Visceral black and white condemnation of the extraordinary potential for superstition, religion and rule by force to enact the most brutal treatment of others, from Russian brothers Arkady and Boris Strugatsky, brought to the screen by Aleksei German. Will we ever reach that place so powerfully imagined by these people, where such a state as Arkankar is unthinkable? Still loved in Russia, during the Soviet period the dream of progress that caused the Strugatsky's to create the Noon Universe, of which the story for this film is one piece, must have been an achingly tangible and at the same time impossible fantasy. In any case, German has taken the idea and without flinching shown the worst of us, while imagining the best of us. Great cinematography, close quarters conversations a la Robert Altman, and images you won't forget.
Reviews
13 Reviews
Hell or High Water
(II) (2016)
Over processed look substitutes for derivative content
22 January 2017
Sure were some pretty shots in this thing, so many it's like the tonal palette was a fourth character, in the same way lens flare was a character in the recent Star Trek re-imaginings, reminding us to take note of how much care went into the colour correction. Why the need for this fourth character? Perhaps because the story is so needlessly, dog-walkingly banal, the colour manipulation could stand in for gravitas. Riding perhaps on the faintest memory of No Country for Old Men, a film that makes the much vaunted so-called art of Hell or High Water look like a pile of chocolate bar wrappers strewn on the floor, this exercise in stretching a fleeting moment of acting into a two hour migraine is, under all the tonal work, daft and missable.
La La Land
(2016)
Puffed up piece of cupcake dust
22 January 2017
Saw La La Land a week ago and I needed time to process how little impressed with it I ended up being. It is a sparkly superwhite depiction of LA in an utterly apolitical, hipster way that scratches it's soles to the beat of eras when most things were just that - self-centered posh people having "dreams." It is, underneath the personal story of two people trying to "be something", an embodiment of "make film great again" as the dictator down south's mean-spirited and ignorant slogan about America itself is. It is a throwaway film, most certainly does NOT deserve any Oscars, and is actually quite forgettable, except for the City of Stars song. The dancing isn't just off, it's terrible, dare I say, utterly lame. Emma Stone's charm only got me so far through this puffed up piece of cupcake dust. The use of Griffith Observatory becomes goofier than even the worst parts of Titanic. Arrival, Moonlight, even Manchester by the Sea are far, far superior films. This of course means La La Land will win big time. I enjoyed Warcraft more. Seriously.
Sense and Sensibility
(1995)
Buffoonery and Farce
20 August 2011
I will never understand the adoration this farcical, buffoonish film receives. The worst thing about it is the screenplay, for which it won, somehow, an Oscar - but then, so did Dances with Wolves a few years earlier. The script revels in sentimental, which is not very Austen-like at all. The next worst thing is the direction, which is a kind of intrusive, perpendicular thing, always at odds with the context, seeming to struggle with Austen's nuanced and yet unadorned and direct message. It's all adornment in the end, and watching the actors plough through their lines is disconcerting, knowing so many of them are in fact decent actors. I do blame Emma Thompson, who is too old for the part and whose feeble attempts at conveying subtle and nuanced feelings end up looking mildly farcical themselves, especially the scenes where Elinor is at Marianne's bedside. They are frankly unwatchable. I think this perhaps the worst adaptation of Austen in modern times, and yet how highly it is praised. One might as well have put big red noses and huge clown feet on the actors - all that kerfuffle going on on screen and hiding an empty vision. Compared to the wonderful 2008 TV film, this 1995 film is mere buffoonery.
The worst Harry Potter film so far
21 November 2010
Is it part art film? I'd say yes, in the better parts, it had something wise and melancholy going for it, rather like the book, but it was lost all too easily to the infrequent action sequences which neither impress nor lend any forward motion, aside from a particular part of the Bagshot/Nagini sequence making the audience jump a couple feet, and all without Voldemort. Meh.
