Yes. And it's also probably the best of Almodovar's recent movies, though of course not the most popular, maybe because it's his most openly gay, masculine movie. It's fascinating, and very personal.Sabin wrote:/Bad Education/ (Pedro Almodovar) - 9/10
I think there's a little something missing in the final act. Here's what I wrote for a soon-to-be-published piece:
"A director takes a story and adds a spin. When Enrique Goded (Fele Martínez) first walks across his office to greet “Ignacio” (Bernal), one of his first utterances is how he should lose the beard. He’s already found his subject, twisting him into what he needs him to be; and what a subject he’s found! Alberto Iglesías’ score swells and Enrique watches Ignacio leave his office, and says with a smirk that he was his first love, but that he’s changed. It’s a knowing moment evoking noir, but, no mere pastiche, Pedro Almodovar’s Bad Education speaks to how sick puppies who have lost it at the movies bend over backwards to integrate moments past into life – if not works – present. He gets such a thrill to even be present in something so nourishing – and noir. It’s a film of persisting ellipses of expectation as a memory, a dream, and a movie often at the same time."
[
Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings
-
OscarGuy
- Site Admin
- Posts: 13668
- Joined: Wed Jan 01, 2003 12:22 am
- Location: Springfield, MO
- Contact:
But it's so dark and dreary looking! Isn't that was great cinematography is?? No...oh, ok.
But, I'm glad someone else finally agreed with me that HBP was the worst of the series to date.
But, I'm glad someone else finally agreed with me that HBP was the worst of the series to date.
Wesley Lovell
"Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both." - Benjamin Franklin
"Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both." - Benjamin Franklin
-
Precious Doll
- Emeritus
- Posts: 4453
- Joined: Mon Jan 13, 2003 2:20 am
- Location: Sydney
- Contact:
Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince (2009) David Yates 2/10
The worst of the series so far. And how did this get a Best Cinematography nomination? It's so dark and dreary looking.
In the Electric Mist (2009) Bertrand Tavernier 4/10
I saw the director's cut 117 minute version of this (apparently the US release is a shorter 102 minutes). I hate it when director's films are taken away from them an re edited and though the longer version is rather plodding and padded I find it hard to believe that cutting it would actually improve it. A good cast (Tommy Lee Jones, John Goodman, Peter Sarsgaard, Mary Steenburgen, Ned Beatty) wasted in the swamps of the deep south in this overcooked pot boiler.
Personal Effects (2009) David Hollander 4/10
Daybreakers (2010) Michael & Peter Spierig 4/10
The worst of the series so far. And how did this get a Best Cinematography nomination? It's so dark and dreary looking.
In the Electric Mist (2009) Bertrand Tavernier 4/10
I saw the director's cut 117 minute version of this (apparently the US release is a shorter 102 minutes). I hate it when director's films are taken away from them an re edited and though the longer version is rather plodding and padded I find it hard to believe that cutting it would actually improve it. A good cast (Tommy Lee Jones, John Goodman, Peter Sarsgaard, Mary Steenburgen, Ned Beatty) wasted in the swamps of the deep south in this overcooked pot boiler.
Personal Effects (2009) David Hollander 4/10
Daybreakers (2010) Michael & Peter Spierig 4/10
"I want cement covering every blade of grass in this nation! Don't we taxpayers have a voice anymore?" Peggy Gravel (Mink Stole) in John Waters' Desperate Living (1977)
/Bad Education/ (Pedro Almodovar) - 9/10
I think there's a little something missing in the final act. Here's what I wrote for a soon-to-be-published piece:
"A director takes a story and adds a spin. When Enrique Goded (Fele Martínez) first walks across his office to greet “Ignacio” (Bernal), one of his first utterances is how he should lose the beard. He’s already found his subject, twisting him into what he needs him to be; and what a subject he’s found! Alberto Iglesías’ score swells and Enrique watches Ignacio leave his office, and says with a smirk that he was his first love, but that he’s changed. It’s a knowing moment evoking noir, but, no mere pastiche, Pedro Almodovar’s Bad Education speaks to how sick puppies who have lost it at the movies bend over backwards to integrate moments past into life – if not works – present. He gets such a thrill to even be present in something so nourishing – and noir. It’s a film of persisting ellipses of expectation as a memory, a dream, and a movie often at the same time."
