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So There Was This Today

~ An eclectic kaleidoscope of whatever tickles my fancy, makes me think, gives me pause, grabs my heart, gives me the giggles, or in any way hits me in the feels.

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Tag Archives: cinematography

Movie Review: “Mockingjay Part 1”

25 Tuesday Nov 2014

Posted by 98maryanne in Movies, Reviews

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acting, cinematography, Effie, Elizabeth Banks, Haymitch, Jennifer Lawrence, Katniss Everdeen, mockingjay, Philip Seymour Hoffman, reviews, Woody Harrelson

Mockingjay part 1 is clearly a set up for the final movie in the series. I have not read the books and so don’t really have an idea of why the final book was turned into two movies. I tend to be somewhat on the bandwagon that it was mainly a financial decision, the studios hoping to cash in with four movies rather than three. I base that mostly on the fact that as I stated above this movie was clearly a set up. Much of what happened could have been easily condensed. That said, Mockingjay was not a bad movie. It was surreal watching Philip Seymour Hoffman in his final role. He was filming Mockingjay at the time of his death and although he had finished filming everything for this movie, he still had scenes to film for the final one. It will be interesting to see how they handle that, but it may be seamless, especially for those like me who didn’t read the source material. This is not the movie to watch to see Philip Seymour Hoffman as the superb actor he was. Not that he was bad, he was convincing in his role as Plutarch Heavensbee, it just didn’t give him a lot to do. Jennifer Lawrence is, in my opinion an amazing actor. She brought me to tears a couple of times during this movie. You just absolutely believe everything Katniss Everdeen is feeling, especially her reluctance to be seen as some kind of savior. She only wants to protect those she loves and keeps finding herself in situations she would have never looked for or wanted because of her strength and loyalty. Jennifer Lawrence is very young and I imagine we’ll see many more great things from her in the future. She is the reason that these movies have done so well. If Katniss had not been cast well I doubt the first movie would have done well enough to even warrant the second. She sings a song partway through the movie that just breaks your heart. Woody Harrelson as Haymitch Abernathy and Elizabeth Banks as Effie Trinket continue to be two of my favorite characters in the series. They are both fine actors who make what could be cartoonish characters into believable and real people. In my opinion, Josh Hutcherson as Peeta Mellark and Liam Hemsworth as Gale Hawthorne are two of the weakest links. They aren’t terrible, I just don’t ever really feel that much for either of them. To be fair, neither of them were given much to do this go round. Julianne Moore played Alma Coin, President of District 13. She was fine, playing a good leader, but we never really get a chance to get to know what kind of person she is outside her leadership role. And of course Donald Sutherland returns as the smug, evil President Snow. He’s really good at the coldhearted gamesmanship of his character. After three movies of his playing games with peoples lives, I’m ready to see his comeuppance and I hope it’s a good one. The cinematography for this film isn’t as interesting as it has been in the previous films, but that is more story driven and probably part of the reason it wasn’t as compelling. There is very little time spent in the capital. There is a bit of time spent in a bombed out District 12 and in a logging area of District 8, but most of the movie is underground in District 13 and concrete walls and stairwells just aren’t that visually compelling. The scene where Katniss sings her song however, is on a river and is one of my favorites in the movie. I’m looking forward to seeing the conclusion of the story for this group of characters, but I wish it had come without so much filler. I would have liked to have been more excited at the end of this movie, as I was at the end of the second movie. Hopefully the final movie will be worth the wait.

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Movie Review: Fury

18 Saturday Oct 2014

Posted by 98maryanne in Movies, Reviews

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acting, Brad Pitt, cinematography, David Ayer movie Fury, Jason Isaacs, Jon Bernthal, Michael Peña, movies, Shia LeBeouf, tank crew, war, WWII

I went to see the new David Ayer movie Fury, starring Brad Pitt today. This was not a movie that I was super excited to see, but one that I felt was worth viewing. I was right in that assessment. It was a tense, gripping, harrowing, stomach-churning, violent, and visceral look at a tank crew and their missions toward the end of WWII as Allied forces were pushing into Germany. This is a war movie, so there is plenty of action and bombs and guns and gore, but at its core it is a character movie. There was not a bad performance in this movie. I didn’t like every character, but I understood where they were coming from and why.

Brad Pitt plays Don “Wardaddy” Collier, the sergeant in charge of his five man tank crew. He is battle-hardened and both willing and able to be as brutal as he feels necessary to get done what needs to be done, but still retains his humanity and Brad Pitt does an excellent job portraying that dichotomy. I was both horrified by his actions at times and deeply moved by them at others.

Shia LeBeouf plays Boyd “Bible” Swan, Michael Peña plays Trini “Gordo” Garcia, and Jon Bernthal plays Brady “Coon-Ass” Travis. It is easy enough to tell from their nicknames the stereotypes each of these characters are meant to portray and it would be very easy for each of those characters to be one dimensional. Every one of these actors make their characters real and relatable. Logan Lerman plays Norman Ellison, a brand new recruit assigned to their tank after the death of another member. He is also excellent in his portrayal of a very young man thrust into such a terrible war, appalled at its atrocities. The original crew had been together for three years, so such a green recruit replacing their dead comrade is cause for much of the tension and character interaction that follows. Jason Isaacs has a fairly small role as Captain Waggoner, a weary but tough commander who is desperately trying to keep as many of the men under his command alive as possible while completing the mission.

The cinematography is as grim and gritty as the subject matter. I kept thinking that the never-ending mud and grime and smells and smoke would probably be more grinding to the psyche than the violent and bloody, but fairly quick episodes of actual battle. The battle sequences tended, with a couple of exceptions, to be very claustrophobic as would be expected in showing tank warfare. That did not stop them from being intense and graphic and I jumped in my seat more than once.

Fury is fairly long with a run time of 2 hours and 14 minutes but it didn’t drag. This is not a movie to see if you are looking for some light entertainment but if you are in the mood for a character driven drama it doesn’t disappoint. And while it doesn’t tell us anything about WWII that hasn’t been seen in previous movies about that war, it reinforces the brutality, inhumanity and senselessness of war and what it does to the men, women and children it impacts. This movie is rated R. Teens are able to handle very tough subject matters if parents are open and willing to talk about it with them afterwords. That said I wouldn’t recommend this movie for anyone under age 13.

 

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