Tag Archives: Ang Lee

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Life Of Pi – Review

4/5 – Ang Lee earned his Best Director Oscar

With less than eight hours to go before the start of the Oscars, I upped the number of Best Picture nominees I had seen by one by catching an early afternoon showing of Life of Pi. It’s good we showed up early, because it looked like everyone in the vicinity of Brooklyn’s Cobble Hill Cinemas had the same idea.

Before the movie began, the old lady sitting behind me decided to walk her husband through the entire story of the movie in her loud old lady voice. Thanks, lady, you rock. I haven’t read the book, so I thought about turning around and yelling “Dobby dies in book 7!” at Madame de Spoiler. Instead, headphones went in, Foo Fighters came on, and spoilers were avoided. I have to admit, I considered keeping Foo Fighters going a little longer when I saw the first trailer was for the latest  Fast and Furious movie.

Life of Pi started, and despite the constant running commentary from the old lady behind me (She loves meer cats! Tigers are scary!), it was a really good movie. First off, it’s beautifully shot, and the 3D looks awesome. This is the best 3D I’ve seen in a live action movie since Avatar. But unlike Avatar, everything doesn’t look like it’s CGI. Oh, a lot of this movie is CGI, but it doesn’t have that telltale fake look that CGI usually has. I was surprised to find out that the tiger in Life of Pi, Richard Parker, was a CG creature throughout the entire movie. I thought they used an actual tiger for at least some of the scenes.

Cesi n’est pas un tigre.

Life of Pi walks the line between endearing and tragic so well, and that’s what I think is the main reason why I liked it so much. Pi goes through an experience that rivals Job’s, but the movie never turns into maudlin naval gazing. Instead, it’s lifted by by its heartwarming and humorous parts.

I’m glad Ang Lee won the Best Director Oscar for Life of Pi. With Kathryn Bigelow and Ben Affleck both snubbed for Zero Dark Thirty and Argo, I was happy to see it go to Ang Lee for Life of Pi over Steven Spielberg for Lincoln.

See Life of Pi in the theater, and see it in 3D. The shots of the movie during the Oscars didn’t look quite as magical in 2D on my home TV as they did in 3D in the theater.

Parting thought: Gerard Depardieu is a jerk.

Jerk.
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On The Couch #34: Taking Woodstock

Now that I’ve seen Taking Woodstock, I’m really surprised by all the negative reviews I remember it receiving when it was first released in theaters. I enjoyed it very much. Ang Lee hit all the right notes in taking this huge event that was the Woodstock concert and bringing it down to the level of how it affected one small town family. Were people expecting a broad comedy because Demetri Martin is in it? Demetri Martin’s stand up can be subtle, so I think he’s a perfect fit here. In this movie, he reminded me a lot of Zach Braff in Garden State with his mannerisms, and they kind of look alike too. Somebody cast these two as brothers. I promise you at least one ticket sale.

Taking Woodstock: Come for Demetri Martin, stay for Liev Schreiber in drag.

Demetri Martin being in this movie was my main reason for wanting to watch it. His stand-up special, Demetri Martin: Person, and his TV series, Important Things, are both hilarious. Seriously, go watch them both.

Dear Comedy Central, Season 3? Please?

When I saw Jonathan Groff’s name in the opening credits, I was excited. I’m a big fan of Spring Awakening. I then forgot he was in the movie until the end credits, when I was trying to find out who played Michael Lang and found out it was Jonathan Groff. Throughout Taking Woodstock, I kept thinking, “The guy playing Michael looks really familiar. Who is that?” I don’t know why my brain completely erased the fact that Groff was in the movie.

Maybe I’m just not used to the vest and mop of curls?

One of my favorite activities (or annoying habits depending on your point of view) is that I like to use the IMDB app on my iPhone to look up trivia about the movies I watch and then share said trivia with my friends. Okay, I can see how this is annoying, but I don’t do it during the movie unless it’s something we’ve all seen a hundred times, so it’s not that bad, right? Right?

In any case, IMDB has a great piece of trivia about Taking Woodstock that I had to share with you (Because I care. And because I can’t stop sharing IMDB trivia. I have a problem. I acknowledge it). The producers of Taking Woodstock had a hard time casting extras, because they wanted people that didn’t look like they went to the gym every day, and had pubic hair. I found that hilarious. I can picture the casting director saying “Okay, I like your lack of muscle tone, now let’s see that forest.”

No Woodstock movie is complete without the orgy on acid scene.