MAKSQUIBS CINEMATHEQUE: THE ASTRONAUT FARMER (2006)

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(Hint: most of the posters will enlarge if you click on them.)

WATCH THIS, NOT THAT - sort of like those EAT THIS, NOT THAT diet books only with film instead of food as the topic. Sometimes, the substitute pick isn't the obvious 'better' choice, but one of those 'flawed-but-interesting' films that often get left behind.

ATTENTION MUST BE PAID - some easy to miss element worth noting.

SILENT FILM - hey, figure it out (LOL)

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Like just about everyone with an interest in the movies, I'm watching more films on DVD and going out to movie houses a lot less. Convenience trumps the better experience.
Of course, you lose audience interaction and the poor film now has to compete with all the comforts of home.
It's a bit like seeing Rembrandts & Titians in a book reproduction, or from posters with iffy color values, no texture or weight to the surface and the wrong dimensions . . . all while snacking on chips & soda. (Oops! You get that at your local cinema,too.)
The ease of instant movie gratification risks turning an art form (well, sometimes) into little more than low-grade eye-candy & mindfodder. So, maybe it's worthwhile to write a bit down on what we're all viewing, just to keep fully engaged.

DVDs: the latest opiate of the people meets the internet, where everyone's a critic.
God help us.

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Friday, April 2, 2010

THE ASTRONAUT FARMER (2006)

This Texas-sized fable about a stubborn NASA dropout who builds a rocket ship in his barn must have held special resonance for those filmmaking twins, Michael & Mark Polish. It’s pretty much how they got started in film; lots of homemade ‘indie’ gumption. This may explain why they seem unable to gauge just how reckless, irresponsible & downright contemptible Billy Bob Thornton comes off as the DIY astronaut. It’s less an uplifting follow-your-dream saga than THE MOSQUITO COAST with pixie dust. The film plays out like an unintentional parody of itself, overloaded with epic prairie vistas, golden lighting effects, heroic silhouette figures that stride across our field of vision and plain-spoken men with an utter disregard for facts or the feelings of others. It’s the heartwarming family drama Ayn Rand never got around to writing. The eccentric, if talented Polish brothers really took it on the chin when this tanked, and their last two films (MANURE/’09 & STAY COOL/’09) were barely released.

WATCH THIS, NOT THAT: For a classic American Dreamer story, try Francis Coppola’s TUCKER/’88.

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A last thought before we go.

Well, enough from me. But before we sign off, here's a great quote from Emile Zola's L'OEUVRE (THE MASTERPIECE), which is about painting rather than the yet to be invented medium of film, but which points a fine critical eye toward the whole idea of art criticism. It's a good, if chilly, thought to keep in mind, especially when you surf the net.

"Has it ever struck you that posterity may not be the fair, impartial judge we like to think it is?

"Suppose the artist's paradise turned out to be as nonexistent as the Catholics, and future generations prove just as misguided as the present one and persisted in liking pretty pretty dabbling better than honest to goodness painting. There are some accepted masterpieces for which I myself wouldn't give a twopenny damn.

"Classical training has given us a wrong view of everything and forces us to acclaim as geniuses a lot of fellows who are no more than well-balanced, facile painters, while what we might really prefer is the work of more emancipated but less even artists known only to an initiated few. Immortality at present depends entirely on the average, middle-class mind and is reserved only for the names that have been most forcibly impressed upon us while we were still unable to defend ourselves...

"Perhaps that's the sort of thing that's best left unsaid. It's certainly the sort of thing that gives me the shudders!"- Emile Zola

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Now Over 5500 Reviews and (near) Daily Updates!

Friday, April 2, 2010

THE ASTRONAUT FARMER (2006)

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A last thought before we go.

DROP ME A LINE