If you loved Ken Scott's Starbuck, you may not appreciate his Delivery Man as much (the contents of the films are too similar), although Vince Vaughn (David) reimagines the character well enough, in classic screwing-up while excelling Vince Vaughn fashion, putting in another great performance, confident personality generally unconcerned with consequences, überfatherhood thrust upon him, a life changing salacious shock, a languid lecherous illustrious lighthouse.
(Still prefer Patrick Huard's performance).
Not going to read what I wrote about Starbuck until finishing this review, for curiosity's sake (I did duplicate the tags however since the film's are so similar).
The narrative is a treasure for those adhering to discourses of hereditary multiplicities, even if it's fictional, since David's offspring possess sundry talents and seemingly limitless flexibilities, when considered as a whole.
I'm assuming there's a group who adheres to discourses of hereditary multiplicities.
I mean, what would happen if you had 534 children with 534 different women and then set them loose on the streets of New York or Montréal?
They aren't all going to end up in the same profession.
They aren't all going to look the same.
They will likely react to various stimuli differently.
Some of them, may even listen to, Tigermilk followed If You're Feeling Sinister followed by The Boy with the Arab Strap then Aladdin Sane after their favourite CFL team loses the Grey Cup.
534.
It could happen.
It's tough for me to write that critically about Delivery Man because, as I mentioned earlier, the film's too similar to Starbuck, which is why I didn't want to see it in theatres but I woke up too late that day to see Heli at EXCƎNTRIS.
It was a late night.
Great translation.
Just too familiar with the story so my reactions were always mitigated by encumbering memories which prevented me from being surprised by the sequences.
Surprise is important.
Good surprises.
Screw-off sadists.
Marshmallows.
Saturday, November 30, 2013
Thursday, November 28, 2013
The Book Thief
A struggling family adopts a young girl (Sophie Nélisse as Liesel) in pre-World War II Germany as the fascists's political agenda rapidly spreads throughout the country.
Ideological indoctrination confuses intelligent youth who can't understand its narrow-minded discipline.
The focus is on the good Germans, the ones who were simply trying to make ends meet during difficult economic times and were forced to come up with survival strategies ad hoc as repugnant discourses gained social traction, followed by war.
The Book Thief unreels from a child's point of view and the film is primarily geared towards children.
I'm used to finding more depth in children's films, meaning that they're sometimes more engaging for adults, but that's not necessarily a criticism, insofar as the kids in the audience were likely fully engaged, and it was made for children.
Still, it accentuates the senses of fear and helplessness conscientious citizens feel when trying to express themselves within oppressive environments dominated by violence, but in an oddly inconspicuous way that leaves the impression that nothing could possibly go seriously wrong, even while war breaks out and the hunted desperately seek shelter.
This explains Death's (Roger Allam) avuncular yet cumbersome narration.
The importance of reading is at the forefront, an individual's desire to expand her mind contrasted with what happens when highly fanatical aggressive groups who never had any desire to expand theirs suddenly control the military.
Nazi Germany was responsible for destroying Europe in the first half of the 20th century, but, according to practically every article I read about the European Union, they're currently saving Europe from total financial disaster, playing a much stronger role than either France or Britain, no doubt due to the strength of the good Germans depicted in The Book Thief, their environmental concerns, and resolute calm.
Viewing The Book Thief in this way helps to detach unconscious direct correlations between Germany and Nazism, which, after you've seen around 100 World War II films and read many books on the subject, is an unconscious direct correlation that's tough not to make (like Mexico and drug cartels [more {some?} American films with Mexican characters who aren't labourers or members of a drug cartel would be nice]).
These correlations can then be replaced by less volatile caricatures, as Germany's contemporary status suggests it deserves.
Thus, when you think of Germany, try not to immediately think, Nazis, a period of their history that more or less ended in 1945, but think, getting rid of nuclear power, focusing on green technologies, economy remains strong even after the integration of East Germany, saving the European Union, fiscal responsibility, which are aspects of what's happening now.
Not so easy to do, I know.
But I've done it. So I know that it is possible.
Ideological indoctrination confuses intelligent youth who can't understand its narrow-minded discipline.
The focus is on the good Germans, the ones who were simply trying to make ends meet during difficult economic times and were forced to come up with survival strategies ad hoc as repugnant discourses gained social traction, followed by war.
The Book Thief unreels from a child's point of view and the film is primarily geared towards children.
