So I watched Midnight in Paris today. I can’t say that I’m impressed. I can’t even say that I liked it. The concept is cool. It’s probably even more interesting if you know and care about all those historical geniuses of art and literature. However, I felt absolutely no emotional connection to Wilson or any other character. The whole thing feels loosely put together. Having all these brilliant creators in this movie is a slap in their faces.

EDIT: I need to document the other reason I don’t like this movie. If Gil is actually traveling back in time, then all the characters he meet have to be real. If they’re supposed to be real, then Woody Allen doesn’t know what real people were like. They were all just like they’re “supposed to be” according to history, incredibly one dimensional. I can accept that Gil wasn’t actually traveling through time but honestly there’s more evidence that he was than that he wasn’t. The part where he travels back further and the ending with the spy getting chased by guards both imply that whatever is going on is real, especially the second one. I understand it’s just supposed to be funny but it doesn’t make any sense and that makes me mad.

Saw The Descendants tonight. It was really fuckin’ good. The dialogue is so perfect. The girl who plays Alexandra was fantastic… and hot. I want to do a really good review of this movie.

I was reading something that encouraged writing a lot of non-fiction for “Professional” writing practice. I think I’m going to try to make my reviews a lot better in the future to help with this. I think it’ll help to write from a perspective, with some context involved, maybe try to find some deeper meaning. Up to this point, I’ve been writing pretty thin reviews when it comes to substance. Hopefully I can focus my writing efforts into some stronger stuff in the future. Stay tuned.

Just finished watching this. I guess I can see why it wasn’t so well received but at the same time I think it’s great. De Niro directed a movie that would have been a huge hit had it come out in the 70s or 80s. It reminded me a lot of the Godfather in terms of pacing and direction.

The performances were great. I mean, how could they not have been? And just as I thought, the writing was good. The only problems were that it was long (2:47) and a little difficult to keep up with if your mind wanders. You have to pay attention but many parts don’t really demand your attention. It’s easy to get distracted from the slow scenes.

There are sparks of brilliance with action and just really well done bits of drama but in 2006, there isn’t enough to keep audiences watching. Still, I thought it was really good.