Just got back from seeing "Moolaade" and "Sideways"... both were terrific in different ways.
"Moolaade" shows that it takes a director as old as Ousmane Sembene to look at a situation, fairly examine the motivations of everyone involved, and then admit he's still confused (not about FGM, heh, but about the larger issues he deals with there: globalization, progress vs. tradition, etc.) I love that about him. On the minus side, he gets a bit didactic at times, and the subtitling has moments where you imagine the translators just threw their hands up in the air and said "Let's just put that they used this term..."
I never let bad subtitling affect my opinion of a movie, though, so I'm still giving "Moolade" an 8/10 and hoping it gets some recognition at Oscar time... if for no other reason than to see Joan Rivers attempt to pronounce its stars' names.
"Sideways" was great, too, but it snuck up on me. At first I thought "oh, no, not another 'quirky' indie." Cuz when I hear 'quirky' I think "interesting for people who only watch TV, but if you've ever seen any movies outside a mall you will be bored stiff or unconvinced." Not so with "Sideways", which deals with situations which -- 'quirky' as they may be -- are still quite believably presented. The other thing I like is that it's a sick comedy which deals with real pain but doesn't cop out at the end like "Bad Santa" or "Pretty Woman" just to wrap things up nicely. It ends just as it should, and that's a rare compliment for an American film these days.
I give "Sideways" 9/10 and would imagine it will be a mutiple Oscar nominee.
"Moolaade" shows that it takes a director as old as Ousmane Sembene to look at a situation, fairly examine the motivations of everyone involved, and then admit he's still confused (not about FGM, heh, but about the larger issues he deals with there: globalization, progress vs. tradition, etc.) I love that about him. On the minus side, he gets a bit didactic at times, and the subtitling has moments where you imagine the translators just threw their hands up in the air and said "Let's just put that they used this term..."
I never let bad subtitling affect my opinion of a movie, though, so I'm still giving "Moolade" an 8/10 and hoping it gets some recognition at Oscar time... if for no other reason than to see Joan Rivers attempt to pronounce its stars' names.
"Sideways" was great, too, but it snuck up on me. At first I thought "oh, no, not another 'quirky' indie." Cuz when I hear 'quirky' I think "interesting for people who only watch TV, but if you've ever seen any movies outside a mall you will be bored stiff or unconvinced." Not so with "Sideways", which deals with situations which -- 'quirky' as they may be -- are still quite believably presented. The other thing I like is that it's a sick comedy which deals with real pain but doesn't cop out at the end like "Bad Santa" or "Pretty Woman" just to wrap things up nicely. It ends just as it should, and that's a rare compliment for an American film these days.
I give "Sideways" 9/10 and would imagine it will be a mutiple Oscar nominee.
dem_z:
I thought your "see what you pro choice people have done" comment was funny. 