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| Subject: Re: Two films | |
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Author: Jimmy |
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Date Posted: 17:14:38 09/11/07 Tue Author Host/IP: c-71-197-21-170.hsd1.mi.comcast.net/71.197.21.170 In reply to: Kylopod 's message, "Two films" on 14:04:18 09/11/07 Tue "Stranger than Fiction I liked this film a lot. Actually, I had a feeling I'd like it as soon as I heard the premise (guy starts hearing a voice in his head that acts like he's a character in a novel). But over the years I've been very lukewarm about Will Ferrell. While he provided the biggest laugh in the first "Austin Powers," I have often found him irritating in large doses." This was already playing last fall when I first caught wind of it--along with "Rocky Balboa"--last fall when their trailers ran before "Borat." I was geeked to see it as well but didn't get around to viewing it till its DVD release the following spring. I posted on it at length but unfortunately I pissed Rhonda off earlier this summer (you guys can decide whether or not the impetus was me finding love). Ferrell is a consumate (sp? Guess I shouldn't use words I don't know the meaning to) professional and dominated flicks like "Elf" and "Anchorman," which were received warmly by the critics and I LOVED him in the 'panned' "Kicking and Screaming." Also "Old School" was a nice surprise and the apogee for my hatred of Vince Vaughn. If you can't tell my girl delivered on the pharma-speed. "It's curious, because I never felt this way about Jim Carrey. Carrey was never consistently funny, and he often bordered on obnoxious." FUCK. YOU! I'll refrain from engaging in Carrey's body-of-work because I think I know where you're going with this (Transitioning from goofball to serious actor in edgy work) but I 'would' be within my rights if I did choose to defend him. But who has time for digressions? This is a thread about "Stranger Than Fiction"! "But the good work he did do convinced me he was a comic genius, so I quickly considered myself a fan even though I didn't like all his movies." Cool. "Stranger than Fiction" obviously invites some comparison with "The Truman Show," " "You'd think. Stranger is nowhere near as ambitious; however, that intense focus was its strength. "...also about a guy who discovers he's part of a fictional story." Nice connection. I realized that but I lack the discipline to fully examine in a work in its entire context. SWEET!!! "The latter film was a turning point in Carrey's career, where he got a chance to rein in his comic talents and deliver a more subdued performance. Ferrell does pretty much the same thing here, and my respect for him grew." While I agree with your assessment of the two actors background and eventual restrained performances, Carrey was given a vehicle that eventually allowed his mania, always kept beneath the surface for the first three-quarters of the film to ERUPT during the showdown...and channel it into a dramatic sequence that brings tears to my eyes for the courage he brings while going Toe-to-Toe with Harris. Ferrel in Stranger, on the other hand, seems handcuffed by the movie's narrative. BUT, I did argue that the screenplay was tight and that was precisely what they were going for. I respected their choices and the script was well-developed due to statements such as: "I'm in a thriller." I think he said thriller, though I don't recall. Though I am sure that whatever genre Emma Thompson (in a wonderful performance despite the nasty habit of spitting her saliva and cigarette butts into her kleenex) had him was used to contrast to the comedy he was hoping for. So I dug that and that sort of inside self-awareness never felt the least pedantic (as Bungle might claim). "I'm loath to admit it, but he may be becoming this generation's Steve Martin, a comic actor I appreciate but do not like." Hmmm. Marting is a lot more laid back but then again so was Ferrell here. Interestingly enough I took another look at "Shopgirl" (for Schwartzman) over the weekend and though I'm still not blown away with it I appreciate the character Martin wrote for himself--even if he couldn't convincingly bring it to life. I hated his narrations and my mind always defaulted back to him narrating silly shit on SNL. And since he was trying to be serious in "Shopgirl" I found his voice distracting. Perhaps I'd enjoy his book...or novella. Prate ll (had to look that up and shouldn't be using foreign phrases to begin with--I am so IN SYNC right now bro, I would BLOW YOU AWAY In Checkers. COME ON BALBOA!!!) good man, what the FUCK is a novella and how does it differ from a novel. Shit, by the time you respond I'll have already raced to wikipedia and given my girl 500 words on the differences...whether she wants to hear it or not! "I was on a talking jag, Eddie. She should have respected that." Chazz Palmenterri's Phil in the MONUMENTALLY Under-rated 'hurlyburly' (Top 5 Films of '98: 1. "The Truman Show, 2. "Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas," 3. "hurlyburly," 4. "The Big Lebowski," 5. "You've Got Mail." YEAH RIGHT but the point is I do really like that movie and watch it more--and instead of--the pompous art films like "Happiness," "Your Friends and Neighbors" and "Hillary and Jackie" that BACK IN early '99 made my Top 5) "The film is actually a bit more along the lines of "Being John Malkovich" in strangeness. And I think that if Charlie Kaufman had penned it, it probably would have been more satisfying." While I TOTALLY agree