Assassination of a High School President - Divertissant pastiche postmoderne

Quoi de mieux qu'un petit film indie pour reprendre du service ici... C'est exactement le cas de Assassination of a High School President, pastiche très bien ficelé du classique par excellence en terme de polar postmoderne Chinatown, chef-d'oeuvre polanskien manipulant avec brio les règles et conventions du genre pour le réinventer sans déstabiliser ou dégoûter ses plus fervents puristes. Un minime bémol, que d'aucuns pourraient arguer impertinent, consiste en sa prédictibilité ; difficile à contourner lorsque dans le domaine du remake, toutefois, que ce soit parodie, satyre, pastiche ou remake pur et dur. Un must pour n'importe quel fan de Chinatown, en vérité... Avec en prime, un Bruce Willis particulièrement cinglant et cynique en directeur d'école vétéran de Desert Storm !!

Changeling - Eastwood's Feel-Good Movie?!?

A powerful story. Very powerful. With that affective 'true story' mention in the opening credits that always makes it all more human. Too human, perhaps, for the audience not to care, not to get trapped in the identification process. And yet it still feels just a tad like the cinematic, artistic exercise that it it. A bit cold. A little like Button for that matter. But Clint's a master now, and it works: a well-told story about a simple woman taking on the corrupt LAPD of the late '20s, despite and because of all its implied horrors endured and conquered by that woman, is definitely something to feel good about; maybe the coldness is just mine, me being a jaded bastard and all ;-).

~4.0.

transHUMAN or, Opening Up My Blogging Horizons

Ok, ok, I really believe it's time this blog gets a little broader. I love movies, but I also love reading and watching TV Shows and going to live shows, and so on, and I do have some things to say about those... sometimes... So here we go, this blog is now a true thoughts repository... Sort of a diary, basically...

First off the bat, Jonathan Hickman's transHUMAN.


That guy has an obvious storyteller's talent, and the greatest and simplest ideas, working its way towards complex issues, with a couple goodies for uber geeks such as yours truly. his first mini-series, The Nightly News, gave me shivers and reminded me of the impact Fight Club's premice had on me... I actually was waiting for some art work with the same order of magnitude. While closing TNN, and pondering it for days on end afterwards, I had to admit this was the work I'd been looking for, hoping for since Fight Club was released, which is to say about 10 years... Crazy.

Thereafter, of course, I became a huge fan of Hickman, but somewhat unfortunately, the guy is mostly just starting... So, once again, I had to wait. And wait I did... Until transHUMAN's trade finally hit the shelves, a week ago. Man o man, do Hickman, and his artist (JM Ringuet, great great "painter" style) deliver... It's deep while seemingly simple, it tackles one if not the issue of the 3rd millenium, it's smart and savvy and funny, and, bottom line, so well-written... Abso-fscking-lutely worth entering one of those smelly geeks den and subjects oneself to those inevitable crooked looks, and perhaps even a comments or three, to grab that book. Seriously. It's all part of the diegesis, really ;-).

'... if you're reading this, take my advice, put the comic down and step away from the shelf - because it's not everyday that you get smarter from not reading a book.'

- Dr. Anton Rebere

'Congratulations, you're forever stuck in neutral, manmeat. We'll be replacing you soon.'

Milk... An Actors Flick...

Sean Penn Sean Penn Sean Penn Sean Penn Sean Penn Sean Penn Sean Penn Sean Fscking Penn! Nuff said.

I was utterly convinced Mickey had it locked for Best Actor, but now I must say I'll wait 'til I've seen every flick, cause Mister Sean Penn is, once again, awesome playing Harvey Milk. And of course great actors tend to lift everyone else's performance. But, James Franco, little whiny Harry Osbourne :P, deserves a special mention, bringing a silent, dignified emotional depth to the whole Harvey Milk Project. And all that great acting is brilliantly filmed, Van Sant's style not imposing itself upon his movie, receding rather in a subtle canvas masterfully carved, amazingly shot and cunningly edited. Very good flick: entertaining, educating, touching, inhabiting...

Note: ~3.3.

Benjamin Button...

Benjamin Button (le film, pas le mec :P) habite l'esprit... That one last shot of Button, very very weird with all its twisted semiotics, feels still burned onto my retinae... But I must admit I still have a hard time figuring how much I liked the flick. For numerous reasons, the least of which is I expected to love it, mainly because I have a huge soft spot for David Fincher AND Brad, and their common endeavours (ok ok, I'm talking Fight Club here, obviously)... There's also the mere fact that I have watched a couple of great movies lately, and find myself unable, almost, to determine which one's the best at the moment; guess my cinematic criticism skills are a tad rusty ;-).

I have a feeling I could write an entire piece on that one last shot of Button, though...

Note: I will catch it again pretty soon I guess, and will then be able to give my note, but it's probably going to end up in the vicinity of a 3.

