Last Seen Movie - The Latest Movie You Have Seen; ratings

[Sabin]

mlrg wrote:

Biutiful (2010) - Alejandro Gonzalez Iñarritu

4/10

It´s almost "oful"

Yeah, this movie sucks.

[mlrg]

Biutiful (2010) - Alejandro Gonzalez Iñarritu

4/10

It´s almost "oful"

[anonymous1980]

Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! (Pedro Almodovar) - 8.5/10

[ksrymy]

Meek's Cutoff (2011)
Director: Kelly Reichardt
Starring: Michelle Williams and Bruce Greenwood

4/10

I may have gone into this expecting much more. Fuck it. I was expecting more from this. I don't think a single character raised his voice the entire film. Heated argument was as far as that got. The worst thing about this film is how static it is. Up until 70 minutes in, there were a total of three non-static shots (boringly enough, they were people walking with their wagons from one side of the screen to the other). I can seriously see Reichardt and his cinematographer brooding around the tripod it seems they worked with congratulating each other on the "art" of their standard, static shots saying, "This is cinema!" in a mutual circle jerk. This film also lacks a beginning and an ending. We hop right into the characters' journey West. There are some conflicts and whatnot that they can make a plot out of and the ending is abrupt and unrewarding. The lack of a solid score throughout the film really hurts its rating too. Films like No Country for Old Men can pull off being great with no score. This film cannot. I vaguely remember the possibility of music at the beginning of the film and there are a few seconds of strings at the end. I sit here and wonder if the director was trying to be artsy or working with what small budget she had. I was disappointed that Michelle Williams didn't really do anything in the film other than be the one character who stands up for the Native American's rights as a human being. Some may say her performance is nuanced, I say it was boring. The reason this film gets a 4/10 is because I've seen worse films and because Bruce Greenwood's performance as Stephen Meek is actually quite good and if this film gets enough exposure around awards season I could see him sneaking into a Best Supporting Actor slot à la John Hawkes.

The Tree of Life (2011)
Director: Terrence Malick
Starring: Brad Pitt, Jessica Chastain, and Sean Penn

6/10

I'm not as wild about this film as everyone else is on this board. I don't know whether I was expecting more (or less) or what the deal was but I'm not on the "oh-my-God-this-is-the-greatest-film-ever" bandwagon. I appreciated it from a cinephile aspect, but I found it a overwhelming at points (i.e. the 20-minute NOVA documentary on the creation of life, the orange lines of wavy light from Windows Media Player between scenes, the end scene, etc.). Don't get me wrong, they were all beautifully shot and very precisely artistic but the pacing was absolutely unbearable at points (at least for me). I think this may be Brad Pitt's best ever performance. I won't be surprised if he is nominated in the supporting category in these next Academy Awards. I think another major disappointment I had in the film is how highly-billed and advertised Sean Penn is. I was really looking forward to seeing what he would do in this film and he was hardly in it at all; however, his younger version, Hunter McCracken, was surprisingly decent in his role (seeing as I don't appreciate most child acting). Another beef I have with the film is its editing. There were so many instances of characters jumping from one place to another in, seemingly, the same shot that it was all I could focus on for a while. I have no doubt in my mind that this will take home the Cinematography Oscar though. This film is easily one of the most intricately-shot films I have ever seen; however, I think this film may be even too pretentious for the Academy to give it the Best Picture Oscar. It will garner a nomination with no doubt but I feel that there are so many better films that could take home that prize. The more I think about this film, the more I like it yet, simultaneously, the more frustrated I become with it. I pointed out to my friend with whom I viewed this that the film almost seemed Lynchian at points with the jumpy plot, stunning visuals, psychological/dream-like states (the end scene), etc. I'm fully prepared to be crucified by everyone here who gave the film 10/10.

I also see that Metacritic gave both this film and Meek's Cutoff 85s which I find amusing due to the direction of each film (static vs. artistic).

[Sabin]

Definitely, Maybe (Adam Brooks) - 7/10

In a way, the film has a lot in common with Bill Clinton. It's so charming, it's very easy to make excuses for it. This is a very cloying little idea of changing all the names of your child's mother and making her guess who her real mother is...it makes for a cohesive narrative, but it's also just a horrible idea to do to your kid! And there's no scene where her mother smacks Will Hayes (Ryan Reynolds in the strongest role I've seen him give) and says WHAT THE FUCK HAVE YOU BEEN TELLING OUR CHILD? I think a jolt like that could have helped to ground Definitely, Maybe. The final half hour is rather paint by numbers and disposable. And while I'm not sure that these are the most strikingly written women in a modern romantic comedy, they are the most strikingly acted. Isla Fisher, Elizabeth Banks, and especially Rachel Weisz are rather incredible in this film. Kinda hard to feel sorry for this putz.

