Tag: film

General Orders No. 9

~ Mark

General Orders No. 9. Man, what a frustrating movie. There’s one refrain that appears throughout the movie: “Deer trail becomes Indian trail. Indian trail becomes county road.” And so we have a history of Georgia, or part of it anyway. It’s about the march of time, progress, “progress”, cities, bygone ways, and maybe about struggling to suck it up and move on without forgetting where you came from or resenting what’s now around you. Recurring images include water towers, courthouses, cemeteries, rivers, lonely trees in open fields, interstates, damp southern forests. Visually, it’s like 70 minutes of (what in many other films would be used for) b-roll and pillow shots, but a lot of it is beautiful.

There’s narration sprinkled throughout, with sets of lonely sentences bookending the sections of the movie. I feel like maybe he could have used an editor for both text and image. Would that rob it of its deeply personal heart and soul? Maybe. (I also got to wondering at one point if I would like the narration even less if he didn’t have a southern accent. It’s what I grew up around, so there will always be a soft spot. I would not be surprised if the words sounded more crude or banal in another voice.) The title refers to Lee’s Farewell Address, by the way.

Night on Earth

~ Mark

Night on Earth. It’s a mixed bag. A set of five short films, like Paris, je t’aime. None of the stories connect or tie in with each other in the Syriana/Babel/Magnolia/Pulp Fiction/Crash/Love Actually kind of way, besides the fact that they revolve around taxis. They all stand on their own. The Los Angeles and New York stories are the best. Paris was also very good. Rome and Helsinki rely too much on the storytelling of the drivers rather than the passenger-driver relationship of the first three stories. Though I wonder if there’s some cultural or filmic references that I’m missing that would have made those more enjoyable.

The Last Days of Disco

~ Mark

The Last Days of Disco. I loved Whit Stillman’s Metropolitan. (At this point I might as well complete the semi-trilogy with Barcelona). This one isn’t quite as fun or funny as Metropolitan, but it still has that same well-paced, compulsively watchable slice-of-life-ness to it. Some of the old characters reappear, slightly older, but still as earnest and floundering and full of shit. Sevigny’s character Alice is the most grounded of the lot. Worthwhile. And it’s got an UNDENIABLE SOUNDTRACK. Criterion essay. Ebert says:

The underlying tone of the film is sweet, fond and a little sad: These characters believe the disco period was the most wonderful period of their lives, and we realize that it wasn’t disco that was so special, but youth.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2

~ Mark

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2. You know it’s serious when the skies are overcast for two hours straight. Setting aside the expected clichés of dim lighting, muted palettes, stormclouds, speeches, etc., I went in expecting to be highly entertained and I was not disappointed. Until the end. I see the last five minutes as a pretty serious failure given the ~15 hours of good work that came before. Seriously, just throw an Ewok party and call it a day. Don’t try to make 20-year-olds-who-look-like-teenagers look like 40-years-olds. Yep, I’m old and grumpy. One day I’ll be glad to watch these again with my kids.

Days of Heaven

~ Mark

Days of Heaven. My first Malick film, and luckily an interesting, beautiful one. The story has scattershot narration by a young kid. Sometimes she has wise observations and sometimes she has immaterial asides. With this distance in age, we sort of see the characters in the central love triangle at a remove, a little more inscrutable. We see the drama and the tragedy but Malick’s not looking for your tears, I don’t think. The story’s too thin to bear it. The magic’s in the editing. The shots are elliptical, working by collage and juxtaposition and suggestion. Check out some lovely stills. Nice soundtrack from Mr. Morricone, to boot.

Exit Through the Gift Shop

~ Mark

Exit Through the Gift Shop. I wish I felt more strongly on the love/hate spectrum for this one, either direction. Hoax or not, this was a little… boring? I’ll add the disclaimer that street art isn’t really my thing. It was fun to see the gleeful rush that the artists get from making their projects come to life in the dark of night. There’s some kind of manic drive to it all, legal/ethical/logistical difficulties be damned.

Avatar

~ Mark

Avatar. I’m of two minds on this one. Glad to cross it off the list, but you could live happily without seeing it. It’s about as good as you can do a dumb movie. Strange pacing. Heavy-handed political parallels. So much swooping sweeping camera movement. Give James Cameron credit for, gradually, over the course of the movie, making me actually want to finish it, and for not being afraid to kill off side characters. Maybe I’ll watch Titanic this year, too.

ATL

~ Mark

ATL. Don’t expect Casablanca, but I recommend this without reservation – there’s some really great movie here. And it’s always flattering to have a movie in your home city. T.I. doesn’t do any dramatic fireworks, but he’s charismatic as usual. Big Boi’s character is terrifying and hilarious. You might know director Chris Robinson from his work on Bring Em Out, Shutterbugg, Go Getta, One Mic, No Love, etc.