Would you vote for this man?
Some recent flick observations from the mind of your all knowing blogger.
I saw Shutter Island last week. I watched it. I have looked into all the theoretical possibilities of time travel, as well as many present psychological practices in helping to repress memories. Despite all these efforts it appears the technology isn’t there yet to allow me to unwatch it.
So there it is. Look, i like Scorsese. Always have. Always will. But this film school 101 obsession and fetishistic need to pay homage to the past through present isn’t necessarily a good recipe for making interesting movies. Shutter Island is an example of this. MS goes all out on the theatrically ominous island approach music evocative of the kind of over the top camp of bygone eras, throws in camera angles that are psychologically manifesting the characters mental states, and generally goes with the character study with a twist and all that old fashioned quaint artsy stuff. Problem is the story sucks, the twist is spottable within a half hour, and the character study unoriginal. And dude, the story was boring. That’s your unforgivable sin here. Movies are supposed to not be boring more than they need to evoke, pay homage, or be presentable artifacts in future UCLA film school classes.
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It has been recently posited by someone else who saw Up In The Air that the romantic part of the movie ruined it. While I see where this is coming from I can’t totally agree. If I’d change anything I’d keep Clooney unapologetic about his lifestyle. I liked that he did speaking engagements about the burdens of relationships. He’s a man on the move. A modern hunter gatherer and there’s no room for sentiment in a world without community. Tigers care nothing for family. And gathering is sooo much cooler with a company credit card.
He does perhaps go too head over heels for this one woman and the sense of family at his nieces wedding. But he’s also not 28. He’s a guy who may be losing his connection to the road and the life of the real man. His job description may be changing. Getting modernized. No more traveling across the savannah. He’s going to have to start firing people (that’s what he does) by teleconference. So naturally he may start thinking of forming new relationships to replace the old. As short term as they may be. And the thing is, they’re not. He values loyalty as much as the next guy. He stays at the same places, flies the same airlines. He’s trying to reach a frequent flier mileage goal. This is noble stuff if you’re asking me. And it has its rewards. Real tangible hunter gatherer stuff. Like discounts and guest baskets. There’s almost an exotic nature to the way he keeps pulling various cards out and slides them through various contraptions permitting entry to wonderful levels of distinction.
I’d have just liked to see him question his life with a little less sentiment.
But you’d still need a romantic interest to establish the changes in his lifestyle, his age, and the consequences of his choices. I can also understand his backtracking. at a certain age and with your peripatetic lifestyle being grounded I think it would make you wonder about grounding your libido and conscious disconnect from others as well.
The thing is, without spoiling much, you had to have him run into the female him and face the consequences of his past decisions as we all do. Especially if you want to drive home a point against his disconnected lifestyle. But all lifestyle decisions have consequences so i’d rather this have not come off as moralizing about Clooney’s. Problem for me is not that relationship, it’s Reitman’s moral judgment that there may be anything wrong with the lifestyle.
Relationship resistance just makes too much sense to dismiss. I’m not sure he was doing that here. But I’d have liked a clearer sense of that and to come away feeling less like Clooney lost something. Sure he loses some things over a life lived out of hotels. But the settled person has made choices and given up valuable human desires and needs as well.
Whatever, I liked the movie. I related to the character and even envied his hotel room, frequent flyer lifestyle. I only wish I had the opportunity and the charisma to pull it off. But it’s nice to dream. And even though i don’t think Jason Reitman was necessarily going for that it had the effect on me and I’m grateful. But I think Reitman achieves what Scorsese did not. He creates a movie with roots in those ye olden times character studies. Just a simple, engrossing movie about a guy, his lifestyle, his choices and their consequences. Good stuff if done right. And without boring me. And he accomplished those things here.
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A Serious Man was serious about something though i’m not entirely sure what it was. I liked the movie. Coen movies are almost always watchable. But I have a feeling part of the point here was not having a point. The search for meaning in a mostly meaningless world.
I did really like A Serious Man though I disagree somewhat with a lot of critical takes on it. I don’t think the Job comparisons work because the lead character really isn’t that burdened. Come on, what happened to him that was that unusual or a direct assault on him? Worse things happened to his brother, his wife’s new fiance, etc. He’s burdened by extension and like many people suffers from some kind of martyr syndrome.
