Watched for my appearance on 1999: THE PODCAST
• A fun discussion with Julia Sirmons and John Brooks about all things Soderbergh: his knives-out relationship with writer Lem Dobbs, his structural, formal, and casting-related experimentation, Ed Lachman's cinematography, Sarah Flack's editing, his later experimentation with digital formats, and all the usual in-the-weeds stuff.
Watched for my latest appearance on the terrific Nate Storring.
• We discuss it all: 'Scope, Dolly zooms, Bill Butler's specific shooting methods, marxist readings of canonical Hollywood classics, the decline and fall of THE SIMPSONS, and bringing kink back to filmmaking! All the stars are here!
Transatlantic Airplane viewing #2
• It is like 5 in the morning, my brain isn't working, and this movie is very zero-frills-Euro-indie-realism with virtually no distinguishing aesthetic characteristics.
• Never really makes a convincing argument as to why this is a story of particular interest.
OPENING CREDITS:
Based on Albert S. Ruddy's experience of making the Godfather.
• One of the most unfocused, hagiographic, self-indulgent pieces of cinematic autofellatio I've ever seen. It's 600* minutes of unmitigated accidental cringe comedy. Five stars.
• There's just straight-up too much to talk about here. I don't even know where to begin.
• Matthew Goode's work as Robert Evans is actively fucking great. Maybe I'm overrating him here because he's thrown into relief against the catastrophic incompetence that…
Abandon hope, all ye who enter hoping for coherent thoughts.
• I for one think it's just great that Miller was finally able to make that full-bore THE SEARCHERS riff he's clearly been itching to get out of his system for a half-century.
• Speaking of epics: a conspicuous amount of Homer references here.
• Miller not giving one shit about off-speed framerate stutter still amazes me. The guy just makes the shots go the speed he wants them to.…
