please, please say you have
posted by stella at 10:38 AM
03 November 2006
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- one place you'd like predictability
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- when a cat is not a cat.
- just goes to show 'good' means something different...
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5 Comments:
I've seen it. I dug it. But it was oddly obsessed with cell phones.
I know it was a version of the foreign film INFERNAL AFFAIRS, but John Le Carre's SPY WHO CAME IN FROM THE COLD mined this same ground decades ago.
I was afraid for Alec Baldwin's health during that one. (He looks like he lived soley on Scotch, donuts and summer sausage during the filming.) I thought DiCaprio's angst and disconnection was too much early on but quite effective by the end. (I suppose that's proper. His character was acting early than genuinely felt it.) I thought Matt Damon played a good jackass. I thought Nicholson was perfectly cast as Nicholson. I thought the FBI angle at the end was a bit much, but maybe that and all the conclusive carnage was part of the "What's the difference?" shrug in the opening moments.
Or maybe it was all part of Scorsese's kissoff to Hollywood (as he says he doesn't want to make those films anymore).
Anyway, I enjoyed it. I kind of wish it was longer.
-cK
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Oooh, we saw this last week and loved it. We walked away from the movie with almost no negative comments. I won't ruin it for those who haven't seen it, but it didn't end the normal "Hollywood" way - and I appreciated the shock.
The best bit for me was the vitriolic banter between Mark Wahlberg and Alec Baldwin. On the edge of forced, but just on the edge - I actually believed the conversations between the two characters were truly mean spirited, but on the cusp of playing, where a real fight could break out and someone's teeth were going to get broken. After which they'd go for a beer.
So Stella - what did you think? Likes? Disikes?
(aside: cK, Rays says to read Black Mass, an account of Whitey Bulger - that's who Nicholson was based on.)
Saw Running with Scissors last night. Recommended to all. Bening is just incredible; her drug-induced speech is some of the best slur ever.
The Queen was also just amazing - a must see. Helen Mirren can do no wrong (much like Judy Dench - she didn't even suck in The Chronicles of Riddick where she was surrounded by mediocrity and absurdity).
Ooh, alright. I liked it too. A lot. I haven't seen Le Carre's film, but I'm betting it was missing the amazing work by Motorola that featured heavily in The Departed.
I thought the film was wonderfully written. I believed the dialogue between Baldwin and Wahlberg too, and the interactions among the gangsters and the cops was believable. Okay, if not believable in the real world, at least in my suspended-disbelief world.
I'm also thinking that DiCaprio might deserve to be nominated for awards for this performance. His tension was palpable, but his delivery was absolutely even-keeled - handy that we get exactly that spelled out for us in a scene with the psychiatrist, but whatever. I loved it nonetheless. He was stellar.
The reason I wanted to chat about this was that I don't know that I appreciate Scorsese the way I "ought" to. I hated Casino and The Aviator, I was disappointed with Gangs of New York, and the rest of his work is spotty for me, at best. I can't believe I'm admitting this, but I just don't get the Scorsese-fest. But I'd really like to know what I'm missing.
So, what am I missing? Not in the actors. Not in the stories. In his directing. This is a conversation better had over beer, dontcha think?
Love to tip one with you and chat movies, but two things, I just had my Monday night limit (one) and I live in our Southern-most state. That said, I have to agree with you. I think there are Golden Scorsese moments: Raging Bull, Taxi Driver (whoa creepy), The Cape Fear (mostly due to the actors). But then there's The Age of Innocence. Guh. And Kundun (yawn - I think I'm thinking of the right movie here - it was a while ago...). I believe movies like Goodfellas and Casino got a lot of attention and were called "good" because they were shocking - content we hadn't really seen in the general masses. Glam actors being really messy and unattractive (clap clap, give her an Oscar), but I don't know how much of the success goes to the director in these cases, what about the screenwriter, the actors, the editors? I don't know, I'm talking out of my butt. Maybe I'd be more coherent with a beer in my hand.
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