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Reviews
Interstellar (2014)
The Second Worst Movie Of All Time?
In 1968, Stanley Kubrick made 2001, in which incredible technical obstacles are solved to send a man though a worm-hole to meet aliens, but he meets his older and younger selves instead and learns ... something, etc. In 1997, Lynda Obst made Contact, co-starring Matthew McConaughey, in which incredible technical obstacles are solved to send a woman though a worm-hole to meet aliens, but she meets her younger father instead and learns that Love is Stronger than ... something, etc. In 2014, Lynda Obst made Insterstellar, starring Matthew McConaughey, in which incredible technical obstacles are solved to send a man though a worm-hole to meet aliens, but he meets his grown-up and then elderly daughter instead, and learns that Love is Stronger than ... the gravity of a black hole, or something, etc. I believe the incredibly loud music was deliberately mixed to cover up lots of dialogue because the filmmakers listened to the dialogue in the rough cut and realized what they had on their hands.
Gone Girl (2014)
The "Unreliable Narrator" in novels and films
A popular trick in novels is the "Unreliable Narrator." One of the characters tells us everything that happened; but then we discover that character missed important events, or is lying, or is insane. Perhaps another character then tells everything from their point of view; and then we realize the first character was lying. Perhaps the second character is also lying. Etc. This "Unreliable Narrator" technique can make novels very entertaining (especially mysteries.) The problem with films: we usually believe everything we see happening on the screen (unless it's obviously a dream or hallucination.) How can a writer and director and actor show a lie on film? In "Gone Girl," is everything we see and hear true? Or is it possible the director showed us events that didn't happen?
This Is Cinerama (1952)
A terrible film!
i know my opinion will be unpopular on this forum, but ... Content. I first saw it at the age of 10, and again last night at the wonderful Cinerama Dome in Hollywood. When i was 10, I didn't realize we lost WWII, and the North lost the Civil War ... at least as shown in this movie. Scenes from around the world showed only white people. The Vienna Boys Choir looked like Hitler Youth from Triumph Of The Will, as did the young men in the Florida Cypress Gardens (the young women looking like Scarlett Ohara from Gone With The Wind). The La Scala Opera sequence had white people in black-face. I'm very patriotic, but this was embarrassing. Technique. In 1912, D.W. Griffith discovered how to put the audience in the story, rather than at a distance like a stage play. But in many segments of This Is Cinerama, we are moved back at a distance, watching a church choir or an opera or a Spanish dance, etc., from a distance. A few veterans of the production related, after the showing, how they had a 40-minute movie on their hands and had to pad it out to 90 minutes. It showed; scenes went on past all human endurance. So, in my humble opinion, this movie set the art of cinema back 40 years.
The Lesser Evil (1912)
A preview of Elizabeth Swann...
The Young Woman is first in love with an humble Fisherman. Then she gets kidnapped by pirates, lead by an apparently extremely evil Captain with a giant mustache. But the story takes a twist. The pirates mutiny, and the Captain shoots several of them. Finally, locked together in a small cabin with only one bullet left, and the lustful, filthy, savage pirates beating down the door, the Captain offers the Young Woman a choice: instant death now, or a Fate Worse Than Death? She covers her eyes with her hands and nods her choice. Luckily, the cops get there Just In The Nick Of Time. Now the story takes an even stranger twist. The Captain puts the gun in his own mouth, but the Young Woman stops him and distracts the cops while he escapes. In the last shot, the Young Woman is gazing longingly through binoculars at The Captain swimming to the distant shore, until the Fisherman reminds her who just rescued her. Although we fade out on her snuggling up to her Fisherman, we know that she's now stuck with a dilemma: does she love Will Turner, or Jack Sparrow? A wonderful story with Moral Ambiguity and Complex Characters!
For Colored Girls (2010)
If they gave an academy award for crying ...
I imagine that Janet Jackson's agent said that Ms. Jackson will be in this film if she gets a good crying scene, because the Motion Picture Academy looks favorably on actors and actresses who cry. Then Thandie Newton said, if she gets to cry, I want to cry also! Then Kimberly Elise said, if those two get to cry, me too! And word got around, and the entire cast demanded equal crying time. Aside from the rivers of tears, there was an ocean of poetry (at least they said it was poetry, although it sounded more like plain old prose to me). I'm not sure what relation the "poetic monologues" had to do with the story, but I guess you had to be there. I wonder how this film will do with audiences. I'm not sure most audiences are ready for more than 2 hours of unrelenting misery.