I met goal of watching the rest of the Oscar nominated movies this weekend. Here there are:
#14 Vicky Christina Barcelona
#15 Happy-Go-Lucky
#16 Revolutionary Road
#17 Wall*E
#18 The Wrestler
#19 Rachel Getting Married
#20 Frost/Nixon
#21 The Visitor
Soon, I'll post my predictions.
Monday, January 26, 2009
Friday, January 23, 2009
The Oscars Are Upon Us
#13 Klute - I saw this one as part of my Neo-Noir craze. I haven't really seen much of Jane Fonda's early work (I mean the 60's stuff). This movie is '71 so it's the youngest Jane Fonda film I've seen to date. Having never really seen Barbarella, I never did equate Jane Fonda with sexy until this movie. I guess I'm going to have to see Barbarella after all.
This is Oscar weekend for me. In honor of the nominations being announced, I plan on watching no less than eight Oscar nominated movies this weekend. It will be the first time I have seen all the movies in the eight major categories. This weekend I plan on watching the remainder.
It's a bit of a game for me when it comes Oscar time. And I've been quiet successful at it. Two years ago I went 5-for-7 (for some reason I didn't bother predicting adapted screenplay) and last year I went 6-for-8. And I've successfully predicted the best picture three years in a row.
After seeing the nominations, I can't help but feel it has been a weak year for movies. Of the five up for best picture, none them I feel strongly enough toward to get behind. Which makes my bid to get best picture correct even tougher. Three years ago, Crash blew me away. Two years ago, Departed was an awesome movie. Last year, No Country For Old Men, although the ending threw me for a loop, I knew it was a brilliant movie. This year, none of the nominees really moved me. Not even Slumdog.
Next time I write, I should have a crop of movies to discuss. I'm already feeling a bit burnt out on my new years resolution to writing more here. I figured I'd stick with it through the month of January and then break the resolution in February, like most resolutions.
This is Oscar weekend for me. In honor of the nominations being announced, I plan on watching no less than eight Oscar nominated movies this weekend. It will be the first time I have seen all the movies in the eight major categories. This weekend I plan on watching the remainder.
It's a bit of a game for me when it comes Oscar time. And I've been quiet successful at it. Two years ago I went 5-for-7 (for some reason I didn't bother predicting adapted screenplay) and last year I went 6-for-8. And I've successfully predicted the best picture three years in a row.
After seeing the nominations, I can't help but feel it has been a weak year for movies. Of the five up for best picture, none them I feel strongly enough toward to get behind. Which makes my bid to get best picture correct even tougher. Three years ago, Crash blew me away. Two years ago, Departed was an awesome movie. Last year, No Country For Old Men, although the ending threw me for a loop, I knew it was a brilliant movie. This year, none of the nominees really moved me. Not even Slumdog.
Next time I write, I should have a crop of movies to discuss. I'm already feeling a bit burnt out on my new years resolution to writing more here. I figured I'd stick with it through the month of January and then break the resolution in February, like most resolutions.
Monday, January 19, 2009
#10 The Third Man - Film Noir is one of my favorite genres (if you believe that it is even a genre) and The Third Man is one of the best in that genre. Why I haven't bought it yet, I don't know. I watched it as part of the Existentialism class. I'm beginning to see much more clearly the problem of ethics and how it relates to different characters. And how different people can be on different levels ethically and not be judged as so. The female's devotion to the criminal of the movie proves she is operating on a higher ethical level than the hero who must turn in his best friend, because it's the right thing to do. Watch the movie or go study existentialism.
#11 Last Chance Harvey - Not too many movies that I see I can actually say I'm disappointed in, but I was disappointed in this one. It's supposed to be a strong performance by Dustin Hoffman, but based on previous work, this movie really doesn't come close. They glossed over the love affair between Hoffman and Thompson, as if we the audience will buy that these two are meant for each other with only a montage sequence. I would have much preferred if we had been able to see the attraction in real time. And I also didn't buy that Hoffman was as bad off as he thinks. It was Thompson who became the real hero of this film overcoming a far more believable loneliness.
