Building them up or tearing them down in 5 minutes...ish
I actually got a chance to watch Appaloosa after all and while I don't have time to write a full review I thought I should resurrect the Shotgun Critic for this film. Ed Harris has directed a film that is better placed in the 1950s canon of Westerns as we find it inspired mostly Rio Bravo and Shane in it's romantic, moral notions. But in cinema today it feels like a film with no edge.
Appaloosa takes an odd comic tone throughout from its bizarre choices in music, farcical love entanglements (with Renee Zellweger of all people), and its mocking characterisation of Harris' otherwise steely sheriff Virgil Cole. There is definitely some hint of post-Brokeback homoerotic curiousity in Cole's relationship with his partner in law-keeping Everett Hitch played by Viggo Mortensen. In fact Mortensen once again is standout in this film as the professional gunslinger who chooses to be a lawman and is happy to take the take backseat to partner Cole despite being smarter and possibly quicker. No real climatic gunfight to speak of though it certainly ends with a smoking gun.
No much for anyone other than a Western aficionado and even then it's a stretch. The film mostly lands pretty flat beyond the cool of Virgil Cole's posturing in the face of many guns possessed by men who aren't really prepared to die. I did however love a moment after the film's one good showdown when Everett Hitch notes that it was over faster than normal to which Cole replies" "That's cos everyone knew how to shoot." Great Western observation in an otherwise bland movie.
Saturday, March 14, 2009
Shotgun Critic #4: Appaloosa
Sunday, March 9, 2008
The Shotgun Critic #3: The Assassination of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford
Building them up or tearing them down in 5 minutes...ish
The two and a half hours runtime of The Assassination Of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford (Jesse James from here on) felt more like an out-of-body experience than a cinematic one. Yet a cinematic experience in the purest sense it most certainly was. Roger Deakins is arguably the finest cinematographers working in Hollywood today with a CV to match any of the greats in film history. His work here though is ably matched by Brad Pitt and Cassey Affleck as the eponymous James and Ford respectively.
I loved the drenched autumnal hues and dreamscapes that Pitt haunts with quiet menace. I loved Affleck as he explored the fine line between obsession, forbidden lust and jealously. And I loved director Andrew Dominik's exploration of celebrity, betrayal and American mythology. If you missed it at the cinema, rent the DVD now because I Jesse James might just be a modern classic overshadowed by the similar heavyweight releases of 2007, No Country For Old Men and There Will Be Blood.
Kind like, but better than: The New World
Read a descenting view from SF Chronicle's Peter Hartlaub HERE.
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
The Shotgun Critic #2: Life As A House
Tearing films down, or singing their praises in five minutes...ish
Only rich people living in LA make films like Life As A House. Two hours of pious, tear-jerking rubbish, in which Hayden Christensen whines and whines until you're begging for his father (Kevin Kline) to hurry up and die already from his terminal, yet quite painless, cancer. Actually you're begging for Kline to die the moment your eyes are poisoned with the sight of him peeing in his Y-fronts. But first he must built the house he always dreamt of, share his troubled memories of his own father with his son, rebuild his relationships with the other people in his life, and piss off his humourless neighbour. Gripping cinematic viewing indeed.
One by one the film ticks the cliches off its wrap sheet and throws in a clumsy, and vaguely offensive if it wasn't so simpleminded, comparison of sexual confusion to drug use. If nothing else at least this film acts as another exhibit of Christensen's ability to convey emotion without the remotest iota of soul.
Kind like but better than: Message In A Bottle
Kind like but worse than: American Beauty
Read a proper review here...
Monday, March 3, 2008
The Shotgun Critic: Some Kind Of Wonderful
Here begins the first in Dark Habits' series of five-minute shotgun reviews as I continue my adventures in the whole universe of movies I have not yet seen...
Some Kind Of Wonderful isn't classic John Hughes by any stretch, it no doubt it carries his classic hallmarks (though directed by Howard Deutch). Dweeby boy with brave and romantic soul (Eric Stoltz) secretly loves school pretty girl (Lea Thompson) with asshole boyfriend (Craig Sheffer). Dweeby boy meets pretty girl, who breaks up with rich asshole boyfriend. Meanwhile tomboy best friends (Mary Stuard Masterson) disapproves while secretly loving dweeby boy. plot to embarrass dweeby boy is hatched. Pretty girl and dweeby boy come of age – while misunderstood school bully (Elias Koteas) and helps dweeby boy in teenage triumph over rich asshole ex-boyfriend. Dweeby boy realises he should be with tomboy.
Stoltz is pretty disturbing with Michael Jackson-esque voice and totally insincere as a 16-year old. Probably cos he's nearly old enough to have a 16-year old. The ending is at total anti-climax, but does allow Elias Koteas to totally steal the movie with some great lines at the end: "I didn't know James lived in a hen house. It must be a hen house because I don't seen anything but chicken shit!"
Ok, so this took me 15 minutes. I definitely need to work work on that. Fun movie if you pretend you're at a half-hearted 80s party.
