Continued from here: Sometimes the watering down of a movie is not from within, but the film gets punished for its honesty and direct emotion. Such is the case with Derek Cianfrance’s Blue Valentine which received a bewildering NC-17 from the MPAA for, well, because Michelle Williams has a realistic orgasm on screen. The MPAA […]
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Cultural critic James Wolcott, on the new film critic:
"Film critics today have become these rabid completists... They feel like that with festivals, they have to see everything, no matter how minor. Part of it is bragging rights. The other part is that the only thing that feeds into their movie writing is other movies."
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Archive for October 15th, 2010
Really, I’m fine with you watering it down: Part II: Blue Valentine, A Film Unfinished, and Red
Friday, October 15th, 2010
Tags: 5x2, A Film Unfinished, A Simple Plan, aging, anti-Semitic, Blue Valentine, Brian Cox, Brooklyn, Bruce Willis, censorship, CIA, David Letterman, Derek Cianfrance, divorce, domestic violence, Erool Morris, Francois Ozon, glib, Helen Mirren, Henri-Georges Clouzot's Inferno, hick, Highlander II: The Quickening, Hitler, holocaust, Hudson Hawk, Indie Movie, Jerry Lewis, John Goodman, John Malkovich, Karl Urban, Knight and Day, L'enfer, Mary Louise Parker, meta, Michelle Williams, Miss Congeniality 2, Morgan Freeman, MPAA, NC-17, orgasm, Pennsylvania, Peter Jackson, PG-13, podcast, R rated, Red, Richard Greico, Robert Schwentke, rough cut, Ryan Gosling, Shoah, slick, SS, structure, The Big Lebowski, The Day the Clown Cried, The Expendables, The Late Show With David Letterman, The Whole Ten Yards, Walter Sobchak, watering down, WWII, Yael Hersonski
Posted in Action/Adventure, Comedy, Documentary, Drama | No Comments »
Really, I’m fine with you watering it down: Part I: 127 Hours and Conviction
Friday, October 15th, 2010
If, according to screenwriter William Goldman (The Princess Bride, All the President’s Men), “In Hollywood, nobody knows anything,” then why is there always the need to taper off the intensity (read: effectiveness) of a movie in order to make it more palatable to a mainstream audience? Marketing is admittedly guesswork, and with the right evidence, […]
Tags: 28 Days Later, Ace in the Hole, All the President’s Men, Amber Tamblyn, arm, Aron Ralston, Barry Scheck, Betty Ann Waters, Billy Wilder, Book Adaptation, Conviction, corruption, Danny Boyle, Dido, feminism, Geoff LaTulippe, Gerry, Gladiator, Godfrey Reggio, Gus Van Sant, hick, Hilary Swank, James Franco, Juliette Lewis, Justin Long, Kate Mara, Koyaanisqatsi, Martha Coakley, Minnie Driver, mountain climbing, New England, Peter Gallagher, PG-13, Philadelphia Film Festival, podcast, politics, prison, R rated, rescue, Sam Rockwell, Slumdog Millionaire, Slurpee, Steven Seagal, The Beach, The Innocence Project, The Matrix, The Matrix Reloaded, The Princess Bride, The X Games, Tony Goldwyn, Trainspotting, trapped, true story, Tyson, Utah, William Goldman
Posted in Drama | No Comments »
Really, I’m fine with you watering it down: Part II: Blue Valentine, A Film Unfinished, and Red
Friday, October 15th, 2010
Tags: 5x2, A Film Unfinished, A Simple Plan, aging, anti-Semitic, Blue Valentine, Brian Cox, Brooklyn, Bruce Willis, censorship, CIA, David Letterman, Derek Cianfrance, divorce, domestic violence, Erool Morris, Francois Ozon, glib, Helen Mirren, Henri-Georges Clouzot's Inferno, hick, Highlander II: The Quickening, Hitler, holocaust, Hudson Hawk, Indie Movie, Jerry Lewis, John Goodman, John Malkovich, Karl Urban, Knight and Day, L'enfer, Mary Louise Parker, meta, Michelle Williams, Miss Congeniality 2, Morgan Freeman, MPAA, NC-17, orgasm, Pennsylvania, Peter Jackson, PG-13, podcast, R rated, Red, Richard Greico, Robert Schwentke, rough cut, Ryan Gosling, Shoah, slick, SS, structure, The Big Lebowski, The Day the Clown Cried, The Expendables, The Late Show With David Letterman, The Whole Ten Yards, Walter Sobchak, watering down, WWII, Yael Hersonski
Posted in Action/Adventure, Comedy, Documentary, Drama | No Comments »
Really, I’m fine with you watering it down: Part I: 127 Hours and Conviction
Friday, October 15th, 2010
If, according to screenwriter William Goldman (The Princess Bride, All the President’s Men), “In Hollywood, nobody knows anything,” then why is there always the need to taper off the intensity (read: effectiveness) of a movie in order to make it more palatable to a mainstream audience? Marketing is admittedly guesswork, and with the right evidence, […]
If, according to screenwriter William Goldman (The Princess Bride, All the President’s Men), “In Hollywood, nobody knows anything,” then why is there always the need to taper off the intensity (read: effectiveness) of a movie in order to make it more palatable to a mainstream audience? Marketing is admittedly guesswork, and with the right evidence, […]
Tags: 28 Days Later, Ace in the Hole, All the President’s Men, Amber Tamblyn, arm, Aron Ralston, Barry Scheck, Betty Ann Waters, Billy Wilder, Book Adaptation, Conviction, corruption, Danny Boyle, Dido, feminism, Geoff LaTulippe, Gerry, Gladiator, Godfrey Reggio, Gus Van Sant, hick, Hilary Swank, James Franco, Juliette Lewis, Justin Long, Kate Mara, Koyaanisqatsi, Martha Coakley, Minnie Driver, mountain climbing, New England, Peter Gallagher, PG-13, Philadelphia Film Festival, podcast, politics, prison, R rated, rescue, Sam Rockwell, Slumdog Millionaire, Slurpee, Steven Seagal, The Beach, The Innocence Project, The Matrix, The Matrix Reloaded, The Princess Bride, The X Games, Tony Goldwyn, Trainspotting, trapped, true story, Tyson, Utah, William Goldman
Posted in Drama | No Comments »
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Whenever there’s a genre parody or ode to a specific era of films, such as Black Dynamite’s mocking of Blaxploitation films or Quentin Tarantino’s Death Proof, the second half of Grindhouse, the danger is that the film might fall into the trap of either being condescending without any particular insight, or so faithful that it becomes the very flawed thing it is emulating.
Black Dynamite has nothing new to say about Blaxploitation films, it just does a decent job of copying what an inept [...]
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Featured Quote (written by me)
On Cold Fish:
Though the 16 year old me described the 1994 weepie Angie, starring Geena Davis as a Brooklyn mother raising her new baby alone, as “maudlin and melodramatic,” Roger Ebert, during his TV review, referring to the multitude of soap-operaish problems piling up on the titular character, suggested that it was only in Hollywood where Angie would get a happy ending. “If they made this movie in France, Angie would have shot herself.”
Well Cold Fish was made in Japan, where Angie would have shot herself and that would have been the happy ending.