Mamet's Spartan

[iflitifloat]

Posted: 3/14/04 at 2:57pm

Well, it was my turn to pick the movie, and I picked Spartan, in no small part because I like Val Kilmer. I thought that would be enough to compensate for the predictable unlikeability of Mamet characters and the depressing, paranoid plot structure I've come to expect. When will I learn?

It is a very lean film. The dialogue is sparse and very punctuated. We never get much of a glimpse into what motivates the characters, or god forbid, what they feel. (Definitely not a chick flick.) The cinematography is very sylized, favoring palettes of hyper blues and greens, and light and shadows are used, visually, in very interesting ways. And in a movie where violence is expected, it comes at you at unexpected moments.

I should probably avoid Mamet, not because he is inherently bad, but because I should know by now that I just don't respond to him well. Hell, a Mamet double feature could tip me over the edge on a bad day.

For what its worth, my husband liked it as much as I didn't.

[Unknown User]

Posted: 3/14/04 at 3:07pm

I was at a friend's apartment last night and we wound up picking Before Sunrise on Showtime OnDemand (it was either that or Crossroads). We fast forwarded through most of it, gave it a Mystery Science Theatre 3000 treatment and ogled Ethan Hawke (well, he ogled Ethan, I ogled the Viennese scenery.... Hell, who am I kidding, I ogled Ethan, too....).

Basically, the premise is Ethan plays the same character he plays in every movie, meets Julie Delpy on a Eurorail, invites her to spend 14 hours in Vienna with him and they talk. A lot. A lot meaning My Dinner With Andre looked like an action flick.

It was like a really poorly made version of Lost in Translation (which I enjoyed).

But then we watched Ellen's interpretive dance and the last two chapters of Angels in America and felt a lot better about how we spent our Saturday night.