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I'm a huge fan of Sofia Coppola as a filmmaker. Lost in Translation is a practically flawless film, and I have huge admiration for the Virgin Suicides. I really love the subtley and delicate beauty of her films.

That brings me to Somewhere. I have to say this is probably the most self-indulgent film I've ever seen. I don't understand how anyone could watch this film and really love it. It has really charming moments, good performances from both Dorff and Fanning, and that's about it. It's incredibly monotonous and really seems to think that the "famous people aren't always super happy!" message is a lot more profound then it really is.

Seriously, this film is incredibly EASY filmmaking from someone who's really capable of so much more. There is a line between subtety and just nothingness, and I felt that this film, unlike her others (not counting Marie Antoinette which I haven't seen) fell almost entirely in the latter. What's so profound about a jaded superstar feeling complacent? I've heard this story over and over again, and while I'm glad I watched this film and would even go as far as to say it's a fascinating project, the end result is unfortunately a failure.
it's two hours of following around Stephen Dorff practically playing a more famous version of himself. Guess what? If someone followed me around with a camera for two hours and let me play myself with zero plot, zero character development aside from my own, zero DRAMA WHATSOEVER, I could give you essentially the same film, only with my lifestyle and not his Hollywood one.

I really did let myself get entirely engulfed in the film, and I in fact did relate to Dorff's character in his feelings of isolation and alienation even behind fancy facades. But that alone does not a great or even decent film make. A relatabale character with no motivations, practically zero reactions to anything that happens makes for an incredibly dull movie that I found harder and harder to care at all about as it went on. I honestly believe the film could have ended after the opening car-drives-in-circles-forever-metaphor thing because it essentially said everything the film wanted to, and it would've saved me from waiting for anything whatsoever. I didn't need much, but him moving out and leaving his car behind? Who cares. I've made bigger life changing decisions by accident then this 'profound' moment of 'awakening'.

I hate to use the term 'self-indulgent' because I think all films should be in some shape or form, but this is really ridiculous. Not an entirely terrible film, but an incredibly disappointing and frankly quite boring and tedious one. In the end it just shows that Sofia Coppola really has a beautiful visual style of filmmaking, but really doesn't have much to say whatsoever as a writer. Luckily, the film was pretty enough and had the tiniest bit of substance to it (along with great music from Thomas Mars) so that I could totally see it fooling people into thinking it's more than it really is.

'Kent' from Amazon, on [i]Inception[/i] wrote:the story is mind bottling

knives wrote:The babies not used to minimalism are coming in on Somwhere:

I hate to use the term 'self-indulgent' because I think all films should be in some shape or form, but this is really ridiculous. Not an entirely terrible film, but an incredibly disappointing and frankly quite boring and tedious one. In the end it just shows that Sofia Coppola really has a beautiful visual style of filmmaking, but really doesn't have much to say whatsoever as a writer. Luckily, the film was pretty enough and had the tiniest bit of substance to it (along with great music from Thomas Mars) so that I could totally see it fooling people into thinking it's more than it really is.

finally watched dreamlife of angels-- great film, but i think i might have despised it if it were directed by a fella.

Ovader wrote:From someone's Twitter feed on Jan 10:

finally watched dreamlife of angels-- great film, but i think i might have despised it if it were directed by a fella.

I have recently finsihed watching 'Cathy Come Home' and in all honesty it is not very good. Although it changed the law in 1977 the issue of homelessness is still at large in this modern day and by making a documentary/tv series about it even in the 60's has not really resolved the issue. So why make it....?

domino harvey wrote:Those little entitled shits don't deserve to take a class with Gorin

On to the second film, the interminable "Meek's Cutoff." In my four years of covering Sundance, I have seen many films, and until this afternoon, the worst one I had seen had been a Mongolian documentary several years ago. But that film was like "Citizen Kane" compared to "Cutoff," which was around 100 minutees but felt like 100 hours. I looked at my watch every five minutes, up until the final, unsatisfying ending that at least mercifully ended the bore.

I don't think I was alone in my opinion. About half of the audience left before the Q and A. Director Kelly Reichardt and screenwriter Jon Raymond held the Q and A, and I kept on waiting for some to ask why the movie was so boring. I mean, virtually NOTHING happened during the film, despite an intriguing premise, supposedly about pioneers on the Oregon Trail in 1845 who run into, um, tough times. But the film spended more time on long shots of wagons crossing the desolate plains than investing any time into character development, so by the end I didn't care if these pioneers died or not. When one of the main characters is a Native American who is unable to communicate to the pioneers nor the audience, you know you're in for a bad afternoon.

As a film critic I’m always optimistic and take on each film I review with an open mind as the gray area between black and white is much vaster than people realize but as a writer (I write psychological thriller) I was able to view HOWL much more clearly. I don’t care much for poetry, I never have. Though I do respect it as an art form, I consider it to be the bottom or the barrel when it comes to the writing world simply because there are those who ignore what it was intended to be (a wondrous collection of prose designed to illustrate and recount a beautiful story or vocalize a magical theme) and replace it with mindless driven that often times makes no real sense to the writer let alone the reader. This is how I felt about HOWL, I listened with an open mind but in the end I have to agree with the prosecution on this one.

HOWL no doubt succeeds when it comes to shedding proper light on the life and trials of Allen Ginsberg but when push came to shove I was so bogged down by the way they continued to shove his idiotic rant down my gullet that I just couldn’t bring myself to care. There were moments when I felt that maybe I was being too harsh, I mean shit, I’ll admit to writing a poem or two in High School to woo chicks but there’s a difference between heartfelt prose and rambling. Then there’s the fact that Ginsberg himself admits to throwing in homosexual remarks just because he could and found the idea of it rather amusing. The entire trial was based around the question of whether or not he needed to be so blunt and raw, yet he openly admits to going out of his way to make it so destroying his integrity on the matter in my eyes. I’m sure some people will hail this film and call the man a genius but I strongly disagree.

matrixschmatrix wrote:Oh, god, where's that from?

eerik wrote:

matrixschmatrix wrote:Oh, god, where's that from?

joeblo and [url=http://www.moviefancentral.comj-a_hamilton]moviefancentral[/url]

In the review for "Exit through the Gift Shop" he also calls himself an artist.

What a talented person he must be: film critic, writer, artist. I'm sure he's also a great director, producer, actor, politician, musician, etc.

I know there are those who feel the same way I do but there will be just as many who disagree. Again, as a writer I feel I have a deeper routed opinion when it comes to the subtext of this film but in the end it’s only my opinion. For the record though, I do enjoy poetry on occasion and my favourite poem is BOTH SIDES NOW by Joni Mitchell.