Posts tagged New York City
Birdman “Unusual and Boring”
Nov 12th
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
BIRDMAN has the full, awkward title of BIRDMAN OR (THE UNEXPECTED VIRTUE OF IGNORANCE), which sums up the whole movie.
It is long, it is unnecessary, it is complicated, and in the end it is obtuse and doesn’t mean anything.
Michael Keaton stars as Riggan Thomson, an actor who is trying to rejuvenate his career by mounting and starring in a play on Broadway after he used to be somebody in the movies.
You see, some 20 years ago Riggan starred in three popular movies as a comic-book superhero known as Birdman, but after those successful movies playing the superhero, Riggan said no to making BIRDMAN 4.
Remind you of anyone?
Yes, Keaton himself starred as Batman in the 1989 BATMAN and the 1992 BATMAN RETURNS movies, but not in the third Batman movie in the series, although I am not sure why, but there was controversy about his starring in even the first one, with some critics complaining that his chin was too “weak” to be Batman, who wears a mask, remember?
At any rate, a voice in Riggan’s head says, “We had it all; we gave it away.”
Later in the movie, that voice in Riggan’s head becomes significant.
So, Riggan has written an adaptation of a short story called “What We Talk about When We Talk about Love,” he is directing the play and also starring in it, and the action in the movie takes place mostly in the theater where the play is going to be produced.
The camera work is made to look as if the whole movie was shot in one continuous take, but the long shots sometimes end in a different location and at a different time in the story, which is another example of unnecessary and complicated, right?
The story takes place before the previews of the production, and also appearing are Edward Norton, Emma Stone, Zach Galifianakis, and Naomi Watts, but when scenes turn surrealistic, such as when Riggan floats and flies above the streets of New York City, you might wonder what is going on and why are you there watching this confusing piece of whatever you want to call it.
We see rehearsals for the play, and the acting is terrible.
BIRDMAN goes on way too long, and it is too unusual and boring for my taste.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
Gone Girl “Excellent Thriller”
Oct 8th
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
GONE GIRL is an excellent mystery thriller based on the 2012 best-selling novel by Gillian Flynn, who also wrote the screenplay, and if you haven’t read the novel, you are in for a surprise.
No, you are in for more than one surprise, maybe even shockers.
Ben Affleck stars as Nick, Rosamund Pike stars as Amy, his wife, and one morning Amy goes missing from their home in Missouri under mysterious circumstances.
Evidence left in the living room of the house suggests to the police that Amy might have been murdered, and of course in cases like this, the husband is always the prime suspect.
Kim Dickens plays Detective Rhonda Boney, who is investigating the case, and she and her partner provide what little comic relief occurs in the movie, along with Tyler Perry, who plays Nick’s high-priced, high-profile, and high-powered defense attorney.
One of the many problems for the police is that Nick is not acting as they believe a husband would if his wife was missing and believed to have been murdered, as well as the fact that Amy went missing on their fifth wedding anniversary, and Amy’s present to Nick was a game in which she left clues for him labeled “Clue One,” “Clue Two,” and so on.
Also, when they question Nick, his answers don’t strike them as being filled with the sort of information that they believe a husband should know about his wife.
Nick has a twin sister, Margo, and she tells Nick, “Everyone knows ‘complicated’ is code for ‘bitch.'”
Amy left a diary behind, and we hear Amy’s voice as she reads excerpts from the diary and see flashbacks to when they met in New York City, where they were both writers, and then when they both got laid off and moved to Nick’s hometown in Missouri to take care of Nick’s ailing mother.
From the entries in Amy’s diary, we get the impression that their marriage was not as happy as Nick has been telling the police it was.
Finally, Neil Patrick Harris plays an important role as a former suitor of Amy’s, whose departure from her life was not under the most pleasant circumstances.
GONE GIRL ties all these complicated loose ends up at the end in which some people might believe is a bit ambiguous and messy.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
“Inside Llewyn Davis” Tries Everything to See What Sticks
Jan 13th
“See What Sticks”
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
Inside Llewyn Davis is the latest film written and directed by Joel and Ethan Coen, and the story follows a weekend in the life of the title character as he tries to become a success as a folksinger in New York City.
As with most Coen Brothers movies, this one has already won some awards, been nominated for more, and will probably win a few more during this awards season.
Also as with most Coen Brothers movies, audiences love them, hate them, or can take them or leave them. This one, I can leave.
The time is February 1961, and we see Llewyn performing at a cafe in Greenwich Village for bucket money. While he is singing, a bucket is passed around the audience, and he gets to keep whatever money is left in the bucket after the house takes its cut.
Llewyn doesn’t have a regular place to stay, and he depends on the kindness of friends to be allowed to sleep on their couches. So, he wakes up one morning after being awakened by the owners’ cat, and when he leaves the apartment, the cat follows him outside.
Unfortunately, the door locks behind him, and a running motif in the story has Llewyn carrying a cat around with him until he can return it to the owners.
Other friends of Llewyn’s are a folksinging team of Jim and Jean, played by Justin Timberlake and Carey Mulligan, and when Llewyn goes to see Jean at their little apartment, Jean shows him a note that says, “I’m pregnant.”
Jean doesn’t know who the father is, it could be Llewyn, it could be Jim, or it could even be someone else.
Then Llewyn goes on a road trip to Chicago, where he hopes to advance his struggling career, and he meets Roland Turner, played by John Goodman in yet another of his many roles that steal scenes and even movies.
Well, Chicago doesn’t work out for Llewyn, either, and he goes back to New York City, only now he is so despondent that he tries to become a sailor in the merchant marine again.
The Coen Brothers seem to throw everything at the wall just to see what sticks, which includes bookends to the movie that don’t make much sense.
Inside Llewyn Davis is too “inside” for my taste.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”