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Old 07-03-2016, 08:36 AM   #86
teh b0lly!!1
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Vicky Cristina Barcelona -

Woody Allen film from 2008. After really digging Match Point, and wanting to delve a bit further into the neurotic jewish rabbit hole, this seemed like a good prospect.

firstly, it's highly entertaining, and like match point, it's very smooth and easy to swallow. Allen sure likes his actresses young and devastatingly purty. this movie features three goddesses, god they're all so goddamn beautiful it's too much to take sometimes: my infinite love Scarlett Johanssen (write a memory on each petal, definitely), Rebecca Hall and Penelope Cruz. and as the ultra-charming mega-alpha male at the helm on all three, Javier Bardem. tbh he puts forth a good performance. they all do, especially Rebecca Hall.

much like Match Point, it provides sort of a peek into this ultra-burgeouis world, and allows you to both bask in the cleanly, lavish, limitless world of the filthy-rich & beautiful characters (Javier's character's way of hitting on the two protagonists, who are, incidentally, two of the hottest women on the planet: walking up to them and telling them to join him on his private plane to a beautiful small town in Spain), and simultaneously make fun of it so you don't exit the film feeling too bitter about your own small time mortal life. maybe i got a 2003 toyota instead of a private jet, but i'm not as vacant as these ppl!

it's not quite as crisp as Match Point but it's definitely got some nice peak points and commentary. the staleness of upper middle class life. or, how this generation's indecisiveness and fear of missing out are basically cancerous. or, the insufferable burden of small talk. lots of good stuff.
there is one particular shot with rebecca hall's character staring blankly into the void as her dreadfully boring husband stands far behind her with a towel wrapped around his waist, trying to talk on his cell phone but getting bad reception. "what? you're breaking up! i can't hear you! what?". just spot on.

another highlight for me: the way allen treats scenes in this movie, where people engage in useless small talk, or greet each other upon meeting. he dissolves to another shot a second too early, just as if to say "just fucking get on with it, i can't stand these charades", or turns down the dialogue just as somebody's making a punch line to a terrible joke at dinner. really nice touches. i know Disco King will relate to this.

to conclude, i wish i was an attractive, rich Spanish painter who gets to have sex with those incredibly beautiful and talented ladies and go to bohemian feasts. unfortunately though, i'm a grossly unglamorous soon to be 32 year old, buried in his parents' basement and incapable of deciding where to go or what to do. would not watch again because it might make me kill myself once and for all and end this endless suffering, A-!

 
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