on one level--the fact that it would have been far more OUTRAGEOUSLY funny--I have to say that whoever wrote and directed this is capable of encapsulating a much more defined structure to their work. I realize Kaufman and Jonze WANT to go over-the-top and yet are still able to retain coherency but you have to admit they've never done anything like this. "Stranger Than Fiction" could play in High School English Classes. "It has a lot of potential but often veers into more conventional territory than it should. Say what!? "The romantic subplot between Ferrel and Maggie Gyllenhaal is sweet but banal, carved out of a thousand other films. Of course, this sort of film can fall back on the excuse that since it's about a story within a story, the triteness was intentional. I've never considered that a good excuse." Well, that's only because it's no longer fresh but since they are not heavy-handed (like Knight in Lady) I blame the failure of this subplot on Gyllenhaal; which is quite surprising considering I've always enjoyed her work and her physical attributes--especially in that weirdo "Secretary" (good movie; even seen it? Spader's role means more to me now that I've seen "Sex, Lies and Videotape." JESUS!!! How good was that squalid tale? Particularly Spader and MacDowell). However, to their credit--in terms of originality--Mags is important in establishing Ferrell's self-realization of the genre he has been sucked into. So from that vantage point: GIVE EM THEIR DUE!!! As Al Sharpton used to be fond of saaying. "What's nice about the film is the exposition, the smooth and logical way in which the story progresses through its own absurd logic." There you go. Well put. I was looking for "exposition" but it kept escaping me. Still got a long way to go. At any rate, this film could serve as interesting project for ambitious young writers to outline. Get to the spine. Get inside those who are out there living the dream. I think I'm going to have a panic attack. HELL NO!!! I've already won. Plus my girl's here. Sorry. "Ferrell goes to a shrink (Linda Hunt in a cameo)," Who? "...and that leads him to a literature professor (Dustin Hoffman) who can use his expertise to sort out Ferrel's narration problem." That was a brilliant choice. Watching the trailer I feared Hoffman (my man since Huckabee's) would be wasted as he cashed a paycheck while justifying it by claiming the film was edgy. HE IS EXTREMELY vital to not only the plot but to also pointing out the screenwriter's narrative. I have to admit I'm a sucker for the disposable guru--at least I was--but Hoffman infuses his dry persona into a wonderfully dry, almost-sad, performance. "The film kept me guessing, and was based on an intriguingly clever conceit." At the risk of being hailed a "Liar," I have to say I was never fooled and rarely ever am. The only film to ever get the best of me was "The Sixth Sense." And although that relied on the supernatural...so does Stranger...even though it never really felt all that absurd. Which is quite odd now that I think about it. I need to watch this high. "I only wish that it had found something more original to do with it than another tired old retread on the theme of appreciating life after knowing that one is going to die soon." Fair enough BUT let me ask you this? How often do you seize the day? I'm not projecting because you very well may every day. But I don't and though my life has never been in serious danger I've done things (like beat people up so badly that I thought I may have killed them. True that is only jail but you get the point. And also before I left for Boot Camp I was seizing every moment). So I'd argue there's not enough of these. Or perhaps there is just the right amount because that theme has along way to go before I find it tedious. Perhaps you've already evolved past this phase. "Fight Club" was one rare example where the fear of death wasn't exactly prevalent yet still could kick its reader (viewer) in the rear. Also "1984" does the same for me but that's only because I am super paranoid and sometimes "feel" the purges coming. "I was uncomfortably reminded of that awful little film "Life or Something Like It," whose greatest insight into life was that Angelina Jolie doesn't look very good in a blonde wig." Me and simon saw that in Toronto. Burns was the shit and Angie was likable. The guy from monk...damn...SHALHOUB! Stole that one. Yeah, it was low-rent and middle-class and even goes beyond that in that it appeals to women [because if you think the majority of us Gentiles are easily manipulated through sentimentality (and I'm just joking here, bro) you should see how stupid our "housecunts" (TM Rhonda Blakey-1999) can get. They swallow astrology like a a grown-man swallows stimulants necessary to treat his FINALLY treated learning disability. They wanted me to struggle so I don't blame the clergy Nor the faculty). " "The Truman Show" at least took place in physical reality. In "Stranger than Fiction," we're never quite sure that the Will Ferrell character really exists." Yeah, this is what I finally just gave some thought to a few paragraphs up. I'll look for clues so long as they are more subtle underpinnings and not the kind one finds on "Lost." Though I've never seen that show so perhaps that assumptive dismissal was unfair. I hate that I'm like that. :( "The entire story could be happening in the mind of the author, played by Emma Thompson (who is great as usual). But the movie never dwells on this existential dilemma. We're with the Ferrell character for so long that it's as if he does