#the actors did a great job!!! sincerely me and disappear were by far my favorites

[spirirsstuff]

I CAN OFFICIALLY SAY THAT I HAVE SEEN DEAR EVAN HANSEN IN PERSON WOOOOOOOOOO

[staystrange]

So I saw Dear Evan Hansen yesterday.

It’s been a dream of mine to see this show for a long time. Before I woke up yesterday, I didn’t even know I was going. I’ve entered the lottery a million times and never won, so I figured this time would be exactly the same. I had honestly forgotten about the lottery when I randomly checked my phone at 9:00 and saw that I’d WON!! My mom has dreamed of seeing this show probably more than I have, so the two of us got on a bus that was scheduled to arrive in NYC at around 2:00 for a 3:00 show. We figured we’d have plenty of time to get to the theater, which was not far from the bus station. But, of course, we ran into crazy traffic and it got to the point where we didn’t think we’d make it on time. Like, it was 2:55 and we were still on the bus. Needless to say, I was panicking hard. When the bus finally parked, we ran for it. I’m not an athletic person at all, but I put all of the energy I had into running as fast as I possibly could through the streets of New York to get to the theater. We got there a few minutes after 3:00, and I went up to the box office, completely breathless, told the staff that I had lottery tickets, and handed over my ID. To be honest, I didn’t even expect them to give me the tickets at all because we were late. But they did, and I immediately started crying because I was so happy. Then, I didn’t expect them to let us in for act 1 because the show had already started and the tickets literally said no late entry on them. But to my surprise, the staff let us in and showed us to our standing room spots.

We made it halfway through Anybody Have a Map. I swear, it was nothing short of a miracle.

We actually had a pretty good view, way better than the people sitting in the mezzanine and balcony sections above us. I started crying out of pure happiness and gratefulness when the opening bars of Waving Through a Window played, and I honestly kept crying throughout most of the show. When I wasn’t crying, I was laughing (probably because of Will Roland) or smiling. I got a few looks from the people sitting in the back of the orchestra in front of me, but honestly, they don’t know what I went through to be there, and so what if I’m an excessively emotional person? This show hits me hard.

I never thought I’d get to see this show, but I did, and I’m so glad. Thank you to the DEH lottery and the entire cast and crew and staff. You guys are the best. I ran across the city, didn’t eat for almost twelve hours, and stood for the entire show, but gosh, all of it was worth it.

I don’t want this post to take up too much space on people’s feeds, but if you’d like to hear about my more specific thoughts on each cast member / character and my stagedoor experience, check under the cut.

I was lucky enough to see most of the original cast, with the obvious exception of Ben Platt. I also did not see the original Alana or Larry Murphy. Everyone else has been in this production since the beginning.

Taylor Trensch as Evan Hansen: Sure, he was no Ben Platt, but he did a really good job, especially considering the big shoes he had to fill. I liked the little changes in his performance from Ben’s; it made seeing live even more of a unique experience from listening to the soundtrack on repeat. He’s a great actor, seriously. He obviously had many incredible performances, but Waving Through a Window, For Forever, You Will Be Found, and Words Fail really stood out as the best ones to me. He had funny moments, adorable moments, heartbreaking moments, and everything in between, and it was all incredible to watch.

Laura Dreyfuss as Zoe Murphy: I’m a big Glee fan, so I remember when she was on the show for a little while in Season 6. She was wonderful as Zoe, and I especially loved hearing her sing Requiem. She gave such a powerful performance throughout the show, especially during that song, and it was awesome to watch. During Only Us, my heart was torn between AWW and oh no oh no oh no because of what happens next. She has great chemistry with Taylor as I’m sure she did with Ben and Noah Galvin. I also really loved her scene with Taylor at the very end in the orchard. I actually didn’t know what happened at the end of the show, so it was a pleasant surprise and a perfect ending.

Rachel Bay Jones as Heidi Hansen: Oh. My. God. Her performance blew me away. Her happy scenes with Taylor were lovely, but it was during the scenes where her character and Evan were fighting that her talent really shone. She got so into her performance, and I could truly feel it. I unfortunately missed her part of Anybody Have a Map, but her performances in Good For You and So Big / So Small were incredible, and very different, too. Good For You especially was phenomenal.

Jennifer Laura Thompson as Cynthia Murphy: Jennifer was awesome, too. She showed a whole range of emotions throughout the show, and it was really powerful to watch. I liked her interactions with Taylor and Laura, and although she didn’t have much singing by herself compared to many of the other cast members, her performances during Anybody Have a Map? and Requiem were so freaking good.

