Last Film You Watched? V

All non-Nolan related film, tv, and streaming discussions.
Locked
User avatar
Posts: 11389
Joined: December 2011

User avatar
Posts: 13506
Joined: February 2011
Trance (2013)
Level of Admiration: 7.3/10
Level of Personal Interest: 6.8/10


I don't mind that the film is not involving and you can hardly feel for any of the characters. But other aspects are not really that impressive either. It's a good film with some interesting ideas here and there, just not the brilliant mindfuck that might seem it is.£

Image
Last edited by Master Virgo on July 29th, 2013, 12:04 pm, edited 1 time in total.

User avatar
Posts: 19859
Joined: June 2011
Location: The Ashes of Gotham
Heavenly Creatures
Image

I loved the style of the entire film, with the imagination of the girls heavily playing a part, but I felt like there was no driving force in the storyline. You could literally sum the entire film up using just one sentence and that would be all to it. But I think the style matches up with the substance, and has in a way a satisfying ending.

User avatar
Posts: 20188
Joined: June 2010
Location: The White City
Mud-


Nichols is a fine filmmaker, and he delivered a film that hits most of the right notes in his love song to Huckleberry culture. Continuing the line of rave reactions to the cast, Tye Sheridan and Matthew McConaughey were the clear standouts, helped by the fact they have sensational chemistry on screen. That said, the characters are relatively basic archetypes that are maybe not so demanding, but the nuance written into them gives the film a real sense of character. That very sense of character might be the overriding success of the film, and by that I mean it's a well-told Southern Yarn populated by classic characters. The screenplay features a wonderful attention to detail that does elevate it beyond its routine trappings. For example, just when Ellis' illusions about life and people are in a downward spiral of let-downs and betrayal, the audience cuts to the first conversation with the 'bad guys' that didn't happen around any of our protagonists. Our vision of the film's been invaded by corruption as much as Ellis' has on life, forcing us to feel part of his journey. The film boasts many touches like that one, and it creates an atmosphere of sweetness and sincerity making it seem almost like a late-adaptation of a lesser known novel of a forgotten era. This is a special feeling.

However, and this is a harsh however so brace yourselves, the film can never pull itself out of predictability, and the final act includes a preposterous dues ex machina that nearly crippled a finale I hoped would be more emotionally satisfying. Additionally, there's a sloppiness to the motifs throughout-- the boat, a key early motif representing youthful ownership and maturation, was tossed aside without so much of any later allusion the boat once served as that powerful symbol. To some, that may seem nitpicky. That important symbols and motifs are dropped without any thematic resolution tells me the script needed another pass, maybe two, and with a commanding editor. To me, it's what the film hoped was one of its greatest assets, but couldn't pull it off. Even still, it remains a technically accomplished piece of cinema littered with charismatic performances that demand striking empathy and deserve it, and so far, it's one of the best couple films of the year. Like the earlier The Place Beyond the Pines, it could, and should, have been more.

B/B+


-Vader

User avatar
Posts: 749
Joined: May 2013
Inception :twothumbsup:

User avatar
Posts: 2058
Joined: September 2010
Oblivion - 6.5/10

Really solid effort especially for a modern blockbuster. Assured direction, some nice images and intriguing plot that sadly gets muddled in the last third. No shaky-cam!!!!

User avatar
Posts: 3203
Joined: November 2011
Image

8/10


Bitch.

User avatar
Posts: 3014
Joined: November 2011
Location: North Carolina
Vader182 wrote:Mud-


Nichols is a fine filmmaker, and he delivered a film that hits most of the right notes in his love song to Huckleberry culture. Continuing the line of rave reactions to the cast, Tye Sheridan and Matthew McConaughey were the clear standouts, helped by the fact they have sensational chemistry on screen. That said, the characters are relatively basic archetypes that are maybe not so demanding, but the nuance written into them gives the film a real sense of character. That very sense of character might be the overriding success of the film, and by that I mean it's a well-told Southern Yarn populated by classic characters. The screenplay features a wonderful attention to detail that does elevate it beyond its routine trappings. For example, just when Ellis' illusions about life and people are in a downward spiral of let-downs and betrayal, the audience cuts to the first conversation with the 'bad guys' that didn't happen around any of our protagonists. Our vision of the film's been invaded by corruption as much as Ellis' has on life, forcing us to feel part of his journey. The film boasts many touches like that one, and it creates an atmosphere of sweetness and sincerity making it seem almost like a late-adaptation of a lesser known novel of a forgotten era. This is a special feeling.

However, and this is a harsh however so brace yourselves, the film can never pull itself out of predictability, and the final act includes a preposterous dues ex machina that nearly crippled a finale I hoped would be more emotionally satisfying. Additionally, there's a sloppiness to the motifs throughout-- the boat, a key early motif representing youthful ownership and maturation, was tossed aside without so much of any later allusion the boat once served as that powerful symbol. To some, that may seem nitpicky. That important symbols and motifs are dropped without any thematic resolution tells me the script needed another pass, maybe two, and with a commanding editor. To me, it's what the film hoped was one of its greatest assets, but couldn't pull it off. Even still, it remains a technically accomplished piece of cinema littered with charismatic performances that demand striking empathy and deserve it, and so far, it's one of the best couple films of the year. Like the earlier The Place Beyond the Pines, it could, and should, have been more.

B/B+


-Vader
Your issues with the film as a whole, are the exact reasons I expressed as well. Everything was done in a fine fashion, it just treaded very familiar territory and sunk down into predictability in the final act. Place Beyond the Pines gets the nod over this for me because it is far more ambitious, even with its flaws.

User avatar
Posts: 15512
Joined: June 2010
Location: You're pretty good.
yeah i don't get how some people gave mud a 9/10 or something

User avatar
Posts: 17534
Joined: May 2011
Watched both Spring Breakers and Identity Thief over the weekend. Needless to say, neither will make my Top 10 list this year.

Locked