Please post your comments about the film you were given to view.
Tell us briefly about the story.
What were your thoughts about the technical and aesthetic components?
How could this film viewing apply to our (or your personal) goals for our course?
Feel free to write deeply and wander off inside your thoughts. This is a safe place. :)
From Jason Bayle, upon viewing "Limbo" (1998, John Sayles)
ReplyDeleteFrom Jason Bayle upon viewing "Limbo" (1998, Sayles)
It's funny that you gave me this film. First off, I was in and out of Juneau and Ketchikan when he was shooting it. That was the time I did my first stint on a cruise ship. Second, I've been obsessed with Dinner For Five which is now available on Youtube and I watched an episode with him (and Vanessa Martinez) the day before you gave me the DVD. A funny coincidence I think. He talked a little about using the "studio system" to do the kind of projects he wants. He told Jon Favreau that a long time ago he decided that it was ok to have a boss as a writer, but that he hated having one as a director. I thought that was pretty cool. So he does all the big money writing gigs he can, then takes that money and makes the movie he wants to make, an incredibly brave thing to do. He also struck me as a smart guy, who know's he's smart, probably smarter than you. And it showed in Limbo.
I love the idea of a thriller about people caught in no man's land physically and emotionally set in Alaska. I didn't think the acting was very good. For a thriller, it had a lot of expositional dialogue. Most of the tension to me felt fake frankly. Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio was completely unlikeable. I like ugly characters alot. But if you want me to root for them, you better find at least one thing we should care about. Yes people can be unlikeable onscreen, but you have to give the audience a reason to care or they check out. That's what I started doing. All Vanessa Martinez did was cry. You telling me John is a novelist by trade makes sense about that movie, because the character stuff and the poetic examination of the setting would work on the page in a novel. The ending didn't bother me, what bothered me was that I saw it coming. I was more happy it was over. Make them fight the bears, each other, something. Fight to live. To say but they are stuck, directionless, is a copout I think.
Where was all the beautiful footage of Alaska? Almost none...
That sequence in the bar of moving in and out of 5 or 6 conversations to tell a similar story...a great idea? Certainly. Successful, I'm not sure. Worth putting in your film just because it's cool and different if it doesn't work?
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteGrand Canyon:
ReplyDeleteThis was a helluva of a long movie. Joey and I texted the whole time. I am not sure I got all the subtle cinematic magic that Joey did/does, but, I did really like how it felt like a bunch of people seeing the best in the worst. Seeing as much good as they can despite the reality of the worst.
I also saw some paralells between the characters in the movie and my ladies in the movie.
If I am being perfectly honest when I wrote the character of 'Jessica' I saw her as foil that allowed for deeper connection between Audra and Kristina. I didn't see her has needing a journey. That story wasn't about her. It was a chance for me (Jessica) to improv a little (Which what I really love to do). I just wrote myself a fun little part that was just there to help create the drama. She was the baking soda. I was trying my had at 'Bridesmaids' not 'Mermaids' (That is a really bad example). However, it quickly became clear to me that, that is not the type of movie the class was wanting to make. I am writing one movie and the class is making another... so how do I create more demention to a character that to me is meant to be static, stock and stuck in the middle? Obviously the general consensus is the virgin thing won't quite play and truly I don't feel like the lesbian thing does ether. That is where this movie is interesting and though provoking... the scene with Mary Louise Parker and the cop makes me wonder if maybe Jessica's problem is simply that shes stuck. She's living her life in a frivolous youthful manner... Shes a child. She a little girl. Its hard to grow up when you wear skirts that are too short, too much pink lipstick and drink like your 17. I see something similar in he Mary Louise Parker character she stuck wanting something she can't have and can't get. There is also a cop scene in Grand Canyon. But there is much less male objectification.
I have loads of quotes I liked. And many other thoughts. But for now, that is all.