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Primer, Crash, Bostonians
Aug. 22nd, 2005 07:24 amSo, I saw Primer at the
weekend. Mainstream reviews have been generally baffled (though the
Guardian liked it), because although it's clearly science fiction, it
was shot on a budget of about 50p and involves no special effects at
all. Also no bug-eyed monsters, rockets, rayguns, etc, etc. Visually,
and also for sheer geekiness, it reminded me of Pi;
it isn't actually in black and white, but feels as though it is, if
that makes any sense. Plot-wise, it's a time-travel movie, and I'm
going to tell you nothing else for fear of spoiling it.
My personal scale of movie reviews runs from "I want my 90 minutes back" to "As the credits rolled I went outside, bought a new ticket and went in again". This is the first film since Memento that I've wanted to watch again immediately. You must see this film, and probably more than once (it gets a bit tricky to follow towards the end).
Other stuff: Crash. Somehow I'd formed the impression that this was going to be a mediocre film (there are racial tensions in LA; who would have guessed?), but I saw it anyway, and it's a good deal better and more subtle than that. Mind you, I'm a sucker for huge ensemble million-stories-in-the-big-city pieces -- I liked Magnolia and Short Cuts, too. The plot has to be made to jump through hoops to get all those characters into the right places at the right times, but there is Actual Proper Acting on display (as opposed to, say, Fantastic Four, about which the less said the better), and this film rates at least as high as "will gladly watch again when it's on TV".
And lastly, the Boston-and-Impressionism show at the Royal Academy. I liked it, but have nothing useful or interesting to say about it (what else is new, you mutter). To steal a much older review: those who like this sort of thing will find that this is the sort of thing which they like. Also, those who have been to the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston will find that this is the sort of thing which they have already seen, since that's where all the paintings came from.
My personal scale of movie reviews runs from "I want my 90 minutes back" to "As the credits rolled I went outside, bought a new ticket and went in again". This is the first film since Memento that I've wanted to watch again immediately. You must see this film, and probably more than once (it gets a bit tricky to follow towards the end).
Other stuff: Crash. Somehow I'd formed the impression that this was going to be a mediocre film (there are racial tensions in LA; who would have guessed?), but I saw it anyway, and it's a good deal better and more subtle than that. Mind you, I'm a sucker for huge ensemble million-stories-in-the-big-city pieces -- I liked Magnolia and Short Cuts, too. The plot has to be made to jump through hoops to get all those characters into the right places at the right times, but there is Actual Proper Acting on display (as opposed to, say, Fantastic Four, about which the less said the better), and this film rates at least as high as "will gladly watch again when it's on TV".
And lastly, the Boston-and-Impressionism show at the Royal Academy. I liked it, but have nothing useful or interesting to say about it (what else is new, you mutter). To steal a much older review: those who like this sort of thing will find that this is the sort of thing which they like. Also, those who have been to the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston will find that this is the sort of thing which they have already seen, since that's where all the paintings came from.
