2003 Film List - Page 14

Edwin Pereyra · 11-21-2003, 03:20 PM

Thomas McCarthy's The Station Agent.

Next Up: The Human Stain

~Edwin

Seth Paxton · 11-21-2003, 03:51 PM

Lost in La Mancha
7.5 of 10
It's a pretty well-told documentary which does a nice job of tying together the subject of the film being made with the production of the film itself. Unlike the often forced soap opera drama of Project Greenlight, here the audience sees what real cinema disasters look like and they are sickening to watch. At one point a flood begins to carry all of the equipment and set pieces away and my stomach just dropped even though I knew the film was doomed anyway.

It could have scored better if it had dealt a bit more with the emotional exchange that had to be going on with the players rather than spending most of the film as a semi-neutral recorder of history. For all the disaster we don't see too much in the way of real conflict, though its clear that there had to be some very spirited moments between the crew.

In that way La Mancha is all problems without the drama while Greenlight is all drama without the problems (at least the big boy problems that Gilliam's team was met by).

In the end I was impressed with the brief glimpses of the film, sets, costumes and storyline. It really does appear that this would have been a fantastic film, at least for Gilliam fans like myself. It really seems unfair that it fell apart like that.

Raymond_H · 11-21-2003, 10:49 PM

Updated with How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days

A run-of-the-mill romantic comedy. It gets some laughs, has a beautiful leading lady (who basically is the whole show) but fails to add any depth in this tired genre.

Raymond

Arman · 11-22-2003, 07:47 AM

Edwin Pereyra · 11-22-2003, 11:06 PM

May

I thought I’d give this one a try as it appeared recently in a handful of Top 10 lists so far this year. What a POS! I never thought I’d use those words to describe a film. But anything less would be pure dishonesty on my part. This film is just vile and disgusting in its disguised pretentiousness. It offers nothing new to the genre. With this film, the last thing we need is rationalizing the Jeffrey Dahmers of the world and applauding them for their actions while passing it off as entertainment.

There are some who are quick to dismiss that those who dislike this film does not know anything about movies. Well, I’m happy to be in the company of “those people”. I can understand a certain predilection towards a particular genre. But “one of the best films of the year”? You got to be kidding.

~Edwin

Scott Weinberg · 11-23-2003, 12:05 AM

Added a few:

Winged Migration - Dazzling. I was like hip-mo-tized.

House of Sand and Fog - Fans of heavy drama will dig this one. I definitely did.

The Battle of Shaker Heights - Never helps when your main character is an insufferable little putz. It's the Igby rule.

Gigantic: A Tale of Two Johns - Fans will love it; non-fans will enjoy it for about 40-some minutes before getting bored. DVD is loaded with cool TMBG goodies, too!

..and I never said May was one of the best movies I've seen this year.

I said it was the best.

Edwin Pereyra · 11-23-2003, 10:14 AM

Neil LaBute's The Shape of Things.

~Edwin

Lowell_B · 11-23-2003, 12:32 PM

Updated my list with the very good:

Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (***1/2 / ****)

An excellent genre picture, it just sort of flows from scene to scene. Having the restrictions of making a movie in such a confined environment it's really something to have each scene be fresh and have the movie seem much shorter than it's running time.

A lot of great individual scenes too that really stand out. Loved the "classical music as a score" too, and who woulda thought Russell Crowe could play violin.

Lowell