Letters to the Editor
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Gee, I haven't seen much lately.
Totally agree with you though on Superbad. It really was that bad. Complete waste of 2 hours.
3:10 to Yuma was pretty good.
I just haven't been impressed with movies lately. They are all just rehash of the same crap last year. They probably always have been and maybe this is the first year I've noticed :p
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Oscar thoughts
So Anne Lamott "hated" Atonement, and only offers her disgust at Kira Knightly's lips as the reason for hating it? Sure, I thought Atonement was overrated and overcooked, but it is a well crafted and thoughtful film. Lamott's "opinion" isn't even a real opinion. It's the uninformed rambling of a dull bore. Yes, there are valid reasons to dislike Atonement, but an actress' lips are not one of them.
Anyway, I thought The Darjeeling Limited was a fantastic film, and was surprised it was not nominated for anything. Okay, maybe Anderson is sometimes a bit to precious for his own good and maybe he is beginning to repeat himself, this is still a well executed film.
No Country for Old Men is the best film of the year. The cinematography is brilliant, perfectly conveying the lonley and isolated nature of the film. The Cohen's are masterful in creating scenes that you want to just continue. The film (and the novel) plays with the idea of who is actually at the center and what the focus is on. It's Moss's film when we view him as the stoic and mythic hero. It's Bell's film when we view him as the "good" guy and existential hero. And it's Chigurh's film when he ultimately "triumphs" in the end. What is being posited in the end? What is McCarthy saying about our world?
I also really liked 3:10 to Yuma. What has happened to the western as a genre? along with Sci-Fi, the western has traditionally been the place where we have explored American Mythology and wrestled with ideas and realities about ourselves. In keeping with the ideas presented in No Country For Old Men, what does it mean when we are made to side and identify with the "bad guy." Despite 3:10 To Yuma's lame ending, it was brilliantly acted and shot. The themes were very similar to NCFOM. Certainly better than Atonement, but then again Russell Crowe's lips are easier to behold and still carry on living. :)
Well, I do think it would be an interesting article for Andrew or Stephanie (or whomever) to write about the state of the western as a genre in American film as well as locating it historically as a place where we often grappled with our good and bad selves.
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LaMott
LaMott's comment on Atonement was refreshing.
A vapid movie that brilliantly recreated its clueless author's inability to develop a theme.
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badness of Superbad
Yes, let's spread the word before others waste two hours of their life on this movie. I'd be hard pressed to exclaim why I loved the guy humor of Knocked Up and 40-Year Old Virgin and hated, hated the guy humor of Superbad, but I did.
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Juno - too cute by half, but still.....
....totally likeable. Despite the fact that almost every line that Ellen Page uttered was so deliberately written as to be on fire, I couldn't help but like this film. And there I had thought I was completely over the indy "love-me-i'm-quirky" family film a la "Little Miss Sunshine". The casting and acting were outstanding and it didn't fall into total predictability.
Annie Lamott is dead-on with "Atonement." I couldn't muster up any sympathy for a single character in that film. There were some beautiful scenes - the underwater one comes to mind - and damn, that green dress was magnificent, but the sex scene in the library conjured up images of a praying mantis pinned to a dissecting tray.
I thought "There Will Be Blood" was excellent, yet oddly enough, I can see how you could swing the other way if you happened to be in the wrong mood that night. Those who considered Paul Dano's acting to be over the top simply don't know much about religious zealots. Pay a little visit to one of those churches of the mega-Jesus and reconsider.
Still, my favorite movie of the year - one not a soul saw except for me and one of your reviewers - sorry, dropped the name, who put it on his top 10 list- "Forever" - an amazing documentary by Heddy Honigman. Fantastic.
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I watched Gangs of New York again yesterday
And it's official: Daniel Day-Lewis should not be allowed to play Americans.
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Atonement
Usually, I find epic romances at least acceptable for the genre they are.
Not Atonement. Nice color, nice filming, lousy movie. Read the book.
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best movie
Gone Baby Gone was far and away the best film of 2007 and certainly Amy Ryan deserves a nod for best actress. The movie is coherent, visually stunning, morally compelling and actually deals with contemporary dilemmas, how to live with the decisions we make, our responsibility to the truth, whether the best parent is always the "good" parent, without preaching to the converted. Juno addresses similar issues, but through the fuzy lens of paraody. While Daniel Day Lewis is unbelievable, There Will be Blood, like Michael Clayton, is narratively incoherent, not to say implausible, because it never adequately explains why the characters do what they do. Similarly, since we never believe Clayton is corrupt (or that he lives up to his reputation has "fixer"-- he never fixes anything in the film)his redemntion falls flat. Savages is a great film of its kind, but too small ultimately. The only real competition is Blood, a masterful work also about choice, but here the futility or illusion of choice in the face of death is the message.
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Oh, the drama!
Must every film be a downer to be seen as a legitimate piece of art? Personally, I thought "Ratatouille" was one of the best films of the year. It saddens me that the "Best Animated Film" category allows its ghettoization away from the "real" contenders.
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Anne Lammott disgusted by Keira Knightley's lips?
In related news...
--Rosie O'Donnell said she was revolted by Scarlett Johannson's eyes.
--Haylie Duff is disgusted by Anne Hathaway's nose.
--The Elephant Man thinks George Clooney's jaw is too square.
^^^^^^^^
Mirror, mirror, on the wall...