["Mad" Miles]

And...once again it's been a while. Goes to show what work takes out of a man!

But I still go to matinees. Here's a little about the latest. (Click on titles for the imdb page for that film.)

"Public Enemies"

I agree with Dana Stevens of Slate.com. Flat, unengaging, but a nice fashion show. Marion Cotillard is fun to watch. Johnny Depp is, well, Johnny Depp. Interesting if you're into comparing various works in the gangster ouevre. Here's a good article I read yesterday on Slate.com about its historical accuracy.


"Cheri"

At a time when a few top echelon whores, i.e. courtesans, could rake it in and retire on the proceeds from their profession, Michelle Pfeiffer plays a delicate aging bird of prey who takes on the wastrel son of one of her colleagues, played by Kathy Bates, and complications ensue.

Do not expect a happy ending. "What A Bummer!", was my immediate response as the credits rolled.

Still there is much beauty and lavish lifestyle visual porno to tempt any aesthete. "La Belle Epoque" was belle and epic. And Ms. Pfeiffer does this weird thing with her eyes that makes staring at her screen image really, um, weird? But interesting. Exploring the dilemma of being an aging beauty is truly a brave turn for her.

Made by the same team that did, "Dangerous Liaisons". One scene with Pfeiffer and Bates, two emotional knife fighters circling each other and seeking a vulnerable opening, is quite fun.

And the dude who plays the boy toy? Rupert Friend is emotionally flat, perennially blase, but quite a piece of eye candy and I'm straight, straight, straight!


"Easy Virtue"

A lot of fun. Based on a Noel Coward play. Jessica Biel can act! With Kristin Scott Thomas, one of my favorite contemporary actors, and Colin Firth. Pretty fluffy, with some actual ideas lurking in the background.


"Year One"

Stupid peripatetic fun. Jack Black is Jack Black. I'm beginning to mark Michael Cera's low key comic stylings.

Bad history, really bad history, but some good jokes. Harold Ramis is channeling Mel Brooks here, and I don't even thing Mel is dead!


"Land of the Lost"

Will Ferrell is...Will Ferrell. Stupid jokes based on a stupid TV cartoon series (or was it a live action show? I can't quite remember, nor do I care to look it up!)

But it has moments of good, albethey stupid, fun.

There's a whole T-Rex character and motif that takes some surprising turns.

Anna Friel is a total babe, even if she does have to kiss the Willster.

Summer mindless comedy movie making. Not quite as funny as "Year One", but it has its moments.

********************************************************

That's it for the mo, in thinking about whether I've seen any really good movies lately, the only one that comes to mind is "Sin Nombre". Brutal, but beautiful and life-affirming even though the story takes place among some of the worst of human circumstances. Or maybe it's because of that....

"Mad" Miles for "Miles On Movies"

["Mad" Miles]

Lorrie wrote:

Miles! Dude! Have you seen "UP" 3d?

would you wanna catch it with me tonight in RP 7:05pm?

Lorrie,

Thank you for the invitation!

Unfortunately work nights leave me little time or energy.

Plus I've had plenty of opportunity to see it, but the 3D thing is something I have a problem with.

I loved, "Beowulf", "Coralee", and something else I can't recall over the last year or so. You know this from my mini-reviews of them.

But the eye strain and irritation always bothered me. Then I read this on Slate.com and it all became clear!

I hope you find a movie companion.

But tonight, or any other Sunday through Thursday night, it won't be me.

Re: Thursday,

True, I don't work on Fridays, but a girlfriend I had back in the early nineties in Chicago hated going out on Friday evenings. She explained that she was just too burnt out from the work week.

It made sense to me, and I've mostly followed the pattern ever since. Because Thursday is my Friday, in fact that's what we 4/10'ers call it, Thursday night is decompression night. Often it's the night I go to sleep the earliest, because I'm so sleep-deprived by then.

I also prefer matinees, as I've described previously on this thread. They're cheaper, quieter and less crowded.

Normally, mostly, but on the opening day of an action film, don't go to a matinee that starts after 3:00 p.m.. You'll find it full of teenagers doing what some teenagers do so well. Those habits have also been previously described by me on this thread.

