Well for my final blog I’m going to re-do my first post. I had a lot of fun writing it and it seemed to be getting a decent amount of hits but I hated the title I gave it. Anyay, it deals with with my favorite character of all time:
Jeffrey “The Dude” Lebowski
The Dude is a middle aged pacifist living in California. He has an interesting background, having worked as a roadie for Metallica on the fictional “Speed of Sound” tour. He was also a member of the “Seattle Seven” Im not exaclty sure what these guys did, but it sounds pretty cool. Throughout the film the Dude is compared to a tumble weed. I think this is pretty appropriate. He just kind of floats around in life, going wherever the wind takes him. He constantly drinks white Russians and smokes weed. The Dude is often credited for the popularity of the white Russian. Before the Big Lebowski, the white Russian was considered a woman’s drink. Thankfully he opened our eyes to this amazing drink and allowed us to drink it without pursicution
When the movie takes place, he is unemployed and isn’t really doing anything with himself besides playing in a bowling league with his two best friends Walter and Donny. The Dude is completly content with his simple life.
The thing that makes the Dude so awesome in my mind is his motivations. He’s a very simple guy with simple needs. Most of the hilarity in the film ensues when he gets caught in the flow of other peoples problems.
Near the beginning of the film, a thuggish, misinformed henchman pisses on the Dudes rug. This pisses him off because he felt his rug really tied his room together. The rug persists to be a large motivator of The Dude’s throughout the movie. He gets caught up in a confusing web of deceit and lies, but takes it rather stoically and laid back.
One thing you’ll notice in the film if you really pay attention, is that the Dude constantly repeats dialogue that he hears. For example, he hears Richard Nixion says something like “these atrocities will not stand” on a T.V in the supermarket where the Dude is hopping. Then we’ll hear him say this line later on in the film. I find this realy funny becuse I just picture the Dude in his head being like “Hmm that sounded pretty sweet, I gotta remember to use that sometime”
The Dudes ability to take things in stride is another of my favorite characteristics of his. He gets shit on throughout the entire movie(metaphorically of course…) His rug gets pissed on, he gets beat up, threatened to have his Johnson cut off, drugged, arrested, knocked out…
All the Dude wanted was his rug back
Also check out the 10th anniversary addtion which was released September 9th. Its got a bunch of special features and shit
I had the pleasure of watching this movie on the big screen, something that i actually rarely do anymore given the generally lowsy and unexciting movie selections available today at mass media cinema (another argument altogether). I was blown away… this movie was for me, hands down the best new release of the year… no questions. Seeing as how i have yet to post about this movie, ill do it today.
For those who have yet to see it, I provide a trailer or two:
First off ill say that this is the best Batman movie in existence, and this doesn’t mean that I don’t love the others (predominantly the the first “Batman” and second “Batman Returns“). Im old enough to have watched these movies when they were first presented to the eagerly awaiting public. This isnt a trash talk by any means.
On the other hand, we have The Dark Knight. Not often is it that a movie of this length can be thoroughly enjoyed from beginning to end… in fact i was amazed to discover that i had just spent 152 mins in the theater without feeling tired or uncomfortable.
Health Ledger’s performance of the Joker was god-like. Hauntingly convincing. And multi-leveled! The second time I watched this movie, my attention was drawn to the subtle and thoughtful ways that Ledger conducted this outstanding preformance… simply amazing.
Gotham City’s aesthetics were bang on, reminding me specifically of older Batman comics called “Batman Gothic” that i used to read when i was young… this element really satisfied my craving for fantasy modern Gotham City. Bleak, violent, corrupt, fantastical, dangerous…..Look at this review by Rotten Tomatoes. 94%.
The introduction of the notorious good guy gone bad “Two Face” aka Harvey Dent was also done quite well. I especially believe that the emotional content of Dent was protrayed quite well within this movie, considering Dent’s eventual decline into madness, frusteration and insanity. Determined to leave fate up to chance, Dent is transformed into Two Face in a brilliant way.