But I felt that was part of the point. There’s sort of this hapless search for meaning that I think mirrors some of that search the film goer is supposed to be conducting looking for meaning in the film. Like that search and the main character the film is serious about something. It’s just not meant to be obvious what it was. Part of the point felt like things don’t have a point apart from perspective. There’s a scene with a young Rabbi who gives a speech about just that. Perspective. It was too glaring to not mean more than most viewers have acknowledged after seeing this movie. Our lead is not Job, he’s one of the guys feeling the elephant in Roshomon and like most humans he thinks what he feels is all about him.
There’s a debated opening scene that takes place about a hundred years before and has no clear relationship to the rest of the film. Many have offered this as part of a family curse leading to the protaganists burdens. Again, I think this is an amazingly bad reading of the scene and the movie that follows. I think I even remember hearing one of the Coen’s say it was meant just as a throw in like an old time film short to set the tone but had nothing to do with the characters. Maybe they’re being coy, but I think it fits with that fruitless search for meaning in both life and the movie. Apart from perspective that is. The tragedy is we spend so much time worrying about things we can control and taking ourselves far too seriously until eventually something comes along that truly is tragic and changes everything.
And I think that’s what the final and ending shot signifies.
See it and determine for yourself.
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Watched 500 Days Of Summer the other night. It was ok. I love Zooey Dechanel. Her character isn’t too likable in this movie though. But that’s ok. The movie is more about the dude which I didn’t see coming. Not a lot to analyze here. Had some nice moments. I wouldn’t knock people down in video store to get the last copy. If it comes to that for you.
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Really found The Hurt Locker to be overrated. Actually I must admit I didn’t even finish watching it. I think it’s going to win the Academy Award. Not Avatar. Personally I don’t want either to win. But THL has become a sentimental, thinking persons choice. And usually I love those. But I didn’t find anything all that original here. It seemed like a mix of Iraq war movies I’d seen. Katharyn Bigelo is getting lots of hype. I’m not saying this is a bad movie. But I think it’s support comes from the fact that it’s a war movie. And as much as right wingers love war, lefties love war movies. Especially the modern versions that show what hell war is.
I think it makes many people feel less guilty about whining about stuff while not being in the line of fire. If one loves movies like this and Three Kings, Redacted etc, I think you feel you’re making a statement. It’s like, so yeah I’m against war, but it’s because I get how rough it is on the soldiers, so I’m going to support movies with pretty people pretending to be soldiers going through hell as a way of supporting real soldiers going through hell. Or something like that.
Long as it’s not too long. That’s be, like hell, to sit through.
Before you scoff, I’m not saying it’s not a good movie for the type of movie it is. I’m not saying only liberals like it or they can’t think for themselves. (Though I would posit that anyone who aligns with a preexisting label such as conservative or liberal has made a choice to do less thinking for themselves from jump street). But not everyone does that. And some that do do so as a matter of convenience. A shorthand for a philosophical touchstone with it’s own offshoots. Whatever. We’re not all unique snowflakes. And mostly THL is a bunch of people standing around waiting for stuff to happen and it happening with cool special effect shots. That may be war. But war is mostly boring. I want to watch it as much as I want to see Shutter Island again.
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As for rest of Oscar choices, personally I’d like to see Up win. It won’t of course though it will take animated best. Up In The Air would be ok, as would A Serious Man. But I’m not sure I feel any of these 10 choices are all that fantastic. I certainly hope Avatar loses. but it would seem to be Cameron vs his ex wife and if it comes to that I’m going with the wife. Because that’s what a good liberal is supposed to do right?
I would also be ok with District 9 winning. More than ok though it ripped off Alien Nation. Not likely though. Inglorious Basterds may have best choice of upset. But though i liked it it was kind of tedious at points;. And ultimately what was the point? I guess if you like alternative history stories you’d like this. But since the events take place fairly close to wars end as I remember it it would seem even with the Basterds on the scene the damage is done and all you get is a more satisfying termination to war. Not a whole lot less dead Jews.
Precious I didn’t see. Don’t have to. It’s basically my life story. I lived it. I am a large incestuously raped inner city black woman in a middle class white man’s body. Everyone gets that about me. Don’t need to see it on the big screen.
And I hope Bridges wins. Didn’t see Crazy Heart. Don’t want to see it. Looks like cliched old broken down drunk finds late chance at love and redemption shlock I’ve seen dozens of times. But the Bridge man is awesome. he deserves to win for Jeff Lebowski. One of the underrated performances ever. He’s done other very good work. But he embodied the iconic Dude man. I mean, in the parlance of the times. But hey well, that just, like, my opinion man.
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