Rome wasn't built in a day as the saying goes, a truism summating that the city (or any city) wasn't built by one person's vision and even less the actual work and efforts of its construction.. It was/is an accretive process, a halting violent wrestling match of many hands (in the case of Rome mostly the hands of slaves) a creative organic growth of paroxysms of births - and deaths. Perhaps FFC at 84 yo is feeling this veil of tears descending on his utopian vineyard(s) catalyzing his desire to address this as his biggest theme yet - how history is constructed, experienced and built upon to progress. But whereas the biggest themes of war, death and rebirth found in Apocalypse Now was based on the genius mind of Joseph Conrad, FFC takes on the mantle of being a genius scriptwriter of the same promethium talents, which is debatable, even with the ability to realize 'mega' themes since the 1970's catalyzed or perhaps more aptly INSPIRED given FFC's purview, to realize the great themes for his Megalopolis germinating since the 80's, via the 'mega' developments of using artifice with CGI. I think he needed to give it more time. But at 84 he's likely feeling that may not be a luxury he has much more of, and as he's been quoted, not hard to understand his hopes and dreams for this film's message as he readies his coins for the boat man. In the end, I'm not sure he even asked the right questions. I'd re-read Thomas More's Utopia (again?) and give it more of a think without the Sword of Damocles in FFC's mind of a camera lens. Another recommendation, E. F Schumacher, Small is Beautiful.
Reviews
11 Reviews
Unfrosted
(2024)
Seinfeld as a comedy writer its pretty much an embarrassment
5 May 2024
Jerry Seinfeld the stand-up comedian who as he says - is a career fundamentally about writing - is legend for good reason for the show "about nothing." In numerous interviews he talks candidly about his process, his perfectionism that boils down to getting single words right in delivering a joke (ex: had to use the golfball name "Titlelist" in the Seinfeld episode with the beached whale) and how often this process of refinement can take years. His Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee reveals similar truths in an everyday activity with friends and associates conversing, bantering about life and lessons or mostly shooting the crap about nothing. So now this movie - that Is about SOMETHING. And it's mostly a fail. There's little perfectionism here. It's a rush job, it's chaotic. Its a pastiche. Yes, the cameos work for the most part, acting chops by Melissa McCarthy, Hugh Grant pull it off. The references to Jan 6 storming the capital are funny I guess, but overall the entire script needs work. Examples are numerous, but here's two. One, you rarely see any work by Post on their competing toaster warmed breakfast square, Its all Kellogg, This reduces the protagonist to cardboard cut-out characters in-line with the gravity pull of the scenes to the ubiquitous cereal mascots, which it would seem are funny just because of their costumes (not really). Two, the scene where Hugh Grants character - Tony the Tiger- first stutters that leads to Jerry IMMEDIATELY saying "that's what we're looking for" is a waste because the addition of even a simple, "what was that you just said?" by Jerry could have extended the scene for an extra few seconds and delivered a funnier product through more development. Instead the pace is kept chaotic and moving (throughout) as if this is enough distraction for audiences to keep from lingering too long to realize this movie needs work, is facile and rushed. Too bad, it had potential. We know Jerry can do it, even though he's no actor. He should likely stick to scripts about nothing. This one about something just doesn't pull it off - but at least streaming on Netflix you can fast forward to credit roll sooner than later.
Victoria
(2016–2019)
Excellent and often poignant
28 March 2023
What is great about this series is that its about Queen Victoria in the immediate years, extending to a decade or two (depending on how you want to cross-reference events portrayed to the actual historical ones) when she was in her late teens and in her twenties. The series does an excellent job portraying Victoria as Queen, Mother and Wife and how the three interrelate with poignancy (with Prince Albert, her children, instrumental advisors) often political consternation and sometimes conflict. It also does a great job in showing how progressive Victoria and Albert were in navigating and contributing to the advance of "modernity" with their eager curiosity of things like the steam locomotive ("this is the future!"), Prince Albert and the first World's Fair, new medical practises utilized in the outbreak of a cholera epidemic and others. This new found momentum of knowledge is also underscored by portrayal of the current practises in contrast such as when a doctor who studies bumps on the skull is used to diagnose eldest son Bertie's behavioural issues, who Victoria berates as a charlatan.
It is also a love a story fundamentally too between Victoria and Albert with many great scenes (a favourite being when in desire to get away by themselves in Scotland they find themselves lost overnight on the moors and stumble across a crofters house). The cast is great with other side stories lending interest into the levels of society at the time, from the poor to the those desiring to become independent through their own talents and hard work. Hope there are plans for another season or two, since will miss after season three. Recommended.
It is also a love a story fundamentally too between Victoria and Albert with many great scenes (a favourite being when in desire to get away by themselves in Scotland they find themselves lost overnight on the moors and stumble across a crofters house). The cast is great with other side stories lending interest into the levels of society at the time, from the poor to the those desiring to become independent through their own talents and hard work. Hope there are plans for another season or two, since will miss after season three. Recommended.
