SIFF Days 7 and 8 (Slipstream, Eagle Vs Shark)
This was beginning of the downturn, for the next week damn near everything was mediocre to bad, which sucked after seeing quite a few films I actively liked early on.
I read a bit about Anthony Hopkins’ directorial debut Slipstream online before the screening and everything I found used the term “self-indulgent”. Sadly none them were wrong. Hopkins tries his best to channel Lynch in an unconventional film that is actually surprisingly conventional. I was mostly bored, then kind of irritated. When I got to work the next day, a co-worker asked what I thought of it, and I gave him my two word review: “Shit Stream”. Yes, my amps go to 11 as well.
Then the next day Eagle vs Shark brought together every stereotype from every quirky indie comedy of the last ten years and made them all suck. It was almost enough to make me wish that Wes Anderson had never made Rushmore, the movie I blame for kick-starting this whole lovable loser genre. There is nothing unique in this movie, half the characters are actively hateful, and I did not laugh once. Sadly the audience seemed to be eating the shit up. I’m glad to see its release appears to be going nowhere, otherwise I might be forced to listen to every asshole in the world quoting it for the next decade.
related articles
- Memories, Complicated (February 14th, 2008)
- SIFF Day 10 (I Don’t Want To Sleep Alone, The Man In The Chair, The Elephant And The Sea) (January 1st, 2008)
- Some Shit I Stole From socialretard (September 10th, 2007)
- SIFF Day 9 (The Cloud, Still Alive: A Film About Krzysztof Kieslowski) (June 25th, 2007)
- SIFF Day 6 (Manufactured Landscapes, The Year Of Living Dangerously, I Dot The Eye Shorts Program) (June 23rd, 2007)
June 25th, 2007 at 1:03 pm
Now these are the kind of hate-filled reviews I would’ve loved reading during SIFF. Better late than never! I’ll be damn impressed if you end up writing up the whole festival over the next month or so.