So, prior to this, the movies I'd seen in 3D were limited to Gnomeo and Juliet, Thor, Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland, and the relatively recent rerelease of Titanic. I only saw Gnomeo and Juliet in 3D out of convenience; now that I'm thinking about it, I'm not even sure if I saw Thor in 3D or if it just seems that way because it gave me a headache ("Why is everything so loud?," I kept wondering); I didn't care for Alice in Wonderland, period, 3D or no 3D; and it was fun seeing Titanic again on the big screen, but the 3D didn't really add anything to it. In other words-- not so impressed with the 3D, usually. However, I'd been told that 3D was the way to see Gravity, and we have an IMAX here in Evansville, so I figured I'd go for the total movie-going experience. In fact, that's what I was hoping for: a total movie-going experience. To explain that further: I love seeing movies in the theater. I'll see a movie in the theater that I would never bother to watch on DVD. Why? It's an EXPERIENCE-- you eat popcorn and drink soda (which I almost never do, in my normal daily life). You're immersed in the film for a couple of hours, no cell phone, no Facebook, no getting up to unload the dishwasher or water the plants or do any of the little things I often find myself doing when watching TV or movies at home. You usually have some friends with you, and even if you're there by yourself, there's a feeling that you're doing something in a way that there isn't when you're just hanging out watching TV at home: you got out of the house and you went to see a movie. And probably, you had a good time, even if the movie wasn't your favorite.
Being in IMAX 3D and taking place in outer space (a place that very few of us will ever get to go), Gravity had more potential than most films to be a total, immersive movie-going experience. I'm happy to say that it didn't disappoint.
Sandra Bullock plays Ryan Stone, who The Internet tells me is a "medical engineer" (all I could have told you based on the film itself is that she is referred to as Dr. Stone, we are told she works at a hospital in her normal daily life, and she doesn't have much training/experience as an astronaut). George Clooney plays Matt Kowalski, an experienced astronaut. Through a series of unfortunate events, just before they are about to head back to Earth, they are left the only two remaining members of their crew, literally floating out in space, tethered to each other, fighting for survival. After a time (spoiler alert!), Ryan must let Matt go, and she is left alone to try to reenter her spacecraft...then make it to a neighboring space station...then make it back to Earth. This film chronicles how she does so.
Interestingly, the film that this reminded me most of was 127 Hours, a.k.a. the film where James Franco cuts off his own arm. That film was about James Franco's character, Aron Ralston, finding himself in a life-or-death situation and finally getting desperate enough to do what he needs to do to survive. It's a very good film featuring a very good performance from Franco; with the exception of a couple of women he briefly spends time with at the beginning of the film and characters we see in flashback, he's basically the only actor in the film, meaning that he has to carry it. Here, Bullock and Clooney are the only actors we spend any significant time with at all, and the stakes are heightened by the literally out-of-this-world setting: Ryan and Matt are dealing with a lack of gravity, as well as dangerous fluctuations in temperature, oxygen, and carbon dioxide levels. There is also more action here, as Ryan has to learn to deal with changes in circumstance and make a series of quick, life or death decisions.
It's an emotional and physical rollercoaster, everyone. I was hunkering down in my seat. I was fighting tears. I was sometimes on the verge of whispering advice. This is what I mean by "total movie-going experience"; I felt like I'd been through something at the end of it. The 3D helps with this, making the action more immediate. Additionally, Bullock's performance is very good. She doesn't usually tend to choose movies that are particularly interesting to me, in general, but I think she's established that she can carry a film, and that's absolutely necessary here. I really think this is a movie that you should see in IMAX 3D if you can, but it will be interesting to see how this plays on DVD, when you are less immersed in the movie-going experience and her performance really does have to carry the whole thing. I'm betting in that case, the film will be less engrossing/exciting but still very good.
Monday, October 14, 2013
Friday, October 11, 2013
thoughts on Don Jon (spoilers)
Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays Jon, a young Jersey man who watches a lot of online porn. He goes to confession every week, and it seems that he sometimes watches it as much as three or four times a day. He doesn't actually think there's anything wrong with this, but he knows that he's committing a sin, so he confesses it anyway. Outside of watching porn, he goes out to clubs with his friends a lot and has a lot of one-night stands, but no serious relationships until he meets Barbara Sugarman (Scarlett Johansson). It seems that she is perfect...but he's still watching a ton of porn.
