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It's absolutely PTA's least approachable film (even beyond The Master), and I think it might be his best. I hold him to a high standard compared to other directors and yet I was simply floored by this movie. Talk about a fantastic collaboration. Time to listen to Can.
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Jan 10, 2015 03:38
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No Wave posted:Honestly the trailers make it look like crap and I really don't want to look at Joaquin Phoenix's unlikeable loving face for two and a half hours (two Januaries running!). It's remarkable how much The Master ended up bringing PT Anderson's reputation down - remember how last time his new movie was supposed to be the greatest poo poo ever, and it took like weeks/months/years to accept that it wasn't? Nice troll.
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Jan 10, 2015 06:14
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DetoxP posted:Actually, I can probably review this using the exact same review I used for Snowpiercer: This is easily the director's worst film, but if this is your worst film, you're a pretty drat good director. Although this will likely benefit on a rewatch, assuming that you either catch the plot the 2nd time around or stop trying entirely. I'm more disappointed in how stale the film feels visually at times - it looks good, but I'm surprised Anderson went for such a static look on what should be one of his zanier movies. A busy camera would've improved the film immeasurably. Admittedly, it would've made it harder for people to follow the plot and dialogue - but that's a lost cause anyways. Man, I couldn't disagree more. For me this film had such an epic sprawl and yet it was very reserved and deliberate with its framing rather than fast and loose like American Hustle, it absolutely feels like the work of a director at the top of his game who now has a handle on varieties of visual subtlety. I think it says a lot about the individual performances as well that PTA didn't need long flashy shots to keep my attention. bows1 posted:HUNDU asked me to bring this here. That was probably my favorite scene, mainly because it felt like I was finally grounded for a moment. I also really love how much power Waterston wields in the situation, meanwhile the camera just doesn't blink. It's incredibly confrontational and one of the moments where the audience seemed really uncomfortable and yet completely transfixed, mainly because the music is so nervous. The other scene that made me really uncomfortable was the telephone conversation with Bigfoot's utterly dominating wife, which I initially laughed at and then slowly became freaked out because I know people like that. Frackie Robinson posted:I read the book in the months leading up to the movie and enjoyed it a lot. I liked the movie a good bit too, but the themes seemed noticeably different. The book kind of feels more about loss of innocence on a cultural level and a pervading sense of mistrust of the establishment in general. While that's all still present in the movie, it all feels more incidental, as the movie seems to focus more on personal loss. That's not necessarily a bad thing, just not quite what I expected. If I'd seen the movie before the book I might have liked the movie better. Yeah, it's in there definitely...but I think a lot of it is strictly in the narration, mainly because the film version of the story has other tools to convey said loss, ie cinematography, soundtrack crossing through scenes, etc. But yeah, what you're talking about is present in the Paranoia trailer, so I think it's probably distributed throughout the narration...but the film is still wordy as gently caress and some of that got lost in the mix for me. Frackie Robinson posted:Did anyone else read Sortilege in the movie as a figment of Doc's imagination? Yes occasionally, but I felt it was intentionally inconsistent, perhaps to disorient the viewer. Watching this movie felt like a drug trip, actually. I think there are scenes where the voiceover could be his imagination, a sort of "what would Sortilege think?" self-advice tool Doc employs, since he seems to trust her judgement as a friend. HP Hovercraft posted:And all the Can and Neil Young made me completely forget Jonny Greenwood apparently did some music for this movie? Can! I know! Ege Bamyası is just one hell of a record, and PTA used Vitamin C in the perfect way, fading in and out and not really cutting it at any specific point...I think they even looped it. The Greenwood music all felt very organic within the individual scenes, very much owing a debt to his music in The Master...but far more ambiguous and tense. Gonna need this soundtrack. BeanpolePeckerwood fucked around with this message at 05:34 on Jan 11, 2015 |
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Jan 11, 2015 05:23
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Uncle Boogeyman posted:i actually thought to myself at one point that this was kind of like a good version of American Hustle. I liked American Hustle well enough but I agree. American Hustle just felt super commonplace to me, maybe because it was aping Scorcese so hard.
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Jan 11, 2015 05:37
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Goddamn that scene was too loving good. Between this, Gone Girl, and Nightcrawler...2014 was bursting at the seams re: contemporary sexual diplomacy in film.
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Jan 11, 2015 20:05
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The Time Dissolver posted:Was wondering what Maya Rudolph was doing in this film in such a small part, looked it up and discovered she and PTA are married Heh heh, yeah...and her mom is Minnie Riperton, a famous soul singer ('Lovin you', 'Inside My Love') with uncanny vocal pitch who died from breast cancer at 31. Riperton happens to have a song on the Inherent Vice soundtrack called 'Les Fleur'
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Jan 14, 2015 07:17
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The Master was amazing. I'd even place it above There Will Be Blood in terms of filming technique and acting spectacle, (maybe not mood) and TWBB was my favorite film of 2000-10 decade. I don't know another director that can so accurately recreate explicit lighting conditions from different periods of the 20th century. Inherent Vice does it, too. The shots of Shasta in the first part of the film have that grainy, deepwarm shadows appearance of so many 70s color films, or like 70s Playboy photography, never properly duplicated with later iterations of film technology that reached for ever-sharper images and more intense contrast. I think PTA's career arc since Punch Drunk Love (his turning point) has been astounding. He has the golden touch.
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Jan 17, 2015 22:34
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On the subject of Inherent Twice. http://thedissolve.com/features/exposition/887-when-once-isnt-enough/
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Jan 21, 2015 09:05
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HUNDU THE BEAST GOD posted:That and all the super tight closeups. Well, he shot it flat rather than scope, and while the 1.85:1 aspect may fit with the paranoiac themes (walls closing in) he's going for it also may just be a result of where he ended up when shooting The Master, which had a much more intimate feel than all of his previous scope films with extended steadicam shots. Who knows, maybe PTA just finds it more challenging. The dude doesn't exactly rest on his laurels. Someone asked PTA a question about this at the NYFF (why flat over scope?) and while he mostly deflected the question he did mention its roots in his work on The Master, and that he felt the aspect was like a Volvo, 'boxy but good.'
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Feb 7, 2015 20:22
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