| Author |
Message |
|
| marantzo |
 Posted: Sun Sep 02, 2012 10:20 pm |
 |
|
|
Guest
|
billyweeds wrote: Marc wrote:
I saw Premium Rush today and had a blast. I loved looking at New York City and spotting all the familiar locations. Memories everywhere.
Can't wait to see this.
PR, as Marc's comment relates to, is a blast.
Marc did you stay for the end credits and see the Gordon-Levitt talk about one of his rides while in front of the car with the smashed window?  |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| gromit |
| Posted: Mon Sep 03, 2012 4:48 am |
|
|
Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9016
Location: Shanghai
|
Took a chance on a recent film set in Armenia since I have an Armenian friend who I can give the Dvd to. Here is the story of an American ground-truther, a guy who takes measurements to match up with satellite data to make accurate maps. He meets up with a hip young Armenian chick with great eyebrows who is a photographer and so she falls in with him and acts as his translator and guide.
Which is a good thing, since he doesn't seem to speak one word of Armenian and, despite his technical prowess, doesn't seem to have found Google translate on his omnipresent laptop yet.
It's a decent film, mostly a road journey through beautiful rugged Armenia, the real star of the film. The American actor Ben Foster is fairly terrible and seems to be aware of the camera in nearly every scene. It would help if he could act. The Armenian actress Luna Azabal is interesting and lively and does a nice job. I think this is a problem with films set in a 2nd world or some out of the way country. They can get top local talent and discover new local talent at very reasonable costs, but either have to spend a lot to bring in a 3rd tier American actor or pick some local expat with limited acting chops (ie. gromit as an extra).
The dialogue is a bit sketchy at times. Occasionally the film takes a scenic detour without working it into the film that well. It's nice to see Armenia and Armenians -- kind of mountain Greeks/Turks, if you ask me. I must say the roads looked better than I was expecting, and I could picture myself on vacation there. The one ancient church they visit reminded me of the Serbian Orthodox Church I visited in Kosovo, which was under UN guard.
Here's Here's NYTimes review which i think gives it a bit too much credit for its philosophical fluff which isn't well-developed.
http://movies.nytimes.com/2012/04/13/movies/braden-kings-here-raises-questions-of-philosophy.html
Apparently it opened in NY in mid-April, so a more recent film than I thought -- after it kicked around the festival circuit for a year or more. |
_________________
Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
|
| Back to top |
  
|
| gromit |
| Posted: Mon Sep 03, 2012 4:57 am |
|
|
|
Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9016
Location: Shanghai
|
I went to the film's website briefly and there's a director's statement which reads in part:
"impossible to believe that something like Nagorno-Karabagh, a literally undefined territory (diplomatically, at least), still existed."
I'm not sure where the director is from -- US , Ireland? -- but there are many disputed, ungoverned, contested lands all over the world .
Just in the past 3 years I was in:
- Morocco which controls a chunk of land known as Western Sahara which is almost equal in size with Morocco and is basically ungoverned.
- Kosovo which has declared itself independent and is recognized by about 40 countries, but it still claimed by Serbia and still officially a disputed territory the UN is trying to resolve.
and
- Bosnia, in which half the country is controlled by something called the Republika Sprska (Serb), and while it is federated with Bosnia, they both issue their own money and have their own police and such.
And there are other contested pockets of land such as Nakorrno-Karabach around the globe.
"In" Morocco, there are two cities controlled by Spain -- Cueta, across from British Gibraltar, and Melilla further along the Mediterranean coast.
Islands are disputed all over, especially as fishing concerns give way to oil and gas leases. Even as important an island as Taiwan is in a legal limbo and disputed ownership. |
_________________
Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
|
| Back to top |
|
| bartist |
| Posted: Mon Sep 03, 2012 11:10 am |
|
|
|
Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Posts: 6961
Location: Black Hills
|
| Blue Like Jazz is a low-budget independent and has the strengths of same -- interesting and real characters, an overall ring of truth. A Texas boy from a conservative Baptist milieu, angry at his family, leaps at an opportunity to attend Reed College in Portland, Oregon, a private college with a rep for leftist social activism, atheism, and alternative lifestyles experimented with unto near-anarchy. There are messages about youth, anarchy, and being yourself rather than trying too hard to "fit in," but the film takes a relaxed and humorous approach rather than get too caught up in the ethos of either Reed College or redneck Texas. Some viewers may find some of the Reedies to be caricatures, but as a former Reedie myself, I have to say it's fairly accurate even as it uses the cinematic device of compression -- which offers more weirdness in a day than an actual Reedie might encounter in a month. |
_________________
He was wise beyond his years, but only by a few days. |
|
| Back to top |
|
| gromit |
| Posted: Mon Sep 03, 2012 12:03 pm |
|
|
|
Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9016
Location: Shanghai
|
I thought the film suffered from a bit of phoniness as represented in the title. Once or twice it tries to make jazz into a theme, but kind of falls flat with that. And what does blue have to do with the jazz in the film? -- mostly Coltrane's Love Supreme. I think it's trying to sound hip and shoehorn both blues and jazz into it's title for really no good reason.
