Underground
Peter Travers is fast becoming my favorite critic. His pen is replaced by a middle finger with which he waves at conventional film critique regret free. "Fuck em!" As evidenced in his review for PT Anderson's There Will Be Blood. A sample:
There can be no debate about Day-Lewis. "Gargantuan" is a puny word to describe his landmark performance. Try "electrifying" or "volcanic" or anything else that sounds dangerous if you get too close. His triumph is in making us see ourselves in Plainview, no matter how much we want to turn away. Day-Lewis and Anderson — a huge talent with an uncompromising gift for language and composition — are out to batter every cliché Hollywood holds dear. There Will Be Blood hits with hurricane force. Lovers of formula and sugarcoating will hate it. Screw them. In terms of excitement, imagination and rule-busting experimentation, it's a gusher.
The full review is here.
Access Peter Travers' written work at Rolling Stone.com or listen to the mad genius through his weekly podcasts on iTunes.
6 comments:
I really respond to travers' style.
its self-indulgent to be sure, but not to the point of distracting from the film reviewed.
I think movie reviews should be as entertaining as they are informative.
some critics belittle this notion with either elitisism or crappy writing.
travers is neither.
Kool.
I'd like to read more reviews. I'd also like to see more movies. I think I may attempt to make that a reality once my new pay rate kicks in.
I usually don't read entire reviews until after seeing the film. i find that the review will sometimes influence my viewing.
i don't like that.
but travers is the exception as I read his stuff more for fun than guidance.
just like yeahifigured.com
Yeah, I Figured That Much
Somewhere an angry Ebert is typing furiously, hoping to regain your love.
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