tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7461948747659071092.post8821436326617779909..comments2023-09-29T02:49:02.989-07:00Comments on An Emphatic Umph: Favorites, Or Relative AbsolutesDaniel Coffeenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03912050391869734890noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7461948747659071092.post-76014879918769514592017-09-01T05:13:16.940-07:002017-09-01T05:13:16.940-07:00Thank you, too, for the reply. My beef with Blood ...Thank you, too, for the reply. My beef with <i>Blood</i> is definitely not related to DD Lewis, who is all you say, or the otherwise excellence of the film. In fact, it is often such superb elements of the art-form that manage to miff me, in that it raises a corrupted vehicle to such a respectful level. Basically, an entire plot thread was removed that related to the preacher's radical brother, who, among other things, made his way to Russia, which was Sinclair's way of elaborating on the revolution and aftermath beyond what had been/was being reported in the newspapers. In the book, what happens in the film is in permanent parallel to the other story. Not that I think that PTA removed part of the plot out of political considerations, though it had occurred to me when I saw it.<br /><br />But, yeah, <i>Inherent Vice</i> is all of that. It played so well I accidentally watched it twice. And <i>Magnolia</i> – utter ug! That scene where Cruise's character is weeping at the bedside of Robard's character, with a deep focus of the late PSH's character conveying whatever he was supposed to be thinking, which I believe was what the actor was thinking, which'd be, "How did I get roped into this?"davidlyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04754707934311038544noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7461948747659071092.post-60722159475482608732017-08-30T17:37:27.657-07:002017-08-30T17:37:27.657-07:00Thanks for reading and joining the fray. I never r...Thanks for reading and joining the fray. I never read the Sinclair so can't vouch for preference or fidelity. But I loved that film: Daniel Day Lewis is so post-human, so non-human — he is oil; he is a moment and possibility of America. It's a mess of a movie and all the better for it. And Inherent Vice! Oy! It's astounding to me — a truly Pynchonesque delirium, all stoned out, Joaquin mumbling his way all deadpan cool and sexy. But I didn't care for anything PTA did before Boogie Nights; Magnolia, in particular, I find awful. And I know what you mean about Dead Man; I had the same reaction — I thought it "beneath" me, or some such thing, and now find it brilliant. None of this is surprising, though, is it: we change so our perspectives change. Of course they do!Daniel Coffeenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03912050391869734890noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7461948747659071092.post-35629446558709107052017-08-30T16:42:57.041-07:002017-08-30T16:42:57.041-07:00Very nicely expressed. Having written something re...Very nicely expressed. Having written something remarkably similar conceptually related to relative absolutes, I was drawn to your title. Subsequently the list of films intrigued me. My favorites too shift absolutely. As do my least. I was surprised to find an affinity for <i>Inherent Vice</i>, given my response to the director's, in my opinion, gutting <i>Oil!</i> of its essence with <i>Blood</i>. It's true that he even changed the title to spare the comparisons, knowing fully well in advance that his attempt would not be to film the book; but still, I had read Sinclair recently enough that in spite of great film making all around, it landed on my worst of all time list. Cuz, well, Outrage! Ditto <i>Magnolia</i> for entirely different reasons. Nevertheless I can sense that these will change, perhaps polar-ly, just as I have a sneaking suspicion that one day <i>Inland Empire</i> will have gone from my top spot to me falling asleep as it plays out in front of me, while I'll be able to make it for the first time to the end credits of <i>Dead Man</i> still awake and wondering how in the hell I could have been "over" this kind of thing when I saw it in the cinema all those years ago. I shutter to think about the implications regarding my intimate relationships with women.davidlyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04754707934311038544noreply@blogger.com