I thought you understood. It’s business, that’s all it is.
I’ve been confronted to a lot of 80s synth music lately so this prompted me to watch some John Carpenter classic, and here it is directly from 1988, They Live. Full of catchy lines, is it an allegory, a fantasy or just a documentary?
F*** classical mechanics.
I’ve finally seen Gravity by Alfonso Cuarón. I remember that this film was so praised for its visual effects and now I finally got to see it. That’s about time! The first fiften minutes or so were really thrilling. I really was under the impression that in space, no one can hear you scream. And I coud feel the relentless and terrifying apathy of cosmos.
But that was about everything there is to it as the rest of the movie lacked anything of substance and I wondered if this wasn’t just a demo for the use of 3D in cinema. It just seemed to me that the movie jumped to the end credits with nothing to tell. And I keep asking myself, what’s this movie all about?
Beside it was beautiful and visually stunning. I didn’t see it in 3D, and I’ve heard that it propels the movie to a whole new level. Also it is said that this is one of the few movie that is worth watching in 3D. But this fad is dying fast.
Although I never really believed in this trend, 3D brought far less to the cinema than the arrival of sound and color. It does not help to immerse the viewer deeper into the story. If you want this, perhaps you would need complete VR, but that is an entirely different medium.
Would you like to dance?
The Lobster directed by Yorgos Lanthimos, Jury Prize at Cannes festival. I really wanted to see this movie although I didn’t really know what to expect. Now that we’ve seen it, it’s really hard to give it a specific genre. We came to the conclusion that it is just disturbingly horrible. The same feeling that you have when you are faced with something really horrible, yet totally real, but so horrible in fact that you don’t want to accept it. It was like a gigantic kick in the ass. A burdensome fable that still haunts me and makes me feel nauseous. Probably not everybody’s movie, but still a really great movie.
The Martian directed by Ridley Scott based on a novel by Andy Weir. Considering the last science fiction movie directed by Ridley Scott, I waited for this movie with a bit of anxiety. I still think Scott is a great director, but a butchered plot really can ruin everything.
Annnnnd… I really enjoyed it! It was like watching Prometheus again, except that the plot actually made sens. Damon Lindelof is an awful writer, some have gone so far as to call him an anti-Midas because it seems like everything that he touches just turns to shit. But this isn’t a Prometheus review…
Matt Damon already knows a thing or two about being stranded on a distant planet. But don’t get me wrong, this movie is entirely different.
Dr. Mann, I presume? [Interstellar]
The Martian [xkcd]
It’s been a long time since I last posted about a movie. Truth is, there are so many movies that I’ve seen since then that I wanted to talk about, but finally didn’t seem to find the time. So I postponed to the next week, and then to some week-end eventually and finally I didn’t post anything.
Actually it’s been so long that I’ll probably have to watch all those movies again before I can post about them. I don’t mind this though, and will probably watch them again anyway. But I really think I should post ASAP and try my best to keep it short.
That was for the short update. Now for the movie…
Я люблю тебя
Cafard by Jan Bultheel inspired by the true story of the Belgian ACM corps sent to Russia to fight the German army in 1915. Not a movie about war, if you ask me, or not only. But a great and colorful animation for adult.
We start this new series with Interstellar by Christopher Nolan. I did not expect to watch this movie. Actually you must know that I was somewhat apprehensive. To me this movie was a direct inspiration from The Songs of Distant Earth by Arthur C. Clarke. This book stirred me so hard. To the point it has partly shaped my vision of life, and of the place we have here. I felt that no movie could ever render this. And I (deeply) feared to see one of my favorite science fiction novel trampled on by yet another gargantuan sf blockbuster overflowing with CGI in every possible direction with a bunch of heroes saving the world (again) because you know that’s just what heroes are for anyway.
Well I must admit, this is what I just saw, yet I was agreeably surprised. And the emotional impact that built all along the movie far outreached my expectations. I found myself multiple times begging for the storyline not to slip into one direction or another, because I felt that all this tension would deflate grotesquely like a dismaying soufflé, only to find minutes later that it was still ok.
The movie itself is not without fails. It is extremely ambitious. And as someone would naturally expect, it misses the point from time to time. It sometimes drew itself too far into the drama to the point that the story was loosing its legitimacy. Some scenes deserved to be more explored, and the fast paced rhythm contrasted too much with the heavy atmosphere of interstellar travel through the vastness and solitude of space combined to the ultimate hope of humanity that the movie tried to convey. These two themes go very well together. But they must be treated with due respect and certainly not as a way to blow up things and acting as a show-off.
Best acting goes for Anne Hathaway (Brand). On the other hand Cooper, Matthew McConaughey’s personnage, sometimes lacks conviction that would benefit to some key parts of the movie. Dialogues are somewhat clunky, and that certainly didn’t help. There are multiple unassuming nods to other sf movies. 2001 being one of them though both movies are still far apart. I was also pleased to see another nod to Arthur C. Clarke, The Garden of Rama.
In conclusion, my impression is that this movie could have been something awfully good. But it is not bad either. I’d even go to say that it is good up to very good.
In a preceding article (ChangeLog), I said that I might post more on different subjects than what I usually post. So as part of this perpetual opening initiative, I will soon start a new series called “Today’s movie“. In which I tell you about a movie I am about to watch, what I thought of it (for what it’s worth), why you should drop everything you are doing right now to see it, or not.
You may like this, or not.
And you may also flame in the comments if you don’t agree.
Well I hope you’ll like it though.
As for me it will be an opportunity to revisit movies I didn’t see in a while.
“He’s not the worst, he’s not the best, he’s just the same as all the rest.”