Edit:
Okay, I just love Salon.com's reviews, even though I do not always agree with them; part of the fun ;-). Concerning Button, I think Zacharek stroke right where it counts with her piece. Anyway, it epitomizes my gut feeling while watching it, as well as when pondering about it afterwards...

Slumdog Millonaire

Don't you just love those flicks where you're constantly going "It's gonna unfold this way... No, no, no, that way... They can't do that, can they?!?!?", and so on? I do. I really really do. This is what movies are all about for me, actually.

Une preuve par quatre que l'identification s'est enclenchée, en quelque sorte... Que l'histoire accroche... Démonstration effective du fameux modèle perception-cognition-révision-(re)perception-(re)cognition-révision, en fait (cf. David Bordwell... Grosso modo, ce modèle soutient que le spectateur d'un film participe d'une actvité perceptivo-cognitive somme toute très similaire à la résolution d'une égnigme, d'une charade, d'un problème, d'un jeu, etc.. La spectature devient donc participative... Pierre d'achoppement de mon rapport au cinéma, cette hypothèse théorique m'a souvent confronté à l'entendement général stipulant que le visionnement d'un film reste une activité passive... Ignorance is bliss, I guess, lol. (Meaning, people simply do not realize they are very very active, both psychologically AND physically (emotions ARE physical) while watching a movie; they just do whatever's necessary unconsciously, especially when "plot-committed", ie "in the movie"... Thing is, we've really been born and bred with audio-visual manifestations all around us 24/7, granting us "innate movie reflexes", so to speak).

Bon, je me suis égaré. Suffira de dire que Slumdog Millionaire, le dernier Danny Boyle (he of Trainspotting fame ;-)), tombe joyeusement dans cette catégorie de films, probablement par son éclectisme bollywood. Divertissant, engageant, bien ficellé, écrit et exécuté... Et des accents plutôt sympathiques, comme celui de l'animateur-vedette, dont la prononciation du mot "millionaire" en anglais m'a vraiment bien fait rire...

Cote mediafilmesque : ~3.2.

The Wrestler & La décadence du rêve américain

Avec le nouvelle année revient la résolution, annuelle depuis maintenant bientôt 10 ans, de tenir le journal des films que je vois durant l'année... Ma meilleure performance remonte bien sûr à ma 1ère année en Etudes cinématographiques, mais bon, depuis j'ai découvert les outils de blogging :P... So here's another shot...

First flick of '09 was Aronofksy's The Wrestler, starring Mickey Rourke and Marisa Tomei. Wow. Seriously. I tend to have very high expectations for such films, especially when everyone's raving about it, critics and fans alike... And, I mean, an Aronofsky flick about a washed out professional wrestler, really?!?!?

Well turns out it is fscking GREAT! The guy knows how to write stories man, and how to trigger emotional affects... His stuff's always a tad cliche but also soooo powerful, with the way he directs his actors, among all the film techniques he does master, that we have to forgive him his tendency towards archetypes :).

All in all, another great flick by the dude who gave us Pi and Requiem for a Dream. And he's supposed to direct the next remake of... Robocop... This got me curious, I must admit.

Note (à la mediafilm 1 to 7, 1 being masterpiece, 7 being a bomb): ~3.4.

The Departed

Ah Master Scorsese!!! Un film à l'odeur de Goodfellas, sur fond d'une maitrise du médium qui ne fait plus de doute depuis longtemps mais qui néanmoins donne une grande bouffée d'oxygène désespérément nécessaire, surtout pour ce Plumitif Cinéphage. Et que dire de Leo!?!?!?

Mais l'intérêt réel du film est dans l'histoire qu'il raconte, fable à mi-chemin entre Rashomon, Goodfellas (sic) et Touch of Evil, sur fonde morale dichotomique très japonaise... Bon, je sais je sais, Internal Affairs, le film dont est inspiré le dernier opus de Master S., vient en fait du boom qu'a vécu le cinéma hongkongais à la fin des années '90, début 2000. D'ailleurs, je me demande si j'aurais perçu cette dualité ironique mais sensible si je n'avais su que le film était un remake d'une oeuvre asiatique...???

Babel et le quiproquo international

Nuff said...

El Labirento del Fauno et le cynisme

Superbe conte de fée pour adultes, magnifique film vraiment. Une histoire pleine de nuances et de subtilité, une féerie personnelle et ... incisive... Mais... ça ne m'a pas touché autant qu'on l'imaginerait... Symptôme d'un hype médiatique trop intense et trop influent??? Signe du cynisme puéril mais semble-t-il inébranlable de Votre Humble Plumitif?? Fâcheuse conséquence d'un contexte peut-être inapproprié (ie, i was on a date :P)?? Je l'ignore... Et compte bien me retaper cet opus un de ces quatre... Surtout que je ne comprends toujours pas le cinéaste qui en est responsable et son parcours pour le moins déroutant!