Alterations to the plot were generally as bad as they've been in the past, but the Lovegood house was so very poorly done, it rates special mention. It well and truly sucked. (I wondered if there had been some technical difficulties with the editing, it was so bad.) Most of the emotional scenes are strangely unmoving. Hermione's torture becomes something weirdly camp - Tim Burtonish, if you will - with no power to unsettle. The much anticipated horcrux destruction scene lacks any sort of nuance at all, so much so that Ron's resigned remark at the end of it falls as flat as a bassoon. Hermione looked like an airbrushed NY fashion house mascot, and Harry looked like plastic, with some silvery gloss smudged on. It was hokey, and I felt embarrassed watching it.
There were other bothersome things (the list could go on) - the whole imprisonment scene was horrid, rushed and thoughtless, and the basement itself looked like they were in some half-finished suburban ground floor, only thing missing was a couch, a TV and some paneling. Olivander looked far healthier than he did in the first film, Luna was an afterthought, Wormtail was apparently lulled to sleep by general uneventfulness, and Dobby looked like a wax figure moved by strings. Bellatrix was about as scary as The Count from Sesame Street, the snatchers behaved like the three stooges, and the confrontation at the end had all the movement drained from it, arranged instead like a lazy, half-hearted family portrait, just so they could end it with a hokey special effect that didn't work - the knife turning to jelly or something in the whirlwind of apparation. Dobby's death was atrociously handled, Luna spoke far too soon, and the burial was filmed in the blandest possible way.
The story was told in a linear way, and the camera work was too, which resulted in a very one dimensional film. The burial scene, for example, could have had a shot threw the window, with Hermione on the couch, Ron beside her, and Harry in the background or something - it would have taken no more time, but it would have filled the world better. Anything to vary the 1, 2, 3 of the telling.
The Story of the Three Brothers animation was very cool, and strange as it may seem to say it, Emma Watson's acting is almost the best thing about the film.
I liked the arty parts, but everything else is trash.
The film needed a new director and a new writer. I fear for part two very much now.
Alterations to the plot were generally as bad as they've been in the past, but the Lovegood house was so very poorly done, it rates special mention. It well and truly sucked. (I wondered if there had been some technical difficulties with the editing, it was so bad.) Most of the emotional scenes are strangely unmoving. Hermione's torture becomes something weirdly camp - Tim Burtonish, if you will - with no power to unsettle. The much anticipated horcrux destruction scene lacks any sort of nuance at all, so much so that Ron's resigned remark at the end of it falls as flat as a bassoon. Hermione looked like an airbrushed NY fashion house mascot, and Harry looked like plastic, with some silvery gloss smudged on. It was hokey, and I felt embarrassed watching it.
There were other bothersome things (the list could go on) - the whole imprisonment scene was horrid, rushed and thoughtless, and the basement itself looked like they were in some half-finished suburban ground floor, only thing missing was a couch, a TV and some paneling. Olivander looked far healthier than he did in the first film, Luna was an afterthought, Wormtail was apparently lulled to sleep by general uneventfulness, and Dobby looked like a wax figure moved by strings. Bellatrix was about as scary as The Count from Sesame Street, the snatchers behaved like the three stooges, and the confrontation at the end had all the movement drained from it, arranged instead like a lazy, half-hearted family portrait, just so they could end it with a hokey special effect that didn't work - the knife turning to jelly or something in the whirlwind of apparation. Dobby's death was atrociously handled, Luna spoke far too soon, and the burial was filmed in the blandest possible way.
The story was told in a linear way, and the camera work was too, which resulted in a very one dimensional film. The burial scene, for example, could have had a shot threw the window, with Hermione on the couch, Ron beside her, and Harry in the background or something - it would have taken no more time, but it would have filled the world better. Anything to vary the 1, 2, 3 of the telling.
The Story of the Three Brothers animation was very cool, and strange as it may seem to say it, Emma Watson's acting is almost the best thing about the film.
I liked the arty parts, but everything else is trash.
The film needed a new director and a new writer. I fear for part two very much now.
The Silk Road
(1980–1981)
A Superb Documentary by NHK and CCTV
17 August 2010
This documentary really deserves a new transfer - it's detailed, gorgeous, and full of delights. The soundtrack by Kitaro, perhaps his most famous work, is really wonderful. Apparently the crew were given access to China's historical sites, and town and villages along the Silk Road, that was unprecedented. A second part was also made.
