Muse: Reel Life: Pliéing Turkey
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How about giving this article a little spell check and edit? Here's some words to search for: confortable, teeling, remian and serriously
There's also something missing at the start of the para that begins "reminds me".
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Craig Ranapia, in reply to
Great minds think alike. :) I don't know how the frig it happened, but I reverted to an earlier draft and posted it due to human incompetence. The internal sub-editor has been taken out the back of the woodshed for a good thrashing.
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Thomas Beagle, in reply to
I also must compliment you on your use of:
In an earlier draft of this review, I complained that...
Referring to an earlier version of your own work in the very work you're referring to is... somewhere between brilliant and the wankiest thing I've ever read. :)
That said, I do like your article and agree that Black Swan was basically lacking the "why should I care about this" factor.
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Craig Ranapia, in reply to
somewhere between brilliant and the wankiest thing I've ever read. :)
Aww, that would hurt my feelings if it wasn't true. Seriously, I've got a five thousand word rip on Natalie Portman tucked away for future use but she's not the problem here. I can't imagine anyone doing more with such an under-characterised snivelling drip of a role.
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What a great review, thanks for posting it.
Think I'll still see the movie as planned, but at least if I hate it I won't have that dreadful alienating feeling of being the only viewer with that experience.
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Craig Ranapia, in reply to
No, thank you Ange.
I won’t have that dreadful alienating feeling of being the only viewer with that experience.
At the screening I attended, someone starting giggling hysterically about the point Mila Kunis tried to stick her head up Natalie Portman's twat (you have to be there) and couldn't stop. If that happens to you, just breathe through it m'kay?
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Well Craig, once again our mileage differs! While I don't disagree about the plot being overblown and melodramatic, Portman, Kunis, Hershey et al., really made it work, for me anyway. It's different in tone from The Red Shoes, and less original. but I don't think it's a turkey, at all. I found it beautiful and engrossing.
I remember seeing Michael Powell interviewed about The Red Shoes, he said, "It's all about dying for your art...", and the interviewer asked, "And would you die for your art?", to which Powell replied, "Oh, yes!!". Lovely man.
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I thought it was a fine film apart from the use of CGI. That should be reserved for silly sci-fi where it belongs.
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Craig Ranapia, in reply to
Well Craig, once again our mileage differs!
Very good. Keeps me honest and staves off the kind of boredom that leads to arson and random cattle mutilation.
And while I'm being honest (with the usual caveats),, review aggregators strongly suggest you're not the only one. I've also come across quite a few people - particularly women -- who get the film on a level that I don't. They're not automatically wrong or stupid, just because I don't get it.
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Also, to be vulgarly commercial for a moment: Even if the reviews were uniformly dire, Oscar bounce or no, a US$170m + worldwide gross off a $13m budget isn’t a bad ROI for Fox Searchlight.
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And apart from that how was the ballet work? Only reason I'd see it
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Craig Ranapia, in reply to
For a film centred around the barely contained chaos of a (so we’re told) make or break new production fora company past its prime, there’s remarkably little of it – but to be fair, I don’t think Aronofsky was that interested. As I said, far be from me to speak ill of Natalie’s baby-daddy but Benjamin Millepied’s competent but uninspired choreography was a lot less interesting than the way Matthew Libatique shot it. For once, hand-held wobble-cam had a purpose beyond giving me a migraine.
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A well-written review, Craig and do tend to side with you in respect of the displays of excess, and the not totally convincing slide into madness. But I do wonder if it might be a gender thing. My beloveds (wife and daughter) responded to it more strongly than I, for the themes of self-harm and hysteria resonated with them, in respect of how many teenage girls behave.
Still, Aronofsky does have a thing about self-harm cf Mickey Rourke in The Wrestler. -
Not sure that this is red-blooded enough for me.
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recordari, in reply to
Not sure that this is red-blooded enough for me.
This should be good. Can I get front row seats?
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Fun review, Craig. You made my 8.30am moment on the net before I settle down to real work… You had a relish there that I enjoyed, particularly around here on Public Address, where lately it’s been a bit like everyone is trying to resurrect the too much repeated tone of the twee wee Steve Braunias, now that we’ve finally lost our Weekend dose of that Celebrator of Kiwi Sentimentality. The only fun thing about Braunias was that tendency to self-destruct and that pithy use of the vernacular in emails. I also observe that no-one has commented about Mr Braunias’ double-happy duplication of his ‘employment difficulties’ with the Listener, where a similar vituperative streak with correspondents – except with Peter Wells there – got him offed from the masthead. But I digress, thanks Craig, you gave me pleasure at an hour of the day I usually experience with a desire for something stronger than coffee.
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Jacqui Dunn, in reply to
Not sure that this is red-blooded enough for me.
What's not red-blooded enough? The review, the thread, or the film?
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Haneke did it much better:
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Ah, The Red Shoes - lost Best Film to Olivier's Hamlet.
So if not Portman, who would pick Craig?:
Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role
Nominees:
Annette Bening for The Kids Are All Right (2010)Nicole Kidman for Rabbit Hole (2010)
Jennifer Lawrence for Winter's Bone (2010)
Natalie Portman for Black Swan (2010)
Michelle Williams for Blue Valentine (2010)
Winter's Bone was great but I've not seen Blue Valentine and Rabbit Hole.
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Even if the reviews were uniformly dire
No, that wouldn't be accurate, Craig. Black Swan has had good reviews in -- locally -- the NZ Herald, Sunday Star-Times, Dom Post (Graeme Tuckett), Waikato Times (Sam Edwards). Overseas, good reviews from Sight and Sound, Roger Ebert, Richard Brody, David Edelstein in New York magazine, Andrew O'Hehir at Salon, Peter Travers at Rolling Stone, Peter Bradshaw at the Guardian and Manohla Dargis at the New York Times. And there's bound to be others I haven't read. Not to say their opinions are worth more than yours, but let's be fair about its reception.
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recordari, in reply to
What's not red-blooded enough? The review, the thread, or the film?
Suggest you look over --------------> there.
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Emma Hart, in reply to
Philip, Craig didn't say the reviews were uniformly dire. He said " even if they were", aftter saying "And while I'm being honest (with the usual caveats), review aggregators strongly suggest you're not the only one."
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James Butler, in reply to
Even if the reviews were uniformly dire
No, that wouldn’t be accurate, Craig.
You missed his cunning use of the subjunctive “were” :-) He did link to rottentomatoes upthread…
Edit: Emma, snap.
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Gotcha. Didn't make sense to me, but okay.
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Jacqui Dunn, in reply to
Suggest you look over --------------> there.
Well, I was looking earlier, but I see it has progressed somewhat. Actually, for what it's worth, mine was a genuine enquiry. The person's wording is ambiguous.
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