* As a British friend of mine used to say, "they're shite". E! Online's recent article slams Darren Aronofsky's, director of world-acclaimed movie Pi (have you guys even seen the movie?!), latest movie The Fountain, a flashback/flashforward-type movie centred around the philosophical concept of Life and Immortality (Pi was about Numbers/Mathematics and the Meaning of Life). The interesting thing with this movie is that it spans 1,000 years, although you wouldn't know that there is a parallel meaning until the end of the movie... Why do I know? Because there was a restricted screening as part of the Tokyo Film Festival in Roppongi Hills a couple of weeks ago; I went to it and saw it before it even was out in the US (and your Nov. 21st article), and a year ahead of its release here in Japan.
Can you think of another filmaker that addresses these issues in both a poetic yet accessible and thrilling way (ie. using thriller suspense techniques), to get the story across? Someone who is actually willing to approach subjects that make the author of this article yawn, but things people across the world have struggled with for centuries in locales across the globe: circularity of life, psychology of losing someone close and starting anew, life after death and rebirth/karma, caring for another. Does the author even notice the details in period background research gone into the scenes in medieval Spain (a lot of Arab influences here), the reality of the Inquisition (awkward questions about the fundamentalist Christian faith), or the future self (Buddhism, Asian reincarnation overtones, usage of white as a purifier) and how the director deftly undermines the viewer's reliance on Hollywood visual boilerplate.
A quick word for Dezhda Mountz, author of this article, and who by the way gave a resounding A to "Tenacious D in: The Pick Of Destiny" where according to the author "there's perpetual humor to be mined from the concept of grown men acting like teenage boys acting like rock stars": dearie me, you really have your priorities round the wrong way, my furry friend. Or take coworker Caroline Kepnes that gives a thumbs-up 'A' to "Bobby", the new John F. Kennedy-related movie that I haven't seen but that the author admits "With so many movies winking and aiming for clever, Bobby arrives sopping wet with nostalgia and earnestness [...] You'll be happy - and sad - that you did". OK, one suggestion guys: if you want HBO leftovers, go work for HBO. Don't get embroiled in stuff that's beyond you, and appeals to pretty much everyone else that wants a bit more than leftover boilerplate.
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