442) 127 HOURS
(2010 dir. Danny Boyle) Date Seen: November 13 2010
I don't know if Boyle was the best director to adapt this material. His energetic style almost feels at complete odds with the remote desert locale. I mean I wasn't expecting him to craft it the way Bela Tarr or Herzog would - after all, he's Danny Boyle - an a.d.d. experimental stylist if ever there was one. He's not gonna make GERRY for fuck sake. But I was still surprised he injected this particular story with his usual kinetic flair. I'm sure his reasoning for this is that he was trying to place the audience inside the mind of the carefree Aron Ralston, but it has a tendency to render parts of 127 HOURS ridiculous, like some adrenalized Nike commercial. Yet a few parts remain exhilarating because of that very thing...
441) FROZEN
(2010 dir. Adam Green) Date seen: November 13 2010
Easily the best thing Adam's done so far.. & sorta crazy I saw this on the same day as 127 HOURS.
440) MUTANTS
(2009 dir. David Morlet) Date Seen: November 13 2010
(2010 dir. Danny Boyle) Date Seen: November 13 2010
No one should deny Boyle his status as a master of image and sound, and I do admire his ambition here, I just wish he had approached this one formally in a way that felt less diametrically opposed with the memoir's contemplative spirit (it reads more how Kevin Macdonald treated TOUCHING THE VOID in '04). You'd think Boyle would want to slow things down coming off a stroboscopic fairytale like SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE.
I thought the film would surely take on a new tone once the protagonist finally became trapped in his infamous predicament, but Boyle just found new ways to distract from Ralston's dire situation. Gut-wrenchingly tense moments are too often broken up by choppy edits and blaring musical selections. A.R. Rahman's score feels needlessly intrusive at times. Did American filmmakers really learn nothing from the Coen Brothers' nerve-wracking use of silence on NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN? Having said that though, I did really love the climactic use of Sigur Rós' beautifully moving "Festival."
The one unquestionably good thing about the whole film is James Franco's portrayal of Aron. Great year for him as a character actor, first with HOWL and now this. Even if his work here is a bit hampered by his director's in-your-face style. **BTW Edgar Ramirez in CARLOS and Joaquin Phoenix in I'M STILL HERE are still the heavyweight champions of acting for 2010
441) FROZEN
(2010 dir. Adam Green) Date seen: November 13 2010
440) MUTANTS
(2009 dir. David Morlet) Date Seen: November 13 2010
competently made & overall slick as a production (especially solid monster fx & makeup). I also felt the performances were emotionally naturalistic, I just hated the choppy cuts & jittery camera stuff that happened every time the action picked up. Like the producer saw A.Dodd Mantle's work on 28 DAYS LATER and wanted their d.p. to replicate the photographic look of those infected attack scenes, but didn't actually understand the technique those were accomplished with. (You can't just put the camera in a rumble-tron & insert random jump cuts lol)
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