A Fistful of Seen Lately

My blog writes checks my creative output can't cash. That's why "a day or two" suddenly becomes 10 days. Anyway, here's a slew of opinions:

Be Cool (F. Gary Gray, 2005) - CON+
A reminder never to underestimate Hollywood's astonishing ability to turn out crap, especially of the disjointed, tone-deaf, out of touch with popular culture variety. Save for a few scenes featuring The Rock - who out-acts everybody but is criminally underused - it's a mess, filled with sloppy scenes that go nowhere, hideous phoned-in performances and a plethora of ugly product placement. It's lazy filmmaking at its worst - cool it ain't.

The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (Wes Anderson, 2004) - PRO
Surely one of last year's best; a wonderfully imaginative and moving tale of revenge, forgiveness and underwater exploration. It's every bit as expertly cast and realized as Anderson's earlier efforts, and just as aesthetically honest and consistent. What really puzzles me, though, is the overall lukewarm reception of this the third of Anderson's forays into a world of boyhood dreams and flawed father figures, even by critics who loved Rushmore or The Royal Tenenbaums. It's baffling to me. He's making the same film all over again? His insanely detailed and precise universe has somehow self-imploded? What the hell are you talking about? It's called a style. If you don't like that style - fine. But don't sit there and whine about Wes - one of few directors working in Hollywood today with a distinct personal look and feel to their work - and say he's repeating himself, and then turn around and praise a yawn-fest like Melinda and Melinda as a "return to form" for the Woodster [I refer first and foremost to the reaction in Swedish press; Life Aquatic opened here last week].

Body Snatchers (Abel Ferrara, 1993) - mixed+
Cleverly lifts the plot from the small-town setting of Siegel's version and the San Francisco of Kaufman's, to an anonymous, near-deserted army base, which serves as an interesting ironic backdrop: the alien invaders are creating mindless conformists in an already uniformed environment. Ferrara makes the best of the film's obviously modest budget, playing it low-key most of the time, but the finale boasts some surprisingly excessive fireworks, and the fine alien make-up is impressive. However, for a film made in 1993, it looks more like something from the late 80's, with its bad hair and cheesy music. Script in part by Larry Cohen, and if not for Ferrara's name in the credits, one could have suspected Cohen directed it too.

Meet the Fockers (Jay Roach, 2004) - CON
A horrible exercise in awfulness, filled with such gut-wrenchingly embarrassing moments and truly moronic characters that you not only feel insulted by them, but violated, in the prison sense. Usually I think it's pretty redundant to even bring this kind of a silly Hollywood sequel any attention, let alone vitriol, but this is vile, crude cinema. The filmmakers are obviously evil heartless sadists who should be jailed. And I'm a masochist for spending nearly two hours watching the shit.

Chihwaseon (Im Kwon-taek, 2002) - mixed-
By-the-numbers biopic about apparently legendary 19th century Korean artist Ohwon; pic is pretty as a landscape painting, and most of the time just as boring. Choi Min-Sik of Oldboy fame is a charismatic lead, but the film's statements re The Arts and Life are banal and too absolute for my taste.