This Week's DVD Releases / The Pajiba Staff
30 Days of Night: Agent Bedhead says the film has “vampires and an abundance of nighttime, and not a whole hell of a lot more,” but writes that Josh Blandnet, “for all his ubiquitous squinty-eyed expressiveness, really does make a valiant effort as the town’s sheriff.” Unfortunately, aside from some impressive visuals, the film doesn’t ultimately deliver the goods.
American Gangster: Daniel suitably sums up Gangster in the first few lines of his review: “Ridley Scott’s American Gangster is great at living in the tension between what it needs to be and what it’s too lazy not to become. It’s a powerfully American film, in everything from storytelling to mindset, and that tone of hypocrisy-but-somehow- not runs through every sweaty, glistening frame: The film wants to be a taut modern mob story but winds up getting bogged down in personal subplots that don’t pan out; it decries violence as horrible even as it gets off on the kinetic jolt of it all; it’s big and strong, but also occasionally meandering and weak.
In the Valley of Elah: Though it killed him (really killed him), Dustin conceded that — thanks largely to Tommy Lee Jones’ impressive performance — Elah was a much better film than one might expect from Paul Haggis. “It was a ponderous, slow-moving Haggisian effort” but it also did a respectable job of depicting “the dehumanizing effects of combat, the way killing can rob you of your soul, and the difficulties of transitioning from solider to civilian life … It is, at times, a powerful film; unfortunately, much of the power comes by way of cheap manipulation and overwrought, in-your-face symbolism. A man with any sense of nuance whatsoever might have been able to create, with Mark Boal’s source material (a piece originally published in Playboy), the definitive movie of this war. As it stands, Haggis has created another more-or-less forgettable movie.”
Lust, Caution: Constance (where art thou?) writes that the film “is stubbornly long and a dark, melodramatic account of people far too skilled at deceit but fatally ill-equipped to suffer the emotional consequences of such masquerades, it still manages to be totally watchable, ” concluding that “with the rich film color, the intimate, shadow portraits and the wide panoramic shots of culturally clashed China Lust, Caution is a fortress of visual snackitude.”
Margot at the Wedding: Dan, who makes these blurbs easy, sums up Margot as such: “Margot at the Wedding is efficiently made and technically sound, but it’s so downright unlikable that no joy can be derived from viewing it except for the visual cues in the final scene that the film is about to mercifully shuffle off into the void. Margot at the Wedding is one raw pile of vitriol and doubt and pain, anchored by a protagonist neither worthy of redemption nor at any great pains to seek it.”
Michael Clayton: Dan states that Michael Clayton “is a thriller devoid of surprises but still crammed with tension. Writer-director Tony Gilroy is fantastic in his first turn as director in mining every bit of his story for emotional nuance and turning what could have been a boilerplate legal drama into a compelling story about frailty, greed, and what it means to realize too late that you’ve gone too far down a dark, bad road.
Rendition: Once again, Dan writes of Rendition: “Director Gavin Hood, in his first U.S. feature, succeeds in driving home the terrible cost of what it means to visit these acts of retribution on our enemies, and to make something foreign and impossible seem feasible and unnervingly close” and concludes “Rendition isn’t about how a society responds to torture; it’s about the fact that we shouldn’t even be doing it in the first place. Here’s hoping that message makes it safely to the right people.”
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Comments
On American Gangster
Let me put it bluntly, just so I'm clear, Daniel wouldn't know a good movie even if he was beaten to within an inch of his life with the reel....by, uh Orson Welles.
Posted by: BarbadoSlim at February 20, 2008 12:08 PM
I surprised myself by actually liking American Gangster. Sure, Denzel's performance was kind of like Training Day 2.0 (seriously, will that man ever stop screaming?), but it's all balanced out by The Brolin in a white disco suit.
Posted by: Lannie at February 20, 2008 12:17 PM
I have American Gangster sitting at home, but I have no tangible expectations of it...I expect to like it. I don't know. I'm meh about it. Wow, vocab.
Michael Clayton I watched last night, and the best part about it was Tilda Swinton. That lady scares the shit out of me...something about her face, I half expect her to burst out of the t.v. and peck me to death or regurgitate food into my mouth.
Posted by: Julie at February 20, 2008 12:19 PM
a thriller devoid of surprises
The car explosion almost made me shart a little. I sure wasn't expecting it.
Posted by: socalledonlycousins at February 20, 2008 12:36 PM
HEE! Me too, socalled.
Posted by: Julie at February 20, 2008 12:42 PM
Oh. My. God.
You friggin nailed it, Julie. Tilda Swinton is a bird-woman. She's what'd be left over if one were to pluck Big Bird - a nude, pale, shivering Tilda Swinton. Eyucko...
Posted by: Skittimus Maximus at February 20, 2008 1:06 PM
That bird woman enjoys (is that the right word?) an open marriage. She has a (much older) husband who takes care of her children while she attends awards shows and parties, and travels the world, with her 29-year-old boy toy.
Lucky bitch.
Posted by: Kolby at February 20, 2008 1:12 PM
Kolby, if you're going to toss out a juicy tidbit of gossi[, I fully expect you to follow it up with more details, such as names and links to where I can see proof of both the husband AND the boytoy. Pretty please?
