Category: reviews

Paul Thomas Anderson’s sprawling—yet austere—film SEEMS to be an epic masterpiece. But as the final credits rolled and I filed out of the theater, I was confused. Was it in fact a masterpiece? Or was I reacting to the incredible hype that preceded the film’s opening? Reflecting on it now, I realize it was both.

The story goes that Anderson stumbled onto a copy of Sinclair Lewis” early 20^th century novel “Oil!” in a dusty London bookshop, and immediately saw it as a film. That’s a lovely bit of lore, a poetic scrap of evidence of the way a book can seduce us with something as superficial as cover art and then draw us inside toward something deeper. Anderson — who adapted the story himself — may have loved “Oil!” but some say his love for the book doesn’t burn in the picture he’s made. “There Will Be Blood” is set in California in the same period as the book; its landscape suitably bleak to elicit a time and place foreign to most of us. (The Marfa, Texas area stands in for California in this case, ironically the same area where “Giant” and “No Country” was filmed.) Cinematographer Robert Elswit succeeds in turning this world of scrubby, modest bushes and rickety oil derricks into a visual tapestry that properly sets the scrappy mood of the film.
Continue reading “Magnificently Strange” →

I recently went to see a special screening of Ridley Scott’s newest version of Blade Runner, recently released as THE FINAL CUT. I am a huge fan of BR since it was released in 1982, and have the original version on both VHS and DVD. I have seen the studio release at least five times in a theatre, and countless times on video. I consider it one of my all-time favorites, though I last viewed over a decade ago.

I was excited when I saw that his “definitive” BR: FINAL CUT would be playing a limited engagement in Atlanta. I even considered watching the original again before going, but simply didn”t have the time.

As the theatre darkened (a bleak and threadbare movie house in Little Five Points that is often home to retrospectives and old horror marathons), a ball of fire erupted as the camera pulled back on a view of Los Angeles in 2019. The Vangelis soundtrack came in and my first thought was “Christ,that music is ghastly,did I actually like that stuff?” That aside,

The gravel-toned voiceover by Harrison Ford is gone (an addition that Warner Brother’s insisted upon for the hard-of-thinking). Now Rick Deckard keeps his thoughts to himself and both he and the film are infinitely more interesting for it.

This simple change creates a colder and lonelier place. Continue reading “Blade Runner: The Final Cut” →

I think those of you who are true film buffs probably already get the IndieWire film feed, but if not, here is a link to their latest blogger’s Top 10 lists: http://www.indiewire.com/movies/2007/12/indiewires_top_3.html

These particular lists are a bit out of the mainstream (at least some of them), yet I have (for once) seen nearly ALL of the films outlined on most of the lists (the exceptions being the Sundance offerings that have yet to be released).

This prompts me to generate my OWN list of picks for the year:
1. “No Country for Old Men, directed by the Coen Bros

2. “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly,” directed by Julian Schnabel

3. “Into the Wild,” directed by Sean Penn

4. “Eastern Promises”

5. “Lust, Caution,” directed by Ang Lee

6. “The Lives of Others,” directed by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck

7. “La Vie en Rose”

8. “Before The Devil Knows You’re Dead”

9. “The Savages”

10. “The Darjeeling Limited” directed by Wes Anderson

Honorable mention: Continue reading “Let’s All Go To The Lobby…” →

On the surface, the newly-released film “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly” would seem to have nothing of interest for American audiences:

1. its about a middle-aged man at the top of his career being felled by a paralyzing stroke
2. its in French
3. Its subtitled
4. it’s based on a true story
5. It’s directed by a painter (?)

Twelve hours after seeing this film, I am still in awe. It was absolutely brilliant, and like no other film I have (perhaps) ever seen.

Your trusted narrator is far from an “American everyman” but I think many will find the beauty and imagination of this film to be stunning, as I did. Perhaps some of the current critical buzz will help it gain distribution that will allow more than film buffs to see it.

The short synopsis: Jean-Dominique Bauby, celebrity editor of Elle (FR) magazine, suffers a stroke at age 43; leaving him totally paralyzed,an exceeding rare occurrence called “Locked-In Syndrome”. Only his left eye is spared, so he must learn to live (and communicate) thru blinking. Continue reading “Le Scaphandre et le Papillon” →

Kelly and I had the opportunity to see a pre-screening of THE SAVAGES with our film club last night. There has been a lot of underlying buzz for this film,I am here to say that it may be justified. Some thoughts,

Is it really any coincidence that the two estranged Savage children are named after characters in Peter Pan? I think not. Jon (Philip Seymour Hoffman) and Wendy (Laura Linney) are middle-aged and essentially alone, having apparently successfully dodged adulthood as well as any real intimacy with another individual.

They are thrust into having to deal with their father’s sudden dementia, and the emotional and financial challenges that come with that. The potential emotional fireworks that would be seen in a Lifetime Movie of the Week are quietly dispatched in favor of the sad, absurd, and funny moments in their efforts to deal with Dad (Phillip Bosco), as well as dealing together with the past. Both Hoffman and Linney are wonderful — underplaying so perfectly to bring out the crumpled, bittersweet truths of their lives and inter-dependent relationships. Continue reading “Savages” →

Last night I had the pleasure of attending an Image Film Club screening of the new Coen brother’s film “No Country for Old Men”. I highly recommend it,so for what its worth, here is a thumbnail review of my first thoughts after 12 hours of thinking about nothing else than this film,

In so many words, “creatively splattered blood within an intense triangle of characters and the study of good, not so good, and evil.” Suspenseful and uncompromising. The cinematography and art direction are amazing. Details reveal themselves in endless textures: the light over a motel at dusk, the internal glow of the highway sign tossing add hues across the parking lot. Extreme close-ups last forever, forcing you to examine not only the expression, but to trace the lines across the face and theorize where they came from and what they might mean.

The acting throughout added to the film’s excellence. Javier Bardem portrays the psychopathic killer with an intensity that grasps you tightly every time he is on screen (and even when he is not). Jones is perfect as the platitude-spouting sheriff, and Josh Brolin is totally believable as the blue collar “cowboy” who is the center of the film’s conflict. Even supporting roles are jewels to admire in their simplicity and tactile effect.

Set in Texas in the 80’s,a time frame that works because it takes you back to the place where phones had dials and were attached to walls and poles, where you had to wait for the operator to make a long distance call, and where mop-head haircuts and bell bottoms were still worn by a slice of rural America. Like Fargo, the particular phrasings of the west Texas setting make the dialog ring. “You can”t make up such a thing as that,” Sheriff Tommy Lee Jones” character declares, recalling a newspaper story of a bizarre crime in San Francisco. “I dare you to even try.” “It’s gittin” onto closing time, it is,” “You git on outa here, and don”t be thinkin” you can come back anytime soon.”

The Coens have found their way home in this incredibly memorable new film. Like Millers Crossing — and even Barton Fink — the brothers weave a simple story into a complex, thought provoking classic.