thunderfoot1812
Jan. 2005 ist beigetreten
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Bewertung von thunderfoot1812
I too am surprised this gem currently only has 7 stars.
This movie is a perfect example of our universal shared understanding of the nature of attachment and love. The classical music score and the sound of the voices of the young actors transcend the language. The underplayed but extremely moving acting leaves us wanting to know more about these people. We are hugely on their side.
This is the antithesis of a movie chock full of plot and devices; it is rather bare-bones perfect in the references it makes. It's all done with acting and camera-work, and pacing. What we don't need we don't get. It's like a minimalist Shakespeare play.
What you *will* see are a collection of moments that just tug at your heart.
Expect this movie to stay with you for a long time.
What a great actress!
This movie is a perfect example of our universal shared understanding of the nature of attachment and love. The classical music score and the sound of the voices of the young actors transcend the language. The underplayed but extremely moving acting leaves us wanting to know more about these people. We are hugely on their side.
This is the antithesis of a movie chock full of plot and devices; it is rather bare-bones perfect in the references it makes. It's all done with acting and camera-work, and pacing. What we don't need we don't get. It's like a minimalist Shakespeare play.
What you *will* see are a collection of moments that just tug at your heart.
Expect this movie to stay with you for a long time.
What a great actress!
I recommend this movie based on excellent performances, a quirky, moody, suspenseful feel very well supported by unusual and highly effective music, and excellent cinematography.
This is a "small" movie in that it is based on clearly defined scenes, separated by time and geography, juxtaposed together to let the story unfold. The screenplay's roots in Bob Meyers's original play are clear.
The movie is also understated, leaving some of the work to your imagination. I like this in a movie, but others might find it unsatisfying. This understatement allows a delightful kind of organic humor to creep in from time to time, and allows suspense to build as well. Good job with this quirky directing style!
Several of the scenes between the John Goodman character and his business partner had the feel of two veteran actors sitting in front of a camera and improvising: "You are two sleazy hustlers that have worked together for a long time, but one of you is having second thoughts. Act!" They did a nice job with these scenes. Unfortunately, I dunno, to my mind all of those scenes after the important opening of the movie might better have been left on the cutting room floor. (Or, else at least include the other resolving scenes that would have let them actually mean something.) Certainly I would cut everything having to do with the partner's son and son's girlfriend, which added nothing, and had nothing at all to do with the rest of the movie.
John Malkovich was excellent. With him the movie is intriguing, and suspenseful. You cannot tell what is going on in his head (is he a brain-fried drunk, or is he in control, perceiving much that he is not letting on? Is he going to take action leading to violence?), but you WANT to try to figure it out. Without his stellar central performance, the movie would risk not hanging together at all. Yay to the Vietnam reminiscence scene with the chickens!
All of the performances in the movie were good (save perhaps the son's friend who had a small part and was passable). All of the acting was underplayed and subtle. Everyone was believable.
Much of the magic of the movie came from the mix of the unusual, but unusually effective, music, mixed with the brooding, darkly ethereal, cinematography. No schmaltzy rehashed formula strings with repetitive piano plonks here. Much attention was paid to instrumentation (steel drums? overtone-laden bronze prayer bowls?) and the effective use of space in the music to build suspense. The music, the sound, the camera angles, the overall mood in the camera-work did much to focus our attention on the meaning of the performances. Outstanding!
The *look* of the movie was also excellent. Even the pan-overview of a brick bungalow in Morton Grove gave us the feel something was going to happen. Be alert! The collage of old rotten boat-bottoms, mud, ancient house-trailer interiors, Southside Chicago expressways at night, rivers, power-lines, bars, and so on really captured the perfect mix between a real close-up view of Chicago, and the magical, beautiful, world of cinema.
I might have chosen a different ending, but in the interest of no spoilers, I'll not say more.
One theme about the movie stands out: "Non-judgemental." In this particular way it had echos of Van Sant's "Drugstore Cowboy" -- and I mean that association to be high praise.
In short, this is a quirky, small, suspenseful movie that leaves plenty of room for the viewer's imagination, with outstanding music, with excellent cinematography and camera-work, and with some outstanding performances. It is probably not for everyone, but well worth it for the someone wanting to see, and hear, something unusual.
NOTE: A year later I am adding this footnote. This turns out to be one of those strange and wonderful movies from which the images haunt you a long time. I am very disappointed that it has not been released in theaters. Many movies have come and gone in my mind's eye since I saw this gem, but while they have faded, the images from this movie are still with me. Good job!
This is a "small" movie in that it is based on clearly defined scenes, separated by time and geography, juxtaposed together to let the story unfold. The screenplay's roots in Bob Meyers's original play are clear.
The movie is also understated, leaving some of the work to your imagination. I like this in a movie, but others might find it unsatisfying. This understatement allows a delightful kind of organic humor to creep in from time to time, and allows suspense to build as well. Good job with this quirky directing style!
Several of the scenes between the John Goodman character and his business partner had the feel of two veteran actors sitting in front of a camera and improvising: "You are two sleazy hustlers that have worked together for a long time, but one of you is having second thoughts. Act!" They did a nice job with these scenes. Unfortunately, I dunno, to my mind all of those scenes after the important opening of the movie might better have been left on the cutting room floor. (Or, else at least include the other resolving scenes that would have let them actually mean something.) Certainly I would cut everything having to do with the partner's son and son's girlfriend, which added nothing, and had nothing at all to do with the rest of the movie.
