Man, you guys are unpredictable. I thought I was going to tap into a groundswell of disappointment with my Babel post, but most of my readers who have seen it seemed to actually like it. Several of you were willing to take my word for it that the movie is pretentious crap (and I appreciate your faith in me, although I suspect that most were simply relieved to have an excuse to not have to watch this Important Movie).
Some of you, of course, were just confused. I pride myself on offering a unique point of view on this blog, and while that keeps things interesting, it also means that you can't just show up at this blog hoping for your daily dose of celebrity gossip/conservative talking points/cats wearing pajamas/blond jokes/whatever. Hell, half the time I don't have any idea what I'm going to post when I get up in the morning. As elizadoohicky said:
But to Eliza's point, I suppose I owe you a slightly more more cogent review/explanation.
What irritated me about Babel isn't that it was an absolutely horrible picture. The acting was superb, the music was haunting, and the cinematography was excellent. In fact, what irritates me is that so many people with so much talent decided to make a movie that was so dull, flimsy, exploitative, and cynical.
First, if you're going to do the interconnected plot thing, you've got to do better than "the gun used by character A in plotline X was once owned by character B in plotline Y." This narrative device has been used many times before, most recently (and much more convincingly) in Crash. Put some effort into it.
Second, intercutting between the different plotlines is not a substitute for having an interesting plot or two. Not one of the different plots could have stood alone as its own story.
Third, if one of your plotlines involves two cute blond children going to a Mexican wedding and having a great time, the viewer should not be thinking, "Oh shit, what horrible thing is going to happen to these kids?" for twenty minutes until surprise! Something horrible happens to the kids. That's a recipe for a slasher film, not an Oscar-winning drama.
Fourth, if you're trying to make a point about how life is tragic and bad things just happen to people for no reason, you should avoid contriving to make your characters do increasingly stupid things until bad things do in fact happen. For example, let's say you're a Mexican woman who is illegally employed as a nanny in the U.S., and you find out that your son is going to get married in Mexico the day after the parents of the children you are watching are scheduled to get back from North Africa. Do you:
1. Tell your employers that they may have to find someone else to watch the kids for a day or two, because you want to make sure that you get to the wedding on time.
2. Figure that you're just going to have to miss the wedding, because when you're illegally employed in a foreign country, not everything works out for you.
3. Take the two children, who are not only minors but also concrete evidence of your illegal employment, across the border into Mexico with the assistance of your hard-drinking cousin who has a history of criminal activity.
No reasonable person would be surprised when option 3 results in tragedy, but Iñárritu manipulates the viewer by giving the nanny and children a happy little holiday in Mexico before letting the tragedy predictably play out.
I was equally shocked -- shocked, I tell you -- when Bad Things happened after the Moroccan peasant gave his two nimwit sons a high-powered rifle without stopping to give them ten seconds of gun safety training (like, "Don't shoot at the tourist buses").
I'm not saying that people don't sometimes do stupid things; I'm saying that I don't need a Big Important Movie to tell me that stupidity often results in tragedy. The linkage between stupidity and tragedy is, in fact, another staple of the horror genre. We all know that the character who ventures into the dimly lit basement of the creepy old house against her better judgment is going to get hacked to pieces, but when an illegal Mexican worker smuggling minors across the border with the help of a drunken ne'er-do-well winds up in some deep shit, we're supposed to reflect on the Cruelty of Fate or Man's Inhumanity to Man or some nonsense. And at least in the horror flick, the chick would have been hot.
I do feel a little bad about only doing negative movie reviews on this site, but the reality is that it's hard to make a positive movie review entertaining. Really crappy movies (especially ambitious, well crafted crappy movies) make for very entertaining reviews. Just so you don't think I'm completely negative, though, here are some movies that I've seen recently -- any one of which is better than Babel. My clever ranking system ranges from one to four Mattress Tags.
