18 October 2011
Interview: NYTimes' of Michael Fassbender
22 August 2011
25 July 2011
Essay: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
12 June 2011
Review: Super 8
No doubt billed as one of the major blockbusters of this Summer, the Steven-Spielberg produced J. J. Abrams' film Super 8 nevertheless resists bearing such a "noble" mantle; to say that Super 8 was an attempt at recurring the past would be far more accurate an assessment of the film than to say that it busted any block or even single square of narrative storytelling. Dependent from the tropes that initially made Mr. Spielberg a commercial and personable success, the film by its film-makers fails to recognize that the manifestation of those tropes needs to be different now. The tropes, manifest originally among the technological and social conjunction of the mid-to-late 1970s and early 1980s, necessarily took on the popular characteristics of their sources; and, similarly, any manifestation now would need to become of the times. Social networks, plastics, even cell phones should be the devices turning this story's engine; resetting the clock to a time before all these elements and others is not just unchallenging story-telling but also niche nostalgia. To those few spectators whose childhood memories are synergistically stirred by the cliché '70s reprisals and industrial-aged futurism, the aesthetic and didactic consequences of the film may be comforting; but to the masses at large, they should just appear perpetuative of the thoughtless reshufflings of the deck that, highly stylized, now deal all forms of entertainment to gaping eyes. Needless then to say, a starving critical spectatorship fares no chance; quippy dialogue and a bit with a meta-medium are no sufficient stuffs for satisfying attraction. What could have been so much more distrusts itself to becoming so much less.
Grade: C+, simple simple sugar-tainment.
03 June 2011
Review: The Tree of Life
It's quite difficult for anyone to speak eloquently about such a simple topic as the one director and writer Terrence Malick approaches in his latest film, The Tree of Life: science v. religion; the argument makable there is plain, the story old, and the finer points mired in mud, dug up from each side's digging heels into the ground. So, Mr. Malick - either quite hopelessly or quite savvily - eschews speaking altogether; his writing places filamentary strings between points in time and space, bound then by shifting webbings that hang together with sap-like viscosity and flow equally heavily. Instead of a discourse through dialogue on the life-and-death nature of the debate, an emotional tide he rolls in and then pulls out and finally in again over the doings of a family bluntly divided themselves between "nature" and "grace." That this emotional, nostalgic, fanciful turning is effective is not really the undertow; that the narrative itself is emotional, nostalgic, and fanciful is. Mr. Malick's great exercise here is not that he's said anything new about the matter at hand, but rather that he's adapted his own personal style (see Days of Heaven, The Thin Red Line), characterized best by the abstract camera and the hovering monologue, to the direction of saying the matter at hand novelly. Few feature-length films or filmmakers step so effusively outside of the bounds of typical, critical communication for the purpose of exploring the alternative colors of the spectrum that the medium film has to offer. Influences from Brakhage, Schlesinger (viz., Midnight Cowboy), and Kubrick are evident. For what he owns here, Mr. Malick is safe too; The Tree of Life, though practically a substantial project, does not make a substantial meal but has crenellated finery spelling throughout it.
