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Once...film review
Dec. 25th, 2007 10:17 pmGranny has gone home, we've or rather I watched two movies, had our turkey and our pie. My mother was a sweetheart and went out of her way to make gluten-free stuffing, gluten-free bread and cornbread for the stuffing, gluten-free pie crust, gluten-free gravy, and gluten-free waffles for breakfast. Which in some ways was the best gift she could have given me.
The movies we rented were Ocean's Thirteen and Once which received brilliant reviews over the summer and fall, and made a few ten best lists. Not entirely sure I agree.
Ocean's Thirteen even with close captioning (my grandmother and father are heard of hearing) was difficult to follow. Busy movie. I think I was the only one in my family who did follow it. If you like heist movie's it is amongst the best that I've seen. But some of the subplots get lost and a few make no sense - such as the one that deals with Linus (Matt Damon) and his conman father (a character who must have been mentioned in Ocean's Twelve because I don't remember him from the first film). It's not a bad movie, but I don't recommend it for family viewing.
Once - much shorter film, clocks in at 86 minutes, I saw by myself. My father tried to watch it but grew bored and disappeared in the other room to watch The Unit halfway through. Once is a little postcard stamp of a movie. A slice of life. And possibly the most realistic musical I've seen. It is not the sort of musical hard-core Broadway musical fans would love, it is rather a musical for people who may not like musicals very much or find traditional musicals to be rather silly. The characters sing because they are struggling musicians and only in relation to what they are trying to do. No one spontaneously bursts out in song. There are no colorful costums. The songs are soft and airy much like ballads played with accoustic guitare and piano. In some ways it reminds me of what I like to call "let's start a band" musicals aka The Commitments and That Thing You Do! by way of James Joyce and with a lot less melodrama.
Unlike the big musicals showcased in the last few years, such as Rent, Dreamgirls, Chicago, Hairspray and Sweeny Todd - Once focuses on the process of making music, we see the man strumming his guitare, hammering out the basics of the tune, there's no fiery chorus or rousing numbers, no drug use, no sex scenes, no blood, no dream-sequences. The tunes are low-key, the sort you might here a street musician sing on a corner, which makes sense because the lead character is a busker who fixes hoover vacume cleaners in his father's shop.
Watching Once felt a bit like reading one of the short stories in American Best Short Stories of 2005 collection - except this tale was not depressing, but uplifting. Simple. And real. Afterwards, I felt warm and hopeful, like my dreams whatever they might be were possible.
The movies we rented were Ocean's Thirteen and Once which received brilliant reviews over the summer and fall, and made a few ten best lists. Not entirely sure I agree.
Ocean's Thirteen even with close captioning (my grandmother and father are heard of hearing) was difficult to follow. Busy movie. I think I was the only one in my family who did follow it. If you like heist movie's it is amongst the best that I've seen. But some of the subplots get lost and a few make no sense - such as the one that deals with Linus (Matt Damon) and his conman father (a character who must have been mentioned in Ocean's Twelve because I don't remember him from the first film). It's not a bad movie, but I don't recommend it for family viewing.
Once - much shorter film, clocks in at 86 minutes, I saw by myself. My father tried to watch it but grew bored and disappeared in the other room to watch The Unit halfway through. Once is a little postcard stamp of a movie. A slice of life. And possibly the most realistic musical I've seen. It is not the sort of musical hard-core Broadway musical fans would love, it is rather a musical for people who may not like musicals very much or find traditional musicals to be rather silly. The characters sing because they are struggling musicians and only in relation to what they are trying to do. No one spontaneously bursts out in song. There are no colorful costums. The songs are soft and airy much like ballads played with accoustic guitare and piano. In some ways it reminds me of what I like to call "let's start a band" musicals aka The Commitments and That Thing You Do! by way of James Joyce and with a lot less melodrama.
Unlike the big musicals showcased in the last few years, such as Rent, Dreamgirls, Chicago, Hairspray and Sweeny Todd - Once focuses on the process of making music, we see the man strumming his guitare, hammering out the basics of the tune, there's no fiery chorus or rousing numbers, no drug use, no sex scenes, no blood, no dream-sequences. The tunes are low-key, the sort you might here a street musician sing on a corner, which makes sense because the lead character is a busker who fixes hoover vacume cleaners in his father's shop.
Watching Once felt a bit like reading one of the short stories in American Best Short Stories of 2005 collection - except this tale was not depressing, but uplifting. Simple. And real. Afterwards, I felt warm and hopeful, like my dreams whatever they might be were possible.
