Catch up with the idea behind these weekend posts here.
I’m in chilly North Carolina for two weeks, fingers crossed for snow tonight. And I have little-to-nothing to offer in this space, but these posts aren’t for me anyway. So, you know the drill. Open thread. Enjoy the weekend.
Comments
63 responses to “CINEJABBER: Back east”
“From where back east?”
“DIFFERENT PLACES!”
Good ol’ North Carolina. Some of my best memories ever are of meeting mushroom farmers outside of Hot Springs, drinking authentic Appalachian moonshine, and waking up with a giant cock on top of my tent…
As for Cinejabber, watched True Grit, Black Swan, and The Fighter all within a span of two days. Loved all three but Black Swan is my clear favorite of 2010. Psychotic and sexy is how I like my movies. Portman is incredible, as is Aronofsky’s direction and Libatique’s cinematography. Before Black Swan, I found the year to be lacking that one film I’ll truly never forget. I can’t shake Black Swan.
True Grit is remarkable in its own way including how funny the film is. I have an active dislike of all things Coen Brothers but True Grit works on nearly every level. My only issue is the finale. For some strange reason the film employs a rear-projection during a climatic nighttime horse ride and it looks like something from a bad Peter Hyams film. Otherwise Roger Deakins’ work is stellar.
And I simply loved The Fighter. It probably has a lot to do with the fact that I grew up with a crack addicted older brother for over 20 years who was enabled by my mum. Christian Bale was spot-on, eerily so. I can’t imagine him not winning the Oscar but stranger things have happened. Melissa Leo nailed her role as well. Amy Adams who I don’t really care for as an actress was pretty good. Marky Mark isn’t given much to do, so it is what it is.
I’m watching Enter The Void later today, I hope it lives up to the hype.
Just graduated yesterday. Or rather, I took my last final as an undergraduate. It’s going to be a fun weekend. Ok, so that wasn’t Oscar related, but I had to share.
Saw True Grit back on Tuesday and I think it’s my favorite film of the year. I wanna see it again, because like all Coen Bros. movies, it takes a couple of viewings to really sink in. On the surface it appears to just be a surface-level western, but I feel like there’s a much more layered examination of seeking closure and moving on in here. The more I think about the film, but more I absolutely adore it.
Saw I Am Love the other day and hated it. I honestly feel like I’m the only person on earth who has seen that film and didn’t lose my shit for it. Easily takes the title of most overrated film of the year for me, followed closely by The Kids Are All Right.
Saw The Fighter last night and it stole my heart. Christian Bale was nothing short of a revelation of sorts in the film. He has his Oscar in the bag and if he doesn’t win, there truly is no justice in the world. Terrific performances across the board too, and a really unconventional approach to a conventional-ish story. But I think people focusing on the boxing narrative of the film are missing the point. It’s about family and all the baggage they bring. You could replace boxing with anything else in this film and it would still work as a compelling family drama, with a story about these two brothers at the core. Count me in the camp of people who loved this film, I think it’s absolutely one of the year’s finest works, haters be damned. Probably going to see Black Swan again today, give the extended edition blu-ray of The Town a spin, and finally see The King’s Speech, along with a possible second viewing of 127 Hours this week before publishing my Best of the Year column.
Congrats, Daniel!
Kevin K … while I loved Swinton’s actressing, and the film is lovely — I did not care for the story, at all. So, I’m sorta with ya. :)
Yes, congrats, Daniel!
Congratulations, Daniel! :)
I watched “Exit Through the Gift Shop” yesterday since it topped Kris’s list and was on the NY Times Top Ten list as well. It was very interesting and very well-made but I think a lot of the hype exists solely because Banksy made it.
Coincidentally, I saw “Suspiria” for the first time two nights ago (approximately 24 hours before I saw “Black Swan”). I thought it was very cool to see how such classic horror/thriller movies of the 70’s and 80’s influenced “Black Swan.”
And on “Black Swan”…I thought it was great. I think “The Social Network” is a better movie, but “Black Swan” is a more memorable one. Right now the two of them hold my top two spots for movies of the year. And while I haven’t seen all the movies I would have liked this year, I think Natalie Portman truly deserves the Oscar this year. I also think, in a perfect world, this would snag the cinematography Oscar…breathtaking.
And speaking of “I Am Love,” I caught it on Netflix a few days ago…I thought the performances were great and the style of the film to be flawless, but the storyline was a bit too simple to be noteworthy…if you’re going to go for melodrama, I feel you really need to push the envelope to engage the audience (otherwise it just seems cheap and/or cliche). But the actors involved sold it as best they could, and they save it (at least imo).
