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braundiggity
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This is a great and accurate list of things that are great in Downtown LA. I’ll add:
The Disney Concert Hall/Center Theatre Group is great.
Library Bar is great.
7 Grand is great.
Shabu Shabu House is great.
Pizza Next Door/Nazo’s Bakery is great.
There is lots of great in Downtown. Also lots of not great. Like most parts of most cities!
ptsmith_vt:
All fine. Coppola’s movies look at adolescent women’s place in society, the value of materiality in finding personal happiness, and the experience of being thrust into an unfamiliar culture. They deconstruct the notion of traditional American heroes (movie stars, Ivy League grads, royalty). Well-worn territory, absolutely, but no moreso (and no less valid, for me) than “America’s connection to violence.” Certainly, in my own life at least, much more relatable.
Suffice it to say, I think you sell her short? I’m somewhat limited in my Malick knowledge, but The New World always struck me as a great companion piece to Lost in Translation – both about trying to make connections in foreign lands, one to a foreigner, the other to someone sharing your experience. Virgin Suicides and Marie Antoinette are both about alienation, I suppose, but at least approach the subject in completely different ways.
Days of Heaven – the two thirds or so I’ve seen (sue me, I can’t get through it) – doesn’t have any greater “actual ideas.” It’s about an experience, the same as Thin Red Line, same as every Coppola movie. They’re not breaking the bank on plot, but they’re enveloping you in character.
Seconded. This movie achieves exactly what it sets out to achieve, to both its advantage and detriment.
I do think it’s intended (just as I think you’re supposed to be increasingly compelled and impressed by Fanning’s figure skating during that sequence/song, as Dorff puts away the phone and pays attention); it’s also, as you say, a reflection of how bored this dude is. It’s the equivalent of the “Lip my stockings” scene in Lost in Translation (cue: realization of how many scenes are similar-but-worse versions of Lost in Translation scenes).
And I certainly agree that she’s not terribly adept at making compelling movies for real audiences, but I’m not sure she’s even trying to do that. She’s not supposed to be a mainstream filmmaker like Shyamalan; she just stumbled upon that with Lost in Translation.
I hadn’t thought about that, but yeah – if this movie was about Elle Fanning instead of Stephen Dorff it’d be significantly better.
Oh, c’mon – the first scene with the dancers was pretty hilarious. It’s just so ridiculous. And the fact that they do the entirety of My Hero is ridiculous. That was one of the scenes where my total boredom transitioned unexpectedly into total laughter.
I’m going to get flogged for this, but that’s the patented Terrence Malick formula, too. He just doubles his runtimes with shots of grass flowing.
(full disclosure: I’m both a Coppola and Malick fan, but I’m sorry, it’s kind of true).
That said, Gabe is the Boss, which I guess is the biggest Rule.
Just re-discovered this. I’m pretty sure these are the guys that Attack the Block is based on? Gotta be, right? Anyone? We’re all still following this comment thread, yes?