Quicky media update

[prog]

Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow: I liked this exactly as much as I thought I would, no more or less. Worth seeing, because it's very large in stature, if only physically. Doubt that I'll pay to see it again, unless it happens to appear in the February festival lineup.

The Spanish Prisoner: A 1997 film. Mamety goodness. I like all of Mamet's movies even though they're all just strange enough to make me resist loving them.

I'm curious about the ending... did the foghorn serve as a literary device, an acoustic strikeout of information that the characters cared about but the story didn't (since they were only talking about the McGuffin)? Or did it serve to make the ultimate outcome uncertain? I'm actually certain that it's the former case. It's an intriguing stylistic technique I don't think I've seen much (the playful name-bleeping in Kill Bill is not the same thing at all, being a very deliberate tease), but I bet it confused a lot of audience who thought it served the latter purpose. (And I could be wrong. But I don't think that I am.)

The Venture Bros.: I decree this show to be brilliant. It had to work hard to get me to like it, as on one level it's YA The Tick-like sendup of American pop mythology (a mashup of superheroics, "The Hardy Boys" and "Johnny Quest"). But it loves its characters, making them more than just flat goofball parody. It's a joy to watch.

Comments

[dougo.livejournal.com]

I don't remember enough about The Spanish Prisoner to weigh in on that issue, but your theory brings to mind the briefcase from Pulp Fiction that everybody stared with wonder into but the audience never got to see. But maybe not showing isn't the same as deliberately obscuring. It also sort of brings to mind the ending of Limbo, but I won't spoil in case you haven't seen it. (I wish they showed more John Sayles movies on cable... I guess I'll have to spring for Netflix sooner or later.)

[prog.livejournal.com]

I think the foghorn and the not-seeing-whats-in-the-briefcase were the same trick, just throwing a cloth over the film's McGuffin (the secret formula and the briefcase itself, respectively). I have a slight problem with how it was done in Spanish Prisoner because it can be misinterpreted as actual content (Oh no, they couldn't hear what he said!!) as opposed to just a playful cinematic tweak.

I dropped Netflix once I got Tivo + digital cable. I make request use of wishlists, and random schedule-surfing. (Spanish Prisoner was recorded as a result of a wishlist I set up months ago and forgot about, actually.)

[prog.livejournal.com]

Er, frequent use, not "request" use.

[dougo.livejournal.com]

Yep, I haven't been wanting for good movies to watch (e.g. Il Postino recently got deleted due to space constraints before I got around to saving it). But there are definitely a lot of movies I've wanted to see but just don't seem to come around (at least on the channels I get in the HBO and IFC/Sundance packages).

[tahnan.livejournal.com]

I don't remember the foghorn in particular (well, I do, but I don't remember what the characters were saying that got drowned out), but I very much remember the beginning of the movie, in which people kept talking around what the McGuffin was. So the foghorn didn't in any way bother me; I thought it was pretty clear.

And I do love Mamet movies, myself.

I'm also inclined to agree with your assessment of The Venture Bros., in spite of the fact that I can't stand, for instance, Sealab 2021, and the fact that I've never seen "Johnny Quest" (though I did read all the Hardy Boys books when I was younger). Maybe it was just that the first episode I watched had Steven Colbert as the villain, but I think you're right: it does love its characters.

SPOILER... HONK

[prog.livejournal.com]

It was when the duped hero, after learning that he was wearing a wire for the Feds, asked Steve Martin's character where "the process" was hidden. Martin starts to explain, but a sudden foghorn blast from the ferry they are riding obscures almost everything he says, up until "...after you're dead."

So the first thing I thought was: shit, things were going his way for a second, and then dumb luck ruined everything and now the process is lost, since the Feds will hear only the horn. But the characters' subsequent actions (once the bad guys are put down) have an air of satisfaction about them, implying that all was secure. So, it took extra film content for me to understand that trick as it was intended, which is why I didn't like it too much.