Film Brief: Uncut Gems

An initial note: all the press accounts of Uncut Gems played up the idea of this as the first serious role for Adam Sandler, which is utter nonsense. Sure he’s known for his goofball roles, but: Punch-Drunk Love, Spanglish, Reign Over Me, and Men, Women & Children.

It’s such a sad state when even the mainstream (TV) press from which so many people get their information is so wrong so much of the time — at least on stuff like this. The whole Oscars So White balderdash they play up too. 12 Years a Slave, anyone?

Onto the movie…

Uncut Gems features a good pace, with a fringe on mania. The Safdie brothers have an idea. Style with no substance carried Good Time to something much less than the title promised; style and a whirlwind, stream-of-consciousness storyride propelled this much-improved follow up. 7/10

Comparison Notes: Aronofsky films (Mother!, e.g.); Hustlers, Joker

Film Brief: Men, Women & Children

The good thing about bad movies is they make fair and good ones look better.  Boyhood, which I bestowed with a 7/10 rating indicating good but not great, is a masterpiece compared to this clunker.  Men, Women & Children plays like one of those bad rom-coms like Valentine’s Day or He’s Just Not That Into You which juggle a bunch of different interpersonal relationship stories in lieu of having any single one worthy of a tale, but with very little rom and no com.  Awful narration by Emma Thompson only added to my displeasure.

I liked the trailer so much that I posted it without seeing the movie, put aside the Rotten Tomatoes score (29%), and set out to judge this cowardly film for myself.  On the plus side, modern themes are not completely mishandled and the performances are good.  3/10

 

 

I Feel Love for Men, Women & Children

I love this trailer.  Those who have been to the movies in the last few weeks have probably seen it.  I saw it a couple times and was slow to react, but it got burned in my brain.  Why?  Largely because of the music, a sensual, slowed-down but equally mesmerizing version of the Donna Summer disco hit “I Feel Love”.

Apparently there’s a lot of covers of “I Feel Love”, mainly keeping up the pace — but this one by a group called the Plantains turns it into a haunting groove that syncs perfectly with the visuals.  The soundtrack for Men, Women & Children is not available, but when it is I hope the song is included.  It would help the movie, but as we’ve seen from Silver Linings Playbook, underhanded marketers will sometimes use music to promote a movie that isn’t anywhere to be found in the movie itself.

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As much as I like the trailer it seems like a movie that could be either truly fabulous, or just as easily one where nothing much happens.  I’m hoping for the former.

iTunes Trailer

Two Andersons a Coppola

from email 30 May 2008

Hello all,

I’ve been wanting to write a little on what I know of the films of Wes Anderson and Paul Thomas (credited as p.t. in earlier films) Anderson.  As I said before, these are two very different directors not related to one another, at least not by “Blood” (I’ll explain that later).  However, I pair them because they started making films around the same time, in the mid to late ’90s, which is also when I became aware of them, and because that they each have unique characteristic filmmaking styles.  As different as they are I always think of them together.  Somehow like a “Bizarre Love Triangle” I fit Sofia Coppola into the mix – sort of a female counterpart to the two Andersons, with a style and perspective as different from the Andersons as they are from each-other.   Coppola shares some actors with at least one of the Andersons, so a link there too.

A couple notes: I’ve added Erik to the distribution on these as he expressed an interest.  And again, unless I specify otherwise, I am writing only about films that I recommend, and usually greatly so, as long as you’re in that sort of mood.  Because there are so many films I want to touch on, I am not going to provide much of a review or analyis on any one film, but hit a couple key points.