Grade: A-/B+
14 April 2011
09 April 2011
24 March 2011
Interview: Lindy Hemming on Topsy-Turvy (1999)
20 March 2011
The SpyGlasses Full (2010): Official Winners
Best Live-Action Film (Feature-Length)
Animal Kingdom
Carlos
Madeo (Mother/Murder)
Best Director
Darren Aronofsky, Black Swan
Olivier Assayas, Carlos
David Fincher, The Social Network
David Michôd, Animal Kingdom
John Cameron Mitchell, Rabbit Hole
Best Actor
Jeff Bridges, True Grit
Édgar Ramírez, Carlos
Geoffrey Rush, The King's Speech
Best Actress
Annette Bening, The Kids Are All Right
Nicole Kidman, Rabbit Hole
Hye-ja Kim, Madeo (Mother/Murder)
Natalie Portman, Black Swan
Michelle Williams, Blue Valentine
Best Supporting Actor
Christian Bale, The Fighter
Andrew Garfield, The Social Network
Kevin Kline, The Extra Man
Jeremy Renner, The Town
Best Supporting Actress
Helena Bonham Carter, The King's Speech
Barbara Hershey, Black Swan
Lesley Manville, Another Year
Sandra Oh, Rabbit Hole
Jacki Weaver, Animal Kingdom
Best Art Direction
David Graham Burt, Curt Beech, Keith P. Cunningham, & Victor J. Zolfo; The Social Network
Guy Hendrix Dyas, Larry Dias, & Doug Mowat; Inception
Eve Stewart & Judy Farr; The King's Speech
Best Cinematography
Adam Arkapaw, Animal Kingdom
Roger Deakins, True Grit
Frank G. DeMarco, Rabbit Hole
Matthew Libatique, Black Swan
Andrij Parekh, Blue Valentine
Best Costuming
Colleen Atwood, Alice in Wonderland
Antonella Cannarozzi, Io Sono l'Amore (I Am Love)
Françoise Clavel, Carlos
Jeffrey Kurland, Inception
Amy Westcott, Black Swan
Best Make-Up
Rick Baker & Dave Elsey, The Wolfman
Judy Chin, Marjorie Durand, & Geordie Sheffer;Black Swan
Valli O'Reilly & Terry Baliel; Alice in Wonderland
Best Visual Effects
Richard Bain & Frazer Churchill, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World
Dan Schrecker, Black Swan
Best Original Score
Alexandre Desplat, The Ghost Writer
Byeong-woo Lee, Madeo (Mother/Murder)
Best Original Song
"I See the Light" by Alan Menken & Glenn Slater, Tangled
"Mother Knows Best" by Alan Menken & Glenn Slater, Tangled
"Threshold" by Beck, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World
Best Sound Editing
Richard King, Inception
Tom Myers & Michael Silvers, Toy Story 3
James Harrison, Ben Meechan, & Julian Slater; Scott Pilgrim vs. The World
Larry Oatfield & Ren Klyce, The Social Network
Best Sound Mixing
Craig Henighan & Dominick Tavella, Black Swan
Jeffrey Perkins & Gary Rizzo, Inception
Best Editing
Luke Doolan, Animal Kingdom
Tom Fulford & Chris King, Exit through the Gift Shop
Ken Schretzmann & Lee Unkrich, Toy Story 3
Lee Smith, Inception
Andrew Weisblum, Black Swan
Best Screenplay (Original)
Michael Arndt, John Lasseter, Andrew Stanton, & Lee Unkrich; Toy Story 3
Olivier Assayas & Dan Franck, Carlos
Joon-ho Bong, Eun-kyo Park, & Wun-kyo Park; Madeo (Mother/Murder)
David Lindsay-Abaire, Rabbit Hole
Best Screenplay (Adapted)
Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman, Howl
Robert Harris & Roman Polanski, The Ghost Writer
Mark Heyman, Andres Heinz, & John McLaughlin; Black Swan
Best Animated Film (Feature-Length)
How to Tame Your Dragon
L'Illusioniste (The Illusionist)
Toy Story 3
Best Animated Film (Short)
Best Animated Film (Short)
Teddy Newton, Day and Night
Jakob Schuh & Max Lang, The Gruffalo
Best Documentary Film (Feature-Length or Short)
The Art of the Steal
Exit through the Gift Shop
Gasland
Sweetgrass
Best Foreign-Language Film (Live Action or Animated, Feature-Length or Short)
Carlos
Kynodontas (Dogtooth)
Madeo (Mother/Murder)
25 January 2011
Announcement: The Oscar Nominations (2010)
All right, kids; let's keep this brief:
The (Major) Yeses:
- James Franco, Actor in a Leading Role, 127 Hours;
- Matthew Libatique, Cinematography, Black Swan;
- Antonella Cannarozzi, Costume Design, Io Sono l'Amore (I Am Love);
- Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, Original Score, The Social Network; and
- Sylvain Chomet, Animated Feature, L'Illusioniste (The Illusionist).
The Nos:
- the absence of Andrew Garfield, Actor in a Supporting Role, The Social Network;
- Amy Adams, Actress in a Supporting Role, The Fighter;
- the absence of Lesley Manville, Actress in a Supporting Role, Another Year;
- David O'Russell, Directing, The Fighter; and
- the general dearth of nomination-worthy Original Songs.
Not so horrible are you this year, Academy. For remonstrations nevertheless, stay tuned; nominations on my ticket are to be announced anon.
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