By that we mean trudging our way through impenetrable, pretentious, self-indulgent film festival sludge......in search of the good stuff hiding within......
This ain't no job for wimps......to pluck out worthy performances and moments from movies that were designed not for wide audience consumption, but only for film critics and well-heeled cinema purists who can afford film festival tickets.......
Okay......pardon us while we take a deep breath........here goes......
Ben Foster.......quietly goes about his business giving profoundly internalized, brilliant performances of souls in torment.......he burrows deep into his characters, working from the inside out, with every performance a revelation. He's incapable of doing work that's anything less than riveting.
Elle Fanning........another one-of-a-kind actor. We don't know how she does it, combining worldly wise weariness with childlike innocence......all at the same time. But somehow she pulls it off and defies you to take your eyes off her......
Beau Bridges........living proof of that hoary adage that actors live by...."there are no small parts, only small actors...." Stuck in a worthless, throwaway role - the oily, duplicitous crime boss - he still makes you stand up and pay attention......
And there you have the good stuff.......now briefly, the sludge....
Hitman On The Run From His Double Crossing Boss Befriends And Protects A Young Innocent.......any director making use of a plotline that's already been beaten to death in hundreds of other noir movies had better try to freshen it up........and not bury it with phoney-baloney barely visible camerawork.......
Still Life Film Festival Pacing........we've hammered this point home before.......about directors who abandon any attempt at telling a coherent story that'll engage a viewer.......preferring to pitch their movie only to graduate student culture vultures sitting in the festival screening rooms.
Yeh, we get it......life sucks and then you die. What else is new? French Actress-Director Melanie Laurent literally suffocates this movie that peculiar high-toned nihilism that critics used to cream over in the l960's. By the time she drags her film to its woeful finish line, you may or may not be awake.....
Proceed with extreme caution.......2 stars (**) for the presence of Ben Foster, Elle Fanning and Beau Bridges........the rest of it? Zero.
Ben Foster.......quietly goes about his business giving profoundly internalized, brilliant performances of souls in torment.......he burrows deep into his characters, working from the inside out, with every performance a revelation. He's incapable of doing work that's anything less than riveting.
Beau Bridges........living proof of that hoary adage that actors live by...."there are no small parts, only small actors...." Stuck in a worthless, throwaway role - the oily, duplicitous crime boss - he still makes you stand up and pay attention......
And there you have the good stuff.......now briefly, the sludge....
Hitman On The Run From His Double Crossing Boss Befriends And Protects A Young Innocent.......any director making use of a plotline that's already been beaten to death in hundreds of other noir movies had better try to freshen it up........and not bury it with phoney-baloney barely visible camerawork.......
Still Life Film Festival Pacing........we've hammered this point home before.......about directors who abandon any attempt at telling a coherent story that'll engage a viewer.......preferring to pitch their movie only to graduate student culture vultures sitting in the festival screening rooms.
Yeh, we get it......life sucks and then you die. What else is new? French Actress-Director Melanie Laurent literally suffocates this movie that peculiar high-toned nihilism that critics used to cream over in the l960's. By the time she drags her film to its woeful finish line, you may or may not be awake.....
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