The Savages vs. Margot at the Wedding
I have got to get to this stuff earlier. It's 9:36 p.m. and my brain just doesn't function creatively at this hour. I almost completely skipped writing today. Jon and I put on a movie, Darjeeling Limited, which is quite uninteresting, but I was so unmotivated I decided to keep watching it. I was going to come up with some justification for not writing today, and just write extra tomorrow. But then Jon fell asleep...he's snoring quite contentedly on the bed next to me at the moment....so I rallied, retrieved the laptop from the kitchen, and now here I am, ensconced in bed, the movie on pause, as I tap away at this keyboard, writing nothing of particular interest but nonetheless, writing.
I originally intended to give my little commentary on two movies I watched this week. Roger Ebert I am not, but I do have an opinion. The first movie was The Savages, starring the always appealing Laura Linney and the incomparable Philip Seymour Hoffman. It's about a dysfunctional family, a brother and sister, both writers, who have to put their estranged father in a nursing home because he's suffering from dementia. Not a happy scenario, but somehow those two make the story entertaining, funny, poignant, sad and redeeming all at once. As a viewer, you actually care about these people, even though they can't get their shit together, being damaged from childhood and all. Laura Linney was nominated for an oscar for this role and I hope she wins one some day. She deserves it. And Philip Seymour Hoffman is a phenomenon, in everything. Take my advice and rent every movie he's ever appeared in. You will not be disappointed.
The second movie was also about a dysfunctional family but what can I say. It sucked. The movie was Margot at the Wedding, written and directed by Noah Baumbach. I was intrigued, because Baumbach also wrote The Squid and the Whale (another dysfuntional family! They make the best stories, if done well), which I liked, also starring Laura Linney. Margot also starred Jennifer Jason Leigh, one of my all-time favorites, an actress who should be much more famous and rich than she already is. Oh my god, did you see her in Single White Female? She is simply oozing with talent, even if her choice roles are usually deeply disturbed women. The red flag for me should have been the fact that Nicole Kidman also stars. She won an oscar once, for the Hours (didn't deserve it, in my humble opinion), was also nominated for her role in Moulin Rouge, possibly one of the worst movies ever made. She's been in other really horrible movies, like the Stepford Wives remake and Eyes Wide Shut. The woman can't act. She annoys me. I hoped in Margot that Jennifer Jason Leigh's appeal would outweigh Nicole Kidman's lack thereof. But unfortunately for me, nothing could have saved this movie from being bad, depressing, ridiculous. Jack Black was horribly out of place as the loser boyfriend. He should stick to the School of Rock genre, in which he excels.
I know, no one's interested in my opinion. But if you're ever at Blockbuster and by some bizarre circumstance you have to choose between The Savages and Margot at the Wedding, you know which one gets my vote.
I originally intended to give my little commentary on two movies I watched this week. Roger Ebert I am not, but I do have an opinion. The first movie was The Savages, starring the always appealing Laura Linney and the incomparable Philip Seymour Hoffman. It's about a dysfunctional family, a brother and sister, both writers, who have to put their estranged father in a nursing home because he's suffering from dementia. Not a happy scenario, but somehow those two make the story entertaining, funny, poignant, sad and redeeming all at once. As a viewer, you actually care about these people, even though they can't get their shit together, being damaged from childhood and all. Laura Linney was nominated for an oscar for this role and I hope she wins one some day. She deserves it. And Philip Seymour Hoffman is a phenomenon, in everything. Take my advice and rent every movie he's ever appeared in. You will not be disappointed.
The second movie was also about a dysfunctional family but what can I say. It sucked. The movie was Margot at the Wedding, written and directed by Noah Baumbach. I was intrigued, because Baumbach also wrote The Squid and the Whale (another dysfuntional family! They make the best stories, if done well), which I liked, also starring Laura Linney. Margot also starred Jennifer Jason Leigh, one of my all-time favorites, an actress who should be much more famous and rich than she already is. Oh my god, did you see her in Single White Female? She is simply oozing with talent, even if her choice roles are usually deeply disturbed women. The red flag for me should have been the fact that Nicole Kidman also stars. She won an oscar once, for the Hours (didn't deserve it, in my humble opinion), was also nominated for her role in Moulin Rouge, possibly one of the worst movies ever made. She's been in other really horrible movies, like the Stepford Wives remake and Eyes Wide Shut. The woman can't act. She annoys me. I hoped in Margot that Jennifer Jason Leigh's appeal would outweigh Nicole Kidman's lack thereof. But unfortunately for me, nothing could have saved this movie from being bad, depressing, ridiculous. Jack Black was horribly out of place as the loser boyfriend. He should stick to the School of Rock genre, in which he excels.
I know, no one's interested in my opinion. But if you're ever at Blockbuster and by some bizarre circumstance you have to choose between The Savages and Margot at the Wedding, you know which one gets my vote.
posted by calabresewoman | 6:36 PM
1 Comments:
Thanks but I enjoyed Margot At The Wedding very much. The best thing in it was Nicole Kidman who pretty much dominated every scene she was in. I like Leigh in this one, this was the first movie where she wasn't jittery or delivered her dialogue monotonously. This is the best dysfunctional movie for some time.
Saw the Savages, too. Pointless.
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