Am I the only person who actively hated the cinematography of Black Swan?
I copied my blog post here. It’s about an aspect of Inception I haven’t heard much talk about and I found it interesting:
So an aspect of Inception that hasn’t seemed to get much play is the fraudulent psychotherapy that Leo and friends are forcing on Cillian Murphy’s character. They’re trying to get him to get over his issues with his father, through whatever lies necessary, so he can do what they need him to do. In the end, it seems that he’s personally the better for it, but the fact remains that he was brought to this new mindset through deceitful means. What do we think about that? Given how quickly Nolan’s last film (The Dark Knight) was branded right wing propaganda because of its morally questionable use of technological surveillance, I’m surprised that no one has accused Nolan of more right wing propaganda; after all, is Nolan saying that lies are okay if it gets you what you need? Is he saying we shouldn’t really be mad about going into war on false pretense, since some good seems to have come out of it (“at least they got Saddam”)? And furthermore, when it comes to psychotherapy in general, could one argue that its very essence is a subtle form of deceit, that the therapist is trying to get the patient to get his act together and think it was all his own idea? What about education? Do teachers have to trick students into believing they’re intelligent beings worthy of a fulfilling career and livelihood? At what point is education not a form of inception? Is there a point where it’s positive, until it becomes brainwashing? I’m personally still sitting with these questions, but it’s interesting, no?
I caught up with The Fighter this weekend, and it was surprising how great it was. David O. Russell, as loose a cannon and weird a man as he is, directed this movie excellently, turning what could’ve been generic into something artful, impressive, and genuinely aggressive. To me, his direction and Christian Bale were by far the stand-outs. Melissa Leo and Amy Adams were fine, and Wahlberg gave his best performance in this film. Great movie.
Seeing Tron tonight, and Black Swan on Monday. Oh, and congratulations Daniel. I am envious (I have one more semester of my undergrad.)
I saw “True Grit” two nights ago – didn’t like it. I worship the ground that the Coen Brothers walk on, so I was disappointed to see them abandon their cynicism and tenacity in favor of folksy charm.
They bring their trademark humor, language and craft, but that’s all it is.
I know the Coens have substantial peaks and valleys in their filmography and they can work from very different places, but I’m still surprised that they decided to adapt this material – there’s just not much there.
Congrats Daniel! Have fun this weekend. Party a lot but make sure to check out the good films coming out this year so you can discuss their Oscar chances later (sike ;^P)
I hope I don’t get snowed in (I’m in VA) b/c I am dying to go see The Fighter and Black Swan (for a second time.) This year is really starting to come together as is usually the case with December films.
How are so many of you able to see True Grit in advance? Are you all really Tom Hanks, Brad Pitt and George Clooney or something?
That is interesting. Thanks Silencio for that input. Definitely had not thought about that ’til now.
Congratulations, Daniel!
I graduated last June, so I know how amazing it feels to finally be done. You will miss school desperately within three months, though. Sooner, if you start working a 9 to 5 job.
Saw TRON: Legacy yesterday. I was more impressed/gobsmacked by the awesome technicals than I was enthralled by the acting/writing – but it was mostly fun.
Hoping to see The Fighter tonight or Monday.
Seeing Black Swan again tomorrow with a group of friends who don’t know I’ve seen it already, lol.
Re-watched Winter’s Bone. I liked it more. but I still don’t understand what’s so phenomenal about it.
Oh, and in regards to Silencio’s Inception topic, I think the leap to right wing war propaganda is a bit reaching, and isn’t really backed up by the film. While I don’t agree with that reading, the relation to education is more interesting to me. Though that isn’t simply a right wing thing, questioning educational practices. The educational system has been questioned by everyone and anyone, from Michel Foucault to Rousseau to, recently, Davis Guggenheim. So the notion that it is right wing propaganda I don’t think works, especially the lying, as that isn’t simply right wing but politics, and philosophy in general. Also, it raises questions of Kierkegaardian ethics, of whether a suspension of the ethical, which obviously the dream makers are doing, is something necessary to reach somewhere beyond the self, or beyond the aesthetic and ethical boundaries. It is interesting.
Hope this doesn’t sound like pretentious bullshit.
^ Actually, that was pretentious bullshit.