Daisy Jones & The Six
(2023)
Excellent performances and character chemistry
23 March 2023
Wasn't sure about this when first saw on Amazon Prime Video, especially with the regular online references to Fleetwood Mac, and have not read the book. But found it to be excellent 70's piece about the dynamics of song writing and egos within bands that can take them to the top and/or burn them down. Each cast member pulls their weight, and the interview segments as they look back is well constructed (especially the ones where there's no words, just a smile or roll of the eyes to spell volumes). Claflin and Keough of course do the mainstay of the heavy lifting, dramatically and vocally in character, but also White as Teddy Price and Morrone as Camilla are excellent. The songs Daisy and The Six write and perform are believable and done with real emotion and believability. Not so sure the side story of Simone and Bernie is really necessary, but whatever. The dynamic between Daisy and Andy is the focus and doesn't disappoint. It's a nostalgia piece, but a lot of Gen Z'ers and MIllenials in general pine for these long gone days of their parents as they've heard the stories and often listen to the music "from back in the day" (aka Fleetwood Mac)....and the high waisted jeans and women's tops are already coming back around. Dig it man. Recommended.
Slap Shot
(1977)
by the Academy Award Best Director of 1974 The Sting ....
16 February 2023
Newman had worked with George Roy Hill before in 1969 "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" and in 1974 "The Sting." No kidding it was the most fun, as he stated in later interviews, to make (out of those previous efforts). Its fundamentally a piece of raunchy camp but when you look harder it portrays some cultural changes that were ongoing since the 60's. But in high school when it came out in 1977, my friends and I went to the theatre to see it for a a Friday night out "downtown" and because doing so was preceded by knowing it was a raunchy R-rated party of over the top hockey antics, we were somewhat familiar with as avid Leafs fans in Toronto. We were watching hockey slowly evolving in that time from earlier decades where few wore helmets (goalies famously didn't either but were the first to start wearing 'masks' to protect their faces) and watching a scant few brave pioneers start to wear them, braving the criticism from fellow players and screaming fans (to the "modern" game where its a requirement). Of course, padding for players everywhere else was the rule, but helmets, nah, not so much. It was a sign of being a pansy to put it politely. At the same time, which the movie makes fun of, and goes over the top with, was the introduction of "enforcer" players, who unlike the greats of those days (Bobby Orr, Stan Makita, Rocket Richard etc) had really no hockey skills other than they could skate, and were on the ice just to throw their weight around and to check/hit people. But, now these years later, there is another more subtle plot going on, the threads about women's "liberation" rising up and allowing women more and more autonomy from men in the workplace, careers and choices in general (remember this was the decade of "Playgirl" magazine and the sexual revolution momentum from the 60's). Bottom line worth a laugh for the parodying of hockey violence, but also for a more subtle plot of "sign o' the times" (The 70's)
Kung Fu Movie Masquerading as Philosophy
28 January 2023
We all know the politics served up every year by the Academy. This film fits the mold. Fundamentally its an overrated and derivative superhero movie full of action movie tropes. I mean whats more cliche than asians owning a laundromat? Yes the female lead is well acted, but big deal. You want some inter dimensional movie content, try Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai or even for the most juvenile, go all the way back to Back to The Future. These movies have no pretence of philosophical underpinnings for Millenials who more and more get their bread from TikTok and think they know something about a "multiverse" from Youtube University. Pass.
Notre-Dame
(2022)
I don't think so
17 December 2022
I admire Netflix for its internationally produced content. There are a lot of great production companies in the world besides what is regular fare in the continental US (aka superheroes, gunfights and cowboys).
This is a big budget Netflix series. You can tell by the effort to recreate the firefighting efforts that riveted the world for those 15 hours in April , 2019, the extras, the vfx, the general level of production standards.
But I actually had to stop watching like other reviewers mention (after ep.3)
The fire and the cathedral are the main "character" but take a backseat to maudlin characters in a US styled "Soapbox" like script.
Yes the production is trying to flesh out literally the human character aspects of a few selected courageous firefighters (plus a couple of reporters covering the fire) who put the fire out and saved many irreplaceable aspects of this world UNESCO heritage site and symbol of the French nation, including the pipe organs, the bells and stain glass windows (only the bells are actually portrayed being saved) with flashbacks, family issues and the like.
But there's a cardboard quality to these portrayals even when the characters are in the midst of the most intense situations. A kind of even-handedness to the level of intensity when really, with the whole cathedral in imminent danger, the script cuts away to some escort who has befriended a young African-French kid and whose father who runs a shop is trying to find her in time to say goodbye to her estranged, but dying mother.
There could have been so much more to up the level of intensity and focus more on the actual fire and the cathedral. For example, the audio levels of the fire burning is kept at an even output which does much to diminish its threat and dramatic character - even in close ups - when a ferociousness to the audio track would have done wonders to compliment the visual intensity of the flames. Its all watered down (no pun intended).