I'm used to finding more depth in children's films, meaning that they're sometimes more engaging for adults, but that's not necessarily a criticism, insofar as the kids in the audience were likely fully engaged, and it was made for children.
Still, it accentuates the senses of fear and helplessness conscientious citizens feel when trying to express themselves within oppressive environments dominated by violence, but in an oddly inconspicuous way that leaves the impression that nothing could possibly go seriously wrong, even while war breaks out and the hunted desperately seek shelter.
This explains Death's (Roger Allam) avuncular yet cumbersome narration.
The importance of reading is at the forefront, an individual's desire to expand her mind contrasted with what happens when highly fanatical aggressive groups who never had any desire to expand theirs suddenly control the military.
Nazi Germany was responsible for destroying Europe in the first half of the 20th century, but, according to practically every article I read about the European Union, they're currently saving Europe from total financial disaster, playing a much stronger role than either France or Britain, no doubt due to the strength of the good Germans depicted in The Book Thief, their environmental concerns, and resolute calm.
Viewing The Book Thief in this way helps to detach unconscious direct correlations between Germany and Nazism, which, after you've seen around 100 World War II films and read many books on the subject, is an unconscious direct correlation that's tough not to make (like Mexico and drug cartels [more {some?} American films with Mexican characters who aren't labourers or members of a drug cartel would be nice]).
These correlations can then be replaced by less volatile caricatures, as Germany's contemporary status suggests it deserves.
Thus, when you think of Germany, try not to immediately think, Nazis, a period of their history that more or less ended in 1945, but think, getting rid of nuclear power, focusing on green technologies, economy remains strong even after the integration of East Germany, saving the European Union, fiscal responsibility, which are aspects of what's happening now.
Not so easy to do, I know.
But I've done it. So I know that it is possible.
Tuesday, November 26, 2013
Kill Your Darlings
John Krokidas's Kill Your Darlings enlivens the fortuitous meeting of a group of experimental writers including Allen Ginsberg (Daniel Radcliffe), Jack Kerouac (Jack Huston), and William S. Burroughs (Ben Foster) in New York City during their youth.
Not sure how much of the film is based on rhythmic verge (the facts).
That doesn't really matter.
It offers generalized insights into their introductory methods and innocently stylizes a literary ethos of sorts.
It focuses primarily on Ginsberg's infatuation with fellow student Lucien Carr (Dane DeHaan), whose being pursued by an obsessed thinker (Michael C. Hall as David Kammerer) who simply can't detach and withdraw.
Ginsberg grows and changes over time, Burroughs and Kerouac do not.
Kerouac's stasis is quite lively.
The film itself is sort of like a lively stasis, like a successful Not Fade Away.
The main problem's formal.
While wild moments and coming of age initiations are present, it's still easy enough to follow, like a crazy countercultural clutch, a warm and fuzzy bourgeois blanket.
More like the classes Ginsberg stops attending than something by Godard or Cassavetes.
Had high expectations. Loved reading most of these authors in my early twenties. Thought the filmmakers would have taken a more poetic approach.
Radcliffe excels as Ginsberg, reminding me at times of a younger Joaquin Phoenix, moving beyond the Harry Potter persona, establishing greater depth and personality.
That's good.
Not sure how much of the film is based on rhythmic verge (the facts).
That doesn't really matter.
It offers generalized insights into their introductory methods and innocently stylizes a literary ethos of sorts.
It focuses primarily on Ginsberg's infatuation with fellow student Lucien Carr (Dane DeHaan), whose being pursued by an obsessed thinker (Michael C. Hall as David Kammerer) who simply can't detach and withdraw.
Ginsberg grows and changes over time, Burroughs and Kerouac do not.
Kerouac's stasis is quite lively.
The film itself is sort of like a lively stasis, like a successful Not Fade Away.
The main problem's formal.
While wild moments and coming of age initiations are present, it's still easy enough to follow, like a crazy countercultural clutch, a warm and fuzzy bourgeois blanket.
More like the classes Ginsberg stops attending than something by Godard or Cassavetes.
Had high expectations. Loved reading most of these authors in my early twenties. Thought the filmmakers would have taken a more poetic approach.
Radcliffe excels as Ginsberg, reminding me at times of a younger Joaquin Phoenix, moving beyond the Harry Potter persona, establishing greater depth and personality.
That's good.
Saturday, November 23, 2013
The Hunger Games: Catching Fire
Having won the previous year's Hunger Games, Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) and Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutcherson) return to District 12 to attempt to resume their normal lives.
