Buddha's Rhubarb Of Opinions On Media

Glib Reviews Of Recent DVD Releases Nightcrawler - Directed By Dan Gilroy Everybody talks about how great Jake Gyllenhaal is in this very 70’s vibed flick. They are right to do so, but longtime screenwriter and first time director Dan Gilroy deserves a lot of credit for a tight noir script and masterful direction that make this one of the better LA Noirs in ages. Renee Russo also brings the hot older News lady who has survived on nothing but grim cynically derived urban crime’ stories, with the kind of non cliched femme fatale vibe we are hoping for when we hear the name Renee Russo.  One of the best shot at night (if it was ‘ day for night ,’ it does not look it) movies I have seen. The ‘ambulance chasing’ scenes are well choreographed and edited. The whole film has such a creepy vibe, which matches Gyllenhaal’s masterful and very award worthy performance. I doubt he will beat Redmayne’s ‘transformative’ part in the Theory Of Everything, as those kinds of stories d...

Glib Reviews of Recent DVD Releases Birdman   - Directed by Alejandro G. Iñárritu Birdman is easily the most ‘Meta’ movie I have seen in a long time. And, not just because of the obvious Michael Keaton Birdman/Batman thing. Birdman is also a “behind the scenes theatre movie,” the likes of which we maybe haven’t seen since Peter Bogdanvich’s only great movie since the 70’s: Noises Off. The constantly moving camera didn’t for me give that illusion of one ling take; that everyone talks about, it was something I knew going in, and dispensed with right away.  It’s a gimmick that works, in my opinion, as the camera movement required to pull off that trick, really was more about keeping the story in view, less than saying it’s all one movement, because it’s not. It's several moments, linked together by a faux dolly shot that never ends, until it does on Riggen’s daughter Sam’s face. I saw the Dolly shot POV as ‘Birdman’s POV from frame one.  Outside and invisib...