Rage

I just cannot understand why this film has been made. Why did such esteemed and brilliant actors contribute to this film! The film is only just over 1hr 30 minutes but felt like hours. There is nothing I cannot say that is good about this film. It was not at all interesting in my opinion.

RAGE is certainly not a movie for everyone. I could see how it would make some people very angry, and I am sure many people walked out of this. However, being an actor myself, watching these performances in their most intimate and raw presentation was nothing short of brilliant. Sure, there are a few flaws, but the truth behind the film is good acting can and SHOULD stand alone. All you really need is a great actor, and a camera pointed at them. It's a series of monologues given by some of the best actors out there. The performances that stood out to me most were: Judi Dench of course, John Lequizamo (who gives perhaps his best performance here), Bob Balaban (who is both hilarious and heartbreaking), Dianne Weist (who can do no wrong), Riz Ahmed (who I didn't know before this and hope to see again), and finally the best of all Adriana Barraza! You should rent/buy this movie just for her monologue about desiring to be invisible. Its a strange little film. But also a brilliant one.

Sally Potter's "Rage" is a very unconventional picture in so many ways to I was attracted and impressed with the concept put together of having a story with a talented group of actors and how to make they perform in solitary close-ups and in monologues that actually makes a full play where they are all connected despite never appearing on the same shot. I was curious by the whole thing and it becomes of the most interesting film experiences of recent years, and it also goes for the plot of what she wanted to tell us: to deal with the crazed and glamourous world of fashion - something you don't see these days (with the notable exception of "Ready to Wear" and I'll go back to present a harsh comparison of both).

The story and concept presented: it revolves a huge fashion where a group of characters from all walks of life are directly or indirectly involved with. An all-star cast were well-chosen by Potter: Dianne Wiest, Jude Law, Eddie Izzard, Bob Balaban, John Leguizamo, Steve Buscemi, Patrick J. Adams, Riz Ahmed, Adriana Barraza, David Oyelowo, Judi Dench and a few more are part of this unusual art project and they play characters as distinct as a rebel photographer, a tough security guard, a diva-like drag model, an organizer of the event, a delivery guy, a fashion agent and many others, each with their individual characteristics that can go from being nice people or really arrogant figures or they can change their ways as the events pass by - and they do pass by which revolves a tragic incident and each react in unexpected ways reaching out to the point of despair, fear, or simply rage.

Like said before, they don't interact with each other, they simply look at the camera in great looking close-up shots or sometimes moving around frantically, and as for background each actor/character has a colour design behind them, no props or almost anything is used. So, they're all alone delivering their monologues interacting with an invisible blogger who's covering the fashion show and the tragedy.

Sounds boring, right? Totally. Yet Ms. Potter manages to create a film/play where the actors performance and characters speaks great volumes with their own personas that the movie is anything but boring, exhausting or pretentious. You feel the action, the humor, the drama and the intensity of all so you're hooked through the whole experience. And as for the story and it meanders it's an honest view of the fashion world and all the parties involved going from models, managers, photographers, and the people from behind the scenes. Vanity, vanity, all is vanity; and there's the crudeness between those who have against those who have not, the unfair treatment workers have, the arrogance displayed by people who want to grow in such scenario by hurting people's feelings and backstabbing each other is a common place (but truth be told those issues goes on other working places as well). A dog-eat-dog world where even a death is view as something worthy of admiration and fascination rather than the sadness of the act.

You don't get to see what happens except for the static play format so a lot of what happens you have to exercise the power of imagination. And that's where I get my criticism against Altman's "Ready to Wear". That movie had a spectacular ensemble, it was filmed in Paris during the Fashion Week, it had cameos for many supermodels of the 1990's, and you the visual and the lux speaking great volumes. Was it a good movie? Absolutely not. That was a comedy of errors that had no balls to criticise the fashion world or something say good about it, so it goes all too crazed to appeal to all audiences yet it didn't get anything worthy of view. It was revolting in so many levels that it's beyond belief. "Rage" on the other hand, with the similtarity of an all-star cast takes the same environment without actually showing it yet there's magic, intelligence and creativity. I simply loved, specially the performances of practically everybody (Wiest, Law, Izzard, Ahmed and Buscemi are my favorite) - except for an unfamiliar face who got a nasty role and it didn't feel he was a professional actor, he was way over the top.

More than entertainment, movies are an artistic experience that reflect the times we live on. It must have a speech, a message, an intent even if it's just make us laugh or cry, to feel frightened or in pain. It must hit through your head and your heart, and if possible to make you connect with the world in a different way, see the world in a different light and cause a positive reaction on you to the point you can change your actions, reflect on what you're doing and with luck, you are transformed. Only a handful of films can aspire to that, and maybe I'm seeing a lot more in "Rage" than what people can actually find - and it's low rating is a proof of that. But trust me, I felt connected with it, I've seen a technique that I hadn't seen before and the concept worked. It's not a masterpiece, there are some flaws in it but it got real close of a spetacle to the senses, and since it got close I have nothing but admiration for it. 8/10.

I understand why it was created for phone viewers.. good idea but poorly executed

in classical Chinese painting, what gets left out of the composition is of crucial importance. potter's "rage" omits quite a few of the compositional elements we take for granted as essential in modern cinema - a bold move in a world dominated by Hollywood tropes and CGI. "rage" isn't what i'd call an experimental film, it's a film produced with an acute awareness of cinema as a super-saturated medium, in which the audience already knows all there is to be known. there are no new stories to be told; no killings which haven't been shown, no motivation which remains unexplored, no new formulas. but this literate, knowledgeable and sophisticated modern audience produces a space which can be activated by leaving things out, rather than putting things in. potter knows that all she needs to do is map out a bare structure, with sumptuous color and first rate actors, and all the rest of the work can be played out of the expectations we all bring to bear on the cinema experience. "rage" is a who-done-it, with andy warhol's "screen test" film series operating in the background, dressed with a kind of glossy-magazine-photoshopped look in which everyone's irises are a suspiciously similar sci-fi hue, and with a nice little twist in the end which implicates us, the passive viewers. i thought one of the most surprising things about the movie was the palpable "rage" expressed in other reviews on this site. we react like addicts when the sugar-candy experience of having everything laid out for our adrenal stimulation is withheld. this isn't a movie about the fashion industry, its about the modern obsession with surface, with effects, and its background theme is intensely political. it's characters are ciphers for the main players in the infotainment infiltrated everyday world, the businessmen, the celebrities, the wannabes, the innocents, the jaded old-hands, the haves and the have-nots. for those who were disappointed by this work, who weren't fascinated by watching, up close, great actors working, i sincerely hope michael bay's next SFX blockbusta isn't too far away. . .