Naturally, she has a major problem with this when she finds out, but that's not the only thing she won't accept as-is about him. He's a bartender, and she insists that he take a night class even though he never would have had any interest in one on his own; in theory, suggesting that someone get an education isn't a bad thing, but she basically just wants a boyfriend (and eventually husband) who makes a lot of money, and she thinks a degree is the way to that.
There's also a scene that I found fairly bizarre where they're in a store looking at curtain rods or some such, and he tells her that he also wants to pick up some Swiffer pads while they're there. She doesn't even know what those are (a housekeeper does her cleaning), and she can't believe that Jon, a grown man, does his own cleaning. She finds it downright offensive, if not disturbing, when she offers to send her housekeeper over and he says that he enjoys cleaning; he's proud of his apartment, and he likes keeping it nice. She tells him that when they're living together, he won't be doing that anymore. She won't even let him go buy the Swiffer pads, because she says it's embarrassing. Like I said, bizarre. She knows he doesn't make a lot of money. Who does she think cleans his place? Would she rather he lived in a pigsty? So...it's not just that she wants to change him, but she's fairly out of touch with reality, to a degree that I was fairly taken aback by. It's a pretty brilliant scene; I can't remember ever seeing a discussion about cleaning products on film before, and it reveals so much about both of them.
Anyway, so she dumps him because of the porn. You think that the film's happy ending is going to be that he learns to give it up and she takes him back, but the film takes an interesting turn involving a fellow night class student named Esther (Julianne Moore) who initially doesn't seem all that important (to Jon or to the movie). She finds out about the porn one of the first times she and Jon meet (he takes to watching it on his phone to hide it from Barbara); she's not judgmental about it, but she eventually helps him understand what he's missing out on with real women, and from real sex, by being so fixated on porn. I still, for a time, thought that Esther was just going to be the person who helped Jon give up porn so Barbara would take him back. But maybe Barbara was never right for him.
I think the amount of time I've spent talking about the plot here shows how interested I was in it. At times, the focus on porn is a little, for lack of a better word, skeevy...but I was genuinely interested in Jon and wanted to find out what happened to him. For that matter, all of the characters are interesting, even those with less screen time, such as Jon's family and two best friends. The film sees the humor in the Jersey world it is set in without making fun of it, the performances are all solid, and the plot has some unexpected turns. I really liked this movie.
Naturally, she has a major problem with this when she finds out, but that's not the only thing she won't accept as-is about him. He's a bartender, and she insists that he take a night class even though he never would have had any interest in one on his own; in theory, suggesting that someone get an education isn't a bad thing, but she basically just wants a boyfriend (and eventually husband) who makes a lot of money, and she thinks a degree is the way to that.
There's also a scene that I found fairly bizarre where they're in a store looking at curtain rods or some such, and he tells her that he also wants to pick up some Swiffer pads while they're there. She doesn't even know what those are (a housekeeper does her cleaning), and she can't believe that Jon, a grown man, does his own cleaning. She finds it downright offensive, if not disturbing, when she offers to send her housekeeper over and he says that he enjoys cleaning; he's proud of his apartment, and he likes keeping it nice. She tells him that when they're living together, he won't be doing that anymore. She won't even let him go buy the Swiffer pads, because she says it's embarrassing. Like I said, bizarre. She knows he doesn't make a lot of money. Who does she think cleans his place? Would she rather he lived in a pigsty? So...it's not just that she wants to change him, but she's fairly out of touch with reality, to a degree that I was fairly taken aback by. It's a pretty brilliant scene; I can't remember ever seeing a discussion about cleaning products on film before, and it reveals so much about both of them.
Anyway, so she dumps him because of the porn. You think that the film's happy ending is going to be that he learns to give it up and she takes him back, but the film takes an interesting turn involving a fellow night class student named Esther (Julianne Moore) who initially doesn't seem all that important (to Jon or to the movie). She finds out about the porn one of the first times she and Jon meet (he takes to watching it on his phone to hide it from Barbara); she's not judgmental about it, but she eventually helps him understand what he's missing out on with real women, and from real sex, by being so fixated on porn. I still, for a time, thought that Esther was just going to be the person who helped Jon give up porn so Barbara would take him back. But maybe Barbara was never right for him.
I think the amount of time I've spent talking about the plot here shows how interested I was in it. At times, the focus on porn is a little, for lack of a better word, skeevy...but I was genuinely interested in Jon and wanted to find out what happened to him. For that matter, all of the characters are interesting, even those with less screen time, such as Jon's family and two best friends. The film sees the humor in the Jersey world it is set in without making fun of it, the performances are all solid, and the plot has some unexpected turns. I really liked this movie.
