Category: 2010s Cinema
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Her (Spike Jonze, 2013)
Something must be a “satire” if it’s somewhere between difficult and impossible to suspend disbelief. (This is the case with that great satire, Dr. Strangelove.) With Her, the futuristic trajectory of where we are now is something a little different, since it teeters in that fearful space between satire and prophecy. Technologically, the film quits swooning over…
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The Bling Ring (Sofia Coppola, 2013)
The Bling Ring (dir. Sofia Coppola, 2013) – Quick, flashy, blingy, the counterpoint to Somewhere (in terms of editing). Sofia is still very interested in celebrity culture and young women/girls. They’re all somewhat about this: The Virgin Suicides, Lost in Translation, Marie Antoinette, and these last two. But let’s be careful of making this too autobiographical. Although this is the…
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The Great Beauty (Paolo Sorrentino, 2013)
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Viewing Log: March 2013
The Hunger Games (dir. Gary Ross, 2012) – Should probably keep these thoughts to myself, but this movie disturbed me terribly. Say what you will about reality television being the new voice of the masses – maybe it is, and maybe that isn’t all bad – but the potential ramifications or logical conclusions of this newish…
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Amour: Moving Emotions Without Moving the Camera
For a slightly more polished and less tangential review than is customarily posted here, see Post Defiance. TGFEditors.
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Viewing Log, 12/9/2012 – 12/21/2012
Magic Mike (dir. Steven Soderberg, 2011) – Despite a lot of time trying to find reasons to validate this film from a critical perspective, it seems mainly noteworthy for being a film by a director with art-house street-cred that tries to switch conventional gender roles. From beginning to end, it’s the women who end dates…
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Catch-Up, cont’d: 11/2012-12/2012
Skyfall (dir. Sam Mendes, 2012) – Really want/need to see it again, but here’s the first of the Craig-era Bond films that tries to get away from the Bourne legacy (as it were). Major shift in narrative gears here, with Bond’s role as protector of the maternal figure he had previously been defying. He’s no…
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Catch-Up: 10/2012 – 11/2012
We’ll see how this goes. It’s going to start as a list, with attempts to fill in the space between titles with whatever jumps to memory. All About My Mother (Todo Sobre Mi Madre) (dir. Pedro Almodóvar, 1999) – Another one for film & melodrama. Did a scene analysis of the sequence wherein Manuela transitions…
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Viewing Log, Week of 9/9/2012
Albatross (dir. Niall MacCormick, 2011) – An “independent,” acting-driven story about how “coming of age” is accompanied by lots of challenges, although these challenges seem quite avoidable and fairly atypical. This is all story, and it doesn’t know where its sympathies lie. Boogie Woogie (dir. Duncan Ward, 2009) – Anything that mocks the upper-class art…
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Viewing Log, Week of 9/2/2012
The Dark Knight Rises (dir. Christopher Nolan, 2012) – Thought it was funnier than the first two in the series, with a decent number of those little comic-book influenced zingers. Nolan tried this once or twice in Inception, but they fell flat. It actually seems like Mr. Serious is starting to develop a sense of…
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Viewing Log, Week of 8/26/2012
The Bourne Legacy (dir. Tony Gilroy, 2012) – It rewards fluency in the first three, although not in a deeply satisfying way. It shows itself as something different not just in terms of the main character being replaced/absent. The camera work is wholly different, losing much of the shaky, handheld style for something much more…
Precious Bodily Fluids 