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| Befade |
 Posted: Fri Apr 10, 2009 10:22 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 3784
Location: AZ
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Quote: Am sort of psyched for Soloist -- I know the LAT columnist that Downey Jr. plays
A friend of mine read the book and is jazzed for it (being a former journalist and current social worker). I saw the 60 minutes (I think) piece about it......I'm looking forward to it. |
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Lost in my own private I dunno. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Sat Apr 11, 2009 4:46 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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| Saw Adventureland and found it just as sweet, gently funny, and unassuming as people have said. That's the upside. The (sort of) downside is that it's verrrrry low-key, so much so as to make me wish I'd waited for DVD, for the greater intimacy and for the subtitles. Jesse Eisenberg is absolutely wonderful in the leading role but the excellent Kristen Stewart and Ryan Reynolds, who I continue to admire enormously, tend to mumble, and a lot of the lines were lost in the Kingston, NY theater (whose sound system was not of the first order). I was a little disappointed that Bill Hader and particularly Kristen Wiig were so underused. But Greg Mottola's direction was spot-on and the milieu was deftly realized, and I liked the fact that except for Stewart's stepmother none of the characters were black or white. All in all, a positive experience but the least of Mottola's three features. Will probably see it again on DVD. |
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| mo_flixx |
| Posted: Sat Apr 11, 2009 5:28 pm |
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Joined: 30 May 2004
Posts: 12533
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Marc wrote: I'm here to report that I observed OBSERVE AND REPORT today and enjoyed it's demented humor. Tasteless and at times hilarious, this movie re-imagines Travis Bickle as an overweight security guy working in a shopping mall. The movie has a few genuinely shocking moments. I admire it's go for broke attitude. For connoisseurs of politically incorrect cinema.
It sounds like Seth Rogen is really pushing the envelope. At least one very un-PC scene is on the internet. I'm going to wait to see the film in a theater (I guess). |
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| Syd |
| Posted: Sat Apr 11, 2009 7:50 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 12929
Location: Norman, Oklahoma
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I was going to see Observe and Report, but I discovered that The Class was about to start, and who knows how many chances I'd get to see that at a movie theater?
I liked the hell out of it. It's based on an autobiographical novel by a teacher, François Begaudeau, who plays himself, and is pretty much the story of his class for a year. And that's pretty much it for the plot, although there are plenty of subplots. François teaches French to a multiethnic group of students which seem to come from about everywhere in what used to be the French colonial empire except France itself. (And beyond France; one student is Chinese.) He tries various strategies to reach the students, often interacting with them surprisingly informally (which causes trouble later when he doesn't temper his language), and getting them to write essays telling of their lives.
Sometimes the movie is very funny. I was amused by a discussion of the imperfect indicative. Why specify imperfect indicative instead of just imperfect? Because there's an imperfect subjunctive! Which he promptly illustrates, causing a lively discussion until he is forced to admit that no human being actually uses the imperfect subjunctive unless he wants to sound like an effete snob. (French also has a pluperfect subjunctive and a perfect subjunctive, which seems like overkill.)
I'm also amused by a discussion of an irregular verb (apparently croire or croître) which is translated in the subtitles as to swim (I believe that's wrong), and one of the forms of the verb is given as nous croutons, which I would translate as "we are toast."
You also get to see parent-teacher meetings, and examples of students getting kicked upstairs, or being expelled from one school to be picked up by another (thus foisting disciplinary problems off on someone else--although it evens out, since you get some foisted on you by other schools.)
Of course you can do a movie like this in America (see Up the Down Staircase, for instance) or any number of other countries, but this is exceptionally well-done and absorbing. |
Last edited by Syd on Sat Apr 11, 2009 7:56 pm; edited 1 time in total
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Rocky Laocoon foretold of Troy's doom, only to find snaky water. They pulled him in and Rocky can't swim. Now Rocky wishes he were an otter! |
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| Syd |
| Posted: Sat Apr 11, 2009 7:56 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 12929
Location: Norman, Oklahoma
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| Also saw Adventureland, which was pleasant, with good performance by most of the major characters, a sweet romance, and an amusing take on spending a summer working at a rather cheesy amusement park. Kristin Wiig may have been underused, but she makes her moments count. Ryan Reynolds is about as good as I've seen him, and the two leads have genuine chemistry together. I could have done without the kid who keeps punching our hero in the crotch. Our hero should have decked him the second time, if not the first. |
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Rocky Laocoon foretold of Troy's doom, only to find snaky water. They pulled him in and Rocky can't swim. Now Rocky wishes he were an otter! |
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| Joe Vitus |
| Posted: Sat Apr 11, 2009 8:15 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 14498
Location: Houston
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| But it's a perfect detail. There's always a kid like that around. |
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You've got a great brain. You should keep it in your head.
