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i have already argued about this movie enough i feel, but i saw it here and wanted to comment that this is definitely one of the best student films i have seen in a while. a big part of that was because it was so well funded, but it was a very nice student effort. as a film major, i see a lot of student work, and there are a lot of flaws that students tend to make over and over again as we learn the filmmaking craft, and this film was filled with them. the biggest of these is having a film that is either too big or too small for your script. more often than not students try to make much longer films than they have material for. this is th case with "lost in translation" i feel, as coppola had too much for a short (although i think it would have made an absolutely lovely short), but not nearly enough for a feature length film. what was most frustrating to me was her desire to cram stuff down the audience's throat (such as eight repeated scenes of scarlet johansen being "lonely," and what seemed like a half hour of loving kareoke). the audience gets that scarlet is lonely in the first five minutes of the film, but we have to watch it for about twenty five. the acting was good, and it is fine that nothing happens in the film of course, but there really wasn't anything substantive to the film at all. there needs to be substance in a film somewhere, but i feel like she was just very undercommitted to what was happening, especially in the second half of the film. also i couldn't empathize with scarlet johannsen's character because she just seemed like such an ungrateful bitch. what was she, 26? and in japan for ONE loving WEEK and she is complaining about not being able to feel anything at the loving temple? i felt like yelling "oh christ, you're not loving budhist, you're just loving emo, get over it! you're twenty six and in loving japan! your husband doesn't have time for you because he is working! working so you can be halfway around the world for a nice week off!" bill murray's character had great motivation, but scarlet's was really underdeveloped and obvious. it felt a lot like sophia was just emulating herself a lot ("it's so hard to be a woman filmmaker. i mean, sure i haven't ever really had to prove myself with anything, and daddy certainly does help me out a lot, and i've somehow managed to land this position of oscar-nominated director despite my performance in godfather three and most likeley as a result of my relationships with the like of spike jonze - but drat! things are hard!") that last bit was a low blow at her, ignore it. anyway, if you like "lost in translation," you should probably go out and see the film that sophia basically copied it from, fellini's "la dolce vita." she is also a total arrogant priss for having the balls to actually show a clip of "la dolce vita" in her film (i assumed that she figured american audiences wouldn't recognize it and therefore it would be her little joke, but that's just because i kind of hate sophia coppola). manic shampoo knows what's going on. and why was everyone so excited about murray's role in this? yeah he was great, but come on a lot of what he did was comedy! and when did everyone forget his amazing performance in "rushmore?" that was equal parts drama and comedy, very similar to his performance in "lost in translation." i give it a 2.5/5 - i hated a lot of the film, hate sophia coppola and feel this was the most overrated schlock of the year, but i didn't despise sitting through it, and if it weren't for all the ridiculous hype, i probably would have gone a little easier on it.
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Jun 29, 2004 17:14
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| # ¿ Apr 26, 2024 08:17 |
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