Therefore with the same necessity with which the stone falls to the earth, the hungry wolf buries its fangs in the flash of its prey without the possibility of the knowledge that it itself is the destroyed as well as the destroyer. -Schopenhauer.
The problem with being born is that we have the need to constantly proove ourselfs to one another, there is an indelible need for confirmation. If we lose contact, we dissapear--- if we write something that no one has read it doesn't exist, just like the unwitnessed crime.
If we doubt the need for confirmation, we at heart feel it allready established.
I was cruising the free publications section at the local convenient store and I realised that in a dogmatic sense, every action should be rote, everything we do should be pre-planned, every action should be described by a diagram, a chart, something that takes the whaler to the whale.
It was dark outside, and I had forgotten the time.
What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why,
I have forgotten, and what arms have lain
Under my head till morning; but the rain
Is full of ghosts tonight, that tap and sigh
Upon the glass and listen for reply;
And in my heart there stirs a quiet pain
For unremembered lads that not again
Will turn to me at midnight with a cry.
Thus in the winter stands a lonely tree,
Nor knows what birds have vanished one by one,
Yet know its boughs more silent than before:
I cannot say what loves have come and gone;
I only know that summer sang in me
A little while, that in me sings no more.
--Edna St. Vincent Millay
~~~~
If we say something in a crowd or mob, and no one hears it, we have never said it.
~~~~
my review of Thirteen (look at me, all mr fancy movie reviewer... piffle!):
(i wrote this for imdb, so pls don't think im putting it here to make me look smart, im dumb like caveman.)
How do you critique a movie that is based on real life events? In the case of Thirteen real life is not stranger than fiction. After much hype I wasn't sure what to expect from the movie that touted gritty out of control teens in reckless abandon. What you get is closer to a MTV/after school special where all the characters are one dimensional cliches.
Where thirteen really missteps is in it's notion that young people, teenagers, children, could be considered to be inherently "bad". The idea of a seductive path towards bad behaviour is incredibly trite. What we're really seeing is closer to the idea of an educational film by the unreliable narrator than a true perspective of teen aged life. The more damaging fact is that our narrator is Nikki Reed, the 'bad girl' in the film. It's not difficult to imagine someone inflating their own life story for the glory of celluloid.
The film poster shows us two girls with protruding pierced tongues, as if this was supposed to be shocking or wild in any particular way. The audience can not help but be stranded with no real knowledge of what is truly destructive behaviour and what is typical of any youth culture.
What propels us in life towards our destination is rarely so simple as a desire to belong, at any cost. You can lead the horse, but you get the idea. The only palatable narrative for the entire film is that both characters Tracy and Evie are destroyed as well as the destroyers.
Movies like Ken Park, banned in 7 countries by veteran teenage interloper Larry Clark gives us characters loosely connected by a thin plot, yet still evoking the image that Thirteen desperately tries to display. The difference here is that Clark/Korine never try to polish or preen the actors. They seem as if they were everyman teens despite a strained plot line. The characters in Thirteen seem very specifically casted to the point of disbelief. Anyone 35 and under will instantly recognize the characters, specifically the boys, as threadbare comparisons to what anyone might consider a threat.
If you view Ang Lee's excellent adaptation of Rick Moody's The Ice Storm, and very specifically the novel itself, we are compelled to have some sort of affinity to the characters because they seem to us less like stereotypes and more like people we may actually know in life.
Thirteen will probably be a big hit with a demographic aged in accordance with the title, as it certainly has been with adult neophytes who suspect the hidden darkness running like a current through our very suburbs. Thats the point of a good majority of films by directors like David Lynch, Larry Clark, Korine, Von Trier, showing us things in a way that we don't want to see them, too raw, too visceral, too naked, but isn't that the point?
In closing, the only two scenes that worked for me were the opening scene, where two girls huff Freon and smack each other until they bleed, and a later cutting scene. It's telling to note that each scene contains blood. The reason they work is because we know the characters are real, they can bleed, they can die.
