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I keep forgetting to write up my thoughts about this, but I'd like to say a little something about what I saw at the Austin Film Festival last week and the week before. I bought a basic pass for $42, and feel very much that I got my money's worth after the seven or eight programs I attended. I saw two very lovely documentaries (Make Believe and Waste Land), a mediocre Irish comedy (Zonad), more short films than you can shake a stick at (some good, some bad, some animated, some live action), and one movie already slated for wide release (127 Hours, based on the real life story of Aron Ralston). This week, in fact; it opens on Friday here in America.
Surprisingly, it's the last film that has stuck in my mind the most. I try to be a cynic about "based on a true story" movies since you have to take it all with a grain of salt and as soon as you spot the differences between the film and the real story it quickly starts seeming cheap (Newsies is adorable, but was there any actual reason for Kid Blink being turned into a secondary character?), and I try to be a cynic about movies that make me cry, precisely because I recognize that I cry at movies very, very easily, but I have to say that 127 Hours is truly excellent. It turns out James Franco is very much capable of carrying a movie that consists mostly of him standing in a dark hole and talking to himself, and that Danny Boyle is very much capable of turning "man falls down a hole, gets his hand trapped under a rock for five days" into something in which it is very easy to get (and remain!) emotionally invested.
( I don't think discussion of the ending really counts as a spoiler since it was in the news seven years ago, but here's a courtesy cut anyway )
I don't want to give the impression that this one sequence dominates the whole movie. It's a very introspective film, peppered with flashbacks and hallucination/dream sequences in between Aron's internal and external monologues (he has a camcorder, which he uses to record final messages to his family). It's also, as I mentioned above, surprisingly funny--Aron is a very charismatic, playful character, and at points he uses humor to keep himself alive and fighting.
Just...here. Watch the trailer. It's making me want to go see it again, regardless of what an intense, exhausting experience it was the first time.
I was also going to rant about the movie rating system, but I got all distracted and wound up by this trailer, and I need to try to get back to my homework. Another time, maybe.
ETA: Found this, and it sounds like the real Aron Ralston is quite happy with the movie, and that Boyle's intentions in doing things the way he did in the film were a.) true to Ralston's book about it and b.) exactly what I thought they were. Those last attempts at cynicism on my part are just melting away.
Surprisingly, it's the last film that has stuck in my mind the most. I try to be a cynic about "based on a true story" movies since you have to take it all with a grain of salt and as soon as you spot the differences between the film and the real story it quickly starts seeming cheap (Newsies is adorable, but was there any actual reason for Kid Blink being turned into a secondary character?), and I try to be a cynic about movies that make me cry, precisely because I recognize that I cry at movies very, very easily, but I have to say that 127 Hours is truly excellent. It turns out James Franco is very much capable of carrying a movie that consists mostly of him standing in a dark hole and talking to himself, and that Danny Boyle is very much capable of turning "man falls down a hole, gets his hand trapped under a rock for five days" into something in which it is very easy to get (and remain!) emotionally invested.
( I don't think discussion of the ending really counts as a spoiler since it was in the news seven years ago, but here's a courtesy cut anyway )
I don't want to give the impression that this one sequence dominates the whole movie. It's a very introspective film, peppered with flashbacks and hallucination/dream sequences in between Aron's internal and external monologues (he has a camcorder, which he uses to record final messages to his family). It's also, as I mentioned above, surprisingly funny--Aron is a very charismatic, playful character, and at points he uses humor to keep himself alive and fighting.
Just...here. Watch the trailer. It's making me want to go see it again, regardless of what an intense, exhausting experience it was the first time.
I was also going to rant about the movie rating system, but I got all distracted and wound up by this trailer, and I need to try to get back to my homework. Another time, maybe.
ETA: Found this, and it sounds like the real Aron Ralston is quite happy with the movie, and that Boyle's intentions in doing things the way he did in the film were a.) true to Ralston's book about it and b.) exactly what I thought they were. Those last attempts at cynicism on my part are just melting away.
