Lincoln

[Sleepless]

"The performances of Daniel Day-Lewis, Tommy Lee Jones, and Hal Holbrook were great,'' wrote this person, a passionate moviegoer who is not connected with the film industry, who flatly predicts that Day-Lewis will get a Best Picture nomination in the title role.

[modage]

He's just that good.

This is screening (apparently) as a surprise at the NYFF on Monday. I have a ticket but I also have a ticket to a comedy show in BK which will prob conflict (if this is 2.5 hours long). So I may skip it or ditch out early.

[modage]

I saw it. It's fine.

Last year, the New York Film Festival made waves with a surprise screening of Martin Scorsese's "Hugo," which was presented as a "work-in-progress" with several fx sequences yet to be completed and green screens still visible. This year they've attempted to top themselves by presenting the world premiere of Steven Spielberg's highly anticipated "Lincoln." Like last year's surprise selection, the film was presented as a work-in-progress and introduced by Spielberg himself who looked like he was nervous to present his film in its still unfinished state. There may be some small tweaks made between now and its planned Thanksgiving release, but judging from what we were shown, "Lincoln" looked pretty complete. The film has been a passion project of Spielberg's for quite some time but I approached it somewhat cautiously.

After a creative renaissance in the early 00's making darker, riskier projects at an incredibly prolific pace ("A.I.," "Minority Report," "Catch Me If You Can," and "Munich" among them), the director has been a bit off his game (putting it kindly) these past few years. Since the debacle, "Indiana Jones & The Phantom Menace" in 2008, he's retreated back into his safe zone with the syrupy "War Horse" and hyperactive "The Adventures Of Tintin". And despite the casting of Daniel Day-Lewis, it was hard to muster too much enthusiasm for an Abraham Lincoln biopic which feels like the kind of straight-down-the-middle storytelling one would expect from the sentimentalist storyteller. The good news is that "Lincoln" is much, much better than the trailer suggests.

Absent is the overpowering John Williams score that nearly drowned "War Horse" — it's actually quite restrained here — and theatrics of DDL's speechifying — there are a few fiery moments, they're few and far between and totally fine in context of the film. And even better, the film isn't a biopic, rather it focuses in tightly on the few crucial months where Lincoln struggled and eventually succeeded in passing the 13th Amendment which freed slaves after the close of the Civil War. At times, Lincoln isn't even the center of the film whose focus remains on the passing of the bill, shifting between different characters among its large ensemble. Set 4 years into the Civil War just after Lincoln has been re-elected for a second term, Lincoln looks to pass the amendment but knows that it may be impossible once the war ends.

The film largely stays away from depicting the war itself (outside of a brutal opening sequence) and instead is set mainly in drawing rooms and courtrooms where old white men outwit and maneuver around each other politically and intellectually. The most fascinating aspect of the film is seeing a time when Republicans were the good guys (and Democrats were the close minded ones). Day-Lewis transforms himself into a convincing portrait of the President who carried the burden of racial inequality on his shoulders while still presenting the character as a father, a husband, a storyteller and above all a man (just like you). The film also features a hugely impressive ensemble though it feels a bit distracting when there are just so many damn recognizable faces in the small parts, you can't help but turn to the person sitting next to you and go "Look, it's that guy from (insert "Girls," "Boardwalk Empire," "Breaking Bad," "Justified," "Deadwood," etc. here)!"

Now, the bad news. Outside of being a lightly entertaining history lesson, it doesn't have much value cinematically. Yes, it's handsome looking and the performances are pretty good across the board (except Sally Field whose histrionics are not quite convincing) but it's also pretty bland. The problem with movies that are pre-ordained as Oscar contenders is that they divert a lot of attention away from more worthwhile films. The film is an "Oscar contender" because its supposed to be. Yawn. It wasn't a painful experience by any means but it's not a film I'd ever need to watch a second time either. It's the kind of movie they'll show in history classes but won't appear as much more than a footnote in the careers of Day-Lewis or Spielberg, two guys who are much too talented to be wasting their time on something like this.

[samsong]

who the fuck does michael stuhlbarg play in the movie?!

on the one hand i'm kind of thrilled this movie seems to be so focused and restrained.  i read some piece compiling several twitter responses and the ones that call it boring or dull don't bother me too much.  one that got me really intrigued called lincoln the best rossellini (history) film rossellini never made.  there is, of course, the distinct possibility that this is going to be the kind of shit truffaut bemoaned about the bridge on the river kwai: "scenes set inside offices alternating with discussions between old fogies and some action scenes usually filmed by another crew. Rubbish , traps for fools, Oscar machines."

choosing to remain optimistic.  some of those twitter blurbs recognize kushner as equal shareholder in authorship as spielberg which in my mind can't be remotely bad, and the performances sound like they're exactly where they need to be.  we'll see.