The problem with being born is that we have the need to constantly proove ourselfs to one another, there is an indelible need for confirmation. If we lose contact, we dissapear--- if we write something that no one has read it doesn't exist, just like the unwitnessed crime.
If we doubt the need for confirmation, we at heart feel it allready established.
I was cruising the free publications section at the local convenient store and I realised that in a dogmatic sense, every action should be rote, everything we do should be pre-planned, every action should be described by a diagram, a chart, something that takes the whaler to the whale.
It was dark outside, and I had forgotten the time.
What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why,
I have forgotten, and what arms have lain
Under my head till morning; but the rain
Is full of ghosts tonight, that tap and sigh
Upon the glass and listen for reply;
And in my heart there stirs a quiet pain
For unremembered lads that not again
Will turn to me at midnight with a cry.
Thus in the winter stands a lonely tree,
Nor knows what birds have vanished one by one,
Yet know its boughs more silent than before:
I cannot say what loves have come and gone;
I only know that summer sang in me
A little while, that in me sings no more.
--Edna St. Vincent Millay
~~~~
If we say something in a crowd or mob, and no one hears it, we have never said it.
~~~~
my review of Thirteen (look at me, all mr fancy movie reviewer... piffle!):
(i wrote this for imdb, so pls don't think im putting it here to make me look smart, im dumb like caveman.)
How do you critique a movie that is based on real life events? In the case of Thirteen real life is not stranger than fiction. After much hype I wasn't sure what to expect from the movie that touted gritty out of control teens in reckless abandon. What you get is closer to a MTV/after school special where all the characters are one dimensional cliches.
Where thirteen really missteps is in it's notion that young people, teenagers, children, could be considered to be inherently "bad". The idea of a seductive path towards bad behaviour is incredibly trite. What we're really seeing is closer to the idea of an educational film by the unreliable narrator than a true perspective of teen aged life. The more damaging fact is that our narrator is Nikki Reed, the 'bad girl' in the film. It's not difficult to imagine someone inflating their own life story for the glory of celluloid.
The film poster shows us two girls with protruding pierced tongues, as if this was supposed to be shocking or wild in any particular way. The audience can not help but be stranded with no real knowledge of what is truly destructive behaviour and what is typical of any youth culture.
What propels us in life towards our destination is rarely so simple as a desire to belong, at any cost. You can lead the horse, but you get the idea. The only palatable narrative for the entire film is that both characters Tracy and Evie are destroyed as well as the destroyers.
Movies like Ken Park, banned in 7 countries by veteran teenage interloper Larry Clark gives us characters loosely connected by a thin plot, yet still evoking the image that Thirteen desperately tries to display. The difference here is that Clark/Korine never try to polish or preen the actors. They seem as if they were everyman teens despite a strained plot line. The characters in Thirteen seem very specifically casted to the point of disbelief. Anyone 35 and under will instantly recognize the characters, specifically the boys, as threadbare comparisons to what anyone might consider a threat.
If you view Ang Lee's excellent adaptation of Rick Moody's The Ice Storm, and very specifically the novel itself, we are compelled to have some sort of affinity to the characters because they seem to us less like stereotypes and more like people we may actually know in life.
Thirteen will probably be a big hit with a demographic aged in accordance with the title, as it certainly has been with adult neophytes who suspect the hidden darkness running like a current through our very suburbs. Thats the point of a good majority of films by directors like David Lynch, Larry Clark, Korine, Von Trier, showing us things in a way that we don't want to see them, too raw, too visceral, too naked, but isn't that the point?
In closing, the only two scenes that worked for me were the opening scene, where two girls huff Freon and smack each other until they bleed, and a later cutting scene. It's telling to note that each scene contains blood. The reason they work is because we know the characters are real, they can bleed, they can die.
VIEW 6 of 6 COMMENTS
the wife
i think holly hunter will win an oscar for thirteen, but only because the academy loves her.