The Dark Knight
A sprawling, chaotic crime drama with Batman in it. Heath Ledger's performance alone is worth the price of admission. He's scary good. I love the way the movie toys with superhero conventions, like the idea that supervillains need to have an "origin." There's simply no explanation for the Joker. He's just evil.
Four Mattress Tags.
Iron Man
Iron Man is something of a second tier superhero. He's a heavy hitter in the Marvel universe, but he doesn't have the iconic resonance of Spider-Man or the Hulk. And after the lackluster cinematic renditions of Daredevil and The Fantastic Four, I wasn't expecting too much from Iron Man. My hopes picked up when I heard that Jon Favreau was directing, and that Tony Stark would be played by Robert Downey Jr. Those familiar with the comic book Iron Man's ups and downs will appreciate just how brilliant a casting choice that was. But still smarting from the sticky black glob of evil that was Spider-Man 3, I went into the theater not expecting much.
I'm glad to report that Iron Man shattered all my expectations. I'd rank Iron Man second after Batman Begins as the best comic book movie of all time. With a Ben Affleck or Eric Bana in the lead role, this would have been a decent superhero movie. With Downey, it transcends the genre.
Four Mattress Tags.
No Country for Old Men
This is the kind of movie that critics love. Solid cast, good dialog, compelling performances. It's virtually humorless compared to most of the Coen brothers' films, unrelenting sobriety being a big leg up in the Oscar race. Is it going to stick with me the way Raising Arizona or Fargo did? I doubt it. Ask me in six months if I've seen it, and I'll probably say, "Is that the one with Daniel Day Lewis?"
Three Mattress Tags.
In Bruges
Clever, quirky, sometimes touching movie about two assassins for hire on holiday in the quiet Belgium city of Bruges. Definitely worth seeing
Three Mattress Tags.
I'd give Babel 2 Mattress Tags, by the way. If you're interested in more of my opinions, connect with me on Netflix.
Some of you, of course, were just confused. I pride myself on offering a unique point of view on this blog, and while that keeps things interesting, it also means that you can't just show up at this blog hoping for your daily dose of celebrity gossip/conservative talking points/cats wearing pajamas/blond jokes/whatever. Hell, half the time I don't have any idea what I'm going to post when I get up in the morning. As elizadoohicky said:
Well, after reading your post, I was thinking: RENT IT NOW!!! DIESEL HATES IT!Now first of all, a Nissan 300ZX with a clitoris is not a practical car. (Anything with a clitoris is inherently impractical.)
(don't misunderstand: I love you for the very reason that you are an enigma--computer geek/writer/photoshop artist/comedian/father/husband/does not still live with his parents in a garage apartment/drives a practical car/loves Huey Lewis...I mean COME ON! SO freakishly intriguing you are like blog crack! so I want to UNDERSTAND your passionate hatred for things of this nature)
But to Eliza's point, I suppose I owe you a slightly more more cogent review/explanation.
What irritated me about Babel isn't that it was an absolutely horrible picture. The acting was superb, the music was haunting, and the cinematography was excellent. In fact, what irritates me is that so many people with so much talent decided to make a movie that was so dull, flimsy, exploitative, and cynical.
First, if you're going to do the interconnected plot thing, you've got to do better than "the gun used by character A in plotline X was once owned by character B in plotline Y." This narrative device has been used many times before, most recently (and much more convincingly) in Crash. Put some effort into it.
Second, intercutting between the different plotlines is not a substitute for having an interesting plot or two. Not one of the different plots could have stood alone as its own story.
Third, if one of your plotlines involves two cute blond children going to a Mexican wedding and having a great time, the viewer should not be thinking, "Oh shit, what horrible thing is going to happen to these kids?" for twenty minutes until surprise! Something horrible happens to the kids. That's a recipe for a slasher film, not an Oscar-winning drama.
