Make an Argument
Home Entertainment
By Eric Hughes
December 28, 2011
BoxOfficeProphets.com
Save for quick shots to the theater in the winter to see Oscar nominees like True Grit and The King’s Speech and maybe a few more, I paid premium money to go to The Adjustment Bureau - I blame my friends and their poor taste; it was horrendously horrible - and The Descendants - a decent flick, I think, and that happy medium kind of movie my family and I decided on over Thanksgiving.
And, save for being there for Reeling Film Festival’s opening night selection here in Chicago last month, that’s kinda been it.
What’s been interesting to me about this year, then, is that this might be the first time I’ve seen more new releases at home than I have, well, outside my home. I’ve got my buddy Redbox to thank, as well as a Netflix account a friend and I are sharing.
On top of that, I’ve become more patient with my movie going. I just haven’t been compelled to see much anything this year and have figured that a) saving money is good and b) well, there isn’t a whole lot being made anymore that I need to see right now.
I’ll get to them when I get to them, you know?
With that said, I got to a few of them, and came out the other side feeling a bit displeased, if not confused. A few movies I expected to be awesome were largely opposite that; they failed to hold a candle to my expectations. And with it being near the end of the year and all, I thought it a good idea to go over a few of ‘em.
Besides a knock on the filmmakers’ reputations, it’s been mostly no harm, no foul for me. So a movie was rather bad - at least I didn’t spend more than a buck to see it!
Among them:
Super 8
I suppose the big miss about Super 8 is that I’m not of the demographic the film catered to satisfy. If I were 13 I probably would have loved this thing. But I’m not - I’m nearly twice that. I came away feeling duped into seeing something that in its marketing implied it had J.J. Abrams’ seal of approval.
Let’s re-remember those original trailers and teasers, shall we? If you recall, they play very much like a sequel to Cloverfield or some other J.J.-branded movie would: They reveal little to nothing, but tempt you with just enough to wanna know what’s in that box! In Super 8’s case, the box is way more than a figurative thing. There’s a being - something - that survived a giant train explosion, and is all but begging to be unleashed from its confines as the trailer or teaser comes to an end.
Well, what in the hang is it?!
The first quarter or so of Super 8 is good, but then it transitioned into a basic thing, really; a film too simple to have been written and directed by J.J. Abrams.
I feel like I’m writing about Abrams like he’s some god of filmmaking or something. But truly, as that goes, I have at least found I’m more keen on researching a film, reading its news and reviews and the rest of it when I know he’s involved in some capacity. I even saw Cloverfield while studying for a semester in Spain - in Spanish and with subtitles (not that there’s much dialogue, anyway) - because
waiting ‘til I got home would have been nutso. And don’t even get me started on what I did with those screenshots posted to some website a few months before it was released.
I mean, J.J. could shoot a 30-second spot of a piece of crap wrapped in tinfoil and I’d be curious about what it could all mean.
But I digress… Super 8: probable entertainment if you’re a pre-teen. Otherwise, I’d say don’t bother.
Win Win
Now here’s one of those movies that requires some help. I have exactly one friend - hey, Justin! - who knew what movie I was talking about when I said Win Win. Everyone else has needed to know it’s that one starring Paul Giamatti as a wrestling coach, and that it was critically acclaimed and earned just $10 million at the box office. You know the film?
Anyway, it didn’t make me recoil quite like Super 8 did. But like J.J. Abrams, I expect more from Thomas McCarthy. He’s the guy behind The Visitor. I just loved that movie, you know.
Win Win has heart, and actress Amy Ryan, who I adore, but it’s touching in the way The Blind Side was touching. Like it’s a tale of morality, and doing good and being pleasing to others, but I - at least - remained a few steps ahead of the story through the entire thing.
The Tree of Life
Of everything I saw this year, The Tree of Life is easily the most beautiful, theatrically. It’s got some of the best cinematography I’ve yet seen in any movie, and where - like the city Venice - you could literally take a snapshot of any one part and come away with something real pretty. Like living room centerpiece worthy.
My problem with Tree of Life, then, is again its story. I hardly felt like I came away with much of anything I didn’t already know.
Yes, we can live for others or live for ourselves. Yes, we can be of the world or not of the world. Yes, we can reflect on the fact that our lives - let alone humanity, et al. - are but a blip on the timeline of our planet’s, our universe’s, existence. There was a lot around before out time. There will be a lot to come later.
And then the Earth will probably be swallowed by the Sun.
I do think I’d be interested in reading a critical piece or several on the movie and what others have interpreted, or what may have been its intended meaning. I think it’s a bit of a necessity when a film can be as wildly vague as Tree of Life is. But I think there’s something to be said about a movie that is only enjoyable - for me, anyway - when it’s digested, after the fact, through scholarly papers.