pacific-oconnor

I was curious about "The Substitute" because it was Mark Whalberg's debut as an actor but I couldn't have imagined the pleasures that this off beat melodrama had to offer. Elegantly told with unexpected holes in the narration here and there but with a thrilling central performance by Amanda Donohoe that left me kind of breathless. There is also a visual intention that is both surprising and deeply engrossing. Amanda Donohe looking at herself in the mirror at different times of her shattering journey gives you clues as to were her mind is. What does she actually see when she looks into the mirror? She was always a positive human being that was pushed into an infernal situation and instead of getting herself out she gets in deeper and deeper. I felt sympathy for her and at the same time she terrified me. The superb Hitchcockian score is another major plus.

Who is Paul Thomas Anderson? There is something about him that does't belong to this earth. That could be a compliment or not, it's all up to us. That's what make his cinema so damn unique. At the end of the day it's all up to us. But the abrasive way in which he visits universes and throws his views to us is so powerful, so arrogant, so enthralling, so infuriating that the experience leaves you baffled and suspicious. but also enchanted, transformed. Here, Daniel's saga could very well be the saga of a Hollywood maverick. So little time for sentimentality. Daniel Day Lewis seems to understand it all and he adds his unmistakable humanity to another monster, after his butcher in Gangs Of New York. His performance goes beyond anything we've seen recently anywhere. From Upton Sinclair to Paul Thomas Anderson via Daniel Day Lewis an unmissable work of art.

The words that become a catch phrase tend to confuse rather than clarify. They all say this, we all know that, when in fact, truth is always the simplest if not the easiest of answers. Here Robert Redford is not trying to be Oliver Stone. No, he remains Robert Redford in his handsome rugged way asking us to think without ever even asking it. He provokes the question in a situation that we all seem to have taken sides. I admired the seriousness of the intention here. Meryl Streep is terrific interviewing an inedited Tom Cruise - All the recent gossip about Cruise made his Senator even more sinister. Redford, the all American guy, guides according his own coordinates but doesn't preach. He just tells us. Well done!