Same goes for Bale’s depiction of Batman, dispite the generally disliked voice of Batman, which sounds more like a grizzly bear than a superhero. I checked it out and most of the excessive voice was done post- Bale, becuase the producers made a desision to ‘digitally enhance’ Batmans voice while wearing the costume. Its an easily overlooked flaw in the ocean of awesomeness that is this movie.
Batman in IMAX theaters? Yes. It was shot on an IMAX movie camera. Amazing… i really should have driven 2 hours to the nearest IMAX theater.. it would have easily been worth it.
Some sources are suggesting that “The Dark Knight” made a total of 996.1 million dollars worldwide.
Posted in Uncategorized on December 2, 2008 by atnas
When I think of Christmas, I usually have a feeling of nausea and lightness in the pocket region. Over the last few years I have been very jaded at the idea of Christmas and the mass commercialization of it all, and really it has always made me feel that the world really was going to hell in a hand-basket (a really nice hand-basket, with a lovely bow and cinnamon sprinkles and mistletoe, but a hand-basket none the less).
But this year I have stopped myself from falling into the same trap of years gone-by, which is to write-off the holiday before it even starts. As stated, since the time of full maturity (when I no longer received the massive amount of gifts that surround Christmas, and found myself going broke on the other end of the giving/recieving spectrum), I have distanced myself from ALL aspects of Christmas, good or bad, but I think now, more than ever, I need to get lost in the fantasy of it all.
As people are dieing at the hands of terrorists, the economy is going to shit, and greed is a rampant as always, I really need to remember what it was like to be that kid around Christmas time. The way putting up the tree seemed like the thing I couldn’t wait to do. The shows that replayed year after year but never got old because it wasn’t the show so much as the memories that they brought back while you watched them. The eggnog and how it got so much better after you got to the age where mysteriously it turned a little bit tangier and a hell of a lot better (especially after 5 or 6).
So to get to the point of all this, I would like to say that while Christmas is a time when people go crazy and shop til their credit cards are no longer accepted, it is also a time when no matter how bad you are feeling you get to feel it with your whole family (something not everyone has, and while most people would complain that being with family is the worst part of Christmas, all you have to do is look at the people who do not have any anymore and the gratefulness you have for your own will come flooding back).
And there really is no better way of escaping into the trance of Christmas than to sit your butt down in front of the TV and take in all the movies that filled your childhood Christmases. And of course for your enjoyment and my last post I would like to suggest a few. Most, of course, you will already know and possibly watch, but being that this a movie blog, I feel the need to fill in the missing portion of the post that has to do with the main topic. So here they are, my favs, hope they are on your list as well, because really nowadays what is Christmas but sitting at home re-watching the classics with the ones you love and that for some reason love you back.
So I have to leave with the message that life is short and most of the time the world sucks, but there are times when it goes away for a moment, usually when you engross yourself in something else. So that’s what I plan to do after finals; fall into a pile of Christmas cheer and try not to come out for a good three week. The world is not the cheeriest place, but the more you distance yourself from the things that, while cheesy and childish, keep the impending doom from taking over every second of your life, the more you allow the shit this world has to offer to get the better of you.
Wanting for more is what keeps us striving for greater things. Just because a certain few decided to portray achievement as nothing more than greed , does not mean that the only way to combat it is through disengaging from everything those people engage in, because some of thethings aregoodandeven great
Posted in Uncategorized on December 1, 2008 by bombingston
Foreward:
This has been one of my most well received posts so I figured I’d bring it back for another go around. It has been revised, and hopefully allows those who missed it the first time around to learn some knowledge about how they can apply low budget lighting to their indie/low budget film.
This article is for those of you out there who want to start taking you’re film projects a bit more seriously. As one low budget film maker to another the one thing that will help make any low budget film look great is some good lighting. Now you may be asking yourself, “How do I do this?”, luckily for you I have written out the basic fundamentals of good film lighting.