#12 Ladies and Gentlemen, The Fabulous Stains - If I wasn't a wanna-be philosopher and amateur screenwriter, the thing I would most want to be is playing bass in a punk rock band. With that said, I have a soft side for punk rock movies. I'm even willing to sit through poorly made films like this one. Only watch this film if you're interested in watching Dianne Lane, Laura Dern or Ray Winstone's early work.
#11 Last Chance Harvey - Not too many movies that I see I can actually say I'm disappointed in, but I was disappointed in this one. It's supposed to be a strong performance by Dustin Hoffman, but based on previous work, this movie really doesn't come close. They glossed over the love affair between Hoffman and Thompson, as if we the audience will buy that these two are meant for each other with only a montage sequence. I would have much preferred if we had been able to see the attraction in real time. And I also didn't buy that Hoffman was as bad off as he thinks. It was Thompson who became the real hero of this film overcoming a far more believable loneliness.
#12 Ladies and Gentlemen, The Fabulous Stains - If I wasn't a wanna-be philosopher and amateur screenwriter, the thing I would most want to be is playing bass in a punk rock band. With that said, I have a soft side for punk rock movies. I'm even willing to sit through poorly made films like this one. Only watch this film if you're interested in watching Dianne Lane, Laura Dern or Ray Winstone's early work.
Saturday, January 17, 2009
#8 Revolver - One of my top 5 favorite movies that I saw last year. A friend came over and I watched it with him again. I was wondering if it would be as good as the first time I watched it or would it have subsided a little bit. Upon second viewing, it still holds up as one mind blowing movie. But I won't hype this movie too much. I'm just going to sit back and wait for the rest of the world to catch up with what I already know. This is a great movie.
#9 Notorious - Biopic about the infamous rapper Notorious B.I.G. Biggie Smalls. Big Poppa. Christopher Wallace. I can't thing of any other names. Although it's a touching story, I couldn't help but feel the production value doesn't quite match up to the grandness of Hip-Hop. It's got much more of a indie feel than a blockbuster performance, which is what I would expect from this type of music. Maybe I just don't get rap music and the grandness of it all just escapes me. But I do enjoy watching real people come to life on the screen, particularly the performances by the actresses playing Faith Evan and Lil' Kim. But this movie just doesn't live up to other music biopics like Ray or Walk The Line.
One interesting aspect of the movie for me is the lip service that rappers like B.I.G. pay to God, yet live such criminal lives. I would expect a man of God would live his life by a higher ethical standard. But maybe I got it all wrong. Maybe, in the end, we all are redeemed by an acknowledgment to a higher power rather than the life we have lived.
#9 Notorious - Biopic about the infamous rapper Notorious B.I.G. Biggie Smalls. Big Poppa. Christopher Wallace. I can't thing of any other names. Although it's a touching story, I couldn't help but feel the production value doesn't quite match up to the grandness of Hip-Hop. It's got much more of a indie feel than a blockbuster performance, which is what I would expect from this type of music. Maybe I just don't get rap music and the grandness of it all just escapes me. But I do enjoy watching real people come to life on the screen, particularly the performances by the actresses playing Faith Evan and Lil' Kim. But this movie just doesn't live up to other music biopics like Ray or Walk The Line.
One interesting aspect of the movie for me is the lip service that rappers like B.I.G. pay to God, yet live such criminal lives. I would expect a man of God would live his life by a higher ethical standard. But maybe I got it all wrong. Maybe, in the end, we all are redeemed by an acknowledgment to a higher power rather than the life we have lived.
Friday, January 16, 2009
#6 The Gospel Of John - A faithful retelling of the gospel according to the Apostle John. What sets John apart from other gospels, John's is a about a much more personal relationship Jesus had with his disciples and with other people. I always was intrigued by Jesus' first miracle where he turned water into to wine. His words were to his mother, "It is not my time." But he does it anyways. Watching this story unfold has a different perspective than if we were simply told the story. His mother doesn't have to be told no. The look on her face and on Jesus' tells us that Jesus would do anything for his mother, because she simply asked. I might be a bit theologically off, but there's much that a movie can portray that a story can not.
