man, am I fried.
Sep. 9th, 2003 10:30 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hafitalOnly one week into classes and I'm dead already. Not a good sign. :)
Went to see a few movies this weekend, and thought I'd share my thoughts:
American Splendor:
I know next to nothing about Harvey Pekar, American Splendor, and comics in general. Although I did go through a very minor comics period when I was younger, but only because my best friend at the time wanted to collect them and *her* motivation was because her older brother told her one could theoretically sell them for money. Needless to say, wealth via comics was a bust. *g* We were like 12.
This movie was really charming, a bit slow paced, but intriguing in its departure from normal story telling. Not a documentary, not a feature movie either, it mixed three different forms of media: visual comics style story telling, regular live action actors, and then the real life Harvey Pekar and Co. stepping in to comment on the live action. I love encountering and learning new and different means of telling a story and this movie really broke some interesting ground, imo.
The real gem of this movie, however, is Hope Davis, who is rapidly becoming a favorite actress of mine.
Thirteen:
Nothing like re-living that wonderful age 13, I gotta tell you. My age 13 was blissfully free of much of the angst portrayed in this movie (thank God!) but I lived very very close to it. Could have been me, quite easily. Watched it happen to a lot of my friends. And my friend M who went to see it with me had to call her mom afterward, saying it was almost exactly like her age 13, sans drugs. eek. Visually, very frenetic and moving. Raw, almost. The young actresses are absolutely incredible and heartbreaking. For their performances alone, I recommend this movie, but I'm a sucker for strong acting. One of the things this movie captures so incredibly well, aside from the general trauma of being 13, is that girl bond of girlhood that happens at that age, and how utterly utterly devastating it is when/if it goes badly.
Another gem in this was Jeremy Sisto. Hello! Hey, it's Elton from Clueless! *g* He needs to be cast in a something fandomworthy so as to be exploited properly, imo.
And finally The Swimming Pool:
Well it's got a beautiful girl who walks around mostly unclothed for much of the movie. And she talks with a sexy french accent. I was really intrigued with the synopsis of this film, about an uptight British mystery writer who goes on vacation to France to get away from it all but is unfortunately saddled with a pouty french daughter of her publishers and her precocious sexuality. It had promises for all sorts of sexual, queerish, type things going on, and a murder mystery, and it sounded really good. And there was a hint of all that, but ultimately it was a bit unsatisfying and the ending was confusing when it didn't need to be.
Went to see a few movies this weekend, and thought I'd share my thoughts:
American Splendor:
I know next to nothing about Harvey Pekar, American Splendor, and comics in general. Although I did go through a very minor comics period when I was younger, but only because my best friend at the time wanted to collect them and *her* motivation was because her older brother told her one could theoretically sell them for money. Needless to say, wealth via comics was a bust. *g* We were like 12.
This movie was really charming, a bit slow paced, but intriguing in its departure from normal story telling. Not a documentary, not a feature movie either, it mixed three different forms of media: visual comics style story telling, regular live action actors, and then the real life Harvey Pekar and Co. stepping in to comment on the live action. I love encountering and learning new and different means of telling a story and this movie really broke some interesting ground, imo.
The real gem of this movie, however, is Hope Davis, who is rapidly becoming a favorite actress of mine.
Thirteen:
Nothing like re-living that wonderful age 13, I gotta tell you. My age 13 was blissfully free of much of the angst portrayed in this movie (thank God!) but I lived very very close to it. Could have been me, quite easily. Watched it happen to a lot of my friends. And my friend M who went to see it with me had to call her mom afterward, saying it was almost exactly like her age 13, sans drugs. eek. Visually, very frenetic and moving. Raw, almost. The young actresses are absolutely incredible and heartbreaking. For their performances alone, I recommend this movie, but I'm a sucker for strong acting. One of the things this movie captures so incredibly well, aside from the general trauma of being 13, is that girl bond of girlhood that happens at that age, and how utterly utterly devastating it is when/if it goes badly.
Another gem in this was Jeremy Sisto. Hello! Hey, it's Elton from Clueless! *g* He needs to be cast in a something fandomworthy so as to be exploited properly, imo.
And finally The Swimming Pool:
Well it's got a beautiful girl who walks around mostly unclothed for much of the movie. And she talks with a sexy french accent. I was really intrigued with the synopsis of this film, about an uptight British mystery writer who goes on vacation to France to get away from it all but is unfortunately saddled with a pouty french daughter of her publishers and her precocious sexuality. It had promises for all sorts of sexual, queerish, type things going on, and a murder mystery, and it sounded really good. And there was a hint of all that, but ultimately it was a bit unsatisfying and the ending was confusing when it didn't need to be.
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no subject
Date: 2003-09-09 09:09 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-09-09 06:40 pm (UTC)I can go on and on and on about this but I feel my blood starting to boil (the men are saints! no man makes so much as a rude remark to these underdressed chickies, because mothers are the problem in this movie not male violence! and the neighbor-boy is just SUCH a gentlemen when the girls stage their little straight-lesbian porn scene for us, the audience, in a totally exploitative way. And the girl is in big big trouble for--gasp!--doing drugs, but her darling, level-headed brother's pot habit is completely normalized as just "doing a little weed!" and even mom's cokehead boyfriend starts to look good to me by the end of the film, because men are SAINTS, I tell you! unlike those horrible, self-centered, dirty, sex-having, face-lifting mothers! AGGGHGHGHGH!)
no subject
Date: 2003-09-09 07:58 pm (UTC)But he has! Six Feet Under. Best show on television. He's a recurring character, but I think it still counts.
no subject
Date: 2003-09-09 09:19 pm (UTC)Hm, I see the point your making, however I didn't get the sense watching the movie that that was the particular interpretation and/or conclusion intended. And I have to say I disagree that it was racist -- I didn't get that impression. I *did* get that men in general were portrayed as both uber important/insignificant. Meaning a lot of attention was directed towards them, but ultimately it was really about the varying relationships between the female characters. I don't know about putting women back 50 years. Partly because I don't think mother/daughter dynamics have progressed all that much in 50 years, to be honest. I agree that it showed a limited example of that, and that it was flawed. Although they were obviously going for a damaged relationship, and that's just not going to look good no matter how you portray it, and they did put some effort into showing there was love there despite everything.
I read an article about the young co-writer who played the part of Evie, who said the most damaging aspect of the whole thing wasn't so much the sex and the drugs, but the image thing. The clothing, the makeup, the hair. That her friend would come over at 4:30 in the morning so they can prepare and get ready and do their hair and makeup for THREE HOURS *before* school even started. At the age of 13. I remember these girls (all races, by the way. and the boys too), growing up. I remember being exhausted just thinking about doing what they did. A lot of them got pregnant and had children by the 9th grade. I had a day care in my high school.
I agree the movie's problematic in all its portrayals (and that threesome thing with the guy next door was a bit much),but I do think some of that has to do with the fact that a lot of it is frightfully true. And that's, you know, horrifying.
Also, I watched this movie deeply enmeshed in the main girl's pov. I was that girl for the time sitting in that theatre, so the almost tunnel vision of the film worked for me. The skewed perceptions, the glorification of the best friend and the love/hatred of the mother figure and all the adults.
Although, I do get what you're saying. I actually thought of you, afterward, because I had my suspicions you'd hate it :). Mostly because of the female prostitution thing.
no subject
Date: 2003-09-09 09:22 pm (UTC)