What on earth are you talking about?
Adam Kotsko | 11.07.06 - 2:21 pm | #

Adam .... he is talking about the absoutely awesome director of "24 Grams" and "Amores Perros" -- and, "Babel", which I've not yet seen.
Brad | 11.07.06 - 3:48 pm | #

You know, I didn't have to be a dick about it -- certainly that name is easy enough to Google.
Adam Kotsko | 11.07.06 - 3:54 pm | #

We've all just grown accustomed to your abuse.
Brad | 11.07.06 - 3:57 pm | #

His segment in 11'09'01 is very troubling.
Charles R | Homepage | 11.08.06 - 12:38 am | #

Charles, say more. Is that a book he's written a piece for?

The Babel movie ... don't want to give anything away, but it is as good as the best movies of Kubrick and Orson Welles. It tells story after story and stories within stories by way of a magical use of the camera in a league with Citizen Kane and offers up as potent a political critique as Dr. Stranglove. Though in a much different way - one that needs only lift the name Babel from Genesis 1-11 to show that Gonzalez Inaritu understands the great theme of ultimate imperial futility that unites Creation to Revelation).

Nearly every single frame is a brilliant, swirling mural of startling narratival potency and especially the first several frames in every scene that unveil the full tragic potential of what follows. Every time Gonzalez Inaritu then pulls back, allows the scene to slowly unfold in steadily more wrenching manner until just at the audiences emotional breaking point, he shifts to another story line, denying the possibility of a meltdown, a cathartic chance to weep or to walk out of the theatre with an indignant 'fuck you. you emotionally manipulative bastard.'
old | 11.08.06 - 5:56 am | #

Charles, was that the one w/ the mostly blank screen accompanied by the sounds of 9/11 -- and the occasional glimpse of people falling/jumping from the towers?
Brad | 11.08.06 - 10:37 am | #

Yes, it was the movie, also put out as September 11. I watched it on video, so I didn't realize this was supposed to be in a darkened theater, but, yeah, it's a blank screen with sounds from the tapes of the airplanes, people at the scene, and also recordings of prayers. There's also this repeated thumping sound, which you eventually figure out is the sound of bodies hitting the floor. There are very brief glimpses of those people falling and jumping, and then it's right back to the black screen, finally ending with the screen going to full white with a line in Arabic, also in English, "Does God's light guide us or blind us?" [[Sorry if this spoils it for you...]]

Iñárritu is very manipulative, yes. I'm a pussy, sure, but I can't watch that segment, fully knowing what is going on, and not be brought to tears by the end. Hell, the whole movie as a compilation is bothersome.
Charles Rozier | Homepage | 11.08.06 - 2:37 pm | #

Mmm. I love me a good n-yay.

I also love Amores Perros (and the soundtrack). Perhaps I make Babel one of my quarterly films.
The Girl | 11.08.06 - 5:57 pm | #

This guy who works with my wife always calls them "neenyas" and then we snigger and he doesn't know why.
Matthew | 11.10.06 - 8:31 am | #