Friday, May 28, 2010

A Metaphysical Can of Worms


"I don't see how I could go on living my life
the way I've lived it before"




[Great Moments In Screen Bitchery #17: Catherine Keener, Being John Malkovich]

18 comments:

Chris Na Taraja said...

This movie is truly brilliant. It did not make it into my top ten films of all time, but I might be able to squeeze it in on to the list half way between 7 and 8.

Unknown said...

I want to marry that moment. Thank you.

JD said...

i love this movie and C. Diaz was awesome

Anonymous said...

This movie is truly awful.

NATHANIEL R said...

@Mike -- Sorry I've already married it! We are Mr & Mrs BitchiestPossibleHandGesture and we've been happily married for 11 years!

@JD -- i like it too. but it's Keener who rules. And Malkovich. I still think it's rather evil that he wasn't Oscar nominated for this.

Volvagia said...

What is "awful" about it? Yeah, it's a nasty piece of work about extremely unsympathetic people, but it's funny, makes it's point about relationships and has some great showcase acting from Keener and Malkovich. And if you're going to be a jerk in regards to a respected film, please leave a name.

cal roth said...

I don't think the movie is that great. It just can't handle its own absurdness towards the end. We're watching a movie with a bizarre but solid logic, but from a certain moment it just can't go further, and the screenplay goes on replacing good absurd ideas with just absurdness to make the end. Like, the final scene is very good, but not that final act with the eternal life subplot.

Keener is great, but, please, don't complain she hasn't won the Oscar: it was Samantha's!

Volvagia said...

I thought the eternal life thing made sense. Why exactly would there be a purposeless hole into someone's mind? Eternal life is maybe the only non-voyeuristic explanation, the only explanation with a solid purpose, that could justify creating something like that.

Chris Na Taraja said...

Nat Basur hapi is an add for a drug or something stupid

Chris Na Taraja said...

Oh gods, don't try to make sense and argue the plot Logic of this movie...or I will have to find the doorway to your head!!!

Volvagia said...

Samantha Morton? For a typical Oscar-bait performance? That certain types of roles regularly get nominations means they've failed somewhat. Keener may not be identified as a Thelma Ritter type legend, but neither is Morton. And, for her invention and the amazingly introduced humanity to a character we shouldn't like at all, it's better to crown Keener than crown anyone in a role cynically intended to bait the golden boy.

Ben said...

Watching this movie in the theater is one of my seminal moviegoing experiences. I couldn't belive the thought and brilliance and utter amazing strangeness that went into it.... I can't belive I actually like another Kaufmann movie (Eternal Sunshine) even better.

cal roth said...

The eternal life alone is such a fascinating concept that it's too late to introduce it when your movie is starting its last act. It feels too rushed, and you can't experience it: the movie must stop for a character to explain it to you, and the explanation is not that great.

Of course Samantha's role is the one we can call Oscar-bait, but she puts so many notes in it that the whole thing transcends a lot its starting point. Keener is great, but the turn feels a little bit recycled from Yours Friends & Neighbors. It's not like we haven't seen her as a bitch before. Samantha, in a role some would say is a template for Oscar, manages to appear as a revelation.

Anonymous said...

Kidman should’ve been recognized for EWS in the Supporting Category. No way should Moulin Rouge be her first nomination and before To Die For fans start the howls of let us in – I reject this performance as a fluke completely outside the internal comfort zone of playing aloof characters she’s developed in the last decade for all of her more avant-garde films.

by /3rtfu11

Arkaan said...

I have Kidman as lead, even though she's probably not.

1999... I'm not that enthusiastic about ANY supporting actress. I'd probably go for Moore again - her nerve-shredding performance in Magnolia is devastating.

NATHANIEL R said...

arkaan... really? to me 1999 is one of the great supporting actress years.

no matter how you divvy it up you have to leave out someone amazing

all of these women have devoted fanbases that year: keener, collette, sevigny, bonham-carter, moore, jolie, kidman, manville, diaz, morton

and that's only 10 and i'm sure i forgot someone.

PPO-10 said...

Tied for my favorite movie of all time. The End.

Thom said...

"Ever want to be somebody else... No, that's the ad, but we can talk about you later."