Limbo
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Movie Reviews of Limbo
Movie Review: Two steps ahead of the finance company.
Summary: 5 Stars
This is my first Sayles picture, but this one pushed me into the stratosphere so I plan to dig deeper into the man's repertoire. I'm an average moviegoer, and I look for the same things in my movies as every other sleeverolling American.
I want a movie to be daring, to show some guts in how it presents itself to us. It needs work with our eyes and put us in perpective, it has to be cinematic, not just theatre on camera. It has to "Lift Me Up" and carry me over several oceans and shores to a place I could never visit in the material world. It has to be constantly aware that it is indeed a film and not reality, and it has to interract with the audience in different ways using that fact.
John Sayles is someone with the knowledge and skill of creating a storytelling effect on film, not just focusing on the content (a truly limited practice) but on the effect of film. Limbo has a narrative structure rooted in theatre, but the effects are completely overturned to focus on the effects of the eye. Our eyes are introduced as a grounded character when noelle offers us an orderve. Sayles uses the camera movement and the lighting to mostly the effect of participating in the action, hence we the viewers participate. There Sayles conjures up overlapping dialogue with overlapping cuts and our ability to punctuate multiple percpectives of the same event. The real kicker comes from having a pace which starts slow, sets a lot of potential characters and narrative threads and convinces us into relying on the expectations of this being an "ensemble," later making us focus on the real state of Limbo. All of these, combined with the ultra-brave ending are so engaging cinematically that they almost all disappear within minutes of watching, and make one focus on the world in front of us.
In the second half the movie attaches us to one of the "threads" and more and we become more and more unexpectantely attached to more and more parts of the world. Its only a fools game not to fool your consumer while telling the story, its part of the game Sayles unerstands this throughly. Sayles knows the ways of literate games, himslef a participant in the form, and fleshes them out to their fullest here. He is also able to see how this relates to the craft of movies, and is able to make the tricks more out in the open, more external.
The script interracts with us by creating symmetry between our visit into this world and the intentions of those who want to create it into one big theme park. Both Sayles and the fatcat character wish to entangle us in an Alaska with exaggerated myths and legends. Just those stories would be satisfactory, considering the already high level of craftsmanship, but then out of nowhere we go into a deeper world of the Diary that one of the characters extends, the world of Diary being as Mystifying to the characters as their world is to us. That diary plunges into the deep corners of this world we're in. Some fleshed out yet vague strokes of images in the spirit of the shewolf story, the words and the whole scene are unforgettable. Critics (vultures) gave a lot of attention to the performances, they are good enough, but don't compare closely to the presence of Sayles in the film (him you could talk about for years). Vanessa Martinez probably does the best work here, but mostly due to her natural magic not her understanding of the material, I wonder if she'll get her just recognition in the industry. Overall I recommend this flick to those that see movies as something just a tad above the level of something you do before you get laid, and I would also recommend you forget everything I said before you watch it. Some movies can be watched and admired at the same time, some engage you into the world, this does a little of both, but it'll have more of an effect if you don't think about it.
On the last note I must say that Springsteen's song at the end is one of his oddest recordings and is worth sitting through entirely, even though his falshetto is underdeveloped the production and rhythm of words work as a fitting epilogue, that could not have been done with an "ending."
Movie Review: Did you see the significance?
Summary: 5 Stars
I wasn't too impressed the first time this film was "force fed" to me. I'm only human, what can I say. But now this is one of my all time favorite motion pictures. First of all, it satisfied a scant curiosity for me. Namely, what's Alaska like? That question was answered immediately by watching "Limbo." Alaska is one of the most mysterious and culturally rich states in the union. "Limbo" is an extremely rewarding excursion in character development: good acting and believable situations. It brings us a grand assortment of humanity: A duped lesbian couple, their curmudgeon of a landlord; wise native-Americans; an emotionally-starved folk singer (flawlessly acted by Mary Elizabeth Mastrontonio); a crooked bush pilot (wonderfully played by Kris Kristopherson; a saddened fisherman (David Strathairn's lowkey yet powerful performance) and a beautiful, frightened teenage girl (Vanessa Martinez's awe-inspiring debut). I'm only scratching the surface: the texture of this movie's !characters is rich and immeasurable. Like a salmon (Alaskan analogy) you get hooked and trawled in to this incredibly beautiful film. The plot is simplistic yet intriguing: the singer becomes quickly attracted to the fisherman. Her daughter, a complex and lonely girl finds relief through self-mutilation and story-writing. This performance (perfectly executed by Vanessa Martinez) is the highlight of the film. Her deeply-imbedded sorrow will simply break your heart. I've never seen such an incredible performance by any actress in all my years of movie-watching. Her portrayal of the rebellious daughter Noelle is so rich and convincing that I'll never forgive the academy of motion picture arts and sciences for not giving her an Oscar nomination--It's THAT GOOD. Anyway the three of them ended up stranded on a deserted island after fleeing form murderous drug dealers. Simple yet not-so-simple. (Trust me, you'll see what I'm saying._
Now about the ending. IF YOU HAVEN'!T SEEN "LIMBO" DON'T READ THE REST OF THIS REVIEW. But it's a "brow-raiser." At the beginning of the movie we see salmon trapped in a river during spawing. Just like them we--the viewers--are in a state of limbo wondering the fates of the main characters.
