Monday, July 18, 2005
A couple of film reviews for yuz...
The Life Aquatic
I love Wes Anderson films; I've seen every one and appreciated their wit and truth and humour and precision. Each one is so different, but his exploration of certain themes travels through them all. This one is the most explicit story of a young man looking for a hero in his father, and of the father whose magnetic personality and larger-than-life persona cannot hide his shortcomings as a moral and emotional being.
Bill Murray and Owen Wilson play the father and son, and both do a beautiful job of playing against type: Murray is the mysteriously driven force of nature Steve Zissou, whose underwater exploration and filmmaking may have come to a sorry end. Wilson plays a straight-edge officer and gentleman, who gives up his normal life to subsume his pain in the pursuit of an heroic destiny with the man who may be his natural father.
The film is a treat; the visual feast of strange underwater shots and the cutaway boat remind me of a child's fantasy. There are some funny and surprising action sequences as well as the usual Wes Anderson quiet evolutions of complex relationships in smart (but not too self-aware) dialogue.
Full disclosure: Even if I had hated everything else about this movie, I would still recommend it, because the soundtrack is almost all Bowie and amazing Bowie covers. Bowie means so much to me I can't even begin to say. We bought the CD on the weekend.
Elephant Shoes
We watched this because a friend did the sound and lighting for it. It's a made-in-Montreal-on-a-shoestring film about a 12-hour love affair. Only 2 actors -- they meet on the street and about half an hour later they're f**ing in the guy's kitchen and he says "Oh my god I love you" when they're done. They agree not to fall in love and do anyway, in a series of cute-ish scenes that are meant to convince us the two are made for each other.
It's surprisingly good. I expected to hate it and I didn't. The actors have chemistry (I think they're married in real life), and the writing is good, although a couple of scenes made me say "Oh, come on!! Who would do that?". Some of what makes them fall in love could only occur between actors, like reading a scene from Streetcar together, or singing and dancing around on the bed after sex. Ever heard of inhibitions, people? Like I said, actors. Fenh. All in all, worth a look, if only for the way it captures some of Montreal's essence.
The Life Aquatic
I love Wes Anderson films; I've seen every one and appreciated their wit and truth and humour and precision. Each one is so different, but his exploration of certain themes travels through them all. This one is the most explicit story of a young man looking for a hero in his father, and of the father whose magnetic personality and larger-than-life persona cannot hide his shortcomings as a moral and emotional being.
Bill Murray and Owen Wilson play the father and son, and both do a beautiful job of playing against type: Murray is the mysteriously driven force of nature Steve Zissou, whose underwater exploration and filmmaking may have come to a sorry end. Wilson plays a straight-edge officer and gentleman, who gives up his normal life to subsume his pain in the pursuit of an heroic destiny with the man who may be his natural father.
The film is a treat; the visual feast of strange underwater shots and the cutaway boat remind me of a child's fantasy. There are some funny and surprising action sequences as well as the usual Wes Anderson quiet evolutions of complex relationships in smart (but not too self-aware) dialogue.
Full disclosure: Even if I had hated everything else about this movie, I would still recommend it, because the soundtrack is almost all Bowie and amazing Bowie covers. Bowie means so much to me I can't even begin to say. We bought the CD on the weekend.
Elephant Shoes
We watched this because a friend did the sound and lighting for it. It's a made-in-Montreal-on-a-shoestring film about a 12-hour love affair. Only 2 actors -- they meet on the street and about half an hour later they're f**ing in the guy's kitchen and he says "Oh my god I love you" when they're done. They agree not to fall in love and do anyway, in a series of cute-ish scenes that are meant to convince us the two are made for each other.
It's surprisingly good. I expected to hate it and I didn't. The actors have chemistry (I think they're married in real life), and the writing is good, although a couple of scenes made me say "Oh, come on!! Who would do that?". Some of what makes them fall in love could only occur between actors, like reading a scene from Streetcar together, or singing and dancing around on the bed after sex. Ever heard of inhibitions, people? Like I said, actors. Fenh. All in all, worth a look, if only for the way it captures some of Montreal's essence.
# posted by becca : 11:43 AM
