Saturday, November 20, 2010

Catching up on 2010: February - 'Shutter Island'

Before I ramble on about this Scorsese epic, I have to admit that I am going to add a reviewing category. Shutter Island is mainly the reason for adding a criteria that focuses on the filmmaking techniques in the film (cinematography, musical score, costuming). It will be worth 10 points, creating my greatest nightmare of a score out of 5. Oh well, 5 yukes it is.

Also, I would like to welcome SP to the blogging world, he's going to take care of Horror movies for the most part at skochscorner.wordpress.com, read him. NOW! Oh, fair warning, as the warning says... there were some phrases that just didn't have the right effect without a curse word.


Shutter Island - B (would recommend... may/may not watch again)
Part of the reason I delayed viewing this film for so long was because I don't do very well with creepy mind 'f'-ing thrillers. I caved and watched it at work last night, poor choice. Locking up a school nearing midnight having just watched a movie with some creepy shit it is a bad idea. Every darkened window felt like someone was on the other side.

The movie centers around Teddy Daniels (Leo Dicaprio) and his investigation of a missing person on a secluded island home to a dangerous patient's mental hospital. Enough trying to be epic for you Scorsese? Daniels, a US Marshal with ulterior motives, is actually searching for the man responsible for his wife's death. Though most reviewer's I've read had a problem with the predictability of the plot twists, I let myself enter the world of the island. Maybe it's my lacking knowledge of movie history or a general apathy for 'trying to figure it out', but I much enjoyed the path the story took. From it's epic musical set-up to it's well-shot darkened feel, Scorsese used art to tell this story. Part of the reason I go into movies with no intentions of 'trying to figure it out', is because some movies aren't made for the soul purpose of messing with us. This is one of those movies, a story that is told through the artform. Avatar is another movie that fits into this mold, it will never be the perfect film because the story for many is sub-par, but it still ranks high on my movie lists because it employs techniques that can't be overlooked when deciding whether it is great or not.

One of my favorite things about this movie is the acting. I rarely caught myself thinking I was watching Leo, he did enough for me to lose myself in the character. Mark Ruffalo (his partner), whom I have a little bit of a man-crush on, and Michelle Williams (his dead wife) were superb. I found all of the supporting cast to work just well enough without any scene stealing.

To be honest, I enjoyed this film a lot. Maybe it was a lack of hype but I thought Scorsese did much better than 66.4% positive rating on moviereviewintelligence.com.

Story - 8
Comedy/Tragedy - 7.5
Characters - 4.5
Believability - 3.5
Filmmaking (cinematography, music) - 8.5
Sheer Enjoyment - 8

Shutter Island - 4 out of 5

Until next time... you just got yuked!
CU

2 comments:

  1. Your comment about trying to "figure it out" makes me think of LOST and the two kinds people who watched it. One group watched it because they wanted answers to the mysteries. They were more interested in the plot points than anything. The second group watched it for the story. For them, even if an episode was just character flashbacks they were into it because it enriched the people made up the narrative. One group was furious with the ending, the other group loved it.

    Moral of the story: You need to learn to love the telling of the story in order to earn the ending.

    With a film like Shutter Island, sure, you can probably deduce the twists, but reducing the movie to its plot points defeats the purpose of telling the story. If that's all your interested in, save your money and read a synopsis.

    It's why the Harry Potter books are so great; because Rowling included chapters that had nothing to do with the plot and everything to do with the characters and their relationships and their lives at Hogwarts/the Dursley's/etc.

    In the end there are only, like 7 stories anyways, so true originality isn't going to be found in story arches.

    Love the new site Chad. I look forward to Yuking I can get. Sorry for ranting. Also, I liked Shutter Island too.

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  2. Corrections: there was a "your" that should have been a "you're". And I meant story arcs, not arches. I'm lame for messing those up. I'm also lame for writing a whole other comment to correct them.

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