Again, I'm flattered.

Not tonight, dear, (Sic.)

"Mad" Miles

Aaagh, still no NYT! And thank you very much but I really don't want to download a free web browser, even if it is part of the commons. I'm quite happy with IE, with a few exceptions, like this one.

[theindependenteye]

>>Plus I've had plenty of opportunity to see it [UP], but the 3D thing is something I have a problem with.

See the non-3D version - it's in Santa Rosa. Very much worth the trip.

-Conrad

["Mad" Miles]

I was working on a gushing ode to Sacha Baron Cohen's latest when, while trying to do some normal and minor text editing, my brilliant post got flushed into the black hole of the netiverse.

Barry, if you can drag it back out from the interstices of waccobb code, I promise to be a better minion! I tried but I'm only a neandertechie.


Here's a truncated version:

Bruno mit umlaut

Go see it! Great sendup of heterosexual panic. Not for the faint hearted.

Adolescent Gross-Out humor, but sophisticated adolescent gross-out humor.

Laughed and grinned so hard that my cheek muscles (that's face, not ass!) started aching.

Some will storm out and, if not too embarrassed, ask for their money back.

If you're not satire/ironically impaired, and are very comfortable with outrageous simulated gay perve sex, you'll have a great time.

If not, avoid it like the plague!


"Mad" Miles

["Mad" Miles]

Miles On Movies

Crazy Heart (2009)

By R. Miles Mendenhall, 2/3/10

For anyone into Robert Earl Keen, Todd Snider and Hayes Carll like I am (and many others too numerous to mention) the film “Crazy Heart” has been anticipated for months.

Jeff Bridges plays the country folk, Americana road warrior Bad Blake, who has seen better days but can still gig in his sleep while under the influence of his favorite intoxicant. "Bad, just call me Bad."

It’s a story of great music, soul and the life on the road with someone who is a true artist, but has lost his way. Salvation beckons, in the form of single mother Jean Craddock, played by Maggie Gyllenhaal, but there are still some twists and turns on that lonely highway.

The emotional tension that Ms. Gyllenhaal shows between her characters love of music and great writing, she's an aspiring music journalist, and her mature down to earth mother's need to protect herself and her four year old (adorable) boy, is the work of a masterful thespian.

Robert Duvall pays homage to his great role in “Tender Mercies” as Bads friend back in Houston. Colin Farrell plays, Tommy Sweet, Bads old band mate, now a monster country rock star. Bad taught him everything he knows. Tommy hasn’t forgotten his roots. His roots in this case are the habits and songs imbued by Bad.

It’s a movie about bittersweet memories and the hope of redemption. Probably the best damn thing I’ve seen since “Up In The Air” on December 23.

I especially enjoyed all the Texas atmosphere. I’m a technical Texan, born in El Paso, never lived there but mother growed up in San Antonio. I only went back for an aunt’s funeral last April for the first time in thirty-four years. Still, a lot of the music I’ve been listening to lately (see two out of the three names that head this bit) hales from the Austin scene. They/we may be too big for their boots, and very eager to let you know it, but there’s some real artistry emanating from the Lone Star state.

Stephen Bruton and T. Bone Burnett wrote the music. Stephen died of cancer last May in T. Bone’s house in L.A. I stayed through the credits just to see the simple dedication to him at the end.

There are some beautiful tracking shots from the sagebrush prairie of southeastern New Mexico to set the mood. Bads travel urinal reminded me of when my father used to deliver organic meals from Guerneville to Marin back in the late nineties. Never been able to encompass that habit, as viewers will be relieved to find out when they see the film.

Mr. Bridges looks like a favorite for the leading male Oscar. And if it comes to pass, it’ll be well deserved. He almost got one for “The Last Picture Show”, “Starman” and “The Big Lebowski” (Dude!!?). So The Dude is due.

As a pretty normal fifty some year old male suffering from the effects of a sedentary lifestyle, I have to give him props for displaying his avoirdupois and moobs for all the world to see. I couldn’t do it.

