It was just announced at There Will Be Blood's website that there will be a preview screening in Seattle on December 29th at midnight. What a perfect birthday present! I've already bought two tickets and you should too. I was worried about making my top-ten list without TWBB on it in order to make my Jan 1 deadline. Now I don't have to worry.
I don't have a ton to say about Atonement. It was perfectly watchable and very, very pretty-- just like Wright's version of Pride and Prejudice. There's just isn't anything sublime about it, and the parts that are supposed to be the major show-offy setpieces fall on their face [I'm thinking in particular about a loooooong tracking shot in the Dunkirk section that seems to have no meaning at all. War is chaotic and ridiculous? Well no shit.] I tend to think comparing books to the films adapted from them is pretty tiresome, but I can't put my finger on why the ending of the film is so flat when McEwan's ending is the cornerstone of the whole book. I think it has something to do with the book ending on a questioning note, where the film wraps everything up in a nice shiny [if a bit melancholy] bow.
Ok, that's it for tonight. Buy your tickets kids. Paul Thomas Anderson is always worth it.
Tomorrow: Two films that I discovered this year that just missed the all-time top ten.
Oh, and Sweeney Todd.
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4 comments:
my dad said something similar about the end of atonement (book) vs. (movie). where there's a possibility that entire thing is made up, and none of it ever happened.
apparently other people have problems with the dunkirk scene, from what I hear. that it's out of place with the rest of the movie, and way too over the top.
and don't forget the percussiveness!
The 29th?!? But that's the day of the Christmas Bash!
So, now I have a moral dilemma: Do I kick everybody out of a party that's I'm hosting by 11:30 or do I miss the preview screening of the movie I want to see the most this year?
Well?
That's between you and your God Travis.
It was a harrowing experience fraught with confusion and frustration, but I am now the proud owner of a ticket to TWBB.
I am so happy about this that I busted knuckles with myself.
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