Much Ado About Nothing, The Bling Ring and The Kings of Summer

Shakespeare, Hermione, Teenage Boyz…OH MY!

In the order viewed:

Much Ado About Nothing (2013) Dir. Joss Whedon

Viewed: Movie theater

I have to admit, I was a bit disappointed in this even before watching it.  I hate this new Black and White on HDSLR trend :gag:.  If you are going to use a Red Cam + a cheap DSLR, at least give us something to champion with the colors. I feel like the 7D got raped with this film and that is quite unfortunate. It would have been great if they shot on film, 16mm, give us something to love, Joss! Give us something to love!

With that in mind, I was hoping to be surprised and hate the above choice less.  The story itself was very engaging. The commitment to the traditional Shakespearean dialogue and timeless setting supported this very confined film. Amy Acker stole the show with her divine portrayal of Beatrice, drawing in audiences who may have found themselves tripped up on the first few minutes of old English.

Another thing I enjoyed was the choice in cinematography to keep the character movement two-dimension, very stage like.  I was also very excited at first when it appeared a choice to ditch the traditional shot-reverse-shot in conversations, replacing them with quick pans to mimic the turning of the neck in theater settings. However, this commitment was short-lived and cheap and I was left feeling extremely let down.  I hate it when cinematographers half-ass a choice. GO BIG OR GO HOME, DAMNIT! Be a risky!!!!!!

As the film led on, I started to feel like I was watching a very calculated, trigger-happy, fresh out of film school disaster. The cinematography quickly abandoned being content-driven and awesome to just trying to look cool for no apparent reason.  Maybe they used a 7D because really, anyone could have done it from mid-point on.

I am left weighing the strong story versus the messy cinematography.  What is the most important part?  One might say the story… I am going to disagree, for you can go read this play and the visual representation of it left me a bit underwhelmed.

The Bling Ring (2013) Dir. Sofia Coppola

Viewed: Movie theater.

Okay, if you thought I was going into the last movie with a chip on my shoulder… well, you don’t know how much I absolutely loathe Sofia Coppola.  Her movies are boring and leaving me feeling like I ate lard.  I thought it was hilarious she was on board for this film…

And surprisingly, her boringness worked here.  That was the most noticeable thing about this film, the muted boring tone of the story. It worked perfectly because it reflected how the characters felt: bored, rich, and strung-out.

The stillness of the film was superb. That, paired with the long moments of eerie silence created a frustrating sense of unease. Everyone knew they were going to get caught and there were several nonchalant moments where the anxiety about the ring’s fate got the best of me.

 My favorite shot of the film was a long take of the ring robbing a glass house. It was great, but the robbing of celebrities quickly got boring. The story itself was sort of shallow; I didn’t feel connected to it or any of the characters.

Much like a cheap horror film that hires a big name only to kill them off in the first five minutes, the sprinkling of minor character, Emma Watson, is what kept audiences going to the end. I was disappointed on the lack of depth or character development of ringleaders Rebecca and Marc.  They tried, but both were overshadowed by Watson’s one-liners.

I left the theater feeling like I just heard a boring bit of choppy gossip.

The Kings of Summer (2013) Dir. Jordan Vogt-Roberts

Viewed: Movie Theater

If anything, I was very excited to see this movie. Call it penis envy, but I really love-love-love coming of age stories about young men who must choose between clinging on to their boy wonders or becoming men. Yeah, I never had a situation like that and I like to watch these movie… these “Peter Pan” films. Sometimes I feel like my spirit animal is a 14-yearold boy on the brink of manhood, lovely.

This movie was great in both story and cinematography.  It was colorful in both character and visuals. Who could ask for more?  Nick Offerman was great as the father of the instigator. The parallels between he and Nick Robinson’s character, Joe, his son, were clearly defined throughout the film.  

I suppose the only true weakness was the overshadowing by Moises Arias’ character Biaggio, which comes as no surprise as the more seasoned actor of the three adolescents.  For the boy who was supposed to be the oddball third wheel, he quickly became the most lovable character of the three. And because of this, I had a hard time sympathizing with Robinson’s character, Joe, in the end.

I guess the overarching theme here was bros over hos…well until the ho gets wit your bro… There was a clear implication of women in this film, and how they fit into our lives (WE, the almost men!) This film had it all: The dead mother, the replacement mother-sister, the girl you can’t have, the boy who sees himself as a woman, the desperate over 40 single woman, and the overbearing mother of an only child.  Oh, you silly women! We only start to embrace you when we are 14ish…But, really you make our world go ‘round. (Again, we, teenage boys)

Head-to-Head

I think there is a clear winner here…one film blew the rest out of the water.

So the real battle here is engaging story with messy visuals vs. engaging visuals with a messy story.

This one is hard…it should boil down to the story; I mean cinema is all about storytelling, but then again it is visual art, but it needs to have some meat behind it.

I guess that is what it boils down to, were the shots in The Bling Ring enough to carry its utterly flat story?

Ugggh! Or was the engaging story of Much Ado enough to overlook the undedicated cinematography?

Tough call….

Medal Ceremony

Bronze- Much Ado about Nothing

Silver- The Bling Ring

Gold- The Kings of Summer