This was a good weekend for me in terms of movies...a few movies were ones that I've been trying to see for weeks but just haven't really gotten around to. However, one was a movie that I just happened to stumble on at my friends house. All of them were pretty good, and they are as follows: The Darjeeling Limited, Gone Baby Gone, Boogie Nights, and Paprika.
As a huge Wes Anderson fan, I've been wanting to see The Darjeeling Limited since the day it got into theaters. However, I was a little bit disappointed with the film as a whole. It was obviously a Wes Anderson film, and he didn't really try anything new, and the actual narrative just wasn't nearly as compelling as any of his previous films. The performances are all great, and Adrien Brody adapts very well to Wes Anderson's childish, imaginary world. Because that's the way Anderson seems to view things...however, while this was absolutely perfect for all his other films, it would have been nice to see some more maturity in this one. His approach to the story just seems a little bit snobby. Over all, though, I loved the movie, just because he's still the man.
Gone Baby Gone seemed to draw too many parallels to Mystic River. While I understand the books were by the same author, it just wasn't quite as powerful of a story. There's not much I can say about this movie that hasn't already been said before. All of the cast is top-notch, and Ben Affleck is extremely comfortable at the helm. Some of visuals are shockingly beautiful, as well as the many plot twists and revelations. Outstanding movie, but not quite amazing.
Boogie Nights was amazing. P.T. Anderson made an extremely compelling and sensitive story from the depths of the porn industry, and every bit of it is just awesome. I honestly think he's going to be the next Altman, and I think that he's going to surpass him in greatness (a lofty prediction, I know). This film was actually a lot better than the sort of overblown Magnolia, which was still amazing. Considering this was only his second major film and he was only in his twenties while he was making it is mindblowing.
Paprika was really weird...me and my friends got it on demand because we had read good reviews for it. Now, it was extremely interesting, and extremely...uhm...strange, but I don't understand why it had to be anime. I think that it would have been so much better if they had just taken a chance and made it live action, because the idea of dreams being monitered is a very compelling concept.
That was my weekend in movies. It was pretty sweet...