janeblevins Reviews

The Best Offer (2013)

Great elements that can't quite come together

[6/10 · 20 April 2014]

I wanted to like this movie from the moment it began. The camera work is very good. Geoffrey Rush is entirely convincing as an obsessive compulsive auctioneer whose mannerisms are somehow perfectly suited to the rarefied world of rich widows and heiresses in which he moves.

But something about the movie started to wear me down. The more I watched the more impatient I became with its lumbering and increasingly laborious pace. This is a really savvy and interesting idea for a movie but sadly, it suffers from the deus ex machina effect: crucial elements get phoned in, important information is placed in the mouths of characters who have no obvious reason to spout this stuff, which basically reduces them to human props that help drive the plot.

And again, sadly, a couple of the actors are just not very good. They seem confused to be speaking occasionally which is confusing for the spectator and this overshadows a brilliant performance by Rush and an admirable effort by the female lead Sylvia Hoeks.

Bref, this movie could have been a real gem. It remains something of a diamond in the rough: it is definitely worth the viewing but it might leave you a little disappointed it wasn't better executed.

The Wolf of Wall Street (2013)

One Hell of a Movie

[9/10 · 30 December 2013]

This is a highly entertaining movie even if the partying occasionally drags down the action (no matter how wild, a party is a party right?). But Leonardo DiCaprio is riveting as a fast talking, talented, loud mouthed stock broker wannabe who rises (and parties) hard and fast. But what makes the movie sing is that EVERYBODY in it delivers. Scorcese brings together great cinematic talent. He's obviously untethered by big production houses (he is driving the script and you feel that) and the result is one of the most riotous, fast paced and entertaining comédies noires to come along in ages.

But some viewers may find the movie is too long, Scorcese's longest ever, clocking in at exactly 3 hours, I didn't feel the length because the acting is really first rate and the characters do develop even if they don't exactly learn from their mistakes.

The other criticism is that it's shallow, like a big party. I can see where that's coming from but my impression watching was not so much shallow as comedy noire. Scorcese does make you feel like you're in the party (there's a few slo mo scenes that just pull you in) But the story is genuinely hilarious and tragic at turns even if the person telling it is a shallow creep with monstruously shallow, selfish, party loving friends

And I personally really appreciated Scorcese's feather light moral touch. In the end, the spectator has to decide what to think of the anti-hero his band of vapid merry swindlers, or maybe not. You can also just enjoy the ride.

Gravity (2013)

Unbelievable visuals but not much of a storyline

[7/10 · 27 October 2013]

This movie was riveting in many ways: the visuals are truly unbelievable. Your stomach churns right along with the title characters and you might find your hands reaching up from the darkness of the theater to grab hold of all those bars and hatches Bullock and Clooney spend a lot of time trying to grab as they spin wildly through space.

But let's face it, the script is really weak. If it weren't in 3D and we weren't 200 miles above the Earth, there'd be absolutely no reason to take the slightest interest in these people. Only one question drives the entire film: will they or won't they make it? And since they're pretty much random people (albeit really bad-ass pilots and expert grabbers of things flying through space it turns out) the only way to produce the slightest spectator interest is to stage the space equivalent of "the car chase": (debris fly by at rip-you-to-bits speeds and tethers snap off at the worst possible moment).

It makes for a roller coaster evening, and for a linear, one track impressively visual film with lots of little "gotcha's!" but no real surprises. If that's what you're looking for, it's a great great film. It's very entertaining. It'll take your mind off work and make you wonder if a couple of things are scientifically possible. If you're wanting a three dimensional fictional universe instead of 3D images, see Moon (2009) on netflix.

Platform (2000)

meet the director half way and it's well worth it

[9/10 · 20 November 2011]

When I started watching this movie, my first thought was, "oh, documentary film maker moving into feature film and being kind of artsy and pretentious"...because the film is very gritty and realistic and you almost feel uncomfortably present in the intimate lives of people you don't know. That in itself shows how good the acting is in this film because you really, really think these people are locals and that is really and truly what they do, they are amateur theater performers. it's hard to see at the beginning just how you're going to spend 2 plus hours with folks who seem so opaque and indifferent to the spectator.

But then almost imperceptibly, the movie starts to draw you in. Each frame of the movie, each scene is a clue, a thread that connects to other scenes or begins its own story and you realize this guy is a master of movie narrative. He gets it.

And then it really takes off. This is one of the best movies I think I've ever seen, one I could probably watch several times because there's a lot going on in every single scene but none of it is overstated. And if you're not watching closely, some tragic moments go by and you miss them.

Hats off to the director and actors on this...

A World Without Thieves (2004)

A gem of a film

[9/10 · 17 September 2011]

I don't know a lot about Chinese film but I've seen some of the recent Kung fu hits (House of flying daggers, Redcliff, all entertaining for their genre but fairly empty productions) and this one is a real gem--a tight well woven plot, touching and interesting characters and some classic Chinese hero traits (think superhuman abilities that often defy gravity) suavely transposed into the world of petty thieves with a light and gentle touch that makes you almost forget some of the gestures are probably physically impossible. The music score is pitch perfect, light, jazzy, with just a hint of something deeper and sadder.

The acting is superb and the script really keeps you guessing. Scenes hover somewhere between outright hilarity, touching irony, and fleeting hints of the genuinely tragic. There is rarely a false note and the actor who plays the intellectually limited villager pulls off a terrific balancing act: he manages to be naive and rustic without slipping into Forest Gumpy type nonsense....

Well worth the viewing...

The Winter War (1989)

A movie with lots and lots and lots of bombs, and not much else

[2/10 · 13 April 2011]

This movie was a huge disappointment. After reading several glowing reviews on this website and seeing the astronomical rating, I thought it would be a great way to learn a little bit about the Winter War and see some good war drama. It is a terrible movie: there is no plot whatsoever (and hey, I live in Europe so I am used to, and even enjoy, low tension plot) but even for a lover of Eric Rohmer films, this was a long, hard slog through through endless (and yes I DO mean endless) scenes of battle which alternate between Russians advancing, then retreating, or characters you don't know that well or care to know that well, getting blown to smithereens. Then, as a scene changer, there are shots of planes flying which are always Russian and are always just about to strafe some Finnish guy who is way too far from his trench. There are 3 whole hours to kill this way sans any directorial intelligence or insight to be found anywhere in the vast winter wastelands he manages to create. By the end, there seems to be only one game left to play: find a way to shoot explosions in yet another setting, because Finland is not that big.

If you're looking for a quality war movie from a European perspective (and which take place in Winter) Stalingrad is much, much better than this impressively made but utterly empty and lumbering production.