Saturday, December 27, 2003
Two Movies Today
I guess I'm warming up for Sundance! Today, Liz and I went to two movies (a record for the two of us, though not for me). We saw Lost in Translation and Big Fish.
When I go to a movie, I see things differently than I think most people. I see myself, people in my life, icons and stories that inform me and inform our culture. This is true even for movies I don't like so much.
I expected to really like Big Fish because I have really liked Tim Burton as a director. In addition, there was an impressive cast including some of my favorites: Ewan McGregor, Robert Guilliuame, Jessica Lange, Steve Buscemi.
Big Fish really has only one thing going for it: this movie is a story about an absent father healing with his offspring. The film is being touted as a father-son movie, but at the end of the movie, I saw a woman in the row in front of me dabbing her eyes with a tissue. I realized that, especially for people of my generation and older, fathers were more distant and cold, often "missing" at the office until late in the evening. My father was just emotionally absent and like the son in the film, I too made up stories about my father. I still do from time to time. This movie touched me because of the healing that happened between this absent father and his son. Big Fish will be a success because this image of a "missing in action" father is an icon for people my age and older.
In spite of that, I was distracted by Tim Burton's inability to make an emotionally real story with fantastical elements to it. He should stick to fantastical stories with emtionally real elements. Big Fish was slow at times and I became impatient.
With that, I rate Big Fish as "Worth Renting". See my Movie Rating Scale if you want to know what that rating means and what my movie rating scale is overall.
As for Lost in Translation, I'll start off with a rating of somewhere between "I Want My Money Back" and "I Want Those Two Hours of My Life Back." I know I say in my movie rating scale that I almost never rate movies with the last rating but here's a close example. I think I don't rate it that low because I'm afraid of judgement! So many people liked it. Rotten Tomatoes has rated it as 95% fresh. Egads. I wonder what I am missing.
It's so clear to me that Daddy funded this little project for his daughter Sofia Coppola. Sofia's psychology is also so clear from this film. She's completely enamored with her father and solely defines herself by him. Just like the main character in this film who is defined by how men see her.
It's MASTURBATORY, and in my opinion, filmmaking at its worst. Over and over again we see the culture differences between the United States and Japan. This story gets tiring after a while. That's interesting for about fifteen minutes. Okay, so both main characters see themselves as outsiders in Japan and also in their existing relationships. Then what.
Nothing, that's what.
The one thing that is interesting to me is all the sights and sounds of Japan as seen through this filmmaker's eyes. I would want to hear from Ms. Coppola about the filming process.
On the positive side, because I try to say something good about every movie I see, is Bill Murray's performance. Who knew that he is capable of such depth? Go Bill and Go Sophia for seeing that side of him. I'd like to see Sophia's films when she's, say, 45. At 32, she leaves so many things lacking, especially in her female character.
So, maybe just "I Want My Money Back". If you have been to Japan or want to go to Japan or are just interested in what life might be like for you if you visited Japan, then rent it. You do not need to waste perfectly good full price movie money on this one.
Have you seen these films? Agree or disagree with my ratings? Use my new Comments function at the top of each post! I would love to hear from you!
When I go to a movie, I see things differently than I think most people. I see myself, people in my life, icons and stories that inform me and inform our culture. This is true even for movies I don't like so much.
I expected to really like Big Fish because I have really liked Tim Burton as a director. In addition, there was an impressive cast including some of my favorites: Ewan McGregor, Robert Guilliuame, Jessica Lange, Steve Buscemi.
Big Fish really has only one thing going for it: this movie is a story about an absent father healing with his offspring. The film is being touted as a father-son movie, but at the end of the movie, I saw a woman in the row in front of me dabbing her eyes with a tissue. I realized that, especially for people of my generation and older, fathers were more distant and cold, often "missing" at the office until late in the evening. My father was just emotionally absent and like the son in the film, I too made up stories about my father. I still do from time to time. This movie touched me because of the healing that happened between this absent father and his son. Big Fish will be a success because this image of a "missing in action" father is an icon for people my age and older.
In spite of that, I was distracted by Tim Burton's inability to make an emotionally real story with fantastical elements to it. He should stick to fantastical stories with emtionally real elements. Big Fish was slow at times and I became impatient.
With that, I rate Big Fish as "Worth Renting". See my Movie Rating Scale if you want to know what that rating means and what my movie rating scale is overall.
As for Lost in Translation, I'll start off with a rating of somewhere between "I Want My Money Back" and "I Want Those Two Hours of My Life Back." I know I say in my movie rating scale that I almost never rate movies with the last rating but here's a close example. I think I don't rate it that low because I'm afraid of judgement! So many people liked it. Rotten Tomatoes has rated it as 95% fresh. Egads. I wonder what I am missing.
It's so clear to me that Daddy funded this little project for his daughter Sofia Coppola. Sofia's psychology is also so clear from this film. She's completely enamored with her father and solely defines herself by him. Just like the main character in this film who is defined by how men see her.
It's MASTURBATORY, and in my opinion, filmmaking at its worst. Over and over again we see the culture differences between the United States and Japan. This story gets tiring after a while. That's interesting for about fifteen minutes. Okay, so both main characters see themselves as outsiders in Japan and also in their existing relationships. Then what.
Nothing, that's what.
The one thing that is interesting to me is all the sights and sounds of Japan as seen through this filmmaker's eyes. I would want to hear from Ms. Coppola about the filming process.
On the positive side, because I try to say something good about every movie I see, is Bill Murray's performance. Who knew that he is capable of such depth? Go Bill and Go Sophia for seeing that side of him. I'd like to see Sophia's films when she's, say, 45. At 32, she leaves so many things lacking, especially in her female character.
So, maybe just "I Want My Money Back". If you have been to Japan or want to go to Japan or are just interested in what life might be like for you if you visited Japan, then rent it. You do not need to waste perfectly good full price movie money on this one.
Have you seen these films? Agree or disagree with my ratings? Use my new Comments function at the top of each post! I would love to hear from you!
