Primer, Crash, Bostonians
Aug. 22nd, 2005 07:24 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
example22So, 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.
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no subject
Date: 2005-08-23 03:51 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-08-23 09:23 pm (UTC)R6 I haven't listened to (BBC7, on the other hand, I'm a big fan of). Any shows you'd recommend?
no subject
Date: 2005-08-23 10:00 pm (UTC)Andrew Collins was a bad fit in drivetime (though now they have Lamacq and I'm not convinced it's an improvement) but his Sunday show has had some amusing interviews with lesser lights of the codger indie scene (think, e.g.: wossisname from Carter The Unstoppable Sex Machine) and Marc Riley can throw up some interesting stuff too.
So thinking about it, what I tend to like is not so much the music(*) (though the breakfast show is pretty much guaranteed a Coldplay-free zone :D ) but the chit-chat from an assortment of amusing and decaying Fifty Quid Men (and women). You can download a podcast of a week's collected chitchat here and see what you think.
(*) We've set up the Bug to record a couple of latenight R1 shows and Dave Green's weekly 6M breakfast guest slot.