tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8762075.post7951109940915129966..comments2024-03-29T00:37:54.787-07:00Comments on Alienated in Vancouver: Film roundup: new Kelly Reichardt, Demme Jam, The Transfiguration and moreAllan MacInnishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05394301776870727673noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8762075.post-2511891525501900702017-05-21T14:03:56.706-07:002017-05-21T14:03:56.706-07:00...though as a friend rightly observed, what exact......though as a friend rightly observed, what exactly WAS the point of the gay hookup reference in the beginning of the film? Is it meant as a "we're not in Kansas" anymore provocation, and nothing more - a red herring that isn't thematically relevant at all? Why strike such a note if it has nothing to do with the rest of the film - to acknowledge with the peeing white guy at the beginning of the movie that we're in voyeuristic territory here? The film is pretty sensitive to the experience of its characters - I didn't feel like Milo, his brother, or even the gangstas of the film were being "exploited," but I could see there being a very critical reading of this film, that calls the use of these characters into question.... dunno, now that I think on it, what to make of any of that. I liked Milo... I liked his choices... I was rooting for him... but to the extent that he engineers his destruction, having discovered he's become evil... is there an implication that this is a choice other characters in the movie - the gangstas, say - should make? How convenient for white people, if all black "bad guys" destroyed themselves, devoting their last gesture to helping some white person? <br /><br />Hmm. <br />Allan MacInnishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05394301776870727673noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8762075.post-69568542060260345252017-05-21T01:01:46.346-07:002017-05-21T01:01:46.346-07:00Finished The Transfiguration at home tonight, whil...Finished The Transfiguration at home tonight, while people were still watching it in the theatre! I liked it, and I don't regret recommending it based on only having seen half the film; it's well worth seeing, the most unique and interesting vampire film since Let the Right One In. I have two criticisms, the first of which involves no spoilers whatsoever, and it goes something like this: fer fucksake, Twilight, in its highly recognizable hardcover doorstop incarnation, is available at every thrift store in the western world, in multiple copies, for a buck or less; it is an easier and cheaper book to find than the fucking Da Vinci Code these days. So why the HELL do the filmmakers use an obviously different book when the vampire's girlfriend gives him Twilight as a gift? I'm no fan of Twilight, but I noticed the switchout as soon as she says the book was Twilight. Hells no, it wasn't! Lame. <br /><br />Secondly, you know, this is, sadly, one of those films that arrives at a great ending, then another, slightly less great ending, and then - spoilers follow - they go on for another two minutes, trying to find ANOTHER place to end, finally arriving at a limp, disappointing fizzle, compared to what was already on the screen, so that you go away mad at the movie for not having trusted itself. There *is* a problem with the first, best ending: it makes obvious the film that The Transfiguration REALLY owes a debt to, which is unclear elsewise, which is the original, Abel Ferrara Bad Lieutenant. I didn't see that coming, but both films are about a man with bad habits who becomes transformed by love and decides to enact a plan of redemption that involves his own passively-engineered demise. "Hey freak" and "hey cop" - bang, bang: identical. They still could have stopped there and arrived at something powerful; I mean, I don't think Ferrara would have sued or anything, particularly given more egregious ripoffs of his film that have existed (I like the Herzog film plenty, don't get me wrong, but I can see why Abel's ass was chapped by it). The subsequent shot of the sun, that Milo is watching as he dies, kind of takes away from concerns of plagiarism, so it would also have been okay as an ending, if the concern was not doing EXACTLY the same thing as Bad Lieutenant. The joke about Twilight sucking aside, though, we really didn't need to follow the girl on the bus, really didn't need to affirm that Milo wasn't going to rise up from the autopsy as an undead being - if that was indeed why we ended up with autopsy and funeral scenes - and really, really didn't need Milo in voice over to make his thoughts about vampires being able to kill themselves explicit; they'd have been better left buried earlier in the film, maybe alluded to subtly. Sometimes you gotta leave it to the audience to go back and work it through for themselves, especially if you'd like them to want to watch your movie more than once. O'Shea, with this weak, too user-friendly and un-self-confident ending, kept his own film from greatness, from being a film that would make me want to watch it again. Everything else about the film is so good that he shoulda known. He loses a whole mark, dropping from A+ to B+, for wasting a great ending in favour of a bland one. <br /><br />Oh, guess what, Larry Fessenden gets his throat cut AGAIN! I feel like I've seen him die this way in his cameos three or four times now - certainly, and most memorably, in Ti West's In a Valley of Violence (maybe also in You're Next?). I'm starting to wonder if there's some weird personal history with Fessenden's throat that makes him want to die this way, or makes people want to kill him this way, on film. He is a fucking brave actor, though: it's like he's willing to take the least flattering role in the whole screenplay - fat, spouse-abusing drunk and bad father? - and save anyone else the indignity of doing it. He's just gross in this. He's great! Allan MacInnishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05394301776870727673noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8762075.post-56602038232713341182017-05-20T08:00:06.585-07:002017-05-20T08:00:06.585-07:00Certain Women is, of course, really good! It has a...Certain Women is, of course, really good! It has a little bit of that "short story problem," where you're left wishing each story had been a novel, though the Laura Dern one is nearly complete, and I recommend the film no less. The Michelle Williams story is the least satisfying, though it did make me wonder if Rene's quail calls were in homage to Altman. (I am awake early and too lazy to check the spellings of Auborjonois or Brewster... McCloud?). Lily Gladstone is indeed great, and I liked her story the best of the three, while the people I talked to liked it the least, though it has the least satisfying ending. Also... Did Lucy die? There are lots of dogs and some horses, but she isn't in it, and the film is dedicated to her. There is a little Welsh corgi who is a real scene stealer, though. I didnt get its name...anyhow, another fine film. Everyone laughed at one of Jared Harris' lines near the end... you will know which.Allan MacInnishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05394301776870727673noreply@blogger.com