After seeing Eagle vs. Shark, I watched three more "South-by" movies:
• Compañeras, about the first all-female Mariachi band, Mariachi Reyna de los Angeles
• Skills Like This, wherein a playwright realizes he's a bad writer, and much better at robbing banks
• The Unforeseen, a "documentary about the development around Barton Springs in Austin, Texas, and nature's unexpected response to being threatened by human interference."
I had the same response to all four movies: I found them all interesting, but ultimately disappointing. Lots of fascinating tidbits in the two documentaries, but ... what was the story? What was it you were trying to tell me? It didn't really come together for me. (And believe you me, I went in wanting to like them very much.)
Moreover, in the movie about Barton Springs, the audience really pissed me off. Yes, it's a local story. And yes, I can understand that you don't like the land developer. But to hiss each time he appeared on screen? That was pretty juvenile. How about listening to what he had to say? Oh, and I still don't know what the "Unforeseen" was. "nature's unexpected response"? Seems to me the response was expected. And was the planned Barton Springs development responsible for the decrease in water quality at the swimming spot, or is it Austin development in total? I didn't see that addressed at all. And what did the bit about Hutto have to do with anything?
Like I said, ultimately disappointing.
Same with the ... umh, what to call this, the cinematic equivalent of a novel? Kinda cute, both of them, but they fizzled out, and didn't really have a point or a clean resolution. I am much more appreciative of how hard it is to tell a good story. A good premise is easy, but it's all about how you wrap it up. (I'm not saying I can do it any better, but I am not trying to do this professionally.)
So, do you want to know which Austin-watched movie I liked best? The slick Hollywood feature:
300
We went in thinking it would be good, on par with Sin City, to which it keeps getting compared, because of the comic-strip-like visuals. (Yes, I'll keep saying "comics". "Graphic novel" sounds like a terrible euphemism to me.)
We walked out exclaiming that it had been GREAT, exceeding our expectations. It was a very unsubtle story, with simple characters: good against bad, loyalty and bravery against all odds, and in any other format I might not have appreciated it that much. But the images!
Oh.
My.
Gawd.
The colors, the tone, the effetcs were all really spectacular. Something to be said for spending big money.
Comments