I can’t say that I expected much from an Oliver Stone film, but I was intrigued to see what Stone had to say about George W. Bush in his film W. I guess Stone was trying to understand W, the way he attempted to understand Nixon in his film of that president. What we get are some dramatized infamous scenes that we are familiar with (choking on a pretzel for example), amateur psychoanalysis (father issues), and heavy-handed symbolism, subtle as a sledge hammer, with Busch chasing down flies in the outfield. There were some amusing performances and scenes, but over all it fell flat. All in all, it about what I expected.
I have heard that Blindness had gotten mixed reviews, but I decided that since it was directed by Fernando Meirelles (director the amazing City of God), it deserved a chance. I’m glad I did, because I found it to be a challenging but provocative dystopian nightmare based on Jose Saramago’s novel. I thought it was chilling how the blind ward became a nightmare of “Lord of the Flies” proportions as the inmates are reduced to the more base instincts of humanity. I also liked how the film ended ambiguously. Which I imagine was not what most audiences wanted to see. It was aided by a great cast with Julianne Moore, Mark Ruffalo, and Gael Garcia Bernal in a rare bad guy role.
Comments