ITALIANO wrote:Well, actually I find Julie Delpy irritating (she's the kind of European girl that Americans can understand and like, the Uncle Tom version of what really intelligent, confrontational, antiamerican Europeans are),
Sorry, Damien. I saw it a couple days before you and I could've warned you. Not even your beloved Ethan Hawke escapes this one unscathed. His opening moments of panic are the most glaring example of ineptitude on everyone's part.
ITALIANO wrote:You are right, of course. Well, actually I find Julie Delpy irritating (she's the kind of European girl that Americans can understand and like, the Uncle Tom version of what really intelligent, confrontational, antiamerican Europeans are), but I mean that you are right about Ethan Hawke. But for reasons that you will understand with time, this simple truth can't be said on this board.
Anybody is free to say anything he or she wants about Oscar and Tony nominee Ethan Hawke. He or she just can't be my friend. :p
"Y'know, that's one of the things I like about Mitt Romney. He's been consistent since he changed his mind." -- Christine O'Donnell
Steph2 wrote:LMAO! Oh gosh, I hated this film too! Although I have to say Damien, I couldn't stand Ethan Hawke in it either. When his boyish, vulnerable side is not being brought out by the luminous Julie Delpy (another woman I'd give up men for. Shut up in advance, Aakash!) his performances are almost always annoying.
Oh, boy.
You are right, of course. Well, actually I find Julie Delpy irritating (she's the kind of European girl that Americans can understand and like, the Uncle Tom version of what really intelligent, confrontational, antiamerican Europeans are), but I mean that you are right about Ethan Hawke. But for reasons that you will understand with time, this simple truth can't be said on this board.
Steph2 wrote:LMAO! Oh gosh, I hated this film too! Although I have to say Damien, I couldn't stand Ethan Hawke in it either. When his boyish, vulnerable side is not being brought out by the luminous Julie Delpy (another woman I'd give up men for. Shut up in advance, Aakash!) his performances are almost always annoying.
Damien wrote:The film begins with what is very likely the most repulsive opening shot in the history of cinema -- that blob Phillip Seymourt Hoffman naked in the act -- and it goes downhill from there.
LMAO! Oh gosh, I hated this film too! Although I have to say Damien, I couldn't stand Ethan Hawke in it either. When his boyish, vulnerable side is not being brought out by the luminous Julie Delpy (another woman I'd give up men for. Shut up in advance, Aakash!) his performances are almost always annoying.
And yes, I'd love to see as many shot of rotund women as we get of unattractive rotund men like Hoffman. Or scratch that, how about we just show as many attractive male actors in the nude as we show of women?
Saw the film yesterday (only Ethan Hawke's presence good get me -- eventually -- to a Sidney Lumet picture). OMG it was worse than I could have even imagined. This is probably the most unpleasant movie I've ever seen. But that doesn't emerge from a well-developed nihilistic point of view from Lumet (such as Kubrick had) but merely from a lazy attitude of contempt for the characters by both Lumet and the terrible screenwriter Kelly Masterson.
The film begins with what is very likely the most repulsive opening shot in the history of cinema -- that blob Phillip Seymourt Hoffman naked in the act -- and it goes downhill from there.
There is a complete lack on Lumet's part of any sense of milieu, characterization, or the class distinctions that run through the film but are never addressed. Why is Hawke's character -- the fair-haired-son of an upper middle class couple such a loser? How did he get to be close to a sleazy low-life like Bryan O'Beirne's character. How did this apparently happy well-adjusted couple produce crapola for offspring? The Albert Finney family presumably would be Jewish, having gotten their start on the West 47th Street diamond trade -- but therir name is Hanson and accept for Rosemary Harris's misplaced Long Island accent in Westchester, there's not remotelt Jewish about these people.
Why is Amy Ryan's character so nasty? (her performance is so awful, it makes me almost want to rescind all those awards for Gone Baby Gone -- and so much for the cliche of Lumet being a great director of actors; Ben Affleck is clearly superior his first time out.
Not a single aspect of these movie rang true, from the planning of the robbery to its execution to Albert Finney's response. And, of course, Lumet's mise-en-scene is as if he told his cinematographer just to drop his camera down on the floor and leave it there while changing a lightbulb and having his actors stand wherever the hell they wanted as to Lumet it doesn't make any difference anyway whether a character is in the fore- or background, in a one-shot or a two-shot.
Two bright spots: Ethan Hawke's brave, self-effacing portrait of a pathetic putz; the self-awareness and self-disgust with which he imbues his performance gives depth to the character that clearly is not there in the script. And Carter Burwell's score is much better than this garbage deserved.
Edited By Damien on 1198058659
"Y'know, that's one of the things I like about Mitt Romney. He's been consistent since he changed his mind." -- Christine O'Donnell
It took me about ten minutes to get into this film, but once I was there, it was quite a ride. Talk about things going from nominally bad to worse to HELL.
Performances all around were fantastic and there hasn't been a better ensemble this season. Even with small roles, Michael Shannon, Amy Ryan and the man who played the diamond fencer (what an ugly dude!) all made indelible impressions. That kimono-wearing drug dealer was even frightening in his own twinky, wispy way.
Philip Seymour Hoffman was the MVP for me, though. His performance was multi-layered and surprising. At turns, he was callous and indifferent yet in the next instant he was infantilized by his need to be loved. It was a master class of a performance. When he shot that fat slob on the bed, you could just tell he was trying to kill the disgusting heroin-addled part of him. He saw himself and hated who he was which just set off the downward spiral of the rest of the film.
Ethan Hawke was also very effective as the pretty boy dumb brother who's the loser of the family, yet still somehow, the golden child to his parents. Marisa Tomei continues to prove that her Oscar wasn't a fluke. Best performance from her in years. Watching Albert Finney's quiet, seething rage grow throughout the film was stunning.
The direction was perfectly suited to the story -- fractured, yet still linear. Sidney Lumet should be nominated for his work here. The score was also memorable.
Edited By flipp525 on 1197302110
"The mantle of spinsterhood was definitely in her shoulders. She was twenty five and looked it."
I thought him quite good as hopeless in Happiness and as 'cool' uncool in Almost Famous, and I respect his range, he was solid in Capote and all, I just found the whole experience so underwhelming and his victory in a year where just among the nominees for Best Actor he would rank 4th in my opinion
My knee jerk reaction to seeing he was starring in the next Charlie Kaufman film was total disappointment.
cam wrote:The only thing I have ever liked him in was Magnolia.
That was the only time he wasn't unbearable. The reason he was well cast in The Talented Mr. Ripley is because he's so smug and unlikable. As the person who is "on" to Ripley early on, PSH's obnoxious personality helped us to root for Ripley and against the uncovering of his secrets.
In other words. PSH is the guy you want sitting next to you in the Final 2 on Survivor.
I didn't like him in Magnolia, but agree that he was perfectly cast in Talented Mr. Ripley.
I also found him bearable (though in no way exceptional) in Almost Famous, the 25th Hour and the Savages.
cam wrote:The only thing I have ever liked him in was Magnolia.
That was the only time he wasn't unbearable. The reason he was well cast in The Talented Mr. Ripley is because he's so smug and unlikable. As the person who is "on" to Ripley early on, PSH's obnoxious personality helped us to root for Ripley and against the uncovering of his secrets.
In other words. PSH is the guy you want sitting next to you in the Final 2 on Survivor.
