What's this?

Sorry guys. I've been busy. I know you don't want excuses, you want results. Spring quarter just started up, so blog updates will probably be light. Tonight I went and saw a really good film though, so I thought I'd write about it.

If you have the chance to see Cold Weather in the theater, I would highly recommend it! It's playing here in Athens, but we generally get things on kind of a weird schedule, so I'm not sure if it's playing elsewhere. The film is directed by Aaron Katz, whose previous films (Dance Party USA and Quiet City) are considered a part of the mumblecore movement. If you have a brain, you realize how stupid that word is, and if you're familiar with our blog then you know about my conflicting feelings toward it. I don't want to say anything too bad about these movies, so I'll just say that some of them are not for me.

Mumblecore is such a loose, meaningless label, so I feel dumb using it, but I kind of have to. The reason that I love the Duplass Brothers' films so much is because they are able to take everything good about mumblecore, the emotional honesty and authentic performances, and inject them into a genre film. The Puffy Chair is a road movie. Baghead is a horror movie. Cold Weather is a detective movie, and a very good one.

Some people may be put off by the fact that the plot does not really start until about 40 minutes into the movie, at least that's what I gather from reviews I have read of the film. I had no problem with its structure. It's very beautifully shot (with a RED camera) and the characters are engaging (also attractive). The brother/sister relationship was fun. For me, this was a more exciting film than any of the Bourne movies. I would much rather see someone awkwardly trying to solve a mystery than watch Jason Bourne jump through a window and beat someone up with a rolled up magazine. The stakes were raised in this film! I didn't know what was going to happen!

As more and more mumblecore directors get exposure and access to slightly larger budgets, I hope that they all follow the path of Aaron Katz or the Duplass Bros, and continue to make movies that feel genuine but are also genuinely interesting. Winfrey recommends!

Revanche

I recently watched Revanche. I'd only heard of the movie briefly when it was released, but it recently came out as part of the Criterion Collection, and, of course, it had a cool cover. It also had a very pretty trailer. Oh, and I guess it was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film of the Year at the 2009 Oscars or some such bullshit. I really enjoyed the film, and I would recommend it. Mostly I just wanted to post that trailer, because damn, that trailer's lookin' fine. There are some movie trailers that just get things so right they should donate a little bit to other trailers that don't quite have the goods. I guess what I'm saying is, really good movie, really great trailer (and cover).

Side note. Why does Criterion Collection kill it every time with their covers? Let's get these guys on every DVD cover.

Avatar

I saw Avatar over break, but so did everyone. Do you know how I know that? Everywhere I go, I hear a guy talking to another guy about it. Do you know what they say? "Man, that story was so played out, but the special effects totally made up for it." Well, shut up because it's not even worth saying that. That's like me saying, "Man, Pizza Hut pizza is really delicious if you're in the mood for it, but the quality is inconsistent and once it gave me diarrhea." That does not need to be said. It's out there. It's been said before. Leave it be. One thing that I was thinking about as I watched Avatar was, obviously, the visual effects. Yes they were good. Very good. I don't know how well they are going to age, but that isn't important. As someone who is interested in visual effects, I hear a lot of talk about people becoming desensitized to a visual effect. Regardless of how impressive it is, it's almost impossible to amaze an audience with an effect. There will never be another Star Wars. We've crossed a line, where good visual effects are no longer a great delight to see, but are more of an expectation. Along these same lines though, people are more accepting of poorly composited digital effects than they should be (New Moon, X Men: Origins, etc.) What I have to say to all of this is whatever. More interesting things have definitely been said about this. What I was thinking about watching the film was, what effect do these photo-realistic effects have on real life. How are people raised on the incredibly detailed and realistic environments of films like Avatar going to react to the REAL footage of a series like Planet Earth. How can they be impressed by something like that when James Cameron can will floating mountains into existence. Will new audiences care if a film opts for practical effects? How will things based on live spectacle, such as magic acts, be affected by this? That's all I'm going to say about Avatar, oh except that one of the worst, and least talked about, aspects of the film was the Sam Worthington's voiceover. And the story stank.