The Song Fight Bulletin Board

A. Great acting, cool cast, looked amazing, and kept me on the edge of my seat most of the time.

A as well. A very tightly nit, perfectly constructed movie. Shyamalan should take notes from this. Like Memento this movie is viscously non-linear, and (also like Memento) this non-linearity complements and parallels the subject matter. It's full of curious framing devices (a large portion of the movie is one character reading a notebook about another character reading a notebook), but somehow you never feel lost, despite the [recursive] flashbacks. Fun to see David Bowie as Nikola Tesla, proving that he's not just the Goblin King.

Anywho, it's good, go see it.

Puce wrote:Fun to see David Bowie as Nikola Tesla, proving that he's not just the Goblin King.

He was also pretty good as Pontius Pilate.

He was pretty entertaining in Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me.

I also quite liked him in that recurring role as 'a good musician', but since they cancelled that show in '84, I haven't much liked anything he's done.

j$

little wonder and i'm afraid of americans are good songs.

anyway, about the movie:

caution, spoilers:

there's some contrivances in this that bug me. i'd say the story kind of falls apart in the third act, but the ending does kind of redeem it, if only kind of, and it kept me interested, anyway. but it does seem sophomoric, the story. a friend that i saw it with complained that he wished it had been kept wholly in the reality we know, and also mentioned that if "tesla" is a misdirection (per the journal), it's ultimately an anti-re-misdirection because tesla does figure out a way to do the trick. he complained that's a huge coincidence (and that it bothered him that it isn't real in a way known to science today). i dunno!

other notes:
man scarlett johansson is pretty.
andy serkis did really well.
david bowie is cool.
christian bale is a great actor.

I'm not sure how I feel, either, about the point when the story ventures outside reality, either. I liked that everything up to that point could have been completely real. I think it worked, for me, though, as it kind of creeped me out and that got me more interested.

I was okay but not thrilled with Bowie as the Goblin King, but that movie (Labyrinth) is in my all time top ten. I get to look at Jennifer Conneley for two hours straight and my wife thinks we're watching a Muppet movie.

Yes indeed...

Charles (KA)

I thought Bowie was really good. I think he usually is when he's given small roles. I liked that the movie felt like more was at stake than The Illusionist. It's got a nasty streak (those doves, for instance) that is a nice fit with the material. While it's not as brilliant as Memento, not much is. Plus, I'm a pushover for magic. A-

Just saw this on the plane from Tokyo to Hong Kong. Best movie I've seen in a long time. Contrivances, hell, marcus, its a movie. Although I must admit the Tesla code word thing bugged me a bit as well.

SPUD