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I was quite fascinated by The Five Obstructions. One gradually discovers that the film is not just about Jørgen Leth and whether he succeeds or not (since a film was made it's easy to assume that he does), but it's also about Mr. Von Trier and what goes on in the "beautiful" mind of his.
Agreed--I was going to say the same thing, arsaib, but you got in ahead of me. For wpqx I wanted to reference my review of The Five Obstructions. I think actually the film's very interesting indeed, but you get out of it what you put into it, it's not for casual viewing.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0354575/usercomments
My website movie reviews will be back next week, hopefully; meanwhile here's my IMDb version.
Unlike The Pianist, where Adrian Brody embodied a man who gradually deteriorated but fought to keep himself alive, The Jacket features the star in a role in which he supposedly dies more than once. Brody plays Jack Starks, a Gulf War vet who got shot in the head during a routine procedural in 1991 (his first encounter with death). After returning home with a severe case of amnesia, things don’t go much better for him; he’s accused of a murder after he hitched a ride with a stranger and was found passed out with a gun in his hand. Circumstantial evidence leads against him, but due to his mental health, he’s found not guilty by reason of insanity and gets institutionalized in one of those One Flew Over the Cookoo’s Nest-type of environments. The institution is more or less controlled by a sadistic doctor (Kris Kristofferson) who employs his own ways to treat patients, and that includes injecting them with mind-altering drugs and locking them in a morgue drawer (the "jacket" of the title) for hours at a time. While in there, Jack isn’t properly able to recall the past, but he does end up time-traveling to the year 2007 (about 15 years ahead). There he meets a downtrodden waitress (Keira Knightley), someone he might have encountered in his past, and she informs him that he died in 1993. Now it’s up to jack to find out what exactly happened as time is running out for him.
An interesting premise whose certain facets have been explored in much depth in films like Jacob’s Ladder and 12 Monkeys. The Jacket wants you to believe that it is cerebral and ingenious but the more you examine it, the less profound it becomes. The project has certainly attracted some big names. It is produced by Section Eight, the independent brand of Steven Soderbergh and George Clooney. They chose director John Maybury, a Brit who was an understudy of the brilliant Derek Jarman at one point, and directed the formidable Francis Bacon biopic titled Love Is the Devil in 1998. Maybury’s background as a visual artist has been put to good use, especially during the hallucination sequences, and he’s well aided by DP Peter Deming (Lost Highway/Mulholland Drive), but some of the compositions are criminally overdone to the point that they start resembling the processes of an MTV-hack. Even with all the time-shifting, the screenplay keeps its head until the final act where any semblance of clarity is sacrificed for melodrama. After the formal rigorosity of The Pianist, this was probably a walk in the park for Mr. Brody, but even in various dissolutory stages he is as brazenly alive here as he’s ever been. He’s the main reason why The Jacket seems agreeable even when it's disintegrating in front of our very eyes.
Grade: C+
*THE JACKET is now available on DVD.
Another promising English director fallen victim to the temptations of Hollywood money? Really excellent review, arsaib, with complete coverage of all varieties of talent brought together to be wasted here. I'm afraid this is what I mostly find when I go to Blockbuster or its like: stuff I knew why I didn't see when it was in theaters a while back. But I was tempted then, and I can see how you could be tempted if you saw it on a video shop shelf.
>>compositions are criminally overdone to the point that they start resembling the processes of an MTV-hack.<<
Brilliant phrase!
I remember seeing "Midnight Cowboy" for the first time in the theater and thinking, "Hmmmm, so this is where MTV got it from..."
O.K. on to my recent film:
Anyone see the cool "fear" scenes in "Batman Begins" yet? I thought they worked very well. The whole movie was well done with a dark, very "Batman" tone. Few super-hero movie cliches and a good cast along with break-neck pacing kept me into this movie. It's the best "Batman" movie since Tim Burton's "Batman" with Keaton and Nicholson.
Making "Scarecrow" a formidable enemy is quite an accomplishment.
Thanks for the comments guys.
The Jacket is apparently the only film work Maybury has done since '98, so I'm not sure how to define his thought process. I wouldn't call this film a waste. It could be a worthy rental; but don't expect a lot.
I saw Batman Begins earlier today. I'm not very impressed. My feelings about the film are similar to what wpqx and tabuno have said in its thread. I'll add a few comments later.
As for Batman Begins, I would think it all has a lot to do with whether one really likes comic book hero movies, or not. Since they're big news, anybody who follows the movies feels obliged to see them, but they leave many of us unmovied. I haven't seen it yet though. But people keep saying that the story is interesting.
The first half is very good. Very scary. Very despairing. Kind of a mix between "Close Encounters Of The Third Kind" and "Schindler's List".
The second half is not as good, but still worth watching. Basically a series of cliffhangers in which uber-TomCruise rescues his daughter in a series of increasingly resourceful ways. Some of these set pieces seem to have been copied from "Jurassic Park" (though there are images from just about every Spielberg film; the fillm's like an hommage he's paying to himself).
Cruise's and co-star Dakota Fanning's acting skills are slightly above competent. Stronger leads would've helped.
Excellent special effects. The most chilling: a runaway passenger train with flames shooting through each window.
It looks like your site is functioning okay. Some of the reviews seem to be in a different order but that's no big deal. I also noticed that you have added a rating at the end of your comments; you were doing fine w/out it but if it works for you then great.Quote:
Originally posted by Chris Knipp
My website movie reviews will be back next week, hopefully;
I don't personally feel a need for the ratings; they're experimental, tried in response to the criticism that what I thought of a film wasn't always clear. I could just try to make it clear from my text and drop the ratings.Quote:
(Originally posted by arsaib4)
I also noticed that you have added a rating at the end of your comments; you were doing fine w/out it but if it works for you then great.
I'm also looking at the possibility of making my reviews indexed and searchable and perhaps also putting them up in a different software and format. There is no particular logic to using forum software; it was just software that made posting reviews easy for me. But changing to different software and reinstalling all my reviews in it would be laborious; whereas making the existing software indexed and searchable would be costly. It's a tradeoff.
The Bourne Supremacy (2004) - Paul Greengrass
Honestly I'm a little disappointed. The film was decent at parts, but Greengrass made a mess of it. He did such a fantastic job with Bloody Sunday, I was hoping he could bring some of the emotional resonance to this series, and instead it was rapid, blurry, editing, and a lot of stanrd action sequences. Wait to see how it all plays out with the third installment, which will obviously be made, because there were three books.
It doesn't bode well for The Bourne Supremacy in my mind since I don't remember much about it. "Emotional resonance" is usually the key but unfortunately there isn't much here. I also agree with you on Bloody Sunday.
Les Vampires (1915) - Louis Feuillade
I'll take this time to mention that I got tickets to the White Sox vs. the Red Sox, and then in August the White Sox vs. the Yankees. That's the highlight of my day right now.
As for the film took me two installments, it's a little lengthy for one sit through. Interesting, but perhaps too may identity problems. Leaders and characters kept changing, and disappearing, and dying, and I had a hard time following it all. Now that I've finally seen it though I can start reading about it, and hopefully some light will be let in.
wpqx-- bravo.
arsaib4--another good review. You make it sound worth watching, for the first time.
wpqx: Don't be shy about passing on some of that light. I forgot to add that you may also enjoy Olivier Assayas' Irma Vep (1996).
Chris: I hope that I'm not being too harsh on some of these films, but I think it's better to be somewhat discerning than to just keep waving the white flag.