exist for us, and in a way he's more real than anyone else." FUCK!!! I almost got through your entire commentary without having the urge to shout: I HATE YOU!!! But I HATE YOU!!! I never thought about how Ferrell distracts from Thompson. Because though she is a supporting character, her part is beefy enough to bring in Queen Latifah (and I assure you that 'beefy' comment was coincidental if not subconscious because the Queen rocked in this and I have NEVER liked her in anything. But her no-nonsense Editor or Muse or Bully or whatever the fuck she was was very solid and her and Thompson had excellent chemistry that developed throughout) as a supporting character for her story. But my tunnel-vision blinded me to the aspect that a few tinkerings here and there and this could have been Thompson's movie. I have to say I prefer the choice they made. There's been enough movies made about writers the last few years. Time for a break. Let's not ignite some Prole with a dream suddenly triggered. "It's a weird idea, the notion of a fictional being with a mind of its own, which invites the question of whether free will is an illusion. Kurt Vonnegut would have approved." Well not that I hit the apogee of my delusional hubris I don't really care that I never thought about that either. Though, I can assure you Elmore Leonard (BIRMINGHAM, MI.) writes the same way when dealing with his characters--though obviously their world is 'all too real." I will climb into the rabbit-hole you have proposed here one day. BUT NOT TODAY!!! I've got gaps to fill. Akeelah and the Bee "Akeelah and the Bee" is "The Karate Kid" with a spelling bee instead of a karate tournament, taking place in a ghetto rather than a suburb." I told you about the Gere/Bosworth version where they invoke Kabala (sp? That I do not know how to spell and that is no disrespect. In fact, I'd be very intrigued to get your Orthodox take on it. At any rate, the trailer for this one looked too contrived and phoney. And yes, it was because it was about an inter-city minority. If this is a true-story I will GLADLY rent it tomorrow and cry when she sticks it to the fortunate sons and daughters. Otherwise, I just get sick of movies that REINFORCE the fact that the over-populated Inter-City Public School kids can achieve no matter what. Some can and do but you have to admit it sends the wrong message and this is a problem prevalent among the African-American and Hispanic communities. While no longer frustrated by their mendacious indignation and overcompensating overconfidence I do feel bad that a large number of young kids in this country do not have the same access to the sort of education I had (and took for granted). That is why I'm for School Vouchers AS WELL as the Left's ideas (in this rare case) on how to improve their plight. Busing? Yes! Redistricting? Yes! Transferring their tax-dollars to the private school of their choice? HELL YEAH!!! And Home-Schooling but as I'm sure you know, and I hesitate in this day and age to assume, their parents will not be able to educate them in order to compete in the global economy. So. What kind of initiatives are on the doctrines, the dogmas, the petitions!!! of the idealists across this land TO MAKE Home-Schooling accessible for Inter-City kids? I've never thought about it so I'm assuming this is an original idea and I'm taking it to Teddy. "I'm serious. All the characters in "The Karate Kid" have an equivalent in this film, with Laurence Fishburne filling the Miyagi role. I would normally have had no interest in this film, which is formulaic and predictable, but it was recommended to me because it is about the powers of language, one of my favorite topics." Seriously? The Gere one goes further I bet. Though ironically, I may appreciate that aspect more than you...even though THESE are your people. Gere is an odd choice in that one; he plays a "New-Age" Jew but a Jew nonetheless and he does a nice job of maintaining a stern example for his kids to follow. Also, he dismisses his son's attempt to engage in Hinduism (Kate Bosworth seduces him. She's so awesome in it. A specious cunt like Lohan would have sexed it up too much but Kate is just so pure and at least the story had her playing 'a lapsed Catholic." Hey she took off but she came from MY background. The Karate Kid analogy is inspiring and I'm sure you'll back it up with specifics but I could connect the Kid to Rocky only employing a more multi-cultural feel. And yes, I loved Mr. Myagi when I was a kid and his race did not matter...one BIT!!! If anything, it made me like him more because I was being raised with some nice White Guilt. "It also refutes the popular belief that spelling bees are exercises in rote memorization. Nunberg espoused that belief in one of his essays, and he was wrong." I DARE You to email him with that very sentiment. Wait, why don't I do it for you...with your permission, of course. I'm quite good at engaging writers and College Professors into correspondence. "While the spelling bee may be a holdover from nineteenth-century schoolroom fodder, it has evolved into an intellectually demanding contest that requires quite an extensive understanding of words, meanings, and origins. The movie makes this very clear, and since it's got good performances, including from 11-year-old Keke Palmer, I can say that it's an alright film." Well now you've sold it to me. [ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ] |
| Subject | Author | Date |
| Re: Two films | Kylopod | 23:19:25 09/11/07 Tue |
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