...more recent posts
This documentary tells the little-known story of how actor Bing Russell (of TV's "Bonanza") created an independent baseball team in the 1970s. Armed with big-time dreams and plenty of spirit, Russell's Portland Mavericks become lovable underdogs.
jim was disappointed with the wolf of wall street for among other reasons that it focused on something on the periphery. brad pitts production company has bought up the rights to michael lewis' the big short which took dead aim at the 2008 financial meltdown, or so i imagine. who has time to read?
Wild -- Reese Witherspoon shows a lot of range in this flick about struggle. The backpacking made me remember the years I was into backpacking. I wasn't the type to walk in five miles, plop down and set up a tent. From my perspective, it wasn't real backpacking until 10-15 miltes from the trailhead, well past the people wearing sandles and carrying a sack lunch. The sort of journey in Wild is a whole different level of commitment.
short list to see: inherent vice
IMAX 3D HFR -- That's the format I chose for viewing the latest Hobbit. The high frame rate (48 Hz I believe) and lack of film grain give the slow moving parts of the film an "uncinematic look". Since this film seems to be mostly battle scenes, the 48 Hz is welcome. It allows motion to be smoother.
In the first Hobbit, there were some effects that looked clunkier in 48 Hz than 24 Hz. I attribute this to the fact the 24 Hz, by being clunky, hides clunkiness. There was some of this in Hobbit Part the Third in HFR, but not much.
I don't know whether to attribute it to cinematographic choices, or the 3D, but there were a few scenes that felt like I was looking at a miniature, sort of the effect one sees in tilt-shift without being tilt-shift. This was distracting when it happened.