Movies

I saw a quartet of fairly watchable movies over the last week: No Country For Old Men (probably the best of the lot, with a terrific performance by Tommy Lee Jones that overshadowed the much more heralded Javier Bardem and Josh Brolin roles.) Charlie Wilson's War (big studio effort, worth it for Philip Seymour Hoffman alone) Atonement (good melodrama of the kind at which the British excel, even though I'll watch James McAvoy in just about anything. Excellent cameo by Vanessa Redgrave, too) The Savages (Laura Linney and PS Hoffman -- again -- are superb, but this one is a little grim, and made me a bit uncomfortable watching it with my 79-year-old mother. Honestly, the trailer made it look like more of a comedy than it really is...)

Atonement (good melodrama of the kind at which the British excel, even though I'll watch James McAvoy in just about anything. Excellent cameo by Vanessa Redgrave, too) The Savages (Laura Linney and PS Hoffman -- again -- are superb, but this one is a little grim, and made me a bit uncomfortable watching it with my 79-year-old mother. Honestly, the trailer made it look like more of a comedy than it really is...) Heh, I know what you mean about The Savages. I saw that one with my mom, too, and it was a bit unnerving. But, in the end, I quite enjoyed it. I also really liked Atonement. Yes, it's melodramatic, but it worked for me. I thought the cinematography was outstanding, in particular the continuous shot amid the chaos of Dunkirk and was mesmerized by the score and all the incorporation of the sounds of typing within. I saw Juno and Sweeney Todd as well. The former I liked alot, although I struggled to overcome the cleverness of the 16 year old protagonist. She seemed a bit too wise and precocious to me. But the dialog was snappy and fun and it was delightful to see Jason Bateman and Michael Cera on the same screen again....sort of.

I'd almost forgotten about that tracking shot in Atonement's Dunkirk scene -- that was reallly amazing from a technical standpoint, as it required the camera to maneuver not only through a huge scene but also to find the various characters in the midst of the chaos, then move away from them to another POV before finding them again. Brilliant stuff that reminded me of the opening scene in Orson Welles' "A Touch of Evil," which is also a single shot, as I recall, that does essentially the same thing, moving from various characters and through the chaos of Tijuana's border crossing. On another note, what did you think of Sweeney Todd? It was on my list, but I didn't make it to that one. And finally, what did you make of the conclusion to The Savages? Spoiler follows in white text: Both of the main characters experienced a kind of liberation at the end, and found the freedom they needed to realize their ambitions as well as a kind of emotional stability. What I'm wondering is whether that came about because they were liberated by their father's death, or by their own good deed in caring for him. Sorry about that -- I didn't even think about the spoiler aspect.

And finally, what did you make of the conclusion to The Savages? jj1963: From this point in your reply/question, could you use spoiler bars, please, for those of us who haven't seen the film yet. Thanks. Both of the main characters experienced a kind of liberation at the end, and found the freedom they needed to realize their ambitions as well as a kind of emotional stability. What I'm wondering is whether that came about because they were liberated by their father's death, or by their own good deed in caring for him. radiosweetheart: Re Sweeney Todd: I have heard that there is a lot of blood! so you may be able to lure him in

On another note, what did you think of Sweeney Todd? It was on my list, but I didn't make it to that one. Oh yes, I guess my thoughts there kind of just....drifted off into oblivion. You know, I enjoyed Sweeney Todd but I didn't love it. I've seen stage productions of this in the past where the vocal talents of the performers were far stronger than Depp, Bonham-Carter, et al. I do think, though, that of any film adaption of this work, a Depp/Burton collaboration is a good, even logical, one. JD is just so damned good no matter what he does, it's almost unfair to not like what he's doing but the movie as a whole left me a little flat. spoiler: I will give it an enormous thumbs up for the casting of Sacha Baron Cohen. Actually, I hadn't read enough about the movie in advance to even realize he was in the cast, but his role was perfect and now I can't even imagine another choice for the part. And finally, what did you make of the conclusion to The Savages? Both of the main characters experienced a kind of liberation at the end, and found the freedom they needed to realize their ambitions as well as a kind of emotional stability. What I'm wondering is whether that came about because they were liberated by their father's death, or by their own good deed in caring for him. Answer in spoiler font: I think I lean towards the latter explanation. Wendy (and I love, btw, that Wendy and John are nods to Peter Pan and, one would suppose, growing up) seemed to be a bit more hung up on her dad than her brother; the very basis for the play she's trying to fund features the father as a major instigator to unhappiness. But John seemed to have gotten past that to a degree or at least put it out of his mind. My sense was that the siblings were liberated more by the fact that they had, by necessity, come together to care for their father and successfully done what they needed to do but they perhaps found more inspiration in each other than in the death of their father or even in any good deeds.

