Thursday, July 31, 2014
Ebertfest 2014, Day Five
I would feel better about Bayou Maharajah if I had not seen this story before. Talented jazz musician imbibes and dies young. The story might be lacking but the music is rewarding. Watch this documentary for the music. In the case of this festival, we were rewarded with a bonus performance by the great Henry Butler following the film. I have not seen many live piano performances, so I was truly wowed by this virtuoso. A real treat for those who stayed till the end of the festival.
Ebertfest 2014, Day Four
Ebertfest used to have a "free kids matinee" on Saturday mornings. Why that ended, I do not know. Maybe the scarcity of quality family films made it difficult to program. Whatever the case, it kinda returned this year with the delightful Wajdja. That might be the first time I have ever written (or said) the word "delightful," so do not take this recommendation lightly. The character Wajdja reminds me a lot of the title character in The Great Brain books, but it is unlikely that the writer/director Haifaa Al Mansour ever read those Utah-based books.
A Simple Life is one of those slice of life movies that stays with you due to the power of the story and the filmmaking. At the end I felt like I was a better person for having seen it. What more can I say?
I wish that liked Goodbye Solo more. Filmmaker Ramin Bahrani has taken the minimalist approach before with a lot of success, but this time I found myself not caring. Three months later I barely remember it.
I am afraid that if I were to revisit Oliver Stone's oeuvre that his films would not fare very well compared to my current lofty opinion of many of them. This was my first viewing of Born on the Fourth of July, and I was surprised by how Stone bombards the audience to the point of nausea. Maybe that should be expected considering his other films, but I was definitely not expecting a film that is not that far off from Natural Born Killers. TAKE IT DOWN A COUPLE OF NOTCHES, OLIVER. OR FOUR OR FIVE NOTCHES.
A Simple Life is one of those slice of life movies that stays with you due to the power of the story and the filmmaking. At the end I felt like I was a better person for having seen it. What more can I say?
I wish that liked Goodbye Solo more. Filmmaker Ramin Bahrani has taken the minimalist approach before with a lot of success, but this time I found myself not caring. Three months later I barely remember it.
I am afraid that if I were to revisit Oliver Stone's oeuvre that his films would not fare very well compared to my current lofty opinion of many of them. This was my first viewing of Born on the Fourth of July, and I was surprised by how Stone bombards the audience to the point of nausea. Maybe that should be expected considering his other films, but I was definitely not expecting a film that is not that far off from Natural Born Killers. TAKE IT DOWN A COUPLE OF NOTCHES, OLIVER. OR FOUR OR FIVE NOTCHES.
Ebertfest 2014, Day Three
The nice thing about writing about films months after you see them is that you now have some perspective. Some films are memorable, and some films fall into the abyss of memories. He Who Gets Slapped falls into the former category. Not just that, it is a film that I would definitely like to see again. Lon Chaney shows that he is more than just a man of a thousand faces, and the climax might be one of the greatest every filmed. That lion scene...
I wish I could be as impressed with Capote. It is a showcase for Hoffman but otherwise a rather standard film about a story that was anything but standard. I didn't remember much about it from the first time that I saw it several years ago, and that is not surprising now that I have seen it twice. Still glad that it showed at the festival due to Hoffman's death and the presence of Bennett Miller, who was a longtime friend of Hoffman.
Do the Right Thing is a much better film than I remember. I first watched it in film class twenty years ago. This is one where life experience come in handy to better appreciate what Lee is trying to say. Despite the music and styles that are right out of the 80s, Lee's film transcends those dated aspects to be a true film for the ages. By the way, word is that Lee went up to the projection booth to correct the framing. He also reportedly asked for the film to be louder. It was plenty loud where I was sitting, though in a theater as large as The Virginia there are bound to be some dead spots. Interesting that some people complained about how LOUD the sound was. Yes, it was loud, and it was also loud for Born on the Fourth of July. I was told that the movies were played at a standard theater level, and they would not raise it (for Lee) or lower it. Not enough to bother me, but I can understand how some people might be bothered by it. My advice to those people? Bring earplugs with you, just in case. By the way, Lee seemed like a nice, affable guy. The true test of that is when the dumb questions from the audience begin.
I wish I could be as impressed with Capote. It is a showcase for Hoffman but otherwise a rather standard film about a story that was anything but standard. I didn't remember much about it from the first time that I saw it several years ago, and that is not surprising now that I have seen it twice. Still glad that it showed at the festival due to Hoffman's death and the presence of Bennett Miller, who was a longtime friend of Hoffman.
Do the Right Thing is a much better film than I remember. I first watched it in film class twenty years ago. This is one where life experience come in handy to better appreciate what Lee is trying to say. Despite the music and styles that are right out of the 80s, Lee's film transcends those dated aspects to be a true film for the ages. By the way, word is that Lee went up to the projection booth to correct the framing. He also reportedly asked for the film to be louder. It was plenty loud where I was sitting, though in a theater as large as The Virginia there are bound to be some dead spots. Interesting that some people complained about how LOUD the sound was. Yes, it was loud, and it was also loud for Born on the Fourth of July. I was told that the movies were played at a standard theater level, and they would not raise it (for Lee) or lower it. Not enough to bother me, but I can understand how some people might be bothered by it. My advice to those people? Bring earplugs with you, just in case. By the way, Lee seemed like a nice, affable guy. The true test of that is when the dumb questions from the audience begin.
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