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Home > Blogs > Sir Critic on Cinema > Archives > 2007 > November > 01 > Entry
What Are You Watching? Vol. 9
Here are the latest additions to my movie-watching roster:
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford: I have a hard time telling people not to see this film because Brad Pitt and Casey Affleck turn in stellar performances as the title characters, and Roger Deakins’ cinematography makes this one of the most gorgeous-looking films of the year. But I have a hard time recommending the film because sandwiched in between the great beginning and ending is a tedious, pretentious middle section that seems to last a year. Ultimately, I have to call it a miss because the middle carries so much weight. Kenneth Turan of the LA Times put it best when he wrote: “It’s a movie in love with itself, and few things are more fatal than that.” GRADE: C+
The Darjeeling Limited: Owen Wilson, Adrien Brody and Jason Schwartzman star as estranged brothers who try to patch things up on a “spiritual” train journey through India filled with offbeat charm and humor. Among Wes Anderson films, it’s not up to Rushmore or The Royal Tenenbaums, but it’s a decided improvement over the self-satisfied Life Aquatic. It’s certainly Anderson’s best-looking movie. His cinematographer, Robert Yeoman, and the art directors don’t get enough credit. GRADE: B+
Killer’s Kiss: Stanley Kubrick’s second film makes for a fascinating curio more than anything else, since its story of a boxer who falls in love with a girl and gets mixed up with the shady criminals around her is pretty hackneyed. It’s still quite watchable, especially for its rare look at Manhattan streets in the 1950s. Most big Hollywood productions recreated New York streets around this time period, so it’s refreshing to see the real thing. GRADE: B
And you?
Permalink | Comments (4) | Categories: Ask the Audience, Reviews
Comments
By Zack
November 2, 2007 2:24 PM | Link to this
You know, Eric, it’s weird, given that we agree on a lot. But I felt the exact opposite about ASSASSINATION OF JESSE JAMES. It’s the middle I loved, with the beginning and end (and all that narration) that bogged the movie down for me. (I’d give it a B-, because like you say, the middle outweighs the rest.) However, I will give you that the middle sort of jumps from scene to scene. There are no transitions here, just moments — a lot of them great, but they’re each extremely isolated, to the point of distraction. Also distracting? The four (!) people using cell phones in the theater, one of them with a built-in video camera. The theater barely did anything about it, so I gave Warner Bros.’ anti-piracy department a call, and hopefully got some assistant manager fired. (I won’t say which theater it was, but it wasn’t in the Dayton area.)By SRCputt
November 1, 2007 3:30 PM | Link to this
One more film, and this was the highlight of my week: Up here in Springfield, last Friday Nosferatu was shown with live accompaniment in the old State Theatre. The theater has definitely seen better days, but I was reminded how much more exciting silent films are with live accompaniment.By SRCputt
November 1, 2007 3:27 PM | Link to this
While I wouldn’t quite say The Darjeeling Limited is the best looking of Anderson’s films (I vote for The Life Aquatic, ironically his weakest film otherwise) but Eric sums it up correctly. I was struck by a section in the film which presents a funeral in India with no ironic distance, which is unusual for Anderson. I still hope he writes again with Wilson, as the humor still isn’t quite at the level of Rushmore or Royal Tenenbaums.By SRCputt
November 1, 2007 3:21 PM | Link to this
I loved Lust, Caution, but then I am a huge Ang Lee fan. It was interesting to see a truly adult film, as the NC-17 rating is correct, in which the adult scenes grow out of the plot naturally and reveal the characters, for like most Ang Lee films, the emotions are hidden during most of the film.