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Joined: Tue January 01, 2013 1:53 pm Posts: 10254 Location: in the air tonight
Malloy wrote:
if any of you have criterion, you should really watch Little Murders before it's removed at the end of the month. one of my favorites comedies of all time.
Gotta say, I didn't like this one. Nothing about it really rose it above other silly/absurd comedies of the seventies. Great directors like Elaine May or Robert Altman did similar things but pulled them off well, creating an absurd little universe for the movie to operate in, whereas this one just felt like one long affectation. Certainly there are some funny bits and ideas in there, but most of it is not funny to me and every single joke is dragged out. Half the humor in the movie seems to be that an absurd situation is lasting a long time and I felt most of it to be immediately annoying more than funny so it just made the whole experience a little painful and tiresome. Not into Little Murders, sorry.
Joined: Tue January 01, 2013 1:53 pm Posts: 10254 Location: in the air tonight
I've been thinking about it and actually, I think that Little Murders might just be one of the worst movies that I've ever seen. The first couple minutes of the Donald Sutherland speech and the opportunity to spend an hour and a half looking at Elliott Gould's pretty face are its only redeeming qualities
that's a bummer, argo. i adore the three/four monologues that undergird the movie. you're right to compare this effort to the films from the best black comedy filmmaker of that decade, elaine may. as a film, it can't hang with her pictures. but those monologues and their delivery are excellent.
also, i do think that there is something radical, even dialectical, about the ending. carol's pleading for his freedom in the face of public crisis -- incomprehensible violence, crime, inequality -- is simultaneously also a capitulation to authoritarianism, even fascism. when carol brings out the rifle at the end, there's absurdity there, sure. but the absurdity provides cover for the film's invocation of rosa luxemburg's famous slogan, as alfred falls in with carol, and as they both fall back into barbarism.
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Jorge wrote:
I remember I was in Miami when it happened. I was posting from the balcony of my apartment overlooking the beach. And I was having an argument with Adamdude.
I'm sure it's my own fault. I'm too much of a dumb-dumb for this type of movie
we both know that isn’t the case.
no kidding — i made my grandparents watch the cut on youtube sometime in october, and was let down. i still love the parts i loved when i first saw the movie, but it doesn’t cohere in the way great movies do. and visually it’s not interesting. the fact, an obvious one, is this is an adaptation of a play. and arkin didn’t bring much to the movie that jules feiffer hadn’t already made available .
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Jorge wrote:
I remember I was in Miami when it happened. I was posting from the balcony of my apartment overlooking the beach. And I was having an argument with Adamdude.
Joined: Tue January 01, 2013 1:53 pm Posts: 10254 Location: in the air tonight
This may be an odd thing for a person who watches two or three hours of movies and TV every day to say, but I really hate acting. Actually, I don't know if that's true. Live theatre drives me nuts, so maybe it's a certain style of acting that I hate. I appreciate certain elements of performances in movies, even performances that call attention to themselves a little by being more cinematic than natural or whatever. But most of the time I don't enjoy feeling like I'm watching people act.
That's how I felt through all of Little Murders, with the exception of Elliott Gould who just had his natural insouciant charm act turned on, as usual. The only other one that transcended it was Sutherland, otherwise, like I said, it felt like one long affectation. Alan Arkin was the worst offender, because you could tell he was really trying so hard
This may be an odd thing for a person who watches two or three hours of movies and TV every day to say, but I really hate acting. Actually, I don't know if that's true. Live theatre drives me nuts, so maybe it's a certain style of acting that I hate. I appreciate certain elements of performances in movies, even performances that call attention to themselves a little by being more cinematic than natural or whatever. But most of the time I don't enjoy feeling like I'm watching people act.
That's how I felt through all of Little Murders, with the exception of Elliott Gould who just had his natural insouciant charm act turned on, as usual. The only other one that transcended it was Sutherland, otherwise, like I said, it felt like one long affectation. Alan Arkin was the worst offender, because you could tell he was really trying so hard
im generally not unsympathetic to this position. michael friend’s concept of theatrically addresses these issues, and he’s totally right , as far as i can tell. i don’t think arkin’s performance necessarily counts.
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Jorge wrote:
I remember I was in Miami when it happened. I was posting from the balcony of my apartment overlooking the beach. And I was having an argument with Adamdude.
This may be an odd thing for a person who watches two or three hours of movies and TV every day to say, but I really hate acting. Actually, I don't know if that's true. Live theatre drives me nuts, so maybe it's a certain style of acting that I hate. I appreciate certain elements of performances in movies, even performances that call attention to themselves a little by being more cinematic than natural or whatever. But most of the time I don't enjoy feeling like I'm watching people act.
That's how I felt through all of Little Murders, with the exception of Elliott Gould who just had his natural insouciant charm act turned on, as usual. The only other one that transcended it was Sutherland, otherwise, like I said, it felt like one long affectation. Alan Arkin was the worst offender, because you could tell he was really trying so hard
At first I thought this was a really weird take, but I see where you're coming from on the more cinematic than natural aspect. For me I think that just depends on the type movie, role, or whatever though.
This was surprisingly quite entertaining. Takes a bit to warm up to Ben Affleck and Damon in these roles and ridiculous haircuts but they played the characters really well.
I loved the approach to the story as well. The editing for each "Chapter" is subtle but quite impactful in telling the story from each different perspective.
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