First things first. Real light kits are expensive, there’s no way to get around that. The trick to low budget lighting is to improvise. Sure a professional kit can costing anywhere from $800-1000 but a creative filmmaker can take about 40 dollars worth of equipment and rig up a decent system. If that’s even above your budget you can improvise. Find some lamps no one has in use and put some high watt bulbs in them and use them for lights, work lights work great, and in a pinch you can actually get some decent lighting using flashlights. Now for the theory.
The most common system of lighting in film is the 3 point lighting. The basic idea is that you are going to use your lightsources (3, hence the name) and use them to fake depth in a 2 dimensional medium. A light kit for 3 point lighting generally requires a key light, back light, and fill light. Here’s a summary of what they do and recommendations of what lights can work best for this.
What Each Light Does:
Key Light(500 Watt Work Light):
The key light, as the name suggests, is the main source of lighting. This will be what is shining directly on your subject, providing the groundwork for the rest of the lighting.
Back Light(1000 Watt Halogen Spotlight):
The back light is placed behind the subject, often near the ground, creating a rim of light around the subject separating them from the background of your shot, and helps create depth.
Fill Light(500 Watt Halogen Spotlight, White Board):
Generally placed opposite of the key light, illuminating parts of the shadows. This helps keep extreme shadows out of the shot. The white board can sometimes be used in place of the spotlight, if there is enough light to reflect, you can aim the board towards the subject and reflect some of the other light.
Like mentioned earlier the point of these lights is to create depth in the image. Here is a rough illustration of what kind of light and shadow each light will create. The all lights section shows what good 3 point lighting should look like. One side of the subject should be illuminated, the center a neutral tone, followed by a shadow (one that isn’t pitch black, otherwise your image will appear blown out), and a highlight from behind.
Diagram of each lights effect on the subject
How the lights from the above first diagram would be placed
*It is possible to buy the Halogen Spotlights which come mounted to a stand already. It will save a lot of time in setting up.
The required lights
General Tips:
For best results make sure you set your cameras white balance setting.
When placing lights remember that a 45 degree angle on the subject for both the Key and Fill generally gets the best result.
Be Careful. The lights get very hot, and become dangerous to touch.
Most importantly experiment! 3 point lighting is just a general setup that you can experiment with to get neat results. If a light is not doing what you want try moving it closer/farther, and around the subject. Try moving lights closer/farther from the subject and how it effects the video. Have fun with it!
I was forced to watch Singin’ in the Rain twice in my life. Once was last night in my film studies class, and the other time was with my old girlfriends about 3 years ago. The first time I wasn’t paying too much attention to the movie, but last night I realized that there is actually some substance within the movie. It’s not all just song and dance…although a lot of that substance comes from the song and dance…
The film draws our attention to the sort of synthetic naturalistic world of Hollywood. It reminds us that films main purpose is to create a realistic environment to draw the viewer into the story. Because I guess a lot of people had a hard time distinguishing the real world with the filmic world back then. Actually it probably still happens to this day…But anyway, the film shows us the falseness of films in two ways;showing us a behind the scenes look into making a film, and secondly, by all the characters randomly bursting out in song and dance. There is a lot more going on with this film but I don’t want to get into all that.
As much as I appreciate Singin’ in the Rain for explicit meaning it presents us, I still can’t bring myself to actually enjoy watching it. There’s just something about these contrived song and dance numbers that just pisses me right off.
Now one of my favourite movies of the past few years is the musical Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. So I had to ask myself, why do I love Sweeney Todd so much and not Singin’ in the Rain? They are both musicals, they both randomly break out into song, so whats the deal?
Well, for one thing, Sweeney Todd has an incredibly dark story, coupled with a very dark and gloomy mise-en scene; the movie really just puts us in a dark mood when watching it. And when I say dark…I mean it in a good way.
