Last movie you watched......

No.

 

"The Guitar" (2008), with Saffron Burrows, was on Sundance night before last.

Interesting little fable about a woman diagnosed with terminal cancer.

 

Your Highness - Was hoping some Kenny Powers magic rubbed off on this one, but Danny McBride's English accent is not suited for comedy. Natalie Portman has comedic licks, but sadly mostly all of her scenes are action-related. Oh and James Franco sucks. All-in-all a real mess.

 

I finally saw "Black Swan." I totally understand why Natalie Portman won the Oscar. That's one screwed-up film.

 

Although I understand why you think it is - and know people who feel the same - I don't, and here's why: Because of the way Eastwood works, tone is something that can get lost in the course of his direction. A lot of his movies are a little uneven because he doesn't always go back and hammer out the odd beats and imperfect takes in his films. Changeling takes on an increasingly odd tone - something resembling gallows humor, almost - as it gets into that last hour. Eastwood allows the actor who plays the serial killer the wrong kind of latitude. The madhouse scenes have an underlying "bitch kitsch" to them, with Angelina Jolie dialing up her inner femme power. Hard to explain, but it's there. Jolie's matured into a pretty nice person in a lot of ways, but that works against her; she doesn't hold her performance above the picture the way a woman who looks like that needs to, and she doesn't have the natural talent of Kate Winslet or Nicole Kidman to get in and out of scenes.

Not all of Eastwood's films are like that. Mystic River isn't, but consider the actors at work. Three of the best in the industry, a highly motivated Tim Robbins, plus Kevin Bacon, who always punches the time clock. Letters from Iwo Jima isn't, but Spielberg laid out all the cards there; Eastwood had the easiest direction of his career. I'd argue Gran Torino, however endearing it is, fails because of several terrible performances that Eastwood doesn't bother to clean up. That movie has a ton of scenes that play like parody in the midst of film that should not be.

 

I thought Changeling was disappointing, The comically corrupt L.A. cop thing, which worked in a movie like L.A. Confidential that was unapologetically pulp, didn't work here. Plus, the Burn Notice guy was a mile out of his depth. And Angelina Jolie, who does have depth, just seemed to be gliding.

And Gran Torino was a fine entertainment, tho it could be pretty much boiled down to "retired Dirty Harry becomes Christ figure."

 

My wife saw this and said it was fantastic but she has HORRID taste in movies so I wouldn't put much stock into that.

 

I saw Win Win tonight.

 

Ya killin' me, homes. What did you think of it?

 

Finally saw Black Swan. Very good.

 

I liked it. Giamatti was good. It was a nice story, funny at times, and the kid who played the wrestler did a very good job for a first-time actor.

 

Watched. "The Room." Arrgh.