Trauma terrifyingly affects them both as haunting memories short-circuit various pastimes.
President Snow's (Donald Sutherland) fascist ideology continues to crush workers throughout the Districts but Katniss and Peeta have given them something to believe in.
That belief steadily intensifies throughout the progress of a mandatory nationwide tour during which they must demonstrate their loyalty.
But fascist kings stack fascist decks, not really even a deck, and an unforeseen revised savage sewer augustly swells, threatening to tether the people's momentum, to a coerced, despotic, desolate, plain.
Upon which obedience is the only option.
There's a lot happening in The Hunger Games: Catching Fire.
Katniss and Peeta's aforementioned trauma adds depth to Haymitch's (Woody Harrelson) character, justifying his excessive drinking.
Rob Ford is not Haymitch. Rob Ford is being legitimately criticized for drinking and driving and smoking crack cocaine. These are things responsible Mayors don't do. These are things responsible people don't do regardless of occupation.
You almost feel bad for Effie Trinket (Elizabeth Banks) as she makes the best of an abysmal situation by seeming to genuinely care about teamwork.
As one of the participants dies during the Hunger Games's Quarter Quell, the sun rises, thereby symbolizing that there is only freedom in death when living under extreme forms of government.
Protests at the highest level do nothing to dissuade Snow's executive, similar mechanisms existing in Canada before Baldwin and Lafontaine introduced Responsible Government.
Katniss's formidable resolve resplendently radiates as if her just constitution was forged by Barton Street Steel.
A crucial moment during which the expediencies of her predicament neurotically test her herculean will exemplifies this in/dependence (beautifully dependent on championing the rights of the helpless).
Trust becomes a critical factor.
The parts which necessitate action don't focus on the violence but rather the obstructions of the civilized combatants.
The film depicts what it could be like to live somewhere where 1% of the population hold 99% of the wealth and there isn't a democratic system in place guaranteeing fundamental freedoms.
Where one size fits all.
Should probably read the books too.
Trauma terrifyingly affects them both as haunting memories short-circuit various pastimes.
President Snow's (Donald Sutherland) fascist ideology continues to crush workers throughout the Districts but Katniss and Peeta have given them something to believe in.
That belief steadily intensifies throughout the progress of a mandatory nationwide tour during which they must demonstrate their loyalty.
But fascist kings stack fascist decks, not really even a deck, and an unforeseen revised savage sewer augustly swells, threatening to tether the people's momentum, to a coerced, despotic, desolate, plain.
Upon which obedience is the only option.
There's a lot happening in The Hunger Games: Catching Fire.
Katniss and Peeta's aforementioned trauma adds depth to Haymitch's (Woody Harrelson) character, justifying his excessive drinking.
Rob Ford is not Haymitch. Rob Ford is being legitimately criticized for drinking and driving and smoking crack cocaine. These are things responsible Mayors don't do. These are things responsible people don't do regardless of occupation.
You almost feel bad for Effie Trinket (Elizabeth Banks) as she makes the best of an abysmal situation by seeming to genuinely care about teamwork.
As one of the participants dies during the Hunger Games's Quarter Quell, the sun rises, thereby symbolizing that there is only freedom in death when living under extreme forms of government.
Protests at the highest level do nothing to dissuade Snow's executive, similar mechanisms existing in Canada before Baldwin and Lafontaine introduced Responsible Government.
Katniss's formidable resolve resplendently radiates as if her just constitution was forged by Barton Street Steel.
A crucial moment during which the expediencies of her predicament neurotically test her herculean will exemplifies this in/dependence (beautifully dependent on championing the rights of the helpless).
Trust becomes a critical factor.
The parts which necessitate action don't focus on the violence but rather the obstructions of the civilized combatants.
The film depicts what it could be like to live somewhere where 1% of the population hold 99% of the wealth and there isn't a democratic system in place guaranteeing fundamental freedoms.
Where one size fits all.
Should probably read the books too.
Tuesday, November 19, 2013
Carrie
A shy young sheltered girl is tormented and humiliated by her insensitive classmates due to her unfortunate unawareness of nature's biologics.
But these very same biologics possess specific hereditary gifts that to the uninitiated appear legitimately demonic.
Prom quickly approaches and commendable do-gooders attempt to ease the heightened tension.
Their efforts fail to pacify a spoiled jealous spiteful thug, however, whose mad cruel retributive act, ignominiously ensures that all goodness is in jeopardy.
Reason cannot be maintained.
Liked the new Carrie.
Suppose a lot of people already know what happens in Carrie.
Nevertheless, a resilient inclusive dimension can be found within, the snobs still abrasively __cking around as they so often do, the immediate transformation of pure bliss into incarnate rage blindly affecting all, the shock hemorrhaging Carrie's (Chloë Grace Moretz) ethical splice, thereby further encouraging understanding inclusivity.
It's a shame Carrie rampages, for, thanks to the resources available in her high school library, she was just beginning to learn how to develop a strong sense of self, conscious of the ways in which her own individuality fit within larger social cohesivities, book after book after book potentially strengthening both her resultant inchoate confidence and sense of belonging.
But she does rampage and if she didn't the narrative's impact would have perhaps been less catchy.
Couldn't work a debate into the end of this one I guess.
Or Professor X?
Imagine Professor X had shown up?
Unprovoked conflict abounds.
Wednesday, November 13, 2013
Thor: The Dark World
The new Thor film, Thor: The Dark World, takes too many liberties in its preparations for battle.
Its clumsy approach to the construction of its foundations begets a gurgling perfunctory stale flaccid belch.
Thor's (Chris Hemsworth) restoring order to the 9 Realms, not choosing between cotton candy and caramel corn.
But this is a film, not a skyscraper, and after the, sigh, Dark Elves, invade Asgard, it picks up steam and successfully delivers an action-packed dialectic twisting shifting scorn, eccentric citizens of Earth scientifically counterbalancing the religiosity, with glasses, humour metrically romanticizing the miscues, the hammer, pounding and pulverizing away.
Go __ck yourself Loki.
Still, the Convergence could have been more lavish.
As it stands, it's an alright Convergence, but if it only happens once every 9,000 years or so, perhaps Thor: The Dark World could have spent an extra 10 to 15 minutes exploring its quasiphantasmagorical interrelations, multiple entities from manifold worlds gravitating towards these shocks, intertwining piquant interplanetary processions, coordinated cataclysmic chaos, tantalized and transitioned through Thor.
I usually don't recommend that things be more lavish, but in Thor: The Dark World's case, they may have had some extra money to spend.
In a situation like this you don't need to set everything up beforehand.
And you can intermingle select forthcoming synergies within.
Its clumsy approach to the construction of its foundations begets a gurgling perfunctory stale flaccid belch.
Thor's (Chris Hemsworth) restoring order to the 9 Realms, not choosing between cotton candy and caramel corn.
But this is a film, not a skyscraper, and after the, sigh, Dark Elves, invade Asgard, it picks up steam and successfully delivers an action-packed dialectic twisting shifting scorn, eccentric citizens of Earth scientifically counterbalancing the religiosity, with glasses, humour metrically romanticizing the miscues, the hammer, pounding and pulverizing away.
Go __ck yourself Loki.
Still, the Convergence could have been more lavish.
As it stands, it's an alright Convergence, but if it only happens once every 9,000 years or so, perhaps Thor: The Dark World could have spent an extra 10 to 15 minutes exploring its quasiphantasmagorical interrelations, multiple entities from manifold worlds gravitating towards these shocks, intertwining piquant interplanetary processions, coordinated cataclysmic chaos, tantalized and transitioned through Thor.
I usually don't recommend that things be more lavish, but in Thor: The Dark World's case, they may have had some extra money to spend.
In a situation like this you don't need to set everything up beforehand.
And you can intermingle select forthcoming synergies within.
Monday, November 11, 2013
All the Wrong Reasons
Solid beginnings for All the Wrong Reasons.
Chummy quotidian banter, an elastic sense of low-budget self-aware elusion, characters who seem relatable but have enough cinematic distance built-in to problematize their realistic preoccupations, polish, tragedy, helplessness, grit.
Facial expressions provoke chuckles.
Background details add flavour.
Surveyed departmental legacies.
Evacuated evasive everyday elevations.
It doesn't hold together well as things become more serious however.
It's not that I didn't like the development of Kate (Karine Vanasse) and Simon's (Kevin Zegers) affections.
They're strong characters and their interactions curve and merge.
But as the intensity of the wry melodrama increases, and morality becomes a potent factor, the comedy disintegrates, and austerity commands.
I liked some of the scenes and the resolutions, but the general air of upright tension in the second half suffered from a lack of contrapuntal displacement.
Unsuccessful juxtaposition.