In the end there are a few genuine dramatic moments with the character portrayals by individual cast members, but for almost all intensive purposes drowned out by the overall script, the even-handedness of the filmic pace, the stultifying audio.
This is a big budget Netflix series. You can tell by the effort to recreate the firefighting efforts that riveted the world for those 15 hours in April , 2019, the extras, the vfx, the general level of production standards.
But I actually had to stop watching like other reviewers mention (after ep.3)
The fire and the cathedral are the main "character" but take a backseat to maudlin characters in a US styled "Soapbox" like script.
Yes the production is trying to flesh out literally the human character aspects of a few selected courageous firefighters (plus a couple of reporters covering the fire) who put the fire out and saved many irreplaceable aspects of this world UNESCO heritage site and symbol of the French nation, including the pipe organs, the bells and stain glass windows (only the bells are actually portrayed being saved) with flashbacks, family issues and the like.
But there's a cardboard quality to these portrayals even when the characters are in the midst of the most intense situations. A kind of even-handedness to the level of intensity when really, with the whole cathedral in imminent danger, the script cuts away to some escort who has befriended a young African-French kid and whose father who runs a shop is trying to find her in time to say goodbye to her estranged, but dying mother.
There could have been so much more to up the level of intensity and focus more on the actual fire and the cathedral. For example, the audio levels of the fire burning is kept at an even output which does much to diminish its threat and dramatic character - even in close ups - when a ferociousness to the audio track would have done wonders to compliment the visual intensity of the flames. Its all watered down (no pun intended).
In the end there are a few genuine dramatic moments with the character portrayals by individual cast members, but for almost all intensive purposes drowned out by the overall script, the even-handedness of the filmic pace, the stultifying audio.
Dune
(2021)
A great attempt at what is and will always be a MUST read
28 June 2022
Villeneuve is at the heights of his cinematic chops (Blade Runner 2 on cgi atmospheric steroids) which does great service to the immensity of Dune's geography, architecture, time (the 10th millenium) and how the Fremen have adapted to Dune's specific environment. The books themselves, from the start of Book 1 are so deeply packed with awesomeness of imagination and thought by Herbert it takes a lot of hubris to think you could even make a film worthy of such a literary masterpiece of science fiction. Kudos, it works pretty well. Casting is OK. I mean. Ferguson, Issac, Zendaya, Skaarsgard, Bardem and Chalamet look the parts. Timothy could work on his acting. His silence is more evocative approach is better in the King (2019). Here he is called on to do more at many points and comes up lacking. Momoa, I don't think so, but at least he doesn't hang around long.
Overall worth viewing, and the sequels planned too. But in the final analysis they're just glossy advertisements for READ THE BOOKS.
Overall worth viewing, and the sequels planned too. But in the final analysis they're just glossy advertisements for READ THE BOOKS.
Spiderhead
(2022)
Weak and Implausible
28 June 2022
Weak. Implausible. Lots of reason but fundamentally because Chris Hemsworth could be a genius (in this case scientist), at anything. He's an agents idea of a cross between Brad Pitt and Matthew McConaughey without the germ of acting ability. He should stick to the superhero audiences, they have no discernment. I mean how much do you have when 12 or 13 years old. Maybe the difference between Marvel and DC.
Good
(2008)
Another excellent character role by Viggo Mortensen
25 April 2021
Another great performance by Viggo Mortensen. It is hard to imagine another lead actor who could have pulled off the complex interplay of John Halder's character woven with his often harried and scattered personal life dealing with a neurotic wife, children and senile mother living with them, plus continue his lectures at the university where he clearly finds his sanctuary in intellectual studies. (Interestingly Viggo has spoken of his own family's history with dementia so this would have informed his performance in some of the intense scenes dealing with Halder's mother). Moreover, Viggo's own sensitivities and soft spokenness play beautifully into the subtle characterizations for Halder (hand gestures, standing, sitting, enjoying a piece of cheesecake) portraying at once a certain innocence, family focused everyday-life myopia and naivety, are perfectly balanced at the smallest individual level in contrast to to the immensity of the monstrous societal currents rising in Germany in the years just before the War and becoming a tidal wave in the 40''s during....that sweep him up with small choices...and lead to the shocking conclusion Halder realizes all too late at the end. This film produced a full eight years after Viggo's Aragorn in LOTR continued to build his impressive body of well considered roles with a message that a viewer will think about for days afterwards.
The Green Inferno
(2013)
"An ode to Italian cannabal films in their heyday"
1 April 2021
Yeh right, whatever. Italian cannibal films from the 60's and 70's were garbage too. Those minor fringe directors had to find a niche against Bertolucci, Fellini, Zeffirelli, Rosellini et al, so portraying teeth gnashing on raw sinew, people on pikes and other ancient delights should suffice for the peoples who brough civilization the Coloseum. Keep up the great work Eli. You have trouble figuring out continuity (maybe because you were on C-camera) but keep cashing those checks. What an awesome oeuvre you've created so you can be added to the trailer list of a yet to be forgotten film in the next century.
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