Fourth, if you're trying to make a point about how life is tragic and bad things just happen to people for no reason, you should avoid contriving to make your characters do increasingly stupid things until bad things do in fact happen. For example, let's say you're a Mexican woman who is illegally employed as a nanny in the U.S., and you find out that your son is going to get married in Mexico the day after the parents of the children you are watching are scheduled to get back from North Africa. Do you:
1. Tell your employers that they may have to find someone else to watch the kids for a day or two, because you want to make sure that you get to the wedding on time.
2. Figure that you're just going to have to miss the wedding, because when you're illegally employed in a foreign country, not everything works out for you.
3. Take the two children, who are not only minors but also concrete evidence of your illegal employment, across the border into Mexico with the assistance of your hard-drinking cousin who has a history of criminal activity.
No reasonable person would be surprised when option 3 results in tragedy, but Iñárritu manipulates the viewer by giving the nanny and children a happy little holiday in Mexico before letting the tragedy predictably play out.
I was equally shocked -- shocked, I tell you -- when Bad Things happened after the Moroccan peasant gave his two nimwit sons a high-powered rifle without stopping to give them ten seconds of gun safety training (like, "Don't shoot at the tourist buses").
I'm not saying that people don't sometimes do stupid things; I'm saying that I don't need a Big Important Movie to tell me that stupidity often results in tragedy. The linkage between stupidity and tragedy is, in fact, another staple of the horror genre. We all know that the character who ventures into the dimly lit basement of the creepy old house against her better judgment is going to get hacked to pieces, but when an illegal Mexican worker smuggling minors across the border with the help of a drunken ne'er-do-well winds up in some deep shit, we're supposed to reflect on the Cruelty of Fate or Man's Inhumanity to Man or some nonsense. And at least in the horror flick, the chick would have been hot.
I do feel a little bad about only doing negative movie reviews on this site, but the reality is that it's hard to make a positive movie review entertaining. Really crappy movies (especially ambitious, well crafted crappy movies) make for very entertaining reviews. Just so you don't think I'm completely negative, though, here are some movies that I've seen recently -- any one of which is better than Babel. My clever ranking system ranges from one to four Mattress Tags.
The Dark Knight
A sprawling, chaotic crime drama with Batman in it. Heath Ledger's performance alone is worth the price of admission. He's scary good. I love the way the movie toys with superhero conventions, like the idea that supervillains need to have an "origin." There's simply no explanation for the Joker. He's just evil.
Four Mattress Tags.
Iron Man
Iron Man is something of a second tier superhero. He's a heavy hitter in the Marvel universe, but he doesn't have the iconic resonance of Spider-Man or the Hulk. And after the lackluster cinematic renditions of Daredevil and The Fantastic Four, I wasn't expecting too much from Iron Man. My hopes picked up when I heard that Jon Favreau was directing, and that Tony Stark would be played by Robert Downey Jr. Those familiar with the comic book Iron Man's ups and downs will appreciate just how brilliant a casting choice that was. But still smarting from the sticky black glob of evil that was Spider-Man 3, I went into the theater not expecting much.
I'm glad to report that Iron Man shattered all my expectations. I'd rank Iron Man second after Batman Begins as the best comic book movie of all time. With a Ben Affleck or Eric Bana in the lead role, this would have been a decent superhero movie. With Downey, it transcends the genre.
Four Mattress Tags.
No Country for Old Men
This is the kind of movie that critics love. Solid cast, good dialog, compelling performances. It's virtually humorless compared to most of the Coen brothers' films, unrelenting sobriety being a big leg up in the Oscar race. Is it going to stick with me the way Raising Arizona or Fargo did? I doubt it. Ask me in six months if I've seen it, and I'll probably say, "Is that the one with Daniel Day Lewis?"
Three Mattress Tags.
In Bruges
Clever, quirky, sometimes touching movie about two assassins for hire on holiday in the quiet Belgium city of Bruges. Definitely worth seeing
Three Mattress Tags.
I'd give Babel 2 Mattress Tags, by the way. If you're interested in more of my opinions, connect with me on Netflix.
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Labels: Movies
| posted by Diesel at Tuesday, August 12, 2008 |
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