Syriana

[Redlum]

Really interesting interview with Stephen Gaghan about Syriana from Moriarty at AICN.
http://www.aintitcool.com/display.cgi?id=21859

admin edit: warning: its full of (unmarked) spoilers.  i got like 3 questions in and had to stop reading.  --modage

[greenowl]

Good point, Private.

When are they gonna make a film about Bill Hicks?

[private witt]

Good point, Private.

When are they gonna make a film about Bill Hicks?

Thanks.  Y'know, the more I think about it, the more I think they shouldn't.  Somebody should just release a bunch of his actual live standup in the theatres. 

[Pozer]

Really interesting interview with Stephen Gaghan about Syriana from Moriarty at AICN.
http://www.aintitcool.com/display.cgi?id=21859

warning: its full of (unmarked) spoilers.  i got like 3 questions in and had to stop reading. 

But those first 3 questions were REALLY INTERESTING huh?

[Find Your Magali]

I'm really looking forward to this. ... A shallow person like myself, who likes to categorize things, would say that it sounds like a mix of 65 percent Traffic, 20 percent Three Kings and 15 percent Thomas Friedman column

[polkablues]

Here's links to two interviews about my soon-to-be favorite movie of the year: a fun one with Matt Damon which contains POSSIBLE SPOILERS, and a really, really interesting one with Robert Baer, the real-life CIA guy upon whom Clooney's character is based.

Matt Damon

Robert Baer

[Gold Trumpet]

For those unsure, the Baer interview is harmless. Mainly just about his time in the CIA. One question leads to a spoiler, but it wasn't even bad. I recommend everyone read his book. Syriana looks to be the most dramatic film of the year but yet See No Evil borders on goofiness half of the read. Very serious sometimes, but hilarious as well. I can't see how the film can take much from that book.

[Ghostboy]

I just saw it, and if See No Evil is sometimes hilarious, Gaghan certainly eschwed all of that. This film is deadly serious. It's also really good. It's also really confusing - I feel like I need to go do some research before I even attempt to write more about the specifics of the narrative. That said, it's clear that Gaghan knows what's going on, and that he's angry - and his anger is contagious. The last twenty minutes of the film are thick with suspense, and really leave you feeling upset.

I sorta felt like I should have left my car in the parking lot and walked home.

[modage]

i also just saw it and it was good but not great.  the similarities between this film and Traffic are too hard to ignore especially knowing they came from the same writer. but Traffic had Soderbergh who is a much better filmmaker.  the film feels long and yet i feel like i didn't get enough time with any of the characters.  everybody was good but the film only hinted at them.  in order to get all the characters the script spreads itself a little thin.  characters are only here to show us this aspect of the oil business and then it's off to the next thing.  you really don't get involved in the characters enough to truly care about them.  you care more for their situation which is where i think gaghan lost focus.  whereas i feel like in Traffic the characters are servicing the story/politics, here it's the reverse.  and that's where the film starts to drift into Crash territory when the characters are just archetypes serving the message.  and for all the weight gain and spine injury clooney endured is unfortunate because i feel like his character got the least screentime.  (amanda peet was good in her few minutes also, so if it was ruined she didnt do it!)  this would've been better served as an HBO mini-series spread over a couple parts only i'm not sure where the act breaks would've been.  for what is mostly a thriller, it never really builds much tension. 

C+.  for the most part i agree with this dude... http://www.aintitcool.com/display.cgi?id=21923

[Ghostboy]

i also just saw it and it was good but not great.  the similarities between this film and Traffic are too hard to ignore especially knowing they came from the same writer.

I was surprised at how little it reminded me of Traffic. The movie that kept popping into my head while I was watching it was The Insider. This isn't as good as that one, but it's very similar (and not just because of Christopher Plummer.

and that's where the film starts to drift into Crash territory when the characters are just archetypes serving the message. 

But no one ever started spouting platitudes, which was all the dialogue in Crash consisted of. If this was like Crash, it would have ended with Matt Damon standing in the middle of the desert, shaking his fists at the sky. In the rain.

[Pozer]

haha

[Ultrahip]

thought this was outstanding.

during the q&a afterwards gaghan spoke about 70s conspiracy films and how this film reflects the more current trend of big evil things happening out in the open, not underwraps as they once were, and he wanted to capture that (he did). after the q&a he let people come up and speak with him individually which was awesome, at a certain point the fat short woman moderating said "let's go stephen, plane to catch" or something like that and good ole gaghan said "i'm in no hurry" which rocked, because i got to talk to him. i asked him about things being out in the open now, yet even though they are, the public seems mostly ignorant or just apathetic towards these events, and if gaghan ever considered yet another narrative strain tracking non-involved, everyday folks driving around hummers and what not, being completely oblivious to their level of involvement, and gaghan said that that thought was spot on, that he'd considered something like that to make the story of big wigs more relatable to this large audience he's going for. anyhow, just an awesome night and an awesome film, gaghan is very articulate and impressive.

[private witt]

Confoundit!  I hate loving a film before I've seen it.  It will always disapoint.  I will dream about it and the story won't seem right when I see the film because my subconcience has already filled in the gaps between the moments we see in the trailers.  This happend with Jurrasic Park when I was 11.  It happened with Eternal Sunshine when I was 23.  There's a little kid inside my head that loves films more than I do and wants to see them in a very childish, non-critical kind of way.  My concious, rational thought awake state persona always has an open, critical mind, but deep down inside, my superego will live inside of these movies.  Freud has been shit on in recent decades.  His critics are wrong.

[Pubrick]

Confoundit!  I hate loving a film before I've seen it.  It will always disapoint.  I will dream about it and the story won't seem right when I see the film because my subconcience has already filled in the gaps between the moments we see in the trailers.  This happend with Jurrasic Park when I was 11.  It happened with Eternal Sunshine when I was 23.  There's a little kid inside my head that loves films more than I do and wants to see them in a very childish, non-critical kind of way.  My concious, rational thought awake state persona always has an open, critical mind, but deep down inside, my superego will live inside of these movies.  Freud has been shit on in recent decades.  His critics are wrong.

uh.. so what'd u think of syriana?

[Pozer]

Yeah, I feel dumb after reading his... review?
I'm Ron Burgundy?