It’s been a busy week over at my home away from home GCP, where I tackle John Hillcoat’s long delayed The Road.
It’s a somber, faithful adaption of Cormac McCarthy’s brilliant novel, but something is lost in translation, namely the horrifying detail of dying a slow interior death. The horror!
– The following is the seventh of ten planned online discussions between MATCH CUTS and THE FILMIST regarding the best films of the 2000’s. These transcriptions have been slightly edited due to length, but the published content remains exactly as written.
THE FILMIST: The Fall was a film I’d first seen mentioned here and there online. I didn’t recognize the name in the director’s chair at first, but then I realized that it was the guy who’d done The Cell, and my interest gradually began to perk up. And – then, I didn’t hear about it for several months, until around August of 2008, after it had been released in theaters, when the reviews came pouring in – most of them good, a few of them middling. My brother and I made the long trek across town to the Angelika to see it, and – well, we weren’t disappointed. The Fall is the film that Salvador Dali – or, any other and better Surrealist artist – would have made if they’d had the funds and the resources. Constantly and intentionally dreamlike and lyrical, especially in it’s last half-hour – and, speaking of Dali, he also seems to be referenced visually quite a bit throughout the course of the film, in the red mask of the young girl and the structures in the desert.
MATCH CUTS: I found The Fall on DVD, mostly because I had heard nothing but negative reviews, and because I despised The Cell, but the story intrigued me. The Dali-esque visuals definitely come to mind, the strange use of scale and horizons really make the film interesting, but the opening sequence really stands as a beautiful testament to the deep tragedy in the film. Most films use slow motion to gratuitous effect, but this film seems to revel in the subtext of slow motion. Continue reading
This week at Gone Cinema Poaching, I consider John Woo’s Red Cliff, albeit the US release that runs about half as long as the 5 Hour Chinese Cut.
The film has its merits, but is ultimately far too incomplete to consider worthy.
– “The Best of the Decade Project” is an ongoing series of essays written by Match Cuts and The Filmist concerning the finest films of the last ten years.
In David Lynch’s Mulholland Dr., the nightmare stalks the dream, brutally pouncing only after maiming its prey with false pretenses and conflicting identities. Seething with spite and deceit, the nightmare watches as hope builds, ambition blossoms, and talent formulates, undermining a romantic origin story with a horrific dose of alternate reality. The main weapons are chance and circumstance, fabricated dimensions of an evil master plan without motive or meaning; just control over all fabrics of life. Everything comes crashing down, but when and where is always up for debate. But who’s the villain behind the nightmare? Continue reading
This Filmist has posted our sixth discussion for this project, where we joust about Steven Soderbergh’s The Argentine (otherwise known as Che: Part 1) and Spike Lee’s 25th Hour.
You can find the cinematic debauchery here.
This week at Gone Cinema Poaching, I contemplate Richard Kelly’s The Box, a bizarre and unsettling film that cannot be missed. I urge each and everyone of you to see it, despite the overwhelming indifference from many homegrown critics.
You can find my review here.
– “The Best of the Decade Project” is an ongoing series of essays written by Match Cuts and The Filmist concerning the finest films of the last ten years.
Michael Haneke’s Time of the Wolf plays out like an endless nightmare tunneled through a constricting vision of the modern world slowly descending into chaos. Set mostly in the French countryside during some unmentioned national catastrophe, the film follows the Laurent family’s quest for survival, breaking down their struggle to an elemental level. As in most Haneke films ambiguity reigns, degenerating spaces through jarring cuts and sudden jumps in time. The film meticulously pulls back the everyday façade of human existence to unearth the inherent abuses and evils underneath. The apocalypse has never been this restrained or this horrifying. Continue reading
MATCH CUTS 