But it’s the look of terror on his face during key scenes, his sweetness with his new girlfriend and his playful way with her young son, which show his ability to embody the Everyman of our times. This is a great film about art, getting lost, hope, loss, and the possibility of redemption. See it. And enjoy the music!


Playing exclusively at the Rialto. What's up with that?!

[Sara S]

Good review; I also wondered why, after making it to the top tier of the Academy Award list, "Hurt Locker" is also only playing at the Rialto.

["Mad" Miles]

Sara,

Why the Rialto seems to get exclusive distribution of all the good films has bugged me for years. I keep meaning to ask one of the owners, when I'm there, but haven't gotten around to it. They don't seem to be around mid-afternoon on weekdays when I tend to be leaving the theater.

By the way, I was overjoyed when the Summerfield Cinemas reopened as an Art House. I was in line there about a year before the change and I said that what this county needs is a good art cinema. Imagine my pleasant surprise when we got one!

Their exclusive showing of art and indie films wouldn't bother me so much if their matinees followed the pattern of other theaters, and ran til 5:00 or 5:30 p.m. But they don't. The latest matinee start time for just opened films is around 1:00 p.m. and once it's been there a few weeks may start as late as 1:45 or even 3:30. But they only sell the first show of the day at the matinee price. I can make a weekday matinee after 3:30 p.m. because of my teaching work schedule, anything earlier is prohibitive. I prefer matinees because of the price break, but even more the quiet and lack of crowding, at least during the business week.

Another thing that bugs me is that often, these first run "art" films, only open locally (and only in that single venue) a few weeks AFTER their opening at large theaters in the city core. We're not exactly podunksville around here, at least when it comes to food and wine. So why are we treated that way with regard to cinema?

I'm sure this all has to do with the economics of film distribution, the costs of running a movie theater and can be explained. But it rankles and I wish it would stop! It comes off as monopolistic and greedy.

I've mentioned this problem once or twice over the last couple of years, in this thread and elsewhere. Still haven't gotten a reasonable explanation. I even wrote about it on a comment card that they had at the Rialto over a year ago. And I believe I left my contact information on the card.

Anybody tight with the guys who own and run the Rialto? I'm sure they have their reasons. I just don't know what they are.

For Moving Pictures and their numerous charms,

"Mad" Miles in the guise of Miles On Movies

"Sometimes fall'in feels like fly'in, for a little while"

["Mad" Miles]

Miles On Movies



“Shutter Island” & “The White Ribbon” (Both 2010)


by R. Miles Mendenhall

2/24/2010

Scorsesi’s latest, “Shutter Island”, was hotly anticipated by me. Even though the reviews were tepid. Brilliantly and beautifully shot.

Leonardo DeCaprio plays a federal marshal assigned to investigate the escape of an inmate at a mental hospital for the criminally insane. We soon learn that he has his own tragic and traumatic past.

The hospital is on Shutter Island off the coast of Massachusetts in Boston Harbor. He is accompanied by his new and unknown partner played by Mark Ruffalo. Even given the ominous and threatening setting, something seems to be amiss. All of the guards, nurses, orderlies and doctors seem to be withholding their cooperation. The “patients” seem coached and terrified. …. Something is wrong beyond the escape.

A great cast, Ben Kingsley, Max Von Sydow (sorely underutilized here), Michelle Williams, Patricia Clarkson, Elias Koteas (is he doing a DeNiro impression?).

Dire and ominous events transpire. Doom for our hero seems imminent. Then the big reveal. Won’t give it away of course. But as the credits rolled, I thought, “Meh…So What?”

Prepare to be under whelmed.

Set at the height of the Cold War, 1954, Scorsesi riffs on mind control, Nazi experimentation and what came to be the MK Ultra project. All resonant issues in this age of global war on terror. Kingsley’s doctor expounds on the schools of psychiatry vying for influence at that time. And perhaps still at play today. But what any of this had to do with the story is a mystery to me.

