 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
"Noises From My Cranium" aka the BLOGler Report
Below are random, unedited thoughts on various subjects.Read onBLOGMarch 2006At the risk of sounding (reading) like a jerk, I will regurgitate my unedited and poorly spelled thoughts onto this page. Ready? Still not too late to go to google and search for that perfect April Fool's present. No? Okay, read on . . . Just saw the movie Junebug. Great acting, good story, very, very well directed and edited. If you haven't seen it, I recommend that you do. Stop reading if you haven't seen it. Come back and read this after you have.Welcome back (or "bad you" for not heeding my warning)The most interesting element of this film is how "visiting family as an adult" can be such a powerful catalyst for bringing repressed thoughts and flaws to the surface. When forced to deal with a tragic event, each character has difficulty comforting those whom they are closest with and seem to have little trouble comforting strangers. Sarah reminded me that "Familiarity breeds contempt" and the movie illustrates this so well. The writer also demonstrates how compassion and comfort is so easily misinterperated as sexual when it is offered by a person whom we don't have an intimate history with. It's easy to give freely of yourself to someone who hasn't let you down or whom you can "save" during their moment of crisis - but don't have to stick around for the aftermath. Kind of like being a grandparent or Aunt or Uncle. Stay to play, leave when the crying starts.The movie doesn't telegraph this message or hit you over the head with any of the many great ideas and observations it illustrates. It just comes off as very real, very familiar and very insightful. The film is fair in the way it humanizes the characters without glorifying or demonizing them. It also does a great job of not explaining every action or statement. Very frustrating when a movie does something great and then the character spews exposition essentially "explaining the joke." So many otherwise great movies are ruined by assuming the audience is stupid. If they don't get it (and the film maker wants them to get it) then the film isn't done yet.You don't see many films these days that aren't dumbed down using the "comic book" visual storytelling approach. Action flicks and comic book movies should use this approach, but character driven films should not. Even "Indie" films (though most Indie films are not truly independant) usually compromise on this point.But what do I know? |
|||
|
|
|||
|
|