I think I just subconsciously love films with deeply troubled characters and gruesome storylines. (Silence of the Lambs, The Boondock Saints, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless mind) Okay, Eternal Sunshine doesn’t have a gruesome storyline but I love the characters. Singin’ in the Rain is just so god damned happy all the time.
Anyway perhaps I don’t enjoy watching films like Singin’ in the Rain is because it is in such stark contrast with these dark films I love so much.
Another thing that pisses me off about Singin’ in the Rain, is that most of the times, the songs do nothing to drive the plot forward. We’re stuck with Gene Kelly telling everybody that he loves Debbie Reynolds for 20 minutes when we have clearly figured that out 5 scenes ago. Also the lyrics don’t really have a whole lot of substance to them either.
I’m singing in the rain
Just singing in the rain
What a glorious feelin’
I’m happy again
I’m laughing at clouds
So dark up above
The sun’s in my heart
And I’m ready for love
Let the stormy clouds chase
Everyone from the place
Come on with the rain
I’ve a smile on my face
I walk down the lane
With a happy refrain
Just singin’,
Singin’ in the rain
Dancin’ in the rain
Dee-ah dee-ah dee-ah
Dee-ah dee-ah dee-ah
I’m happy again!
I’m singin’ and dancin’ in the rain!
Yea, we get it. Your in love. Congratulations on being so happy. Give it a rest Gene
Sweeney Todd’s music give us deep insight into the complexities of his character. His built up anger and his growing insanity are portrayed very effectively using music. My favourite scene in the movie is when Todd is reunited with his old shaving razors. He sings a duet with the character Mrs. Lovett that reveals Todd’s insanity, his intent, and it also gives us a glimpse into Mrs.Lovett’s growing love for Todd. It is a very disturbing and somewhat beautiful song.
You gotta watch it to see what I mean.(I couldn’t find the the full scene on Youtube but this is good enough)
How awsome is that? Very awsome you say? Yea I totally agree with you.
My favorite verse of that song is:
rest now, my friends.
Soon I’ll unfold you.
Soon you’ll know splendors
You never have dreamed
All your days,
My lucky friends.
Till now your shine
Was merely silver.
Friends,
You shall drip rubies,
You’ll soon drip precious
Rubies…
This is about the time we figure out that Sweeney Todd plans to exact his revenge for his wifes murder using his razors. And when he refers to his revenge as “splendors” we come to understand just how insane Todd really is. And when he says “At last, my arm is complete again” the hairs on the back of my neck start standing on edge as if I was listening to Raining Blood by Slayer or Cemetary Gates by Pantera. It is a very powerful scene.
Lets compare it to Singin’ in the Rain.
I guess the reasons why I love Sweeney Todd and why Singin’ in the rain pisses me off is every possible difference there is between these two youtube clips.
Singin’ in the Rain’s songs are almost pure spectacle. Which I understand is completely intentional and serves to create the implicit meaning I was talking about earlier. But it still annoys me. It’s so happy it’s sickening.
So in conclusion I think the reason I don’t like Singin’ in the Rain, and all musical that are similar to it, is simply because I favor dark films over happy films. I think The reason I love Sweeney Todd and hate Singin’ in the Rain is the same reason I love Lord of the Rings and hate The Notebook. Or why I love Team America World Police, and hate Night at the Museum.
One last thing I wanna say before I end this post is that you really shouln’t let singing in a film deter you from actually seeing it. Look at a musical as you would look at any other films when deciding on wether or not you would like it. If you love excessive gore and violence check out Sweeney Todd, even if you say you hate musicals. Your not going to grow a vagina or something after watching it.
Also, watch Singin’ in the Rain, you might actally like it. Or if your like me, it’ll help you appreciate how good films like Sweeney Todd are.
Oh and also check out Phantom of the Opera by Joel Schumacher. It’s a pretty decent musical.
Darren Aronofsky has done some pretty amazing things in the film world. I remember the first time that i saw Aronofsky’s whirrling decent into madess through mathematics called Pi, thinking to myself… this is amazing! Not only does math now seem cool, but the quest to discover the universal code of patterns that links all of nature together… through the hebrew Jewish bible? Great stuff! Low budget, black and white, obsessive compulsive storytelling at its best.
Admiring the works of Aronofsky, i naturally was quite excited to see Requiem for A Dream. Even though it was released in 2000, i didnt have a chance to watch it for a couple years (bad excuse eh?). Similar to the new classic film, Basketball Diaries, this movie is focused around youth, drugs, lifestyle, pressure and escape. Although i enjoyed Basketball Diaries, Requiem for A Dream prooved to be much more devistating (in a good way).
Devastating… brutal… but what an amazing powerful movie. Its fantastic…and even though i truely love it, there are a number of reasons why i may never watch it again. Weird i know.
The movie centeres around 4 different main characters: Sara (Ellen Burstyn), Harry (Jared Leto), Marion (Jennifer Connelly), and Tyrone (Marlon Waynes). The basic theme of this film is drug use and abuse, as well as a social commentary about society and pressures. The film starts innocently, and slowly through the movie the spiraling decent gets worse and worse. The characters and actors who portray them are very well done, especially (in my opinion) Ellen Burstyn’s character Sara, which is done so well that its probably the main reason that i dont really want the watch the movie again.
Turning to selling drugs, Harry and Tyrone are desperate for cash. They both are poor kids who need some extra income to help get their lives and ambitions rolling. They start buying herion in bulk, and then re-selling on the streets to make extra cash. Marion is Harry’s girlfriend, and together they have a disjointed but exciting relationship. Eventually the three of them start to sniff or smoke the heroin for fun, take other drugs like speed and party. Of course, the extra money they initially made with heroin sales starts to diminish though their own drug use and partying. This is where problems start, and addictions take hold.
Throughout the movie, the audience becomes acquainted with the characters, empathizes with them, and gets to see how relatively normal, relatively good natured people can go terribly terribly wrong. This next video is a seen where Harry goes to meet his Mom (Sara) and discovers that she is taking weight loss pills (speed) to ‘look good on television’. This part of the film also proves to emphasize the generally accepted norms of prescription drug abuse in north America, fueled by private heartless pharmaceutical corporations. Again, notice how Ellen Burstyn is an amazing actor as well. One of the best scenes in the movie: Of course, before stuff starts to take a nose dive.
In the end, and i wont spoil it for people who haven’t yet seen this movie, there is much tragedy. All characters are in very rough shape for various reasons, but the character that really impacted me the most was Sara… like i said before, this movie was so well done that i cant watch it again. Hopefully this review doesn’t deter anyone who was going to see it, because thats just not the point. You SHOULD see it. Everyone should.
Now I understand that this site it to be used for blogging about movies, and the idea is to stick to the specific genre, but this pause from talking about movies comes from an event in my life that affects my ability to watch movies, being that my Xbox is also my DVD player, (keep in mind that when I say mine, I mean my roommates, but seeing that the loss affects my ability to watch movies or play games, the loss is felt throughout the household).
For everyone that doesn’t know, as of late Xbox has come up with the idea to blatantly rip off the mii character design from the Wii and incorporate it into games on the Xbox
This idea seems like a good (if not unoriginal) idea and the mii characters are fun to create and play with on the Wii so why not the Xbox as well.
This is not the problem of course for while the feature of mii characters is a nice addage, the way in which the update fried my Xbox leaves little chance to take advantage of the new feature. DAMN IT.
This new little “Box crasher” happened about five seconds into downloading the new update and in relation to the system failing at the exact time of download, it is hard to say that the one thing does not have anything to do with the other.
But that not what you will hear from the Xbox representative upon calling to ask about said issue. You will be told that due to the fact that your Xbox is past its warranty date, you will have to send in your Xbox and will in turn receive a refurbished (i.e. not your own) unit (but only after you pay the $100 fee, of course). You will have it explained to you that the problem you are facing has nothing to do with the update and that even though there have been numerous cases of system malfunction after downloading this new update, the problem you are facing is not related to the problem everyone else is having.
The fact that the system failure happened at the time of update is just a coincidence.
A COINCIDENCE!!!!!!!! (Are you shitting me)
Of course after arguing on the phone for the better part of an hour with an agent (you can see how mature they are being about the situation in their constant reiteration that the problem is isolated and that no they are not lieing when they say this isn’t happening all over the place), a person’s throat starts to get dry and the realization that another hour of arguing would get you nowhere closer to having this issue resolved, the option of telling the rep. to “go fuck[himself]” seems like to next best thing.
As of this post, there has been no resolution to the problem and it appears as though a trip into Calgary to fetch a stored away Xbox is the only way to be able to resume watching movies and playing games again, So the option was either 40 bucks in gas money or 100 bucks and a 3 week wait. This solution being applied leaves us one Xbox less than we had before but for now at least we have a backup.
This message comes more as a warning than anything else, I’m not saying the update (if you haven’t already downloaded it) will fry your Xbox the way it did ours, but be forewarned, it could happen, of course if it does, it’s probably just a coincidence.
Today I’m talking about something different. It’s not quite a movie, not quite a TV show. It’s Dr Horrible’s Sing Along Blog. What is this you ask? Well it is a series of 3 webisodes created by Joss Whedon (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Firefly) that runs about 43 minutes long.
The story is one of a mad scientist who falls in love, and the difficulties that arise once a super hero cocks up his plans. Did I also mention it’s a musical? That’s right, a musical about a mad scientist, and one that would even make Jonathon Coulton proud.
Now some of you who may know what Dr Horrible is may be asking yourself why I’m posting this now. “It
came out over 5 months ago!” you may be saying. True, but it has also been recently announced that Dr. Horrible will be coming to Dvd hopefully before the holiday season. So I’m using this to spread the word of Dr Horrible and the DVD.
Nathan Fillion as Captain Hammer
For those of you who haven’t seen it, check it out. Seriously. It’s got some funny songs, it’s well directed, and stars Neil Patrick Harris. What’s not to like? The story is set out in 3 acts, that initially were released a week apart, but have since made their way onto Youtube. The idea was that they were intially free to view, then after the 3rd act was released you could buy it on iTunes. The creators hoped that they would make back the
Felicia Day as Penny
money it cost (The actors worked for free, getting paid out of whatever the Itunes/Dvd sales will make.) So its a good idea to buy it if you like it. It’s also on YouTube. But seriously, if you like it get the episodes off Itunes, the music, or wait for the Dvd to come out and pick that up. It basically follows the try it then buy it principle.
Casino Royale set some high standards for Quantum of Solace to live up to but I was cautiously optomistic during my wait for the sequals release. But when I left the theatre after seeing the film, I felt like I was robbed of good Bond movie.
Just a warning, this post might contain some spoilers.
Casino Royal had everything a good 007 movie needs. Hot women, loads of action, gambling, drinking and witty one liners for starters. Quantum of Solace definitely has plenty of action, but ’ about it. It doesn’t have the charm of a Bond movie. The story was incredibly lame and easily forgettble.The movie sacrificed good plot and story telling for pure, fast paced action. It was amusing at first until I realized that the movie wasn’t really going anywhere. It felt as though the creators planned out the action and forced a story on top of it.