#7 Hiroshima Mon Amour - As part of a podcast I'm listening about existentialism, this movie is one of the required materials for the course. Although the connection didn't appear as naturally as I would assume, it was a good movie standing alone by itself. I love these types of love stories and I often thought about writing my own based on the premise of a one-night-stand that becomes the best thing that could have happened to someone. This movie is just such a movie. Suspending the ethical implications of a one-night-stand (which is where the existentialism comes in), the lead character receives healing from a past lover whom she identifies with her current fling. It's French New Wave cinema, one genre a film I'd like to dig into deeper having seen such classics as A Band A Parte and Breathless.
#7 Hiroshima Mon Amour - As part of a podcast I'm listening about existentialism, this movie is one of the required materials for the course. Although the connection didn't appear as naturally as I would assume, it was a good movie standing alone by itself. I love these types of love stories and I often thought about writing my own based on the premise of a one-night-stand that becomes the best thing that could have happened to someone. This movie is just such a movie. Suspending the ethical implications of a one-night-stand (which is where the existentialism comes in), the lead character receives healing from a past lover whom she identifies with her current fling. It's French New Wave cinema, one genre a film I'd like to dig into deeper having seen such classics as A Band A Parte and Breathless.
Monday, January 12, 2009
Theology and Screenwriting
I must confess, I've recently made personal commitment. A personal commitment to something that has always been in the back of mind, no matter how hard I've tried to ignore it. Growing up in the church may or may not be a good thing, depending on your world view. It can either give you a ground work on the dealings of faith and a zest for all things theologica, or if you prefer, it brain washes you into a belief system you that adds a permanent scar on your psyche. I've held both points of view at one time or another.
But I can't help shake thoughts of God or an after life, or subscribing some sort of meaning to the events in my life. And I can't ignore that fact that things that give thought to some sort of supreme power or purpose are just way more interesting than not believing.
I've been reading a lot of those philosophy and _____ books. i.e. Philosophy and The Matrix, Philosophy and Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Philosophy and Quentin Tarantino. Those have been some of my favorite reads so far. And I feel they can be very helpful to a screenwriter, but that's another topic all together.
When reading these books, they main topic that keeps popping up is ethics and how it relates to the subject. In the book about Tarantino, there is a good read on the ethics of criminals and the idea of Mexican standoffs. But I can't help but take it one step further and see the connection between Theology and things of pop culture. And I find it's not too hard to see them if you're willing to look.
I say all this because two movies I saw this week relate to theology:
#4 Luther -Thespian Joseph Fiennes plays the great theologian and father of the Protestant faith Martin Luther. A great little film on the history of the church and the great schism with the Catholic church. Luther is a very important and very interesting person. Fiennes does a great job presenting the struggles with faith and tradition that Luther encountered. The church, however noble we make it out to be, has a rich history of mistakes and evil thats not easy to come to terms with. But Luther stands strong on his convictions and provides a model of faith that ought to be emulated.
5# Gran Torino - On the other hand, Gran Torino presents a more worldly view point of faith. The world is full of awful and misguided people. Some have evolved to the point of recognizing the conflict of their own convictions and how they mesh with how they've acted through the years. It's a point well represented by a character like Clint Eastwood. And I call him a character because it's Eastwood playing the person we've all come to associate him as. And along with that character comes a sense that the world isn't operating on the same codes or ethics that we've come to believe as important or right. It is tale of life and death and redemption from the past. (spoiler) It's one man dying for another. It's one man's final attempt to put things right. It's very catholic in the sense that the deeds we do here define our existence and it's never too late to put things right. Leave this world a better place than the way you found it and you can be certain of justification.
But I can't help shake thoughts of God or an after life, or subscribing some sort of meaning to the events in my life. And I can't ignore that fact that things that give thought to some sort of supreme power or purpose are just way more interesting than not believing.
