Change Your Image
mikeyhaff
Reviews
Bubble (2005)
Soderbergh takes a lesson from Gus Van Sant
Talk about getting your hopes up. I saw this film at the Venice film festival a couple of months ago. I love his other films, but I felt like he made this film (and the soon to come 5 others) to regain his credibility as an "independent" director. Yet, the entire time, I couldn't help but think that he was trying to bank on the critical success of another recent "low-budget, non-actor, minimal story, with a personal touch" film: elephant. another similarity (without ruining the film), can be seen in the fact that both films revolve around a sudden, unexpected turn in the story emphasized by the message that "somethings just can't be explained". Okay film... but derivative.
Imitation of Christ (1967)
Not as "minimalist" as one would expect from Warhol
I was lucky enough to view this later Warhol film, at the Vienna, Austia film festival. Surprisingly and contrary to most reviews I had read, I thoroughly enjoyed this. Granted, I am studying art myself, but I found that Warhol was actually trying to make a point with this one. Most of the complaints for his films revolve around how long and boring they are; and this is justifiable. The same could be said about "Imitation..." as well, but here, I felt Warhol set up characters that had a sense of meaning and spoke about real issues; they weren't just babbling in a drugged-out stupor. Whether you enjoy his style of film-making or not, I think anyone can appreciate an artist making a statement about life.