There is one great colloquy between DeCaprio’s character and the prison/hospital’s warden, about the question of human violence. It is on par with the discussion between Raskolnikov and the Grand Inquisitor in Crime and Punishment. Along with the beautiful film composition, the film is worth that scene alone. Just don’t expect to be satisfied with the denouement.

I suppose, if I were interested, I would go back and watch it a second time to see if the nuances of dialog support the “big surprise”. But I’ll probably wait till it’s broadcast free in a couple of years on one of my expanded basic cable movie channels.



“The White Ribbon” got great press. It is in black and white. I read it was shot in color because B&W film is too expensive, and director/writer Michael Haneke had all of the color removed in editing. This is his latest and, like “Shutter Island”, it is also about human evil, but more importantly it is about patriarchy and its power to repress and thereby engender violence.

I was reminded of Alice Miller’s, For Your Own Good. In an interview Haneke was asked if the film was an explanation of the precursors to German Fascism, or if it was a commentary about our contemporary world. While not really committing to an answer, he indicated that it was more about today’s world, as well as Germany’s past.

In a German village, the year before the start of WWI, violent events start with the attempted murder of the town doctor. The perps are unknown. The story is narrated, many years later, by the town schoolteacher. At the time of the story he is a thirty-one year old single man from another village in the region. He takes it upon himself late in the film to try and discover who is committing the crimes.

This is a conservative, traditional culture where things happen as they have for centuries. Order is maintained by the “loving” discipline of the fathers. The fathers here being the vicar, the count, the doctor. But is their rule also the source of the violence?

The pace is slow, contemplative, but no detail is out of place. The legacy of paternalism, as well as the old wounds of feudalism, are slowly, but surely, revealed. Whether the Evil afoot is explainable, or not, becomes the central and elucidative question for the film.

Haneke doesn’t provide answers, but he gives us the evidence to try and make out what is happening, and why, for ourselves. There are several key issues left unresolved, one of which I found irritating (can’t tell you!) but I didn’t leave the theater feeling cheated. Quite the opposite.

This is truly a great piece of art about the human condition.

**********

Anybody up for Oscar predictions? I don’t really care who wins, but I’m going to list who I think should win in my next post.

As for my ongoing beef with the Rialto Cinema (we are hurt worst by those we love) I have promised myself to never try and see a first run film there for a Saturday afternoon matinee. There just isn’t any parking, forget about the theater being crowded if you can’t even get to the ticket counter!

I asked the ticket seller when I went to "Das Weisse Band" on Monday what was up with their distribution deal for the good stuff. He said he didn’t have any idea.

Hey Barry, How come my last review ("Crazy Heart") isn't linked to the extant Miles On Movies thread? I posted this separately as well. Could you hook/sew/splice them all back together?

"Mad" Miles as Miles On Movies

[Clancy]

I thought Shutter Island was brilliant, but I'm aware that it has a limited audience. For people with backgrounds in psychology or psychiatry, or those who live or work day to day with the kinds of mental illness so well portrayed, it's devastatingly effective.

Most people tend to think that everyone else experiences the world pretty much the same way they do. Shutter Island shows some of the extremes of human experience, that people all around us, even a few here on wacco, endure.

I also just saw Crazy Heart -- FANTASTIC movie, I'd say it's Jeff Bridges 2nd best performance ever, The Big Lebowski being his first.

Mad Miles wrote:

Miles On Movies



“Shutter Island” & “The White Ribbon” (Both 2010)


by R. Miles Mendenhall

2/24/2010

Scorsesi’s latest, “Shutter Island”, was hotly anticipated by me. Even though the reviews were tepid. Brilliantly and beautifully shot.

Leonardo DeCaprio plays a federal marshal assigned to investigate the escape of an inmate at a mental hospital for the criminally insane. We soon learn that he has his own tragic and traumatic past.

The hospital is on Shutter Island off the coast of Massachusetts in Boston Harbor. He is accompanied by his new and unknown partner played by Mark Ruffalo. Even given the ominous and threatening setting, something seems to be amiss. All of the guards, nurses, orderlies and doctors seem to be withholding their cooperation. The “patients” seem coached and terrified. …. Something is wrong beyond the escape.

