Recent Media Consumption — February and March

29Mar2008 [weekly]

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February and March saw a whole lot of media consumed; first the movies:

• watched Cloverfield; loved it; reminded me of my final uni project, Phi, so I knew exactly what I was getting into — 90 minutes of faux-handheld footage and very little context, but that conceit worked really well and I went along for the ride; loved that the ending was so abrupt — most of the cinema had the exact same reaction (confusion, mostly) to the end that they did to Phi when I screened it at uni
• watched Atonement; it took me a good half an hour to get used to the ridiculously overwrought storytelling, at which point it became obvious that the little sister was the storyteller, so it was her voice coming through (an annoying Austen-wannabe voice) — but once I had that away it was okay to watch, and Keira Knightley and James McAvoy are both easy to watch
• watched Jumper; mindless entertainment, and set up for a sequel something shocking — the movie just ended without any denouement — but it was entertaining, so not disappointed
• watched Rendition; despite the American focus (to the detriment of the other characters) a really good story — and a fable even
• watched Chrysalis at the French Film Festival; kept waiting for it to turn cyberpunk, so was disappointed when it became a very basic detective story, but it looked beautiful — desaturated and softened colours, all concrete, steel and glass
• watched Juno; one of those quirky heart-of-gold stories that has a lot of charm, but I couldn't help wonder at how easy it made teen pregnancy — it wasn't even black when dealing with the difficult parts (except the initial decision not to have an abortion), it just glossed right over them
• watched We Own The Night; slightly disappointing, in that I was hoping for so much more than a cop thriller — there's a set-up in the trailer, and early in the film, where Joaquin Phoenix's character says "wait until I take over Manhattan", but I kept waiting and it never happened; he and Wahlberg give really good performances though, and at its core there's a well-told story about family
• watched Vantage Point; an unusual telling, repeating the same 20 minute period from different points of view — I thought they pulled it off but there were groans in the cinema by the third time the screen went black and rewound; the strength of the thriller was in the telling though — the story itself was very predictable
• watched Sleuth; Michael Caine and Jude Law are both great actors, and they give very intriguing performances for a movie that features no other actors, but there was something missing most of the way through; whenever the film noticed it was lagging it would focus on the scenery (a beautifully designed house full of unnecessary automation), but that distracted from the story rather than supporting it
• watched Michael Clayton; well acted, beautifully shot, a score that supports the telling, and a well told story all round

I've also been getting into television — I don't have a TV at home, so it's all on DVD or from the internet — and I'm completely sold on watching batches at a time, I can't wait a week between episodes; it started with Rome last year, when I realised that well-written TV actually had something going for it — you can explore a lot more over the course of a season than you can in a movie, and the episodic storytelling has a certain art to it.

• watched Battlestar Galactica (the remakes); the mini-series, Seasons 1-3, and Razor; I initially started with Season 1 and loved that I was thrown into the middle of the action without any explanation, but realised a couple of episodes in that I needed to watch the mini-series first for the setup; I love that it tells the stories of the people (be they man or machine) involved in this journey, and that it's all about the society (and with it, politics, religion, war) — the sci-fi is just context
• watching Jericho, on the recommendation of John Rogers; I'm halfway through Season 1 and sold on the telling, but as Rogers points out in a follow-up post, it's a little slow as it finds its way through Season 1 — I certainly couldn't have managed this one on TV
• watching Underbelly; currently up to episode 8 of 13; enjoying it, and it's good to see Australian TV taking some risks; it's very good for Australian TV, but a little flat all told — the lead actors are good but near everyone else is hopeless, and the editing and music are disappointing at times; but where the production is a little wanting, the storytelling is very good
• watching Arrested Development; have just started in on Season 2; I only caught half of Season 1 when this was on TV, but I enjoyed it, and it doesn't disappoint — love the humour

And finally, picked up some new music recently, so I'm listening to and loving all of:

• Feist's Reminder
• Faithless' To All New Arrivals
• Death In Vegas' Scorpio Rising
• Beirut's Gulag Orkestar
• Charlotte Gainsbourg's 555; this one's a little weird with lots of pieces spoken rather than sung, and half in broken English and only whispered; it reminds me of her character in Science of Sleep, but sometimes that's a good thing

On the reading front, I keep picking up extra books (have just started Iain M Banks' Matter), but have only managed to actually finish The Life of Pi; it's my fault, not theirs, that I haven't completed any books in a while.