I am a student at Johns Hopkins with a passion for film, media and awards. Here you will find concise movie reviews and my comments on TV, theater and award shows. I can't see everything, but when I finally get around to it, you'll find my opinion here on everything from the classics to the crap.
I'm not a big fan of westerns. Correspondingly, I sort of fell asleep a little bit in the middle. But it's not just a western, it's a dark comedy that's actually quite funny. It's so absurd that it's kind of funny. The cinematography is beautiful. The acting, from John C. Reilly especially (and I like Riz Ahmed), is a delightful surprise. But the best part about this movie is Alexandre Desplat's soundtrack. It's exciting and western and rhythmic and intoxicating.
The premise of this film is similar to Stephen Sondheim's musical "Sunday in the Park with George" in that it depicts an artist at work creating a well known painting and the events surrounding the contents of the painting. Except, this movie is devoid of music, narrative, and fun. It is so slow and boring that it was quite difficult to watch. There is very minimal dialogue (the few lines of dialogue are these jumbled monologues) and so the story is told much through gestures and lack of action. There is a lot of artificial light that saturates the picture and don't get me wrong--some of the shots are really stunning (kind of in a "Tree of Life" way that's slow and painful). The one positive aspect of the movie is its innovative use of CGI to make Bruegel's "The Procession to Calvary" come to life. I wasn't really a fan of French peasant life in "Martin Guerre", but these Flemish peasants are so much worse.
