Brief Interviews with Hideous Adaptations

I have nothing to contribute to the discussion about Meek's Cutoff since I haven't seen it yet. So the only thing I can really talk about instead is what else I've watched while you guys were researching for your dissertation about aspect ratios. :)

Brief Interviews With Hideous Men: I think the moral of this one for me was that DFW's novels shouldn't be made into movies. Language that sounds electrifying and inspiring coming out of the mouth of a master of poetry and prose like DFW sounds incredibly pretentious, belabored, gratuitous... dare I say masturbatory? yeah, I said it... coming out of the mouths of actors like John Krasinski. (Who also directed and adapted it, which I find to be all at once brave and irritating. I've always felt like John Krasinski was trying too hard to be cool. Now I'm sure that's the case.) I had flashbacks to all the auditions I've ever been on and acting classes I've ever taken. It was like watching people read monologues from those horrible books... "Monologues for Actors," "Monologues for Teens," you know? Except if the book was billed as "for people trying to sound intellectual and artsy" and written by a much beloved deceased writer. Painful. I'm pretty sure it's John Krasinski's fault. That being said, fantastic acting from Julianne Nicholson.

National Geographic: China's Lost Girls: The story was sad, albeit pretty ethnocentric (Americans come in and save China from itself). But either way it was hard to focus on it because it's nearly impossible for me to take Lisa Ling seriously.

Frontline: The Released: This was even more sad. It traced the stories of six mentally ill inmates and their struggles to adjust to life outside of prison. As with most Frontline episodes, it was really well done but not at all an upper... to the extent that not everyone lives to see the end of it. Pretty dark stuff.


Exam: This was a really interesting psychological thriller from the U.K. It's kind of a standard plot scenario that's been pretty overdone, but it actually had a bit of a different twist, which I liked. The premise is that there are 8 applicants for a job, and they are locked in a windowless room and given 80 minutes to answer a question. Their directions seem simple - don't "spoil" your paper, don't leave the room, don't try to communicate with the exam administrators or the armed guard standing at the door. Or you will be disqualified. "There is one question given and one answer required." And of course the clock starts, they turn over their exams, and the pages are blank. But after that is where it differentiates itself from other movies with plots like this, in my humble opinion. I mean, as you can guess, it's a movie about humanity, really, what happens to us as the clock winds down, when our goals conflict or align with others' goals, and what we're really willing to do when we're under pressure to come out on top. It didn't feel contrived to me (beyond the basic premise), and I really liked the ending. It was an entertaining 100 minutes.

Oh, and the aspect ratio was Widescreen Anamorphic 1.78:1. xoxo