One example of this shitty writing that I particularly remember is when Bond meets a girl from the CIA or something. THe CIA was after Bond and she had to make sure he didn’t leave the hotel. (I think…like I said earlier, the plot is easily forgetable.) Once they get some dialogue out of the way, Bond looks over and basically says “Hey, lets go fuck” and shes like “Ok” and they have sex. The writers didn’t put ANY effort into this scene! It was ridiculous. Half way through the movie they introduce a random chick, have Bond fuck her, then kill her off after they realize she has no reason to be in the movie. Half the reason we love seeing Bond get laid is watching the interactions that take place before the actual act. Watching the confident and smooth talking Bond charm his way into even the most unwilling of pants. The sex scene in Quantum of Solace was pretty much a slap in the face to the fans and Bond himself. Although I will give them credit for the nod to Goldfinger the put in the movie. The killers covered her in oil after they killed her, much like when Goldfinger covered his victims with gold.
I was also dissapointed with how they handled the villian of the film. Mathieu Amalrichad the potential to be a great and memorable villian. He has the right look and feel of a good villian. He looks very sophiticated, intelligent, and potentially insane.
Unfortunatly his character fell short. Even a good actor who is almost perfectly cast in a role wont be able to save such a poorly developed character. Even for a Bond villian, he was poorlydeveloped, and thats saying a lot.
Oh yea, and the intro sucked. I hoped they would have taken it upon themselves to create an even better intro sequence, but I guess even that was too much to hope for.
I figured that id open this post with the trailer video, just to give a slight perspective on David Lynch’s prequel to the fantastic television series Twin Peaks. This movie was released after the television series, and was received similarly (or maybe even worse) in the public eye. Contrary to this view, i quite enjoyed both, although i must admit that i have not watched the entire television series… but ill probably be doing it very soon (winters coming anyway).
Well to start off, the opening intro scene to the television series must be viewed.. here it is.
Weird eh? Sharpening blades, eerie landscapes, unsettling music….. but its beautiful in a way isn’t it!? Reminds me of those shards of dream imagery that happen soon after you awake from sleep. Lynch’s ability to combine visual and audio signals to create something powerful has (in my opinion) ALWAYS been one of his most astonishing talents, and this theme exists in so many of his movies.
‘Fire Walk With Me’ begins by following the investigation of the murder of a waitress named Teresa Banks. The investigation is conducted by FBI Agent Chet Desmond (Chris Isaak) and his partner Sam Stanley (Kiefer Sutherland), which makes for a great introduction into these two important characters. Although this part is ultimately important, it lasts for only about 20 mins and takes place in a town called Deer Meadow. The film them skips about a year (or so) ahead to the town of Twin Peaks, where a similar murder has taken place, this time to a girl named Laura Palmer (Sheryl Lee). The rest of the movie involves more investigation, which is also where the majority of the prequel elements come into play, setting the scene for the television series.
That’s just the main plot though… illustrating almost nothing important about how this movie impacts the viewer. Like i said before, Lynch’s ability to combine multiple cryptic imagery/audio to create this stunningly dreamlike product tells more of a hidden story, allowing the viewer to not only become involved in the plot mystery investigation, but also in this web that Lynch weaves which actually succeeds in engulfing you completely. This next longer scene is perfect to describe this without further words:
Heavily atmospheric, riddled in illusions and mysteries, the Twin Peaks legacy is one that gets my thumbs up. But why does Twin Peaks, both TV series and movies, consistently get bad or ‘mid’ reviews?? Look at this link to a major (and usually high quality) film review site, Rotten tomatoes. The meter is currently at 53%, quite low for such a well renowned director. (at least its not ‘catwoman’ bad)
Ill admit, the film is often confusing and weird, but this is what draws me in to it, makes me think about it, makes me want to know more. Lynch has this great angle in that he leaves so many unanswered questions, so many loose ends. Maybe this is why some people dont like it? To me, the charm is exactly this… the audience can come across there own conclusions. In this way the movie acts as a ‘mirror’… reflects ones impression of the self. Id love to hear opinions from other opinionated individuals, so comments are open and welcome.
Ill exit this post with one of the most memorable scenes in the television series… its scary/intense but damn well done.
