Author Topic: pixote's super slow dictation marathon  (Read 33227 times)

Corndog

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Re: pixote's super slow dictation marathon
« Reply #180 on: October 06, 2017, 08:39:23 AM »
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"Time is the speed at which the past decays."

pixote

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Re: pixote's super slow dictation marathon
« Reply #181 on: November 04, 2017, 01:41:39 AM »


An Angel at My Table  (Jane Campion, 1990)
Dictated by oneaprilday

It fills me with relief to at long last have watched this. I'd put it off for years, despite its appearance on a half dozen different watchlists I keep. During that time of procrastination, I built the film up in my head as something very arty and poetic and delicate, and it's not really those things at all. It's actually a surprising standard period piece bio-pic in the 'portrait of the young artist' genre. It's been a long while since I've watched My Left Foot from the previous year, but I would guess that'd be a pretty perfect double feature — maybe too perfect, in fact, with the films feeling almost redundant of each other.

Until listening to the audio commentary afterwards, I didn't realize that An Angel at My Table was intended more as a tv mini-series than a feature film. The cinematographer even framed with both formats in mind but favored the 4:3 composition when push came to shove. That backstory explains away a few qualms I had with the movie, both with its photography and with the rhythms of its screenplay. The straightforward presentation of so many coming-of-age tropes somehow feels more at home within the confines of a television set as opposed to the cinema. And it becomes more understandable why the filmmakers didn't include four times as many landscape shots with Janet's mop of red hair contrasting wonderfully with every background.

My favorite aspect of the film, by far, is the way it captures the sometimes extreme vulnerability that can come with shyness and social anxiety. Kerry Fox's performance kept me on edge with worry, like two hours spent watching someone using a wobbly ladder. Her vacant and darting looks drained me of empathy, to the point where I actually resented having to endure her time in the asylum. I thought I might have to turn off the film altogether if the script subjected her to a sexual assault. But it's worth it for the smile that follows the words, "If anyone tells you to get out and mix, and you don't want to— don't."

Grade: B-

Up next: Wassup Rockers (dictated by ˇKeith!)

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Sandy

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Re: pixote's super slow dictation marathon
« Reply #182 on: November 04, 2017, 09:04:23 PM »
Nice piece, pixote. Glad you caught up with this one.

And, wish I heard these words when I was young, "If anyone tells you to get out and mix, and you don't want to— don't." I had to claim the right to my introversion over time. :)

pixote

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Re: pixote's super slow dictation marathon
« Reply #183 on: December 18, 2017, 01:00:14 AM »


Wassup Rockers  (Larry Clark, 2005)
Dictated by ˇKeithˇ

I can't find my notes for this one, but, short version, I wish Clark had made a documentary instead. This group of Latino skater kids from South LA is cinematically unique, and their profile didn't require the adornment of a silly, thin plot that puts the kids in the position of having to show off their general lack of acting chops. The more real the film is — even in the fictionalized moments — the better, so it's a shame that Clark takes them out of their element and puts them in Beverly Hills (the satire of which is generic and generally unfortunate). Even in these sequences, though, the film creates some nice moments, highlighted by a scene of a Beverly Hills girl (the most professional actor in the cast) flirtatiously interviewing one of the South LA kids in her bedroom. It's a constructed scene that still let's the kids be themselves, and the honesty and intimacy are rewarding. I might have traded in some of the footage of the kids skateboarding for a deeper glimpse into their musical process.

Grade: C+

Up next: The World (dictated by worm@work)

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