[Alexandro]

the word "restrained" is the key for me. this now sounds as an unexpected turn for spielberg and that's kind of exciting.

[Pubrick]

career's

You sicken me.

[polkablues]

Maybe it was supposed to be a Playlist review and he accidentally posted it on his Tumblr.

[Cloudy]

DDL/Spielberg Q&A

http://www.aintitcool.com/node/58994

[Frederico Fellini]

[samsong]

fucking loved this movie.  firmly number 2 on my list for the year, with a possible upgrade to 1.

plays like young mr lincoln by way of lawrence of arabia.  spielberg is in top form, austere and passionate.  that some are saying this film lacks his normal virtuoso is beyond me--it's simply manifested in a different and (for spielberg) new form.  kushner's dialogue approaches shakespeare, and the actors rise to the occasion.   as an ensemble i would say lincoln outdoes the master, and i'll take ddl as lincoln over both phoenix and hoffman in their respective roles.  (if only they had switched...)  tommy lee jones is his usual amazing, and the who's who of actors filling in the supporting/background roles i thought to be a virtue of the film, all of these established actors willing to do bit parts.  i don't understand the complaints about sally field, whose performance is completely in keeping with the style of the film and the character as she's presented in the movie.  she's heart-wrenching.

astonishing and sublime.  loved every minute.  planning to see it again this weekend for the pure pleasure of it.   claims that this is boring/bland/cinematically lacking are completely unfounded.  it has the immediate charm, grandeur, sentimentality, and sense of greatness of a true american classic. 

[Frederico Fellini]

http://www.vulture.com/2012/11/how-steven-spielberg-cinematographer-janusz-kaminski-got-these-shots.html


^^^ That is a really great article. Kaminski gives insight on how he got those beautiful shots. It has to do with Lincoln, so I figured I would post it here.

[modage]

fucking loved this movie.

Where did you put samsong?

[Ghostboy]

Loved this! A magnificent chamber drama. Vastly superior to the biopic I feared it would be. Illuminating and thrilling. One dumb scene. Ten minutes longer than it needed to be, but whatever.

[samsong]

Loved this! A magnificent chamber drama. Vastly superior to the biopic I feared it would be. Illuminating and thrilling. One dumb scene. Ten minutes longer than it needed to be, but whatever.

which scene are you talking about? 

semiSPOILER

the unnecessary denouement has become/always been one of spielberg's more dubious hallmarks, and while i don't think those last ten minutes are integral to anything i kind of get the sense that, for him, it was unbearably sad to end the film simply on that devastating, elegiac shot of him walking down the hall on his way to ford's theatre (and that gorgeous last line: "now i must go, though i would rather stay.")  and that a solution was to see the whole thing through to the end, and add the speech, recontextualizing it into a coda, both for the film and his life's work as president.  i was pretty ambivalent about it on first viewing but more accepting of it during the second, a viewing that i found to be just as if not more pleasurable than the first.  it's a lovely film.

[©brad]

Loved it too. Movie of the year. It's just people talking in rooms, it's great. There are moments in the innocuous piano score that tease you to think "oh christ here it comes, that swelling Speilliams score!" but it thankfully never gets too mawkish, save a few unfortunate moments at the end (this movie was in dire need of some Greenwood or Brion). Make no mistake this is Spielberg at his most restrained. There aren't even that many sweeping crane shots.

Loved this! A magnificent chamber drama. Vastly superior to the biopic I feared it would be. Illuminating and thrilling. One dumb scene. Ten minutes longer than it needed to be, but whatever.

which scene are you talking about? 

semiSPOILER

the unnecessary denouement has become/always been one of spielberg's more dubious hallmarks, and while i don't think those last ten minutes are integral to anything i kind of get the sense that, for him, it was unbearably sad to end the film simply on that devastating, elegiac shot of him walking down the hall on his way to ford's theatre (and that gorgeous last line: "now i must go, though i would rather stay.")

This to me is not really a fatal flaw but flaw nonetheless. It would have been sooooo much better to end on that remarkable hallway shot with that last line. In fact when I watch it again at home I'm stopping it right there.