A great cast, Ben Kingsley, Max Von Sydow (sorely underutilized here), Michelle Williams, Patricia Clarkson, Elias Koteas (is he doing a DeNiro impression?).

Dire and ominous events transpire. Doom for our hero seems imminent. Then the big reveal. Won’t give it away of course. But as the credits rolled, I thought, “Meh…So What?”

Prepare to be under whelmed.

Set at the height of the Cold War, 1954, Scorsesi riffs on mind control, Nazi experimentation and what came to be the MK Ultra project. All resonant issues in this age of global war on terror. Kingsley’s doctor expounds on the schools of psychiatry vying for influence at that time. And perhaps still at play today. But what any of this had to do with the story is a mystery to me.

There is one great colloquy between DeCaprio’s character and the prison/hospital’s warden, about the question of human violence. It is on par with the discussion between Raskolnikov and the Grand Inquisitor in Crime and Punishment. Along with the beautiful film composition, the film is worth that scene alone. Just don’t expect to be satisfied with the denouement.

I suppose, if I were interested, I would go back and watch it a second time to see if the nuances of dialog support the “big surprise”. But I’ll probably wait till it’s broadcast free in a couple of years on one of my expanded basic cable movie channels.



“The White Ribbon” got great press. It is in black and white. I read it was shot in color because B&W film is too expensive, and director/writer Michael Haneke had all of the color removed in editing. This is his latest and, like “Shutter Island”, it is also about human evil, but more importantly it is about patriarchy and its power to repress and thereby engender violence.

I was reminded of Alice Miller’s, For Your Own Good. In an interview Haneke was asked if the film was an explanation of the precursors to German Fascism, or if it was a commentary about our contemporary world. While not really committing to an answer, he indicated that it was more about today’s world, as well as Germany’s past.

In a German village, the year before the start of WWI, violent events start with the attempted murder of the town doctor. The perps are unknown. The story is narrated, many years later, by the town schoolteacher. At the time of the story he is a thirty-one year old single man from another village in the region. He takes it upon himself late in the film to try and discover who is committing the crimes.

This is a conservative, traditional culture where things happen as they have for centuries. Order is maintained by the “loving” discipline of the fathers. The fathers here being the vicar, the count, the doctor. But is their rule also the source of the violence?

The pace is slow, contemplative, but no detail is out of place. The legacy of paternalism, as well as the old wounds of feudalism, are slowly, but surely, revealed. Whether the Evil afoot is explainable, or not, becomes the central and elucidative question for the film.

Haneke doesn’t provide answers, but he gives us the evidence to try and make out what is happening, and why, for ourselves. There are several key issues left unresolved, one of which I found irritating (can’t tell you!) but I didn’t leave the theater feeling cheated. Quite the opposite.

This is truly a great piece of art about the human condition.

**********

Anybody up for Oscar predictions? I don’t really care who wins, but I’m going to list who I think should win in my next post.

As for my ongoing beef with the Rialto Cinema (we are hurt worst by those we love) I have promised myself to never try and see a first run film there for a Saturday afternoon matinee. There just isn’t any parking, forget about the theater being crowded if you can’t even get to the ticket counter!

I asked the ticket seller when I went to "Das Weisse Band" on Monday what was up with their distribution deal for the good stuff. He said he didn’t have any idea.

Hey Barry, How come my last review ("Crazy Heart") isn't linked to the extant Miles On Movies thread? I posted this separately as well. Could you hook/sew/splice them all back together?

"Mad" Miles as Miles On Movies

["Mad" Miles]

As promised, here are my favorites. In other words who I want to win if I had anything to do with it, which I don't.

To quote a discussion on Slate.com a few weeks ago, which had this quote from another film critic: "Let's acknowledge that the Oscars are bullshit and we hate them." (Manohla Dargis)

If a film is followed by DNS it means I Did Not See it. My choices are printed in red. Keep in mind that I pick what I see based on what I've read about it. My favorite film critics are Dana Stevens, Roger Ebert and E.O. Scott. I sorely miss Janet Maslin!