Mike Faist as Connor Murphy: I had seen tweets about how he was leaving the show pretty soon, but I didn’t realize that it was literally his last show until I looked it up. I also didn’t realize how big of a role Connor is until I saw the production. Mike was incredible during every single moment he was in; I especially loved his parts in Sincerely, Me, Disappear, and the various reprises he sings in that aren’t on the soundtrack. At the end of the show after all of the regular bows, Jennifer Laura Thompson brought out a bouquet of flowers for Mike, and he tried to run offstage; Phoenix Best had to literally pull him back onstage to make him accept them and take his final bow. He’s so shy and humble, and it was adorable. I’m so lucky I got to see him since it was literally my last chance.

Asa Somers as Larry Murphy: Even though he’s the standby, he performed incredibly well. To be honest, To Break in a Glove is my least favorite song on the soundtrack, but he performed it well. I really loved his part in Requiem and his scenes with the whole Murphy family and Evan. His character may not have had a huge part in the show, but the parts he did have were really well done.

Will Roland as Jared Kleinman: Oh my gosh, I love Will Roland. Every single time he was onstage, I laughed out loud at the many hilarious jokes and moments he had as Jared. In the second act, though, my heart broke for Jared so freaking much. I loved hearing him sing in Sincerely, Me, You Will Be Found, and Good For You; Good For You especially showed off his talent, and Sincerely, Me made me love the song so much more than I did originally. He absolutely killed it as Jared, and I’m so glad I got to see him before he leaves on June 10 to play Jeremy in Be More Chill. Speaking of Be More Chill, I didn’t really know much about Will before it was announced that he’d been cast as Jeremy, but after seeing just one scene of him performing as Jared, I knew that he’s perfect for the role of Jeremy. I could already picture it and hear it, too. He has the right voice, the right appearance, and the perfect amount of awkwardness. Seriously, I approve wholeheartedly of this casting choice, and I can’t wait to see him again as Jeremy. I still can’t believe I get to see him twice!!

Phoenix Best as Alana Beck: I honestly didn’t even realize she wasn’t the original Alana at first. She was incredible; her character is a lot like Jared in the sense that they both made me laugh and also made my heart break, but in very different ways, of course. She sang very well in You Will Be Found and Good For You and I loved watching her perform so much.

STAGEDOOR: I waited outside the stagedoor for as long as I could before security asked us all to leave, and I was lucky enough to get four autographs, which you can see in the photo above. From top left to bottom right: Mike Faist, Asa Somers, Rachel Bay Jones, and Laura Dreyfuss. They were all incredibly kind and sweet and it meant the world to me that I got to talk to them. I guess this makes Laura Dreyfuss the first Glee cast member I’ve ever met and the fourth Glee cast autograph I’ve received; if you’d told me two years ago that I’d get to meet her, I wouldn’t have believed you. She’s so lovely. I really wanted to see Will so I could tell him that he did an incredible job as Jared and that he’s going to be such a good Jeremy in Be More Chill, but unfortunately he left out the back door. I was a little bummed, but I was honestly just grateful to be there, so it was all good. Hopefully I’ll meet him when I see him again. Taylor, Jennifer, and Phoenix didn’t come out either.

Overall, I had an incredible experience seeing this show!! My theater-nerd self hasn’t been very active in a while, but my love for theater is definitely back and bigger than ever now. I’m looking forward to seeing even more shows in the future, including (HOPEFULLY) the Off-Broadway production of Be More Chill this summer : )

[brentwatchesmovies]

Top 10 Movies of 2017

Another year is behind us, so that means it’s time for everyone’s ‘my favorite ________ of 2017’ lists. This year, I’m folding to peer pressure and changing the ‘top 8’ favorite movies to ‘top 10’ because honestly, there were too many awesome movies and I originally only did it because that’s how Tarantino narrowed his picks and I wanted to seem cool or something. (On a quick related note, I can’t believe this is my 8th year of doing one of these dumb things. Crazy.) On a personal level, 2017 has been a wild year for me. I got married to my best friend, started a much better and satisfying job, and found out we’re going to be parents this year. It’s going to be an incredibly busy and life-changing 2018, and I can’t wait for it.

