Volunteer Growth Most films are a matter of manufactured narrative and we watch them to to discover what has been shaped by the filmmaker. Most documentaries are like this as well, because the idea is to illustrate a constructed narrative with reality, giving it more power. But sometimes, and I think very rarely, it is… Continue reading Immokalee U. S. A (2008)
Tag: p2008
Comments first posted in 2008
The Forbidden Kingdom (2008)
The Dance As a film considered the ordinary way, this is ordinary. It has a common framing device that folds the narrative: a wimpy kid rents lots of Kung Fu movies. Then he enters those movies which here are conflated with dreams. Pretty ordinary by recent standards. He is amazingly unattractive with the worst skin… Continue reading The Forbidden Kingdom (2008)
In Bruges (2008)
The Setup There are a lot of writerly things going on with this script. Most of them are standard devices. Almost too standard. But there is something I noticed. The spoiler here is that the story takes over by the very end and the structure of the story forces the characters to knowingly act as… Continue reading In Bruges (2008)
Siberiade (1979)
2001: Blondsongs, Gasroads and Fogsex Inexplicably this is compared to “Doctor Zhivago,” I suppose because there are Russian revolutionaries. Egad. The films couldn’t be more different. This is inspired by “2001.” Equally inexplicably, “Solaris” is called the Russian 2001 because. Heck, because it has space hardware. Jees. The structure of “2001” is its reason to… Continue reading Siberiade (1979)
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989)
The Penitent Man I had to come back to this, because I’m puzzled. I wonder what it is about Spielberg. It is easy to criticise his mawkish sentimentality and his theatrical sweeps. But I think it is more than that. After all, we happily tolerate that and worse in some others. And it cannot be… Continue reading Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989)
Ice Age 2: The Meltdown (2006)
Two Paths Full feature animation has settled into two paths which will never again pass. One is the long form narrative which makes animated films no different than most other movies, real movies. The other is a collection of jokes. Now there are lots of non-animated movies that have adopted this strategy as well, but… Continue reading Ice Age 2: The Meltdown (2006)
Vantage Point (2008)
Unbraided Gosh what a seductive idea. Gosh what a spasm of waste. The problem is that clever ideas were borrowed and spliced together with no annealing. So we have this business of recorded movies and the movie we watch overlap. The movies within are by Forrest Whitaker and a TeeVee crew managed by Sigourney Weaver.… Continue reading Vantage Point (2008)