bailey, I've never seen any stage productions of Sweeney Todd, but would love to. Despite that, I've seen so many screen adaptations that were horrendous, and I thought this one did a fine job. Except that (Spoiler alert!) the ending didn't include the boy, which I think brings the whole story around in a beautifully tragic cycle, so I was disappointed with that. I thought Mrs. Lovett was great. Feel free to call blasphemy, but I was never crazy about Lansbury, as I thought her voice was far too strong for the part. Anyway, I enjoyed it. Didn't walk out thinking, "WOW, FANTASTIC!" But I thought they did it adequate justice.

I'd almost forgotten about that tracking shot in Atonement's Dunkirk scene -- that was reallly amazing from a technical standpoint, as it required the camera to maneuver not only through a huge scene but also to find the various characters in the midst of the chaos, then move away from them to another POV before finding them again. Brilliant stuff that reminded me of the opening scene in Orson Welles' "A Touch of Evil," which is also a single shot, as I recall, that does essentially the same thing, moving from various characters and through the chaos of Tijuana's border crossing. Well, darn. Now I think I have to go see it. I am a film nerd who actually geeks out when I see really awesome, long, tracking shots. Joe Wright really is excellent at cinematography; some of the locations they chose for Pride And Prejudice really took my breath away. I still love the very beginning when all you see is the sun peeking out behind the trees and then if you listen carefully, you can hear a bird sing, and then we 'find' our heroine, and the music starts up. Lovely stuff.

There's some discussion of the Dunkirk scene in this Hollywood Reporter article. Also, this article has some more details about the scene.

Well, I just saw the trailer for Cloverfield. Probably won't get to see it until much later, as I am in Japan. Now I'm curious! *flails* What will happen? Aack!

The Golden Compass was rubbish if you've read the books. I don't mind a few changes but when it comes to changing even names, (wtf at Iofur's new name?) that's a bit much. And also, what was with swapping Svalbard and Bolvangar? SPOILER But my biggest complaint was with the ending... just flying off into the sunset. The book ends with Roger's gruesome death and Pan and Lyra's revelation and crossing into the new world... SPOILER Grumpy Fiddy Mod note: Can you please use spoiler font on these sorts of things? I haven't seen the movie OR read the books and I was looking forward to them, but now that I know the ending.... Also, it's called Northern Lights. Psh. No, I do not read those books too much...

A year late or so, but via the DVDs (and with some time off) I finally saw both "Children of Men" and "Pan's Labyrinth." Loved them both, but I feel like I have to go watch something really light and fluffy now to make up for them.

There's some discussion of the Dunkirk scene in this Hollywood Reporter article. Also, this article has some more details about the scene. Thanks for posting those articles. I've greatly enhanced my xmas movie viewing experience this year by deliberately not reading much about many movies in advance, including Atonement. While I was watching it, it took me a second to realize "wait, no cuts!" and then I was annoyed that I didn't have a stop watch on me to time out the shot. I am quite amazed that they got it in 4 attempts, as it's really quite elaborate. I guess necessity is the mother of invention. :-) I also caught "Charlie Wilson's War." I thought it was really well done and it was kind of interesting to watch a blatantly "message" movie with such a humorous approach to it. Spoiler note: Was that seriously Julia Robert's body when she got out of the pool in a bikini? If so...wow. I want her personal trainer. I recommend it.

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