In terms of the past year in cinema, it’s been amazing as well. I wanted to see as many movies as I could before finalizing my favorites, and was pretty successful, with a few exceptions. I wasn’t able to see Phantom Thread, The Post, The Florida Project, The Emoji Movie or Coco, to name a few (not seeing the new PTA and Spielberg movies before writing this KILLS me). A lot of the choices on my list might be predictable, especially if you follow me on Twitter, or read movie sites/blogs. Twitter has kind of taken over my actually writing posts for this blog anymore, and maybe one day I’ll get better at coming back here and putting thoughts down (probably not though). Like I’ve said in previous years, these really don’t have a ranking, unless I specify it’s my ‘favorite’ over the others. This is a 100% subjective list, based on an incomplete sampling. The movies listed below either moved me in a huge way, were a complete blast, and/or stayed with me long after I saw them. That’s enough preamble though, let’s get to my favorites of 2017!

In my eyes, this whole reboot-prequel-whatever trilogy is a cinematic miracle. This series, on it’s surface is a very campy, B-movie concept. What Rupert Wyatt and now Matt Reeves have done here is a staggering directorial achievement. This entry further fleshes out the already relatable and complex characters, and continues to add emotional depth that the originals could never even touch. In my eyes, this is what makes this the best movie trilogy since The Lord of the Rings. War Apes (what I find to be the best shorthand for this entry) is the ‘Return of the King’ equivalent of this trilogy. It takes Caesar’s story in darker, more unexpected places, and in a perfect world, would net Andy Serkis an Oscar nomination for best actor. If you’ve slept on this series because it seemed silly, or not really your jam, definitely take the time to catch up with it, it’s most definitely worth it.

This was one of the last movies I saw before making this post, and having just seen it a few days ago, it’s the movie I’ve been thinking about most. In a year that I think a lot of people would call ‘complete awful garbage’, (or something similar), Guillermo Del Toro’s love story of the ‘others’ in society; the forgotten and the disenfranchised, hits home. I’m still working through my thoughts on all of it, but it’s up there with my favorites of his filmography. I don’t think GDT has ever made a movie so unapologetically ‘him’. A sequence near the end of the movie is one of my favorite things I’ve seen all year, and I thought to myself during it that nobody other than this one enigmatic, creative and strange man could make something so unique and beautiful. This one definitely isn’t for everyone, but if you like GDT’s movies, I have a feeling you’ll be on board with this one as well.

From this point forward, if Taylor Sheridan has a new movie coming out, I’ll be there to see it. The previous writer of such films as Sicario and Hell or High Water makes his directorial debut with Wind River. It follows a standard neo-western trend of his previous films, but this time moving the story to snowy Wyoming. Setting the location on an American Indian reservation allows Sheridan to bring up timely themes as well, such as the incredibly high rate at which Native American women disappear on reservations, and how few are ever actually found. It’s an incredibly moving and intense story that plays out after the initial murder/mystery is established, going to some of the most intense places thematically that I’ve seen in a movie this year. The cast all around is stellar, and Jeremy Renner specifically has never been better than he is in this movie. If you’re a fan of neo-westerns or Sheridan’s other movies, Wind River is absolutely worth checking out.

I had been anticipating this movie since I heard about it, having been a huge fan of ‘The Indoor Kids’ podcast, hosted by Emily Gordon and her husband Kumail Nanjiani. It’s a video game podcast that they ended a few years back, but every now and then, they would hint at how they met. This movie is how their eventual marriage came to be, and it’s a beautiful love story, which just so happens to fit the mold of one of the best romantic comedies ever made. Not only is it a great comedy, but also dramatically complex due to Emily’s time spent in a coma at the beginning of their relationship and Kumail’s meeting of her two parents. Everyone in this movie gives it their all, with Ray Romano and Holly Hunter standing out as Emily’s parents. The movie also tackles what it’s like to be the child of an immigrant in America, and that perspective was fresh and eye-opening for a big Hollywood movie. This is definitely one to watch with the family.

*potential spoilers for mother!*

If you read my post I wrote about ‘Noah’, you’ll probably understand why I love this movie so much. This is the second film by Darren Aranofsky that explores the morality of not only God, but of the entire bible this time around. Something about that intent clicks with me. Maybe it’s being raised in church until my late teens or the religious cynic inside me, but I love when he tackles these issues. The fact that this religious interpretation is only one of many possible ways to read this movie is what makes it fascinating. Is it about climate change and how we’re destroying the earth? Is it a dramatization of the Bible and God’s relationship with humanity? Or is it about the relationship between artists, the things they create, and the audience? On top of these questions, Mother! Is beautifully shot, acted and constructed. I was pretty much in shock for the entire last third of the movie and that’s more than I can say for almost any movie I’ve seen this year.

