Movie weekend
Saw two Important Movies this weekend:
Before the Devil Knows You're Dead - Along with having a very bad title, I was pretty disappointed in
this movie. It was beautifully filmed, interesting, and had uniformly great performances, but there just wasn't enough "there" there - when the movie ended, I wondered if that was all the filmmakers had to say: "people suck and then you die." Sheesh!
I would have liked, and really expected, more background on the characters, more "back story" as they say, *especially* the women (who were barely more than props), and more interaction among the people. It seemed so sparse, which made it beautiful but unsatisfying.
I'm not the sort of person who needs a happy ending, but I expected and wanted more about the life of the family, instead of just watching them all be horrible to each other. I'm not some Pollyanna - I know that people can be evil, and of course dysfunctional people make good drama, but this crowd was a bit much.
I don't think it's enough to make a visually appealing movie - the audience needs to be invested in the characters. In this film, the people are kept at a distance - you want to sympathize with them, but your instinct to do so is thwarted by the film's structure.
It's just a little too relentlessly dark, almost gratuitously so. It's worth watching because it's a very well made film, but only if you're in a misanthropic mood.
No County for Old Men - Tommy Lee Jones deserves all the accolades that he's getting -
he really is the heart and soul of this movie, though it's very much an ensemble. And Josh Brolin is a revelation - he's one to watch. It's a a very dark film, but with some charming humor (rather typical of the Coen Brothers). However, despite some great moments, my film-going companions and I agreed that while we liked it, the end was very unsatisfying, and the last 10- 15 minutes almost seemed unnecessary.
Of course critics are raving and predicting Oscars all around, but we agreed that this is exactly the sort of movie that critics swoon for (very arty and important), but that people stay away from in droves. It deserves a viewing, but not many people want to invest in a movie that is so completely lacking in escapism, and has such a dismal view of humanity.
* * * * * *
This year's Oscar fodder is shaping up very much like last year's - lots of grim and gruesome fare. I still plan to see quite a few of the upcoming films, but I certainly don't anticipate that any of them will thrill me like American Beauty or Gosford Park or Ordinary People or other character-driven stories that I have so admired in years past (and have watched over and over again).
Before the Devil Knows You're Dead - Along with having a very bad title, I was pretty disappointed in
this movie. It was beautifully filmed, interesting, and had uniformly great performances, but there just wasn't enough "there" there - when the movie ended, I wondered if that was all the filmmakers had to say: "people suck and then you die." Sheesh!I would have liked, and really expected, more background on the characters, more "back story" as they say, *especially* the women (who were barely more than props), and more interaction among the people. It seemed so sparse, which made it beautiful but unsatisfying.
I'm not the sort of person who needs a happy ending, but I expected and wanted more about the life of the family, instead of just watching them all be horrible to each other. I'm not some Pollyanna - I know that people can be evil, and of course dysfunctional people make good drama, but this crowd was a bit much.
I don't think it's enough to make a visually appealing movie - the audience needs to be invested in the characters. In this film, the people are kept at a distance - you want to sympathize with them, but your instinct to do so is thwarted by the film's structure.
It's just a little too relentlessly dark, almost gratuitously so. It's worth watching because it's a very well made film, but only if you're in a misanthropic mood.
No County for Old Men - Tommy Lee Jones deserves all the accolades that he's getting -
he really is the heart and soul of this movie, though it's very much an ensemble. And Josh Brolin is a revelation - he's one to watch. It's a a very dark film, but with some charming humor (rather typical of the Coen Brothers). However, despite some great moments, my film-going companions and I agreed that while we liked it, the end was very unsatisfying, and the last 10- 15 minutes almost seemed unnecessary.Of course critics are raving and predicting Oscars all around, but we agreed that this is exactly the sort of movie that critics swoon for (very arty and important), but that people stay away from in droves. It deserves a viewing, but not many people want to invest in a movie that is so completely lacking in escapism, and has such a dismal view of humanity.
* * * * * *
This year's Oscar fodder is shaping up very much like last year's - lots of grim and gruesome fare. I still plan to see quite a few of the upcoming films, but I certainly don't anticipate that any of them will thrill me like American Beauty or Gosford Park or Ordinary People or other character-driven stories that I have so admired in years past (and have watched over and over again).
Labels: movies
posted by Danielle @ 11:45 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home