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| gromit |
 Posted: Tue Jan 18, 2011 10:26 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
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Location: Shanghai
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| bartist |
| Posted: Tue Jan 18, 2011 10:43 am |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
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Location: Black Hills
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gromit -- I recall getting the anthropological vibe from W's B, but I get that from a lot of indie films where the camera is, as you put it, "too detached" and "recording behavior." Really, I didn't mind a bit of distance, given the subject.
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| Trish |
| Posted: Tue Jan 18, 2011 11:27 am |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
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Location: Massachusetts
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Marj wrote: I'd be curious to see the older guys responses. Of course, it's hard, either way, not having seen the film.
Btw, what age is "older?"
(always) older than you |
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| Befade |
| Posted: Tue Jan 18, 2011 4:27 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 3784
Location: AZ
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Quote: Winter's Bone is fine enough, reminding me somewhat of Wendy & Lucy, Frozen River and even Brick, plus that Memphis hard-for-a-pimp film. But I never connected with W'sB. The lead actress just seemed too good looking and too much like an actress playing a neo-hillbilly chick, never becoming believable to me.
Gromit..........finally I agree with you about something........somewhat agree anyway. I've seen all those films and never really connected them though. I knew there was something off about Winter's Bone and you expressed what pretty well. But I would never lump those films together in quality.
I hated Wendy and Lucy.
Frozen River was wonderful. Melissa Leo! I want to see it again.
Brick was interesting. Joseph Gordon-Levitt!
Pimp was okay.
Winter's Bone just didn't come together. |
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Lost in my own private I dunno. |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Tue Jan 18, 2011 4:56 pm |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
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Location: Shanghai
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Well, I don't think those films have that much in common, but there seemed to be elements of them in Winter's Bone. I'm glad you were able to connect the dots in my list of films, so that it didn't come off as totally left field.
I agree with your assessments, except I only disliked Lucy and liked Frozen River.
I didn't mean to be too harsh on W'sB, but it just seemed like the kind of film that was decent enough and then you forget it. I did like the music.
But I think the film needed to delve more into the character(s), integrate better into the setting, and worry less about the plot mechanics. |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Tue Jan 18, 2011 7:33 pm |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
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Location: Shanghai
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I've been watching a lot of depressing Canadian documentaries lately. Last Train Home is very good, following one family of Chinese migrant workers. The horrendous quest for tickets and wait for a train home for Chinese New Year's is awful, and the family dynamics are seriously strained since the parents have been away for 16 years sewing in a sweatshop while the grandparents raised their two kids.
The parents sacrifice to provide for the children they barely know -- and the 17 year old daughter is full of resentment. Between the dysfunctional family relations and the insane New Year's migration, the film really gives you a sense of what it's like to be a migrant worker in China. The sad thing is how lovely their countryside village is. Though you can't buy a cellphone with loveliness. The director of Last Train was also involved in Up the Yangtze, another good China doc I'd rec.
Still, Last Train is more upbeat than those Allan King documentaries of dying cancer patients or senile elderly. I doubt that I'll soon forget old Claire learning over and over that her good friend Max has died, and being shocked and grieving every time, as she is unable to remember that she was told. What a horrible little hell she cycles through. |
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| Befade |
| Posted: Tue Jan 18, 2011 9:34 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 3784
Location: AZ
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Quote: I did like the music.
Now that you mention it.........I remember really liking the music and looking for the sound track..........at the time it wasn't available......I'll check it again.
There was a bit on the news tonight about what Obama was going to talk to the Chinese president about. One thing was theft of intellectual property......I imagine that includes the dvds you acquire so effortlessly.
Up the Yangtze was memorable. |
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| Marj |
| Posted: Tue Jan 18, 2011 9:49 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
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Location: Manhattan
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Trish wrote: Marj wrote: I'd be curious to see the older guys responses. Of course, it's hard, either way, not having seen the film.
Btw, what age is "older?"
(always) older than you
Aw. Thank you, Trish, though I highly doubt it.
