Manchurian Candidate

[rm]

I've never seen such a deadly serious film also be so ironic, campy, bizarre and inappropriately erotic in my life. It is also the least subtle film in the history of the universe. I'm not sure I know what to do with it, at all. I will say I had shameless amounts of fun watching it, eventhough it hit a lot of my icky, bad, wanting to run out of the room buttons.

Meryl Streep is a goddess in this. For those who have read Cyteen she _is_ Ari Emory, just about a shade and a half crazier. I've never been so envious of a role in my life. Just... delicious. And despite what a lot of people are saying I don't think she's trying to evoke Hillary Clinton at all -- there's a level of delight in ths character, and energy, that is utterly un-Clinton.

Liev Schrieber has a role that is both thankless and a pain in the ass, and he does well with it, although it's so subtle that it might not hit you until you leave the theater.

Denzel Washington surprised me with what he was able to do in this.

I've also never seen so much really uncomfortable audience laughter ever. Mostly because of the two incidents described below.


Incident 1: Denzel Washington's character throwing Liev Schreiber's character face down on a conference table, ripping his shirt partially off and biting a chunk out of his shoulder.

Incident 2: Meryl Streep's character basically seducing her son (Liev Schreiber's character), while she's also giving him his final instructions (he's been brainwashed, long story). It's jump out of your skin disturbing, and audience members could not contain their incredulity as the scene goes from implication to absolutely pointed seduction. It's both more and less graphic than the corresponding scene in the original, but about 800 times more disturbing.


Oh my god. I do not know what to do with this puppy. Also... dude.... I think there are at least five sequences involving strangulation, all going on at great length.... like, I looked around that theater, and people were chewing their fingers and looking at each other for cues as to how to respond to any of it.

For those that are wondering, I don't think you can see me, but I also couldn't multitask enough to tell, which means you can't either. There's actually one thing where I think I might be there... but I'm background and the whole point is that you blink and you miss it.

Anyway, go see it.... good fun.

On another note, I saw the preview for Closer, which ends with Clive Owen saying "the reason you women don't understand the playing field is because you are the playing field." Which is the most succint summary of exactly what my war is. No thank you. I am neither territory, nor altar, and I am done being flattered, pandered to or used to prop anything else up. Fucking gorgeous line. But it's like that Harrison Ford "I love you" "I know" thing from Star Wars. Yeah, it's sexy... but fuck that shit. This probably deserves it's own post.

Also, Vanity Fair preview... again let me say OH MY GOD. You can watch it here: http://www.themoviebox.net/movies/2004/STUVWXYZ/Vanity-Fair/trailer-page.html I swear it will knock you sideways.

Finally, why are they making Blade III?

P.S. -- crappy ballroom dancing movie with Jennifer Lopez? No, bad idea.

Comments

[feyandstrange.livejournal.com]

Sounds like I must see it for the Cyteen references alone.

I can only assume that some poor slob foolishly signed a three-movie deal for Blade.

[baldanders.livejournal.com]

If you haven't seen the original Manchurian Candidate, oh you should, you in particular. It's note-perfect, doesn't have plot holes the current one has (because it dropped stuff from the original but kept stuff that the dropped stuff led to), and if you think Meryl Streep is great -- not arguing with that -- your jaw will drop at how menacing and awful Angela Lansbury is. Yes, Angela Lansbury.

[rm.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I've seen it.... the originaly is a better film by nearly all measures, but when shit in this one works, it works in a such a mesmerizingly bizarre way.

[kalyx.livejournal.com]

P.S. -- crappy ballroom dancing movie with Jennifer Lopez? No, bad idea.

tell me about it. I cannot remember the last time I have seen evidence of a less thought out re-make. Shall We Dance? was wonderful, but it has to exist in Japanese culture to make any sense. It's like they didn't even see the original.

I hate totally pointless re-makes almost as much as I hate watching Richard Gere attempting to dance.

[rm.livejournal.com]

Jesus... of course... I had totally blanked on the Japanese film. I was just getting angry from a Strictly Ballroom perspective... ballroom dancing movies aren't a good idea because they are campy, but because the campyness gives you room to put a lot of heart into it.

[tsarina.livejournal.com]

I don't know, but the Blade films are a guilty pleasure for me. I was in Prague while they were shooting 2, they used my tram line! Heh. I saw the second one dubbed into Czech and learned bad words while I was in Brno.

[rm.livejournal.com]

I loved the first one. Had so much fun. The second one left me bored and fidgetty in a lot of places though.

[tsarina.livejournal.com]

It was worth it to learn how to say motherfucker in Czech. And it was the only film playing that afternoon, in an empty huge theater. I needed to feel American.

[rm.livejournal.com]

Megan's sister actually apparently goes to American movies when travelling abroad all the time, and says it's particularly bizarre and hysterical.

I saw something odd and American when I was in Ireland, but I can't remember what.

[tsarina.livejournal.com]

I saw a lot of foreign film while I was there. I think I only saw a couple Czech movies. I watched two French movies with Czech subtitles and let me just say having two languages going in my head at the same time and trying to stop the English was so fricking hard. Not to mention one of those films was Red and hence even more weird.

[tommx.livejournal.com]

what bothered me the most about this film was the drowning of john voight. i found myself taking deep breaths during that scene. drowning has got to be high on my list of the worst ways i can imagine to die.

the problem i had with this movie was that although the performances were excellent, the film seemed to have not the emotional core that the original did. in the original, we see raymond fighting desperately to retain his humanity. i got very little sense of that in the remake.

the seduction scene is incredibly gross, no doubt. what chilled me about meryl streeps character is that she actually chose her son to be brainwashed like this. the levels of her depravity truly astounded me.

[rm.livejournal.com]

So very true about the lack of emotional core, and it almost works in a meta way since pretty much every single character lacks any ability to empathize with any other character either because of their choices or circumstances.