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Reviews
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (2009)
fantastic and not
The film is fantastic in the magical sense. It has child-like wonder qualities (thanks to Terry Gilliam) and incredible scope compared with nearly any other film in terms of settings. The plot line is a simple story that is expanded into many suspenseful scenes where characters must solve dilemmas which are always just around the corner from where they are. There are brilliant performances and the outstanding cast has a lot of creative range with which they work. The actors seem to be stretching from familiar film territory and their established personas and this approach suits this film of wild imagination. Overall the film is very enjoyable and presents many surprizes and delightful moments. However, it would deliver more energy and urgency if some careful editing happened to make the film shorter and the story much tighter.
Gone Baby Gone (2007)
it could have been worse
Morgan Freeman must buy a lot of Hollywood lunches. He was the worst part of the movie. "Hey what film are we doing?" Same sincere and righteous Morgan, with different lines. The best part of the movie was Casey Affleck who demonstrated a lot of range. The character development was on par with a decent popular TV drama and can't be compared with any of the best of them. Lots of clichés in the gritty city. The story was better than the screenplay, which was rife with all the dialogue we could expect people to say in the situations they were in. Was that Ed Harris hiding behind the goatee? Oh yes, there he is trying to make something stick from that awful script. More editing would have helped a lot so that the clichés and the standard boilerplate dialogue could be tightened into a more dramatic and punchy story. The moral quandaries held up and elevated the content quite a bit above an ordinary cops and robbers drams. The ending could have gone in many different directions and resolved into something worth thinking about, which saved the movie.
Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (2006)
charming and sinister
The film gets a full 10 for its amazing creativity. There was the mystery component, and though we were in on the events we could not know what would happen next. The atmosphere and historical backdrop was exceptionally well developed and that alone is worth the viewing. Characters were thoroughly revealed throughout the course of the story. After all the surprize twists, the ending really pulls it all together in one great blast of art and wild creativity that is a summary of great writing and film-making. I was reminded of a Fellini film or something of that type from the 1970's, when films were glossier than most are these days.
Definitely this film may offend some people, as this is not mainstream cinema and there are ideas and "mature themes, especially psychological ones, being explored here that many people would prefer not to have to consider.
A story of murder it is, and so it has its moments of real deep horror, as an event like that should have. As the producers were apparently not seeking the approval of a mainstream audience, the film-makers were able to bend the art-form a little further than we are accustomed to seeing. Art is not always easy to digest and does not have to be accepted by the masses to be good art. The score, by the way, is excellent.
I am reminded of another film, "Mary Reilly" with Julia Roberts and John Malcovich. That was also a dark and sinister film with antisocial themes, but as it was carried by two very big Hollywood screen stars, and follows the familiar "Jekyl & Hyde" story, it may have been more acceptable to a larger audience compared with this. It also reminds me of "Chocolat" because of its whimsy and free-form story-telling that compels a viewer to watch in a kind of curious trance. Although this film makes me think about other film experiences, it's not because it directly references them as much as it is an ingenious and unique film as they are, and so it really stands out.
Moby Dick (2011)
linguistically soft on history
The story treatment, production, and acting are all very good. The casting is excellent. The dialogue moves well among the characters.
The long fiction takes a while to spin out when reading, and the writers have managed to retain the story in an efficient format. The historical background lays easily under the plot and dialogue and in short long shots. The character development and setup are worth the wait for the ocean drama.
doubt though that we would find, in the novel or in the time period, statements like "I didn't sign on for this?" and "Are you OK?". OK for example is a modern word that came about in the middle of the last century, not a hundred years before. Nevertheless, the modern attributes to add to the flow and so I don't object.
88 Minutes (2007)
cow eyes, raving, gun posing
Well I thought I would give Al Pacino another try. This movie had some very good writing and some good ideas, but the casting gets a big fat zero from me. Pacino always plays Pacino and he always can be expected to do three things in movie: 1. emote with cow eyes 2. lead into some kind of raving tirade 3. take a gun-wielding stance. Sorry but I can't buy the character when it's wrapped in a melodramatic Pacino package. Oh and by the way, the psychiatrist's highly decorated pad is simply ridiculous in scale and looks like a warehouse sale for every collectible high-end house item from the last century. How much does this guy earn? Check out the bar. Almost any big city commercial urban bar would be glad to have that collection and setup to serve from. Jeez.