"Mad" Miles






Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

- NOMINATIONS BY CATEGORY - 82ND AWARDS -

Performance by an actor in a leading role

• Jeff Bridges in "Crazy Heart" (Fox Searchlight)
• George Clooney in "Up in the Air" (Paramount in association with Cold Spring Pictures and DW Studios)
• Colin Firth in "A Single Man" (The Weinstein Company) DNS
• Morgan Freeman in "Invictus" (Warner Bros.) DNS
• Jeremy Renner in "The Hurt Locker" (Summit Entertainment)

Performance by an actor in a supporting role

• Matt Damon in "Invictus" (Warner Bros.) DNS
• Woody Harrelson in "The Messenger" (Oscilloscope Laboratories) DNS
• Christopher Plummer in "The Last Station" (Sony Pictures Classics) DNS (Yet)
• Stanley Tucci in "The Lovely Bones" (DreamWorks in association with Film4, Distributed by Paramount) DNS
• Christoph Waltz in "Inglourious Basterds" (The Weinstein Company)

Performance by an actress in a leading role

• Sandra Bullock in "The Blind Side" (Warner Bros.) DNS
• Helen Mirren in "The Last Station" (Sony Pictures Classics) DNS
• Carey Mulligan in "An Education" (Sony Pictures Classics)
• Gabourey Sidibe in "Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire" (Lionsgate) DNS
• Meryl Streep in "Julie & Julia" (Sony Pictures Releasing) DNS

Performance by an actress in a supporting role

• Penélope Cruz in "Nine" (The Weinstein Company) DNS
• Vera Farmiga in "Up in the Air" (Paramount in association with Cold Spring Pictures and DW Studios)
• Maggie Gyllenhaal in "Crazy Heart" (Fox Searchlight)
• Anna Kendrick in "Up in the Air" (Paramount in association with Cold Spring Pictures and DW Studios) DNS
• Mo'Nique in "Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire" (Lionsgate) DNS

Best animated feature film of the year

• "Coraline" (Focus Features)
• "Fantastic Mr. Fox" (20th Century Fox)[/size][/font]Wes Anderson DNS"The Princess and the Frog" (Walt Disney)John Musker and Ron Clements DNS
• "The Secret of Kells" DNS

Achievement in art direction

• "Avatar" (20th Century Fox)Art Direction: Rick Carter and Robert Stromberg
  Set Decoration: Kim Sinclair
• "The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus" (Sony Pictures Classics)Art Direction: Dave Warren and Anastasia Masaro
  Set Decoration: Caroline Smith
• "Nine" (The Weinstein Company)<Art Direction: John Myhre
  Set Decoration: Gordon Sim
• "Sherlock Holmes" (Warner Bros.) Art Direction: Sarah Greenwood
  Set Decoration: Katie Spencer
• "The Young Victoria" (Apparition)Art Direction: Patrice Vermette
  Set Decoration: Maggie Gray

Achievement in cinematography

• "Avatar" (20th Century Fox)Mauro Fiore
• "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" (Warner Bros.)Bruno Delbonnel
• "The Hurt Locker" (Summit Entertainment)Barry Ackroyd
• "Inglourious Basterds" (The Weinstein Company)Robert Richardson
• "The White Ribbon" (Sony Pictures Classics)Christian Berger

Achievement in costume design

• "Bright Star" (Apparition)Janet Patterson
• "Coco before Chanel" (Sony Pictures Classics)Catherine Leterrier
• "The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus" (Sony Pictures Classics)Monique Prudhomme
• "Nine" (The Weinstein Company)Colleen Atwood
• "The Young Victoria" (Apparition)Sandy Powell

Achievement in directing

• "Avatar" (20th Century Fox)James Cameron
• "The Hurt Locker" (Summit Entertainment)Kathryn Bigelow
• "Inglourious Basterds" (The Weinstein Company)Quentin Tarantino
• "Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire" (Lionsgate)Lee Daniels
• "Up in the Air" (Paramount in association with Cold Spring Pictures and DW Studios)Jason Reitman

