Apropos of nothing except a current obsession, here is a pretty new video for one of the prettiest songs I've ever heard. Enjoy!
An mp3 of the song is here.
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Monday, February 18, 2008
Step Up 2
Step Up 2: The Streets (Jon M. Chu, 2008) - C+
Graceful people piss me off, and there are dozens of them here, exhibiting a level of physical coordination that human beings simply should not possess. The filmmaking is not nearly so prodigious; in fact, when it comes to dialogue and plotting, it's dumb as a rock. But this in-name-only sequel is well-paced, energetic, and shockingly easy to watch (it's also slightly racist, but whatever). It's smart enough to lean heavily on the dance sequences to the point of essentially becoming a revue, which turns out to be fine because the dancing is legitimately spectacular -- distinctive, entertaining, and really fucking impressive. The semblance of a story stringing the dance sequences together is predictably turgid, but less so than the first film's; I liked how no one wasted screen time agonizing over the inevitable romance, and the movie wisely never lets the characters keep talking for too long. Performances range from sweet (Brianna Evigan) to bland (Robert Hoffman) to apoplectic (Adam G. Sevani), but everyone can dance, and everyone does, a lot. I almost wrote this one off as skippable; I'm glad I didn't.
Graceful people piss me off, and there are dozens of them here, exhibiting a level of physical coordination that human beings simply should not possess. The filmmaking is not nearly so prodigious; in fact, when it comes to dialogue and plotting, it's dumb as a rock. But this in-name-only sequel is well-paced, energetic, and shockingly easy to watch (it's also slightly racist, but whatever). It's smart enough to lean heavily on the dance sequences to the point of essentially becoming a revue, which turns out to be fine because the dancing is legitimately spectacular -- distinctive, entertaining, and really fucking impressive. The semblance of a story stringing the dance sequences together is predictably turgid, but less so than the first film's; I liked how no one wasted screen time agonizing over the inevitable romance, and the movie wisely never lets the characters keep talking for too long. Performances range from sweet (Brianna Evigan) to bland (Robert Hoffman) to apoplectic (Adam G. Sevani), but everyone can dance, and everyone does, a lot. I almost wrote this one off as skippable; I'm glad I didn't.
Thursday, February 14, 2008
Wednesday, February 6, 2008
The Eye
The Eye (David Moreau & Xavier Palud, 2008) - C-
Moreau & Palud are clearly most comfortable with the mode of horror on display in the first half of the film, basically amounting to mysterious blurry figures appearing in the corneal transplant patient's nascent field of vision; this is much the same territory they explored in Them, their delightfully abstract debut. They also have a knack for creepy throwaway moments that suggests a strong preference for low-key, low-budget horror (spoiler warning): Alba suddenly asking "who's that" when shown a picture of herself (a good hour into the film); a stranger sensing Alba's connection to the spirit world and pleading, "that's my Tommy, isn't it?" just before the elevator doors close on her and the ghost of her son standing behind her. But more conventional set pieces are a no go, since Palud and Moreau are either disinterested in the big scares or just inept. Among other things, they use blatant visual cheats, e.g.: we see the protagonist in the foreground and something menacing/unnatural in the background; as the camera pans and the background object passes behind Alba, it disappears! A typical device, but for the fact that Alba is looking away from the camera and at the object the entire time, so that the way the film would have it, the object disappears before her very eyes. Normally when this tactic is used, the character would walk past a post, for example, and the object would vanish behind it, disappearing for her and for us simultaneously. The Eye ignores her perspective, and the result is just bizarre; this happens a couple of times. The movie also gets dumber as it gets less subtle, with a climax that furiously pitches boring exposition and a denoument that simply makes no sense. Bottom line: talented but disengaged filmmakers barely make a dent in a useless screenplay. Alba's presence has predictable effects.
Moreau & Palud are clearly most comfortable with the mode of horror on display in the first half of the film, basically amounting to mysterious blurry figures appearing in the corneal transplant patient's nascent field of vision; this is much the same territory they explored in Them, their delightfully abstract debut. They also have a knack for creepy throwaway moments that suggests a strong preference for low-key, low-budget horror (spoiler warning): Alba suddenly asking "who's that" when shown a picture of herself (a good hour into the film); a stranger sensing Alba's connection to the spirit world and pleading, "that's my Tommy, isn't it?" just before the elevator doors close on her and the ghost of her son standing behind her. But more conventional set pieces are a no go, since Palud and Moreau are either disinterested in the big scares or just inept. Among other things, they use blatant visual cheats, e.g.: we see the protagonist in the foreground and something menacing/unnatural in the background; as the camera pans and the background object passes behind Alba, it disappears! A typical device, but for the fact that Alba is looking away from the camera and at the object the entire time, so that the way the film would have it, the object disappears before her very eyes. Normally when this tactic is used, the character would walk past a post, for example, and the object would vanish behind it, disappearing for her and for us simultaneously. The Eye ignores her perspective, and the result is just bizarre; this happens a couple of times. The movie also gets dumber as it gets less subtle, with a climax that furiously pitches boring exposition and a denoument that simply makes no sense. Bottom line: talented but disengaged filmmakers barely make a dent in a useless screenplay. Alba's presence has predictable effects.
Friday, February 1, 2008
The Air I Breathe
The Air I Breathe (Jieho Lee, 2008) - F
New rule: Just because you shoehorn the line "there's no such thing as a coincidence" into your screenplay does not mean your movie will remain watchable if you then proceed to ignore all dictates of logic and decorum.
New rule: Just because you shoehorn the line "there's no such thing as a coincidence" into your screenplay does not mean your movie will remain watchable if you then proceed to ignore all dictates of logic and decorum.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)