Y’all probably knew this was coming, right? I’m so in the bag for Star Wars movies that any objectivity is completely out the window at this point. I also understand that many people REALLY do not like this movie, and I’ve been grappling with that and processing it since I saw the movie a couple weeks ago. Unfortunately I haven’t been able to see the movie a second time, so this is based entirely off my first time seeing The Last Jedi. This movie was everything I wanted and more. It absolutely has faults worth talking about, but to me, the highs of TLJ far outweigh the lows. There were moments in this movie that I yelled in joy, smiled ear to ear and also cried on numerous occasions. For the first time since watching the original trilogy as a kid, I felt like I was watching a true Star Wars movie, with the original series characters, and the great new ones established in VII as well. The prequels have their moments, and Rogue One and Force Awakens were fun diversions in fan fiction, but to me, this movie felt true to what I love about Star Wars. I can’t wait to watch it again.

Sometimes I just think to myself, “it’s really damn cool that I’m around at the same time as Christopher Nolan.” The guy will go down as an all-time great director, and I love that with Dunkirk he proved that he doesn’t need a high concept idea and a ton of exposition to sell it. All you need to tell a gripping story is a camera and a story with baked-in drama, like the evacuation of Dunkirk. The movie is almost a silent film with how little dialogue there is, relying solely on Hoyte van Hoytema’s beautiful cinematography and Nolan’s adherence to old-school film techniques, with as little CG as possible. Dunkirk makes for the most intense theater going experience I’ve probably had all year, and I fear that seeing it at home can never reach the levels of seeing it on the big screen. Regardless, Dunkirk is possibly Nolan’s best film yet, an exciting evolution of his directorial skill, and one of the best war films of all time.

In my opinion, there was no greater surprise at the theater this year than Jordan Peele’s ‘Get Out’. A social horror film in the vein of such classics as ‘Rosemary’s Baby’ and ‘The Step-ford Wives’, and on the same level of quality as well. I’d also have to say that Get Out epitomizes the state of our country the best of any other movie I’ve seen this year, perfectly nailing racial tensions much more nuanced than your typical racist-redneck-murder-family horror movies ever could. I rewatched the movie again over Christmas (this and the Witch make great Christmas movies btw) and it reaffirmed how tightly written, acted and directed it truly is. Every setup has a fulfilling payoff, every character a great/exciting/terrifying moment, and it has one of the most subversive, ingenious endings I’ve seen of this, or any year.  Get out is a certified horror classic, and easily one of the best movies of the year.

Coming-of-age stories are very often ‘my jam’, as I’m sure you could surmise from any number of posts on here from the past. What I loved so much about Luca Guadagnino’s ‘Call me by Your Name’ is the sincerity and honesty in every one of the characters in the movie. The two leads (played by Timothée Chalamet and Armie Hammer) wear their hearts on their sleeves, and soon find themselves in a summer love affair. What this movie captures so well is that feeling of young ‘love’, or at least infatuation with amazingly believable ease. It also features a moment between Timothée Chalamet’s character and his father (played by the always great Michael Stuhlbarg) that crushed me. It hit me right in the nexus of all my dad baggage, past and present, and turned me into a weeping mess. I aspire to be the kind of loving, understanding and wise father that Timothée Chalamet’s character is blessed with in this movie.

Alright guys, time for my favorite movie of the year, and it’s easily Denis Villeneuve’s science fiction masterpiece: Blade Runner 2049. No movie transported me completely like this film did. The entire run time of the movie was almost like an out of body experience. It was surely aided by seeing it on the massive downtown IMAX screen, but when myself and a couple friends walked out of this movie, we were practically in shock. I’m sure I sound hyperbolic right now, but in my eyes this movie is a top-to-bottom cinematic masterpiece. It expands and even improves on themes and ideas that the first film only flirted with. It deepens the philosophy of the world in interesting ways, and does all this with a far more emotional core than the first ever had as well. I’d be remiss not talking about how beautiful this movie is as well. If Roger Deakins doesn’t win his first Cinematography Oscar for this film, somebody should get 25 to life. The second this movie ended, I knew it was my movie of the year, regardless of what else I saw in 2017. It’s a sequel for the ages, and a science fiction film that people decades from now will look back on with intrigue and wonder.