Best motion picture of the year

• "Avatar" (20th Century Fox)
  A Lightstorm Entertainment ProductionJames Cameron and Jon Landau, Producers
• "The Blind Side" (Warner Bros.)
  An Alcon Entertainment ProductionNominees to be determined
• "District 9" (Sony Pictures Releasing)
  A Block/Hanson ProductionPeter Jackson and Carolynne Cunningham, Producers
• "An Education" (Sony Pictures Classics)
  A Finola Dwyer/Wildgaze Films ProductionFinola Dwyer and Amanda Posey, Producers
• "The Hurt Locker" (Summit Entertainment)
  A Voltage Pictures ProductionNominees to be determined
• "Inglourious Basterds" (The Weinstein Company)
  A Weinstein Company/Universal Pictures/A Band Apart/Zehnte Babelsberg ProductionLawrence Bender, Producer
• "Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire" (Lionsgate)
  A Lee Daniels Entertainment/Smokewood Entertainment ProductionLee Daniels, Sarah Siegel-Magness and Gary Magness, Producers
• "A Serious Man" (Focus Features)
  A Working Title Films ProductionJoel Coen and Ethan Coen, Producers
• "Up" (Walt Disney)
  A Pixar ProductionJonas Rivera, Producer
• "Up in the Air" (Paramount in association with Cold Spring Pictures and DW Studios)
  A Montecito Picture Company ProductionDaniel Dubiecki, Ivan Reitman and Jason Reitman, Producers

That's it! I left out all the tech stuff because I just don't have the time and interest. I also accidentally deleted one of the animated features. I copied this list off of the Oscars website and it has some hidden formatting that was giving me trouble. But whatever it was I hadn't seen it anyway.

Feel free to weigh in with your opinions!

"M"M

["Mad" Miles]

Clancy,

Thanks for your quick turn around reply. I didn't discuss the exact reasons I didn't like the ending to "Shutter Island" (Do you think the author intended the obvious double entendre of Shutter and Shudder? I do!) because I didn't want to write a "Spoiler" review.

So if you haven't seen the film and want the ending to remain a surprise?

Stop Reading This!!!

Spoiler Alert, Spoiler Alert, Spoiler Alert


I just didn't buy the cinematographic shift from his delusion to his awareness of it, back to his delusion. I also thought that the conspiracy among the doctors was so well established that to leave it off as mere paranoid schizophrenia by DeCaprio's character was a disappointment. I wanted him to be right! It would have made for a scarier, creepier story.

And the idea that the lady in the cave was pure hallucination, well, pretty good hallucinatin'.

I suppose my response to the film is in some way a testiment to my own fragile sanity. That being because I found the main characters illusions/delusions/hallucinations so normal and believable that I couldn't see them for what they were. Or does that make me easily deluded? And therefore borderline....something? (Sic. I keed, I keed!)

Anyway, I just didn't find the final bit to be interesting and it was an emotional letdown. Besides, if they were walking him to the lighthouse, with a lobotomy icepick poorly disguised in a towel. Wouldn't that be the cue for his Army Ranger skills to come into play and for him to start taking out staff left and right?

So, we disagree. That's cool. It's only a movie.

At my job over the last almost three years I've had students tell me wild and implausible stories with a perfectly straight face and clearly believed to be true by them. Many of the machinations and threats they faced came from secret government forces at work in the world. According to them. I listened and encouraged them to write their stories down. But I withheld judgement until clear and substantial proof is provided. So, yeah, I understand the power of the human mind to create the reality that surrounds it, both functionally and dysfunctionally.

By the by, Dana Stevens said she didn't care for Leo's performance because he spent the whole movie, "squinting and wrinkling his brow", basically accusing him of massively overacting. I think he suffers from his baby face, hard to take him seriously as a hard guy with that youthful mug. Of course they say William Bonny/Billy The Kid's youthful looks were deceptive. So what do I know?

Cheers,

"Mad" Miles

[Clancy]

SPOILER ALERT, don't read any further if you don't want the movie spoiled for you!