Natch.
My roommates were watching it and I was pretty curious. I'm a little specious of my film viewership more than five years past. I was more interested in what I was watching rather than how it was being put on. A Beautiful Mind was released in Phoenix on the 21st of December. This immediately followed my departure from the University of Arizona with a GPA barely hovering 2.0 following two and a half largely wasted years, and with a lot on my mind I found myself angry at this film for presenting a neutered portrait of a wholly unlikable man. It's the only Best Picture winner I have not revisited and as it was playing in my den (and one of my two full-time jobs being largely mindless logging), I figured Why not?
Thankfully, I live near the New Beverly which routinely plays classic cinema which I would prefer viewing there to at home. And with seven people taking up residence in my house, finding the right modicum of silence to watch a Bresson takes some talent.
The last movie I watched in Tucson, Arizona during my failed stay at the University of Arizona was The Royal Tenenbaums. The first movie I watched in Phoenix, Arizona was The Royal Tenenbaums a couple of weeks later with my sister. Then I began studying film.
I think there's a little something missing in the final act. Here's what I wrote for a soon-to-be-published piece:
"A director takes a story and adds a spin. When Enrique Goded (Fele Martínez) first walks across his office to greet “Ignacio” (Bernal), one of his first utterances is how he should lose the beard. He’s already found his subject, twisting him into what he needs him to be; and what a subject he’s found! Alberto Iglesías’ score swells and Enrique watches Ignacio leave his office, and says with a smirk that he was his first love, but that he’s changed. It’s a knowing moment evoking noir, but, no mere pastiche, Pedro Almodovar’s Bad Education speaks to how sick puppies who have lost it at the movies bend over backwards to integrate moments past into life – if not works – present. He gets such a thrill to even be present in something so nourishing – and noir. It’s a film of persisting ellipses of expectation as a memory, a dream, and a movie often at the same time."
Josh, I'm just curious -- what impelled you to watch A Beautiful Mind again? I assume you're reviewing the decade, but hell there must be an Ozu, Rossellini, Minnelli, Bresson, de Toth, etc. picture you haven't seen with which you could have filled up those two hours.
Natch.
My roommates were watching it and I was pretty curious. I'm a little specious of my film viewership more than five years past. I was more interested in what I was watching rather than how it was being put on. A Beautiful Mind was released in Phoenix on the 21st of December. This immediately followed my departure from the University of Arizona with a GPA barely hovering 2.0 following two and a half largely wasted years, and with a lot on my mind I found myself angry at this film for presenting a neutered portrait of a wholly unlikable man. It's the only Best Picture winner I have not revisited and as it was playing in my den (and one of my two full-time jobs being largely mindless logging), I figured Why not?
Thankfully, I live near the New Beverly which routinely plays classic cinema which I would prefer viewing there to at home. And with seven people taking up residence in my house, finding the right modicum of silence to watch a Bresson takes some talent.
The last movie I watched in Tucson, Arizona during my failed stay at the University of Arizona was The Royal Tenenbaums. The first movie I watched in Phoenix, Arizona was The Royal Tenenbaums a couple of weeks later with my sister. Then I began studying film.
"How's the despair?"
-
Big Magilla
- Site Admin
- Posts: 19336
- Joined: Wed Jan 01, 2003 3:22 pm
- Location: Jersey Shore
The Last Flight (1931) William Dieterle 7/10
John Monk Saunders, was a former flight instructor, whose second wife (1928-1939) was Fay Wray. He wrote the story for Wings and won an Oscar for The Dawn Patrol. He adapted his novel Single Lady into the screenplay for this film, which greatly resembles Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises, first published in 1926.