But it's very funny and well-acted, and it's about a very real and specific disillusionment. It could have used a sharper sensibility in the final act, but this film deserved a much warmer reception.

EDIT POINT - as more time passes for me with Definitely, Maybe, I'm actually growing increasingly frustrated with it. Like (500) Days of Summer, it approximates an enjoyability we are not so likely to enjoy in today's multiplexes, but it doesn't have the weight that it could have. Adam Brooks has written a film that desperately tries to downplay the passage of time and the disillusionment of our main character because that would represent a topicality that films today too often shy from in the context of something like this. A romantic comedy with Ryan Reynolds cannot delve into that which must have been frustrating for a true believer during the Clinton administration. The ten years don't feel like ten years on any level and I'm not sure it would be very difficult to correct that. Something as disposable as Notting Hill conveyed the passage of time as romantic killer effortlessly.

I'm not sure if it has risen or fallen in my estimation, but the fact that I've mustered this much thought over a Ryan Reynolds romantic comedy means it's worth something.

[anonymous1980]

Paris, Texas (Wim Wenders) - 9.5/10

[Sabin]

An Unmarried Woman (Paul Mazursky) - 6.5/10

I want to get into Paul Mazursky's films. He seems as though he has an interesting, humanist perspective. So I watched An Unmarried Woman and fairly early on I fell for Jill Clayburgh. I haven't seen Autumn Sonata, Same Time Next Year, or Coming Home in some time, but Clayburgh exhibits the kind of joy that infects in this film. She is impossibly attractive in this film, even when her character falls into speeches and shrieks. Mazursky's goal seems to be to align with Clayburgh and yet to fall in love with her to, to be and to want. As not entirely the intended audience by way of my sex and my thirty years distance in generational proxy, I can understand my slight distance, and yet the first half of the film when she is going through the rest of her marriage felt more engaging than what I would call the revolving door of lovers in the second half. More so, I enjoyed being aligned with Erica and I felt as though the film became a bit too androcentric as it went along.

All of which would give it more of a "B" rating, but the sheer joy in Clayburgh's performance tips it over. It's pretty easy to see how a performance like this could be overlooked come Oscar-time. It's easy to short-change and undervalue once it hits the mainstream. But it's a great piece of acting. I haven't really seen Jill Clayburgh in anything before but she is a stunner.

...as far as a work from Paul Mazursky goes...I'm not crazy interested, and yet I will keep going.

[anonymous1980]

The Smiling Lieutenant (Ernst Lubitsch) - 9/10

[anonymous1980]

anonymous, based on your ratings, I take it you are having a great time at the festival.

Yep. Great crop of films this year. I'm disappointed I wasn't able to see Aureus Solito's (The Blossoming of Maximo Oliveros) new film Busong, Adolfo Alix's Isda and Nino, all said to be really good too.

Missing (Costa-Gavras) - 8/10

Jack Lemmon was amazing in this one.

[Greg]

anonymous, based on your ratings, I take it you are having a great time at the festival.

[anonymous1980]

The Honeymoon Killers (Leonard Kastle) - 7.5/10

[Sabin]

/Deconstructing Harry/ (Woody Allen) - 5.5

I really don't know about this one.

I think this is Woody Allen's most inspired film that misses the point almost entirely. What is Deconstructing Harry? "A blocked writer has a breakdown - creatively and in his life - on the way to being honored by his alma mater." The journey to his alma mater barely seems to matter, and I think in doing so it ignores something very fundamental in this film, which is how does a writer function. Great fodder, and Woody has an interesting idea in his tangential vignettes several of which are funny enough to warrant existence. All of them seem to go nowhere and he just cuts them off when someone interrupts them, which is a very similar editing theme in this film. It's an intentionally jarring film.

Ultimately as Woody Allen tends to do, the film becomes a meandering story about the laissez-faire nature of love, and I think that dullens his point entirely. The film ends with the sentence "Notes for a novel..." and that's what this film feels like. Unfortunately, it doesn't really sprawl out like a novel. It feels bisected into two parts: the first is an exploration of...him, and the second is "How will he get the girl back, his son, to his alma mater?" And when he becomes haunted by his own characters, it happens incredibly late in the film. The result is both rushed and meandering. I want to give this film the benefit of the doubt because I think there is a pretty great film in there, possibly even as great as Husbands and Wives, but I found too much of it underwhelming. And repugnant.

