girmo2003

This movie is one of the most pretentious pieces of crap I have ever seen in my entire life. I get the end. It even makes a bit of sense. But who cares? At no point did I ever feel emotionally for any of the characters except perhaps the Justin Theroux character. But I can't say that I cared about the women at all.

Lynch obviously was hoping to affect me somehow, but I left the theatre unaffected. The only interesting thing in the film is the scene with "No hay banda" and that great version of "Crying." The rest isn't so much boring as tiresome. I became irritated. It's so convoluted and nonsensical. And YES, it makes sense if one thinks about it for a while, but I it doesn't make me care about the characters or the situations.

The BMW Film series films are all excellent. I particularly appreciate the humor of "Star" and the sensitivity and awareness of "Powder Keg," but "The Follow" seems to stand out as the best film of them all. The Driver seems more relaxed and perhaps more together in this of all of the films. He starts out detached, coldly explaining the best way to tail someone, but becomes human, identifying with the heroine and allowing justice to be served. Amazingly all accomplished in 6 minutes. Clive Owen is great as always and Forest Whitaker is affecting in an unbilled performance. 9/10

O is a retelling of Shakespeare's classic play with high-schoolers as our heroes and villains... and I have to say that it actually works. High school, a source of much drama and angst seems like the perfect place to set a story about mistrust and jealousy and gossip. The writer also sets the tale in the world of high school basketball. This works well for the story too. Things that wouldn't seem important to most people become incredibly important to high school jocks: suspensions, MVP trophies, etc.

The violence is another thing altogether. The story must be violent if it is to follow the path of Shakespeare. Does the director convince us that these teenagers are capable of such violence? He does. Too easily. All of the violence in the story is easily believed. O has a few problems, though. A) The acting is not really that great, with the exception of Mekhi Phifer and Josh Hartnett. Martin Sheen's performance is downright laughable. B) Some of the high school type "drama" is mostly laughable as well. The rest of it works, in my opinion. The relationship between Duke and Hugo becomes one of real interest. The relationships between the "boys" are especially interesting. Tim Blake Nelson does an excellent job of exploring the Upper class white family and the detachment that exists there. The teenagers at this prep school have too much money and too little parental involvement. The director also continually reminds us of O's race, with startling results. Phifer's Odin is the only Black student in the school. Race is an issue, and Nelson makes it one. The driving force in the movie is Josh Hartnett's Hugo character, though. Why does he do what he does? He never tells.

If you can stomach all of the high school angst, O is worth seeing for what it says about the White middle class youth. Shakespeare still can sell a screenplay even though he's been gone 400 years. 6/10