Last movie you watched and your critique of it

[Rye]

Watched Pan's Labyrinth. Was expecting something in the end to tie everything together but it never came. Pretty disappointed. Sure it had pretty good effects but what was the point of her magical world? To escape the boring bad life she had? Meh.

Well, for one thing it contrasted with the human world to show that, despite all the monsters in her fantasy world, the humans in the film were still capable of behaving more savagely. The lack of closure is quite intentional; it's not as if stories like that which occur in the real world have closure either; this verisimilitude is one of the reasons I hold the film in such high estimation. In the end it's not even clear whether the fantastic events were intended to be real or simply a coping device her mind created to escape the brutality of her real life.

My favorite thing about Pan's Labyrinth is that I don't know whether to feel terribly sad at the end or happy for Pan. Leaving an event up to a reading or viewer's imagination can bother me sometimes, but I always love when the interpretation of mood is left entirely for your decision.

An Education

3/5 for the film, 11/10 for Carey Mulligan's performance. I was utterly captivated by it. It wasn't the most dramatic performance or the most thrilling or funny, she just simply lit up the screen in a way I've rarely seen before. She was magnetic. It was like watching Audrey Hepburn reborn.

Ahh, I still have to watch this! I saw a poster for it in the theatres in England, but Hux wouldn't see it with me. Shlup sent to it me and I've not gotten around to sitting down and seeing it yet (same with Precious, it's sitting in my torrent folder waiting for some love.) It got a hella good review on Rotten Tomatoes.

Pan's Labyrinth, too. I could rave on about how beautiful and fantastic it is, but last night when I was tipsy I said something that was actually really accurate:

I think Pan's Labyrinth has the mood that Tim Burton tries to go for nowadays, and fails every single time to achieve (Except for Big Fish.)

Y-you don't like Tim?
BLASPHEMY!

I really love A Nightmare Before Christmas - I don't know anyone who disliked it. But every movie since that one (with the exception of Big Fish - I'll explain), has been really poor and vapid, because it's just him trying to rebottle the NBC glory, and it's just not working and it never will. I almost had to stop watching Sweeny Todd, it was such a poor work. I am so tired of seeing previews of movies with fake gloom, tired creepiness, and the butthumping of Johhny Depp. Isn't Johnny Depp tired of playing the same unimaginative characters? I thought he had more depth to him.

I watched an older movie a few months ago that had Johnny Depp - I had entirely forgotten that I even liked him as an actor until I saw it. It was called Chocolat and he was this pirate in an little french village. It was cool and I liked how he had a much more subtle way of acting in it. It wasn't the best movie, but I rather liked it, and I liked his role in it.

And coming back to it; I absolutely love Big Fish, it is one of my favorite movies. I think it is one of the most touching movies and it never fails to make me cry. It has such a big heart, like Amelie. It has his style of quirkiness, but it has warmth, originality, and an actual soul to it. The day Tim Burton stops trying to every single character in his movies ever another Jack Skellington is the day I'll see a movie of his again. I'm hoping that his talent and potential won't be wasted anymore.

EDIT: Whoa, I didn't mean that to sound so srs business. Sorry if that sounded crazy or anything. I just get really passionate about this because Tim Burton has this potential to make really beautiful movies like Big Fish, and he squanders it and it makes me grrrrrr!!! :kaoangry: