I feel like it’s been a long time since I’ve seen a “good movie”. Sure, I’ve seen plenty of funny and lighthearted movies— I loved Role Models, Yes Man was funny. But there haven’t been too many films where at the end of the film it is absolutely essential that I sit in the chair and watch all of the credits just because I’m thinking about what the film was trying to tell me. Mr. Miley- If you stumble upon this post, yes, I did just write movie every single time in those last couple sentences and correct it to film. I do want to comment on two films that I recently watched and felt were absolutely awesome. Now, for the record— giving personal opinions on films is something I’m really not used to doing, ironic being a film student. Most of the time I’m doing some kind of film critique or study of what certain shots are trying to convey. However, I’m going to try and express how I feel about these films… We’ll see what happens.
The first was Gran Torino— the newest Eastwood film to come out of Village & Warner Bro’s. I had absolutely no idea what the film was about until I was actually watching it. Coming into the film like this was a huge surprise for me because I had no idea how intense it would be. However, the acting and the emotion involved was top-notch. There was something very raw to it all that was refreshing. No glitz, no glamour, just a powerful story. I really feel like it was one of the best films to come out of this year.
The other film that I just came out of today was The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. I’ve been telling myself that I wanted to see it for a very long time. I recently flipped through a cinema effects magazine with a story showing different pictures describing all of the technology involved with aging Brad Pitt throughout the film. So, going into it— I was expecting to only be wow’ed visually. However, the story and the metaphors(albeit, a little overbearing) all worked nicely and I really enjoyed it. The production value was great— I feel like I need to give a big loud shot out to Donald Graham Burt—whoever you are— for the amazing production design. So I guess you could say that it took a very different approach from Gran Torino— a fitting change. Rather than create a simplistic visual style, Benjamin Button created a fantasy world. But aside from that, the entire cast performed well. I felt like it was a bit reminiscent of Burton’s Big Fish for some reason, but I was okay with that because I also am in love with Big Fish. Maybe it’s just because both stories are framed by people dying— but there are also many similarities because both deal with the question of age, living, and death.
