Comment Archives: stories: Movies
Re: “Stunning new Nashville hip-hop documentary Building The Highway 2 Mars has the feel of a landmark”
Ray Zate is an ANIMAL behind the camera!! Love that guy!
Re: “Stunning new Nashville hip-hop documentary Building The Highway 2 Mars has the feel of a landmark”
I hate it when ppl say "hip-hop", but always tend to forget ab the backbone of this culture...THA BBOYS AND BGIRLS!!! Im hoping that there is at least maybe a glimpse of bboyin in this film...otherwise, calling this a "Hip-Hop Documentary" is just misleading...What it should say is, a documentary ab mcin or lyricism. But not Hip-Hop if you dont have all 4 elements representin. Just my thoughts onthe subj. Peace
Re: “Two rednecks accidentally trigger an obnoxious-coed massacre in Tucker and Dale vs. Evil, a cheery slasher-movie spoof”
Great article! I can't wait for the frat rats to whine about it!!!!!!
Rednecks in the woods often rock! They, after all, make moonshine : )
Re: “Moneyball is not the geeky baseball stats movie you've been dreaming about — it's much better than that”
This movie is definitely an amazing character drama. You don't have to know anything about baseball to enjoy it. In this David vs Goliath world of baseball dominated with wins made by deep pockets -- it shows the character and perseverance of a man haunted by his past mistakes who rises to the occasion to find a real solution to win through innovation instead of money. Brad Pitt's performance is INCREDIBLE! Nothing is "glib" about it. Strong acting. GREAT FILM!
Re: “Moneyball is not the geeky baseball stats movie you've been dreaming about — it's much better than that”
When I heard that they had made a movie out of the Billy Bean baseball book, I was impressed with how far we had come as a society. But, then, the movie Moneyball never mentioned the real issues in the book.
Here's a link, if anybody is interested. http://www.billybean.com/cover.asp
Re: “The playful, casually mysterious Uncle Boonmee offers a loosely arranged bouquet of reincarnations”
Definition of INVEST
transitive verb
1
[Medieval Latin investire, from Latin, to clothe] a : to array in the symbols of office or honor b : to furnish with power or authority c : to grant someone control or authority over : vest
2
: to cover completely : envelop
3
: clothe, adorn
4
[Middle French investir, from Old Italian investire, from Latin, to surround] : to surround with troops or ships so as to prevent escape or entry
5
: to endow with a quality : infuse
uninformed [ˌʌnɪnˈfɔːmd]
adj
1. not having knowledge or information about a situation, subject, etc.
2. you.
Re: “In the all-embracing Terri, the high-school movie's perennial wallflower takes the spotlight”
"You're not a very cultured man, are you, Mr. D'Angelo?"
Says the dumbass who doesn't know how to spell Dostoevsky.
Re: “In the exhilarating Kaboom, Gregg Araki throws the sexiest apocalypse ever”
I love how you accuse Araki of "Attitude" without bothering to articulate what the fuck you're talking about. If you're accusing Araki of a Patti LaBelle homage, that's quite interesting. Especially since you seem to believe that art that is fun and somewhat confrontational is a surrogate political rally, which demonstrates your total misunderstanding of Araki's work. So let's get this straight: you commend MYSTERIOUS SKIN as a new Araki that you approve of, but then retreat by claiming that this Araki minus the vulgarity really isn't Araki. It sounds to me that you want Araki to be who you want him to be and that you are especially uninterested -- possibly because of nascent homophobia or general intolerance -- in understanding Araki's many voices. You don't persuasively establish Araki's "newfound formal dexterity," but you are once again dedicated to unmeasured language ("recurring nightmare that reeks of impending doom"). Being a myopic and conservative moviegoer, you demand clarity rather than ambiguity. And you cannot comprehend that being over-the-top can also be something offhand. If Araki has learned the importance of casting gorgeous kids who can actually act, why has he cast James Duval? How is insouciance delectable? Do you even know what the fuck these words mean? "Starts to seem," "the movie might" -- you're not really sure, are you? If you don't know what the fuck you're talking about, why the fuck is the Nashville Scene hiring you? Are you giving someone a handjob? That's really the only excuse for such shoddy critical writing.
