Michael Jackson’s This Is It…
I don’t know how to approach this film. Is it a concert film? Or is it a documentary? Going into it I thought it was going to be a combination of both. But having seeing it it’s neither. While it’s closer to a concert film, it’s really just a propaganda piece, meant to leave people with a positive image of Jackson as the last thing people will see.
Why it’s not a documentary?
Outside of a few back stage moments most of This Is It consists of rehearsal performances for the upcoming concert tour. Any even in those back stage moments very little is revealed about Jackson. The main takeaways are that he is a perfectionist who cares about the fan experience. Do we really need a feature length film to tell us that?
No, this plays like a straight up propaganda piece. This Is It is directed by Kenny Ortega, but it might as well have been Kenny Ortega and the Michael Jackson legal team. Nothing in this film talks about any of the more controversial areas of Jackson’s life. Outside of the opening scroll, you would never even know that Jackson died. We see a very lucid Jackson working diligently to make a concert for his fans and absolutely by the crew. Not a Jackson who was chronically late to court, or showed up in pajamas, or was addicted to massive amounts of prescription drugs and boy genitalia (those last two are alleged, however I believe them wholeheartedly).
Perhaps the most unintentional revealing point is the manner in which director Kenny Ortega talks and deals with Jackson, treating him like a special needs case. Agreeing with everything he says, talking very patiently, calling Jackson delicate would be an understatement. While that is probably no different than how any director talks to mega a-list talent, it just feels more adolescent with Jackson. I look forward to the day when an in-depth (and most likely unauthorized) biography of Jackson comes out that delves into the psyche that is Michael Jackson.
Why it’s not a concert film?
Technically it is one, but all the footage is from rehearsals. Most of Jackson’s performances are subpar, with him not giving it 100%, which is understandable because he wanted to save himself for the actual concert goers paying tons of money.
Considering the circumstances there was not a whole lot that the filmmakers could have done. Maybe dub over the vocals to make it sound more like the records? But that would take away from the genuine factor. Although I swear they dubbed over Thriller. During the performance you almost never saw a good shot of Jackson’s mouth. A full out documentary utilizing the back stage footage from This Is It with Jackson’s classic performances cut in-between would have been my approach.
A lot of marketing hype has tried to deem this as the greatest concert film of all time. No it’s not; perhaps it will be the highest grossing concert film of all time. But to me the greatest concert film of all time would be of an actual concert.
This Is It is exactly what it looks like on the surface: The Jackson family estate attempt to cash in on and preserve the legacy of the late King of Pop.
The Girlfriend Experience…
So this film confused the shit out of me. I did not realize that this film was cut out of chronological order, which is a rather important detail. It wasn’t until I was through about half the movie that I realized that out. Going into it I thought it was just a film about a escort and merely watching it for the more scandalous stuff, especially considering that real life porn star Sasha Grey stars in it. However this film is light on scandalous and high on artificial wtfs.
Did this scene your watching at the 75 minute mark really happen late in the movie's timeline? Or did it happen early on in the begining at a prelude to shit? This is the conversation you will have in your head as your watch. As such you are left to piece together the storyline as you see eventually see all the pieces. This is a semi cool idea, except that I never really cared too much about any of the characters. The main story is fairly easy to piece together, but once you do it’s such a letdown that it’s not even worth going back and piecing together all the smaller pieces. Pieces that would probably make this film pretty cool, but it’s just not worth it considering that the main characters suck.
But the non-chronological editing is such a cop out for a shitty story. I feel the only reason for it was just to do it. It served not narrative purpose that I could see. Maybe if her memory got fucked up and she was only remembering pieces at a time, but no it’s as if they shot the entire movie and saw that it was goin g to suck, so the confuse people into liking it they got drunk and reedited the entire thing.
As a side note, this film was apparently filed with the RedOne camera, which is cheaper HD camera which is trying to rival the much more expensive digital HD cameras that other films use. The Blu-ray transfer looked really good. RedOne is probably the best part of this entire film.
Skip it and just watch some Sasha Grey porn instead.
Land of the Lost…
After my disaster experience with Year One I had low hopes for Land of the Lost, but it surprises. Not redefining or earth shattering, but LOTL has enough laughs to make it worth a rental. The best scenes come early and late, most of them involving Matt Lauer. But outside of those scenes you won’t remember much of this film after a few days. I still contend that Farrell is a better side kick than leading man, but he’s not bad here.
Rent. And Suck It Matt Lauer!
Year One…
So this was supposed to be a comedy, but I didn’t laugh. Fail! Going into the movie I thought it was about cave men, and while Jake Black and Michael Cera are cave men their journeys have them bumping into Jews, Romans, and Cain & Abel. All groups intermingling as if they all existed at the same time. Chilling out as if it were one big fraternity. Now I wasn’t looking for nor expecting historical accuracy, but this just seemed so blatant that I kept pulling me out of the movie experience and nagged at me the entire time.
And Oliva Wilde is barely in it. Double Fail!
Stay away from this one.
Inglourious Basterds…
I’m undecided on Tarantino. Reservoir Dogs, great. Kill Bill Part 1, also great. Kill Bill Part 2, little boring but still good. Pulp Fiction, good. From Dusk Till Dawn, fun and enjoyable. All those films and so much indecision, it’s almost illogical. His films are always stylized with his signature conversations, but for all his hype he never feels ground breaking to me. Maybe a little bit retro in that he pays homage to whatever genre he is making, or maybe too much retro since I’m sure many of his references go right over people’s heads. Too self indulgent at times? Or cocky enough to say “Fuck the audience; I’m doing what I want here.”
And that brings us to Inglourious Basterds, Tarantino’s war action genre flick. Which is a lot deeper than the advertisements would lead you to believe. It’s not just a gratuitous version of the Dirty Dozen; way more depth and less Pitt than one would think. Brad Pitt really shares the bill with Mélanie Laurent who plays a young Jewish woman living a secret life in Nazi occupied France, in comparison to Pitt who plays the leader of a all Jewish gorilla commando team hell bent on scalping Nazis and shoving a big one up Hitler’s ass.
And stick one to Hitler is what this film is about, the Revenge of the Jews. I guess the Weinsteins’ felt that Middle America would want nothing to with Jew on Nazi violence, because the chosen people completely absent from the American advertisements. But whatever, killing Nazis is always pure gold, it’s the main reason why so many first person shooters are WWII based. And Kill Nazis they do. Oh how they do. It’s bloody, over the top, and unapologetic.
Pitt is great as the commando leader and I’m sure that people will be quoting his lines for years to come. But the real star of this film is Laurent. Her story line is the one that I really cared about. You know how it’s going to end up a third of the way through, but it doesn’t matter you still root for her regardless. And how Pitt and Laurent’s story line entwine is a nice little twist considering the genre.
But as good as all the above is, the film has its share of problems. A good number of the scenes seem to go on and on, you fight a constant battle between boredom and engagement. At 153 minutes parts will so engage you that you will think the film is a third that length, while others will make you swear it’s the second reincarnate of Return of the King. Which is a shame because it really pulls you out of the viewing experience.
Inglourious Basterds is vintage Tarantino for better or worse.
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