Miscellany

Nice dump, Jeff. I've only seen Late Spring and Good Morning, and I loved them both. Everything you've said about Ozu is spot-on. I didn't know he never married and lived with his mother his whole life. Fascinating.


How did that throw-up taste, Brandon? Like fleeting relationships and ennui? Let me know when you make a movie and I'll tell you how lazy I think your filmmaking is. ;)

Did anyone else see Marriage Material, by the way? John?

I'm saving Brother Born Again for my next post, but here are a couple of other goodies.

American History X (Kaye, 1998). I watched three quarters of this film yesterday morning and couldn't stop thinking about it all day. I stopped right after Derek tells his prison story to Danny, and up to that point was completely absorbed in the film. But the last 25 minutes were the most disappointing of the film. The scene where the father rants about affirmative action and Derek completely caves to his opinion was utterly unconvincing to me, and almost ruined the entire film. And I hated the ending. It just left me feeling angry and hopeless. Yes, I know your sin will find you out and all that, but don't end with that. It contradicts the whole message that it matters that people open themselves up to change. I suppose there's something to leaving the audience to wonder how Derek is going to respond to the last event of the film, but it changes dramatically the direction the film seems to be taken and just left me with a bunch of emotions I didn't know what to do with. Norton's acting is spectacular, though. I won't soon get out of my head the image of his sneering face as the cops handcuffed him and took him to the cruiser.
As a side note, it was interesting to read about Kaye's disavowing of the film due to editing decisions. A friend of mine told me the ending was meant to be even more depressing than it ended up being.

The Tempest (Taymor, 2010). As time passes, I find my feelings on this film fading. I really really wanted to like it, a I myself played Prospero in a college production of The Tempest (fun fact: John's wife was Ariel in that same production) and it is very close to my heart. It makes me sad to say that what I liked best about the movie was the play. That's not to say that there weren't things to like in it--Helen Mirren is amazing at whatever she does, and Russell Brand was entertaining and good for a few laughs. But a number of the special effects were really low-budget looking, and Caliban's character was severely overacted. If anyone knows of a really good film adaptation of The Tempest, please let me know, because I'd like to see one. I LOVED Across the Universe, by the way, so I know Taymor's got some good stuff in her.

Me as Prospero in 2000

Still coming (I hope)--Tabloid!