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| billyweeds |
 Posted: Wed Sep 25, 2013 5:26 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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| Marc--I'm seeing Gravity in a couple of weeks. Didn't know it had opened yet. Where and in what format did you see it? |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Wed Sep 25, 2013 9:13 am |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Posts: 6967
Location: Black Hills
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Marc wrote: GRAVITY is overwhelming. It literally took my breath away. I couldn't talk after the screening. This is a film making of such extraordinary depth and vision that it can and will actually alter your consciousness. Want to take a drug-free acid trip? Buy a ticket to GRAVITY. It is art of the highest order.
Hearing the same from all directions. James Cameron raved about the photography, and everything else. Had to smile at "took my breath away," given the plot. Opens nationwide on Oct. 4. Marc gets invited to critic screenings in Austin? |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Wed Sep 25, 2013 10:04 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9016
Location: Shanghai
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| Just picked up Mud, The Bling Ring and What Maisie Knew, so will be catching up on 2013 shortly. |
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| Marc |
| Posted: Wed Sep 25, 2013 11:23 am |
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Joined: 19 May 2004
Posts: 8424
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I saw GRAVITY at Fantastic Fest in Austin in 3D.
3D is essential to GRAVITY. It is probably the most perfect use of 3D in a film so far. Stunning.
Sandra Bullock does a great job of giving the film a shitload of humanity. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Wed Sep 25, 2013 11:53 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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Marc wrote: I saw GRAVITY at Fantastic Fest in Austin in 3D.
3D is essential to GRAVITY. It is probably the most perfect use of 3D in a film so far. Stunning.
Sandra Bullock does a great job of giving the film a shitload of humanity.
This is a case where all the reviews say basically the same thing. |
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| yambu |
| Posted: Wed Sep 25, 2013 3:14 pm |
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Joined: 23 May 2004
Posts: 6441
Location: SF Bay Area
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| Glad to know about What Maisie Knew. It's my favorite Henry James novel. |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Wed Sep 25, 2013 4:10 pm |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9016
Location: Shanghai
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Just so you know, the film What Maisie Knew is a "contemporary re-imagining of the Henry James novel by the same name."
Watched The Bling Ring and fortunately it's not as annoying as Coppola's Somewhere, though just as vapid. I'm not sure why Coppola made a film about this. The focus is on an obsession with celebrities and high-end fashion goods, but unfortunately this seems true not only of the teenage characters, but of the film as well. There really isn't much in the way of social commentary, though the material seems ripe for it.
Leslie Mann is good as the mother home-schooling her daughters in The Secret. There's one nice scene where we watch a home being robbed from a nearby hill, which reminded me of Antonioni. And not much else.
I did find it interesting that the ringleader and most amoral participant was the Asian Girl, while the White Boy is the most sympathetic and conflicted. Wonder if a white male director could have gotten away with that so easily. |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Wed Sep 25, 2013 5:51 pm |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
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Location: Black Hills
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Quote: Watched The Bling Ring and fortunately it's not as annoying as Coppola's Somewhere....
LOL.
That is fortunate.
It's on Redbox for a buck. Or 1.28 now, they upped the price this year. |
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He was wise beyond his years, but only by a few days. |
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| Syd |
| Posted: Thu Sep 26, 2013 9:20 am |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 12944
Location: Norman, Oklahoma
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| I mostly liked "Prisoners," which is half police procedural and half vigilante procedural and has a cast of people who I really like seeing in a film. It needs its length to have a room to breathe. The movie it reminds me most of is "Mystic River," with a taste of "Gone, Baby, Gone," although this is more successful than the latter. Jake Gyllenhaal's detective Loki (the name is not significant) really could have used some backup. |
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| jeremy |
| Posted: Thu Sep 26, 2013 7:22 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 6794
Location: Derby, England and Hamilton, New Zealand (yes they are about 12,000 miles apart)
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I think Alfonso Cuaron is a filmmaker par excellence and easily one of my favourites. He has shown himself - Great Exprectations, The Prisoner Of Azkhaban, Children Of Men and now Gravity - to be completely at navigating through and negotiating the nuances of foreign cultures.
The Harry Potter books have roots in the very English genre of the boarding school story, and also draws heavily on the equally English trope of the essentail superficially and underlying weirdness of suburbia. outing remains the best of the series. Similarly, much of the humour is particularly British. Yet, Alfonso Cuaron's s Harry Potter outing remains the best of the series.
And I consider Pan's Labyrinth to be a cinematic masterpiece - not a word I throw around lightly. |
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| yambu |
| Posted: Thu Sep 26, 2013 7:30 pm |
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Joined: 23 May 2004
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jeremy wrote: ....And I consider Pan's Labyrinth to be a cinematic masterpiece - not a word I throw around lightly. |
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That was great for you. How was it for me? |
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| jeremy |
| Posted: Thu Sep 26, 2013 7:43 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 6794
Location: Derby, England and Hamilton, New Zealand (yes they are about 12,000 miles apart)
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| Unfortunately, as I've just remembered, Pan's Labyrinth, though was produced by Alfonso Cuaron, was actually directed Guillermo del Toro. Not that that detracts from the film in anyway. |
_________________
I am angry, I am ill, and I'm as ugly as sin.
My irritability keeps me alive and kicking.
I know the meaning of life, it doesn't help me a bit.
I know beauty and I know a good thing when I see it. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Thu Sep 26, 2013 10:15 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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Syd wrote: I mostly liked "Prisoners," which is half police procedural and half vigilante procedural and has a cast of people who I really like seeing in a film. It needs its length to have a room to breathe. The movie it reminds me most of is "Mystic River," with a taste of "Gone, Baby, Gone," although this is more successful than the latter. Jake Gyllenhaal's detective Loki (the name is not significant) really could have used some backup.
Interesting; I thought Gone Baby Gone was far and away the best of the three movies. |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Fri Sep 27, 2013 12:54 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9016
Location: Shanghai
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What Maisie Knew.
The acting is quite good all around, the cinematography is handled well, the relationships that get strained and that develop are interesting. But, the characters themselves, or at least their roles, seem rather phony. I didn't really believe that Mom was an aging rock star and Dad was an international businessman of some vague sort. They seemed more like types than real people. And by ratcheting them up to these uncommon levels, they didn't feel real and their self-absorption just seemed too obvious and expected.
Somewhat Spoilers:
It also seemed rather unlikely/perfunctory that both of the divorcing parents would marry a young good-looking person seemingly in order to dump Maisie on them. And then those two in their roles as swapping caretakers would fall in love.
[/End Minor Spoilage]
So it's a solid film, well-done. But I would have preferred other characters.
And while we sympathize with Maisie as she gets passed around and mildly neglected, it's easy to realize that this qualifies as a First World problem -- not being sure who is going to pick you up from expensive private school, though being somewhat sure they'll be late. She even has four adults who love her and look after her, even if two of them, her actual parents, are too busy and self-involved to do a good job.
I'm not familiar with the Henry James novel, but in the film, wealth is just the privileged background for Maisie and her parents. I seem to recall James obsessing and fussing quite a lot about money and who has it, and its power and prestige. We don't hear about the cost of anything or expenses, as is common with divorce, though it seems here the mother has a significant aging rock star income of her own. |
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| Joe Vitus |
| Posted: Fri Sep 27, 2013 8:53 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 14498
Location: Houston
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Somewhat a Response to Somewhat Spoilers
I may be mistaken, but I don't think both parents remarrying a younger person was a coincidence in the book. I think the mother married a gigalo, and then later the father, competing with her, married the...governness?
It's interesting that they essentially marry children but won't care for the child they concieved. |
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