Dazed and Confused
Taking Woodstock
Score: 9,0
Woodstock. Ang Lee. Imelda Staunton. Emile Hirsch. Liev Schreiber. It couldn’t go wrong. Well, it wasn’t really what I expected. I loved the preview, I found it very interesting and different than the usual. Ang Lee is a great director. I love Sense and Sensitivity, Brokeback Mountain and The Ice Storm. We can forget about Hunting Tiger, Couching Dragon… He shows lots of sensibility in his work. The silent scenes, soft music, stares and gestures, all these are very characteristic from the Asian cinema, and his productions too. He makes a blend between both Eastern and Western conceptions.
The film is about Elliot Tiber, played by Demitri Martin, who’s famous for his standup comedy, a young interior designer who gives up his ambitions in the big city in order to help his parents with their motel. In Brazil motels generally have round beds, a mirror on the ceiling, they charge per hour and they're used for other ends, if you know what I mean… There’s something interesting about these three characters. Demetri is 36, and he plays this guy who’s on his early 20’s. His parents are played by Imelda Staunton and Henry Goodman (that I didn’t know before) and they look older than they actually are. And it works. It reminded of those teenager’s TV shows like The OC and 90210, where the teenagers have 25 and their parents 35. In this case it doesn't work quite well...
Demitri, I mean, Elliot gives up his career to help his avaricious mother and his passive father. They try to improve the motel, but they can’t get a loan. So he decides to use the place to host a music festival, with an audience almost totally composed by hippies, world wide famous nowadays, to get the money they need. Despite having most of the town against them, they get the support from Live Schreiber, as Wilma, a transvestite ex-Marine responsible for security, Emile Hirsch as Billy, a disturbed recently returned Vietnam vet, and Max, played by American Pie’s dad Eugene Levy, who also rents his farm to host the concerts.
Despite the mixed reviews the picture has got so far, I really enjoyed it. But I won’t lie, I expected to see a little about the concerts, not only the preparations. But to portray Hendrix, Janis Joplin, The Who, Joan Baez or Joe Cocker could be risky too. Unless they used real footages from that period, like it was done in Milk, for example. I was taking a look at the list of the performances on the festival, and it must have been f****** awesome! Even though I’m not really close to the hygienic hippies, or weed, or acids… But the screenplay was based on an autobiographic book by the real Elliot, and it was just about the backstages, so I guess it’s ok.
As Ang is really good in what he does, he wouldn’t allow his film become a dump. The performances are good, specially Imelda’s, who’s brilliant as the hard-fisted sulky mother, always running with a broom so the shameless hippies would cover themselves. In my opinion she should be recognized and at least be nominated for awards as supporting actress. After losing an Oscar to Hillary Swank she deserves to be rewarded somehow, and she is a brilliant British actress and is much worshiped.
Critics have criticized the theatrical troupe that lives in Elliot’s barn, which is really ridiculous by the way. They think it’s appellative because of the nudity and all. Let’s face it, the 60’s, hippies, weeds, LSD, filth, nonsense and nudity are all in the same context. There’s no way to talk about one of them hiding another. The criticism also goes to Liev, who’s supposedly “too hunky” too play a transvestite. But a war vet and security at Woodstock would never be any skinny queen. And it was based on a real person. There must be a description of her in the book, and the production must have studied all the character before choosing the cast.
Anyway, I don’t have much else to say besides I liked it and would love to watch it again. It was one of the movies presented at Cannes, and Emile Hirsch showed up on his skateboard and wearing almost the same clothes he used during his flight from LA. Charming kid… It didn’t have the same bad reaction as Inglourious Basterds, but it hasn’t been as successful in the box offices as Inglorious, which is the greatest box office success on a premiere in Tarantino’s career by the way. Go figure… I was also even more interested to see Woodstock’s concerts. I’ll check some DVDs and documentaries as soon as school gives me a rest.
Taking Woodstock
Score: 9,0
Woodstock. Ang Lee. Imelda Staunton. Emile Hirsch. Liev Schreiber. It couldn’t go wrong. Well, it wasn’t really what I expected. I loved the preview, I found it very interesting and different than the usual. Ang Lee is a great director. I love Sense and Sensitivity, Brokeback Mountain and The Ice Storm. We can forget about Hunting Tiger, Couching Dragon… He shows lots of sensibility in his work. The silent scenes, soft music, stares and gestures, all these are very characteristic from the Asian cinema, and his productions too. He makes a blend between both Eastern and Western conceptions.
The film is about Elliot Tiber, played by Demitri Martin, who’s famous for his standup comedy, a young interior designer who gives up his ambitions in the big city in order to help his parents with their motel. In Brazil motels generally have round beds, a mirror on the ceiling, they charge per hour and they're used for other ends, if you know what I mean… There’s something interesting about these three characters. Demetri is 36, and he plays this guy who’s on his early 20’s. His parents are played by Imelda Staunton and Henry Goodman (that I didn’t know before) and they look older than they actually are. And it works. It reminded of those teenager’s TV shows like The OC and 90210, where the teenagers have 25 and their parents 35. In this case it doesn't work quite well...
Demitri, I mean, Elliot gives up his career to help his avaricious mother and his passive father. They try to improve the motel, but they can’t get a loan. So he decides to use the place to host a music festival, with an audience almost totally composed by hippies, world wide famous nowadays, to get the money they need. Despite having most of the town against them, they get the support from Live Schreiber, as Wilma, a transvestite ex-Marine responsible for security, Emile Hirsch as Billy, a disturbed recently returned Vietnam vet, and Max, played by American Pie’s dad Eugene Levy, who also rents his farm to host the concerts.
Despite the mixed reviews the picture has got so far, I really enjoyed it. But I won’t lie, I expected to see a little about the concerts, not only the preparations. But to portray Hendrix, Janis Joplin, The Who, Joan Baez or Joe Cocker could be risky too. Unless they used real footages from that period, like it was done in Milk, for example. I was taking a look at the list of the performances on the festival, and it must have been f****** awesome! Even though I’m not really close to the hygienic hippies, or weed, or acids… But the screenplay was based on an autobiographic book by the real Elliot, and it was just about the backstages, so I guess it’s ok.
As Ang is really good in what he does, he wouldn’t allow his film become a dump. The performances are good, specially Imelda’s, who’s brilliant as the hard-fisted sulky mother, always running with a broom so the shameless hippies would cover themselves. In my opinion she should be recognized and at least be nominated for awards as supporting actress. After losing an Oscar to Hillary Swank she deserves to be rewarded somehow, and she is a brilliant British actress and is much worshiped.
Critics have criticized the theatrical troupe that lives in Elliot’s barn, which is really ridiculous by the way. They think it’s appellative because of the nudity and all. Let’s face it, the 60’s, hippies, weeds, LSD, filth, nonsense and nudity are all in the same context. There’s no way to talk about one of them hiding another. The criticism also goes to Liev, who’s supposedly “too hunky” too play a transvestite. But a war vet and security at Woodstock would never be any skinny queen. And it was based on a real person. There must be a description of her in the book, and the production must have studied all the character before choosing the cast.
Anyway, I don’t have much else to say besides I liked it and would love to watch it again. It was one of the movies presented at Cannes, and Emile Hirsch showed up on his skateboard and wearing almost the same clothes he used during his flight from LA. Charming kid… It didn’t have the same bad reaction as Inglourious Basterds, but it hasn’t been as successful in the box offices as Inglorious, which is the greatest box office success on a premiere in Tarantino’s career by the way. Go figure… I was also even more interested to see Woodstock’s concerts. I’ll check some DVDs and documentaries as soon as school gives me a rest.
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