Shutter Island
Today my advisor told me that he had a black grandfather, a blonde Hispanic grandmother, another blonde Hispanic grandmother and a Indian grandfather. In combination, he has black hair and, frankly, looks like your average Spanish/Italian friend. Very impressive.
Leonardo DiCaprio seems to be some weird combination like that too, and, surprisingly enough, I think he turned out well considering the high amount of Germanness in him, harr harr. However, in “Shutter Island”, he is mostly average. Perhaps this could summarize the film itself: Mostly average. You’d expect better from Scorsese indeed, and no amazingly nice looking Scorsese screenshots can leverage the comparably poor storywriting. Make no mistake, I enjoyed the film immensely and found it super suspenseful, but sometimes I wonder if it isn’t just me who happens to be the kind of movie-goer to feels suspense very quickly when watching a thriller like this.
Speaking of suspense, I have gotten into TV shows lately. I am slowly allowing myself to watch a small selection of them, and boy they are addicting, namely “Burn Notice” and “Better Off Ted”. (See the little page dedicated to them.) To be honest, they question my love for the “higher art”, i.e. cinema because whenever I have to ask myself what I would like to watch, lately it is the TV show. Feature films are just too long, too dragging and require too much energy to watch. Plus I feel compelled to blog them. This is a dire crisis here!
Ultimately, I still can’t believe the end, the “revelation” which, for a change, was so cliché that I was able to easily predict it. I think I can’t forgive them for that. Apart from that though, the development of the story is quite a feast. And the actors to boot! Emily Mortimer, Patricia Clarkson, Max von Sydow (!)… I was highly impressed. Scorsese indeed.
i really want to start battlestar galactica!!!
personally, as far as 21st century film is concerned, tv-shows (basically 100% US ones) should no longer be considered “artistically inferior” to feature films. like, ANY episode of Mad Men (let’s say from season 2, which i personally consider the greatest so far) is likely to be more sophisticated in any single aspect, than your typical Sundance-Film, nowadays (i’m talking about american film vs. american TV). and then there are even greater works like The Wire, The Sopranos and Deadwood, which put most western features utterly to shame (i’m excluding recent Asian cinema, which is like the only “artistic beacon” in current cinema worth talking about anyways LOL).
i basically agree with you on anything regarding Shutter Island, btw xD (ugh, but who cares about this anyways, after The Social Network?!).
“Battlestar Galactica” is totally not sophisticated or artsy! Hahaha. It was kind of melodramatic too, at times, like “Six Feet Under”. But it was still great! If you are interested in seeing some modern science fiction series, B* is definitely the way to go.
Ohhh yeah, “The Social Network” is a great example of a good 2010’s film, hahaha. I usually don’t like whatever is showing up on Sundance, and I think that the best writers and cinematographers are indeed working for TV series nowadays (steady income with large company etc.)
Also, I totally agree on your assessment about Asian films! In this century they really are the best.
Well, my goal is to slowly find a good balance between features and series. :)