Gromit -- thank you for confirming what I've been feeling about certain Alan King and other documentaries. While I haven't seen any recently, I've certainly seen enough to last a lifetime.
Jeremy - I doubt it too. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Tue Jan 18, 2011 11:55 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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Marj wrote: Trish wrote: Marj wrote: I'd be curious to see the older guys responses. Of course, it's hard, either way, not having seen the film.
Btw, what age is "older?"
(always) older than you
Aw. Thank you, Trish, though I highly doubt it.
Marj--At the risk of raining on your parade, I don't think Trish meant that as a personal compliment. An "older" person is always someone older than the speaker, no matter who or how old the speaker may be. |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Wed Jan 19, 2011 4:15 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
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Location: Shanghai
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Marj:
What I would do/would have done years ago is simply bring a lawsuit in either US courts or the WTO and after you win the piracy case, try for damages of around $10B a year -- or whatever amount based on $10 per pirated Dvd. Not too hard to come up with a rough estimate of sales. Not hard to prove there is rampant piracy, or to prove that the gov't tacitly allows it -- they shut down the dvd shops for foreign official visits and such. Or that most dvd manufacturing is done by local gov't entities and especially by certain central government paramilitary agencies. With billions at stake, it's hard to believe that everyone just quietly accepts the status quo.
Yesterday in the news I saw that GE is going to transfer its jet engine technology to China to remain a key player in the China market. Once China starts exporting international standard cars and then ten to 15 years beyond that starts selling airplanes -- and pirating intellectual property -- today's trade deficit will look tiny. Actually China doesn't even have to export any, as long as they produce cars and planes good enough for the domestic market, and the government dictates their purchase here, US exports will plunge.
Does the US even have a trade policy? Globalization has been a terrific boon to China and has risen scores of millions out of poverty -- often from dirt poor farmers to factory sweatshop laborers, as depicted in Last Train Home -- but it's been a job-hollowing disaster for the lower/middle class workers in America. Maybe things would be different in the world if Pakistan and India were the WalMart suppliers and making all the goods Americans now buy, instead of the US enriching a rival. |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Wed Jan 19, 2011 5:08 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
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Location: Shanghai
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Ebert bo bebert bananafana fo-febert's review of Last Train Home. He compares it to Hoop Dreams in it's impact and capturing of unexpected human drama. Big praise.
I should mention that it follows the family for 2 - 3 years which allows us to see the daughter grow up from 16 to 18. And it covers more than just the Chinese New Year travel ordeals and reunions, also showing the parents in their work place and dormitory, the grandmother and kids in the small village.
A film that really will stay with you. I liked every member of the family and felt sad at the dysfunction. When the film ends, you really want to know what happens to the daughter Qin and the son Yang. I'd really like to know how they selected this family, which works out so perfectly in their aspirations, desperation and reverberation. All the insane train station scenes -- bet you never spent 5 days at a station waiting for a train -- help connect this family's plight to that of the other 150 Million migrant workers.
I've lived in China a fairly long time, so you can trust that when I rec a film about China that it gets a lot right. The three Chinese films I'd rec from the past decade: Up the Yangtze, Blind Shaft and Last Train Home.
Addendum: The nearby alleyway has a guard who could be the uncle of the family in the film. He lives in a tiny guardhouse probably smaller than your kitchen -- something like 14' x 4' -- which is located right next to the garbage cans which I use and he is in charge of. He's a sweet honest guy and looked exceptionally rural when he first arrived about 5 years ago. Two years ago his wife, a friendly rugged woman, came to stay with him in his unheated trailer like box.
I probably should do more to help them. As it is, I do give him all of my recyclable plastic bottles, which brings him a steady pittance and he thanks me for very politely. We exchange pleasantries and occasionally I drop off some used clothes and other older items with him to distribute or resell or whatever. Last week I gave him a couple of pomelos from the tree on the side of the house I live in.
