Summer Theatrics

I have not seen Beasts of the Southern Wild, but by all accounts it is a marvelous movie. It also happens to be the subject of the movie review I have chose to annotate for Mr. Mayo, to view it click here http://diigo.com/0su9j.

This review, written by Peter Travers of Rolling Stone and entitled simply "Beasts of the Southern Wild" is not very long, it weighs in at just under 400 words, but it is direct and to the point. It focuses less on the plot of the film, but on the general idea and setting as well as the poetics of the script and the cinematography. It also devotes a paragraph to the director, Benh Zeitlin, and one to the lead actress, six year old Quvenzhane Wallis. Lastly, it points out a very important fact: this film was done on a miniscule budget, and shot on location (the Louisiana Bayou) with locals in most of the roles. The reviewer, unsurprisingly, has nothing bad to say and reccomends this movie with a passion.

As to the quarterly movie reviews, I think there should be general perameters as to the movies chosen, such as a particular genre or decade. On the other hand, doing one review where each person watches the same movie could be interesting because the reviews would be comparable.

Recently I watched Moonrise Kingdom. Besides being a truly excellent movie about coming of age and about love, from my viewpoint, having seen trailers and read reviews of Beasts of the Southern Wild, the two movies seem similar in some ways. They both star inexperienced, young actors who are captivating in their roles, and they both seem to be magical in nature, almost two fairy tales. This is an interesting trend as these two movies seem to be the only outstanding specimens of the summer.

Isaiah's movie quote: "As the leader of all illegal activities in Casablanca, I am an influential and respected man."
-Ferrari played by Sidney Greenstreet in Casablanca.

Too many love Casablanca for the romance, although that is a very important part of it. Just as important are the witty quips made by Ferrari, Renault, and Rick. Those lines are why I love the movie.