My Life Without Me
A tearjerker about a young mother with a month to live that rightfully passed the bullshit detectors of Sarah Polley and producer Pedro Almodovar. It did take a small leap of faith to believe that Polley would want to experience the love of someone other than husband Scott Speedman, as Scott Speedman is cuuuuute.
8MM
Peter Stormare, James Gandolfini and Joaquin Phoenix do an excellent job of bringing the post-Seven sleazy set design and Andrew Kevin Walker script to flamboyant life, but Joel Schumacher's direction lacks the exploitive pizazz and detached eeriness David Fincher and Paul Schrader respectively gave similar material. Nic Cage acts like Bruce Willis if he traded his charisma for a little more hair. SPOILER! Seeing this after watching The Wire makes the identity of "Machine" infinitely funnier.
3 comments:
It's been ages since I've seen 8mm. I remember a press junket interview in which Schumacher nakedly aspired to "edginess." Walker's script actually specifies that we do not and should not see the murder on the film, only the detective's reactions. Schrader's "Hardcore" gets better with every viewing. The opening Grand Rapids Michigan stuff is weirdly effective.
Have you seen much of The Wire? Me and Jess addictively watched it's entire run some months back and I was thinking you'd like it a lot too.
Leila's a huge Wire fan, and she bought the first four seasons. I've gone through the first three but I'm putting off the fourth so I can watch it closer to when the fifth comes out in august. It's pretty great.
Thinking about Nic Cage's reaction shots make me wonder when the last time was that I emotionally connected with a performance of his (not that this is really the appeal of his late '80s work). Bringing Out The Dead is probably as close as it gets, though I haven't seen any of his 'The (fill in the blank) Man' movies, unless 'Matchstick Men' counts as one. What a weird career.
the only movie i've ever dug nicholas cage in was ConAir.
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