Founder Rory Dean & Blogger @ Large Melissa K. Dean
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Tag Archives: rodrigo garcia
Babel (2006)
If Babel is a story about communication and the distance between people, cultures and behavior it should have worked harder at conveying this than suggesting audiences do the work instead. Foreign films often force us to make choices that we are not used to or familiar with and this can be rewarding in and of itself. Babel blurs this line but instead of expanding on the idea with an effort to challenge domestic and international sensibilities, it loses momentum with the result more akin to mixing water and oil – one wins out for a little while before the other returns to start the whole process over again. Continue reading
Nine Lives (2005) Too Many
There are nice moments in Nine Lives, vignettes of what may very well be the only thing interesting in the lives of these characters. We might be better for not knowing where they came from or where they are going, better for a quick sketch that does not belie the character’s brash decisions and headstrong outbursts. Where the film finally comes to rest is of little consequence any more than how we got here in the first place. Garcia wants us to see what we are given, to think about it, ponder how our own lives may or may not be similar but what he relies on, our appreciation for a second at a time with these characters is the very thing that keeps us at a distance and effectively prevents us from caring enough. Continue reading
Passengers
Perhaps the most troubling of all is the realization that the actors put their trust in Garcia and the production only to realize too little too late, that no one was flying the plane and slamming into a craggy beach is not only inevitable but in some way a welcome end to an otherwise unrequited existence. Continue reading
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