Gone, Baby, Gone was brilliant because it achieved something quite astounding for someone (Ben Affleck) on their directorial debut: it successfully wove and spun this gritty crime thriller into something quite more complex and strangely compelling, landing the audience on a morally ambiguous playing field of ethical dilemma. And just from a suspenseful plot standpoint, the thing twisted and turned more than a taffy-making machine. And Ben (yep, we're on a first-name basis here) fantastically captured the non-gentrified streets and neighborhood of Boston. It felt like a beautiful but realistic homage to his hometown.
The thrust of the movie was almost documentary-like, because it's jarring and unsettling in its conclusion. It's most definitely NOT an mass opiate of entertainment. It's a wake-up call and a sobering look into reality.
This sharply contrasts with Hancock a fun summer popcorn flick (although I was not eating popcorn when I was watching it) that I watched last night. To me, Hancock is the new Cloverfield. It definitely lives up to the hype in entertainment value (plus Will Smith is just plain fun to watch) and was perfect for a Friday night, but the thing is not going to change the course of history or sink deeply in the collective psyche, just line the pockets of fancy Hollywood execs. Ah well. It was still a good time. And certain parts of the music score sounded surprisingly kind of cool and indie-flickish, which I was not expecting.
On that note, if you're looking for some good summer music, my fellow blogger Jonathan has posted a spectacular playlist entitled "Summer of Rock '08" that you should check out here. You can download the entire playlist and he gives specific instructions on the blog on how to do so.
The Lipps brothers generally rock at introducing me to new music. Because of them, I have Coldplay (yep, I KNOW), Teitur, and Pedro the Lion in my life, to name a few.
In a parallel universe, I am sure that would translate into a life debt of some sort.
;)
love the day,
M
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2 comments:
haha, you're welcome! Just doing my civic duty. I get everything from Chris and Jason anyway. Glad to hear hancock was good! I'm excited to see it.
The thing I love about Gone, Baby, Gone (in case I haven't said it enough) is that you really don't know what you would do. Maybe you think you'd go one way, but it's quite possible in the moment that you'd go the other.
I also think it's admirable that Casey's character (speaking of first name bases here) stuck with the decision he knew he had to make, despite the consequences.
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