Ash is a goddamn robot!
I watched Alien five days ago. Yeah, I’m really dropping the ball on punctual blog entries these days.
Mind you, what is there to say that more professional, more qualified and more verbose people haven’t already said? It’s insanely atmospheric and lonely, and I love it. The first hour very much reminded me of Life Force (which you may recall me gushing about two years ago), with its very cold and lonely exploration of an alien ship, though Alien came first, of course. In a way I was almost disappointed when the alien started killing dudes full-time, not because it wasn’t entertaining, but because it had less time to explore the dank and desolate environment of space. I’m a total sucker for that kind of stuff.
I also watched The Hudsucker Proxy… half a month ago? Yeah, it was part of a Coen Brothers boxset and was one of the only two movies I was vaguely familiar with (the other being The Big Lebowski). I only became aware of the film through Platypus Comix’s very entertaining synopsis of the film with comments and other titbits of information – it’s a very good read. Also, hey, have I plugged the site before? I probably should!
Well, gee, linking to a very detailed summary of the entire film kind of spoils my sum-up-the-plot paragraph. Not that it’s a movie you watch for story, I felt. The plot is a very simple rags-to-riches, humble-to-jerkass story where they get a guy who appears to be an oaf to replace the deceased head of the company so they can deplete their stock and then buy it up for cheap afterwards, but whoops, he’s got a bright idea that sells millions, and there’s a reporter who masquerades as a secretary and there’s romance and ghosts and a magical negro who controls time and an abundance of run-on sentences. Yes. I almost want to say that it didn’t throw many surprises my way, but I just read the entire summary of the film about half a year, so I think that particular criticism is moot.
No, what you really watch it for is the ambiance. The visuals. The atmosphere. The accents! It’s like they had a big bucket full of paint that was the pure essence of the 1950s, and they dunked a film in it. The old-timey New York is recreated fabulously, not just in the sights, but in the mannerisms and archetypes of the people you see throughout the flick. The visual direction is fabulous, with a variety of motifs being used to great effect in many shots, and even just how a scene or location is laid out is done fantastically. I haven’t seen enough of the Coen Brothers’ work to judge how much I like them (I can barely remember a thing from The Big Lebowski besides the memes), but I will say, if anything, they know how to lay out a fantastic shot.
Today’s observation: I’d sooner trust a piece of paper to tell me that the ATM is out of order rather than the ATM’s fancy-pants touch-screen display. I’m clearly not going to get along well with robot butlers.
I’m having a right laugh with my bank over setting me up an account. Fucking Natwest.