Also does anyone else have confirmation if The King’s Speech is expanding to their area on Christmas? I have not seen any trailers while watching other movies and haven’t seen any posters in the lobby of any of the theaters that I normally go to and I was wondering if it was true that the film was going to expand on Christmas or not. I can’t help but feel that they might not have used the best release schedule for that film, b/c it honestly could have benefited from an earlier December release as it turns out the other dramas aimed at adults did not go over well (mainly The Tourist, Love and Other Drugs, etc.) In retrospect I guess they are going to wish they did release it earlier b/c it has gotten so many great reviews and could’ve taken advantage of the Oscar buzz throughout the month – but who knows? When it finally does get released wide it could very well find an audience. I am just frustrated that a film that is supposedly the main contender against The Social Network is the only film I still haven’t seen (and have no idea when I am going to be able to finally see it.)
Silencio,
I haven’t seen Inception (I know, I know. I will soon.), but I am a right-winger, so I can say this much: as a general rule, we don’t do psychotherapy, full stop. ;)
Matt King,
No more pretentious than what I’ve heard coming out of the mouths of English grad students, and I ended up marrying one of those.
Yeah i actually wouldn’t accuse the film (or TDK) of anything, but in this day and age it seemed like someone would.
Hero, I thought the cinematography was amazing in Black Swan. You might be alone in your hatred. It needed that gritty, raw, handheld look.
I’m curious if Black Swan will become a midnight cult classic, it has all the makings of a great camp film. It’s so crazy and so over the top.
@ Hero
I, for one, disagree with you, but the two people I saw the film with both disliked the cinematography (they especially hated when they used the handheld camera approach to follow Portman’s character walking early in the film…made them dizzy, and they didn’t feel it added anything to the film). So I’m thinking it’s going to divide people. What really got me was that the cinematography was able to effectively hide whatever dancing limitations Portman and Kunis had without detracting from the dancing experience…it gave the illusion that Portman and Kunis were experts in ballet. It also seemed to make the choreography more exhilarating to those who are not particularly fond of dancing. But, again, based on your reaction and the reaction of my friends, I’m thinking this is all a matter of opinion.
“What really got me was that the cinematography was able to effectively hide whatever dancing limitations Portman and Kunis had without detracting from the dancing experience…it gave the illusion that Portman and Kunis were experts in ballet.”
The Dude, I hadn’t thought of it that way. I just noticed the gratuitous use of shaky cam, and the fact that I never wanted to see Natalie Portman’s bun again.
Staying on the topic of “Black Swan,” has a definitive word been made on whether or not the score will be eligible for Oscar consideration (considering that many themes borrow heavily from the score of “Swan Lake”)? I don’t know if it’d be #1 of the year so far, but it’s definitely in my top 5.
Just got back from Black Swan second viewing in a multiplex. Matinee, so not a huge crowd, but mostly 30s to middle aged audience. They ate it up, I don’t remember seeing any walkouts, unless the frat guys that walked out during the final dance didn’t come back, but I was too busy watching a brilliant film to care.
Oh and the film really holds up incredibly well to repeat viewings. Mila Kunis really popped out this time around, since I was sooooo caught up watching Natalie the first time I saw it back in October. No wonder she is getting BSA buzz.
I don’t quite agree with the Kunis Oscar nom talk. Of the supporting female performances I’ve seen this year
Weist
Weaver
Leo
Hershey (who’s not being discussed for whatever reason)
definitely deserve noms. Steinfeld as well but that’s a huge pile of category fraud since there’s nothing supporting about her work.
2010 is the year of crazy mums. Black Swan, Animal Kingdom, Catfish, The Fighter.
Hearty congrats to Daniel. Enjoy the world.
Just saw “The King’s Speech,” and I’m honestly sort of baffled at all the incessant praise. It’s a solid, small character piece with some lovely performances, but my primary issue with it was a lack of directorial identity, something I remember you claiming it had in spades. To me it all seemed rather conventional, and I was waiting for that moment where it would break out of its sort of stiff skin. A couple moments came close, but it just didn’t feel alive in the way I expected it to.
So no one answered my question, which can only then mean I was right.
Houston’s picks are out!
Picture: The Social Network.
Director: Fincher.
Actor: Eisenberg.
Actress: Portman.
Sup. Actor: Bale.
Sup. Actress: Steinfeld.
Screenplay: The Social Network.
Animated: Toy Story 3.
Cinematography: Inception.
Documentary: Restrepo.
Foreign: The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, Sweden.
Score: Inception.
Song: We Are Sex Bob-Omb!, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World.
Worst Film: Jonah Hex.
Humanitarian Award: George Clooney.
Honorific Award: Sissy Spacek.
Source: premiososcar2011.blogspot.com (spanish) ☺
Graysmith: Paramount has been having a lot of free pre-screenings through various websites like Gordon and the Whale and such.
I just watched Atom Egoyan’s Chloe, and I have to say I find it really amusing that in 2010 (spoilers ahead) we saw Julianne Moore play a lesbian who cheats on her wife with a man in The Kids Are All Right and in Chloe plays a straight woman who cheats on her husband with another woman. Talk about a double whammy!