Thursday, October 10, 2013
thoughts on Runner Runner
Well. That was very disappointing.
Justin Timberlake stars as Richie Furst, a grad student at Princeton whose makes money on the side bringing in customers for an online gambling site. He gets in trouble with the dean for gambling on campus at around the same time his tuition, $20,000, is due; he doesn't have it, but he has over $17,000, so he decides (naturally) to bet it all and see if he can win the rest. He loses everything, but he manages to figure out that the site has cheated him, so he flies down to Costa Rica to confront the site's owner, Ivan Block (Ben Affleck). Ivan denies knowing that his programmers were cheating customers, but is impressed that Richie was able to figure out that this was happening, so he offers him a job. Richie takes it, and all seems great until he is confronted by an FBI agent (Anthony Mackie), who basically tells him that Ivan's up to some shady shit, they're trying to take him down, and if Richie doesn't help them, he's going down with him.
Already you can see that much of this is fairly implausible. The problem is, it should be more fun. Generally, I love gambling movies. I really like Justin Timberlake. Ben Affleck isn't my favorite, but he's playing a shady rich bully here, which he does well, and which should be entertaining. The thing is, though, the fun of gambling movies comes from both the tension of the games the gamblers are playing and the challenge of trying to figure out how they're pulling it all off. Part of the problem is that the gambling here takes place online, meaning it is more difficult for the filmmakers to build tension and completely impossible for the audience to figure out things along with the main character; even if you are a computer programmer yourself, it's not like you have access to the code Richie is using.
Another problem is that though gambling is Ivan's business, it almost might as well be drugs or weapons or any other shady thing, considering the lack of insider knowledge we get on the online gambling industry. The real tension comes (or should come) from Richie slowly realizing that Ivan is up to no good and trying to take him down, but it's pretty easy to tell right from the beginning that Ivan is shady, and the impending takedown is too all over the place to really care about. First Richie is going to be loyal to Ivan and NOT help the FBI! Then, oh no, it looks like the FBI is right about him! Then Ivan is threatening Richie's father! Then a couple of Richie's programmer friends are involved! Then...zzzzzz. It's all just hard to keep track of, and not that interesting.
This movie had potential to be interesting and fun. Instead, it was just kind of boring. Like I said, disappointing.
Justin Timberlake stars as Richie Furst, a grad student at Princeton whose makes money on the side bringing in customers for an online gambling site. He gets in trouble with the dean for gambling on campus at around the same time his tuition, $20,000, is due; he doesn't have it, but he has over $17,000, so he decides (naturally) to bet it all and see if he can win the rest. He loses everything, but he manages to figure out that the site has cheated him, so he flies down to Costa Rica to confront the site's owner, Ivan Block (Ben Affleck). Ivan denies knowing that his programmers were cheating customers, but is impressed that Richie was able to figure out that this was happening, so he offers him a job. Richie takes it, and all seems great until he is confronted by an FBI agent (Anthony Mackie), who basically tells him that Ivan's up to some shady shit, they're trying to take him down, and if Richie doesn't help them, he's going down with him.
Already you can see that much of this is fairly implausible. The problem is, it should be more fun. Generally, I love gambling movies. I really like Justin Timberlake. Ben Affleck isn't my favorite, but he's playing a shady rich bully here, which he does well, and which should be entertaining. The thing is, though, the fun of gambling movies comes from both the tension of the games the gamblers are playing and the challenge of trying to figure out how they're pulling it all off. Part of the problem is that the gambling here takes place online, meaning it is more difficult for the filmmakers to build tension and completely impossible for the audience to figure out things along with the main character; even if you are a computer programmer yourself, it's not like you have access to the code Richie is using.
Another problem is that though gambling is Ivan's business, it almost might as well be drugs or weapons or any other shady thing, considering the lack of insider knowledge we get on the online gambling industry. The real tension comes (or should come) from Richie slowly realizing that Ivan is up to no good and trying to take him down, but it's pretty easy to tell right from the beginning that Ivan is shady, and the impending takedown is too all over the place to really care about. First Richie is going to be loyal to Ivan and NOT help the FBI! Then, oh no, it looks like the FBI is right about him! Then Ivan is threatening Richie's father! Then a couple of Richie's programmer friends are involved! Then...zzzzzz. It's all just hard to keep track of, and not that interesting.
This movie had potential to be interesting and fun. Instead, it was just kind of boring. Like I said, disappointing.
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