I went to see Babel last night, a movie which has generated some Oscar buzz (it won the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury at Cannes, which ain't the Palme d'Or but sounds much cooler). I'm surprised it came to Waco, so I was looking forward to it. And quite frankly, I wish it would have stayed away. It was like watching a parody of an art film*.
Two and half hour run time because the director doesn't believe in getting to the point? Check.
Meandering storyline in which nothing actually happens? Check.
"Artistic" camera angles like pointing the camera directly at the sun? Check.
A big name actor (Brad Pitt in this case) trying hard to not look beautiful? Check.
Subtitles? Check.
A completely irrelevent subplot shoehorned into the movie for no particular reason other than to show a young woman's breasts? Check.
Characters you could care less about? Check.
Every person in a position of authority is protrayed as a bully at best, completely evil at worst? Check.
The obligatory drug use scene? Check and check.
A completely humorless movie, it tries to make a statement about the interconnectedness of the human experience, but it ends up just being a series of even more ridiculous plots which are supposed to make us think about fate. Instead, it made me feel the screenwriter had absolutely no respect for the audience, and just wanted to say how much smarter he was than us.
In short, I thought it sucked.
*Ed Note - And to be fair, I like a good pretentious movie every now and then. Eraserhead is one of my favorite films. I've seen almost everything Fellini has made. My favorite director is Darren Aronofsky. I've got my pretentious art house film bona fides.
7 comments:
Ooh check out the spam comment! Lame.
Re. the movie, I liked it for purely visual reasons, specifically that the Moroccon desert was all gritty and sepia tone and that Baja was too brightly lit and that Japan was crazy pop-colored etc. The movie itself bored me to tears.
I thought the visuals were just overly forced. It's like we needed five or six absurd things to happen just so we could have the shot of a woman in a flowing red dress in the desert.
I will say, I did like the scene at the disco, which was truly disorienting, especially from the point of view of the deaf-mute. But one good scene does not a movie make.
And the spam has been taken care of.
I was bored to tears during Babel, but I felt like I was supposed to like it so it's good to hear I'm not the only one.
Also, I second that Casino Royale is fabulous. My favorite so far, but I'm not a Bond expert.
I saw Casino Royale and really, really liked it. I usually do not like Bond films as I think they are just too silly and campy.
But this Bond is nowhere near campy and there are legitimate consequences to all of his actions. A little too long, but that's a minor quibble. I thought it was the best Bond movie I've ever seen, but I'm not a big Bond fan.
And Stranger Than Fiction was also good. But I'm a negative person, I like talking about things I dislike more than the things I actually liked. Though I think The Departed is Scorcese's best film since GoodFellas.
Baker you are in law school. Where do you find time for all the nonsense.
4 movies in 3 weeks? Not a huge time commitment.
I told you, The Departed was bomb.
(Uhm, yes.)
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