Drew's Film Journal

Saturday, December 12, 2009

No Direction Home: Bob Dylan ****

Director: Martin Scorsese
Year: 2005

Very good Bob Dylan documentary.

Avatar ***

Writer/Director: James Cameron

Year: 2009

Cinematographer: Mauro Fiore

Visually incredible, especially in 3D. I saw it twice in 3D at a quality theater and was taken on a ride for sure.

The problem is with the story, its been done before (much better in Dances With Wolves) and the dialogue turns everyone into stereotyped cartoon characters. A big anti-corporation, anti-racism, anti-colonialism, pro-environmentalism film works as a cultural zeitgeist, but its ironic to hear coming from the most expensive corporate Hollywood film ever made.

Appreciate the visual effects and the new technologies invented to bring them to the screen, but ultimately the story doesn't support the visuals. What good are technological leaps in CGI if the storytelling is ho-hum?

Maybe this film was just supposed to be a demo for new technologies, and hopefully the next time they are used a director with better story-telling skills will be wielding them.

However, I won't be buying this one on DVD, instead, I'll be popping in Dances With Wolves again to see that real buffalo hunt.

District 9 ***

Director: Neill Blomkamp

Year: 2009

Writers: Neill Blomkamp, Terri Tatchell

Cinematographer: Trent Opaloch

Some great special effects, definitely a forward progress in CGI, but overshadowed by effects in the year's later release, Avatar 3D.

Well done action movie, sets itself up as more thought-provoking than most films, but then turns into a regular action flick by the end, losing track of where it could have really built more interesting conflicts.

A good action/alien flick.

Man On Wire *****

Director: James Marsh

Year: 2008

Philippe Petit is a spectacular character to watch and inspires you to LIVE! The film is perfectly directed and handles transitions between interviews, archive footage and heist-film type re-enactments with a great sense of story-telling.

Superb film. A must see!

Moon *****

Director: Duncan Jones

Year: 2009

Story by: Duncan Jones

Screenplay by: Nathan Parker

Cinematographer: Gary Shaw

Great story, great acting by Sam Rockwell, perfectly directed. Some amazing yet non-distracting special effects and an terrific sense of isolation and claustrophobia captured in the method of photography/set design.

Must see it!