Showing posts with label The Great Beauty. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Great Beauty. Show all posts

Monday, January 20, 2014

TheScreenTeen's Top 10 Films of 2013 (Honorable Mentions).

It's a long time coming, twenty days overdue, but it is done. It's complete. I have finished my top ten films of 2013, and it's a doozy. In any other year, some films near the bottom of my top twenty would find a way in the middle of a top ten. There's sixteen films I really want to recognize, so that means I do have six honorable mentions. Here they are, in alphabetical order.



All is Lost
I was bored through lots of this movie, in fact I thought near the thirty minute mark that the film

had spliced in repeated takes. But I feel that that was the intention of J.C. Chandor: to feel like Robert Redford in the film, bored, restless, and impatient. He succeeded, no doubt. The Golden Globe-winning score by Alex Ebert is strong, and the performance by Redford is on point.

American Hustle
I thought that this film would be guaranteed a spot on my top ten list, but in retrospect, the film is not nearly as great as some are making it out to be. Performances are confident and assured, like O. Russell's direction, but the film is pretty much just fluff. Highly stylized entertaining fluff, at least.

Blue Jasmine
I love me some '70's Woody Allen, and I can say with great confidence that this is a film by Woody Allen. Not chug-a-film-a-year Woody Allen, but by the auteur Woody Allen. It's his best film since Crimes and Misdemeanors, and I really wish I had room on this year's list for it, but it's just too strong of a year. Cate Blanchett is excellent, and I am so happy that Sally Hawkins got the recognition she deserved from the Academy.

The Great Beauty
It's the leading contender for best foreign language film of the year, and its a worthy one. Direction by Sorrentino is Felliniesque, sumptuous in style and heaving with thoughts of life's regrets.

The Spectacular Now
A great film about young love in the old years of youth. Sure, themes of alcoholism are heavyhanded, but the performances by Miles Teller and Shailene Woodley are superb, spot-on reflections of youth today.

Spring Breakers
There's no doubt in my mind that this film is trash, but it's dreamy, Florida sun-glazed, neon-light, orange-glow, hookers-and-blow, trash. Korine directs with some off the wall ambition, and James Franco is simply haunting as the rapper/pimp Alien. I've got half of the "Look at all my sheit" monologue engraved in my head, if that's a testament to my appreciation.



Monday, October 14, 2013

The Great Beauty (2013)- Movie Review

Federico Fellini just might be my favorite director. He was a man that could handle humanity, emotions, and all-out goofiness into one satisfying movie experience. One of his best films (not saying much or anything) is La Dolce Vita, a film that may display a high life of sex and glamour, but has a heart as bitter as brown tea. To say that Pablo Sorrentino's The Great Beauty owes something to La Dolce Vita is an understatement: This film is a spiritual remake of the film, down to the sex-filled parties and the disillusioned writer.

Saturday, May 25, 2013

Cannes roundup and predictions!

So tomorrow it ends, the 65th Cannes Film Festival. The fest has been angering and mostly underwhelming. Outside of raves for The Past, Inside Llewyn Davis, and Blue is the Warmest Color, not much has been liked at all. Sure, Behind the Candelabra was well-received, and Paolo Sorrentino's The Great Beauty was liked, but everything else has been a disappointment.

Especially Only God Forgives. What fantastic trailers! The film is generally regarded as the worst one in competition, despite the massive hype. What disappointment!

To be 100% honest, I anticipated almost every film in the competition, so it pained me to see Nebraska get side-stepped, Jimmy P. to be ignored (and at this point, forgotten), and The Immigrant to be so low. It's now time to see which films will take home the big prizes.

Predictions after the jump.