Watched Black Swan at a midnight premiere the other night. Everyone else was there to watch Tron so I felt a bit out of place, and I felt bad for dragging my friend, but we both loved IMMENSELY. And ended up feeling sorry for the Tron people. Damn, Natalie Portman.
Good to see everyone’s doing well this holiday season.
I never formally announced this, but I was on Jeopardy! last month. If you guys are bored here is my (first) episode: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=haTan7qYfDI
And if you want to see me tackle an Oscar category: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HftYsbsBy1w
Saw True Grit Tuesday and Fighter today. I enjoyed both, though I need to examine True Grit again to catch the deeper themes, but the Coens are still one of the best in the business.
As for the Fighter, i think it is one of the best of the year. Certainly in my top ten. Christian Bale captivated me from the beginning and I didn’t find Melissa Leo’s character over the top at all. It fit the story. Amy Adams wasn’t given much room for character development, which was a bit of a drag. But then again the story isn’t about her. It’s about Dic — I mean Micky. Wahlberg’s performance as Micky is getting way too much crap. The fact that Wahlberg doesn’t talk much is important. In the way, he represents us, the audience. He’s thrust in the middle of a situation where everyone has their own opinion. We’re scared to open our mouth because we’re afraid. As evidenced by Leo’s husband, those who open their mouth at all with any sort of comment against the family will instantly have pans hurled at them with the force of Mo’Nique’s character in Precious. The fact that Mick doesn’t say much either is important. We’d just blend in with the rest of his family and wouldn’t necessarily be as likable. At least that’s how I see it.
Also watched Last Tango in Paris for the first time. Brando’s great, but it’s certainly not as controversial as it used to be.
Wait a minute wait a minute! The Hans that posts here on In Contention is the same one that did this!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGGPE-Cc_lc
Sorry to post this man but it’s one of my favorites.
Congratz Daniel.
that’s gonna be me in four months and i seriously can’t wait.
i’m also watching Inside Job, Rabbit Hole, and The Fighter this weekend so I’m really pumped.
AAAAUGH SNOW!!!
don’t mention the cold, please!! it’s summer here in Rio and I hate it! any mentions I see of snow and cold weather just makes me miss NY (and the US in general) a lot more!!! =)
Hey, I love that moment! Anything to go down in the viral history books. I always get a good laugh from Jim Rome’s rant about me: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5eNnixBPe8
“Hans…..bubbie…….”
Oh, and I forgot to add my congrats to Daniel! Graduation is a sweet orgasmic relief that I can’t wait for.
anyone had a look at the Asia Pacific Screen awards? some really interesting winners; Aftershock and Poetry amongst them.
watched Enter the Void last night, what a trippy ride! such a difficult film yet still engrossing and intensely watchable.
Plenty of snow here in the UK too!
I didn’t even bother reading any of the comments after Chuck’s first one. Why did anybody bother commenting when “Showgirls” was right there at the start.
*throws fries*
Re: Houston Critics’ Awards (comment 34): Shall I assume that “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo” is the only foreign-language film that got a release in Texas?
Watched “Never Let Me Go” the other night. I have to say, I can certainly understand why people haven’t responded well to it, but I thought it was a masterpiece. There is such a complete sense of character in that film, highlighted by the fact that the three child actors who grow into Mulligan, Knightley, and Garfield’s characters are every bit as good as their adult counterparts, a rare feat. All three of the aforementioned leads played their parts to a tee, with Garfield’s work in this and “The Social Network” cementing my belief that he is the performer of the year. Romanek is no slouch of a director either, and Rachel Portman’s score was beautiful.
Just returned from my 3rd viewing of “Black Swan.” Oscars to all: Aronofsky, Portman, Libatique, a tie between Hershey and Kunis, and of course the screenplay. And I’m mystified as to why Vincent Cassel’s performance hasn’t been singled out yet. Surely he warrants at least a nomination. Great film. 5 in a row for Aronofsky.
Totally irrelevant to any movie in theatres now, but my friend at Yale was hanging out on the set of Mr. Popper’s Penguins (the upcoming Jim Carrey film) and got to feed some of the penguins. They are very cute. http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc4/hs1396.snc4/164882_1559119142866_1381890277_31447440_4623579_n.jpg
I saw The Fighter yesterday- it was pretty good, the theater was packed and the audience seemed to thoroughly enjoy it. Christian Bale and Melissa Leo were the two standouts of the movie.
Also, random note here: I had no idea going in that Darren Aronofsky was an executive producer.