Like his previous films about WWI aviators, the specter of death hangs over his characters for much of the film. Saunders himself committed suicide in 1940 at the age of 44.
Richard Barthelmess, David Manners, Johnny Mack Brown and Elliott Nugent are the four WWI flyers who are now drifting through Europe as part of the lost generation. Helen Chandler, whose life was even more tragic than Saunders, is the girl who follows them from Paris to Lisbon. Tragedy ensues in ways you don't see coming.
All five leads are excellent including Nugent who later became a director.
Chandler, who is best remembered for 1931's Dracula, was institutionalized in 1940, disfigured in a fire in 1950 and died of a peptic ulcer in 1965. Her body cremated by the State of California when no one claimed her remains.
This was Dieterle's first Hollywood film.
John Monk Saunders, was a former flight instructor, whose second wife (1928-1939) was Fay Wray. He wrote the story for Wings and won an Oscar for The Dawn Patrol. He adapted his novel Single Lady into the screenplay for this film, which greatly resembles Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises, first published in 1926.
Like his previous films about WWI aviators, the specter of death hangs over his characters for much of the film. Saunders himself committed suicide in 1940 at the age of 44.
Richard Barthelmess, David Manners, Johnny Mack Brown and Elliott Nugent are the four WWI flyers who are now drifting through Europe as part of the lost generation. Helen Chandler, whose life was even more tragic than Saunders, is the girl who follows them from Paris to Lisbon. Tragedy ensues in ways you don't see coming.
All five leads are excellent including Nugent who later became a director.
Chandler, who is best remembered for 1931's Dracula, was institutionalized in 1940, disfigured in a fire in 1950 and died of a peptic ulcer in 1965. Her body cremated by the State of California when no one claimed her remains.
This was Dieterle's first Hollywood film.
Josh, I'm just curious -- what impelled you to watch A Beautiful Mind again? I assume you're reviewing the decade, but hell there must be an Ozu, Rossellini, Minnelli, Bresson, de Toth, etc. picture you haven't seen with which you could have filled up those two hours.
"Y'know, that's one of the things I like about Mitt Romney. He's been consistent since he changed his mind." -- Christine O'Donnell
/A Beautiful Mind/ (Ron Howard) - 3/10
Regardless of whatever Crash-tastrophes may have occurred this decade, I doubt there is a more forgettable Best Picture winner than A Beautiful Mind. Ron Howard must be one of the least exceptional Oscar winners in history. What does he do? He fails at so many things as a director, not least among them creating any kind of convincing relationship between Crowe and Connelly. In theory, the idea of Jennifer Connelly being attracted to Russell Crowe is not that difficult. I cannot see these people fucking to save my life! The movie is a bizarro-world anti-romance of this beautiful woman who watches her life thrown away before her eyes. Connelly's Oscar is entirely the product of hype in a strangely overt fashion. She literally does nothing in this film.
This is a film by Roger Deakins and James Horner, both of whom do admittedly very fine work (Horner is usually a to-be-dreaded composer, but this is actually a lovely score.) The film is not without pleasures. The impetus for Nash's bar-room breakthrough is actually pretty solid IMO, but beyond this it's very short on innovation. There is a kernel of truth to Nash's schizophrenia self-imposed by social/sexual anxieties, but it's largely unexplored. I don't care how politically incorrect this term may be, A Beautiful Mind is two and a quarter hours of Russell Crowe running around and acting like a retard. He's incredibly annoying. At the end of this movie, I should like the guy or care if he is redeemed. I don't find his mind beautiful. I find it annoying. Russell Crowe has several fine moments, but it's intensely dopey stuff. I'm not sure I entirely blame him for this. He's a very fine actor with or without retard teeth. At all times, he is struggling against Howard and the script to do something truly batshit. The film almost plays like a comedy about how badly this guy can ruin other peoples' lives. It's like ALL THIS BECAUSE YOU MATHEMATICALLY FIGURED OUT HOW TO PICK UP GIRLS IN A BAR?