...I think its screenplay nomination was for the short story diversions rather than the writing. Several of them are charming. But in a year where In the Company of Men, The Apostle, Chasing Amy, and [sure] Titanic would have been up, it's a token nom that didn't need to happen.


/School of Rock/ (Richard Linklater) - 7/10

I wish that there was one kid who had an honest opinion that challenges Dewey's rock dumb love of rock music. But other than that, but Linklater covers his scenes brilliantly. This is a great looking, great paced film. And Linklater gives JB an arc without dialing him down a notch, which is some kind of feat. The cast is uniformly fantastic, especially Joan Cusack. It's a total crowd-pleaser that I really enjoyed. It's inspired work-for-hire.

[anonymous1980]

Amok (Lawrence Fajardo) - 8/10

Set in a famously busy and hectic intersection in downtown Manila where all sorts of people pass by and go about their day, the film has various characters and storylines that are tied together in an explosion (of sorts) of violence in the third act. It is rather reminscent of films like Short Cuts and Magnolia in the multiple characters and storylines structure. This is a tighter, quicker paced film but Fajardo manages to give all his characters enough depth and time to make an impression to the audience. It helps that they're played by an exceptionally talented group of actors. I particularly loved the opening sequence, such a superb piece of editing and the film itself is an exemplary piece of filmmaking.

[anonymous1980]

i-Libings ("i-Funerals") (Rommel Andreo Sales) 7/10

A college film student reluctantly accepts an internship at a funeral house which offer video coverage for internet and DVD (for the purpose of relatives abroad unable to attend). The first hour or so of this film is just okay. Well-acted, well-made dramedy which reminds me a bit of Crying Ladies (another Filipino dramedy that is set in the world of funerals and the dead). Nothing special. The film comes alive in the third act twist which I will not reveal here and for me, at least, made the film into a pretty unique depiction of the effect of video and the internet on everyday human drama.

Bahay Bata ("Baby Factory") (Eduardo Roy Jr.) 8.5/10

I shall preface this review by saying I happen to be friends with the director and the publicist of this film but I will try to keep it as objective as possible. The film is simple: It focuses on one night (Christmas Eve) in a maternity hospital that predominantly serves poor and lower-class pregnant women. We get to see bits and pieces of stories involving the patients, the nurses and the doctors, both comic and tragic; good and bad. The film is quite a harrowing achievement, almost documentary like in its honesty. The presence of well-known actress Diana Zubiri is the only thing here that reminds you that it's basically a fictitious narrative film. It is almost a distraction but she acquits herself well here. The film is of course a relevant issue in Philippine society about the state of the reproductive health of poor women in the country but it mostly doesn't hit your hit with it and remains as honest as possible. This is the best film of the festival so far, I must say. Yes, I was being objective.

[Sabin]

Manhattan Murder Mystery (Woody Allen) - 6/10

This is a film that harbingers where Woody Allen was headed. I haven't seen Alice yet, another visible trifle, but Manhattan Murder Mystery followed the ambitiously unsuccessful approximative Shadows and Fog and the excellent formal exercise Husbands and Wives. He would go on to make several more films in the 90's and take a guess as to Woody Allen's most successful film of that decade? Mighty Aphrodite. Even more than Bullets over Broadway, Mighty Aphrodite would end up being his most financially successful film of the 90's. That's sad. But clearly Manhattan Murder Mystery impressed some people over at Dreamworks because he would spend the first half of the 00's mimicking it more than any other film in his oeuvre.

The best thing it has going for it is the casting. Woody Allen and Diane Keaton are exceptional together and casting Alan Alda as the would-be paramour is a great move. I think there's two films at work here, a relationship film and a mystery. He's not terribly interested in the relationship film and he's not terribly interested in the mystery. The latter is more successful, and I will admit there is something to be said about growing older and finding that somebody else is a better match for your disposition, but Woody doesn't even entertain the notion of either of these married people acting on it. But then I guess he just did that film in Husbands and Wives, which is immeasurably better. I think I just like the idea of Woody Allen and Alan Alda as romantic rivals.

...anyway, as can be guessed at this point there's not terribly much to say about Manhattan Murder Mystery except it's fun to watch Diane Keaton and Woody Allen together. I don't think Woody Allen has been funnier on-screen since this film and Diane Keaton is a wonderful actress who is a pleasure to watch, so it's worth checking out. The mystery is pretty slapdash and the giddy fun within it never really breaks through.