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| Syd |
 Posted: Thu Dec 27, 2007 3:52 am |
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Site Admin
Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 12929
Location: Norman, Oklahoma
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marantzo wrote: I may be mistaken but I think I read that the boy and girl are an item in actuality. That's re: Once.
They seem like nice people. I hope this is true. The movie looks like it's based on the actors real lives.
This film is suffering from the Lost in Translation syndrome. It's a small, overachieving film that catches certain aspects of life perfectly. It gets great reviews and people expect it to be a great statement on the human condition instead of it being a perfect statement on a small aspect of being human. It has some nice songs and loving performances, and is a nice little sapphire. |
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| bart |
| Posted: Thu Dec 27, 2007 1:00 pm |
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Joined: 05 Dec 2005
Posts: 2381
Location: Lincoln NE
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I'm impressed that Rod uses Mitt Romney similes in his film comments -- I've certainly never used Oz political candidates in any of mine! We Yanks are so ingrown.
Nancy -- no actual cats were harmed in the making of my cat joke. Though tis true we did have one cat, years ago, who was fond of snow and would seem to enjoy being tossed into it. He was sort of a roughneck, as cats go, and also enjoyed being buried in pillows and wrestled with.
Have you seen "Fido" yet, btw? I cannot overstress the importance of everyone seeing "Fido," the funniest comedy of 2007. |
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| Nancy |
| Posted: Thu Dec 27, 2007 1:05 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 4607
Location: Norman, OK
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bart wrote: Nancy -- no actual cats were harmed in the making of my cat joke. Though tis true we did have one cat, years ago, who was fond of snow and would seem to enjoy being tossed into it. He was sort of a roughneck, as cats go, and also enjoyed being buried in pillows and wrestled with.
Syd used to toss his cats outside so they could see that it had snowed. They always seemed willing to take his word for it instead. |
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"All in all, it's just another feather in the fan."
Isaacism, 2009 |
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| lshap |
| Posted: Thu Dec 27, 2007 6:30 pm |
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Site Admin
Joined: 12 May 2004
Posts: 4248
Location: Montreal
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[quote="Syd"]marantzo wrote: I may be mistaken but I think I read that the boy and girl are an item in actuality. That's re: Once.
This is a fact. I don't know where the relationship is these days (they don't return my calls, they don't write back) but the 'guy' and the 'girl' were/are romantically involved. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Fri Dec 28, 2007 9:02 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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Interview is a worthy addition to Steve Buscemi's directing resume, but that doesn't mean it's a particularly good movie. Basically, all it is is two characters--a not-very-likeable journalist and a phony/vulnerable/sexy starlet--getting together for a night of booze and revelations.
Buscemi and Sienna Miller do very well by the roles, but the whole exercise seems precious, overwritten, and artificial. Even though I was seldom bored, it's not interesting enough. |
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| mo_flixx |
| Posted: Fri Dec 28, 2007 9:31 am |
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Joined: 30 May 2004
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billyweeds wrote: Interview is a worthy addition to Steve Buscemi's directing resume, but that doesn't mean it's a particularly good movie. Basically, all it is is two characters--a not-very-likeable journalist and a phony/vulnerable/sexy starlet--getting together for a night of booze and revelations.
Buscemi and Sienna Miller do very well by the roles, but the whole exercise seems precious, overwritten, and artificial. Even though I was seldom bored, it's not interesting enough.
The _original_ film was made by and starred the late Theo Van Gogh. |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Fri Dec 28, 2007 9:52 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9015
Location: Shanghai
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billyweeds wrote: Interview is a worthy addition to Steve Buscemi's directing resume, but that doesn't mean it's a particularly good movie. Basically, all it is is two characters--a not-very-likeable journalist and a phony/vulnerable/sexy starlet--getting together for a night of booze and revelations.
Buscemi and Sienna Miller do very well by the roles, but the whole exercise seems precious, overwritten, and artificial. Even though I was seldom bored, it's not interesting enough.
Yeah well try watching it in Dutch with subtitles.
Mo, Theo VG didn't act in the original. |
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Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
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| bart |
| Posted: Fri Dec 28, 2007 11:08 am |
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Joined: 05 Dec 2005
Posts: 2381
Location: Lincoln NE
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Saw Internal Affairs, after some debate was had here about it....
....sort of a primer on the pitfalls of emoting and scenery-chewing in all its worst forms. There's a scene where Gere is dying and he's laughing at Andy Garcia and how easy it is to push his buttons, and I'm thinking, yeah, a little too easy. |
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| mo_flixx |
| Posted: Fri Dec 28, 2007 11:48 am |
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Joined: 30 May 2004
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gromit wrote: billyweeds wrote: Interview is a worthy addition to Steve Buscemi's directing resume, but that doesn't mean it's a particularly good movie. Basically, all it is is two characters--a not-very-likeable journalist and a phony/vulnerable/sexy starlet--getting together for a night of booze and revelations.
Buscemi and Sienna Miller do very well by the roles, but the whole exercise seems precious, overwritten, and artificial. Even though I was seldom bored, it's not interesting enough.
Yeah well try watching it in Dutch with subtitles.