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| Marc |
| Posted: Sat Apr 11, 2009 11:17 pm |
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Joined: 19 May 2004
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| the one flaw for me in ADVENTURELAND was the stepmother. I didn't find her particularly unlikeable. I didn't get why Kristen Stewart's character disliked her so much, other than she was a stepmother. |
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| Marc |
| Posted: Sat Apr 11, 2009 11:20 pm |
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Joined: 19 May 2004
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Quote: a lot of the lines were lost in the Kingston, NY theater (whose sound system was not of the first order).
I've seen ADVENTURELAND in two different state-of-the art theaters and in both the sound of the movie sucked. I think the dialogue in the film was poorly recorded. Hard to believe that a major league Hollywood production would have such shitty sound. I know it was done on a small budget, but really...I had to strain to catch some of the dialogue. And this film lives or dies by its dialogue. |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Sat Apr 11, 2009 11:26 pm |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9015
Location: Shanghai
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| mumblecore? |
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Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
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| Marc |
| Posted: Sun Apr 12, 2009 12:08 am |
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Joined: 19 May 2004
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| actually gromit, its not the actors delivery, its the quality of the sound recording. |
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| Ghulam |
| Posted: Sun Apr 12, 2009 1:22 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: Upstate NY
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Agree with Syd about The Class being very funny, besides being very natural and evoking deep empathy.
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| Syd |
| Posted: Sun Apr 12, 2009 2:20 am |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
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Location: Norman, Oklahoma
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Marc wrote: the one flaw for me in ADVENTURELAND was the stepmother. I didn't find her particularly unlikeable. I didn't get why Kristen Stewart's character disliked her so much, other than she was a stepmother.
I thought that was pretty much the reason. The woman had replaced her mother and had made changes around the house that Emily disliked. |
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Rocky Laocoon foretold of Troy's doom, only to find snaky water. They pulled him in and Rocky can't swim. Now Rocky wishes he were an otter! |
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| mo_flixx |
| Posted: Sun Apr 12, 2009 3:01 am |
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Joined: 30 May 2004
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Syd wrote: I was going to see Observe and Report, but I discovered that The Class was about to start, and who knows how many chances I'd get to see that at a movie theater?...
Sometimes the movie is very funny. I was amused by a discussion of the imperfect indicative. Why specify imperfect indicative instead of just imperfect? Because there's an imperfect subjunctive! Which he promptly illustrates, causing a lively discussion until he is forced to admit that no human being actually uses the imperfect subjunctive unless he wants to sound like an effete snob. (French also has a pluperfect subjunctive and a perfect subjunctive, which seems like overkill.)
I'm also amused by a discussion of an irregular verb (apparently croire or croître) which is translated in the subtitles as to swim (I believe that's wrong), and one of the forms of the verb is given as nous croutons, which I would translate as "we are toast."...
These are gt. observations, Syd. I missed the part about the discussion of the different tenses of the subjunctive but agree that only the present tense is ever really used - at least in conversation IMO.
I think the irregular verb was "croire" (to believe) and the correct answer was "nous croyons." I looked it up when I got home. I do not think it was "croitre" (to grow). "Nous croutons" was a student's wrong answer, but "toast" is actually "toast" in French. Or "tartine" or "biscotte."
This is one of those films where it impossible to translate the subtitles exactly. I believe "swim" was used in one of those instances. I think they were trying to get a rough idea across without a literal translation.
I was fascinated by how the subtitles dealt with the student's failure to "vousvoyer" his teacher. Instead the student uses the familiar form "tu," which shows a lack of respect. IMO the subtitles were very good in conveying what was going on without getting into having to explain the familiar and formal forms of address. This had to be a _very_ hard film to subtitle in English!
I would like to get a copy of the book just for the slang.
Agree that it's an excellent film. |
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| Syd |
| Posted: Sun Apr 12, 2009 9:22 am |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 12929
Location: Norman, Oklahoma
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| Alas, my French isn't good enough to catch the student using "tu" rather than "vous." |
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Rocky Laocoon foretold of Troy's doom, only to find snaky water. They pulled him in and Rocky can't swim. Now Rocky wishes he were an otter! |
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| Syd |
| Posted: Sun Apr 12, 2009 9:27 am |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 12929
Location: Norman, Oklahoma
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| Crouton means exactly the same thing in French as it does in English, except they spell with a circumflex: croûton. |
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Rocky Laocoon foretold of Troy's doom, only to find snaky water. They pulled him in and Rocky can't swim. Now Rocky wishes he were an otter! |
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