HONORABLE MENTIONS

Thor Ragnarok

Brigsby Bear

Brawl in Cell Block 99

Okja

Baby Driver

Your Name

Logan

John Wick: Chapter 2

Spider-Man: Homecoming

I, Tonya

That’s going to do it for my top films of 2017, thanks so much for reading! If you have thoughts or opinions on my list, hit me up on Twitter or Facebook and let’s talk about them (unless it’s a bad Last Jedi take, those won’t do). It was incredibly hard to cut out some of the honorable mentions but overall I’m extremely happy with my list and all of the movies I was lucky enough to see this year (and lucky enough to have an awesome wife who understands and accepts my movie-going addiction!) Share this post with your friends if you’d like, and I hope you have a great 2018!

[filmista]

Out Of The Past (1947)

“Nothing in the world is any good unless you can share it.”

French director, Jacques Tourneur's ‘Out Of The Past’ has over the years become what’s considered the best Film Noir ever made, though it somewhat disputes over that title with ‘Double Indemnity’, a lot of people find one of the two the best. 

I have however during the time that I’ve been participating in Noirvember (there’s more to cover), obviously quite a few films in the genre, and I can instantly say without hesitation that ‘Out Of The Past’ has been my favorite one that I’ve watched so far.

It’s also save to say that outside the context of Noir and Noirvember, it’s simply one of the best films I’ve had the pleasure of watching, just one of those films that quite simply put leaves you feeling like you’ve just watched something spectacular and well crafted.

it makes me regret that I didn’t take the decision to participate in Noirvember earlier, anyhow it’s wonderful to immerse yourself fully in a genre, discover and learn about it and obviously watch a few films of it.

And Out Of The Past was along with Double Indemnity one of the films that my Cinema History book kept mentioning (probably one of the first books I’d try to save in a fire) and various corners of the internet kept recommending to me. By now I was immensely curious about the film, even so much as its film poster somehow exuded a certain cool.

So later I sat down to watch it. And I think it speaks very positively of the film, that I watched it with someone who’s absolutely not a fan of anything that’s not in color and so-called Classics, but she claims to have had as much fun with this one as I did.

When we were about ten minutes into the film, and the picture starts to craft an air of mystery and intrigue and you already know something’s wrong, she said “I love this”, “It’s already so suspenseful, it’s like one of those cheap detective books”.

And with that, she pretty much hit the nail on the head. I found out that Noir works closely with pulp fiction, which is actually nowadays usually considered quite cheap entertainment, the thing that’s considered a guilty pleasure to read; but they did sometimes have interesting themes in them, and filmmakers saw that and could work with it.

Noir’s a dark and pessimistic genre, it literally means black in French, that its name is European also has its reason, it’s what French critics started to call the genre, but it fits perfectly.

It originated in a pessimistic period, before and until after World war two, many of its directors and stars, we’re Europeans that fled Europe, so while it’s an American genre, it’s safe to say that it’s a genre in which both continents held each other’s hands.

War doesn’t bring out good qualities in humans generally, but even during wartime, people have been known to undertake courageous and goodhearted actions. And the genre, some films more than others reflect that.

Most of them very clearly seem to say the world is rotten and the people, even the ones that don’t know it are bad, sometimes they become forcedly so; but it very has the idea that everyone has the potential to become a bad person, a person capable of double-crossing and murder, murder seems to be written in capital letter M all over the genre.

Yet under all that seeming bleakness, pessimism, hopelessness and darkness, there are glints of hope and hints at the possibility of a happy ending, the tragic thing about the genre is that it’s acknowledged but it doesn’t go there, sometimes because it’s characters just can’t take that route, they just aren’t able to connect, and chose to either save their own skin or will take a route that’s going to going to endanger them.

And what I loved so much about ‘Out Of The Past’ is that it very much has those elements, and becomes in a way almost a retelling of a tragic, doomed to fail love story, only it shouldn’t have been doomed, the characters made it so themselves.

It very much plays with what other  films in the genre also play with, ambiguity between good and bad, and it has as I’ve mentioned all the elements of the genre, a troubled protagonist whose past comes back to haunt him, character’s smoking like chimneys, a femme fatale, pretty night scenes, and a large part of the story taking place in an urban environment.

But still something about this one is unique; as many people have recognized, out of all the Noir I’ve seen in November this is the one that’s really engraved in my memory. Some people say it doesn’t even seemingly look like Noir, at first sight.

It’s too bright and too sunlit, too much of it takes place in sunlight and in pretty surroundings, that have nothing to do with seedy, crime-filled streets of some films in the genre.

Still agreed it’s agreed that it is Noir, as it has in its storyline and in its cinematography typical elements.

