Sunday, October 12, 2008

Confession Sundays

For the lapsed Catholic in all of us- a new series in which I confess my deepest, darkest secrets before Oprah and The Madonna and wait for my atonement.

I can't stand most of the Gus Van Sant films that I've seen.

My Own Private Idaho was a good film, even if River Phoenix's epic performance overshadows it in my mind, and I didn't mind most of Drugstore Cowboy (ditto on Matt Dillon). But Good Will Hunting? Gerry? Elephant? Give me a break. Can you say pretentious jerk off much? Good Will Hunting is so corny and trite that I wanted to vomit and, coincidentally, it started my unnatural hate for Matt Damon (which thankfully ended after The Departed). Gerry is two hours of Matt Damon and Casey Affleck wandering around the desert and I wanted to rip my eyeballs out; I like long takes as much as the next person, but do I really need to see a five minute take of Matt and Casey walking and saying and doing nothing? Elephant isn't a horrible film, per se, but it's more of the same endless long takes with very little story going on. I really hope I like Van Sant's upcoming Milk. Every time I see the trailer, I want to see it more and more, so let's hope that he's finally made a movie for me.

2 comments:

Marcy said...

Glad I'm not alone on Good Will Hunting. I fell asleep twice before I saw the whole film in its entirety. It wasn't worth it.

J.D. said...

Yeah, you probably shouldn't see Paranoid Park. It's basically a dreamy and Christopher Doyle-shot version of the stuff he does you hate.