Miles, I don't have enough time to give you the response you deserve, cause you put so much good stuff in your posts, but I will say, your disbelief at his 'pretty good hallucinatin' is what I meant, most of us just can't believe schizophrenic hallucinations are so vivid, but they are, they're the poor souls you see talking to invisible people (not those on their cellphones), the poor wretches in bus stations and libraries and on street corners, having animated conversations with no one.

I'm sure you saw A Beautiful Mind, that was another good portrayal of the schizophrenic experience.
http://www.helpguide.org/mental/schi...ia_symptom.htm

I do agree with you that it would have been scarier and creepier if it were a plot by the doctors though, then WE would have been scared, rather than let off the hook by realizing it was all his delusions.

Mad Miles wrote:

Clancy,

Thanks for your quick turn around reply. I didn't discuss the exact reasons I didn't like the ending to "Shutter Island" (Do you think the author intended the obvious double entendre of Shutter and Shudder? I do!) because I didn't want to write a "Spoiler" review.

So if you haven't seen the film and want the ending to remain a surprise?

Stop Reading This!!!

Spoiler Alert, Spoiler Alert, Spoiler Alert


I just didn't buy the cinematographic shift from his delusion to his awareness of it, back to his delusion. I also thought that the conspiracy among the doctors was so well established that to leave it off as mere paranoid schizophrenia by DeCaprio's character was a disappointment. I wanted him to be right! It would have made for a scarier, creepier story.

And the idea that the lady in the cave was pure hallucination, well, pretty good hallucinatin'.

I suppose my response to the film is in some way a testiment to my own fragile sanity. That being because I found the main characters illusions/delusions/hallucinations so normal and believable that I couldn't see them for what they were. Or does that make me easily deluded? And therefore borderline....something? (Sic. I keed, I keed!)

Anyway, I just didn't find the final bit to be interesting and it was an emotional letdown. Besides, if they were walking him to the lighthouse, with a lobotomy icepick poorly disguised in a towel. Wouldn't that be the cue for his Army Ranger skills to come into play and for him to start taking out staff left and right?

So, we disagree. That's cool. It's only a movie.

At my job over the last almost three years I've had students tell me wild and implausible stories with a perfectly straight face and clearly believed to be true by them. Many of the machinations and threats they faced came from secret government forces at work in the world. According to them. I listened and encouraged them to write their stories down. But I withheld judgement until clear and substantial proof is provided. So, yeah, I understand the power of the human mind to create the reality that surrounds it, both functionally and dysfunctionally.

By the by, Dana Stevens said she didn't care for Leo's performance because he spent the whole movie, "squinting and wrinkling his brow", basically accusing him of massively overacting. I think he suffers from his baby face, hard to take him seriously as a hard guy with that youthful mug. Of course they say William Bonny/Billy The Kid's youthful looks were deceptive. So what do I know?

Cheers,

"Mad" Miles

["Mad" Miles]

Hey Waccies,

To keep this thread intact I'm putting the link below to the screed I just wrote on a separate thread about the Rialto and its owner, Ky Byrd getting screwed by his landlord and Mr. Tocchini of Santa Rosa movie house legacy.

http://www.waccobb.net/forums/general-community/64932-action-rialto-cinemas-lakeside-losing-its-lease.html#post109600

It's post #9 for my little bit.

Something I forgot to mention is that this conflict reminds me of the one in Altman's "McCabe & Mrs. Miller", another tale of frontier competition between a little guy capitalist and the big combine moving in on his territory and absorbing the fruits of his, and his whores, labor.

Fucking great movie by the way. One of the best of the anti-Westerns from the early seventies. And visually one of Altman's best. The snow, the snow. And the reflection off of the Chinese ceramic in the opium den at the end? Film artistry at its best!

As for the parallel between capitalist competition in a Rocky Mountain mining boom town in the late 1800's and art film distribution in contemporary central Sonoma County?

Plus ca change, Plus c'est les memes choses, except that hopefully Ky won't have to shoot it out while being hunted by gun thugs hired by Mr. Tocchini. Some men rob with a six gun, some with a fountain pen.

"Mad" Miles