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Feb 24 2012 05:13pm
Just finished Interiors.

First and foremost this was an acting clinic. There wasn't much action at all to speak of, except for the ending (I won't spoil anything, suffice to say it is incredible), which was pretty powerful. I thought the movie was pretty well cast, specifically with regard to Keaton's husband (in the film), and the mother and father. The dialogue could have been better, I thought, in that I found Woody tried a little too hard and well I realize this sounds ambiguous, and I don't have any specific examples, viewers of the film might understand what I am talking about.

An issue I had with the film is that Allen snuck in the same old pessimistic brooding nihilism that seems to be in every God damned film he makes. I do not know that it adds a whole lot to the movie and seems, given my knowledge of his repertoire, is forced and not important to each individual film on its own. Don't get me wrong, it isn't that I take exception to the viewpoint as a whole it is just that I prefer to see Woody expound on unique characters and themes that haven't been delved into on previous outings.

In terms of setting I thought they did a pretty good job. The interior design of the houses they were in, for the most part, were pretty damn bleak and reminded me of still life painting and Wuthering Heights. The way that he had, with a few exceptions, complete darkness on all of the windows created this kind of claustrophobic sense. almost, and really made me think of this movie less as a series of events but as a series of thought processes in the mind's of the film's characters and I will also freely admit I thought to think of it like this primarily due to the title and the plot of the movie overall, so in that sense the movie scores points for being direct.

Overall it was one of the better Woody Allen films that I've seen, which is strange because it doesn't actually feature Allen himself and has absolutely no humor whatsoever involved, making it perhaps the first pure drama I've ever seen. Highly recommended to all but should definitely not be taken as a good example of Allen's work, in general, except for the fact that it features, as I've mentioned, some of his favorites themes; i.e. the inevitability of death, isolation, creative angst, etc.
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Feb 26 2012 02:15am
Just finished September.

Although I really don't care for Mia Farrow she really sold her role in this one. She delivered a strong performance and her character had my sympathy by the end of the movie. The actress who played her mother in the film was very well cast, I thought, and my favorite character of the bunch. She was relentlessly life-affirming and maintained a great attitude and perspective amid less optimistic people, particularly her lover who exhibited Woody Allen's bread and butter which is his pessimistic nihilism that he manages to fit into a lot of his films.

Another of Woody's favorite moves is to feature a struggling actor as a character, often one who is involved in a love triangle of some point who is usually left unsatisfied. His role was interesting, I suppose, although I didn't really think the entire bit about him being commissioned to write Diane's book was very good, it seemed to be cast by the wayside of all the other stuff going on.

The lasting impression I have from this movie would be Elaine Strich's character and acting, who reminds me of my grandmother.

Overall it is an average drama.
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Feb 28 2012 03:13am
Just watched Bullets Over Broadway.

I tried writing a lengthier post about this one but couldn't find the right words. Overall I found this movie to be entertaining. It had some pretty beautiful shots (well, at least one), but was a bit lacking. It had some commentary regarding artistic expression, commentary, and the lengths the human race ought to go to preserve art, uninhibited, and make it available for posterity.

I found Woody did as he sometimes does and makes his characters too representative of a specific view, for example a character who pretty much is synonymous with Marxist thought (although it led to the funny one-liner, "sex is economics!").

Anyway, my favorite quote -- "love goes deep, whereas sex only takes a view inches", *paraphrasing.
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Feb 28 2012 03:13pm
Just finished Hollywood Ending.

Movie was okay, ended exactly how I thought it would and basically equated to a jab at the French, which is nice.
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Mar 10 2012 02:44pm
Just finished Alice, which wasn't very good at all.

I thought the movie tried to cover too much ground and the low fantasy aspects of it were kind of lame, although they led to the movie's one funny part. I have the same criticism of this one as I have with so many other Allen movies and that is that he focuses far too much on the social elites. He takes these bourgeois problems and makes them out to be somehow significant when in reality they are really contrived and hard for me to sympathize with. The main points of conflict in the movie, which are pretty much just cliches, can be seen coming miles away and the ending is just bullshit. On top of it it stars Mia Farrow, who plays a heroine I just can't seem to care about.