I highly recommend "Limbo." Watching it has changed and enriched my life. (Good soundtrack too!_
Movie Review: Another John Sayles Gem
Summary: 5 Stars
God love and protect John Sayles. Not because he hits every ball out of the park, because he clearly doesn't; but because he never lets his few strikeouts compel him to try to hit a five-run homer the next time out. In an era marked by increasingly degraded and degrading notions of "entertainment" and "storytelling" - for pity's sake, as I write this, grown adults are waxing rhapsodic over a movie about a costumed billionaire-vigilante (!!) - Sayles understands that great drama is about the people we meet every day; the places we live in and how they shape us; the things that change, and the things that remain; and above all, about the human heart in conflict with itself. In LIMBO, he takes risks with his zig-zagging narrative most filmmakers simply aren't capable of, and reaps rewards of such profundity, and richness of feeling, that most audiences are too conditioned by junk-culture to recognize, let alone appreciate them. Some viewers have felt betrayed by LIMBO's seismic shifts in tone and direction, and the elliptical ending, but even that sense of betrayal speaks to how utterly absorbing and moving his handling of his Alaska-set story is, and how unblinking his observations of his characters. (You can only feel "betrayed" if you're deeply invested in the story that's been presented, after all.) Sayles' screenplay, like his direction, is so completely free of artifice as to seem transparent - his "heroes" and "villains" are separated only by their degrees of vulnerability and weakness under pressure - and his small cast of actors are working at the height of their gifts. David Straithairn, always underrated, has never been better, and young Vanessa Martinez is a quiet revelation. You won't forget these characters, or this movie, regardless of how the ending affects you. And though you hate to jinx his thus-far phenomenal career with red-carpet hullabaloo, maybe it's time to make it official and coronate John Sayles as the greatest moviemaker of our time. He may not need or want the crown, but Hollywood certainly needs to made to cry uncle and acknowledge it.Movie Review: Wow. Amazing in every possible way.
Summary: 5 Stars
I simply must take issue with the previous reviews. "Limbo" is a fantastic film. It is truly absorbing for the very reason that other people who are more used to, or hoping for, some kind of action-filled cliche movie would have preferred. You can't go into this movie wanting another typical lame Hollywood ending movie. Sayles' movies aren't that way. Yet neither are they boring--far from it! "Limbo" is about the lives of the characters. The key is to realize that by watching this particular film you are specifically watching a series of events in their lives go into inexorable motion, and then watching the consequences. The events themselves are quite simple on the surface...hence again, why some may call this boring as there are no cartoon characters, jet fighters, aliens, robots, explosions and the like to segue into the next scene. The scenes of the marooned group reading the diary they found in the ruins of their shelter are stunning. And as for the ending, well, (don't worry, no giveaways here! ) how else could it have ended? Anything else would have been another stupid Hollywood ending that leaves nothing to the imagination. And also, ponder the title itself. You think about this movie after you leave the theater, after you turn off the TV, you discuss it with friends. That's what good movies do...make you keep talking about them after the credits roll. If you want to see a truly original movie that will stay with you for a long time, get "Limbo." Whew. Thanks!Movie Review: A dreamy and vanishing drama!
Summary: 5 Stars
John Sayles is a brilliant and honest filmmaker. He doesn't need to make big budget projects to involve emotional and passionately the viewer.
This is an intimate portrait around the life of a community almost isolated from the rest of the world in the Yukon heights, where the nature is a towering and invisible actor, in its multiple vestments; the salmon fishing is the principal commercial activity in this town.
The dramatic script will involve with a beauty and promising love affair among a lonely man and a singer with her daughter who tries to find some shelter and finally the man of her hazardous life: The dialogues are absorbing and the movie may be conceived as an expansive Adagio.
A half brother of our main protagonist has some troubles with the low depths and we perceive by intuition something is wrong with this guy. That crucial twist of fate will make the situation overflows and we find those three people far away from the civilization in the middle of nowhere, expecting for some rescue.
A magnificent exploration of the human soul, poetically filmed. The dramatic tool employed throughout the reading of a dairy in an empty and half - destroyed house will feed our imagination and so did them. The edition process is accuracy and apparently disrupted to accent the increasing tension.
The opened ending reminded me to the enigmatic ending of that famous Poe' s novel: Arthur Gordon Pym.
Go for this peculiar little gem.