An updated version was produced in 2005, apparently, by NHK and CCTV. The whole thing. The episodes in this set are The Glories of Ancient Chang-An A Thousand Kilometers Beyond the Yellow River The Art Gallery in the Desert The Dark Castle In Search of the Kingdom of Lou-Lan Across the Taklamakan Desert Khotan -- Oasis of Silk and Jade A Heat Wave Called Turfan Through the Tian Shan Mountains by Rail Journey into Music -- South Through the Tian Shan Mountains Where Horses Fly Like the Wind Two Roads to the Pamirs
An updated version was produced in 2005, apparently, by NHK and CCTV. The whole thing. The episodes in this set are The Glories of Ancient Chang-An A Thousand Kilometers Beyond the Yellow River The Art Gallery in the Desert The Dark Castle In Search of the Kingdom of Lou-Lan Across the Taklamakan Desert Khotan -- Oasis of Silk and Jade A Heat Wave Called Turfan Through the Tian Shan Mountains by Rail Journey into Music -- South Through the Tian Shan Mountains Where Horses Fly Like the Wind Two Roads to the Pamirs
Inception
(2010)
A movie about holodecks, not dreams
22 July 2010
While just as silly and more or less pointless as his earlier flicks, Nolan has created in Inception a decent enough heist movie. Just think of it as a movie about a multi-layered holodeck program, however, designed by programmers familiar with Counter Strike, cinematography, and disaster movies, since the idea of dreams in this film is quite banal and undreamlike, really - they are capitalist espionage tools with all the subconscious removed, or rather, translated into what is familiar to Nolan - a kind of Michael Bay alternate reality. The story, touted as complex, is complex only on the level that it is a heist movie - a fairly straightforward and very linear heist movie. There's no psychology (one character's statement that "it's all about X" is the entire psychological content of the film - the oldest trope in the book becomes a single, meaningless line) philosophy, ethics, and certainly no spirituality involved. I've seen some making comparisons to Solaris, either Tarkovsky's or Soderburgh's, but these are specious comparisons, made in a desperate attempt to elevate Nolan's vacant shenanigans. Don't believe it. The film is a hoax. It's fun, but it's a hoax. Nolan's characters are all self-centered and only speak the technobabble or reductionist claptrap Nolan forces into their mouths, there's not a shred of intellect anywhere.
One step above a Michael Bay creation, and that's it.
One step above a Michael Bay creation, and that's it.
The Ugly Swans
(2006)
We cease to trust ourselves
1 September 2009
This beautiful, small budget film plays like a tribute to Tarkovsky's films(shakuhachi music and dripping water), but it is more conversational and quite direct in its message, which isn't simplistic, for all that directness. That message rings true these days as much as it did when the novel was written. Has the world become dangerously, insidiously pedestrian and banal? Have we squandered our potential utterly? The spirit of the film, the whole tone of it, is alienating - we cease to trust ourselves a little bit while watching it. It is a fairly short film too, it doesn't tax the viewer in that way, although it will challenge viewers. The Strugatsky brothers are my favorite Russian authors, and this film does, above all else, capture the spirit of their book, as well as can be expected. I sure would like to find it on DVD.
The Indian Runner
(1991)
Muscular? Maybe. Twee? Absolutely.
13 September 2008
I don't like Sean Penn's directing very much, and this early work, The Indian Runner, is no exception. The movie has no core, it's colored with a kind of redneck, anti-authoritarian tweeness that in all honesty taints most of Penn's work, his latest work even more so than the earlier. Frank Miller, Robert Rodriguez, Clint Eastwood, Sean Penn, the whole lot seem to produce such fundamentally banal product, ostensibly in some allegiance to honesty, but ending up being, for the most part, glorified pro wrestling matches, and moralistic, almost as if Hallmark cards had developed a line of Hell's Angels greetings, and make me long for the days of Deliverance, which is a fine movie. Viggo Mortensen's acting is much, much more believable here than that ridiculous Eastern Promises thing he did with Cronenberg, and that's about it. The movie is dead meaningless, and seems to be an exercise, a series of techniques, more than a story. Kudos for Charles Bronson, however, who proves he can act. And I wanted more of Sandy Dennis' character. A lousy 3 out of 10 for this The Indian Runner crap.
