Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Day 7 Grades




The Hurt Locker (Kathryn Bigelow, 2008) 61
A Year Ago in Winter (Caroline Link, 2008) 55
Slumdog Millionaire (Danny Boyle, 2008) 38
The Beaches of Agnes (Agnes Varda, 2008) 52
Liverpool (Lisandro Alonso, 2008) 51
Martyrs (Pascal Laugier, 2008) 80

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Anxious to read your thoughts on Slumdog Millionaire. I think you and I are the only ones not to love it.

Jeremy Heilman said...

I loved Sunshine and Trainspotting, so I'm not immune to Boyle, but this thing panders endlessly, is pretty poorly made (that DV aesthetic does it no favors), and is really kind of stupid at the fundamental level of its premise (the love-conquer-all aspect also conquers all suspense). I'm guessing it's just the children-in-peril factor that has so many people swooning. Either that, or it's the fact that it throws so much narrative incident at you that people don't bother to think much about it.

Anonymous said...

I let out a "yes!" when I saw your rating for Martyrs. I can't wait to see it, but I'm not exactly surprised Sicinski ended up giving it a 2. I hope to read some thoughts since there aren't many online that don't contain spoilers.

Adam said...

Derail Slumdog Millionaire. I don't want to hold you responsible for Juno 2 for another lifetime.

Jeremy Heilman said...

Martyrs is a tough one to rate... I could have easily have gone 10 points higher or 20 points lower. It's definitely not something to dismiss, though. It does some crazy things with viewer identification, though you're right to avoid spoilers. Going in blind is pretty necessary here.

Jeremy Heilman said...

Not to compare apples & oranges, homeskillet, but SM isn't as noxious as Juno was. It's more inept and certainly less well-acted, though. I have a tough time imagining it connecting in America, but Britain will probably eat it up.