The endless homage to classic horror films had me scratching my head. I wanted to take this ride without being distracted by the obvious nods and winks to other movies. So let me count the ways I was distracted.
1. The use of the fish-eye lens screamed both Terry Gilliam's BRAZIL and Kubrick. In BRAZIL, the main character - Sam Lowry - visits his mother (Ida) who is obsessed with the rejuvenating plastic surgery/face lifts.
2. The overt use of…
This was great! What a wonderful return to the original 1968 and 1970 source material. The opening sequence had me scratching my head. Was this entire movie CGI? How did they do this? Absolutely stunning achievement in cinema. The obvious direct references to the the original two movies, including using some of it's music, helped to make it all feel like one giant saga. But what is excellent about this retelling is the exploration of how knowledge is transferred, twisted…
I'm not a fan of the MCU, but in a limited way I enjoyed GOTG Vol. 1 despite the entire tale (and characters) being a Doppelgänger to Star Wars: ANH. Moreover, these characters don't seem completely aligned with their comic book origins. I'm not a Marvel reader, but after reviewing various references, it appears that the movie version of these characters are not true to the source material. So I'm just on a ride with James Gunn. Ugh.
That same…
Similar to THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL in structure ( a meta narrative story within a story within a story), Wes Anderson and Roman Coppola have created a dense and fast paced story that includes jarring sequences which unexpectedly remove us from the foreground. Wes' screenplay explores a multitude of ideas without any definitive "answers". Then suddenly we are introduced to background material. The various transitions create a layered and head-spinning experience. Anderson gives us a choice to decide what is…
