Saturday, December 15, 2007
A Tale of Two Movies....
I've seen two movies in the past week. One was good and one sucked...that's the quick breakdown for you. So one week ago today, I went to see No Country for Old Men. Basically what I got out of the movie is that life sucks, you think it's getting worse and long for the less complicated life of your parents, but wait...things sucked then too. Things suck, things have always sucked, things are always gonna suck.... That and some interesting methods of murder are the basic premise is of the movie. I just saved you ten bucks.
The other movie I saw is I Am Legend. Things still suck and ultimately that's what this movie wants you to know also....but it's how that story is told that makes this movie the better choice for me. You see, I am old fashion and I expect a movie to have a beginning and a end, and then somewhere about 3/4's of the way through, I'd like my climax. I am just simple like that.
So I will just go ahead and tell you that my work spouse loved the old men movie. Since we saw the movie he reminds me every day how it is nominated for this, and got a positive review from that person.... Listen, I am a Coen brothers fan.....from all the way back to Raising Arizona....
but check it, they are hit or miss....The Hudsucker Proxey, Fargo, O Brother Where Art Thou, The Big Lebowski.....there were a string of hits right there at the end of the 90's when these guys were exploding!! I am not so sure they haven't burnt out though. I think maybe they are desperate and have gone off into some whack bullshit these days. "But Shy....the movie is so deep....it's genius!!!!"
Listen, It used to be cool to paint people and things in the most realistic way possible. That was talent....that's what it meant to be a genius. But with advancements in photography anyone could have a perfect picture....for it to be art, it had to be reinterpreted.... art moved into impressionism where the almost scientific focus on the effect of light and movement on an object was what made it genius. Later you had mysticism in art, then expressionism where often the subject was distorted, later cubism where an object was painted like it was shards of broken glass...all these things were genius...I will give you that, but at some point.... and I realize I am probably cynical here....but at some point every thing that could be said had been said and I think we are still waiting for something new...something genius.....and you can't just paint a red block on a white canvas and ask me to find it avant-garde.
You can't just chop the ending off the movie, take out all the music, and murder a bunch of people and ask me to find it avant-garde either. The movie told a story, it wasn't all bad (Laura's cousin was in it...)...it just wasn't the best work of the year and the fact that it was hard to follow and understand doesn't make it so in my mind.
I Am Legend has it's own sorta genius as a social commentary on the Iraq war. I heard one review that sorta describes it like this...Western medicine takes a virus (a bad thing) and manipulates it so that it can fight cancer (a worse thing) which is sort of like Western military forces arming jihadists (which they regard as a bad thing) so that they'll fight communists (which they regard as a worse thing)....then the bad thing mutates into a much much worse thing that turns on it's creator, sound familiar?.....and where does all this happen? In a place that becomes identified as GROUND ZERO....you guessed it, New York. And even if you attack this thing you have created, they just keep coming....and everyone they come in contact with is either converted to one of them or killed. And the only solution is to shoot them dead — or withdraw behind metal walls, into a fortress-like homeland.
(for those not in the know)
I've seen two movies in the past week. One was good and one sucked...that's the quick breakdown for you. So one week ago today, I went to see No Country for Old Men. Basically what I got out of the movie is that life sucks, you think it's getting worse and long for the less complicated life of your parents, but wait...things sucked then too. Things suck, things have always sucked, things are always gonna suck.... That and some interesting methods of murder are the basic premise is of the movie. I just saved you ten bucks.
The other movie I saw is I Am Legend. Things still suck and ultimately that's what this movie wants you to know also....but it's how that story is told that makes this movie the better choice for me. You see, I am old fashion and I expect a movie to have a beginning and a end, and then somewhere about 3/4's of the way through, I'd like my climax. I am just simple like that.
So I will just go ahead and tell you that my work spouse loved the old men movie. Since we saw the movie he reminds me every day how it is nominated for this, and got a positive review from that person.... Listen, I am a Coen brothers fan.....from all the way back to Raising Arizona....
but check it, they are hit or miss....The Hudsucker Proxey, Fargo, O Brother Where Art Thou, The Big Lebowski.....there were a string of hits right there at the end of the 90's when these guys were exploding!! I am not so sure they haven't burnt out though. I think maybe they are desperate and have gone off into some whack bullshit these days. "But Shy....the movie is so deep....it's genius!!!!"
Listen, It used to be cool to paint people and things in the most realistic way possible. That was talent....that's what it meant to be a genius. But with advancements in photography anyone could have a perfect picture....for it to be art, it had to be reinterpreted.... art moved into impressionism where the almost scientific focus on the effect of light and movement on an object was what made it genius. Later you had mysticism in art, then expressionism where often the subject was distorted, later cubism where an object was painted like it was shards of broken glass...all these things were genius...I will give you that, but at some point.... and I realize I am probably cynical here....but at some point every thing that could be said had been said and I think we are still waiting for something new...something genius.....and you can't just paint a red block on a white canvas and ask me to find it avant-garde.
You can't just chop the ending off the movie, take out all the music, and murder a bunch of people and ask me to find it avant-garde either. The movie told a story, it wasn't all bad (Laura's cousin was in it...)...it just wasn't the best work of the year and the fact that it was hard to follow and understand doesn't make it so in my mind.
I Am Legend has it's own sorta genius as a social commentary on the Iraq war. I heard one review that sorta describes it like this...Western medicine takes a virus (a bad thing) and manipulates it so that it can fight cancer (a worse thing) which is sort of like Western military forces arming jihadists (which they regard as a bad thing) so that they'll fight communists (which they regard as a worse thing)....then the bad thing mutates into a much much worse thing that turns on it's creator, sound familiar?.....and where does all this happen? In a place that becomes identified as GROUND ZERO....you guessed it, New York. And even if you attack this thing you have created, they just keep coming....and everyone they come in contact with is either converted to one of them or killed. And the only solution is to shoot them dead — or withdraw behind metal walls, into a fortress-like homeland.
(for those not in the know)
