bbs.bunglefever.com

I thought Jindabyne was too long, but this was probably because it it was one of about a dozen sub plots that made up Short Cuts - which I loved, despite being longer!
I Jindabyne, the characterisation was a bit heavy handed, hardly any of the characters were likeable and there were some limp attempts at suspense.

Good cast, but not the sum of its parts.

Mehhh

So it wasn't as good as The Fugitive then?

sorry?

For what?

Did the characters need to be likeable?

Did I spell that right?

If you want likeable, watch the Smurfs. Fuck me if I'm wrong, but... I thought the movie hinged heavily on the fact that the characters WEREN'T likeable. Foibles and whatnot. Even the well-meaning (albeit stupidly naive) female lead.

It WAS too long.

Yeah, it was. It was a tense film though. Would he find the one arm man? Would Tommy Lee Jones catch him? Had me in fucking pins. Cannot tolerate that level of anxiety.

Fucker. You've been doing that a lot lately.

Sorry?

*doesn't giggle...honest*

Die Zulo Gestalt";p="789702 wrote:Did the characters need to be likeable?

Did I spell that right?

If you want likeable, watch the Smurfs. Fuck me if I'm wrong, but... I thought the movie hinged heavily on the fact that the characters WEREN'T likeable. Foibles and whatnot. Even the well-meaning (albeit stupidly naive) female lead.

It WAS too long.

When you don't like the characters, then you don't sympathise with their actions and don't care what happens to them. Maybe you're right and you're not supposed to, but I thought we were supposed to feel sympathy for the wifey, whereas I just found that character painful and annoying.

The whole race card thing was llaboured and stomach churning too. As was your Smurfs comment, so fucking well take it back, you skanky twunt.

I stand by my impetuous outburst.

Cate Blanchett wasn't really likable in Little Fish. I certainly didn't love the film (other than Hugo), but I bet both of you did.

[/smarm]

didn't see it
[/smug]

Pfft

[/resplendant]

*farts in Judas’ general direction*

[/supremely victorious and a bit stinky]

You guys are aaaalright.

[/magnanimous]

*points and giggles at Roark's tiny tackle*

So, the Carver short films...

Studentova zena (The Student's Wife)
Goran Kovac, Croatia, 2000, 15 mins

Low budget student film. Understated enough to pass actingwise, but garbage to look at.

C'etait le chien d'Eddy (It was Eddy's Dog)
Olivier Babinet & Bertrand Mandico, France, 2003, 14 mins,

Good adaptation of the story. Just the changing from American to French culture changes it somewhat. Some nice scenery. The flashbacks with voiceover narration could have been better done as a straight up filming of the conversation between the couples.

Tropical Fish (based on Neighbors)
Chris Rodley, UK (but made in USA), 1994, 27 mins,

Great original story, good adaptation, though the 'wierdness' that comes over the characters could have been a little more understated. I'd have liked this one stretched out a little bit longer perhaps. Being an American film, it's probably the closest film to how i'd imagined the story.

Du bois pour l'hiver (Kindling)
Olivier Jahan, France, 2004, 42 mins,

This too I liked. Once again, the adaptation is rather different, as provincial France is a lot more picturesque than bumfuck USA. Good acting, pleanty of ambiguities of motivation (A Carver calling-card). About the only thing I'll say against it is it had a little too much backstory. Being that the carver books drop in at fairly random points, and end just as quickly, I actually thought the characters (or the lead at least) was almost a little too well rounded. But perhaps it's just a foible of cinema that it feels that way.

Top stuff. Now to track down Short Cuts.

Short Cuts gets the Hollywood treatment but there are some wonderful moments and the film overall is a great yarn. Tom Waits is particularly fab.

So I've heard

I mostly know that a few of the adaptations in it are my favourite of the stories (The Baker story in particular). It'd be nice to see how they're handled in the transfer. Especially now I've already seen a few in a stand-alone style.

I didn't really dig Tropical Fish. Maybe it was just too '80s for me, or just over-acted.