I've been reading a lot of those philosophy and _____ books. i.e. Philosophy and The Matrix, Philosophy and Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Philosophy and Quentin Tarantino. Those have been some of my favorite reads so far. And I feel they can be very helpful to a screenwriter, but that's another topic all together.
When reading these books, they main topic that keeps popping up is ethics and how it relates to the subject. In the book about Tarantino, there is a good read on the ethics of criminals and the idea of Mexican standoffs. But I can't help but take it one step further and see the connection between Theology and things of pop culture. And I find it's not too hard to see them if you're willing to look.
I say all this because two movies I saw this week relate to theology:
#4 Luther -Thespian Joseph Fiennes plays the great theologian and father of the Protestant faith Martin Luther. A great little film on the history of the church and the great schism with the Catholic church. Luther is a very important and very interesting person. Fiennes does a great job presenting the struggles with faith and tradition that Luther encountered. The church, however noble we make it out to be, has a rich history of mistakes and evil thats not easy to come to terms with. But Luther stands strong on his convictions and provides a model of faith that ought to be emulated.
5# Gran Torino - On the other hand, Gran Torino presents a more worldly view point of faith. The world is full of awful and misguided people. Some have evolved to the point of recognizing the conflict of their own convictions and how they mesh with how they've acted through the years. It's a point well represented by a character like Clint Eastwood. And I call him a character because it's Eastwood playing the person we've all come to associate him as. And along with that character comes a sense that the world isn't operating on the same codes or ethics that we've come to believe as important or right. It is tale of life and death and redemption from the past. (spoiler) It's one man dying for another. It's one man's final attempt to put things right. It's very catholic in the sense that the deeds we do here define our existence and it's never too late to put things right. Leave this world a better place than the way you found it and you can be certain of justification.
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
I Pledge Allegiance To 2009
My intention for 2009 is to be more active in my writing this year. I have been putting off the inevitable with the lame excuse that I'm still learning. I have much to learn and so why write crap? But I have learned that theory and knowledge can only get you so far. You must let go of the analytical side of you and just write. This is when the muse takes over and you write for the sake of writing. This is also when musicians play music for the love of music. When dancers dance just to dance. You can't critique yourself the very moment you are being creative for you will lose art for the sake of art. How eastern of me to say that.
Therefore I will list every movie I see this year and try to add some kind of thought. I may not be as philosophical as I would like to be, because sometimes just rambling can be of use.
Movie #1 - The Reader. Oscar season is my favorite time of the year. Maybe it has something to do with my desire to some day win an Oscar. Or it could be the level of excellence goes up a couple of notches. The Reader is the first Oscar contending movie of 2009 that I got to see and I was excited. The lovely Kate Winslet is by far my most favorite actress out there right now. Although I haven't seen everything she's done, I've probably seen a good three quarters of her work. And she never ceases to amaze me.
Movies about Nazis and the Holocaust tend to be a little didactic and at this point, overdone. If Kate Winslet hadn't been in this one, I might have avoided it, like I tend to avoid all war movies that critique current events like the plague. But throwing in an erotic love story between and young man and an older not-so-innocent woman provided enough of a distraction to keep me unaware that I soon will be bombarded with the horrific nature of the Holocaust. When it did come, I found an interesting diversion from the "let's blame the bad people" premise to more emphasis on the Germans themself; on how could the have let a such a thing happen. And then to appease themselves, they go on a witchhunt. Every crime needs someone to blame. In order for justice to be restored, someone has to pay a price. It's unfortunate that a guilty society fails to acknowledge their own blame. That they claim to have acted without proper knowledge and therefore, aren't as guilty as they would appear.
Well, anyway, not much is resolved, other than the display of the two people's lives who are affected slowly begin to deteriorate and then heal. The healing for the most part, is just a hollywood ending. Sometimes, no amount of compensation will ever put things right.
#2 - Valkyre. Much like the same joke about Titanic, I won't tell you how it ends because I wouldn't want to ruin it. It did provide me with enough suspense and interest to hope that the hero succeeds. It was an interesting device at the beginning to morph from German language to English to eliviate the fact that it's Germans speaking in english. My only quabble was it was perfect english, and I would much rather have perferred a german accent. But these are the things you give up when you enter the land of movie world.
