Genre: Sci-fi/drama
Cast: Shane Carruth, David Sullivan
Director/writer: Shane Carruth
Made with the meager sum of 7 thousand dollars, Primer is an impressive accomplishment of frugal directing, unique storytelling and precise film making.
Now that we have arrived to the beginning of May and I haven’t been able to post in over two weeks, I thought I would summarize my film watching of the last two months with a mammoth list of mini-reviews. 22 films in 61 days. Not a great number, but I’ve done worse. Here it goes:
OBLIVION (2013)
A terribly uninspiring story line masked by awesome special effects and handsome set designs. Oblivion is one more nail in the coffin for the career of Tom Cruise, the former world’s biggest movie star. Though he may still prove his worth at the box office, his performance is easily forgettable, never once allowing us to forget his very bizarre off camera persona, nor making us empathize with his character.
Rating: 2/5 (poor)
Genre: Drama
Cast: Rachel Weisz (Hester Collyer), Tom Hiddleston (Freddie Page), Simon Russell Beale (Sir William Collyer)
Director/writer: Terence Davies
The sun never comes out in London according to Terence Davies‘ latest drama The Deep Blue Sea.
Genre: Drama
Cast: Daniel Day-Lewis (Abraham Lincoln), Sally Field (Mary Todd Lincoln), Tommy Lee Jones (Thaddeus Stevens), Joseph Gordon-Levitt (Robert Lincoln)
Writers: Tony Kushner (screenplay), Doris Goodwin (novel)
Director: Steven Spielberg
From the convincing performances of the cast to the careful detailing of the time period it encapsulates, Steven Spielberg‘s Lincoln feels more like a documentary (and a damn good one at that) than a feature-length dramatic film.
Every film enthusiast around the world will miss you.
You were an inspiration to me and many others. Your influence will live on.
Two big thumps up my friend!
- N
Genre: Comedy
Director/writer: Jacques Tati
There is no other film quite like Playtime.
Directed and thoroughly conceived by Jacques Tati, the film is a comedic commentary on modernity, one that very likely extends from Tati’s unique reaction to the excess and dehumanization of daily life under the advance of technology.
At the time of its release in 1967, Playtime was the most expensive French film ever made. For it, Tati created a huge set at the outskirts of Paris fondly referred to by locals as “Tativille”. His city within a city was representative of the purest ideals of the International Style of architecture. Buildings were made out of perfectly smooth surfaces like glass and steel, where the line between the private and public realm was often blurred. Buildings were rectilinear, describing pure straight lines, leaving no space for singularity, uniqueness nor superfluousness. Everything was made with a purpose. Decoration and ornamentation were deemed unnecessary and unrepresentative of function. Though life was already hectic and professionally oriented, there was hardly any space for chaos or for the unexpected. In its purest and most relentless, modernity for the International Style of architecture was in direct opposition to the organic, malleable, responsive and expressive character of human existence.
