So, this looks pretty good. The trailer poses an intriguing and mysterious central question before going batshit. There seem to be some indelible images here, and as they emerge one's confidence grows in the film's potential: children running down the street, arms raised as if in preparation for takeoff; a man running through the streets in a similar posture before getting plowed down by an SUV in an elegantly-composed long shot; what looks like a screaming mental patient being held…
A specious but not uncommon assumption holds that the qualities inherent in a film dictate its potential success or failure. "Of course The Godfather was a massive success that's constantly referred to as an example of narrative perfection," the casual media viewer might say. "It was fucking AWESOME!" Obviously this is illogical, as various industry imperatives impact a film's marketing, distribution, and ultimately its reception. Nevertheless, I've struggled with the question, especially as we continue our slide into this new…
Today was the last day that I ever stepped foot in a movie theater. Fuck them. Fuck people, and fuck art. Let it all burn. Let theaters go out of business and let the industry collapse. Unless I can somehow make enough money to buy my own personal theater, I’ll never see a film again. (If anybody wants to go in on one, we can take turns using it.) Human beings are a plague. Fuck it, I’m going to start…
(A few weeks ago, I attended a screening of Possession. I wanted so badly for this screening to go well and remain uninterrupted, that I said to the god I don’t believe in, “Just give me this one screening and I’ll never ask for anything again.” Almost the next day, every screening I attended was plagued by noise-makers that forced me out of the theater. This was after just over a year without a single walkout, and I went to…
(I walked out halfway through due to people, as I mention below. Maybe the second half delivers in some sublime way I’m not aware of. I’m waiting until the crowds die down, which they don’t seem to be doing. Or until it starts playing at a theater that isn’t also a restaurant. In any case, what I saw looked good. However, nothing about what I saw justified any Citizen Kane comparisons or other bullshit hyperbole. It seems like a moderately compelling story,…
Stifling in both style and content. Torturous. If I never see another Tarkovsky slow pan, I’ll die happy. A synopsis might read: “Something about the malleability of memory. I’m not really sure. Something about the way that memory is inaccurate and mixes up figures and actions. Sporadic lovely images.” Hemingway has a well known narrative methodology that he refers to as the “iceberg theory”. He suggests that a story will be more powerful and likely to draw the reader in…
I like this a bit more after seeing it in a theater. Even though I think that this is Kubrick’s most haphazard and ultimately his ugliest film (the lighting in particular), the images are still overwhelming and their power is multiplied when viewed in a larger format. This is the only late-period Kubrick film that worked with a small (normal) budget, and seeing him work with these constraints is interesting. It's as if he just didn't have the time to…
This is what a film should be. Someone said of Leos Carax, “the success of his films is indistinguishable from failure.” I take this to mean that the films skate along the boundary between good and bad taste, unconcerned about the possibility of being ridiculed. My favorite films are borne from this tendency, and Possession could be viewed as an ur-text. Documentary style punctuated by moments of hyper-stylization, filled with performances that seem to aim far beyond the weirdest sci-fi…
Why would Alamo Drafthouse play a movie like this? Why would anyone think that this is a good opportunity to stuff their fucking face like the pigs they are? Oh shit, Tarkovsky! Better get a burger and some chicken tenders! This is going to be a roller coaster ride, just you wait! The fucking pig asshole next to me ordered something with tortilla chips and began chewing them as loudly as he could, oblivious to everything around him, thus forcing…
My first viewing of Persona, over twenty years ago on VHS, made such a negative impression on me that I’ve had it burnt in my memory ever since. No way it’s as bad as I , I thought before entering the theater. I checked the runtime. At least it’s short and I’ll be out of here soon. The abstract, evocative, pleasantly unnerving opening section ed and we were off.
I soon realized that I hadn’t been wrong at all; in…
"My god, if I don't stop working so hard my wife's gonna lose her head. I wonder what she's up to right now anyway. Oh well. [whistles contentedly]."
As a police procedural this is amateur hour, especially when measured against Zodiac. The film's exquisitely handsome construction initially conceals the narrative defects. It’s not hard to see why this is so popular, considering it’s set in Gotham and Batman could swing in without sacrificing the film’s overall coherence. Still, I can’t…