Re: “In the all-embracing Terri, the high-school movie's perennial wallflower takes the spotlight”
When you've called a movie "utterly conventional," there's no sense in calling it "formulaic," which is the same fucking thing. If a teen is "comically beleaguered," then clearly you have established that he is beset with difficulties. My God, you write like a toddler whizzing around a toilet bowl just after being potty trained, with no comprehension that you are wasting words with redundancy. And how can you protest filmmakers' failure to fixate on unattractive outcasts as protagonists when you have been hypocritical enough to mock Jacob Wysocki's looks. You move from reality to commerce with your awkward metaphor mixing at the end of the second paragraph. Fuck me, who the fuck edits you? Is there anybody with a grammatical pulse at the Nashville Scene? Or are they all hitting a flatline? Appears to be in the early stages? If you're not sure of the uncle's medical condition, are you really qualified to remark on how he proves himself to be a genuine actor? How are phrased tossed? I mean, I know that you're a fucking incompetent and all, but words are known to originate from the mouth. So let me get this straight: stock phrases make this film special? It would seem to me that stock phrases would make this film conventional. Do you know how to articulate a viewpoint or are do you have brain damage? Again, why the fuck is the Nashville Scene employing you? What does Jacobs's father have to do with his reputation? Jean Renoir is not Pierre-Auguste. Martin Amis is not Kingsley. I sincerely hope that Mike D'Angelo's children would improve upon their father's near total incompetence to articulate a viewpoint or craft a sentence. And there's that dreaded misuse of "invested" again. Do you know how to use a verb properly? How does decency flail? Fitzgerald's story about Samantha ranks among the best statements of being human, you say? Against Shakespeare? Or Doestoevsky? You're not a very cultured man, are you, Mr. D'Angelo? But I admire your declasse use of cliches, even if I am somewhat surprised that the Nashville Scene was in need of this. How is feeding dead rats to the hawk formulaic? I don't see this in a lot of movies. Could it be that you don't know what the fuck you're talking about?
Re: “The playful, casually mysterious Uncle Boonmee offers a loosely arranged bouquet of reincarnations”
Typically you would use the verb "invest" with a financial metaphor. But, of course, since you're such a spectacularly incompetent writer (wow, did you really get paid for this shit?), you use rhythm and perspective, both of which cannot be invested. But what else can one expect from a crass ass too incompetent, isolationist, and unadventurous to pronounce Apichatpong? You mangle your friend's nap metaphor, which tells us nothing whatsoever about BLISSFULLY YOURS. "A beguiling matter-of-factness that somehow makes them at once comforting and even more strange." Gee, that's redundant. Who the fuck edited you? Who allowed that dangling modifier in the first paragraph? His choice of a title offering a clue? What is this? Bart Simpson thanking the good people at McGraw Hill? I think any bonehead can infer that someone suffering from kidney disease is going to have mortal thoughts. So we also have you condescending your readers. Should a synopsis scratch the surface? How does a film amble exactly? You do realize that "in the midst" means at the central point. You really mean "amidst" (meaning during: open a fucking dictionary why don'tcha?). And in that sentence, that's a load of badly composed nonsense to describe a gradual materialization. Prodded by impending change? Are you recycling heavy metaphors from bad imitations of the Partisan Review? I should certainly hope that a photo montage would obtain snapshots, but then I'm not especially concerned with redundancy in my sentences. Two minor characters are going to have out-of-body EXPERIENCES. You don't even know the difference between singular and plural. Honestly, you call this professional writing. I've seen high school students turning in cleaner copy.
Re: “Devastating Project Nim offers Rise of the Planet of the Apes documentary-style; Apollo 18 fails to launch”
"Is there another person on earth besides the reviewer who knows what 'post-EST encounter theory' is? Maybe, but I wasn't able to google any evidence of it."
