But people, I know we can do better. Whether or not we will is a different question altogether. I’ll totally look forward to watching filmmakers try.
27 April 2010
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2009)
Oh, Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. You make it so difficult for me to confidently label this post as either favorable or unfavorable.
I loved the lead character named Lisbeth, played by Noomi Rapace. She is a very muscular, highly androgynous, tattooed and pierced young woman who in the first thirty minutes or so of the movie acts out what is (I think) a common retaliatory fantasy against rapists. On top of that, she’s a professional hacker who is fiercely independent, unsentimental, and unemotional, and yet somehow she remains easy to cheer for. And kudos to the filmmakers for making her bisexuality not be a sensationalistic point of interest in the story. It’s just a fact, uncommented upon, plain as day.
I also thoroughly enjoyed the plot, up to a point. With lots of sinister affiliations rolled into one, the whodunit story that brings Lisbeth and a publicly disgraced (but framed) journalist named Mikael Blomkvist together intrigues and entices. Full of brutal details that are kept disturbingly subtle on screen, the 40 year old murder lurches wrenchingly back to life, zombie-like in its horror and its fascination which grips the audience and the characters on screen alike. Extra unsettling moment: when Blomkvist places several old photographs of a missing woman taken in succession together to create a sort of flip-book effect, revealing an important detail about the day she disappeared.
The problem was that while I was wildly enthusiastic about certain aspects of the movie, I became really spitefully resentful toward others. Unfortunately, story-wise, the first two hours were good but the last half hour was just plain dumb. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo started as a great mystery/thriller, i.e. a well paced, interesting (though not necessarily believable) story with very unique characters one could engage with, but then in the last half hour tragically devolved into a frustratingly neatly wrapped up cliché about familial ties and the virtues of heterosexual monogamy. Even the visual aesthetic switched from the cool (though expected) bluish grayish noir with a punk androgyne kicking ass in the beginning to an obnoxiously sunny-happy aesthetic, complete with tearful reunions, stilted confessions of emotional connections, and our (in my view) now fallen heroine sporting a large blonde wig, a business suit, and heels. What the hell.
I can’t even really decide whether the first two hours of the movie make it worth it to watch, either, because I just can’t ignore the flaws of the ending. What I wish is that I could re-watch the movie and just stop it around the point where things start to get ridiculous and add my own alternate ending mentally or something.
Anyway… the only way you’ll find out whether or not it’s worth it is to watch it yourself, which I suppose I can grudgingly recommend, if only for the majority of the movie and not the whole.
I loved the lead character named Lisbeth, played by Noomi Rapace. She is a very muscular, highly androgynous, tattooed and pierced young woman who in the first thirty minutes or so of the movie acts out what is (I think) a common retaliatory fantasy against rapists. On top of that, she’s a professional hacker who is fiercely independent, unsentimental, and unemotional, and yet somehow she remains easy to cheer for. And kudos to the filmmakers for making her bisexuality not be a sensationalistic point of interest in the story. It’s just a fact, uncommented upon, plain as day.
I also thoroughly enjoyed the plot, up to a point. With lots of sinister affiliations rolled into one, the whodunit story that brings Lisbeth and a publicly disgraced (but framed) journalist named Mikael Blomkvist together intrigues and entices. Full of brutal details that are kept disturbingly subtle on screen, the 40 year old murder lurches wrenchingly back to life, zombie-like in its horror and its fascination which grips the audience and the characters on screen alike. Extra unsettling moment: when Blomkvist places several old photographs of a missing woman taken in succession together to create a sort of flip-book effect, revealing an important detail about the day she disappeared.
The problem was that while I was wildly enthusiastic about certain aspects of the movie, I became really spitefully resentful toward others. Unfortunately, story-wise, the first two hours were good but the last half hour was just plain dumb. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo started as a great mystery/thriller, i.e. a well paced, interesting (though not necessarily believable) story with very unique characters one could engage with, but then in the last half hour tragically devolved into a frustratingly neatly wrapped up cliché about familial ties and the virtues of heterosexual monogamy. Even the visual aesthetic switched from the cool (though expected) bluish grayish noir with a punk androgyne kicking ass in the beginning to an obnoxiously sunny-happy aesthetic, complete with tearful reunions, stilted confessions of emotional connections, and our (in my view) now fallen heroine sporting a large blonde wig, a business suit, and heels. What the hell.
I can’t even really decide whether the first two hours of the movie make it worth it to watch, either, because I just can’t ignore the flaws of the ending. What I wish is that I could re-watch the movie and just stop it around the point where things start to get ridiculous and add my own alternate ending mentally or something.
Anyway… the only way you’ll find out whether or not it’s worth it is to watch it yourself, which I suppose I can grudgingly recommend, if only for the majority of the movie and not the whole.
01 March 2010
Shutter Island (2010)
Shutter Island seems to be the result of a bunch of people sitting down and brainstorming all the negative ideas or themes they could fit into one movie. Infanticide? Suicide? Arson? How about Nazi death camps? McCarthyism?! The atrocities of abuse in state run mental hospitals?!?! PTSD?!?!?!!!! Ooh, and catastrophic weather AND holes filled with RATS and a STAGGERING array of different kinds of SCARY SCARY PEOPLE AND AN INCREDIBLY OVERBEARING SCORE?!??!!!!!! GREAT LET’S DO ALL OF THAT.
