Disqus - Latest Comments for bittentongue

Re: Movie Review: CLOUD ATLAS Is Overwhelming, Odd And Utterly, Completely Amazing

bittentongue — Tue, 30 Oct 2012 13:08:47 -0000

I'm interested in what ways CLOUD ATLAS "[rewrote] the language of visual storytelling" for you. The makeup? The number of stories?

Re: THE AVENGERS Gets A Big Re-Release To Sink TITANIC

bittentongue — Thu, 30 Aug 2012 15:33:38 -0000

These two commenters beat me to the punch. The stakes never get grounded in a "personal/human" way. It's all general platitudes about "the world ending," which adds to the weightless nature of the film, and caused me to feel detached and bored. The "end of the world" in the third act is as non-engaging as the attack on the S.H.I.E.L.D. base in the quite-bad first act. I don't know Hawkeye so why do I care he gets turned? I didn't feel invested in what was going on, and then on top of that the action in the third act is small, repetitive, and standard so I found myself becoming more bored with yet another punch or laser blast at yet another nameless/faceless alien.

Re: THE AVENGERS Gets A Big Re-Release To Sink TITANIC

bittentongue — Thu, 30 Aug 2012 13:49:41 -0000

I will deny. I found AVENGERS a slog - another milquetoast Marvel movie with no stakes, thin plot, and flat action. You know how it has to end before the movie is made so the journey and beats have to be fun enough to justify the movie's existence. Outside of Hulk and some Banner/Stark material, everything feels stale and pretty small in a TV way.

Re: Up For Discussion: Was There Originally A Traitor In MI4?

bittentongue — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 18:15:30 -0000

Regarding Cobalt in Dubai - if it were Cobalt they could have just apprehended him there and not given any codes. They can't kill either the French assassin or the right hand man because they need to follow them to Cobalt. If they know Cobalt is there then they can "simply" apprehend him, film fin. All this said, and as logical as it is, the reveal is still underwhelming.

Re: Questions About The BREAKING BAD Finale

bittentongue — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 12:56:07 -0000

Gus didn't poison Brock so when he hears Brock is poisoned he becomes suspicious, particularly of Walter. He sees that an offensive is underway, but as he stares out at the New Mexico skyline he's not sure where. Being a careful man, he takes the stairs and probably a cab home.
Victor claimed to know how to "cook" - following the recipe - but Gus knows the value and artistry of chemistry from his "hermano." He spent years looking for the right chemist again, and despite the problems Walter presents, the value of he and Jesse cooking - knowing the recipe, knowing what to do if something goes wrong, knowing when something goes right - far outweighs the risks.
The ricin cigarette sits somewhere in red herring land, the left hand misdirecting so we don't see the right hand grabbing some bad berries.

Re: Go To The Movies: The Weekend Movies Open Thread

bittentongue — Sun, 27 Mar 2011 03:23:42 -0000

I think that "chicken shit happy ending thing" does make the statement that system has changed in some way (that Baby Doll brought change by riling up the girls, helping one escape, and putting Blue away), but it really undercuts the idea of males having power in every situation. It shows Gugino with power after we're told the entire film she doesn't have any. It's also a strange plot contrivance that makes little to no sense with the rest of the picture. It would be much, much better if Gugino were just a stooge, but she's not when for some reason the director decides he doesn't want her to be. And that randomness, that total non-dedication to creating any convincing character, runs throughout the picture.

As for Sweet Pea, I assume when you mention in your review a third act twist that is cinematically inert but thematically true you're referencing the "this is her story, not mine" revelation. If this is not Baby Doll's story, why have I been following her? If this is a movie about storytelling and point of view, why is there no story to tell? If, as your review claims, this is about creation of fantasy, why not focus on the creation on these fantasy worlds? Why not make them emotionally relevant or give them thematic weight beyond "dragons are cool?"