But when I myself thought about it more deeply (and I’m not the only one) you can almost say that the film has two parts, one that looks less typically Noir and one that’s more typically so, night scenes, fights, double-crossing, playing with shadows. But amazingly it watches like one cohesive whole.

It might be somewhat of a lighter one in its genre, literally in its lightning, but also as in that it really builds your hope up and for a moment when you’re watching for the first.

You think everything even after the characters has been double-crossing each other like crazy, you still think it’s two lovers have a chance of being together, but then the film makes sure to remind you what kind of film you’re watching.

And that’s what I found so great about it, that it’s two lovers have moments of happiness and you see what could be there, and because of their own doing, it doesn’t happen, and it’s tragically and sublimely sad.

What I truly loved about this one is watching the relationships between characters, and watching Robert Mitchum and Jane Greer act opposite each other, there’s a ton of other actors in there (amongst them Kirk Douglas) but Mitchum and Greer compliment each other perfectly and it’s a joy to watch. Its storyline doesn’t even really matter too much, and it’s a challenge, to sum up...

Mitchum Bailey is a private detective who tries to say goodbye to his job after a few nasty experiences. As a garage owner, he tries to start a new life with his girlfriend Ann (Virginia Huston). His anonymity, however, is short-lived when thug looking Joe Stephanos (Paul Valentine) manages to trace him on behalf of professional gambler Whit Sterling (Kirk Douglas).

Whit was shot some time ago by his beloved Kathie (Jane Greer). Since then, she has disappeared from his life, as well as $ 40,000. Whit wants her and his money back and asks Jeff to go and investigate. Somewhat cautiously, Jeff takes the job, old habits die hard I guess.

He meets Kathie in Mexico. She tells him exactly what’s going on but nothing about the disappeared money. Jeff believes her, falls for the charms of this femme fatale and tells Whit that he was unable to find her. Soon, however, Kathie doesn’t seem as sweet as she looks anymore...

Does Kathie really care about Jeff? Does she love him despite her inability to endure difficult situations for him and despite her fatalistic attitude towards love? 

And how sincere is Jeff towards her? Has he succumbed to her again? These questions haunt your mind while seeing 'Out of the Past'. 

As traditionally in this genre, the riddles around a fateful love remain unclear. Who is lying, who is honest? Nobody can be trusted and that makes watching a film noir of this level is so irresistible.

And as it should be; you don’t get clear answers to all of these questions, and thus as I’ve seen in a lot of reviews, people speculate and come to their own conclusions when watching the film.

You see two interesting directions: In some Jeff is the victim. An innocent man, forced to make bad choices but who didn’t enjoy them, but who fell victim to the whims and seduction of a femme fatale, to them Kathie’s a monster, that tormented an innocent man, and there’s no real effort to look any further.

No one in the genre is entirely innocent, Jeff’s aware he’s being played but still consciously chooses for the woman he knows is no good, he still acted out of free will, no one really forced him into anything.

And then the femme fatale herself, a monster? Or just a flawed human being that made mistakes? As I mentioned when it comes to that, you see people mostly veering in one of these two directions.

Personally I think she’s one of the most brilliant characters in the film; Greer portrays her in a subtle yet confident way, that’s almost dizzyingly exciting to watch, she infuses her role with confidence (the kind of confidence of a woman who knows how beautiful she is) but at other times also a deep vulnerability and even fear.

Throughout the film she’s in a world that surrounds her with violent men she’s afraid of the man that she stole the money from, she believes he’d never leave her alone and would almost certainly come after her, and she turns out to be right. 

You can understand why she stole the money even, she hated the guy's guts and wanted to get away from him, and if you’re running away from a dude with anger issues, why not do it in a place with an agreeable climate? I certainly wouldn’t like hearing this: 

“You're gonna take the rap and play along. You're gonna make every exact move I tell you. If you don't, I'll kill you. And I'll promise you one thing: it won't be quick. I'll break you first. You won't be able to answer a telephone or open a door without thinking, 'This is it.' And it when it comes, it still won't be quick. And it won't be pretty. You can take your choice.”

The exciting element in Greer’s performance comes from, how composed seemingly even cold she seems throughout much of the film, but when you look closer there’s intense emotion, and she remains a riddle, a mystery.

I spent much of the film trying to read her, and she very much has both bad and good at her, she doesn’t regret shooting a man, and when Jeff fights another man, after she speaks the words “why don’t you break his head, Jeff?” she seems almost aroused watching the two men fight, which certainly indicates some twisted personality trait.

