It's time for another edition of Armand goes to the movies. Or to be more precise, Armand gets dvds from Netflix, cuddles on the sofa with the kitty, and hits play. First up this week was Factotum. My thoughts? It's pretty much exactly what you'd think, though more funny than dark. So I'd say in terms of grades it merits basically a B or a C. It's fine. It did raise two question in my mind though. Why does Matt Dillon always play assholes? And why do I always really like Lili Taylor, even if she's playing a weakling, an asshole, a neurotic mess or even a simple, nice person? She's just great, even when I can't stand her character. So that was Netflix movie #1 this week. Tonight's was the oh-so well-respected United 93. And guess what - it's good! You're shocked, I know. But yeah, it lives up to the hype. I don't know if it's the best movie of the year, but I'm not surprised to see it on a lot of top 10 lists. And yes, the direction (which everyone is talking about) is indeed excellent. I did have a thought or quibble for the first 10-20 minutes. Wouldn't it be interesting if this thing had no dialogue? I mean the layout of the film is such that basically you know exactly what's going on the entire time, whether or not there are words (did I mention the directing was good), and since people might relate to it all the more on their own with their own language ... but I guess making it a silent film would've gone too far and been off-putting and pretentious. And actually the script is very strong. Good stuff indeed. So ... well, maybe I just would've had less dialogue at the start. But whatever, it's still a good movie.
And speaking of good movies, I'm excited about this weekend. Both Children of Men and Curse of the Golden Flower are finally opening at the Hollywood Theater.
Posted by armand at January 10, 2007 11:27 PM | TrackBack | Posted to Movies