Nine
How can a movie based on a musical (itself based on a movie) be any good if it fails to deliver any good songs? It simply can’t, right! So goes the story of Nine.
I give lots of leeway to musicals in the story department. Look at Glee - i love it! But the story can be somewhat…ridiculous from time to time. So what! I love the characters, love the songs - love the show.
Nine fails to deliver a single interesting character, song or storyline. The movie is especially distasteful when it’s ostensibly an homage to the great 8 1/2. Fellini died a little bit more this past weekend.
What it lacks in..well, cinema - it tries to make up for in sex appeal. There’s a difference between showing me lots of skin and making something sexy. Nine shows some skin and remains devoid of any sex appeal, charisma or life.
Why Daniel Day Lewis thought to take on this role is beyond me. He’s not much of a singer. And, in all honesty - he’s kind of a dark guy. In Mastrioanni, beneath his suffering there’s always an ineffable lightness of soul. That quality makes his dark moments all the more poignant and promising. Lewis is dark, playing dark - which works for There Will be Blood…but in a musical? Not so much. His flippant quirks seem forced.
There’s a quality of enthusiasm i find so engaging when i watch people sing well. Almost all the singing in Nine was dour - despite the big smiles put on by the likes of Penelope, Kate and Nicole. But - in the end - if somebody had written some good music for this movie, i would have liked it. That’s all I’m asking - some good music with some good singers. Nine couldn’t deliver even that.
Filmakers with voice…
There’s no judgement here at all. Just my brain meandering around. Voice- to me - means some evidence of connectivity between their movies. Ideas, themes, motifs, style - things that seem founded in a directors psyche.
I’m no movie expert so many of the greatest directors are omitted.
Fellini
Kubrick
Hitchcock
Almodovar
Bunuel
Hanecke
Malick
Cronenberg
Tarantino
PT. Anderson
Woody Allen
Altman
I’m not sure about:
Soderburgh
Spielberg
Wes Anderson
Lucas
Alexander Payne
Ang Lee
Richard Linklater
David Fincher
Gus Van Sant
James Cameron
Coen Brothers
Coppola
Eastwood
Filmakers with voice…
There’s no judgement here at all. Just my brain meandering around. Voice- to me - means some evidence of connectivity between their movies. Ideas, themes, motifs, style - things that seem founded in a directors psyche.
I’m no movie expert so many of the greatest directors are omitted.
Fellini
Kubrick
Hitchcock
Almodovar
Bunuel
Hanecke
Malick
Cronenberg
Tarantino
PT. Anderson
Woody Allen
Altman
I’m not sure about:
Soderburgh
Spielberg
Wes Anderson
Lucas
Alexander Payne
Ang Lee
Richard Linklater
David Fincher
Gus Van Sant
James Cameron
Coen Brothers
Coppola
Eastwood
Avatar
I’ve always been interested in trying to distill what universal qualities I look for in movies. Avatar is good - there’s no denying it to me. It’s understandable, visual, emotional (at times) and generally good entertainment for 162 minutes. The movie earns its length i thought.
What the movie doesn’t have - and what few $200mil+ movies have is soul. No matter how hard you push a - save the earth, we’re all connected by the force - story line, the movie lacks real soul. Good entertainment for sure - the word comprehensive keeps jumping to my mind as a single word descriptor - but i won’t be thinking about it tomorrow morning. And, for a movie to really be affecting, it better have some kernel that makes me continue to think about it even 24 hours later.
Oh - and Sigourney Weaver is still hot! Maybe I’ll think about her tonight.
