More than a few keen counter-intuitive film critical observations that playoff and against assumptions.
But FILLED with hyperbolic, fatuous nonsense -- lots of Mike Davis' Ciy Of Quartz bombast w/o the factual and historical under-girding, the worst Andersen's own. And a reliance on, let's call it, queer theory (formal reversals that 'queer' theory -- a queering that suggests a profound 'subverting' of the 'socially constructed' meanings but is b.s., a spin on a received idea that vanishes if reflected upon.) The commentary on CHINATOWN and L.A. CONFIDENTIAL (pathetically qualified) 'exposing' their ultimate "cynicism" is the most egregious: a superficial, sophomoric 'insight' presented as if volumes of serious thought about narrative had never been written and labored to death.
While there are hints of self-lampoon, this doc is not LAND WITHOUT BREAD.
It's way too long given its visual poverty (endless GLIMMER MAN clips), 3 hours of blurred, butchered video transfers much of it supported by pseudo-contrarian huff-and-puffery.
While THE CLOCK needs no narration, LA PLAYS ITSELF is unwatchable without (and, in parts, with) it.
Where's the Reyner Banham? for example.
It is a film that at this point, 2012, stands as a heroic botch-job, not fixable, not re-doable, a sinkhole/roadblock that stands in the way of doing a true clip epic of LA / Film.
But FILLED with hyperbolic, fatuous nonsense -- lots of Mike Davis' Ciy Of Quartz bombast w/o the factual and historical under-girding, the worst Andersen's own. And a reliance on, let's call it, queer theory (formal reversals that 'queer' theory -- a queering that suggests a profound 'subverting' of the 'socially constructed' meanings but is b.s., a spin on a received idea that vanishes if reflected upon.) The commentary on CHINATOWN and L.A. CONFIDENTIAL (pathetically qualified) 'exposing' their ultimate "cynicism" is the most egregious: a superficial, sophomoric 'insight' presented as if volumes of serious thought about narrative had never been written and labored to death.
While there are hints of self-lampoon, this doc is not LAND WITHOUT BREAD.
It's way too long given its visual poverty (endless GLIMMER MAN clips), 3 hours of blurred, butchered video transfers much of it supported by pseudo-contrarian huff-and-puffery.
While THE CLOCK needs no narration, LA PLAYS ITSELF is unwatchable without (and, in parts, with) it.
Where's the Reyner Banham? for example.
It is a film that at this point, 2012, stands as a heroic botch-job, not fixable, not re-doable, a sinkhole/roadblock that stands in the way of doing a true clip epic of LA / Film.