Thursday, December 16, 2010

Wet Floor

Aronofsky kicked some serious ass! Yeah, Black Swan won my heart... in the most painful way possible. I got up from my seat as the credits rolled and was just epic with light. Knowing that someone can make something like that gives me hope. Things were so clear, so specific. The apartment, the dance, the mother, and the sex. Nothing can quite describe what happened on screen... or to my mind as that pretty neck became a terrifyingly tall darkened throat, feathers and all. Oh I love you Black Swan! I'll be so bold as to say another love note will come of you in the near future.
Julie Taymor on the other hand has lost my trust and interest. If you've ever seen Titus, you know what I hoped to walk into as the lights went down and the storm settled in. But... I was strenuously bored. I've never actually felt that bored during a Shakespeare production of any kind. Maybe it was the poor use of some actors (Russell Brand, Djimon Hounsou)... or the utter lack of use of others (Alan Cumming, Chris Cooper, David Strathairn). Or maybe it was just the mismatch of plot with imagery. In fact, I'd go so far as to say there was never any intention to tell the full story of The Tempest here, rather Julie Taymor one day decided it'd be cool to do a film with magic on an island... oh, there's already a play like that?? I'm sorry. But with the failures in the press of Spidey on Broadway and this latest feet, you have to earn my trust back Julie. Or go back to your roots in opera where they could obviously still use your talents. Or maybe take a break all together. Yeah, do that last one. Stop telling stories until you actually have another story you have to tell.
Quick note, I do think I could fall hard for Felicity Jones.
I'm new to Tom Hooper, but not to Colin Firth. And The King's Speech is just another in a continuing line of wonderful Colin Firth films over the last few years - A Single Man, Easy Virtue.  And Geoffrey Rush was brilliant as well. So we have a movie where the two leads shine as well as the director as well as the supporting cast as well as the camera operator as well as the set designer. Everything just seems to work here. And that stutter... How?! Pitch perfect. I love this film. Maybe you will too.

Those are the films I want to talk about right now, so if anyone's seen 'em give me a holler, let me know your opinion, I'll hear you out. A good film discussion does a body good.

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