Detectives There’s something profoundly offensive about this. Oh, it isn’t the gratuitous catalog of stereotypes. Its the fact that they are stereotypes, unmodified in any way. It isn’t that it doesn’t move, but that it does so without passion. Borrowing is part of life, but a simple collage is different than a living ecosystem. Comic… Continue reading Inglourious Basterds (2009)
Tag: 2000s
Films made in the 2000s
In Her Shoes (2005)
Dislexika Once you know chronic problems faced by certain trades, you will notice how some projects reach to do some necessary thing. For instance, filming people around a dinner table is rarely done well, and almost never with great effect. So watch what the filmmaker does to change the geometry so that the shot can… Continue reading In Her Shoes (2005)
Top Gun Maverick
Practical Performance Gosh, there is so much not to like here, on top of the fact that this reinforces a positive trend in film; the effects are largely practical, pitting Cruise against Cameron for the future of film. We could probably stand the competition for our imagination. I heartily endorse it, and I think it… Continue reading Top Gun Maverick
In Good Company (2004)
Weitz Up? Beginnings are everything. Almost no film has a good ending and few do much in the middle. But we let it all slide if we are given a good beginning. That’s because the whole enterprise of film is about creating an artificial world. Much other art isn’t so ambitious, abstraction in terms of… Continue reading In Good Company (2004)
In the Cut (2003)
In There Jane Campion has a tenderness that is so attractive that if it did not come with warnings, I would build a romantic dreamworld around it. Because that is what we do with deep soft urges. Her films seem always to be about the edges, the danger, the costs. But they are motivated by… Continue reading In the Cut (2003)
In My Father’s Den (2004)
Spatial War, Redhead Landscapes, Image and Word Woven Together Apart Australia is vital to my life in film. From an American perspective, New Zealand is normally clumped in there as well — something that annoys Kiwis to no end. At least in terms of film, they differ: more direct, honest, intimate. Unfortunately, you pretty much… Continue reading In My Father’s Den (2004)
Destricted (2006)
Holy Most of the films in this collection are simply silly. One is at least artistic in the old, wan sense of visual oddity. There is one interesting one, though. Larry Clark’s “Impaled”. It is rather clever: young men seeking to get into the “business” are interviewed. All of them are sad losers and that… Continue reading Destricted (2006)
Imagining Argentina (2003)
Until the Next Time I am pretty sure that it is not possible for someone other than an Argentine to make a film about this subject and have it matter. These are people who at the beginning of the terror supported it wholeheartedly. The military simply responded to what they saw was a terrorist threat… Continue reading Imagining Argentina (2003)
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (2009)
Imagination Imagine the standard paragraph here, the one others are writing about Gilliam’s grand ambition but lack of execution. The man made a very bad career decision, to try to map his very particular and limited imagination into film. He has two notions only. One is dear to my heart: the idea of an inner… Continue reading The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (2009)
Ignition (2001)
Wet Powder, Powerful Powder This little disaster probably resulted from 9-11. I get the impression that the project was halted halfway through and was just shoved out in this form. No great loss. But it does have two interesting elements. The first is Lena Olin. I think she is one of the most interesting woman… Continue reading Ignition (2001)