/The End of the Affair/ (Neil Jordan) - 8/10
Very good. More in 8th Decade.
Regardless of whatever Crash-tastrophes may have occurred this decade, I doubt there is a more forgettable Best Picture winner than A Beautiful Mind. Ron Howard must be one of the least exceptional Oscar winners in history. What does he do? He fails at so many things as a director, not least among them creating any kind of convincing relationship between Crowe and Connelly. In theory, the idea of Jennifer Connelly being attracted to Russell Crowe is not that difficult. I cannot see these people fucking to save my life! The movie is a bizarro-world anti-romance of this beautiful woman who watches her life thrown away before her eyes. Connelly's Oscar is entirely the product of hype in a strangely overt fashion. She literally does nothing in this film.
This is a film by Roger Deakins and James Horner, both of whom do admittedly very fine work (Horner is usually a to-be-dreaded composer, but this is actually a lovely score.) The film is not without pleasures. The impetus for Nash's bar-room breakthrough is actually pretty solid IMO, but beyond this it's very short on innovation. There is a kernel of truth to Nash's schizophrenia self-imposed by social/sexual anxieties, but it's largely unexplored. I don't care how politically incorrect this term may be, A Beautiful Mind is two and a quarter hours of Russell Crowe running around and acting like a retard. He's incredibly annoying. At the end of this movie, I should like the guy or care if he is redeemed. I don't find his mind beautiful. I find it annoying. Russell Crowe has several fine moments, but it's intensely dopey stuff. I'm not sure I entirely blame him for this. He's a very fine actor with or without retard teeth. At all times, he is struggling against Howard and the script to do something truly batshit. The film almost plays like a comedy about how badly this guy can ruin other peoples' lives. It's like ALL THIS BECAUSE YOU MATHEMATICALLY FIGURED OUT HOW TO PICK UP GIRLS IN A BAR?
/The End of the Affair/ (Neil Jordan) - 8/10
Very good. More in 8th Decade.
"How's the despair?"
/The English Patient/ (Anthony Minghella) - 7/10
Not a great film, but I think I like it because I think what it approximates (the Lean epics) aren't incredibly special to begin with. Lawrence excluded, I don't love them and vastly prefer his intimate early British dramas. The English Patient is a somewhat lopsided epic that remains beautifully shot, edited, and scored, and achingly comes close at times to being the movie it so desperately should be, but really the existence of The End of the Affair invalidates its existence as the Ralph Fiennes romantic epic of the decade. It still has quite a bit to offer and doesn't warrant its title as Most Boring Oscar Winner.
/The Fly/ (David Cronenberg) - 11/10
I prefer Dead Ringers, but that's only because I think it's probably one of the twenty best films ever. I'm dwarfed by the economy of this accessible narrative. It works so well that its echos of Universal Creature Feature finale don't really harm it as much as they should. One more beat would be lovely. The rest of the film is canon.
/The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring/ (Peter Jackson) - 9.5/10
Wow. I hadn't seen this film in ages and revisited it b/c I'm writing a piece on the best films of the decade. Really it's more of a 9/10 but for nostalgia purposes, I'm a little cub-reduced. The opening forty minutes or so of introduction are so benevolent (not the prologue) and the strains of Shore's music is lovely that I found myself [sadly, for I am a cynic] transported. I had forgotten how delightfully befuddled Ian McKellan's Gandalf is in the first chapter, but the entire film is wonderfully acted, especially by Ian Holm. I think it's conceptually flawed but Jackson directs it with such panache. He may never make another movie as strong as Heavenly Creatures, but I do believe the first two chapters of The Lord of the Rings will persevere.
/The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers/ (Peter Jackson) - 9.5/10
I think The Two Towers is one of the most ambitious films of its budget this past decade. It's a film of cross-cutting war stories upon which the success of the entire saga really lies. Every set piece that astonishes in this trilogy exists in the second film: Gollum's monologue, Arwen's nightmare of Aaragon's death, rain-soaked Battle of Helm's Deep, etc. It's literally a film of wall-to-wall astonishment. It veers here and there and it lacks the first film's resonance of every single death, but really it feels like the purer distillation of Tolkein's empire-buildling. After these two masterpieces, I have no idea how the third film can be anything but a let-down. Will revisit though.