But then she also ultimately seems to really love him, as she later in the film goes back to Jeff and gives herself fully over to him, as she chooses to trust him fully, but he is at this point deceiving, maybe still in love with her, but certainly not willing to die for her, and he’s posing himself as more in love than he really is.

But at this time; Jeff has already decided she can’t be trusted, as he told her:  “You can never help anything, can you? You're like a leaf that the wind blows from one gutter to another.” and he’s unwilling to give her a second chance or to forgive, and on that tragic note, both their loveless fates are sealed. So it can also be regarded in my eyes as a tragic love story, maybe Jeff could even be seen as a coward in his inability to forgive in love. 

The big joy in the film, however, is how good Mitchum and Greer are (that and how beautifully filmed it is), while Greer seems to do not much else than bat her big doe eyes with their luscious lashes at Mitchum and make him fall head over heels with her, she has as I said a subtle emotionality, there’s depth to this femme fatale if it isn’t clear, I loved her performance.

And Mitchum’s Jeff has an air of indifferent, unforced cool, and seems to come across almost as if he doesn’t give a damn about anything or anyone that surrounds him, as if he’s somehow outside of present events, he only seems to care about either Kathie or ultimately himself.

Mitchum portrays this figure almost perfectly. Like Humphrey Bogart (who was considered for the role, but not even Bogie could be at two places at once ...), he has a certain inner peace about him, which gives him independence and self-confidence.

The man behind this film is French director Jacques Tourneur, who made his name in the United States in 1942 with both the artistically and commercially successful 'Cat People' (which is noted on my list of stuff I want to see). Tourneur was a master in creating the right mood and atmosphere and that skill came in handy when he made 'Out of the Past'.

The typical film noir look - with striking use of shadows and contrast - is certainly present here (the fight scene is a beautiful playing around with shadows as well as the scenes on the beach) but less dominant than in, for example, 'Double Indemnity' (1944). It makes 'Out of the Past' a film that looks pleasant and easy and literally and figuratively is somewhat lighter than its genre and contemporaries. 

Out of the past is a dark, cynical treat with an intelligent script, razor-sharp dialogues and a finale that stays with you. Highly recommended!

“If you're thinking of anyone else, don't. It wouldn't work. You're no good for anyone but me. You're no good and neither am I. That's why we deserve each other.”

[faggghaggg]

Russian viewers on "War and Peace"

Being bilingual and bicultural, I was curious to compare the Russian audience's responses to the miniseries with those of English and American viewers.  I expected huge differences, if only because the Russians study the novel in school, whereas relatively few English speakers had read it before watching the series. The results are below the cut.

The biggest surprise was that the overall rating was only 12% higher for the Western viewers – 82% on Rotten Tomatoes vs 70% on Russia's biggest review site.  The difference is in how those figures were arrived at.  The ratings on Rotten Tomatoes mostly fall in the 3.5/4-star range, with many 5's and a couple of 2's; the Russians typically give the show either 1 or 5 stars.  The dramatic discrepancy within the Russian ratings is mostly due to how people feel about the novel:  with a few notable exceptions, those who love it hated the series, and vice versa. There's also the everpresent paranoid category, convinced that any historical inaccuracies are just the BBC's efforts to paint Russia in the blackest possible light.  An additional minus for many Russians was the characters' overtly sexual behavior, from banging on the dinner table to public kissing and obvious flirting (we all know there was no sex in the Soviet Union, and apparently the same holds true for Russia today and in Tolstoy's times :))).  And another point that gave me a good laugh was that "these mongrel actors have no idea how aristocrats purported themselves":  considering that every other English actor is related to living nobility, and that the few Russian nobles that didn't flee the country before the Revolution were killed off 100 years ago, the Russians are certainly ones to lecture the English on aristocratic manners. :))

