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'A weak TV film, failing even on that model'

posted 15 years ago by joughin
2 replies | jump to latest

I felt a bit guilty giving this film just 1 – though I did think it was ‘awful’.

Then I noticed various other people were making it the pinnacle of cinematic art, with ludicrous scores of 10.

So I’ll leave the 1 for a while to partly balance the 10s, but also to measure the new festival director rather than the film (which realistically deserves something like rick-220s score of 4) that he chose to mark his full arrival in Rotterdam .

I was interested to see that the leading Dutch daily paper (NRC) reported the critical response to the world première of this ‘film’ in rather similar terms to my own (http://www.nrc.nl/kunst/article2127929.ece/Controversiele_openingsfilm ).

Here are a few short extracts (in my translation), since no ‘external reviews’ have yet appeared on IMDb:

“Controversial Opening Film

“...Many journalists and professional filmmakers mercilessly demolished the film [Dutch:‘cut it off at the knees’] in the corridors after it was over: primitive direction, adolescent dialogues, directionless, a weak TV film, failing even on that model. The Hungry Ghosts wasn’t up to the standard of serious festivals like Sundance or Berlin and so washed up in Rotterdam. The film was chosen to open the dying festival in order to lend it a bit of star power: four former Sopranos stars were presented with bouquets for turning up...

“ ‘A typical ‘indy’ from a first-time director,’ concluded festival director Rutger Wolfson, as he cowered under the storm of criticism. ‘Critics judge it more harshly because there are so many American stars in it. But it’s really just a first film. A TV film? What’s wrong with TV?'

“We're off. The next week and a half will surely contain quite a few more worthless films.”

Oh, that explains it, Rutger... a debut film written and directed by a well-known American actor with lots of American stars. Bit like Citizen Kane, say? People have judged that very harshly – it only gets 8.6 here on IMDb, rather than 10.

As for what's wrong with TV, or rather bad TV... how long have you got (in various senses), Rutger?

[–] 15 years ago

[deleted]

[–] scrapmetal7 13 years ago

I've seen a zillion films like this. Just last week I watched Powder Blue with Ray Liotta and Jessca Biel. Or go see 13 Moons with Steve Buscemi. The Life Before This with Catherine O'Hara and Joe Pantoliano. Shrink with Kevin Spacey. Dancing at the Blue Iguana with Sanda Oh. The thing about movies like this is that if you've seen them you know what they are and what to expect. In the first minute, you know what you're dealing with. Desperate people, aimless lives, some intersections, some deaths, no story structure, nothing much is going to happen. You know this in the first minute. If you have complaints after that you're being ridiculous. It's like complaining about your face hurting after you smash your head against a cement wall. It's like complaining about the wall.