Riona (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
rionaleonhart) wrote2018-08-24 08:11 pm
rionaleonhart) wrote2018-08-24 08:11 pm
I Took It Very Seriously From The Start.
There's a twenty-minute gameplay preview of Life Is Strange 2! It takes a while to get going and then gets extremely going very quickly. I'm already invested. (And it's already upsetting, which is very Life Is Strange.)
I was a little sorry at first to learn that Life Is Strange 2 was going to focus on male protagonists, when the original Life Is Strange was about young women, but then I watched the trailer and went '...siblings? on the run? I'm in so much trouble.' Someone's baiting a Riona trap and I am going to walk straight into it.
(Rei commented on similarities to Supernatural and then made the mind-shattering observation that the sibling protagonists of Life Is Strange 2 are named Dan and Sean.)
I watched American Animals last night! It's an excellent film. I don't often get very into films, but I hugely enjoyed this one all the way through.
The story American Animals tells is true; it's about the Transylvania University rare book theft of 2004. A group of students decided that their lives needed more excitement and romance, and that the best way to achieve this was by carrying out a heist. The film is cut with interview segments with the actual people who were originally involved, which I think work very well. (If we hadn't seen the real Warren in the film, I'd have gone 'pfft, obviously Warren's character is hugely exaggerated, some "true" story.' But no; the real Warren seems just as larger-than-life as the character.)
It was a preview screening (the official UK release date is the 7th of September), and the writer/director, Bart Layton, did a Q&A afterwards. I was impressed by how much thought had gone into the film. A few interesting details from the Q&A:
- The writer originally got in touch with the culprits when they were still in prison. He was fascinated by the case and couldn't work out why they'd gone 'hey, let's do a heist!' in the first place, so he wrote to them and they wrote back. As he came to understand the 'it just seemed so romantic, it was a fantasy, and we were just playing around in the expectation that at some point we'd hit an insurmountable obstacle, and, whoops, that obstacle never came and we found ourselves actually doing the heist' reasoning behind it, he started to think this might be a story worth telling. The whole film was based on what he learnt from the people who were actually involved.
- The actors weren't allowed to research their roles by talking to the actual culprits. 'The real Warren is very charismatic, and I didn't want him telling the actor "hey, don't make me out to be too much of a dick." But the actor, obviously channeling Warren, completely disobeyed me and tracked him down on Twitter. I had to put a stop to it.'
- To begin with, the film's shot in a fairly low-key, 'realistic' style. As the boys get more caught up in the fantasy of the heist, it becomes more like a 'heist movie' in visuals, structure, sound. Until they cross that line and realise that, whoops, this is reality, this isn't a daydream, actual heists have consequences, and the style snaps back to realism.
- In the process of the heist, the culprits seriously traumatised a librarian. She was initially hesitant about being involved with the film, but she eventually agreed to be a part of it. Apparently she loved the final film and said it had helped her begin to forgive the people involved, because she had come to realise that they were 'idiots rather than criminals'.
American Animals is fun and interesting and stressful and I recommend it!
I was a little sorry at first to learn that Life Is Strange 2 was going to focus on male protagonists, when the original Life Is Strange was about young women, but then I watched the trailer and went '...siblings? on the run? I'm in so much trouble.' Someone's baiting a Riona trap and I am going to walk straight into it.
(Rei commented on similarities to Supernatural and then made the mind-shattering observation that the sibling protagonists of Life Is Strange 2 are named Dan and Sean.)
I watched American Animals last night! It's an excellent film. I don't often get very into films, but I hugely enjoyed this one all the way through.
The story American Animals tells is true; it's about the Transylvania University rare book theft of 2004. A group of students decided that their lives needed more excitement and romance, and that the best way to achieve this was by carrying out a heist. The film is cut with interview segments with the actual people who were originally involved, which I think work very well. (If we hadn't seen the real Warren in the film, I'd have gone 'pfft, obviously Warren's character is hugely exaggerated, some "true" story.' But no; the real Warren seems just as larger-than-life as the character.)
It was a preview screening (the official UK release date is the 7th of September), and the writer/director, Bart Layton, did a Q&A afterwards. I was impressed by how much thought had gone into the film. A few interesting details from the Q&A:
- The writer originally got in touch with the culprits when they were still in prison. He was fascinated by the case and couldn't work out why they'd gone 'hey, let's do a heist!' in the first place, so he wrote to them and they wrote back. As he came to understand the 'it just seemed so romantic, it was a fantasy, and we were just playing around in the expectation that at some point we'd hit an insurmountable obstacle, and, whoops, that obstacle never came and we found ourselves actually doing the heist' reasoning behind it, he started to think this might be a story worth telling. The whole film was based on what he learnt from the people who were actually involved.
- The actors weren't allowed to research their roles by talking to the actual culprits. 'The real Warren is very charismatic, and I didn't want him telling the actor "hey, don't make me out to be too much of a dick." But the actor, obviously channeling Warren, completely disobeyed me and tracked him down on Twitter. I had to put a stop to it.'
- To begin with, the film's shot in a fairly low-key, 'realistic' style. As the boys get more caught up in the fantasy of the heist, it becomes more like a 'heist movie' in visuals, structure, sound. Until they cross that line and realise that, whoops, this is reality, this isn't a daydream, actual heists have consequences, and the style snaps back to realism.
- In the process of the heist, the culprits seriously traumatised a librarian. She was initially hesitant about being involved with the film, but she eventually agreed to be a part of it. Apparently she loved the final film and said it had helped her begin to forgive the people involved, because she had come to realise that they were 'idiots rather than criminals'.
American Animals is fun and interesting and stressful and I recommend it!
no subject
It does sound incredibly you.
If we hadn't seen the real Warren in the film, I'd have gone 'pfft, obviously Warren's character is hugely exaggerated, some "true" story.' But no; the real Warren seems just as larger-than-life as the character.
Ooh, I really want to see that now!
To begin with, the film's shot in a fairly low-key, 'realistic' style. As the boys get more caught up in the fantasy of the heist, it becomes more like a 'heist movie' in visuals, structure, sound. Until they cross that line and realise that, whoops, this is reality, this isn't a daydream, actual heists have consequences, and the style snaps back to realism.
Stylistic choices that serve the narrative! I have to see it now!
no subject
When the real Warren is introduced to us, he's enthusiastically showing the camera his wobbly tattoo of a T-rex trying to reach a ceiling fan.
I hope you enjoy it, if you do watch it! I think it's come and gone in US cinemas, alas.
no subject
...it took me a few minutes to figure out why he'd have the T-rex trying to reach a ceiling fan.
Yeah, I think it's out of theaters, but should be obtainable soon.