2.0 // 5.0.
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Mar 15 2012 01:38am
Just finished Vicky Cristina Barcelona.

Much better than I expected. Woody features characters that are artists, intellectuals, social elites, etc. as always and the entire film basically focuses on the problems of erratic and uncertain love. There are a ton of awesome shots they got filming in Spain and I thought Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem were awesome in this one. Beyond that, the three main female characters are incredibly hot which makes this one easy to watch. It gets some extra points for Bardem's acting, the cinematography, mention of the "categorical imperative" (Woody must just want to insert a direct philosophical reference in all his films), and of course the funny scenes where Bardem and Cruz's characters are arguing in Spanish in front of Johansson's character.

Basically a very cookie cutter love triangle story, albeit a bit more pretentious, extenuated by the above.

3.5 // 5.0
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Mar 15 2012 07:53am
Quote (Kamahl16 @ Mar 15 2012 08:38am)
Just finished Vicky Cristina Barcelona.

Much better than I expected. Woody features characters that are artists, intellectuals, social elites, etc. as always and the entire film basically focuses on the problems of erratic and uncertain love. There are a ton of awesome shots they got filming in Spain and I thought Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem were awesome in this one. Beyond that, the three main female characters are incredibly hot which makes this one easy to watch. It gets some extra points for Bardem's acting, the cinematography, mention of the "categorical imperative" (Woody must just want to insert a direct philosophical reference in all his films), and of course the funny scenes where Bardem and Cruz's characters are arguing in Spanish in front of Johansson's character.

Basically a very cookie cutter love triangle story, albeit a bit more pretentious, extenuated by the above.

3.5 // 5.0


I wa actually really let down by this one :lol:
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Mar 18 2012 02:45am
Quote (zarkadon @ Mar 15 2012 01:53pm)
I wa actually really let down by this one :lol:


I went in with very low expectations.

If you were to compare this one with his greats I'd consider it a piece of shit, lol.
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Mar 18 2012 06:34am
Quote (Kamahl16 @ Mar 18 2012 09:45am)
I went in with very low expectations.

If you were to compare this one with his greats I'd consider it a piece of shit, lol.


well considering I live in Spain and Penelope Cruz won the Oscar for best supporting actress, everybody was talking about it here... so I was kinda expecting something that was going to be really good
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Mar 23 2012 06:29pm
Just got done with Cassandra's Dream.

Woody Allen absolutely loves this theme of an innocent character or characters who, by some set of circumstances, commit an irredeemable crime in order to remedy their predicament. Accordingly, the first half or so of the film sets up the characters and reveals what the predicament is that leads them to commit the crime and the second half deals with them brooding over it and eventually being destroyed by it. I've seen this done 3 times (including this film) in his filmography and it seems to end the same way. Hence, I find that this film ultimately suffers by an inevitable predictability and has to suffer some criticism simply on the grounds that is is grossly unoriginal.

This aside, I did really love this movie as a mood piece. He has Phillip Glass to the music for the film, to whom I am indifferent, rather than fall back on old compositions; mainly jazz. I thought his music worked pretty well in this one but I enjoy the charm of using old school jazz samples over something like this. The acting was pretty good by the male leads in this one and I thought it was a crisp film that was nice to look at.

I felt the Bonnie and Clyde reference at the beginning was just weak. It was foreshadowing to the point where the character's could have simply spelled out how the movie would end. It was an appropriate reference, however, because you had two sets of circumstances (Bonnie and Clyde and this movie) where the characters in question go past the point of no return for no good reason, being that they have a wonderful life as it is. As a result I find it difficult to completely sympathize with the two brothers because they had a lot going for them before they entered into "no man's land" and should have realized what their uncle was asking of them and dismissed him as a selfish criminal.

I think I rate this one far too leniently at 3.5 // 5.0.


EDIT -- I am really interested on Individuality's take on this one because he gave it a 4.5 O.o.


This post was edited by Kamahl16 on Mar 23 2012 06:31pm
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