John Malkovich was excellent. With him the movie is intriguing, and suspenseful. You cannot tell what is going on in his head (is he a brain-fried drunk, or is he in control, perceiving much that he is not letting on? Is he going to take action leading to violence?), but you WANT to try to figure it out. Without his stellar central performance, the movie would risk not hanging together at all. Yay to the Vietnam reminiscence scene with the chickens!
All of the performances in the movie were good (save perhaps the son's friend who had a small part and was passable). All of the acting was underplayed and subtle. Everyone was believable.
Much of the magic of the movie came from the mix of the unusual, but unusually effective, music, mixed with the brooding, darkly ethereal, cinematography. No schmaltzy rehashed formula strings with repetitive piano plonks here. Much attention was paid to instrumentation (steel drums? overtone-laden bronze prayer bowls?) and the effective use of space in the music to build suspense. The music, the sound, the camera angles, the overall mood in the camera-work did much to focus our attention on the meaning of the performances. Outstanding!
The *look* of the movie was also excellent. Even the pan-overview of a brick bungalow in Morton Grove gave us the feel something was going to happen. Be alert! The collage of old rotten boat-bottoms, mud, ancient house-trailer interiors, Southside Chicago expressways at night, rivers, power-lines, bars, and so on really captured the perfect mix between a real close-up view of Chicago, and the magical, beautiful, world of cinema.
I might have chosen a different ending, but in the interest of no spoilers, I'll not say more.
One theme about the movie stands out: "Non-judgemental." In this particular way it had echos of Van Sant's "Drugstore Cowboy" -- and I mean that association to be high praise.
In short, this is a quirky, small, suspenseful movie that leaves plenty of room for the viewer's imagination, with outstanding music, with excellent cinematography and camera-work, and with some outstanding performances. It is probably not for everyone, but well worth it for the someone wanting to see, and hear, something unusual.
NOTE: A year later I am adding this footnote. This turns out to be one of those strange and wonderful movies from which the images haunt you a long time. I am very disappointed that it has not been released in theaters. Many movies have come and gone in my mind's eye since I saw this gem, but while they have faded, the images from this movie are still with me. Good job!
O.K. Here is the deal. I am a normal guy. I watch football. I run marathons sometimes. I fix my car. I only intended to glance at this movie to see if it would be appropriate for my five-year-old. I ended up staying for the whole movie.
During the flying scenes, with the perfectly-suited Galic music cheering us on in the background, I had tears of purest joy streaming down my face from the, raw, visceral emotion of it. I thought of Gerard Manley Hopkins and the Windhover: "The dapple-dawn-drawn falcon in his riding .../.. High there, how he rung upon the rein of a wimpling wing In his ecstasy! then off, off forth on swing" Perfect movie making. I have to say, I've seen nothing like these scenes, and I cry at movies every, I dunno, twenty years or so?
Let's be clear: this is an animated movie for kids. The story is straightforward, at the level that, yes, my five-year-old will understand. The music is very good. The story-animation is so well done that it just falls into the background as the story unfolds. It is not "artful" in the way of, say, Miyazaki, but it is still wildly creative and yields a magical world of ocean, rugged northern lands, and forest. The animation of the physics of flight and motion, and the details of emotional expression are exceptional. The voice actors are interesting, and without the sappy voices, and contrived humor we have found in some other recent animated movies. There is no pretense here of the movie trying to be something it is not. There are inconsistencies in the accents, and holes in the plot if you care to look. But, and this is the important but, the story, and especially the *experience* of this movie transcends both the genre and its shortcomings. Even if it is just for the highlights as one is soaring above ocean and earth on the back of a dragon, this is a movie for way more than just kids.
At the end of the movie, most everyone cheered, and half stood up and cheered, which I also have not seen before.
I recommend this movie as genre art that is exceptionally well done, an uplifting evening's entertainment. You MUST see it in 3D! Yaaaaayyyy! Who-hoooh!
During the flying scenes, with the perfectly-suited Galic music cheering us on in the background, I had tears of purest joy streaming down my face from the, raw, visceral emotion of it. I thought of Gerard Manley Hopkins and the Windhover: "The dapple-dawn-drawn falcon in his riding .../.. High there, how he rung upon the rein of a wimpling wing In his ecstasy! then off, off forth on swing" Perfect movie making. I have to say, I've seen nothing like these scenes, and I cry at movies every, I dunno, twenty years or so?
Let's be clear: this is an animated movie for kids. The story is straightforward, at the level that, yes, my five-year-old will understand. The music is very good. The story-animation is so well done that it just falls into the background as the story unfolds. It is not "artful" in the way of, say, Miyazaki, but it is still wildly creative and yields a magical world of ocean, rugged northern lands, and forest. The animation of the physics of flight and motion, and the details of emotional expression are exceptional. The voice actors are interesting, and without the sappy voices, and contrived humor we have found in some other recent animated movies. There is no pretense here of the movie trying to be something it is not. There are inconsistencies in the accents, and holes in the plot if you care to look. But, and this is the important but, the story, and especially the *experience* of this movie transcends both the genre and its shortcomings. Even if it is just for the highlights as one is soaring above ocean and earth on the back of a dragon, this is a movie for way more than just kids.
At the end of the movie, most everyone cheered, and half stood up and cheered, which I also have not seen before.
I recommend this movie as genre art that is exceptionally well done, an uplifting evening's entertainment. You MUST see it in 3D! Yaaaaayyyy! Who-hoooh!