Change Your Image
zeitbauer
Reviews
The Dish & the Spoon (2011)
angel and actress
How it is when an ordinary person -- ordinary as people really are... that is, our actions being limited to reacting, meets an extraordinary being, is sent an angel... and, what that person uses the angel for.
Really a very well done film and very beautiful to watch. The locations are filmed with such care that they look exotic, and what is meant to seem exotic is filmed in all its banality... the dress-ups, the forming of patterns to music... dancing... even the wonderful dialog on Thanksgiving... all things contained by society, in interiors, all stuck in front of a camera and meaning only what talk means to people who don't really talk for pleasure. Obviously, all this is a little bewildering to an angel, and I was constantly wondering if the angel, the boy, wouldn't do something out of the angelic. The director brilliantly never allows that to happen.
So, great casting -- everyone has their surprises in this, their little abilities, even if no one but the viewer expects a surprise from anyone at all.
Vehicle 19 (2013)
Nice film
Nice film set in an exotic place -- good car chase -- good indie hand-held look to it all. Interesting casting. Paul Walker's low-key style helps play against the director's perhaps overly-thoughtful style. What this does is allow Walker the time to create and then build convincing emotions. I think in all senses Walker's character was believable... enough so to ask what in his background might allow him to know how a character like this might really act. The sense of passivity -- of a drunk's weakness of character -- somehow being over-come by some kind of honor or duty makes for the mystery.
Also, seriously good local rap-style on the track.
I'm glad I watched it.
Twister (1996)
a real movie
the movie has great lines, is very funny, and a wonderful sense of kinematic reality. The actual 'twister' is Helen Hunt, as male and nature are drawn toward her. Cricton wrote the script, and maybe it's intentional that the actual tornado needed a strong actor counterpart to balance the film -- in any case, she's filmed strong enough that it works. De Bont is OK, but maybe doesn't even know what he's done -- in the commentary all he talks about are the special effects, and maybe that's where the money was for this film and maybe that's what he really is interested in. But, in any case the casting and direction make for as real a cinematic experience for me as Casablanca -- take that as you will and with the understanding that it's the soul of a film that things move towards and away from one another and that the actors are just an outline on the screen too.
Great film for anyone with a heart and with a kid's sense of just riding the film.