I didn’t find the characters or the plot especially believable, but the backdrop, immigrants caging natives, that was “muy interesante” and of course sad. What a mess this nation state system. Maybe it’s the best we can do, but it’s nothing to be proud of I tell ya, no matter how much lipstick is applied.
I watched it on the big screen during its debut week, having seen the trailer several times, as I’ve been enjoying the Bagdad quite a lot in recent months.
The whole point is to suspend disbelief and enter the screenwriters’ dream, that’s what fiction is all about, so kibitzing the film is not believable is throwing a tomato from out of bounds. It’s a comic book, a cartoon, a graphic novel, not a documentary, sheesh.
I’ll salute some of my favorite movie critics on YouTube, whom I consulted upon coming home, and agree with them that the filmmaking and acting are both high quality. I didn’t recognize Sean Penn.
OK, I’ll admit to finding it funny in places (as intended — there’s a lot of comedy), once past the incredulity part, And again, it’s not like a don’t believe the stupid wall is real. Like I said: nothing to be proud of.
What was funniest? Those St. Nick geezers and their little club.
The priorities (obsessions) and motivations of the characters just seemed so 1900s (they cared so much about eugenics). Were people like this even real? It really felt like a pseudo-period piece, a parallel universe, and again, that’s the point, what movies are good at.
Speaking of which, I checked out Dark City: the Lost World of Film Noir, by Eddie Muller, from Movie Madness University. I like the spunky writing style.
That’s right, they have a book-lending scene going at MMU, not just DVDs.
If I’m smart, I’ll write down a few of the movies I’m reading about in the book, and rent them out. I’ve got more Burt Lancaster movies in my future I have a feeling. The other book I checked out is about Wes Anderson movies, several of which I review right here in these blogs.
I’m still going through Christian Bale movies at a fairly slow pace. Coming home from Quaker meeting last First Day, on foot (I’m so lucky to live so close), I snagged The Secret Agent, and Metroland. I’ve seen the former, whereas the latter is queued.
In The Secret Agent, set in the 1800s (lots of horses, rain and mud) Bale plays a most aware person (he’s empathic) whereas everyone else is deep into their own retarded dream (time tunnel) yet think the Bale character is the dummy (“fool on the hill” archetype).