Not a great film, but I think I like it because I think what it approximates (the Lean epics) aren't incredibly special to begin with. Lawrence excluded, I don't love them and vastly prefer his intimate early British dramas. The English Patient is a somewhat lopsided epic that remains beautifully shot, edited, and scored, and achingly comes close at times to being the movie it so desperately should be, but really the existence of The End of the Affair invalidates its existence as the Ralph Fiennes romantic epic of the decade. It still has quite a bit to offer and doesn't warrant its title as Most Boring Oscar Winner.
/The Fly/ (David Cronenberg) - 11/10
I prefer Dead Ringers, but that's only because I think it's probably one of the twenty best films ever. I'm dwarfed by the economy of this accessible narrative. It works so well that its echos of Universal Creature Feature finale don't really harm it as much as they should. One more beat would be lovely. The rest of the film is canon.
/The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring/ (Peter Jackson) - 9.5/10
Wow. I hadn't seen this film in ages and revisited it b/c I'm writing a piece on the best films of the decade. Really it's more of a 9/10 but for nostalgia purposes, I'm a little cub-reduced. The opening forty minutes or so of introduction are so benevolent (not the prologue) and the strains of Shore's music is lovely that I found myself [sadly, for I am a cynic] transported. I had forgotten how delightfully befuddled Ian McKellan's Gandalf is in the first chapter, but the entire film is wonderfully acted, especially by Ian Holm. I think it's conceptually flawed but Jackson directs it with such panache. He may never make another movie as strong as Heavenly Creatures, but I do believe the first two chapters of The Lord of the Rings will persevere.
/The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers/ (Peter Jackson) - 9.5/10
I think The Two Towers is one of the most ambitious films of its budget this past decade. It's a film of cross-cutting war stories upon which the success of the entire saga really lies. Every set piece that astonishes in this trilogy exists in the second film: Gollum's monologue, Arwen's nightmare of Aaragon's death, rain-soaked Battle of Helm's Deep, etc. It's literally a film of wall-to-wall astonishment. It veers here and there and it lacks the first film's resonance of every single death, but really it feels like the purer distillation of Tolkein's empire-buildling. After these two masterpieces, I have no idea how the third film can be anything but a let-down. Will revisit though.
"How's the despair?"
-
Big Magilla
- Site Admin
- Posts: 19336
- Joined: Wed Jan 01, 2003 3:22 pm
- Location: Jersey Shore
The Cove (2009) Louie Psihoyos 8/10
Catching up with Oscar nominated films - this fascinating documentary on the capture of dolphins for showcases around the world and the killing of the remaining 23,000 per year in Taiji, Japan unfolds like a well-plotted suspense thriller.
Even scarier - the 18 minute DVD extra on mercury poisoning in the U.S. in which Robert Kennedy, Jr. accuses the CDC of being part of a conspiracy to play down the effects of using mercury in vaccinations of infants and toddlers which have increased from 3 fifty years ago to 22 today and are the main source of the increase in autism - he says.
Catching up with Oscar nominated films - this fascinating documentary on the capture of dolphins for showcases around the world and the killing of the remaining 23,000 per year in Taiji, Japan unfolds like a well-plotted suspense thriller.
Even scarier - the 18 minute DVD extra on mercury poisoning in the U.S. in which Robert Kennedy, Jr. accuses the CDC of being part of a conspiracy to play down the effects of using mercury in vaccinations of infants and toddlers which have increased from 3 fifty years ago to 22 today and are the main source of the increase in autism - he says.
Creation (Jon Amiel, 2009) 3/10
Terribly morose film about Charles Darwin's controversial theories clashing with his wife's religious beliefs.
