'Second chances are rare, man. You ought to take better advantage of them.'
You'd really think that after the frantic hassle with the Oscars last year, I'd finally try to be a sensible person this year and set myself a feasible pace. I didn't. As a result, there's only three days left, and I still got to watch nine movies, review more than half a dozen already-watched ones and write a pre-Oscar report. A freaking disaster, if you ask me.
Ok, whining won't get me anywhere (no matter how good it might feel). Actually doing something will. Thus the following:
Bill Condon's 'Dreamgirls'
Frankly, I expected more. The movie is not bad, really, just, well, not good enough. The story did go through some clumsy moments and had a total of zero unexpected twists, but it certainly is redeemed by the characters who, while not terribly original, don't bow to the closest stereotype at hand either, especially Jennifer Hudson's Effie, who I'd thought was going to be A Wronged Woman With The Heart of Gold, and instead shined as A Wronged Primadonna. A much-preferred option, I'd say. Now, about the songs, some were genuinely good (like 'Love You I Do'), some were borderline corny (like 'Family'). On the whole, as the musicals go, it's no 'Cabaret'. About two thirds of 'Chicago', perhaps.
Steven Soderbergh's 'The Good German'
God, that was boring. And about as subtle as a mid-size anvil. It shoots at noir, but the characters are nowhere near complex enough for the movie the pull the genre off. I'm pretty sure the black/white thing was intended as a classy touch but it came out as pretentious. And the naive over-simplification, the sin that American filmmakers commit almost every time they try to take on European history, jars here more than usually (yes, I'm generalizing here, quite arrogantly at that, but I'm pretty pissed right now so I'm allowed). Really, the movie had Clooney, Blanchett and Maguire on its side. That's what I call a waste.
Soderbergh, seriously, what's wrong with you? Remember 'Traffic'? 'Erin Brokovich', perhaps? Does 'Ocean's Eleven' ring any bells? These are your movies. You made them. And they were good. Man up and give me another one.
Ryan Fleck's 'Half Nelson'
Ryan Gosling is a hotass. In that edgy, not-exactly-pretty, half-crazed way of his. And he really can act, a very welcome bonus.
The movie definitely wins on the acting front, with all the performances very nicely tunes (kudos to young Miss Epps here) but it's also very strong story-wise. It might not be the livelier piece of storytelling known to man but what I definitely liked about the plot is that it doesn't go the well-trodden, easy way of Great Redemption. The story goes through a circle and basically leaves the characters in the same place they started out. They are just not the same people, because something happened, something shifted on the way. And, even without that, with every passing moment every taken breath, they are already different. Really, a very good piece of moviemaking.
With that out of the way, let's talk dialectics. I've always been a great fan of that outlook, especially in Hegel's version. I practically adopted it as my personal worldview. Hegel might in fact be my very favorite philosopher just for that, for his picture of the universe as a dynamic process fueled by contradiction, which I consider the fullest, the most fitting description of the universe, presented in modern philosophy.
Huh. Wikipedia claims that 'the concept of dialectics is said to be threatening to existing power structures and is thus not taught in public schools'. That shit for real? Seriously, America, I'm really trying to give you a fair chance most of the time and not ridicule without basis, but with the material you keep giving me, you're not so likely to get a reprieve anytime soon.
Also, during all the time Ryan Gosling spent on introducing the kids into a pretty simple idea of dialectics, a Polish teacher would cover at least two historical epochs. Now, please someone tell me why Poland, a country with a vastly superior educational system, is the economic back-row of Europe and it's the USA that rules the world? The logic here is lost on me.
.
Ok, whining won't get me anywhere (no matter how good it might feel). Actually doing something will. Thus the following:
Bill Condon's 'Dreamgirls'
Frankly, I expected more. The movie is not bad, really, just, well, not good enough. The story did go through some clumsy moments and had a total of zero unexpected twists, but it certainly is redeemed by the characters who, while not terribly original, don't bow to the closest stereotype at hand either, especially Jennifer Hudson's Effie, who I'd thought was going to be A Wronged Woman With The Heart of Gold, and instead shined as A Wronged Primadonna. A much-preferred option, I'd say. Now, about the songs, some were genuinely good (like 'Love You I Do'), some were borderline corny (like 'Family'). On the whole, as the musicals go, it's no 'Cabaret'. About two thirds of 'Chicago', perhaps.
Steven Soderbergh's 'The Good German'
God, that was boring. And about as subtle as a mid-size anvil. It shoots at noir, but the characters are nowhere near complex enough for the movie the pull the genre off. I'm pretty sure the black/white thing was intended as a classy touch but it came out as pretentious. And the naive over-simplification, the sin that American filmmakers commit almost every time they try to take on European history, jars here more than usually (yes, I'm generalizing here, quite arrogantly at that, but I'm pretty pissed right now so I'm allowed). Really, the movie had Clooney, Blanchett and Maguire on its side. That's what I call a waste.
Soderbergh, seriously, what's wrong with you? Remember 'Traffic'? 'Erin Brokovich', perhaps? Does 'Ocean's Eleven' ring any bells? These are your movies. You made them. And they were good. Man up and give me another one.
Ryan Fleck's 'Half Nelson'
Ryan Gosling is a hotass. In that edgy, not-exactly-pretty, half-crazed way of his. And he really can act, a very welcome bonus.
The movie definitely wins on the acting front, with all the performances very nicely tunes (kudos to young Miss Epps here) but it's also very strong story-wise. It might not be the livelier piece of storytelling known to man but what I definitely liked about the plot is that it doesn't go the well-trodden, easy way of Great Redemption. The story goes through a circle and basically leaves the characters in the same place they started out. They are just not the same people, because something happened, something shifted on the way. And, even without that, with every passing moment every taken breath, they are already different. Really, a very good piece of moviemaking.
With that out of the way, let's talk dialectics. I've always been a great fan of that outlook, especially in Hegel's version. I practically adopted it as my personal worldview. Hegel might in fact be my very favorite philosopher just for that, for his picture of the universe as a dynamic process fueled by contradiction, which I consider the fullest, the most fitting description of the universe, presented in modern philosophy.
Huh. Wikipedia claims that 'the concept of dialectics is said to be threatening to existing power structures and is thus not taught in public schools'. That shit for real? Seriously, America, I'm really trying to give you a fair chance most of the time and not ridicule without basis, but with the material you keep giving me, you're not so likely to get a reprieve anytime soon.
Also, during all the time Ryan Gosling spent on introducing the kids into a pretty simple idea of dialectics, a Polish teacher would cover at least two historical epochs. Now, please someone tell me why Poland, a country with a vastly superior educational system, is the economic back-row of Europe and it's the USA that rules the world? The logic here is lost on me.
.