I didn't think the
Rendition review went that well, I'm afraid. Often it seems that when one of the critics come into a review ready to pounce (in this case, Adam), it throws the ensuing discussion out of whack, with the other critic doing a lot of hedging, and a lot of time wasted gauging the relative amount of agreement or disagreement in the conversation:
- "We're not disagreeing with each other."
- "No, I know. I'm agreeing. I'm agreeing."
- "I agree with you, though."
- "I think, again, we're arguing about how bad this movie is, only in different ways."
The lowpoint, for me, was the following exchange, with Adam being a wee bit dismissive of Matty's point-of-view (the transcript doesn't quite capture the I'm-right-you're-wrong-end-of-discussion tone):
Matty: "I thought it was pretty taut."
Adam: "No, not at all."
Also, as long as I'm nit-picking (which, to be clear, is all this is), I sensed a certain discomfort (as in the
Sicko review) in discussing a movie that has a clear political point-of-view. (It's clear I'm going to have trouble articulating my point here, but I'll try...) I guess, for starters, I think it'd be valuable to challenge the (seemingly shared) assumption that "propaganda" is necessarily a bad thing in a movie. Matty, for instance, casually dissed
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (by association), which made me wonder if he's actually seen the movie or if he was just tapping into a conventional, derogatory, and ill-conceived notion of "Capracorn" ...
I just leave it there for now, except to add that I haven't seen
Rendition and have no plans to do so.
Oh, and to end on a postive note,
Hedwig was an inspired choice in the Top 5. It probably would have just missed the cut on
my list, but like Adam I'm kicking myself for not thinking of it. (
edit: Wait, I forgot that I'm mad at Matty for not including
Looking for Richard like I predicted he would. Not that I've seen it myself — always meant to — but a documentary about theater seemed like a good choice for him after including Pennebaker's
Moon Over Broadway a few weeks back.)
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