Revolutionary Road can hardly be called a film in any serious sense of the word. It seems more like a series of screen tests, some more successful than others. Both Leonardo Di Caprio and Kate Winslet emote vigorously until they appear to get severe hemorrhoids (fatal in the case of the Winslet character). Sometimes the only interest in this film is the exquisite 50s design. I think Sam Mendes is basically a theater director and seems to have taken no interest in the cinematography -the lighting is wildly inconsistent, sometimes sensitive and moody, other times like a mediocre British studio film. On the positive side and unlike the stultifying Benjamin Button movie it was only 2 hours long.
Reviews
3 Reviews
Notes on a Scandal
(2006)
The dumb and the damned
20 January 2007
Crisp dialogue and virtuoso performances make this film enjoyable but it leaves one with a sort of cinematic indigestion. Perhaps it is the atmosphere of cynical mean-spiritedness that ruins so much contemporary British art -as though truth were nasty, a bitter medicine that had to be taken for one's own good. While Judi Dench has a romp with the part of the repressed, evil Barbara Covett. Cate Blanchett's Sheba Hart is so underwritten that her character doesn't stand a chance. When the story starts to liven up every character morphs into an embarrassing pantomime stereotype. The Philip Glass score sounds as if it had been waiting for years in his deep freeze to be used, it is too loud and has nothing to do with the film. Too bad, there is a lot of great talent involved here and ultimately it all seems wasted.
Rebels of the Neon God
(1992)
oedipus at Taiwan
6 April 2006
From the beginning of the film we are aware of the conflict between father and son. When the handsome motorcyclist breaks his father's taxi mirror Hsiao Kang (Kang-sheng Lee) is fascinated by him in a love/hate way. His overwhelming mother who conceives of him as a reincarnation of the God Norcha drives him out of the house by her ranting and effects the necessary break with his father. He redeems his school tuition dives into the nightlife of the luminous,illusionary city.. He follows Ah Tze (Chao-jung Chen) and his brother Ah Bing (Chang-bin Jen) in their nightly decadent rounds and plans revenge. When he finally achieves this revenge, by trashing Ah Tze's motorcycle he is not quite satisfied. Ah Tze and his brother are beaten up. They are plunged into misery and despair. Hsiao Kang goes to a brothel but cannot bring himself to meet with a prostitute. The castration resulting from his break with his father is at least temporarily in effect.
What is so great about this film is precisely its rich imagery and the fascinating performances. It is mesmeric and moving. In the later films many of the actors/characters will have further more developed existences, but in Rebel of the Neon Gods we are introduced to a trope on the James Dean "Rebel Without a Cause" film in a compelling series of images. A fine, perhaps a great film.
What is so great about this film is precisely its rich imagery and the fascinating performances. It is mesmeric and moving. In the later films many of the actors/characters will have further more developed existences, but in Rebel of the Neon Gods we are introduced to a trope on the James Dean "Rebel Without a Cause" film in a compelling series of images. A fine, perhaps a great film.
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