EST: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erhard_Seminars_Training
encounter groups: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Encounter_group
Re: “Nashville's IBFF scores the U.S. premiere of the controversial new doc Dark Girls”
What a beautiful bright light shown from the words of the "Black Rainbow." Thank you.
Re: “Devastating Project Nim offers Rise of the Planet of the Apes documentary-style; Apollo 18 fails to launch”
Is there another person on earth besides the reviewer who knows what "post-EST encounter theory" is? Maybe, but I wasn't able to google any evidence of it. There's a difference between a review that illuminates a movie by drawing on what references the arts and sciences can provide and self-important wanking, and that difference makes a review worth reading or not.
Re: “Terrific performances aside, The Help lets audiences view racial issues at too safe a distance”
Did the author of this review take the time to read the book? I realize that isn't his job but it might have given him more of what he claims is absent from the movie. As with almost all films that begin as books, Kathryn Stockett's novel The Help provides a deeper and richer perspective of the time period it is set in. The book's undercurrents emphasize the strength of the African American women who raised generations of white southern children. These were the silent warriors in the race relation battles. It took many hundreds of "well-meaning white folks" joining forces with oppressed black Southerners to begin moving toward a better society. I am hopeful that the movie will motivate people to examine those times, acknowledging that while we have made progress in race relations in this country there remains much more work to be done.
Re: “Terrific performances aside, The Help lets audiences view racial issues at too safe a distance”
Wonderful movie!!! All the actors did magnificent work! I was amazed at how well all of them pulled off the Southern accent with perfection!
Re: “Nashville's IBFF scores the U.S. premiere of the controversial new doc Dark Girls”
BLACK RAINBOW
Copyright by Victoria Rowels ©2011
Young black slaves with beautiful dark skin,
Violated by white masters again and again.
They had white women to whom they were publicly wed.
But they preferred to rape black women in the slave shed.
A painful history we all want to forget,
But we can’t because of the children born of it.
Their hues range from black to white,
With hair sometimes straight and other times tight.
Evidence of a crime and justice never received.
Centuries have passed and yes, we still grieve.
But we must love the black rainbow that we have become.
We are the original hue-mans and should unite as one.
From the middle passage to every denied civil right,
We make the best of our trying plight.
But brainwashed to hate our African origin,
We began to hate our beautiful black skin.
From European standards of beauty to the paper bag test,
We have been encouraged to take part in a self-hate fest.
Now is the time to stop this genocidal game.
God loves us all and we should do the same.
A young black girl wanted to be fine.
She bought hazel contact lens and now she’s blind.
Some black women put glue in their hair,
To hold long straight weaves that blow in the air.
We shouldn’t do destructive things like that.
We are a beautiful people and that’s a fact.
Sisters and brothers we must love our natural state.
We must love the black rainbow and stop all the hate.
Re: “Nashville's IBFF scores the U.S. premiere of the controversial new doc Dark Girls”
I look forward to seeing this though I am deeply saddened that this issue (like so many others that plague Black people) has not been resolved individually and collectively.
Re: “A brilliant misfire, or a masterpiece too convoluted to absorb on one viewing? Either way, Christopher Nolan's Inception is the Hollywood spectacle of the summer”
It is a fact only for lucid dreaming. Read: Perception Of Time 2.3 here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucid_dreamin…
Re: “Fassbinder's World on a Wire: the missing link between A Clockwork Orange and Inception”
Querelle is a consensus dud? You must be joking! It's easily one of his best three films, and I don't think I'm one of the lone "vociferous defenders". On the other hand Whity is really atrocious and that pretty much is consensus opinion of anyone who really knows RWF's or anyone who has tried to sit through it for that matter. I can think of a few others, Despair to name one, which aren't really up to the mark and a lot of the early work is patchy if ultimately redeeming. Having just seeing 'World on a Wire' finally, I have to agree with the overall thesis here... while the first quarter of the film meanders a bit, the three hours speed by, and it is an important film not to be missed.