For some reason Rottentomatoes wont let me use their site to review movies, this may be due to some technical issue or it could also be because my last couple reviews all rapidly descended into violent and antisocial ramblings which were immediately deleted by our Facebook overlords as soon as I attempted to post them. All hail the mighty ones.......... Anyways, my violent and antisocial thoughts havent changed too much since I was a little kid (youve probably heard them all before.......) so you may find my thoughts on In Bruges slightly more interesting. If not then you can check out Mick LaSalles thoughts on the movie, as he is much better thinker/writer than I. This is of course assuming you have already seen In Bruges, so if you have not, just go ahead and stop reading and watch it now. For reals, its on Netflix.........no damn excuses, its a great movie. I decided to watch this movie because the writer/director, Martin McDonagh, also made my favorite movie of last year, Seven Psychopaths. Hes not exactly a household name, as a matter of fact even I dont really know who the hell he is, but this guy is a genius storyteller. In Bruges took in 7.5 million at the box office, and Seven Psychopaths took in 15 million, so while things certainly moving in the right direction, this dude is seriously underappreciated. In the world of film at least.....turns out Mr. McDonagh is actually more known as a playwright. And just like that........I am suddenly interested in the stage. McDonaghs style is reminiscent of Guy Ritchies and Quentin Tarantinos films, only much more restrained. Much like Ritchie and QT the characters are mostly colorful and talkative criminals, though McDonagh brings a lot of unique elements to the proverbial table, all while avoiding that annoying need to be cool that those other two are so often guilty of. In particular, McDonagh has a Buddhist like sense of passive resistance and non-violence that he masterfully weaves into his frequently extremely violent tales. He also has a terrific sense of meta storytelling that does not come off hipster as QT so often does. His characters and dialogue are top notch, just as funny as anything in Snatch, only less cartoony. Its a little too early to call McDonagh better than QT (and never to soon to say that hes better than Ritchie), but one more film of this caliber and he takes the title in my book, and I am a big Tarantino fan. While I did not enjoy In Bruges quite as much as I enjoyed Seven Psychopaths, it still earns my highest recommendation as a movie that absolutely everyone should see. If you have not seen either, watch In Bruges first, I feel as though the thematic progression would work better that way. I will probably watch Seven Psychopaths again tomorrow, just to follow up on this thought. In the meantime, I will be watching House of Games, as it is a movie I have been planning to watch for quite some time, and I have noted that McDonagh is frequently compared to David Mamet. Gotta love insomnia............... 4 1/2 Stars
Posted on: Sat, 16 Nov 2013 11:27:00 +0000
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