Does Sweet Pea escape, or does that exist in Baby Doll's fantasy world as well? Not only is Scott Glenn there, but the US soldier is getting on the bus as well and the whole scene is so poorly green screen comped that none of it feels real. Someone escaped - Gugino states as much - but is that Sweet Pea on the outside or Baby Doll's idea of Sweet Pea? Does Sweet Pea exist? For the movie to have any type of redeeming message regarding sisterhood, I think she has to be real. Otherwise, literally the whole movie has been for naught. What has Baby Doll really learned if that scene's not real? It would show us that some small part of Baby Doll has survived - what part and why who knows. The way the camera tracks past Baby Doll and wipes to the next scene seems to suggest a fantasy aspect to it.

I really love this idea - "These other girls bought her a CHANCE to do something better. That's where the women of today stand - with a CHANCE to go farther, a chance bought by women who came before who were abused and killed and held down but who fought back." However, I don't think that's in the text. It gives Snyder a lot of credit. At best, he seems to say that hypersexualized violence cannot lead to freedom. To call that hypocritical coming from a film that dresses up the girls in that way and has them kick fantasy ass seems understatement.

As for the idea that this movie has merit because I'm worked up enough to write about it, to think about it, does not take into account that I think the movie is truly awful. I am here writing and asking these questions because I'm legitimately interested in what others saw in the film. Personally, I think it's a poorly written, terribly acted mess with lousy visual effects that's mean and assaultive towards the audience. I find it funny that not too long ago there was a Devin's Advocate bemoaning a death of story in Hollywood and then this movie comes out with a total lack of story or characters. There are ideas here, but they seem half-baked and muddled and are carried out in such a mean and vicious manner. FUNNY GAMES and THE BIRDS are films that deal with the idea that the audience causes terrible things to happen on screen, that delve into the gray area between spectator and perpetrator. SUCKER PUNCH is not up to that task.

Again, I don't mean to be dismissive or snide. I hope none of what I've written comes off that way.

Re: Go To The Movies: The Weekend Movies Open Thread

bittentongue — Sat, 26 Mar 2011 13:50:35 -0000

I find it interesting that action with no stakes, no character, and little to no point can excite you viscerally, Devin. Sucker Punch is Anti Scott Pilgrim: all "style," no character or soul. Why would Baby Doll imagine a horrible, hypersexualized world on top of her terrible existence in order to imagine another fantasy world on top of that where she can do anything she wants? Why wouldn't she just imagine the fantasy world where she can jump a mile in the air and swirl snow around in the first place? Why cut away from every scene with suspense and drama (Sweet Pea stealing the map, Amber stealing the lighter) to endless, monotonous action scenes that have nothing to do with anything else going on? If this film is supposedly investigating female empowerment (which is only realized through Christ-like/Cuckoo's Nest sacrifice? Let many die hypersexualized and raped so that one may go free? Yay, sisterhood of the traveling slo-mo?), why is it a man who tells Baby Doll what to do in the fantasy realm? Why isn't it Carla Gugino? What "big ideas" is Zack Snyder dealing with?

One could make the case that the film is a girl coming into her own sexually, fighting her own repression (from religion - her stepdad was the priest - or... I don't know, she nor anyone else is a fleshed-out character) and accepting the man killing her brain with his phallus so that she can sit there with a smile on her face, like a good wife should. That would be the simple misogynist reading, and I think lobbing that claim at Snyder is more than fair game after those two endless hours of thighs and midriffs. If Baby Doll had simply had sex with her stepfather, everything would have been okay, in that reading. She has to learn male control. Now of course, that is unfair because of one crucial piece of information: Baby Doll has real, capital control in the real world, inheriting her mother's estate. She has become a transgressive force in the patriarchal system, a woman who can support herself and her sister now. This enrages the now neutered stepfather so he puts her in the asylum to get his money phallus back. This makes the film even more a rip-off of BRAZIL with none of the philosophical, anarchic, or sociopolitical undertones. The "system" keeps her repressed, much like Betty Draper, which would in some way justify the '60s setting. Unlike BRAZIL, she does not actually get to transgress the system outside of the hermetically sealed "world" of the asylum. She causes a little trouble, but there is no sense of "system as threat." It all seems specific to these few scumbags. In order for this reading to have real bearing though, Blue should have gotten away with his crime and probably raped her as well. Then patriarchy really does run the system, and it makes sense that Blue works under Gugino. She is the boss, but because he is a man making deals with other men he has control. Having him arrested not only calls into question the dynamics of everything in the asylum, it makes Gugino seem like an idiot (why is she surprised that her signature was forged - who else would have signed it???), and any possible "'up-lifitng' Baby Doll sacrificed herself so that the system could change" rings hollow. If Gugino was so bad at managing things before - i.e., if women can't realize what's going on around them anyway - what's different now?

