W.S.
As Singer puts us all to shame with his prodigious output, I can only shake my head at my Termite absence. I've yearned to shower praise on my favorite Hollywood film of the year, Orphan, as well as the multifarious pleasures of the flawed Gamer. But alas, writing a column a week for TCM has my eyes turned backward in time for the most part.
I'm still planning on contributing a little something on both of those worthy films (as well as on whatever I manage to catch at the NYFF), but for now, I'll just direct you to my defense of Paul W.S. Anderson over at IFC. Looking at his work as a whole, it shows a remarkable coherence, maintaining a visual focus on claustrophobic spaces that are often characters in their own right. The production design is the villain in his films, creating booby-trapped spaces that his genre archetype heroes navigate with aplomb. Also, Resident Evil as blood-soaked love-letter to Milla Jovovich. I think the guy is good. Feel free to disagree.
Also! October 1st! Farber on Film: The Complete Film Writings of Manny Farber from the Library of America! Buy buy buy!
Labels: Gamer, Manny Farber, Orphan, Paul W.S. Anderson
posted by R. Emmet Sweeney @ 9:54 AM
3 Comments:
I am also a closet WS fan! I'm not going to argue that MORTAL COMBAT is a classic or anything, but I think SOLDIER, EVENT HORIZON and RESIDENT EVIL are all pretty unimpeachable! Unfortunately I think he's hit a bit of a slump between AVP (the sequel is far superior, how sad is that) and the DEATH RACE remake...
Can't comment on W.S., having never seen any of the Resident Evils, or any of the other movies you mentioned for that matter. (I'm woefully behind on my action movies these days; having a vagina gets in the way I guess.) AVP was beautifully awful, though.
Anxiously awaiting your thoughts on "Orphan." Just watched "The Bad Seed" again, and am ready to up the evil kid quotient of my viewing habits even more.
Mike- I wish I had more space to talk about EVENT HORIZON and SOLDIER in my article, as I like them more than I say in the piece. The opening act of EVENT HORIZON might be W.S' strongest piece of filmmaking. But to me, RESIDENT EVIL is his best (and I like the two sequels a lot too, for which he wrote the screenplays but didn't direct).
AVP is lame, but I'm a DEATH RACE supporter. You should definitely check out PANDORUM, too. W.S. produced it, and it's basically an EVENT HORIZON remake with a few monster-y tweaks. Very solid.
Joe- ORPHAN is the most elegantly constructed Hollywood movie I saw this year! Seriously! I've wanted to write about it for a while but never find the time. Anyway, highly recommended.
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