I also rather doubted that the Amy Winehouse lesbian, the BMOC aka the Pope, or the hot sweet chick would spend so much time with the naive small-town hero. Though I guess freshman dorm does throw odd people together. And the film is his journey dealing with the type of people he never met before.
I thought the religious angle was overplayed. This idea that one must hide their religious faith or be ostracized seemed especially silly to me. I'm rather areligious and atheistic, but you really can't be an English major without being familiar with the Bible. You can't engage Milton or Blake without some grounding in the Bible, and I'm sure his religious upbringing would be beneficial in other discilpines as well. (Do we ever find out what he's studying? he's a frosh so wouldn't have a major).
In university, I even took an Old Testament class taught by a (Methodist?) minister. I just don't think today's college students are so self-conscious in their atheism and/or even bother mocking the Church and religion. Maybe I'm wrong.
I did however like the Oregon priest and his young daughter.
And was slightly surprised they had the youth minister bonking the kid's mom.
Not a bad film.
Worth catching on cable.
And Reed College probably isn't the setting for that many films. |
_________________
Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
|
| Back to top |
|
| Befade |
| Posted: Tue Sep 04, 2012 12:24 am |
|
|
|
Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 3784
Location: AZ
|
Quote: I saw Margaret and it knocked me out. I think it's a masterpiece.
Marc and Gromit................I don't like movies that are this painful to digest. Anna Paquin's character is so strident and makes such a habit of creating unpleasant, strained interactions with everyone she comes into contact with that I felt assaulted by this film. |
_________________
Lost in my own private I dunno. |
|
| Back to top |
|
| gromit |
| Posted: Tue Sep 04, 2012 2:24 am |
|
|
|
Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9016
Location: Shanghai
|
Teenagers can be self-absorbed and self-righteous.
I didn't find it painful, but did wish the characters could avoid such confrontations and be more diplomatic. The main character, Lisa Cohen, is rather frustrating to deal with.
I thought J Cameron Smith (if I got her name right) was excellent as the Mother. |
_________________
Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
|
| Back to top |
|
| bartist |
| Posted: Tue Sep 04, 2012 8:45 am |
|
|
|
Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Posts: 6961
Location: Black Hills
|
Quote: I also rather doubted that the Amy Winehouse lesbian, the BMOC aka the Pope, or the hot sweet chick would spend so much time with the naive small-town hero. Though I guess freshman dorm does throw odd people together. And the film is his journey dealing with the type of people he never met before....
I thought the religious angle was overplayed. This idea that one must hide their religious faith or be ostracized seemed especially silly to me.
Agree his encounters invoked the dramatic device of upping the contrast in order to paint the "stranger in a strange land." The religious angle....yeah, it's seen through the distortion lens of his own freshman anxiety...his character is a naive one. The real Reed, the one where I was a freshman, was pretty tolerant. There was one guy who'd been there for seven years, uber-conservative and spent a lot of his free time playing "Risk" - he was witty and fairly popular. In my dorm, the super was an Episcopalian who would rant about immorality in modern life, while across the hall was a follower of Carlos Castaneda who followed a strict regimen of beer, shrooms, and "missing" his dartboard so that pointy projectiles would miss you by inches as you walked by his open door. |
_________________
He was wise beyond his years, but only by a few days. |
|
| Back to top |
|
| Befade |
| Posted: Tue Sep 04, 2012 2:07 pm |
|
|
|
Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 3784
Location: AZ
|
Quote: Teenagers can be self-absorbed and self-righteous.
I know, Gromit. I do think there was a reality portrayed by all the characters..........but I'd compare Lisa Cohen to a chain saw wielder. |
_________________
Lost in my own private I dunno. |
|
| Back to top |
|
| knox |
| Posted: Tue Sep 04, 2012 5:31 pm |
|
|
|
Joined: 18 Mar 2010
Posts: 1246
Location: St. Louis
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| knox |
| Posted: Tue Sep 04, 2012 5:34 pm |
|
|
|
Joined: 18 Mar 2010
Posts: 1246
Location: St. Louis
|
| Saw Blue Like Jazz - it tries really hard, but somehow I had trouble buying into the whole fish-outta-water theme. Or that Amy Winehouse pees standing up. Or etc. An interesting misfire. JMO. |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| billyweeds |
| Posted: Tue Sep 04, 2012 5:35 pm |
|
|
Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
|
Think I'm probably going to catch this one, at least on cable. Sedgwick is a draw for me as well. |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| Marc |
| Posted: Tue Sep 04, 2012 6:29 pm |
|
|
Joined: 19 May 2004
Posts: 8424
|
| I Saw The Devil is an ultra-violent Korean horror film from 2011 that's well worth seeing. |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| billyweeds |
| Posted: Tue Sep 04, 2012 6:50 pm |
|
|
|
Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
|
Marc wrote: I Saw The Devil is an ultra-violent Korean horror film from 2011 that's well worth seeing.
And it streams on Netflix! Ultra-violence, here I come (tomorrow, since tonight is DNC all night)! |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| marantzo |
| Posted: Tue Sep 04, 2012 10:04 pm |
|
|
|
Guest
|
| The Possession certainly didn't get a good review up here and I saw the preview a few times and it looked like crap. |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
