My Week 03/09 - 03/15
Pain & Gain - 2013 - Michael Bay
Michael Bay is an auteur. Most of what he makes is trash designed to dull the senses of the audience but he does it with a style all his own; often imitated but never duplicated. Pain & Gain is Bay doing a send-up of all things Bay. The slow motion 360 degree pans and explosions are still there but in the place of the action heroes we have the three stooges on steroids, literally. Bay did not become a big time director until Bad Boys in 1995 so Daniel Lugo would not have seen his work but they were both influenced by the same action films of the eighties.
The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover - 1989 - Peter Greenaway
Wonderful colour, costumes, and set design but I have a bit of a weak stomach so the food theme was more than I would ever want.
This Is Not a Film - 2011 - Jafar Panahi
Iranian filmmakers have spent the last forty years playing with the artifice of film and the ways in which reality can be used as an additional layer to the classical narative structure. Panahi himself sights his work on The Mirror as inspiration for how he is acting in this film. Here Panahi is playing himself the whole time so the break is not as shocking as what Mina does in The Mirror but like his earlier film, as long as the cameras are rolling Panahi is in control. The ban on making films has yet to slow Panahi output but who knows what the future holds.
The Grey - 2011 - Joe Carnahan
Liam Neeson verses the wolves. I know it is allegorical but on a shallow level it left me empty. I prefer my bleak futility of life stories to look a little prettier.
The Drop - 2014 - Michaël R. Roskam
Tom Hardy is great, as always, as a soft spoken bartender working for his cousin play by James Gandolfini in one of his final roles. Dennis Lehane's story is gritty and bleak, no one to be trusted. It is a fine street level crime movie made better by strong performances.
5 Centimeters Per Second - 2007 - Makoto Shinkai
A chain of short stories about their distance. Three segments about young people growing up and dealing with relationships.
The Counselor - 2013 - Ridley Scott
A really good movie that had the pieces to be great. Ridley Scott is a solid director, Cormac McCarthy is a great author, and most of the cast is first rate. I think the films has two big flaws that hold it back. First Cameron Diaz is not a good actress and her character is central to the film. Second McCarthy is a novelist, not a screen writer. There are speeches given by characters that could would on the page but come off as clunky when spoken out loud. On the plus side, McCarthy's script brings his typical bleak, dark view of the world.
Best of the Week: This Is Not a Film - 2011 - Jafar Panahi
Michael Bay is an auteur. Most of what he makes is trash designed to dull the senses of the audience but he does it with a style all his own; often imitated but never duplicated. Pain & Gain is Bay doing a send-up of all things Bay. The slow motion 360 degree pans and explosions are still there but in the place of the action heroes we have the three stooges on steroids, literally. Bay did not become a big time director until Bad Boys in 1995 so Daniel Lugo would not have seen his work but they were both influenced by the same action films of the eighties.
The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover - 1989 - Peter Greenaway
Wonderful colour, costumes, and set design but I have a bit of a weak stomach so the food theme was more than I would ever want.
This Is Not a Film - 2011 - Jafar Panahi
Iranian filmmakers have spent the last forty years playing with the artifice of film and the ways in which reality can be used as an additional layer to the classical narative structure. Panahi himself sights his work on The Mirror as inspiration for how he is acting in this film. Here Panahi is playing himself the whole time so the break is not as shocking as what Mina does in The Mirror but like his earlier film, as long as the cameras are rolling Panahi is in control. The ban on making films has yet to slow Panahi output but who knows what the future holds.
The Grey - 2011 - Joe Carnahan
Liam Neeson verses the wolves. I know it is allegorical but on a shallow level it left me empty. I prefer my bleak futility of life stories to look a little prettier.
The Drop - 2014 - Michaël R. Roskam
Tom Hardy is great, as always, as a soft spoken bartender working for his cousin play by James Gandolfini in one of his final roles. Dennis Lehane's story is gritty and bleak, no one to be trusted. It is a fine street level crime movie made better by strong performances.
5 Centimeters Per Second - 2007 - Makoto Shinkai
A chain of short stories about their distance. Three segments about young people growing up and dealing with relationships.
The Counselor - 2013 - Ridley Scott
A really good movie that had the pieces to be great. Ridley Scott is a solid director, Cormac McCarthy is a great author, and most of the cast is first rate. I think the films has two big flaws that hold it back. First Cameron Diaz is not a good actress and her character is central to the film. Second McCarthy is a novelist, not a screen writer. There are speeches given by characters that could would on the page but come off as clunky when spoken out loud. On the plus side, McCarthy's script brings his typical bleak, dark view of the world.
Best of the Week: This Is Not a Film - 2011 - Jafar Panahi
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