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nextofkin82
Reviews
12 Years a Slave (2013)
I was disappointed
I must be one of the only ones who didn't love this film. As with The Wolf of Wall Street, i found it rather uninvolving and dull. To get to the reason why, here are two questions: Two questions for you dear reader (and those who have seen this film). 1. What did new things you learn about slavery because of this film? My answer is quite a few things (that free people were kidnapped into slavery, how they were sold, how they lived, how they were gagged, etc.) Maybe not revolutionary things but still. 2. Describe to me what you learned about the lead character? My answer would be: he's a educated man who loves his family and can play the violin. That's it. This, to me, is the major flaw of this film. I don't know this man. What does he think? What are his doubts? Why don't we see him do anything to try to get out or how he plans to survive this ordeal? Why does he try to run away so late into his plight? Why not try again? And most important: what 'arc' did he have? How did he change because of what happened to him? Did he learn anything? Did he grow? Did he change (for better or worse)? It's a classical approach to storytelling that goes back to the old Greeks for a reason. If a character doesn't dramatically change, there is no point for the drama. I respect the film and what it tries to do. But i never got emotionally involved/invested (because of point 2) and that made it a bit boring to me and quite disappointing.
Dark Blood (2012)
I was at the premiere...
I've been crazy about movies ever since i was eleven (this was in 1985) and at the time of his death really liked Phoenix as an actor in The Mosquito Coast, Running on Empty and (especially) Stand by me. I remember thinking it such a loss when i heard he had died and being really curious about this film. Not only his last film but also made by a fellow Dutchman. A director responsible for making one of the only classics in Dutch cinema (Spoorloos a.k.a The vanishing). So, cut to the present, i was extremely curious to see this unfinished film and very happy to get the chance to attend the premiere. The fact that there were (crucial) scene's missing didn't bother me. I can still love a film for it's great parts (like a lot of Brian DePalma's movies). So i was hoping for a few memorable moments either in acting, writing, plot or in the use of visuals. But, unfortunately, those moments never came! I was bored from the first frame to the last. It never is a badly made film but it also never becomes anything special or interesting. If this film had been finished to completion before River's death, it would (i my estimation) have been forgotten about by now. I never cared about River's last films ("even cowgirls get the blues, the thing called love, silent tongue") and this film, sadly, doesn't change that...