I had to put that statement at the beginning of this post because there is a small part of me that wants to skip this tonight, go lie down, read some of The Hobbit, and meander off into a drool filled sleep. A drive to Clarenville and back (3-4 hours of driving for anyone not versed in Newfoundland geography), and then a hefty turkey dinner at my parents before heading home has made me a sleepy meat-bag. But alas I trudge onward. Even though I'm moving on Wednesday and should be doing something in preparation for that as well.
Last week I listed ten films that Roger Ebert chose as his top ten in 2012 and stated my intentions on working my way through each of these. I won't repeat the list. It's below somewhere if you want to just scroll down. Go on, I wont go anywhere................. Okay. So I have been looking into this and have found all of these films except for one. Aguirre, Wrath of God. This is not on Netflix or iTunes, and I couldn't find it at HMV. I'm sure i'll be able to get it somewhere online but I really don't want to have to resort to torrenting it. I've managed to avoid downloading any movies lately. Just TV shows, which I have no ethical qualms with torrenting anyway. If anybody has a good, legit suggestion on where to find this I would greatly appreciate it. As for the rest of the list, I've only managed to make my way through two so far: The General, and 2001: A Space Odyssey. I hope to pick up the pace with the rest of the ten this week but it will still probably be another couple weeks before I get through them all. When I get through them I plan on doing a full post (maybe two) for that alone, discussing my thoughts on the films and such. But until then I'll just give a quick preview of what I think of the ones I've seen.
First one I decided to watch was fittingly the oldest. The General, made in 1926, is probably the oldest film I've ever watched in full (that I can recall). It's silent, black and white, and clearly looks very dated. That will make it a turn off for many people to watch in these days of CGI and IMAX 3D. But if you can, do yourself a favor and watch this. I was so happy I decided to do this list after watching this movie. I probably never would have seen it otherwise. Of course you need to go into this with an open mind, but if you can do that, you'll be treated to one of the best examples there is of a film, being used to it's full potential as a strictly visual medium.
The second movie I watched was 2001: A Space Odyssey, from one of my favorite directors, Stanley Kubrick. This is one of the movies on this list I have already seen, and was more than happy to watch this again for this blog. I love this movie. This is another example of film-making at it's best as visual art. Stanley Kubricks eye for detail and making every shot perfect was legendary and it's a damn tragedy that he's no longer among us. I'll never have the pleasure of going to the theater to be a part of the experience that was a Kubrick film being seen for the first time. In it's place we have classics like this that can be watched, and should be watched, over and over again.
The rest of this week has been fairly uneventful. I've got my move coming, so practically I've been busy procrastinating doing anything involved with that. I did find the time to watch a couple of new movies though:
My Weekly Thoughts
The Place Beyond The Pines 8/10
I already posted an individual review for this movie that you can find here. That was my first full review of a film and reading it over again now, I'm happy with how it turned out. The only thing I would like to add would be that I've felt a need to go see it again over the past couple of days. It seems that Empire Theatres have decided to keep it around for another week (which is awesome) so I strongly urge people to go see it while it's still here. And if anybody needs someone to go see it with, let me know.
The Disappeared 6/10
I went and saw this movie for two reasons:
1) It is a locally made movie (Nova Scotia actually, but I'll consider anything in Atlantic Canada local) that managed to get some screen time here. Considering the number of these low budget, indie films that Empire Theatres actually brings here to NL, I felt compelled to support it by having a look.
2) I wanted to see what a locally made movie could do on a presumably low budget. Especially considering the entire film takes place, and was filmed, at sea.
If the above two reasons have no place in your stream of thought when deciding what movie you want to see then it's probably not going to be your cup of tea. If they are, then there may be something here worth seeing.
The movie follows a group of six fisherman stuck at sea in two dories after their boat inexplicably sinks. We follow them as they row, battle against the elements, against themselves, and ultimately row some more. And that's all there is. As you can see, plot wise, it runs a bit thin. There's no explanation or hint given as to why the boat sinks or if there were other crew on board. Only one of the crew sustains an injury from the incident and that isn't even explained.
This lack of detail in the film is a little off putting at first. And to some, the simplicity of the plot may ruin the movie all together. As the movie played on though I started to warm up to the whole idea. This lack of back story is what this movie needs. You don't need to be distracted by any logistics of what happened before. The history of the characters isn't important. The director (Shandi Mitchell) puts you, the viewer, in the boat with these six other characters as they do what needs to be done to survive. How they got there is of no concern and their pasts matter not. They're in those two boats, you're there with them, and it's about surviving the moment.
Once this element sinks in, the movie turns into something much greater. The closeness of the camera to the characters puts you in the boat with them. The lack of music (which I originally thought was a greatly missed opportunity for some artistic mood setting) fits the loneliness that one would experience in the middle of nowhere. The lack of special effects and constraints of a small budget make it all feel real. All these factors combine and the dire nature of their situation quickly falls on you. You know their odds are low and it becomes about watching this crew deal with a situation that likely has a grim outcome.
Of course all that is only part of the movie. The rest falls upon the actors. And in the close quarters of the dories and the smallness of the cast, there is very little room for error. There were a few moments where the acting and dialogue did make me cringe a little. In a movie with a little bit more going on these moments may have even slipped by without notice. Unfortunately they end up standing out here. But overall the acting was good. There were a couple of incredibly heart breaking moments in the movie that really stood out and credit goes to the actors involved for making them work.
In the end there's only so much that can be said about this movie without giving anything away. If you enjoy a slow paced movie, especially a bit of a sullen one, then please go see this in the next few days at the theater if you can. This doesn't have a Hollywood production budget and you can tell by looking at it. But it does the job it needs to. Maybe we'll get more indie films like this if it gets support. I can't say that you will love it, but it's definitely one of the best locally made films in recent years.
As per my note at the top, I'm giving myself a good pat on the back and heading to bed. See you all next week!
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