Hi, friends. Here’s some movie stuff for you!
Opening today:
David Schmader loves Gomorrah:
The Cannes-dazzling Italian mob movie Gomorrah begins with a blank screen, upon which appear the film’s credits, underscored by a piercing industrial hiss. Emanating from a film that identifies itself as a gritty mob movie, this violent, mysterious hiss fuels dreadful mental images: Is someone’s face being removed with an electric sander? Is a corpse being fed into a shredder? As the hiss continued, I found myself taking a mental tour through every scene of crime-related cinematic sadism I’d ever witnessed, from the car-trunk stabbing of Good- Fellas‘ Billy Batts to the cramming of Steve Buscemi into Fargo‘s wood chipper. At last, the source of the hiss is revealed: the UV lamps of a tanning bed, beating down upon a male member of the Naples crime syndicate known as the Camorra, in a Neapolitan tanning salon that soon enough becomes a scene of carnage. It’s a dazzling bait and switch and switch again, and one that perfectly encapsulates Gomorrah, a mafia movie in which every hint of glamour is killed.
I feel so-so about Two Lovers:
A broken engagement sends Leonard—the sad, spazzy, but inescapably likable heir to a Brighton Beach dry-cleaning business—on a few long walks off a few short piers, then to a mental hospital, then back to his parents’ humble two-bedroom apartment where, round-shouldered, he shuffles around the neighborhood taking pictures of human-less storefronts. He strikes up a romance with sweet, reliable Sandra (Vinessa Shaw), while at the same time becoming obsessed with his flighty, manipulative neighbor Michelle (Gwyneth Paltrow—are you interested in seeing one of her boobs? Because congrats…), the luminous life-ruiner described above.
Ballerina, says Jen Graves, tries to do too much and winds up saying very little:
In the overly broad documentary Ballerina are the beginnings of five or six separate great documentaries. For instance: a movie obsessively devoted to the legendarily expressive arms of Russian ballerinas. Just the arms. Or a movie that compares two great living primas, say, the lusty Diana Vishneva and the ethereal Uliana Lopatkina. Or an opinionated ranking of primas going back to the 19th century. Or a portrait of brand-new budding ballerinas—their little shirtless bodies (they wear only underwear) bent every which way by old men and women teachers—and the primas they idolize. Or a portrait in the middle: of the aspirers, the dancers on the verge.
And in Concessions, I had just a few more teeny tiny small thoughts about the Oscars:
The “Isn’t It Kind of Rude to Repeatedly Bring Up That Time When Your Friend Had a Decades-Long Career-Ending Meltdown and Wound Up an Orange, Scarred Wreck Who Creeps Out Dogs, Women, Children, and Most Men?” Award
Goes to: everyone at that fucking thing. Seriously, every two seconds it was “Mickey Rourke’s fucked-up face” this and “you look like a zombie potato in a wig” that. You guys. Maybe dude doesn’t want to talk about it right now.
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Happy weekend!
Gomorrah – ummm. It’s a bit violent. Think of the Godfather without any of the good parts. And then make it even grittier. Now double that.
But … very eye opening!
Two Lovers – they were discussing this on Washington Post yesterday, and it really sounds like a lot of women didn’t really like it, because Gwenyth Paltrow plays a certain type of women that women don’t like to think about, but most of the men very much thought she did that type of woman spot on.
Yes, they do exist. Two of my friends, both women, had the same kind of reaction as Lindy.
Oh, and the boob scene is not as fun as the roof or when he’s with the woman he should be with that he’s himself with – in a way the movie is about him and who he is and isn’t and his own limitations.
Gwenyth represents someone who he would never be himself with who would never be happy with him and whom he would never understand and his real love is who he will be happy with and who represents gradual change and love.
But that’s my take on it. It’s not a chick flick, but it’s a good film.
At this point in time, the only way I would pay to see a new Fishsticks Paltrow movie, was if it was a real life snuff film featuring Ms Paltrow and a wood chipper…
I’m also confused by these sexy ads for Gomorrah…is this a film about young, gay, twink Mafioso?
Looks like someone figured out how to get a video recorder into Savage’s brain…
I think the snuff film choice would be Gomorrah, @2.
will somebody PLEASE TELL ME WHY THESE GUYS ARE IN THEIR UNDERPANTS???!!! and no, i did not see scarface, but i don’t recall this sort of thing in any plot summary.
Im glad Gomorrah finally made it to the states. For people who never been to Scampia or the so called suburbs outside of Napoli, this film is as close to reality as it gets. The Camorra really does control every aspect of life there. They call it the system and every kid and every dog on the street is a part of the system. theyre a thousand times more powerful than any cosa nostra or US mafia would ever be. finally, a film about the real italia and the neglect there.
i loved schmader’s review. youse really should see this film.
the two thieves are in their underpants cuz southern italy is muggy and hot as hell. after this they go to a beach bar and dance to a corny italian song by eros ramazzotti. there is a lot of kissing and hugging between men in the film, but thats pretty common in italy. for straights and gays.
very true, SeMe. having grown up in a mostly Italian town for most of my teen years, I’m kind of unused to how non-hugging people are around here. It’s normal – at least when I go to Italy you see it all the time.
That guy in the white briefies has given me an enormous boner ever since the NYTimes published that photo *months* ago.
Seriously, you guys are really lagging.
I liked that Schmader is so enthralled and entertained by a blank screen and a hissing noise.
@6: So how can the EU dislodge the Camorra? That’s the question I want to hear an answer to.