Letterboxd

So, normally my posts are about movies or award season,  but this time I wanted to talk about a new site that I've come across.  It's not entirely accurate to say that I "came across it." More accurately,  I was pointed in the direction of it.

While I'm at work,  I usually listen to music when I'm getting shit done. But recently,  I started listening to a movie podcast that I've been aware of for a while,  but haven't always had the time to listen to.  That podcast is Operation Kino,  off of CinemaBlend. Last week,  in OpKino 96, one of the guys, David Ehrlich,  talked about a social networking site that revolves around movies that was in beta stages.  That site is what I'm here to talk about: Letterboxd.com

This site is really cool,  especially for people who love movies as much as I do. This site works very similar to Twitter,  in the sense that you can "follow" people that you like/know, but it's function is much different, in the sense that it completely revolves around movies. It reminds me a lot of the old Flixster app for Facebook, before it became super shitty.  Pretty much you can say which movies you saw,  if you liked them or not,  and give them a star rating. And on top of that,  you can also write movie reviews of the film,  if you want.

The best thing about this site is how versatile it is. I don't think that this site is only for people who love movies,  it is for anyone who has even the slightest interest in film. A couple of the best features of this site seem to be really geared towards people who aren't as devoted to film as I am (which isn't to say people like me won't enjoy it,  but I'll get to that later. )

On top of just being able to keep track of what movies you've seen,  you can also keep a "diary" of when you saw specific films (and if it was a film you had seen before.) While all of these features are cool,  I think the best thing about this site is how it can help you branch out your film choices. I've only been on this site for a week now,  and I've already learned about completely obscure movies that I never would have heard of otherwise. I also think that the reviews on this site,  since they are coming from people who are really passionate about films,  are much better representations of the quality of the film. When you go on sites like RottenTomatoes and such,  you are mostly just seeing if critics liked it,  which usually isn't the opinion of the general public (I'm not saying RT is bad,  I just have found that I disagree with the scores fairly often.)

One last thought on this site,  I promise. I think that,  now that I'm out of college and in the real world,  most people don't have time to waste on shitty films. I guess it's even more than that: most people don't hear enough about the slightly more obscure movies. If you aren't looking out for a specific movie and when it comes out,  you can miss some of the best movies of the year when they make it into theaters. I think this site is a great and easy way to keep up with what has just come out and what people (those that you choose to follow) are buzzing about.

I hope this all doesn't just sound like a shameless pitch to get more people onto this site, but I really think people will enjoy it, especially my friends who enjoy reading my reviews on here. If anyone is actually interested in joining, I will gladly get you a beta code. All you have to do is ask.

Another Earth Review

I've come to a conclusion in the last couple of weeks: I fucking love Brit Marling. I've seen her in three movies in the last two weeks: Sound of My Voice, Arbitrage, and now Another Earth. Even in the not-so-great Arbitrage, she managed to shine. And Another Earth was no exception.

Another Earth tells the story of a 17 year old student, Rhoda (Marling), who crosses paths with a composer from Yale university, John Burroughs (played by William Mapother), on the night that a second earth is discovered in our galaxy. I hesitate to say anymore about the plot, because I would hate to spoil it for anyone, but just think of it as a vaguely science fiction film. Slightly more so than something like Never Let Me Go, but not real heavy sci-fi. I knew absolutely nothing about this film going in, I pretty much only saw it because I knew Brit Marling was in it. Don't judge. I was honestly surprised at how great the movie was.

The script for this movie, written by Marling and director Mike Cahill, was nothing super impressive, but managed to have a couple of really deep conversations and scenes in it. A couple of parts that stood out as really well written were: Rhoda's essay, Rhoda's monologue about the Russian cosmonaut, and a scene late in the film between Rhoda and John (spoilers.) Other than those few scenes, and a couple of lines smattered throughout the film, the script was still alright. The concept of the film was definitely the best part, it was very thought provoking and really touched on a lot of deep subjects. I was really impressed by how well these characters were written/developed. I really felt for both of the main characters, which is usually something I don't really say (yea, I'm a heartless dick.) There was also some great use of voice over dialogue in between major scenes, having professors and scientists talk about Earth 2, which I felt added to the atmosphere of the whole film. Overall, I was pretty impressed with this script.

