tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3211112229982829419.post6280233903798968732..comments2022-03-24T16:11:50.124-04:00Comments on The Man From Porlock: Choo-Choo Choose Me (Certified Copy and Unstoppable)Craighttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01450775188328918558noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3211112229982829419.post-13040750335933197232011-04-25T23:23:45.785-04:002011-04-25T23:23:45.785-04:00The ending quietly blew my mind: First, with the w...The ending quietly blew my mind: First, with the way Binoche stutters her final line (a reference to her sister's regard for her stammering husband...or is Binoche <i>becoming</i> her sister?); then, the following scene that you cited in your review, with Shimell's haunting gaze into the mirror/camera as the bells ring out behind him. I had to leave the theater quickly because I didn't want the bad vibes of the others in the audience to affect my reaction; I wanted to be alone and think about the movie for a while.Craighttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01450775188328918558noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3211112229982829419.post-31214082446908411472011-04-25T22:01:21.817-04:002011-04-25T22:01:21.817-04:00Nothing brings out the drearily literal-minded fas...<em>Nothing brings out the drearily literal-minded faster than a dash of mystery, especially when that mystery delves into a topic everybody thinks he or she knows with absolute certainty.</em><br /><br />Well said.<br /><br />The line about shared reality leads me to contemplate that a bit: this film would seem to suggest that there is such a thing ... or maybe that there isn't. It's telling that the film ends with them seeming as familiar with one another as ever, and yet they remain individuals. They share parts of their lives, but never all of it.Jason Bellamyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18150199580478147196noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3211112229982829419.post-27230209496269150962011-04-04T21:29:06.409-04:002011-04-04T21:29:06.409-04:00I wouldn't hate Tony Scott if it weren't f...<i>I wouldn't hate Tony Scott if it weren't for the fact that it is now necessary to dismiss him more vehemently, thanks to his platoon of come-lately defenders.</i> This makes my day, Matt. Thanks. Like you, I don't hate Scott that much. I barely think of him at all, until one of his movies comes out. "Unstoppable" looked like a tough thing to screw up, so I thought I'd give it a shot. Needless to say, when it comes to combining narrative momentum with a sense of visual space, Big Tony is not the young Spielberg. He's not even the young Jan de Bont.Craighttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01450775188328918558noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3211112229982829419.post-61576349543554461242011-04-04T17:10:28.581-04:002011-04-04T17:10:28.581-04:00"I'm not sure which notion is funnier -- ..."I'm not sure which notion is funnier -- that the director of Days of Thunder and The Fan is mounting symphonies and hymnals, or that the man every bit as responsible as Michael Bay for bringing eyesore lighting and incoherent staging to contemporary action cinema is now kicking it old school."<br /><br />Ha! I think this single sentence has articulated everything I've found infuriating about Tony Scott for the last decade. He used to be someone you could easily dismiss; now there are folks composing elaborate encomiums about how he's eclipsed his brother, with a film like Domino being Exhibit A of his unpretentious mastery. I wouldn't hate Tony Scott if it weren't for the fact that it is now necessary to dismiss him more vehemently, thanks to his platoon of come-lately defenders. Great review.Matt S.https://catecinem.wordpress.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3211112229982829419.post-6626668790478866382011-04-03T10:20:08.395-04:002011-04-03T10:20:08.395-04:00Certified Copy is the kind of film I normally don&...<i>Certified Copy</i> is the kind of film I normally don't respond to as strongly as I did, a few scenes being a hair shy of precious or pretentious. For example, I'm not sure if the big diner argument is unintentionally exposing Shimell's inexperience as an actor or if Kiarostami is intentionally exposing the artifice of such arguments. But the movie worked for me as metaphor, like a David Lynch film that doesn't telegraph its own weirdness. As I always suspected, surrealism is more unsettling when it flows naturally, and when the director and performers play it with so much conviction. The movie can work on a literal level too, if one wants to take it that way: There's nothing about Elle and James that's any odder than what the Quaids are sadly playing out in real life.<br /><br />As for <i>Unstoppable</i>, Charley Taylor once noted that the problem with Hollywood isn't a lack of great artists but a lack of talented hacks - the directors who used to make the decent movies to help us pass the time between the remarkable ones. There isn't an auteur around who could have made a better Bond film than Martin Campbell's <i>Casino Royale</i>: hackwork of the highest caliber, formally known as craftsmanship. That's an exception though, the rule being Marc Forster's <i>Quantum of Solace</i>, Phillip Noyce's <i>Salt</i>, and now Tony Scott's <i>Unstoppable</i>. These guys get praised for being veterans who ostensibly know what they're doing, and for employing relatively old-fashioned premises. But I'd bet there is nearly as much CGI in <i>Unstoppable</i> as there is in a typical sci-fi picture, and it's more distancing and distracting in a movie that takes place on terra firma. It's the timidity of the movie, however, that's truly dismaying, like <i>Jaws</i> with a shark taking tiny nibbles instead of entire bites.<br /><br />I hereby nominate Tony Scott as keynote speaker for a Hollywood seminar: "The Hacks of Tomorrow -- Today."Craighttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01450775188328918558noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3211112229982829419.post-10784824363765700702011-04-03T07:49:31.319-04:002011-04-03T07:49:31.319-04:00Thanks for linking to my piece.
"Time is a ...Thanks for linking to my piece. <br /><br />"Time is a lie agreed upon" is a great way to put what we're watching in "Certified Copy". I think once you let go of trying to logically explain the narrative, then you see how the movie is a timeline which details shift from scene to scene. Most mention the cafe scene because it's the most obvious turn. But it seems like they're playing out the stages of different relationships in the course of a day. Copies of copies. Fascinating film to contemplate.<br /><br />Haven't seen 'Unstoppable', but, like your 'Salt' review, it made me laugh at how you respond to the critics who seem to inexplicably prop these movies up as a way to take down other directors who will eventually become the elder statesmen hacks of tomorrow when the newer hacks have to be taken down a notch. <br /><br />We all know what Denzel Washington is capable of as an actor, but the man has become so Harrison Ford-level lazy in recent years that the guy from SNL who does an impression of him is doing a great job at pointing out his mannerisms as schtick.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05571206086671634525noreply@blogger.com