None of this mentions how abrasive the sound mix is, how repellent the aesthetic is outside of Snyder's hawt gurrrls, how cut scene-y the visual effects are (particularly the blue samurai section), how idiotic Scott Glenn's sub-AVATAR dialogue is, how utterly humorless the movie is, and how crushingly boring the endless two hours are. How did anyone give him so much money to make this thing, and why in the world would anyone give him so much money to make another movie? SUCKER PUNCH is not the subversive, visual feast Snyder believes it is, and it is an auteur's film in the way Uwe Boll's pictures are the work of auteur. No matter how much money you spend, you can never buy good taste.

Re: This is My Favorite Song

bittentongue — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 12:10:01 -0000

Hey, I'm not dead! Am I? Oh man, is this a Sixth Sense situation?

Re: lowindustrial.

bittentongue — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 03:35:36 -0000

Don't worry, buddy. Don't worry at all.

Re: bitten tongue.

bittentongue — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 14:35:21 -0000

I thought he looked a bit more like the RA from "Undeclared," but you might have a million-dollar idea there:
A remake of "Roman Holiday" starring Pegg, Zooey D, and, oh, let's say Michael Douglas?

Re: Unburying The Lead

bittentongue — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 22:15:40 -0000

Have you read "History of Love?" It's the only Krauss I've read, and not only did I find the writing engaging and quick but the book itself quite beautiful.

Re: to the maxxx | Let the Wiseman-fest commence!

bittentongue — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 18:53:20 -0000

You forgot Underworld.

Re: i saw that. - I know that it would be too much to point to this...

bittentongue — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 22:19:35 -0000

It's either an ark or a vagine. Right?

Re: to the maxxx | A Matter of Life and Death, dir. Michael Powell...

bittentongue — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 17:38:47 -0000

Your comment reminded me to bump it to the top of my queue. Outside of 15 minutes, it's the big one of theirs I've missed.

Re: to the maxxx | A Matter of Life and Death, dir. Michael Powell...

bittentongue — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 17:31:39 -0000

Thank you for making today bittersweet with these excellent stills from P&P's bests.

Re: i saw that. - This is not a real place. OK, it’s kind of a...

bittentongue — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 21:58:33 -0000

So what's next? Are you taking UCB classes again?

Re: This is My Favorite Song

bittentongue — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 17:38:51 -0000

Can't wait to watch this when I get back. When are the Emmy nominations?

Re: Molly Lambert - lambosaquarium: Joaquin Phoenix Killing it On...

bittentongue — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 05:42:50 -0000

This is too incredible. How can it not be a huge ruse? If he were acting and doing the method thing (like his forced accent in the clip screams at us), I would believe he's that oblivious, but with hip-hop? Come on.
It's like he and Casey are making a funny "Tropic Thunder."

Re: self-explanatory

bittentongue — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 05:17:14 -0000

My first thought: Oh, a "2012" joke. But this is much better.

Re: Unburying The Lead

bittentongue — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 19:52:30 -0000

Quite the opposite

Re: Unburying The Lead

bittentongue — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 11:24:29 -0000

Excellent article in its background of the political situation not only in Chechnya but Vienna in particular. Though it may not have the same air of international intrigue as after WWII, the alleys apparently has some ghosts still.

Re: This is My Favorite Song

bittentongue — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 18:40:04 -0000

All of "Curtis": genius.

Re: Dreams really do come true, thanks to Jaimie

bittentongue — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 05:46:13 -0000

Yet another reason I miss "Arrested Development." Imagine Steve Martin as Martin Short's body carrier.