Hello all, it's been a very questionable time for cinema recently in my opinion. You have a new super hero movie coming out every week and the biggest redeeming piece of cinema coming out soon is the new Harry Potter flick, dismal indeed. What do we having coming out of the art scene though? What kind of groundbreaking film will save us from all of this? According to Cannes, it's The Tree of Life, which won the Palme d'Or this year. Well I saw this film and let me ask this question, the art scene likes this?
The answer to that question is, of course the art scene likes this, the art scene likes everything that isn't popular, but let me explain how I see/feel about the movie real quick.
Let me start by saying that this film was visually breathtaking, there were a ton of awesome shots, artistic camera angles and sweet ass visuals, AND I think there may have been a plot in there somewhere! (but I'm not sure). Really, this is a director/DP's wet dream, it's got incredible shots and just amazing scenes. On the other hand, it's a storyteller's nightmare. There is almost no coherent plot in this film. The first half of the film hints to a possible story line of a family dealing with the death of a child, however, it quickly falls to images from a Planet Earth documentary, an unexplained and unnecessary tangent about dinosaurs (which are very poorly animated) and a load of space photography with extremely cryptic voice overs. It then goes into the story of three young boys in the 50s or 60s and their demanding father. This COULD have been a real plot, however, instead of really developing into one, it focuses more on the abstract depiction of the eldest son's inner turmoil and many shots of him sneaking around looking devious. After all of this semi-story it skips to Sean Penn as one of the sons grown up and shows him walking around an unexplained desert surrounded by other people from his life.
The space shots were amazing and beautiful, however, I must say, if I wanted to see this I would watch a documentary. The whole film could have been decent if the plot were more coherent. It had a good idea and a good story but it focused way too much on the artistic and not enough on making the movie something watchable. By the end you're wondering how much longer before it's over.
Was the film horrible? No, is it worth watching? I my opinion no, but do what you like, if it sounds like your kind of thing, go for it. I guess I'm just not artsy enough for this film.
ANYWAY, now that I've said what I've said...
My recommendations are these... Freaks (1932) by Tod Browning is my movie recommendation. I may have mentioned this film before but I love it, it's charming, it's adorable, it's disturbing. It's the story of handicapped people being mistreated in a traveling circus and eventually exacting their revenge. It's a great film. My album recommendation is Organix by The Roots. This is the first album from the Philadelphia hip hop band and is a hidden gem. It's not the most well known album from the band, but it's really good still.
There you go!
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