pauletterich-la Reviews

Fahrenheit 451 (2018)

The Weight Of Fire

[4/10 · 20 May 2018]

I've seen Truffaut's version from the 60's two or three times even if it wasn't perfect for a great admirer of the book but it had Oskar Werner and Julie Christie and Cyril Cusack and a phenomenal score by Bernard Herrmann. This 2018 version has an interesting production design but the the actual center of this warning tale is completely lost. The pacing is infuriating and Michael Shannon as good as he is, he's becoming the go to guy to play the bad guy. Here everything is on the nose and by the numbers. So, disappointed. Michael B Jordan has amazing eyes but I wish he can find a great actor's director. He certainly deserve it.

Overboard (2018)

It's not hate, it's love.

[2/10 · 10 May 2018]

Yes, love for the movies. That's what provokes that feeling of "Oh no!" What's going on? Incapable of original ideas? I've been trying to remember when was the last time we had great original comedies without having to go all the way back to the 30's. "Tootsie" was decades ago, Death Becomes Her, elegant and original with room for actors to create characters even outlandish ones but Death Becomes Her was in the 90's. Now a barrage of sequels or movies from TV shows. There is no hate in what I'm saying that will be insane, no, the opposite is true. Call it tough love. I'm not going to be an enabler with my silence.

All the Money in the World (2017)

Give Me Your Money

[3/10 · 7 January 2018]

I was familiar with the entire saga and I was eager to see the Ridley Scott dramatization of the events. Now I saw it. A truly depressing movie experience by the director of the original Blade Runner (I'm not going to talk about the 2017 version) All by the numbers with a commercial eye that, I must say, is faltering big time. Did you see Scott's version of Robin Hood with Russell Crowe? No, here Scott attempts the conquering of box office grosses by a close up of J Paul Getty's ear as he's been mutilated. What a shame! Ridley Scott had the extraordinary Michelle Williams to play the mother and she is the one that makes it true even if the script doesn't provide her with well structured scenes and gives her Mark Whalberg to bounce of. He seems the hostage at times, delivering his lines without an ounce of real conviction. Charlie Plummer (oddly enough no relation to Christopher Plummer) is lovely and Christopher Plummer appears as a techno distraction but if they thought we were not going to be replacing Plummer for Spacey in our minds, all the time - aware of the performance as well as the technical wonder - they were wrong. As we left the theater that was the main topic of conversation. Plummer/Spacey. I'm afraid that greed played a part in this operation.

The Fugitive Kind (1960)

Orpheus Descending

[8/10 · 29 December 2017]

Based on the play "Orpheus Descending" by Tennessee Williams directed by Sidney Lumet with an exceptional cast: Marlon Brando, Anna Magnani, Joanne Woodward, Maureen Stapleton and Victor Jory. I saw it for the first time when I was still in my teens and I had an opaque, sticky memory of the film so when somebody suggested to see it on DVD I knew we were in for an opaque, sticky evening but, as it happens, I was dead wrong. "The Fugitive Kind" is riveting with an opening monologue by Brando that is astonishing. A 1960 Brando when he had still, I imagine. hopes to be the actor, the man he wanted to be. There is an animal innocence in his eyes in his moves. The magnificent Magnani, who learned her lines phonetically because she didn't know English presented Brando with a challenge as an actress and as a woman. I hear it wasn't pretty but the result is a feast for the eyes and the ears. The film may not be perfect but I don't think the original material was either so what we got here is a unique opportunity to see this enormous artists giving their whole. That alone makes it a collectors item.

The King's Speech (2010)

King Colin

[9/10 · 18 December 2017]

After seeing "Apartment Zero" and being bowled over again by his amazing performance as the Argentinean pretending to be British, I felt the urge to see "The King's Speech" again - So glad I did. It was very moving to see Adrian Leduc being George VI. What an astonishing actor. In Apartment Zero he creates a character without a personality. A repressed, innocent that comes out as a total weirdo but we know better. His undeclared needs reflected in Colin Firth's eyes are a prodigious acting feast. In The King's Speech, his George VI suffers from a different fear but it's also pungently clear in the actor's eyes. I think what they both share is a desperate wish to be invisible. For King George that's an impossibility so, his struggle to move forward, learning to be the man everyone expects him to be is enormously moving. As you may have guessed, Colin Firth has become one of my favorite actors of all time.

Apartment Zero (1988)

Apartment 10

[10/10 · 18 December 2017]

I upgraded my rating from 8 to 10. I remembered it as a film I enjoyed with a great central performance by a very young Colin Firth that's why a generous 8. But now, I saw something I hadn't notice before. Both characters are playing a role, they are both in hiding, consciously, for different reasons but it is Adrian - the magnificent Colin Firth. so fastidiously wounded up - who's the one who opens up, almost immediately. He confesses to Jack - a delicious Hart Bochner - to speak Spanish "but I prefer everyone to think I don't, keeps people at a proper distance, don't you think? He's already treating Jack differently, revealing himself. Why? It is clear to me now that somewhere in the recesses of his lonely mind, Adrian has decided that Jack is here to stay. He's going top be his and behave like those movie stars pictures that adorn his elegant apartment. They will be exactly where he left them. for ever and ever. The realization, very early in the film, created another coat of suspense. I loved the performances, starting with Colin Firth - there is not a single empty moment, his mind and his heart going, sometimes, in entirely different directions. Hart Bochner is absoloutely brilliant as he adapts to what Adrian seems to need, whatever it is "whoever you want me to be" I remembered that line the two half close ups but this time I understood what was behind it. Thrilling really. I can also assure you that I'll see this film again and for some reason I would like to share the experience with someone who's never seen it before. 10/10