Andy Klein of LA City Beat kinda knocks the crap out of “Alejandro Guilermo.” as he calls the director/writer duo responsible for Babel.
The attack is a rather harsh for my tastes. I think there is genius there, but it is precocious and a bit of restraint would go a long way. But still…
Andy’s way of going at them was too funny and razorsharp not to note. Here is Andy’s opener.
Welcome to the Make Your Own Alejandro Gonz
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DP: @Glenn__Kenny I count you as a thinker, Glenn, not just an attention-hungry reactionary… at least when it comes down to the films
Sunday, May 19 2013 12:52:48
“Two hours in the labyrinth of Paramount’s Avarice…. It was my first–and my last–IMAX venture. Haven’t been to a 3-D movie in years, and it’s bye-bye to THAT scathing visual transgression for the remainder of MY lifetime… It was an unceasing, unrelenting, take-no-audience-prisoners audial and visual back-alley mugging for two hours… I have been beaten up many times; I know what it feels like: this was a two-hour assault. I weep, as Jesus wept, for the generations that will grow up thinking this is what it means to “go to the movies.” I am near-on 79, and I [understand] that this is a generational opinion, but I do not think any sensible person not of a tot age where videogame… overkill is pro forma, could confuse the IMAX “experience” with a Saturday matinee outing. The term “author” as regards Summer Blockbuster movies, is not only moot, it is Urdu. Mountains heave mightily, and give birth to volcanic ant-hills.”
~ Harlan Ellison Takes In Star Trek: Into Darkness
“One of the things I wish I could do in my life would be to watch this film through somebody else’s eyes. I just can’t. I still see it as just a giant mess, and other people are seeing that it has a shape. That’s really exciting, because I still have a hard time seeing it clearly.”
~ Sarah Polley’s Greatest Wish About Stories We Tell
Basically, the first several points here are true, but what does that matter to the quality of the film? People are really ripping into this film for being the last in a triptych, aren’t they? Too bad.
It’s not like Klein doesn’t have a point. But, still, I am looking forward to Babel, considering it’s (apparently) better than 21 Grams and Amores Perros.
21 Grams incidentally was the last overwhelmingly, well reviewed film that I went out to see based on the strength of reviews. What I got was a pretentious, facile piece of tripe better suited to a 20 minute student film.
Well, i will see Babel, thats for sure!!
Here’s another secret recipe…for almost every Hollywood script:
1. Introduce characters, conflict.
2. Build conflict, tension.
3. Resolve conflict, delfate tension.
Woo-hoo! Now I’m a smug film reviewer/struggling screenwriter, too!
Nicol is right to say that 21 Grams was pretentious, but it had some extraordinary performances in it, which was worth the price of admission alone.
The writer/director team on this film have taken this style of storytelling to new heights. I saw it in Chicago where it received a standing ovation. Controversy didn’t hurt Crash, which didn’t hold a candle to Babel.
Normally I love pretention (see my love of Crash), but I thought 21 Grams was way over the top. So I’m taking all this Babel love with a grain of salt.
“6. Cast increasingly bankable stars, who will take a big pay cut for chance to act up a storm.”
This is a point that eats itself. Are they bankable because they showed their acting chops in the Innaritu movie? I think Gael Garcia Bernal has a career now because of Amores Perros and same for Rinko Kikuchi in Babel. Doesn’t Innaritu show that he can take virtual unknowns and give them a shot as well as work with veteran big names? Or is just that every actor outside of Mel Gibson is “increasingly bankable”?
“4. Unmoor the entire thing from any standard chronology, whipping back and forth in brief segments, even as the film as a whole moves generally forward in time.”
From what I remember, Amores Perros didn’t work that way. It was three stories told separately, each one being chronological in and of itself. Am I wrong?
“8. Shoot, cut, score, and release.”
Wow, those things deserve one numeral…obviously because they are so easy to do.
10. Ignore stupid lists that demonstrate willful ignorance of the creative process.
Babel is far and away the best of the Innaritu trilogy…I thought Amores Perros didn’t totally work, and agree that 21 Grams had wonderful acting but went overboard at times…can’t wait to hear what everyone else thinks, when’s the damn thing come out?
Andy Klein’s article was pretty funny…I get what’s eating at him about Innaritu’s films…but BABEL still left me in tears repeatedly, particularly the Japanese scenes, which are heartbreakingly beautiful…
“when’s the damn thing come out?”
Today.
…in seven cinemas.
“”8. Shoot, cut, score, and release.”
Wow, those things deserve one numeral…obviously because they are so easy to do.
10. Ignore stupid lists that demonstrate willful ignorance of the creative process.”
For God sake, get a life.
He didn’t like it, and found a fairly original and funny way of reviewing it. He wasn’t literally giving you a bullet point list of how to go about shooting a movie. Is that what you thought he was trying to do? Bless.
On another awards tangent…
is ‘gray Brad Pitt’ the equivalent this year of ‘fat Clooney’ from last year?