Synecdoche, New York
And I thought Adaptation was hard to review…
Okay, so here’s the dealio: Synecdoche, New York is the new film written by my favourite writer Charlie Kaufman as well as being his directorial debut. Anyone who recognises the name will know Kaufman is known for his…well lets just say “odd” approaches to cinema (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind for example). So, it stars Philip Seymour Hoffman as an aging theatre director who wants to do one last piece before his inevitable death.
Being Une Critique
I think that film critics are elitists. They arrogantly feel that they have superior knowledge of films and a better taste in films than everyone else. They only have one purpose, one which maybe they forget sometimes, to provide a justified opinion on what the reader should and shouldn’t see. Am I a critic? I criticize films, but so do you don’t you? Aren’t we all film critics in the end? We advise people on which films to steer clear from and what recent films we have enjoyed. I find it odd that proper “film critics” don’t exactly do the opposite, but something rather different: they don’t criticize; they simplify and exaggerate, like any journalist. The only difference here is that they take into account all possible angles of a film and come to an opinion ranging between one and five. I don’t think I’d very much like to be a critic, I know I’d love the idea of being paid to watch 8-10 films a week and writing about them, but I much prefer just saying my personal opinion, did I or didn’t I enjoy it as opposed to writing more about other things than the film itself, something I’ve noticed a lot in recent reviews I’ve read. (more…)
Shallow or picky?
While reading a review for The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas on iTunes, I came across a review which simply said:
Another Scorsese Classic Part 4: Casino
First of all, I want to get this straight: Casino is Goodfellas 2: Return of the Tracking Shot. Seriously, if there ever was another Goodfellas, it was this, except in Las Vegas. Also, Scorsese pushes the limit even more here, with a tracking shot (this is a long shot which usually follows a certain character) popping up many times throughout the movie.
Another Scorsese Classic Part 3: Mean Streets
Before The Departed, before Casino, before Goodfellas there was this, Mean Streets directed by (guess who) Martin Scorsese and the first of his films to feature (guess who again) Robert De Niro. After watching it, I can say nothing worse than this is one of my favourite films ever, and certainly my favourite by Scorsese.
The Bond Effect
First things first, I don’t hate the Bond films. I can see why other people enjoy (e.g. the action) and why they’re so highly acclaimed and world famous. The thing I can’t stand about them is the connection, the connection that joins all of the bond films together. And that is that there’s no real moral meaning behind James Bond. He gets sent by the government to take down some bad guy (usually foreign) either by spying from the inside or by stealth. Then he meets some bird who works for the bad guy, sleeps with her, then she betrays him, he fights some underboss, he gets in a right kerfuffle (e.g. held at gun point or a bomb about to go off), uses one of his stylish gadgets or something totally unrelated gets in the way (turbulence on a plane for example), he escapes, saves the world, sleeps with the girl again and thats the end. Never does it show the risks and consequences of irresponsible actions nor is there any real heart behind the plot (Bond is emotionless) which is what makes it inferior to hundreds of other films with actual plots.
It does matter whether you’re Black and White
There’s one thing that annoys me more than anything else with modern, independent directors, and it’s the use of black and white film as opposed to colour. Before I start my rant, I’d like to point out some exceptions: Schindler’s List, Sin City, Memento, Eureka, Raging Bull, Manhattan, Pleasantville and Young Frankenstein, as well as others, all of which were made in the last 30 or so years. They have all justified their reasons and turned out to be great films.
Usually, it’s independent filmmakers who use it for ‘dramatical effect’, although I see it as desperation for acceptance in the movie world. It’s not even acceptable when used in order to signify a flashback, when all they really could’ve done was, like in The Godfather Part II, use certain items from that time era, or let the audience know that this person is the protagonist by having another character call their name or react to their presence.
Right, to be fair, I can see the main use. To show loss of a character’s emotions etc (e.g. Memento), to bring out the contrast between the black and the white or colour would ruin the shots (e.g. Raging Bull was only in black and white due to the boxer’s gloves distracting from the main picture), but these HAVE to be shown and displayed CLEARLY, not metaphorically or anything, the audience have to know why the director chose to have it in black and white so it doesn’t simply become a gimmick.
I hope that in the future, directors will come to their senses and, instead of using black and white film, use other techniques to show the time era.
The Dark Knight vs. Wall.E
I like Batman, but I also like robots, but which is better? There’s only one way to find out…FIIIIGHT!
Another Scorsese Classic Part 2
As I mentioned in the previous post some time ago, I would be “watching Taxi Driver soon”. Well, finally, I have now seen the second film in the De Niro – Scorsese – Keitel partnership and I have to say that it is the most in depth, honest film centred around character development and social status (or “class system”, as it’s known over here). There are plenty of techniques used by Scorsese which are clearly apparent in his later works, and *touch wood* has the best original soundtrack of any of his films to date (Raging Bull and Goodfellas have no original songs).