The direction for this movie was...alright. I hesitate to say that it was great, because, while I did enjoy a majority of the way scenes were shot and framed, etc, I thought there were a handful of scenes that were trying to be too artsy. I usually don't mind the occasional artsy shot (as long as it isn't the entire movie, like Tree of Life) but these ones seemed to jar me out of the flow of the film.  They didn't work in the context of the film, and definitely didn't fit into this body of work. One of the few scenes that really stood out in the movie as amazing was: when Rhoda was standing by the ocean looking up at Earth 2. The shot was so perfectly framed and beautifully encapsulated exactly what this film was (kind of) about. I see a lot of potential from Mike Cahill, and I'm excited to see more feature films from him.

The strongest part of this film, to me, were (surprise, surprise) the performances. I thought Brit Marling and William Mapother were really great together (and separately, in Marling's case.) I thought they both brought a lot of emotion to the table and really made these characters come to life for me. Mapother's performance, especially, made me feel so heartbroken for this man. I was always pulling for him throughout the entire film. Conversely, I always felt terrible for Marling's character and was dreading what she was going to have to do. Both performances elicited a huge response from me, and I felt bad for both of them, but on completely different levels.

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To sum it up, I really enjoyed this film. It may be a little bit slower than most people will enjoy, but I didn't find that it dragged too much. I was really impressed by almost everything that was put on the screen before me, and most importantly, I was kept entertained. These characters are really well written and portrayed. If you appreciate great acting and nothing more, then you should definitely see this film.

Writing: 7/10

Directing: 7.5/10

Acting: 8.5/10

Pacing: 6.5/10

Rewatchability: 7/10

Score: 7.3/10

Beasts of the Southern Wild Review

Alright, I'm probably gonna get a lot of flack for this review, but, as always, I don't care. This is all my opinion, and you don't have to listen to me if you don't want to. That being said, if you liked this movie...I would suggest leaving now. I would hate to offend you. Just kidding, I aim to offend.

Beasts of the Southern Wild tells the story of Hushpuppy (played by Quvenzhane Wallis) and her father Wink (played by Dwight Henry) and paints a picture of what their lives are like in the "Bathtub." This takes place in a future where the polar icecaps are melting and the poor have, essentially, been left outside of the levies to drown.

Now, don't get me wrong, Beasts was a fairly well-acted and directed film (both of which I will cover later.) But what really killed me was the script and the pacing. I thought the entire concept had so much promise, being a semi-sci-fi/fantasy film, but being rooted in reality. Almost like Never Let Me Go. But this film just failed to capture my interest at any point. It really just seemed like the entire script was black people screaming about really mundane shit. All I really took away from this film is: in the future, apparently all black people are poor and homeless. Oh, and irrationally angry. And apparently they solve this by getting drunk. Ummm...right....?

Where the movie really shined, to me, was in the direction. This was Benh Zeitlin's first feature film, and I was really impressed with what he did with it. Several of the scenes only held my interest because they were just so beautiful to look at. It reminded me a lot of watching Tree of Life, where nothing interesting was happening, but every shot was so well framed and the editing was so spot on, that I couldn't look away. Now that I've seen this movie, I can honestly say I'm glad that Zeitlin got the Oscar nom for Best Director, but he definitely didn't deserve it over Affleck, Bigelow or Tarantino. People keep saying that he "stole" their spot, but I think that he earned his spot more than Haneke (and possibly David O. Russell.) I know he won't win, but I'm really glad to see such a strong first performance from an up and coming director. I just hope he didn't peak too early...

Another strength in the film was the acting. Wallis and Henry were amazing together. It's really stunning when you see a nine year-old girl deliver such a moving performance. In a movie that is, essentially, two people walking (or boating) around for 90 minutes, its really on the actors' shoulders to keep the viewer interested (and the director, to an extent.) And with such a shitty script, it took even more than usual from these actors. Both of them showed such emotion and developed their characters so well that it was hard not to enjoy the performances. I think all of my rage about this movie really came from the script, so I can't say anything bad about the acting. Wallis was great (especially for her age) and it took a lot for Henry to keep up, but he definitely did. I'm surprised I haven't heard more about him this award season. I guess he is just being overshadowed by Wallis.

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Overall, I didn't hate this movie. I didn't really love it, either. I will, most likely, never see this movie again. Even though it was short, if felt like an eternity when there is no real plot development. A movie really can't be carried by two actors and some pretty direction. It can't. Not with an abysmal script. I imagine two retarded monkeys could have written something better. No joke. I think Zeitlin should stick to directing and leave the writing to more talented folks.

Writing: 2/10

Directing: 8/10

Acting: 8.5/10

Pacing: 3/10

Rewatchability: 2/10

Score: 4.7/10