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- Written by: Rod Boyle
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Which was not the easiest film to watch, but - like a lot of things - the reward is directly proportionate to the effort you put into it.
It loosely follows "Oscar" - the protagonist - through his life and flashbacks, into his hallucinations and death. There is, of course, an awful lot more, but for a film as experimental as it is it still maintains interest and a cohesive narrative (the problem with a lot of these films - as experimental as they are, is that they lose all touchstones of humanity and narrative. This one doesn't). Worth watching - but, fair warning, at 2 hours and 40 minutes it's a bit long. And, for the record, while it requires a fair bit of attention it might benefit from a small dose of the many psychedelics it recommends. And ensure you watch it on a big screen...
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Film
- Hits: 1209
Having rewatched "Being John Malklovich" - and, again, amazed, laughing, both outrageous and fresh - still, 20 years later. Excellent. And followed it with "Adaptation" - which I remembered only slightly, I still didn't enjoy it, appreciation would be more the word, yet a brighter film than most by a long-shot. The scenes where Charlie Kaufman is trying to write but the internal monologue keeps intruding, the screenwriters seminar, absolutely hilarious...and you can see how this attention to detail, the visual games, are leading him towards "Synecdoche, New York".
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Film
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About a Mentor who in giving the sum of his life's knowledge and experience to an ungrateful protege, who in turn betrays him.
The Mentor then proceeds to run into him at a concert, forgives and gives him a second chance, which the protege takes to upstage him and steal the show.
I liked it, but anyone who argues "The Mentor" was abusive hasn't had the jobs I've had.
Liked it enough to watch her other movie, "La La Land", which was again - pretty damn good, the Bollywood styled song-and-dance married well with the subject, sort of this centuries "Moulin Rouge". Except a lot better written.
They're both fresh enough that if you want to see either you can search them out yourself and find them...
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Film
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So following a Nicholas Cage film-fest, in which I watched "Vengeance" - by Joyce Carol Oates (Never, ever, read her. Even if the book is 10 times as good as the movie it's just not worth it), "Raising Arizona", and "Con-Air" and "Face / Off" - I mean, I did some research, but if either of those last 2 movies are on your list of "10 Best Movies starring...." then your career's gone down the toilet. That said, "Raising Arizona" was good, and the scene where he gets punched in the car - the expression - well, it's pure Nicholas Cage. And "Face / Off" starts good, Nicholas being Nicholas, but falls apart pretty shortly thereafter, John Travolta is no worthy foil in the end, and, really, the only reason to watch a Nicholas Cage movie is to watch Nicholas being Nicholas, so just let him off the leash and lets get on with it, shall we?
Anyways, it's been a while and I wanted to revisit some more intelligent film-making. So I began to re-watch "The Dekalog" by Krzysztof Kieślowski (Red, White and Blue, La Double Vie de Veronique). It's been a while. And it holds up even better than ever - the small, insignificant, unrecognized ordinary miracles, no frame, word out of place, yet every scene is a masterpiece - the reality, economy of the dialogue, the subtle hints and symbols, it's a masterpiece in episodes - one by one or all together. And maybe now - being older, I'm getting more out of it because I can bring more to it, but, sorry Nicholas, this is film-making, this is acting.
Link: Wikipedia on The Dekalog (warning: Spoilers - just download it!)
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
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A charming fairy tale, well told. Not extraordinary, or exceptional, the Oscar Nominations told you that, but sometimes you just need a break from "Film as Art" and this was it.