WALL·E
(2008)
No cars
18 July 2008
In all the piles of junk in the movie, in the background, there are no cars. or only one or two. After sitting through 4 car ads before the film, however, why would there be? It's almost like the car companies made this film, to take the focus from themselves. This is the heart of the matter - YOU are all okay with your cars, just be sure to recycle those cans, right, and make sure you drive back home in time to turn of the hall light bulb for "Earth Day" A cynical and banal film that gets it's philosophy from current thinking such as "smaller paper towels = saving the planet." Sorry, smaller paper towels are just smaller paper towels, and you'll end up using more of them. Why not use washable rags made from old t-shirts? I loathed this film and all it stands for - this giant pat on the back of the idiotic "green" movement in its current, spineless state.
Stalker
(1979)
Miraculous direction
12 February 2008
This is my favourite film and is based on my favourite science fiction book, Roadside Picnic, which also provided the general storyline for my favourite computer game, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. - a testament to the power of central idea in all these works - getting what you truly desire may be the most horrifying thing in the world.
As others have noted, just about each frame of this film would make a great poster. It is a truly philosophical movie, but one which relies as much on the meaning of the imagery presented as of the dialogue, a kind of visual poetry. If Tarkovsky has been credited with uncovering a truly, purely cinematic language, this film is perhaps the clearest, most compelling example. The spiritual guide promises to lead the scientist and the cynical writer to a room in the Zone that will grant them what they truly desire, whatever that is, but the journey itself is a sort of test of their character, along with responses to the stalker's stories, particularly the one that describes how another stalker, Porcupine, may have killed himself because he ended up wishing only for money. To watch the film is to journey with the them into the Zone.
As others have noted, just about each frame of this film would make a great poster. It is a truly philosophical movie, but one which relies as much on the meaning of the imagery presented as of the dialogue, a kind of visual poetry. If Tarkovsky has been credited with uncovering a truly, purely cinematic language, this film is perhaps the clearest, most compelling example. The spiritual guide promises to lead the scientist and the cynical writer to a room in the Zone that will grant them what they truly desire, whatever that is, but the journey itself is a sort of test of their character, along with responses to the stalker's stories, particularly the one that describes how another stalker, Porcupine, may have killed himself because he ended up wishing only for money. To watch the film is to journey with the them into the Zone.
Fateless
(2005)
no pats on the back
7 February 2006
If you found Schindler's List just a tad sentimental, and just too big, too much an attempt to summarize and encapsulate, as Spielberg is wont to do, and if you found The Pianist a little too careful to avoid the camps, then Fateless is anodyne. This movie isn't about saving people from the camps, or avoiding them by hiding away - this movie is about the camps, about being in them. They exist as the world the protagonist lives in for a time. There are no pats on the back for this that and the other in this film. The experience was, and the film is true to that, true to the message of the stunning book.
Lots of European critics seem to dislike the film for paltry, indefensible, emotional reasons. This is a grown up, unsentimental, demanding film, that contributes deeply to the cinematic Shoah.
Not a film for moralists, cowards, or people who like utter banality like "life is beautiful". A fully mature, adult, meaningful work. In my top ten full of Tarkovsky and Angelopolous.
Lots of European critics seem to dislike the film for paltry, indefensible, emotional reasons. This is a grown up, unsentimental, demanding film, that contributes deeply to the cinematic Shoah.
Not a film for moralists, cowards, or people who like utter banality like "life is beautiful". A fully mature, adult, meaningful work. In my top ten full of Tarkovsky and Angelopolous.
The Selfish Giant
(1971)
Simple, moving adaptation
2 February 2004
The soundtrack is haunting, yes, and it looks wonderful. I think the story is pretty much Wilde's simplest. And, as always, he avoids the purely "moral" framing of the question for a broader, more humanist approach, even while referencing the central Christian ideology.
Can't say much more about it. I sure would like to get it somewhere, especially the soundtrack.
Can't say much more about it. I sure would like to get it somewhere, especially the soundtrack.
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