#3 - Fanny And Alexander - An old nugget. I only decided to watch this because some podcast put it as one of it's top 5 christmas movies. I should have known from their number one selection of Die Hard, that the movie really doesn't have anything to do with Christmas. And despite the foreign language (srike one) and the three hour time length (strike two), it did manage to get on base with a single. Any body who has issues with parents, and how mean they can be, will like this movie. The charm of the movie revolves the elegant aristocratic lifestyle the family lives in. In The beginning, Alexander explores his grandmas large mansion at Christmas time, and in the process, we the audience get to see the richness and beauty of a bygone era. And noticeably abscent is the critique on how overly pious and superior such people can be. I get the sense that these are genuine people, however flawed they might be.
The level of magic and coincidence might be lost in the translation and proved to be a hinderance in judging what the movie was really about. But at that point, I just wanted the movie to end.
Would I ever watch it again? No. But it was a good foot note on Ingmar Bergman's career.
Therefore I will list every movie I see this year and try to add some kind of thought. I may not be as philosophical as I would like to be, because sometimes just rambling can be of use.
Movie #1 - The Reader. Oscar season is my favorite time of the year. Maybe it has something to do with my desire to some day win an Oscar. Or it could be the level of excellence goes up a couple of notches. The Reader is the first Oscar contending movie of 2009 that I got to see and I was excited. The lovely Kate Winslet is by far my most favorite actress out there right now. Although I haven't seen everything she's done, I've probably seen a good three quarters of her work. And she never ceases to amaze me.
Movies about Nazis and the Holocaust tend to be a little didactic and at this point, overdone. If Kate Winslet hadn't been in this one, I might have avoided it, like I tend to avoid all war movies that critique current events like the plague. But throwing in an erotic love story between and young man and an older not-so-innocent woman provided enough of a distraction to keep me unaware that I soon will be bombarded with the horrific nature of the Holocaust. When it did come, I found an interesting diversion from the "let's blame the bad people" premise to more emphasis on the Germans themself; on how could the have let a such a thing happen. And then to appease themselves, they go on a witchhunt. Every crime needs someone to blame. In order for justice to be restored, someone has to pay a price. It's unfortunate that a guilty society fails to acknowledge their own blame. That they claim to have acted without proper knowledge and therefore, aren't as guilty as they would appear.
Well, anyway, not much is resolved, other than the display of the two people's lives who are affected slowly begin to deteriorate and then heal. The healing for the most part, is just a hollywood ending. Sometimes, no amount of compensation will ever put things right.
#2 - Valkyre. Much like the same joke about Titanic, I won't tell you how it ends because I wouldn't want to ruin it. It did provide me with enough suspense and interest to hope that the hero succeeds. It was an interesting device at the beginning to morph from German language to English to eliviate the fact that it's Germans speaking in english. My only quabble was it was perfect english, and I would much rather have perferred a german accent. But these are the things you give up when you enter the land of movie world.
#3 - Fanny And Alexander - An old nugget. I only decided to watch this because some podcast put it as one of it's top 5 christmas movies. I should have known from their number one selection of Die Hard, that the movie really doesn't have anything to do with Christmas. And despite the foreign language (srike one) and the three hour time length (strike two), it did manage to get on base with a single. Any body who has issues with parents, and how mean they can be, will like this movie. The charm of the movie revolves the elegant aristocratic lifestyle the family lives in. In The beginning, Alexander explores his grandmas large mansion at Christmas time, and in the process, we the audience get to see the richness and beauty of a bygone era. And noticeably abscent is the critique on how overly pious and superior such people can be. I get the sense that these are genuine people, however flawed they might be.
The level of magic and coincidence might be lost in the translation and proved to be a hinderance in judging what the movie was really about. But at that point, I just wanted the movie to end.
Would I ever watch it again? No. But it was a good foot note on Ingmar Bergman's career.
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