Buddha's Rhubarb Of Opinions On Media

Glib Reviews of Fairly Recent DVD  Releases Inherent Vice - Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson Finally got around to seeing the latest PTA flick, which I had heard a lot of conflicting opinions on. Inherent Vice is also based on a Thomas Pynchon novel, so there are of course some heavy wight ideas going on. Personally the only Pynchon I have ever been able to finish reading is The Crying Of Lot 49.  I had my own sort of mix of skepticism and hope going into this. Tried and tried to get through V. and Gravity’s Rainbow three or four times each, but also, something makes me give up on these books, I usually am so into the books, the first half or so, then something that just happens is that I have put the books down, and moved on to something else. Maybe it’s just timing; and I say this because this is what I see in this film, something that PTA groks about pace and timing, that generally, (with the exception of “The Master, which I can’t seem to stay awake through.)...

Glib reviews of DVDs and Blu Rays. Ride The Pink Horse - Directed by Robert Montgomery It might be a mistake to watch a movie adaptation only one day after finishing a novel that you love. Dorothy B. Hughes’ novel called Ride The Pink Horse is a wonderful small town noir of the sort associated with Jim Thompson, and at the same time a sweaty tension filled fish out of water story akin to the best of Patricia Highsmith. The fact that the film makers let the more literary name stand instead of giving it some generic but more cinematic title is a testament to the strength of the story. Many of the details of the film are changed for those kinds of what works in a book might be too subtle for a movie kind of ways, like some of the names of characters, most obviously, the protagonist (who is no ‘hero’ in ether the book or the film) goes from the no last named ‘Sailor’ in the book to the much more noirishly named Lucky Gagin, who is never once called ‘Lucky,’ with good re...

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/Blu Ray releases. Night Moves - Directed by Kelly Reichardt This is not your father’s ‘Night Moves,’ that one is an under appreciated Arthur Penn flick with Gene Hackman. Both do crucially involve boats though. I wanted to like this film a bit more than I did. As a big fan of Reichardt’s films in general, I was looking forward to this quite a bit. It may be though my least favourite of the bunch, but that by no means says it’s a bad film, just not quite as good as the previous three films. If you like creepy atmospheric slow paced gorgeously shot in Oregon kind of movies, you will dig this. Jesse Eisenberg is at his broodingest best, here, you barely ever see under his hooded eyes, he only ever really expresses emotions over the things he perceives with horror, like the dead deer he moves from the edge of the highway to save the dead doe the dignity of not getting run over again and again, at least. The basic plot has Jesse (as Josh, commu...

RandomFest 2014 So, it’s taken me awhile to get to watching movies again; I have been reading, writing and oddly: socializing so much that I couldn’t find the time until  last night. I watched the film that gave me the idea to watch a few of the films I recall seeing in Film School (University Of Manitoba 84-90, yes 6 years, I only stopped going when/because they sent me a diploma)  but not since. Maybe a snippet of one or two on late night TV, but never sat down and re-watched any of these choices.  Raoul Walsh’s “White Heat” was this first movie. Before seeing this picture in a ‘gangster film’ class, I had seen all those great younger Cagney (the first movie anti-hero?) movies like Public Enemy, Dead End Kids, either in the class, or on my own, probably on the CBC late movie. This film plays with Cagney’s image as a Warner Bros. Gangster in a way that we now call ‘meta.’ Cagney was big, huge, and an icon in any role, but an aging crook, pulling train heists? M...

Noirfest 2014 So I think this 5 movies over a couple of weeks mini festival thing I am doing works pretty good. I can’t guarantee weekly updates, but at least twice a month. I am also posting these reviews individually, usually right after viewing the films. I want to keep doing some reviewing, and eventually maybe also some book reviews....  I usually do quick reviews on my Goodreads page, so I will figure out how to crosspost those reviews. I am toying with also doing some comic reviews/panels of the week, again. I’m trying to slowly increase my writing output, until it is something I am doing most of the time, eventually finding a way to make it pay whatever meagre pay it can.  But on to my latest mini festival “Noir Fest 2014” I chose 5 noirs that I either hadn’t seen, or hadn’t watched in quite some time. A fairly random group actually. I am trying to decide on my next mini fest genre... I may do an actor (Yul Brynner has been suggested to me) or a dire...