The True Power Source Some things work in spite of themselves. Like the Agency depicted, this film is its own worst enemy, clumsily shooting itself at random opportunities. It should simply self-destruct. This is one of those films-by-frightened-committee that are rewritten and reshot in progress, so it has no central tone and it has unintegrated… Continue reading Knight and Day (2010)
Tag: f2010
Films released in 2010
The Octonauts (2010-2021)
The Swimming of Being Saying something interesting about children’s programming requires a critical shift, acknowledging that we are not the primary consumer. Actually, for much of this media, I think parents are that target audience. Sesame Street cannot possibly be as educational as advertised, but great effort is obviously spent convincing parents that it is.… Continue reading The Octonauts (2010-2021)
Poirot: Murder on the Orient Express (2010)
Loco Motives Lawrence Olivier was an actor who delivered rewards, but acting is not storytelling and sometimes the opposite is the case. He made a well regarded Hamlet and approached it as expected; he inhabited the character and let that being drive what was presented. If only he understood confounding dynamic structure the author erected… Continue reading Poirot: Murder on the Orient Express (2010)
127 hours (2010)
The Hand Left in the Thing There are so many filmmakers out there that I am still approaching many films the way they were intended to be approached: as self-contained works of art (or craft). But there are some filmmakers I know well enough to trust in a larger journey, something of a shared life.… Continue reading 127 hours (2010)
Space Battleship Yamato (2010)
Teen Explosions I’ve been doing a lot of thinking lately about what the necessary ingredients may be for a successful space travel-centric sci-fi movie. ‘Interstellar’ used a device to place the images in the past, leveraging established movie notions. That was a movie that referenced and mined memories. Jodorowky’s Dune would have been unlike anything… Continue reading Space Battleship Yamato (2010)
13 Assassins (2010)
The Rustic in the Woods There are some directors that you just consider geniuses. They innovate, walking into new modes, vocabularies. My list of these artists is short. They greatly enrich because they expand and challenge. Other filmmakers may be talented and even capable of making personal films that are effective. But they are in… Continue reading 13 Assassins (2010)
Iron Man 2 (2010)
Dimension Common sense hits the front office at Marvel’s adventure in moviemaking. Until now, they’ve just made bad films. Bad. The basic problem, I believe, is that the rest of the world is out exploiting the third dimension and Marvel insists on making flat movies. Even Spidermen, where the character lives and fights in space… Continue reading Iron Man 2 (2010)
Hereafter (2010)
Chabrolet At a certain point in some filmmakers’ careers, the films cease being discrete works of art and start becoming chapters in an engaging life. Eastwood is not the most weighty artist out there. He has made a couple worthwhile films and much chaff but has developed a growing reputation for cleanliness and efficiency, both… Continue reading Hereafter (2010)
Diary of a Wimpy Kid (2010)
Painful I suppose the science behind this content is solid, for this and the sequels. Many of our films — primarily romantic comedies — deliberately give us a surrogate with whom to identify. And then they set the situation to be similar to those we’d experience, but simplified and exaggerated so that we can both… Continue reading Diary of a Wimpy Kid (2010)
Exit Through the Giftshop (2010)
Mister Brainwash A key insight for me is what I amusingly call Ted’s law. In this, when we layer abstractions in art, the “distance” between layers is equal. This is a great example. The idea builds on the notion that humans alone are capable of seeing themselves in the world as they see the world.… Continue reading Exit Through the Giftshop (2010)