Lens Flare I’ve put Abrams in the same category as Soderbergh and Kubrick but only as a junior member. These are directors that do all the production stuff excellently, but whose creative life is in what the camera brings. They see the film not as storyboards (like, say Spielberg) but as the dynamic vision the… Continue reading Star Trek Into Darkness (2013)
Category: IMDB Comments
Comments made for the Internet Movie Database
The 81st Annual Academy Awards (2009)
Changed Eye I am interested in these awards, not because of who wins or why. Sure we all have our favourites, but the more we celebrate when someone we value is recognised, the more we endorse this notion of a competition. A competition in the arts? No, I’m interested because I study introspection in film,… Continue reading The 81st Annual Academy Awards (2009)
50 First Dates (2004)
Drew Draws I’ve come to appreciate this actress. Women can do things in that space between the film and us that male actors just cannot. Blame it on the feminine nature or cultural imperatives, depending on your views. But there is no denying that the art is quite different for women. Drew is not a… Continue reading 50 First Dates (2004)
10 Tiny Love Stories (2002)
One Multi-expressed Love Story This has been termed an experiment because it is unusual, but it is more of an adventure into the space of the written word. Garcia is a writer. Writers use words as knives to open spaces to inhabit. With this particular kind of writer, it is the words themselves that have… Continue reading 10 Tiny Love Stories (2002)
Replay (2003)
21 Comments I saw this under the title of ’21 Eyes’. I’ve been thinking a lot about what makes a movie good, or better, what makes it likeable. It seems there are all sorts of paths into likability. The emotional engagement, the world that surrounds it, the titillation, the challenge. Sometimes it is not the… Continue reading Replay (2003)
13 Going on 30 (2004)
Why Are Formulas Endearing? I just cannot understand why I find this endearing and repellent at the same time. I find it endearing because it sticks to tried and true formulas, and being easily hypnotised cinematically these formulas work on me. I am disturbed at the same time because I recognise those same movie-story formulas:… Continue reading 13 Going on 30 (2004)
21 (2008)
Surf Heard in the Background It is a matter of tone. No matter what a film does, it has to take us somewhere. Ideally it goes another place after it has established you, but it has to establish a place, a form, a tone. MIT is a place worth being taken to. Not the fictitious… Continue reading 21 (2008)
13 Moons (2002)
Lost Characters You have a few choices when sitting down to write a story. One of these is to decide what sort of agency your characters have. To my mind, the best storytellers start with a world, a notion of sweeps within that world that creates situations or drives or needs. Within all those gusts… Continue reading 13 Moons (2002)
Killer Condom (1996)
No Protection When I enter one of these worlds, I expect risk. Not by itself of course, but paired with clever insight, unusual metaphor or sliding perspective. But above all, risk. Their risk is my risk. Quite literally, I enter these film relationships promiscuously without protection, bare, expecting permanent change. That’s why I have higher… Continue reading Killer Condom (1996)
Kid in King Arthur’s Court (1995)
Merlin’s Reds The magic of the legend is that it is presented through the prism of Merlin’s magic. It is the English thread of self-referential literature that balances the Spanish Don Quixote. In this thread, the teller is a magician and all of the “reality” we see is fabricated as the illusion, some of which… Continue reading Kid in King Arthur’s Court (1995)