Printable View
Star Trek - 10/10
It was really, amazingly good. The best movie I've seen in a very long time if not ever. :p
and another movie I saw was Moon, I also give it a 10/10... it was also really amazing, though not so good as Star Trek... definitely not. But it was really a great Sci-Fi.
Another sleeper :p I thought the friend I went with was the only one in the country who fell asleep during that film. Agree with you 100%. I am still trying to comprehend why it is so popular.Quote:
Originally Posted by Madhuri
Synecdoche, New York - In some sense this film was not ready enough to be exposed to mainstream audiences and critics. Too many were expecting a narrative, or at least a hint that the films surrealities could be explained through dream-logic. Many found it impenatrable and tedoius. Those who said that I'm sure didn't see it a second time or a third. Yes, Synecdoche, New York is a film that does demand something from the audience, such as patience and something of an appretiation enough of it to watch it again to penetrate its mysteries.
This film does admittingly borrow a lot from experimental and absurdist theatre. Those who are familiar with it know what I'm talking about, those who aren't can't expect me to explain it very well. Objects and things are presented in abstract ways in order to present an idea, and absurd actions by characters are meant to represent sometimes a meta-cinematic idea.
This film is so full, that it is too full, and director-screenwriter Charlie Kauffman is aware of that and builds his film in all self-consciousness. He may just be the greatest cinematic writer of the human condition since Ingmar Bergman, even though both go about their ideas quite differently. Kauffman is a pure postmodern writer with a wide knowledge of postmodern theatrical and literary techniques.
Oh why am I going on in and on in lifeless theory? If you want to know how Kauffman goes about making this movie, watch it for yourself. But this film is no exercise in style, nor is it any sort of empty (but clever) examination of the endless reiterations of context. It is a film about life and its confusions, sufferings, loves and absurdities. What a sad sad film this is.
Years seem to pass by without us or the main character realizing it. He is a neurotic playright, Caden Cotard, played movingly by Phillip Seymour Hoffman in THE performance of his career, suffering from a mid-life crisis and trying to find some way in which he can develop some meaning and satisfaction into his life.
He decides to develop a massive theater-piece emcompassing the whole of every persons life, every detail, every meta-detail, every thought, every inch of the human condition. Caden searches for his lifes meta-narrative only to find deeper and deeper confusion, and in the end, discovering the meaningless meaning of his meaninglessness.
Women come in and out of his life, people disappear and fade away. Like a dream time is distorted and when his first wife says that she's going on a trip to Berlin with their daughter without him, and as he waits for a week, he soon realizes that it's been a year.
There is a deep deep tragedy of Caden's life, which is simply the tragedy of the human condition. There are so many stunning scenes in this film of raw emotion and despair, that to penetrate beneath the surface requires multiple viewings.
I have seen this film twice, and I still don't find it adequete enough to review it. Like all great films it cannot be described. It follows no formula (though as I said, it is greatly influenced by absurdist theatre) and no narrative. When you see it, think of this film as a poem of our entire lives. And how bland would a poem be if it was just words? 10/10
The Lovely Bones
I got Movie gift cards for Christmas and today my husband and I used them to go see this movie. I read the book several years ago and I remember being kind of disappointed in the book. Maybe it just has something to do with who I was as a person at that time, but for some reason this story just wasn't reaching me. Perhaps I'll have to go back and re-read the book after having seen the movie.
When you die, what happens? What is the afterlife like? These questions have been on my mind during the past year and I've read different books about death this year and I saw some of what I've been reading about portrayed in this film.
Do the dead speak to us? Do they speak to us through images or sounds? Sometimes we just "know" things but where does that information come to us from? This movie touched on these themes.
Saoirse Ronan gave a nice performance. Now when I go back to re-read the book, I will probably have an image of her in my mind. I don't think I ever put a face on the character when I read the book the first time.
I agree about Star Trek...I never was a big Trekkie at all either but this was just an amazing film.Quote:
Originally Posted by NikolaiI
I didn't know where else to post this so:
Avatar wins at the Golden Globes :bawling:
James Cameron wins best director over Katherine Bigalow?
Sandra Bullock wins for a pretty good performance in an otherwise terrible movie, while Carey Mulligan from An Education and Gabourey Sidibe from Precious get nothing?
Also, how the hell is it that Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs gets nominated, but not Ponyo? Beats me.
Golden Globes has proven once again that they are a joke.
yeah it's pretty much all crap.Quote:
Originally Posted by DanielBenoit
but i saw Crazy Heart last night for the first time. And I'm so happy for Jeff Bridges and that the song "The Weary Kind" from that movie won best original song. Crazy Heart contained some really moving acting performances.
I think Oscars will do it better.
I don't want to jinx it, but I just have a hunch that this year the first ever best director award for a female will be given out at the oscars :)
Again, I already told you I liked Avatar, but it's NOT worthy of best picture or best director by far. Inglourious Basterds or Up In The Air or The Hurt Locker are so much more qualified for both of those positions.
Just watched The Life of Brian. Still waiting for my ears to stop hurting so I can think about what the hell just happened.
Recently saw Sherlock Holmes, it was actually quite enjoyable.
Also, on Avatar, Yes the story is weak, but all else is just pretty much awesome, best picture isn't just about the story.... :)
James Cameron is a visionary, he managed to take cinema to a technical level not seen before on multiple occasions. That is also a part of cinema, he is a bit of a phenomena, he manages to appeal to people on a large scale. Having said all that, I'm not convinced he deserved to win either.
Hehehehe I love that film!!Quote:
Originally Posted by skib
Yes, it is about the writing, the acting, the direction, etc. Avatar had none of that IMHO.Quote:
Originally Posted by AimusSage
And a strange phenomena indeed, for I completely don't understand his wide-appeal.Quote:
James Cameron is a visionary, he managed to take cinema to a technical level not seen before on multiple occasions. That is also a part of cinema, he is a bit of a phenomena, he manages to appeal to people on a large scale.
Okay, I really need to stop my hate-Avatar campagin and just let the people who enjoyed it, enjoy it. :)
The focus of the movie was only special effects and nothing else, I guess.
I agree. :)Quote:
Originally Posted by DanielBenoit
Oooh finally somewhere where I can vent!
Last week I was pretty much dragged to see Where The Wild Things Are.
Oh my god. I never, ever, ever saw anything that bad. It was like watching my brother and my dad fighting for fun, and trust me it's not a show you can stand for more than 10 seconds without feeling rage. Then it turned into watching children play. And I don't even like children. And the child in the movie was so annoying you don't even want to get me started on that. I felt insulted. I felt that whoever wrote that screenplay has been insulting human intelligence.
And yes I know it's from a book, which I had never heard about, and I sincerely hope it is better than this terribly awful screen adaptation.
It's been almost a week and it still enrages me :mad: :mad: :mad: :flare::flare::flare:
Quote:
Originally Posted by Koa
Omg are you serious? I found it to be the best film of 2009 and the fifth best film of the decade. If you were expecting a straight-forward plot, then I'm sorry. It's about the angst of childhood pitted against a world of despair. It is a beautiful and quite sad film. Oh how I wish to go back and see it again.
Saw the movie "Local Color" the other night. It was about a couple of artists: one old and angry, the other young and romantic. The young one wants the old one to teach him.
This movie is like the Karate Kid, only instead of doing karate, they're doing art.
It was a pretty good movie, as movies go. 7/10