Yeah, more moving musings!
Paranoid Park (2007) - directed by Gus Van Sant
Date Viewed: 05 March 2009. My Rating: 3 1/2 stars.
This film is about Alex, a sixteen year old skater, who is involved in the accidental death of a security guard, and the psychological effects that has on him. Van Sant definitely approached this film much differently than he did Milk, which was pretty convention. Paranoid Park strives for a different effect. There are lots of long, tracking shots, slow motion close-ups on the actors' faces, and long stretches of movie without dialogue, just music and good manipulation of diegetic (fancy word: means from within the film's world) sound, especially water sounds (rain, a shower, etc.). The film moves slowly and provides an interesting experience. I enjoyed it, but I guess I wanted a little more. Some of the acting leaves a little to be desired. Most of all, I wanted more resolution. It's worth seeing, and it clocks in at a short 82 minutes.
Corpse Bride (2005) - directed by Tim Burton.
Date Viewed: 06 March 2009. My rating: 3 1/2 stars.
This is just a fun little film. I felt like watching a movie last night before sleeping, and with a short running time, Corpse Bride was a perfect choice. I really don't have much to say about this film. It's entertaining, moves pretty quickly, and, while it doesn't do anything too spectacular, it's also consistently good in pretty much every way. We need more stop-animation films.
I've Loved You So Long (2008) - directed by Philippe Claudel.
Date Viewed: 07 March 2008. My Rating: 5 stars.
I know it's cool to be all anti-France and whatnot, but I love French cinema. The French New Wave in the 60's was incredibly influential, and films like Truffaut's The 400 Blows are still amazing and some of my favorite films. I need to watch more French films. Contemporary works like Amelie and The Diving Bell and the Butterfly are some of the best films I've seen, and I'm sure there are so many other great films waiting for me somewhere. So many movies, so little time.
Anyway, I first heard of I've Loved You So Long on Rotten Tomatoes. I remember seeing it was being very well-received by critics, and I even saw that it would be playing at the Broadway theater in Salt Lake. Unfortunately, I never made the trip to see it. I read a lot of good things about the lead performance by Kristin Scott Thomas. I decided to take a look at the Redbox selection while I was grocery shopping at Smiths earlier today. I saw they had this film so I entered in a promo code and got a free rental. I came home, ate some lunch, and immediately put the film on.
That was a very good decision on my part. This is a fantastic film, and it deserves more recognition than it received here in the U.S. Let it be known that Kristin Scott Thomas deserved an Oscar nomination, and I would put her subtle and moving performance up there with the best performances of the year. She showed tremendous emotion with incredible subtlety. I thought Anne Hathaway was fantastic in Rachel Getting Married, but I think it must be somewhat easier to show deep emotion when your character is a wreck. You can yell and scream and act out as manifestations of your pain, but in this film, Kristin Scott Thomas was able to do so much with calm and restraint. Her one big emotional scene is all the more powerful because of the reserved manner she'd used prior to that moment. Really a fantastic performance. I don't want to give away too much of the plot because I thought the way the film reveals the story layer by layer was incredibly well-done.
This film really moved me. There are a lot of very good performances. In fact, it's one of those films without a forced or poor performance. Every character was perfectly cast and well-acted. Everything about the film is high quality. I read some one's comment on imdb.com (how I love that site!) and they described the film as a "subtle, empathetic presentation of characters," and I couldn't agree more. Had I seen this film back in 2008, I'm confident it would have made my list of favorite films for that year. It's just a beautiful film and completely deserving of 5 stars. I plan on watching this again in the future. Thank you, France.
Justin, I'm curious if you've seen this film. If so, what did you think? If not, I think you and Jesse should watch it and tell me what you think.
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