And let’s have it happen in front of a green screen to save time and money.
With a bunch of really really good actors.
For two and a half hours.
No, but for serious, Shutter Island is a solidly (but not perfectly) produced example of surreal horror. There was a little too much going on in terms of plot for my taste and the ending seemed contrived, but that was definitely the entire point of the movie. And Leonardo DiCaprio’s accent was not even as bad as everyone was saying.
So if you can stomach a whole lot of sad/terrible themes, events, and imagery and you like horror and good acting, check it out! You shall not be disappointed.
And let’s have it happen in front of a green screen to save time and money.
With a bunch of really really good actors.
For two and a half hours.
No, but for serious, Shutter Island is a solidly (but not perfectly) produced example of surreal horror. There was a little too much going on in terms of plot for my taste and the ending seemed contrived, but that was definitely the entire point of the movie. And Leonardo DiCaprio’s accent was not even as bad as everyone was saying.
So if you can stomach a whole lot of sad/terrible themes, events, and imagery and you like horror and good acting, check it out! You shall not be disappointed.
17 February 2010
Dark City (1998)
I don’t want to go into a lot of details about the plot of Dark City except for the absolute basics; John Murdoch wakes up in a bathtub and realizes that reality isn’t real. Memories are false. The best way to describe life is as a series of ideas that have been injected into people’s heads.
Obviously this movie is pretty heavy, conceptually speaking. I like that it plays with ideas of memory, experience, and “reality.” I find the theories Dark City proposes thought provoking. Not earth-shatteringly interesting—just intriguing enough to produce a couple “hm” moments. The story itself is more than a bit cheesy. The acting does not help to reduce this cheesiness.
However, what bothers me more about Dark City is that despite being made in 1998 it still feels uncannily as if it sprang from the 1980’s. The effects are pretty hokey, even for that year. At first I thought “Oh this has a really nice style to it—very neo noir a la Blade Runner, mixed with the expected eighties aesthetics.” Eighties aesthetics are appropriate (albeit silly) when they come from 1983. Not so much 15 years later.
Overall, I'd say that the best way to describe Dark City is that it dances along the fine line between interesting and ridiculous. You’ll have to decide which side it ends up on for you.
--
Up Next:
The Wolfman!
Obviously this movie is pretty heavy, conceptually speaking. I like that it plays with ideas of memory, experience, and “reality.” I find the theories Dark City proposes thought provoking. Not earth-shatteringly interesting—just intriguing enough to produce a couple “hm” moments. The story itself is more than a bit cheesy. The acting does not help to reduce this cheesiness.
However, what bothers me more about Dark City is that despite being made in 1998 it still feels uncannily as if it sprang from the 1980’s. The effects are pretty hokey, even for that year. At first I thought “Oh this has a really nice style to it—very neo noir a la Blade Runner, mixed with the expected eighties aesthetics.” Eighties aesthetics are appropriate (albeit silly) when they come from 1983. Not so much 15 years later.
Overall, I'd say that the best way to describe Dark City is that it dances along the fine line between interesting and ridiculous. You’ll have to decide which side it ends up on for you.
--
Up Next:
The Wolfman!
09 February 2010
Edge of Darkness (2010)
Ok so… Mel Gibson with a Boston accent. Personal vendetta. Bad guys: watch out!
Sounds pretty ho-hum, right? I didn’t really want to see this movie either. I thought I knew everything about it from watching the previews. Friends, I was totally wrong.
Edge of Darkness is extremely intense in a "makes you squirm but you know you like it" kind of way. It also has some mind-blowing performances. The nuances of the writing allow the fairly hyperbolic set of characters to remain engaging. The editing is very cleverly done.
For these reasons I consider it to be a good movie. Well done, filmmakers. You delivered on the promise inherent to producing a film labeled “thriller.” I literally developed heartburn while watching because I got all caught up in the plot, which was significantly anxiety producing.
The only thing I had a problem with was the very last scene, but I won’t go into that here. It didn’t sour the overall effect of the movie, so I’ll leave you to pass your own judgment on it.
Make sure you watch this movie with someone else, because otherwise you’ll be freaked out and watching your back all way home. Scary!
Sounds pretty ho-hum, right? I didn’t really want to see this movie either. I thought I knew everything about it from watching the previews. Friends, I was totally wrong.
Edge of Darkness is extremely intense in a "makes you squirm but you know you like it" kind of way. It also has some mind-blowing performances. The nuances of the writing allow the fairly hyperbolic set of characters to remain engaging. The editing is very cleverly done.
For these reasons I consider it to be a good movie. Well done, filmmakers. You delivered on the promise inherent to producing a film labeled “thriller.” I literally developed heartburn while watching because I got all caught up in the plot, which was significantly anxiety producing.
The only thing I had a problem with was the very last scene, but I won’t go into that here. It didn’t sour the overall effect of the movie, so I’ll leave you to pass your own judgment on it.
Make sure you watch this movie with someone else, because otherwise you’ll be freaked out and watching your back all way home. Scary!
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