The World Beyond BetterMost > The Culture Tent
Resurrecting the Movies thread...
Mikaela:
Thank you for responding, Meryl. Sounds good. :)
--- Quote from: Meryl on October 01, 2007, 01:20:17 pm ---I pretty much kept the review sketchy so as to not spoil it for others....
--- End quote ---
I figured as much, but perhaps we could/should allow ourselves some slightly spoilerish reviews here and mark them clearly as such?
I know, I know, I'm probably thinking of my own good here :blush: as I won't get to see the film till another half year has passed. And I don't mind some spoilers if they help illuminate the points made in the review and opinion stated about the film, - that goes for this film or others. :)
Lynne:
--- Quote from: Meryl on September 30, 2007, 11:36:43 pm ---Well, we saw Lust, Caution tonight, and it was really good. John Gallagher, Jenny newyearsday, Juan (JCinNYC2006) and Lynne were there. If it hadn't been for Lynne, I would have forgotten to even go! But she was in Connecticut at a wedding this weekend and made the effort to get down here to see the movie. What a Brokie! ;D
The movie is beautiful to look at, thanks to Rodrigo Prieto, and has an authentic period feel, like the better Merchant-Ivory productions. It takes place in Hong Kong and Shanghai during World War II, when the Japanese occupied parts of China. A group of idealistic young students decide to serve the cause of patriotism by targeting an infamous Japanese collaborator for assassination. Throughout the film they become more hardened and sophisticated by the experience and have some harrowing ordeals. One young girl becomes the mistress of the villainous collaborator, and it is the story of what she goes through emotionally that is the core of the film.
We noticed several things that made us think of Brokeback, particularly a couple of shots of the full moon, Ang Lee's attention to colors (the heroine wore mostly shades of blue) and an elegiac last shot that made us think of the last shot in Brokeback. As reviewers mentioned, the sex scenes were indeed explicit and powerful. Those were brave actors! :P
I do want to see this film again because it's very layered and rich, as you might expect from Ang. But I agree with Jenny, who commented "I'm certainly not going to see this one 13 times!" as we left the theater. ;D
We had a fun dinner at a Chinese place (of course!) afterwards and got caught up on each others' doings. Then Lynne and I said goodbye to Juan, Jenny and John and picked up her rental car at the parking garage nearby. She's probably arriving at her digs in Hartford about now. Thanks for a great time, Lynne! :-*
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Thanks for a great review, Meryl! I posted stuff over in the 'Lust, Caution' thread in The Culture Tent, including some pics!
http://bettermost.net/forum/index.php/topic,1955.msg260666.html#msg260666
I'd love to have a deeper discussion about this one after more people have had a chance to see it. Like Jenny, I doubt I'll need to join another support group (a la Bettermost 8)) over this one, but it was completely worthy, IMO. Like you say, very brave actors and what we're coming to think of as trademark Ang Lee and Rodrigo Prieto!
Hugs,
Lynne
MaineWriter:
In case folks haven't figured it out yet, I am a fan of Pajiba (www.pajiba.com). Now they have an article, "Eight Films That Shouldn't Have Won Best Picture." I won't post the whole article here, you can read it at
http://www.pajiba.com/eight-films-that-shouldnt-have-won-best-picture.htm
but I will post the entry for 2005. By and large I agree with the conclusions although as folks on this thread know, I am a fan of Titanic. Even so, it makes for could reading. Enjoy!
2005
Crash beats Brokeback Mountain, Capote, Munich, and Good Night, and Good Luck
Scratch that; this is the year I stopped trusting the Academy. This is the year I realized that they will still continue to award quality work in filmmaking, but only serendipitously, out of sheer happy coincidence. Ang Lee’s Brokeback Mountain was a tender, doomed love story, and became a cultural event larger than the film itself. Bennett Miller’s Capote was a stunning feature debut that revolved around Philip Seymour Hoffman’s amazing lead performance, which won the Best Actor award. Steven Spielberg’s Munich was the director’s most politically charged film in years, and showed he was still at the top of his class of film-school revolutionaries. George Clooney’s Good Night, and Good Luck was an equally thought-provoking film, one where Clooney took a back seat to the story at hand and David Strathairn’s gripping turn as Edward R. Murrow. All of these films are good films, smart, strong, well-made films that deserve to be praised. But Paul Haggis’ Crash is just the kind of pseudo-intellectual dreck that finds itself atop the awards heap when all is said and done. It attacks the issue of modern-day racism with all the sophistication of a college freshman, never stopping to wonder if people fight each other because they’re lonely, or frustrated, or just plain assholes. If someone cuts you off in traffic, and you get upset, maybe it’s not because the driver’s a different race; maybe you just don’t like being cut off on the highway, you know? Haggis’ film soars past the usual level of manipulation filmmakers employ when telling a story and becomes something cheap, and unclever, and almost offensive in the haphazard way it pretends to talk about real issues. It’s not merely that Haggis made a clunky film about race; it’s that, in the midst of a turbulent war and with the memory of Sept. 11 still lingering over a generation, he abused the power he has a filmmaker to create something complex and tough and challenging and good and instead funneled into something tawdry and exaggerated and stereotypical and embarrassing. Movies can show us who we are, and what we want to be, and how far we sometimes have to go make up the difference, and Crash is the antithesis of all of that. Of the other four films nominated this particular year — and they’re all masterful films — perhaps Munich comes closest to dealing with the terrors we visit on each other and the price we pay for what we think is justice. But Spielberg’s film is a tough one, unwilling to compromise in its search for answers to the big questions, and that ultimately disqualified it from winning. Crash is slick, dumb, and full of answers, but no one seemed to care that they were the wrong ones.
ednbarby:
--- Quote from: ifyoucantfixit on October 01, 2007, 02:32:37 pm --- I saw the previews of that at the theatre yesterday. We went and saw Eastern Promises.
Wow that was a powerful film. Very violent but it had a kind of 40s feel to it. I thought it was rather stylized in relation to the blood and gore. The blood seemed to be particularly placed to make it contrast with the darkness of the rest of the movie. Rather like the movie. Sin City. Viggo Mortenson and Naomi Watts were great, as was the guy that played his friend, I dont know his name. He was wonderful. The rest of the cast were stellar as well...If you cant take blood, this is not for you..If you can watch it or turn your head and still see the movie..Its worth the look. When the movie is over. I defy you not to say wow!!
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Vincent Cassel (as Kirill). And I didn't even have to look that up on imdb.com because he impressed me so much. And because I have a freakish sponge memory for names and faces.
And that was very well-said, especially "If you can watch it or turn your head and still see the movie, it's worth the look." I turned my head but still saw the movie. And it was magnificent.
delalluvia:
Saw Elizabeth, the Golden Age.
2.5 out of 5
Cast was flawless in their acting, but the story let them down. Amazing that it could considering what events of Elizabeth's reign they chose to portray.
They had such opportunities for greatness in the movie - a cast completely capable of handling it - but everything was half-assed.
It's like they didn't have the budget they did for the first Elizabeth. The sets, costumes, extras and CGI were much simpler, reused over and over again and ineffective/badly used.
The historical liberties I can understand, but it was just disjointed and heavy-handed in some parts.
Had a chance to go see a sneak peek at Rendition for my birthday Tuesday, but got violently sick and was unable to go. I hope to catch it when it opens.
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