Posted by: Stella at February 20, 2008 1:25 PM
There was a post about it yesterday on Celebitchy.
Posted by: Kolby at February 20, 2008 1:28 PM
*sigh* I have been buried at work since the start of the year - so I've been doing a lot of skimming of Pajiba as a few minutes of spare time pop up here and there. So much gossip I've missed.
Celebitchy, you say? I'll check it out.
Posted by: Stella at February 20, 2008 1:31 PM
That bird woman enjoys (is that the right word?) an open marriage.
I just read that yesterday! Veeery interesting. I could never do it, but good for her.
Posted by: Julie at February 20, 2008 1:48 PM
I always thought Tilda Swinton was more of a praying mantis than a bird. I think it's something about the way she holds her head and just stares.
Posted by: Sarina at February 20, 2008 2:07 PM
...like she's going to fuck and then eat you.
I get that all the time. :sobs:
Posted by: Julie at February 20, 2008 2:13 PM
Julie: You saw a film with George Clooney and the best thing about it was Tilda Swinton?
I don't care if you're gay, straight, bi or asexual, that just doesn't make sense to me.
Shakes head and walks away.
Posted by: PaddyDog at February 20, 2008 2:39 PM
Julie: You saw a film with George Clooney and the best thing about it was Tilda Swinton?
I don't care if you're gay, straight, bi or asexual, that just doesn't make sense to me.
Shakes head and walks away.
Posted by: PaddyDog at February 20, 2008 2:39 PM
Fuckin' Dell. Sorry for the double-post. I pride myself on not doing those.
Posted by: PaddyDog at February 20, 2008 2:41 PM
Hee. Paddy, The Clooney was amazing as ever and I believe spent the entire movie wearing a suit, so there was certainly no lack of love on my part. But Swinton? Was awesome.
Posted by: Julie at February 20, 2008 2:48 PM
Michael Clayton was the only one of these I saw in the theater (and one of the few for 2007). Saw it in Miami with my cousin, who is a lawyer in a big firm. Thye apparently don't have anyone in the fixer role. I loved that movie and Booker Brooks was great in it. It also had the coach from "The White Shadow" in it which is always good.
Anyone got a link to that "open marriage" piece?
Posted by: Brian at February 20, 2008 3:49 PM
I have a link and pics! Seriously, my aunt and I were ragging on her via email yesterday for the same reason - she is one scary woman! I remembered seeing this a few weeks back so I found it....I'll shut up now. Sorry.
http://www.crazydaysandnights.net/2008/02/if-you-are-bored-today.html
Posted by: jessi1974 at February 20, 2008 3:57 PM
Saw Michael Clayton about a month ago; it was pretty good. Not best movie ever good, but Clooney was good in it. Swinton, too. She is striking in a not ugly, but not quite beautiful, way. I think they frumped her up big-time for the role.
Posted by: Slash at February 20, 2008 4:32 PM
Here's the link from celebitchy: http://www.celebitchy.com/9431/tilda_swinton_has_an_open_marriage/
I'm duly impressed with her. But then again, I can't say I'm entirely surprised, given that she's a grade-A badass.
Posted by: kalexal at February 20, 2008 4:36 PM
So, this is completely off topic, but is anyone else annoyed that they took the "Releasing This Week" page away on Netflix? I do not like the new format at all.
Posted by: Miss_E at February 20, 2008 4:46 PM
Miss_E: I can't fucking STAND the new format. I've been using Amazon as a guide for what's new.
Completely completely off topic...yay, it's snowing!
Posted by: Julie at February 20, 2008 4:48 PM
Coach from The White Shadow = Ken Howard.
Do you think it's the lack of eyebrows on Tilda? I don't know how you men keep a straight face with so many crazy tweezed eyebrows in this world. Tilda Swinton, like myself, has the opposite problem- bleaching out. Seriously for some reason my eyebrows disappear in the summer and I gotta put sunscreen on them which runs into my eyes and..now I've said too much.
What's up with weirdo British relationships? Tilda Swinton and her older husband and boy toy
Ralph Fiennes and his, well, women of all ages
Naveen Andrews and Barbara Hershey and baby mama
That Bee Gee Brother with his open bi-curious wife
Maybe I'll move there when I'm 60 and wallow in my eccentricity.
Posted by: Amanda47 at February 20, 2008 4:48 PM
Naveen Andrews and Barbara Hershey and baby mama
(Spit take, wipes monitor) What?
By the way, I knew it was Ken Howard. I like seeing him in movies, even in samll parts (he was Tilda's predecessor as counsel). I jsut screwed up the italics tags.
Posted by: Brian at February 20, 2008 5:08 PM
You know, I was kind of underwhelmed. Parts of this were interesting, but it didn't come together to form a movie that was compelling or engaging. I never felt connected to the characters or the story. And I wasn't persuaded by Tilda Swinton's portrayal. For a corporate general counsel, she seemed to lack confidence (not just by sweating, but in all of her demeanor) to a level that made it hard to believe that she was in that job, and hard to believe that she would take those actions. She was much too subservient and unsure of herself, and I didn't find it plausible.
Posted by: Kate at February 26, 2008 4:39 PM
I agree with Kate, the movie was underwhelming.
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