WEIRDLAND: Joseph Gordon-Levitt at TIFF

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Joseph Gordon-Levitt at TIFF

Joseph Gordon-Levitt at the World Premiere of "Uncertainty" with Lynn Collins.

"There are other elements in Miracle at St. Anna that feel off to me, but I'm more than willing to accept how that may not be because of any failings on the part of Lee or McBride, but rather because I'm simply incapable of wrapping my mind around the brute enormity of war -- and racism -- in the 1940's from a remove of seven decades in time. Miller's Train is certainly from the same mold as Lenny in Of Mice and Men; I couldn't imagine a character so simple being able to serve, but, then again, I wasn't there. I could wrap my head around a scene set on the home front, where our four soldiers are denied counter service at a Southern ice cream parlor while German POW's sit out front, but not around the scene's denouement, which felt strained and stilted.But then Lee follows that with a shot of our four heroes -- not protagonists, but heroes -- looking right into the camera, weary and wounded and tired: This is what we're willing to do; what are you willing to do to earn that? It's a question all soldiers, and especially these soldiers, have the right to ask; it's a question very few film makers would be willing to ask of us on their behalf. Terence Blanchard's score is haunting; Matthew Libatique's cinematography captures frenzy and grace, brutal slaughter and exhilarating life. The four leads are superb, as well -- each turning potential boiler-plate war movie caricatures into something richer and deeper while still maintaining the movie-style shimmer of archetype and affect".
Source: www.cinematical.com

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