A tough life and I can't imagine what minimal amount he is earning (maybe $125 a month) or how unpleasant it must be living in such a crappy, semi-public, confined space. |
Last edited by gromit on Wed Jan 19, 2011 10:32 am; edited 1 time in total
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| bartist |
| Posted: Wed Jan 19, 2011 10:19 am |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
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Location: Black Hills
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Quote: Two years ago his wife, a friendly rugged woman, came to stay with him in his unheated trailer like box.
My first apt. was like that...and I learned that America has a shortage of friendly rugged women. I have LTH on reserve at the biblioteka.
Frozen River is by far the best of the films mentioned in comparison to W's B. Melissa Leo rocks my universe. She, and the film, are everything that is fine and true about independent film. |
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| Syd |
| Posted: Wed Jan 19, 2011 6:57 pm |
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I enjoyed Black Swan quite a bit. Which has a effective version of the unreliable narrator technique, since all scenes are filtered through the eyes of a character who is going insane, and who is a good distance in that direction from the beginning of the film. (Mila Kunis, for instance, is playing several different versions of the same character depending on Nina's obsession of the moment.) The line between reality and hallucination is effectively blurred; in this film it worked for me.
It would probably have worked even better if I knew the plot of Swan Lake.
I'd give Portman the Oscar over either actress in The Kids are All Right. It should easily get awards for makeup and costuming. Probably not much else although it will very likely get the most nominations this year given the large number of technical categories it qualifies for. |
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| whiskeypriest |
| Posted: Wed Jan 19, 2011 7:10 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: "It's a Dry Heat."
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billyweeds wrote: Marj wrote: Trish wrote: Marj wrote: I'd be curious to see the older guys responses. Of course, it's hard, either way, not having seen the film.
Btw, what age is "older?"
(always) older than you
Aw. Thank you, Trish, though I highly doubt it.
Marj--At the risk of raining on your parade, I don't think Trish meant that as a personal compliment. An "older" person is always someone older than the speaker, no matter who or how old the speaker may be. |
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| inlareviewer |
| Posted: Wed Jan 19, 2011 10:42 pm |
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Joined: 05 Jul 2004
Posts: 1949
Location: Lawrence, KS
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Future Current Films Dept.:
Uncle Kenneth's preview of the Sundance Film Festival
L.A. Times/The Envelope: Sundance Film Festival: a critic's preview
Present Current Films Dept.:
Black Swan, besides being The One To Beat for Best Actress, is also The One To Beat for Cinematography (though the ASC could see otherwise). Editing, various Sound elements and other craft awards are areas which could make their strengths felt on Feb. 27. The boffo box office in wide release, coupled with the heavy-duty BAFTA response, puts it just behind The Fighter and True Grit as Unlikely But Possible Spoiler for the top prize. This year's preferential final ballot amid a field of 10 contenders could theoretically produce an upset. Am not necessarily expecting one, but it's still a real possibility.
As is, despite all Social Network's pre-AMPAS status as Designated Victor, the potential for the scales to yet tip toward King's Speech, as Tariq Khan asserts:
Gold Derby: 5 reasons why 'The King's Speech' can still win Best Picture
Such things will be easier to assess/calculate after Dawn of the Dead has arrived next week, leaving a nomination roster and Metropolis-like clockwork P.R. campaigns in its wake. Several wild card entries could yet complicate the works -- The Town, for instance, and a posthumous Postlethwait nom; The Manville Factor; Barbara Hershey taking a nom alongside or even instead of Mila Kunis; Mr. Giamatti or Snr. Bardem getting a best actor slot over Duvall! or Franco or Wahlberg; a couple of previously awarded directors who might upend the DGA slate, such as Mr. Boyle, the Bros. Coen or Polanski (for Ghost Writer); several ForLang films whose screenplays might invade the relatively paltry Original category; and there are other variables. Mainly, as usual, am intrigued to see which A-to-C-Lister the Aclademy invites to come announce, inevitably looking impossibly glamorous at Insane O'Clock in the AM, while proles, tyros, journeymen and bloggers try not to look zombiefied. |
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