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Beauty & Horror
Aug. 25th, 2008 10:53 amBound for Glory, dir. Hal Ashby, 1976
I'm slowly making my way through Hal Ashby's filmography, shaking my head and wondering what could have been if this genius had lived a little longer. This film is based on the protest singer Woody Guthrie's autobiography. It shows his life in middle America before he was known, his struggle to reach California, his early musical career, his support of the workers and the unions (a commie bastard in many people's eyes.) Some scenes of migrant workers arriving in California, and the treatment they received, are very reminiscent of the arrival of jews at concentration camps. Scenes of Woody playing music with his friends, of young women strumming their guitars in the migrant worker camps, catch the viewer by surprise with their simple beauty. Ashby told stories that he cared about, about people who were unique and otherworldly. Although this film lacks a strong plotline, it's never boring; and some scenes, especially the ones involving music, are gorgeous.
Hard Candy, dir. David Slade, 2005
Torture porn leaves me cold. This film could have been so much more - an updated "Fatal Attraction" or "Misery" - but it feels more often like a play adapted to the screen with a badly-disguised agenda to polarise the viewer. There's a pivotal scene that will have all male viewers squirming in their seats - everything else is padding and chatting about events that happened off screen. The actors do a somewhat good job (it's nice to see Ellen Page in her pre-anorexic stage) but the plot twists are not always unsurprising or exciting. I found it more interesting that the pedophile met the 14-year-old girl in a coffee shop where the male barrista didn't even blink an eye at them. This element of male collusion could have been explored further, for added controversy.
I'm slowly making my way through Hal Ashby's filmography, shaking my head and wondering what could have been if this genius had lived a little longer. This film is based on the protest singer Woody Guthrie's autobiography. It shows his life in middle America before he was known, his struggle to reach California, his early musical career, his support of the workers and the unions (a commie bastard in many people's eyes.) Some scenes of migrant workers arriving in California, and the treatment they received, are very reminiscent of the arrival of jews at concentration camps. Scenes of Woody playing music with his friends, of young women strumming their guitars in the migrant worker camps, catch the viewer by surprise with their simple beauty. Ashby told stories that he cared about, about people who were unique and otherworldly. Although this film lacks a strong plotline, it's never boring; and some scenes, especially the ones involving music, are gorgeous.
Hard Candy, dir. David Slade, 2005
Torture porn leaves me cold. This film could have been so much more - an updated "Fatal Attraction" or "Misery" - but it feels more often like a play adapted to the screen with a badly-disguised agenda to polarise the viewer. There's a pivotal scene that will have all male viewers squirming in their seats - everything else is padding and chatting about events that happened off screen. The actors do a somewhat good job (it's nice to see Ellen Page in her pre-anorexic stage) but the plot twists are not always unsurprising or exciting. I found it more interesting that the pedophile met the 14-year-old girl in a coffee shop where the male barrista didn't even blink an eye at them. This element of male collusion could have been explored further, for added controversy.