What delighted me, though, were the similarities in the Russian and Western takes on the details (I got most of the English views from the comments under The Guardian's episode reviews).  The biggest complaint, for both, was that the series looked less Tolstoy than Jane Austen, that the faces were clearly English vs. Russian, and that the Russian soul of the novel had been lost.  However, where few Westerners were in a position to argue with those accusations, a number of Russian voices popped up to disagree, expressing amazement as to where the BBC found all those Russian-looking actors and how the darned foreigners managed to so perfectly capture the novel's Russian soul.  Among the people who've read the novel, opinions on whether the series cast did justice to their prototypes were divided along the same lines – about 50/50 for both Western and Russian viewers, with some surprising agreement on the individual actors.  Anatole Kuragin caught the most flak:  the far-from-classically-handsome Callum Turner, who must have been cast for his sex appeal, left most of the international female audiences unimpressed (Tuppence Middleton as Anatole's sister, on the other hand, benefited from the lust she apparently inspires in Western males, but was uniformly reviled by the Russians for coming across like an expensive whore).  Jim Broadbent, whom the English adore generally but some found too "nice" as Bolkonsky Sr., was wholly embraced in the role by the Russians. And the two actors who got the most international love were Jessie Buckley an Marya and Paul Dano as Pierre.  Here is some of the Russian praise for bae, in my translation.

Pierre Bezukhov as played by Paul Dano is a direct hit. Actually, I imagined him a little differently – heavier and not as open, not as daring.  But I like the series' Pierre more than the one in my head.  I think that's exactly how he should be – plain, clumsy, awkward, but with charming facial expressions and kind eyes.  Trying to be sincere and honest and always making a fool of himself. Terribly shy at times, but formidable and dangerous as a bear if you really provoke him.  To be honest, when I studied "War and Peace" and later read it on my own, I didn't really get Pierre.  He struck me as odd, and his adventures during Borodino and the burning of Moscow seemed stupid.  But now I really love the character.  Looking at this Pierre, you really understand that appearances don't matter, that you can put on the outward signs of nobility – the right name, expensive clothes, military glory, a head held high – but all of it fades next to the radiant goodness this character emanates when he forgives Prince Vasily and Helene or cries in the arms of Dolokhov.

Pierre is beyond all praise.  Thanks to this performance, the character finally came alive for me.

What I did like was Paul Dano's work.  He's a diamond that could truly shine in the hands of a good director.

No wonder all the critics unanimously loved this Pierre.  Paul Dano did a magnificent job showing the character's evolution from a timid babe in the woods to a confident, forthright and noble man.  Bravo!

Pierre Bezukhov as played by Paul Dano, whom I've liked since "Youth", is the show's only virtue.  It feels like he stepped off the pages of the book.

Paul Dano disappears inside his character.  He singlehandedly carries the show and saves it.

I skipped through the first couple of episodes cause I didn't like how the actors looked.  But then I got hooked on Pierre Bezukhov.  Paul Dano's acting is so sincere!

Pierre's acting is pure joy, though somebody needs to give him a sandwich.

Now I know where the old Russian series fucked up.  The director was 40 years old, so when he played Bezukhov he came across as a pussy-whipped cuck.  But now I get it.  Bezukhov's a young guy who comes into his money and title out of nowhere.  He didn't do anything to deserve it, which is why he's got all these hangups.

Bezukhov blew me away.  He was adorable and did a super job, but I have one criticism.  The actor doesn't know how a man gets drunk in general, and a Russian man in particular.

I loved Pierre.  Dano's such a talented boy, and he worked so hard!

Dano's insight into his character is so deep.  I'm always so happy when actors who know nothing about Tolstoy's philosophy or the Russian mentality unexpectedly do such a great job.

That moment in the ballroom when he speaks up for the revolution had me worried that he'd get thrown out – and I know the book! That's how convincing he was.

My most important discovery in the series was Paul Dano. He's got to be the best Pierre Bezukhov to ever grace the screen.  Every scene he was in just burst with dramatic tension.  Even when he was silent, all his emotions were written on his face so clearly that I cried just looking at him.

Paul Dano deserves his own topic.  I recognized Pierre at first sight. BRAVO, Paul!  You're the only thing that made that crap worth watching.

Pierre was exactly as I imagined him, and Paul Dano is charm on legs.

Pierre Bezukhov was awesome.  I agree with all the previous posts that he was the best Pierre ever.  Give the man an Oscar!

His Russian eyes…  I believed Pierre completely, without a shadow of doubt.  He was the most Russian of them all.

I was just stunned by Paul Dano's performance.  I knew him from an old favorite, "The Girl Next Door", where he didn't even play the lead.  But what he does in "War and Peace"…  His Pierre is mesmerizing, completely out of this world.

But the best thing was Paul Dano.  Masculinity at its finest.

Pierre Bezukhov (Paul Dano) just floored me.  He was so real in his ignorance of life, so heartbreakingly lost. Those sad puppy eyes convinced me 100%. A brilliant performance.

Pierre is a miracle.  The very miracle that all the previous adaptations of the novel lacked.