I believe I've mentioned in the past that I just don't go to the movies all that often. And when I do, I generally don't see action movies or Bond movies. I think I've only seen two Bond movies in an actual theater (and I'm not sure I've ever seen others anyway):
License to Kill, with Timothy Dalton (I saw that when I worked in Utah; someday, I'm going to have to do a blog post on that summer and how we'd have run of the movie theater), and
GoldenEye, with Pierce Brosnan (I can't remember why I went to see it, but I think it has something to do with having a gentleman friend take me to
Sense and Sensibility,, which he loathed, so to punish me, he made me see all sorts of horrible testosterone-filled action flicks). I remember next to nothing about either movie, though I have a vague memory of enjoying Alan Cumming in a small part in
GoldenEye and thinking his James Bond would've been much more interesting. So, all this is to say that I don't think I'm quite the right audience for a James Bond movie. : )
Thursday night, my Brit-actor-loving-pal decided she wanted to see
Spectre because it stars Brit Daniel Craig. Since she volunteered to pay and since the movie was showing at the Ziegfeld Theatre, where I love seeing films, I thought, 'why not'? I settled in, watched the previews and got a thrill watching the preview for the new
Star Wars movie. That's pretty much the only thrill I got that night.
Spectre is a well-constructed, well-shot movie, but it's pretty boring. At least I thought it was boring. And much too long. I told myself before I went that Bond movies are male fantasies and pretty much misogynist nightmares, but even taking that into account, I had thought the movies were done with more of a wink and more good humor, more fun. There was no fun in
Spectre. Of course, friends have since told me that's the whole idea of this new Daniel Craig reboot of the series - the films are now gritty and serious. But they still have sexual romps and sexist notions, no matter how 'modern' they say they are. The opening credits had naked women writhing with octopus tentacles encirlcling their glistening limbs, for heaven's sake! It's as if they're trying to have it both ways. So, the tone didn't work for me. Having said that, I did think the opening stunt sequence in Mexico City was stunning, and there were some gorgeous shots and stage pictures. I was disappointed in Christoph Waltz's villain - he was just a generic Eurotrash fey baddie who uttered his lines with bemusement. Waltz can do that in his sleep, so I expected much more from him. But then I have to admit it was nice to see at least one of the Bond girls be Bond's age, even if she was a villain's widow and she had sex with Bond right after her husband's funeral, which was the first time she set eyes on Bond. I mean, hey, I think Daniel Craig is hot, too, but still... I did like Ben Whishaw as Q and while watching Ralph Fiennes as M, I began to wish he were playing Bond. Not that I thought Daniel Craig did a bad job, he didn't. He's a fine actor and a good-looking man, I just thought Fiennes didn't seem to be 'over it.' Oh, and even though the screenplay was written by committee, I think I could tell where Jez Butterworth's contributions were. His stuff (or at least what I imagine was his stuff) was very good. I actually have a lot more I could write, but I'll just stop and say that
Spectre wasn't my cup of tea. Oh well.
Last night, I went with my Impossibly Handsome Ballet Buddy (IHBB) to see a new documentary about the scandal surrounding the attack of the former director of the Bolshoi Ballet,
Bolshoi Babylon. We saw it at the SVA Theatre as part of DOC NYC, a big documentary film series. The movie took us backstage of the Bolshoi, which is EXACTLY my cup of tea, and it tried to document the season following the acid attack on the director. Sergei Fillin hadn't been the director for very long and then he was the victim of an attack when someone threw acid into his face. The movie has interviews with some dancers in the Bolshoi company, a rabid fan of the Bolshoi (when he said he's seen over 600 performances, I felt much less like a ballet crazy person), board members and the new general manager.
Bolshoi Babylon is fascinating, though maybe a tad unfocused. It seems as if it's trying to solve a mystery, but it doesn't really. It asks more questions than it answers. I got a lot more information from Google this morning. But it was so interesting to see amazing ballet dancers so close up, and the complete access the filmmakers received made for some shocking scenes - there was one scene with the ballet company, after Fillin had returned, where the general manager and Fillin were posturing and fighting for power and control, it was tense and awkward and amazing to watch. There was an interview with Fillin where he said all the rumors were untrue. But we hadn't heard about any rumors before. That's kind of where it seemed unfocused. Another dancer from the Bolshoi was convicted of hiring someone to commit the crime, and supposedly half the company was on that dancer's side, but we didn't hear from them. Another unfocused part. But I loved watching the movie anyway. The ballerinas who were also interviewed were honest and compelling, and the new general manager, Vladimir Urin, seemed like a stereotypical Russian baddie from a Bond movie (see, I can tie things together too, lol). The dynamics were fascinating. And the cinematography was stunning. After the movie, the two directors came out for a quick Q & A. They were quite charming and extremely candid about how they put the movie together. I'm glad we stayed to listen. They said the doc would be premiering on cable at the end of the year - I'm looking forward to watching it again. Maybe I can make more sense of all of the questions...
No comments:
Post a Comment