Nine (Rob Marshall, 2009) 5/10
Really guys the film was not all that bad or maybe after reading all the remarks on the board I was expecting something deformed and horrific. Yes, Day-Lewis is all wrong for the part and I hated what Dion Beebe did with his lighting which makes the film look grubby. Even the outdoor scenes are shot terribly. I liked the songs sung by Nicole Kidman (the one next to the fountain....was she dubbed, I wonder?) and Cotillard. Great production design and costumes. Of the performances I liked Kidman and Dench with Cotillard a standout in the film. Very odd that she was not nominated and they instead gave a nod to Penelope Cruz who clearly didn't deserve it. Loren looks like a waxwork.
(500) Days of Summer (Marc Webb, 2009) 6/10
Fresh romantic comedy with great performances by both Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel.
Edited By Reza on 1265618939
Terribly morose film about Charles Darwin's controversial theories clashing with his wife's religious beliefs.
Nine (Rob Marshall, 2009) 5/10
Really guys the film was not all that bad or maybe after reading all the remarks on the board I was expecting something deformed and horrific. Yes, Day-Lewis is all wrong for the part and I hated what Dion Beebe did with his lighting which makes the film look grubby. Even the outdoor scenes are shot terribly. I liked the songs sung by Nicole Kidman (the one next to the fountain....was she dubbed, I wonder?) and Cotillard. Great production design and costumes. Of the performances I liked Kidman and Dench with Cotillard a standout in the film. Very odd that she was not nominated and they instead gave a nod to Penelope Cruz who clearly didn't deserve it. Loren looks like a waxwork.
(500) Days of Summer (Marc Webb, 2009) 6/10
Fresh romantic comedy with great performances by both Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel.
Edited By Reza on 1265618939
-
Precious Doll
- Emeritus
- Posts: 4453
- Joined: Mon Jan 13, 2003 2:20 am
- Location: Sydney
- Contact:
Woman is the Future of Man (2004) Sang-soo Hong 5/10
Dog Tags (2008) Damion Dietz 4/10
Lou Reed's Berlin (2007) Julian Schnabel 4/10
Fish Tank (2009) Andrea Arnold 7/10
The Secret People (1952) Thorold Dickinson 6/10
Broken English (2007) Zoe Cassavetes 4/10
Dog Tags (2008) Damion Dietz 4/10
Lou Reed's Berlin (2007) Julian Schnabel 4/10
Fish Tank (2009) Andrea Arnold 7/10
The Secret People (1952) Thorold Dickinson 6/10
Broken English (2007) Zoe Cassavetes 4/10
"I want cement covering every blade of grass in this nation! Don't we taxpayers have a voice anymore?" Peggy Gravel (Mink Stole) in John Waters' Desperate Living (1977)
-
anonymous1980
- Laureate
- Posts: 6383
- Joined: Wed Jan 01, 2003 10:03 pm
- Location: Manila
- Contact:
Last couple of weeks
Where the Wild Things Are (2009, Spike Jonze) - 5
Up in the Air (2009, Jason Reitman) - 6
The Road (2009, John Hillcoat) - 7
The Pride of the Yankees (1942, Sam Wood) - 8
The Search (1948, Fred Zinnemann) - 9
Valkyrie (2008, Bryan Singer) - 4
Gomorrah (2008, Matteo Garone) - 7
Hoop Dreams (1994, Steve James) - 8
Where the Wild Things Are (2009, Spike Jonze) - 5
Up in the Air (2009, Jason Reitman) - 6
The Road (2009, John Hillcoat) - 7
The Pride of the Yankees (1942, Sam Wood) - 8
The Search (1948, Fred Zinnemann) - 9
Valkyrie (2008, Bryan Singer) - 4
Gomorrah (2008, Matteo Garone) - 7
Hoop Dreams (1994, Steve James) - 8
-
anonymous1980
- Laureate
- Posts: 6383
- Joined: Wed Jan 01, 2003 10:03 pm
- Location: Manila
- Contact: