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[Warm Machine]

at the Vancouver film fest.

Unfortunatly it was somewhat dissapointing and certainly unsatisfying. Basic premise has Christian Bale's character dissolving into paranoia after an accident occurs at the plant he works at. Day by day he struggles to put the pieces of a mounting puzzle of somewhat related events together and face the reasons for his own state of mind and those around him.

I'd say the plusses had to be Bale's sickly performance and somewhat horrific physical appearance and Brad Anderson's directing and plotting was involving.

The film suffers from a pace that is far too slow and has a tendancy to meander so that by the time the ending resolution hits us we have already figured most of it out. Much of the film is photographed in a dull grey wash that doesn't help visually except in distancing the audience. Just like Session 9, the movie has lots of places and directions it can go but the least interesting is where it ends up.

Jennifer Jason Leigh really needs to fire her agent as she has played the used goods style character far too many times.

 

[Deleted member 1235]

damnit, the trailer had me hyped for this.

Christian Bale is the man for going through that for his performance though. He must have got to the gym quicksmart to get ready for batman.

 

[The Take Out Bandit]

Rise fwom your gwave!

Went and caught this tonight at the art-fag theater after discovering it was the same director as Session 9. I really enjoyed Session 9, so I'll see this guy's stuff. Even if it means driving through the ghetto to get to the ponce repository.

Christian Bale was great, as was the fellow that played Ivan. I really liked the meaty, weird toothed grin, sort of pervert vibe he gave off.

The score was f'ing great! It reminded me a lot of the sort of compositions in the Ginastera/Revueltas/Villa-Lobos - String Quartets. I guess that's the benefit of having a largely Spanish crew, if I read the credits properly.

The settings and overall presentation were really nicely filmed. Brad Anderson has a very distinct visual style that reminds me of Adrian Lyne's work on Jacob's Ladder expanded upon. There's just stuff that's in the movie that's there to be creepy, or uneasy to look at. Although Session 9 had a lot of subtle layering of imagery and themes that I didn't pick up on in my first viewing at the theater, and I'm hoping I'll get the same reward from watching The Machinist a second time once it's released on DVD.

The conclusion wasn't the absolute punch to the gut that I was hoping for, too much time reading Dan Simmons novels. I'd go so far as to say it was a bit pat, but it honestly wasn't so bad that I regretted spending $8 on seeing it - like say, oh Shaun of the Dead.

On the scale of the two movies from Anderson I've seen, I still rank Session 9 above The Machinist; but it's a movie worth seeing just to watch it unravel and for the score if you're a fan of these sorts of movies.

Now to see if I can buy the soundtrack. Woooo, sex in my ears!