Solid beginnings though, solid beginnings.
Chummy quotidian banter, an elastic sense of low-budget self-aware elusion, characters who seem relatable but have enough cinematic distance built-in to problematize their realistic preoccupations, polish, tragedy, helplessness, grit.
Facial expressions provoke chuckles.
Background details add flavour.
Surveyed departmental legacies.
Evacuated evasive everyday elevations.
It doesn't hold together well as things become more serious however.
It's not that I didn't like the development of Kate (Karine Vanasse) and Simon's (Kevin Zegers) affections.
They're strong characters and their interactions curve and merge.
But as the intensity of the wry melodrama increases, and morality becomes a potent factor, the comedy disintegrates, and austerity commands.
I liked some of the scenes and the resolutions, but the general air of upright tension in the second half suffered from a lack of contrapuntal displacement.
Unsuccessful juxtaposition.
Solid beginnings though, solid beginnings.
Thursday, November 7, 2013
Dallas Buyers Club
When confronted with the gripping prospect of death, Dallas Buyers Club's Ron Woodroof (Matthew McConaughey) cursively refuses to back down.
Economically finding a way to prolong his counterintuitive friction, he proactively rides the bull, adjusting prejudicial preferences in the meantime, gesticulating, matriculating, stanced.
This ___ker knows how to rock a library.
He does his research, finds alternatives, makes hard decisions, goes into business, and proceeds to assist those who had been condescendingly written off.
The butterfly scene boils it down.
The film's straightforward yet punctual and provocative, brazenly tackling hard-hitting browbeaten issues of gender and sex, not to mention the pretensions of the American medical establishment, friendships and partnerships metamorphically blossoming, underground economies, financing the bloom.
Once again we find economic justifications for a more inclusive sociocultural dynamic, more customers, more profits, sustainable social programs, this time in the heart of Texas.
One of the most unlikeliest humanitarian activists I've seen.
His interests are initially individualistic, but he reaches higher ground throughout his transformation.
Possible oscar nomination for McConaughey?
Economically finding a way to prolong his counterintuitive friction, he proactively rides the bull, adjusting prejudicial preferences in the meantime, gesticulating, matriculating, stanced.
This ___ker knows how to rock a library.
He does his research, finds alternatives, makes hard decisions, goes into business, and proceeds to assist those who had been condescendingly written off.
The butterfly scene boils it down.
The film's straightforward yet punctual and provocative, brazenly tackling hard-hitting browbeaten issues of gender and sex, not to mention the pretensions of the American medical establishment, friendships and partnerships metamorphically blossoming, underground economies, financing the bloom.
Once again we find economic justifications for a more inclusive sociocultural dynamic, more customers, more profits, sustainable social programs, this time in the heart of Texas.
One of the most unlikeliest humanitarian activists I've seen.
His interests are initially individualistic, but he reaches higher ground throughout his transformation.
Possible oscar nomination for McConaughey?
Saturday, November 2, 2013
El Cuerpo
Stubborn protrusive reason flaunts a cryptic allegiance with supernatural impulses as Oriol Paulo's La Cuerpo seeks to retrieve an embattled corpse, evidently contravening its diagnosed paramortal slumber.
A corpse has disappeared.
It is sought after.
The search excavates murder.
A question of feeling, evoking, fury.
At the risk of sounding disingenuous, a clue is provided where it is least expected.
The flashback motif, used extensively, at one point proves exhausting, but it is within this kitschy exhaust that an emaciated ember balefully stows, teasing, fleecing, tormenting, breaking down dismissive pretensions in full-fledged fleeting embalmed mockery.
Endearing ending.
Slowly evolving to become something greater than the sum of its parts, La Cuerpo revels in its formal debauchery, to triumphantly emerge a ravenous satiation.
Burned.
Totally burned.
The reason.
A corpse has disappeared.
It is sought after.
The search excavates murder.
A question of feeling, evoking, fury.
At the risk of sounding disingenuous, a clue is provided where it is least expected.
The flashback motif, used extensively, at one point proves exhausting, but it is within this kitschy exhaust that an emaciated ember balefully stows, teasing, fleecing, tormenting, breaking down dismissive pretensions in full-fledged fleeting embalmed mockery.
Endearing ending.
Slowly evolving to become something greater than the sum of its parts, La Cuerpo revels in its formal debauchery, to triumphantly emerge a ravenous satiation.
Burned.
Totally burned.
The reason.
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