Rust and Bone
Here's a pretty fair review. I really only went to this film because the director's last work was A Prophet, which was great. This one has a similar sense of style to the earlier one - lots of dreamlike, almost impressionistic, imagery and wordless interludes - but lacks the narrative push. Really for being such a high-concept film (orca trainer gets legs bitten off and falls in love with a street fighter) not much happens. Its pretty content with just letting the relationship play out in a muted and unhurried pace, and (until the ending) no overt dramatics and histrionics. On balance I think it generally works, but I can easily see viewers being really annoyed and possibly bored by the pacing and lack of clear resolution. You really have to be in the right kind of mood for this type of film. Its not non-linear like The Tree of Life, just very mannered and matter of fact while avoiding the obvious emotional beats (until the aforementioned ending where it forces in too neat of a resolution). I don't know if this means you should check it out, but I can say I wasn't bored and much of it did stick with me.
Zero dark thirty
This film on the other was pretty much a straight adrenaline rush from the beginning to end. Chronicling the ten year hunt, and killing, of Osama Bin Laden, Zero Dark Thirty focuses on one CIA analyst who pursues the terrorist for over a decade. I appreciated that the film avoided making any large statements, and I think the criticism leveled at it over its portrayal of torture has been misplaced. I didn't get the sense it was glorifying the practice, and to not acknowledge that it happened would have been completely disingenuous. I I also think the criticism of its lack of politics is misguided. The film is pretty narrowly focused on the mechanics of what happened and not more. While its true that a more political tact might have given the film more dramatic oomph (that's a technical term), it would have distracted from what I think director Katherine Bigelow was trying to do.
Its not perfect, and it surprisingly lacks the tension of any of the bomb-defusing scenes in Bigelow's previous film The Hurt Locker, but overall its still entertaining. Really the thing that threw me off the most was the casting of Chris Pratt (Parks and Rec's Andy Dwyer) as one of the SEAL team. It's not that he does a bad job but every time I saw him onscreen all I could think was BERT MACKLIN FBI! It was actually really distracting. But anyway, this is a well executed thriller, and Jessica Chastain does a nice job with a fairly underwritten lead character. Its not the best picture of the year, but then not everything can be Cabin in the Woods.
Here's a pretty fair review. I really only went to this film because the director's last work was A Prophet, which was great. This one has a similar sense of style to the earlier one - lots of dreamlike, almost impressionistic, imagery and wordless interludes - but lacks the narrative push. Really for being such a high-concept film (orca trainer gets legs bitten off and falls in love with a street fighter) not much happens. Its pretty content with just letting the relationship play out in a muted and unhurried pace, and (until the ending) no overt dramatics and histrionics. On balance I think it generally works, but I can easily see viewers being really annoyed and possibly bored by the pacing and lack of clear resolution. You really have to be in the right kind of mood for this type of film. Its not non-linear like The Tree of Life, just very mannered and matter of fact while avoiding the obvious emotional beats (until the aforementioned ending where it forces in too neat of a resolution). I don't know if this means you should check it out, but I can say I wasn't bored and much of it did stick with me.
Zero dark thirty
This film on the other was pretty much a straight adrenaline rush from the beginning to end. Chronicling the ten year hunt, and killing, of Osama Bin Laden, Zero Dark Thirty focuses on one CIA analyst who pursues the terrorist for over a decade. I appreciated that the film avoided making any large statements, and I think the criticism leveled at it over its portrayal of torture has been misplaced. I didn't get the sense it was glorifying the practice, and to not acknowledge that it happened would have been completely disingenuous. I I also think the criticism of its lack of politics is misguided. The film is pretty narrowly focused on the mechanics of what happened and not more. While its true that a more political tact might have given the film more dramatic oomph (that's a technical term), it would have distracted from what I think director Katherine Bigelow was trying to do.
Its not perfect, and it surprisingly lacks the tension of any of the bomb-defusing scenes in Bigelow's previous film The Hurt Locker, but overall its still entertaining. Really the thing that threw me off the most was the casting of Chris Pratt (Parks and Rec's Andy Dwyer) as one of the SEAL team. It's not that he does a bad job but every time I saw him onscreen all I could think was BERT MACKLIN FBI! It was actually really distracting. But anyway, this is a well executed thriller, and Jessica Chastain does a nice job with a fairly underwritten lead character. Its not the best picture of the year, but then not everything can be Cabin in the Woods.
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