Sunday, May 29, 2011

Rotoscope drugs

First iPad-written entry, let's see how it goes...

A couple of friends came over and we watched A Scanner Darkly. Interesting animation style and properly bizarre plot. Quite a cast, too: Robert Downey Jr, Keanu Reeves, Winona Ryder, Woody Harrelson... And a bunch of songs by Radiohead. I enjoyed it.

Apparently this iPad text entry thing doesn't play nicely with the blog formatting commands. Oh well.

Sunday, May 15, 2011

Hitch + Hitch

The Project moves on - maybe we'll actually finish this year!

Tonight's double feature was Hitchcock's remake of his own The Man Who Knew Too Much and The Wrong Man.

The first was a solid effort but not exceptional. I wonder if the director himself thought it better than the 1934 film. The second was very interesting and not much like his other films. It's low-key and based on a true story. The photography is rather noirish: black & white, shadows & light. It lacks Hitchcock's familiar trickery. Henry Fonda is very good as the wrongfully accused man. The master's frequent collaborators Robert Burks and Bernard Herrmann worked on both films.

Next up, Vertigo, finally. It's been a long time since I last saw it.

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Odinson

Thor himself (Chris Hemsworth) was the best part of the entertaining Thor. Natalie Portman was typically good with her small role and Tom Hiddleston pretty good as Loki. Most other Asgardians (and Earth people, for that matter) were kind of one-note characters. Thor's hammer-fu felt weighty and mighty enough for the most powerful warrior of a race once believed gods. The Destroyer looked like a proper Kirby creation. We also got a first look at Jeremy Renner as Hawkeye, even though he remained uncredited.

Frost giants were disappointingly small, basically fulfilling the "faceless orc horde" role.

Good time was had by this comics fan.

Monday, May 9, 2011

Dark side ascendant

Not strictly film-related, but I guess I can stretch my own rules. And you can watch movies on it, so...

I, a notorious anti-fan of many things Apple, bought an iPad 2 this weekend. Can a hipster haircut be far behind?

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

It's five by five for Darren Aronofsky

I've seen Pi, Requiem for a Dream, The Fountain, and The Wrestler, and found them all affecting films. Very different stories and settings, but one could argue that the story is not the point in his work, by which I mean a written version wouldn't feel so stirring. His use of visuals and sound (including faithful composer Clint Mansell) is essential to the whole. Sometimes what he shows is horrifying, sometimes mystifying, sometimes neither, but it always seems to touch a nerve in me.

I'm not saying all movies should be like this - one of my favorites, Howard Hawks, preferred a rather low-key approach and let the characters and dialog carry the story. Both ways, and others, are perfectly valid. But it's really refreshing to see an Aronofsky film every now and then.

This long-winded preamble was just to say that now I've finally seen Black Swan, too. As with The Fountain, it took some time before I was absorbed in the proceedings, possibly in part because I know nothing of ballet. But I don't have to comprehend the artistic side to see it's brutal, body-breaking work that's supposed to look easy, echoing The Wrestler. Things build and build and towards the last third I was completely riveted.

I wasn't as devastated as after watching Requiem (which I still haven't seen again), but most definitely affected. It's a great film about obsession and perfection, even though I don't plan repeating the experience soon.

Every last seat was sold and my neck will feel the suboptimal location tomorrow. Suffering for your art, indeed.

Monday, May 2, 2011

Heavy reading

TASCHEN's 100 All-Time Favorite Movies was so cheap I couldn't resist, even though Rio Bravo or North by Northwest are not included. But I guess I know them by now.

Sunday, May 1, 2011

Dangerous

Ah, Hollywood. Only there can Jean Peters be the plainer-looking woman of the two female leads in Niagara. But the other one was Marilyn, and there is something about her in this film that immediately spells "dangerous". The Niagara Falls are dangerous, too, and the ending is signposted early on but this matters not a bit. A nice noirish thriller, all in all.