a potentially tight, interesting movie from a fairly simple premise.
The movie begins to two loooongggg, very uninteresting dialogue sequences wherein the director uses NOTHING but medium one shots connected via the shot-reverse shot method. Had Portugal studied film actually, he would know how quickly this technique tires the mind.
In fact, I was looking forward to seeing some kind of slow builder, a movie whose brief critical description matches the latter part of my initial sentence. Portugal clearly knows simple compositional principles and editing techniques, but is seemingly unaware of how to make a movie MOVE!
The movie begins to two loooongggg, very uninteresting dialogue sequences wherein the director uses NOTHING but medium one shots connected via the shot-reverse shot method. Had Portugal studied film actually, he would know how quickly this technique tires the mind.
In fact, I was looking forward to seeing some kind of slow builder, a movie whose brief critical description matches the latter part of my initial sentence. Portugal clearly knows simple compositional principles and editing techniques, but is seemingly unaware of how to make a movie MOVE!