weird? wtf? unless you're completely unfamiliar with non-linear narratives, this film covers fairly familiar territory.
anyway, i though it sucked. histronic and contrived, with the japanese scenes being the sole merit. since when did the world need a global, verite-style remake of crash? of course, those negative qualities are likely to ensure oscar® success. bah.
weird? wtf? unless you're completely unfamiliar with non-linear narratives, this film covers fairly familiar territory.
anyway, i though it sucked. histronic and contrived, with the japanese scenes being the sole merit. since when did the world need a global, verite-style remake of crash? of course, those negative qualities are likely to ensure oscar® success. bah.
I want an entire film with the quiet intensity (lol, PUN!) and acting quality of the Japanese segment, without all the other shit.
Has Rinko Kukichi ever been in anything else I may have seen, because I think I am in love with her... what an amazingly complex character. When she was crying in front of the cop, I actually started sobbing, it was so real to me.
I was totally on team JHud for best supporting actress, but now...I don't know.
But I want Abigail Breslin to win simply because she is the most adorable little ball of squish ever captured on camera.
bah....babel is overrated. and may i just say that the 2 most well known actors in the film (pitt and blachett) did the worst job in the film! the mexican babysitter lady was very good and obviously rinko did a superb job considering the complex intensity of the character, esp since she cudnt speak...which is sucha important part of acting. but yeh didnt like the film very much at all actually. so i hope it doesnt take any gongs at the oscars.
the reliably vitriolic reverse shot tears this a new one:
The only thing keeping Alejandro Gonzalez Innaritu's Babel from being this year's Crash is that the filmmaking isn't as embarrassingly inept. Inarritu can at least stage a scene, allow a conflict to grow with burdensome intensity, and direct actors to gut-wrenching heights, even as we're rolling our eyes in immeasurable disbelief. Where Inarritu really shows his bluff (even more so than in the ridiculous Mexican nanny plotline) is in the Tokyo thread. Though it's been criticized for bearing only the most tangential relation to the rest of the film's interlocking tales of global woe, Chieko's story is problematic for far more significant reasons: How could anyone not call Inarritu out on his deathly combination of sexism and exoticism? What more simplistic, cynical, and vile way to exemplify the "heartache of miscommunication" (or something...the film's really not about communication at all) than to create as your lead a deaf-mute teenage girl who, in a desperate bid for connection, flashes her privates in cafeterias, puts her dentist's hand on her vagina, and, in her ultimate humiliation, strips naked in front of a much older police detective? Sorry, but this disgusting male construction (elevating schoolgirl-uniform fantasies to art-house pretension), complete with gratuitous beaver shots, reveals Inarritu and one-trick-pony screenwriter Guillermo Arriaga for the simple-minded provocateurs they really are. And if all that's not enough, when her father comes home, and finds her standing on the chilly, windy balcony, utterly nude, does he cover his daughter up with a blanket or coat? No, he just hugs her, and she stands naked, for one last titillation, as the camera pulls back, revealing the Tokyo skyline. Final director's words: 'For my children.' Gah, vomit!
oh, i agree that that segment was the best. i mainly just posted that paragraph cos it made me laugh.
i think my main problem with the film is that it's so sketchy in it's theme, so you just have to take it on the most basic level as a "why can't we all just get along?" film ala crash, but innaritu and arriaga are obviously having so much fun in giving us the ultimate slice of calculated, contrived, feel-bad, series-of-unfortunate-events entertainment that the film ends up negating it's own message. and amores perros works far better on a visceral level, so basically, babel has no reason to exist other than to pander to the academy's crash love.
oh, i agree that that segment was the best. i mainly just posted that paragraph cos it made me laugh.
i think my main problem with the film is that it's so sketchy in it's theme, so you just have to take it on the most basic level as a "why can't we all just get along?" film ala crash, but innaritu and arriaga are obviously having so much fun in giving us the ultimate slice of calculated, contrived, feel-bad, series-of-unfortunate-events entertainment that the film ends up negating it's own message. and amores perros works far better on a visceral level, so basically, babel has no reason to exist other than to pander to the academy's crash love.
I totally agree with everything you said.
It is simmilar to crash, and even though I hated crash with a passion, I'd have to admit that at least the links and stories had a through-running theme...I have no idea what Babel was about, only that it was something about miscommunication.
Also, I don't really understand why the Mexican screaming babbler was nominated, her performance made me laugh at points, it was so over the top. Maybe I just don't like that style but can someone who liked her performance explain to me why?
It reminded me a lot of crash as well. When I would tell my customers that its "about several intertwined stories and about cultural/ racial differences..." I'd always think Wow, that is exactly what I said about Crash!
Ally, you're right that its about miscommunication, and also about innocence.
I actually really liked this movie, mainly for the japanese segments (I loved how you could feel her frustration) and for the score - something that sadly, not many people even notice.
I agree with most. i thought it was overated, long winded and dramatic. Lots of very good invidual acting however particularly from the young japanese actress (sorry not sure of her name) and the mexican babysitter. (my votes for the oscars!) i thought the japanese scenes were very accurate and that story itself could have been extended into an entire film. lots of great "lonely planet" style camera work. i thought most of those "confronting" bits of the film were a bit "shocking for the sake of it" ie. the young boy masturbating ??? I found it very similar to Crash which i enjoyed a lot more.
Overall some great features (camera and acting) others not so good (story, linking bits etc.)
I thought it was an amazing story and througth the acting I could have believed that it was all true. Some of the stuff they showed was a bit much but it just helped reinforce them being more human rather than factitious character (IMO). I didn't hear much of it before hand so I went in blidfolded as to all of this hype and I am yet to see crash aswell so maybe I wouldn't have liked it as much had I seen crash before but it was still an amazing story. Best movie of 2006 I think