Mo, Theo VG didn't act in the original.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0360674/
While VG didn't "star" (sorry I misspoke), he did ACT in it. Check the link above. |
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| Ghulam |
| Posted: Sat Dec 29, 2007 2:02 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 4742
Location: Upstate NY
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| Jesus Camp is on A&E on Sunday. Has anyone seen it? |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Sat Dec 29, 2007 7:26 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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Ghulam wrote: Jesus Camp is on A&E on Sunday. Has anyone seen it?
You will find people on this forum who liked it, but I thought it was a huge disappointment. It purports to be a documentary, but basically all it is is an intermittently interrupted monologue by one deluded and not very interesting woman. Take your chances, but if you don't like it you heard it here first. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Sat Dec 29, 2007 7:27 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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bart wrote: Saw Internal Affairs, after some debate was had here about it....
....sort of a primer on the pitfalls of emoting and scenery-chewing in all its worst forms. There's a scene where Gere is dying and he's laughing at Andy Garcia and how easy it is to push his buttons, and I'm thinking, yeah, a little too easy.
Couldn't disagree more if you paid me. Gere gave an amazing performance which should not only have been nominated for an Oscar but arguably should have won it. |
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| Rod |
| Posted: Sat Dec 29, 2007 8:04 am |
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Joined: 21 Dec 2004
Posts: 2944
Location: Lithgow, Australia
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Viewings:
Clean (2004)
Olivier Assayas is the guy who, with Demonlover, made an S&M fantasy whereby Connie Nielsen was exiled to a fate of being tortured in a leather catsuit, and yet still came out of it with art-house cred, so I have to respect the guy. Clean still manages to make time for a lipstick lesbian subplot that has nothing to do with anything, but chiefly it’s a fine showcase for Maggie Cheung, who manages to hold together the poles of her character as bad-luck drug-addled loser and once and future singing star. Assayas, like Sofia Coppola and Alejandro Inarritu, has an abiding interest in global village culture, and successfully portrays grey Vancouver suburbs, Parisian restaurant kitchens and record company offices as part of the same queasy-making dream. Cheung and Nick Nolte as her father-in-law are delightful as the heart and soul of the story – a line Nolte delivers to Cheung late in the film almost made me cry – and almost compensate for Assayas’ rambling screenplay littered with clunky dialogue.
City of God (2003)
It’s taken me long enough to get around to this one, but it was worth the wait; it’s one of the best films of the decade, a Brazilian The Roaring Twenties, raw, violent, warm, hilarious, scary and confronting, put across by a director with energy and purpose to burn, although it shows its Scorsese/Stone/Boyle roots flagrantly. Only overlength dilutes its impact.
Kinky Boots (2005)
Enjoyable but paint-by-numbers entry in the genre inaugurated by The Adventures of Priscilla but turned into a cash-cow by the British industry – The Full Monty, Billy Elliot, Calendar Girls, Bend It Like Beckham, Mrs Henderson Presents, etc – where a slightly transgressive idea, person, or act, like drag queening, stripping, women playing football, whatever, is played against a background that pretends to social realism but actually evokes Ealing style folk-whimsy; said transgressives strike sparks against shallowly investigated cultural mores, and gain an underdog triumph. Chiwetel Ejiofor gives his role as the clichéd outrageous-but-haunted queen Lola all he’s got, and is fun, but never convincing; Joel Edgerton is about as exciting a leading man as a bucket of bleach. |
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A long time ago, but somehow in the future...It is a period of civil war and renegade paragraphs floating through space. |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Sat Dec 29, 2007 9:34 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9015
Location: Shanghai
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Watched Star! (1968) over two nights.
The film edges towards 3 hours so, although unplanned, that was probably wise.
Julie Andrews does a fine job of singing and dancing and prima donna-ing.
The many men in Gertrude Lawrence's life basically display no personality and are mostly just played for laughs. However, the Noel Coward role is handled well, although I suspect greatly enhanced.
But the real draw here is the amazing costumes, the great musical numbers and the overall design.
Otherwise the film is overlong and the framing story of GL reviewing a film biography of her life didn't really come off (and actually I'd forgot completely about it by the time we returned to it at the end). Anyway, it's a pretty wild ride and must have cost a fortune to make. |
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Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Sat Dec 29, 2007 9:39 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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Saw Up the Down Staircase for the first time in the almost 40 years since its 1967 release. (It is finally available on DVD.)
It retains most of the marvelous qualities it always had. While dating quite obviously in certain aspects (they keep referring to the school the leading character teaches in as being very difficult, but by today's standards it's a piece of cake), once in a while there occurs a moment or a scene of such transcendent beauty that you gaze open-mouthed at the screen.
These moments are sometimes the work of the great Ruth White as one of the teachers, sometimes the fleeting glances of Sandy Dennis in the lead (she is mannered but intermittently amazing), and most often the absolutely great musical score by Fred Karlin and the extraordinarily sensitive direction of Robert Mulligan.
The movie is sometimes cheesy and hokey, but just as often terrific. And the last three minutes provide as good a closing as any movie I know.
Not so incidentally, this film (which garnered not even one Oscar nomination) is better than 75 percent or more of all the movies that won during the dismal movie decade of the 1960s. |
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