im not in the habit of anticipating movies but i am anticipating sofia coppola's somewhere starring steven dorff, hotel rooms and dreamy retro pop music

given the ocean of crappy directors and the waves of lame product washed ashore from hollywood studios year after year, i'm happy to take sofia coppola's elegant, moving "lost soul in a hotel" movies over-and-over.

it'd be nice if the anti-sofia crit club could make it through an entire review without resorting to creepy armchair-psychologist bs (armond: "sofia coppola’s pretense that her own father issues are again (the fourth time around) worthwhile movie content....")

Easy film to hate, liked some things about it regardless. Definitely bordered on trolling the audience with the sad rich guy schtick. Dorff was way too flat and empty even for a character who was supposed to be flat and empty, and didn't come off as a strikingly good-looking leading man type who could be a star as big as he was supposed to be while completely lacking substance (tbf I think this was the awful writing/lack of characterization and not really Dorff's fault). Lots of groanworthy cliches (long lonely drives, nu-tech as barrier between people, "Who is Johnny Marco") -- what the fuck kind of a name is Johnny Marco anyway? Can anyone really believe that there's a star named Johnny Marco?

I thought the girl was good, and I liked the fact that the film almost started to be about something, like there was some effort at "hey, maybe this is WHY the characters are bored and sad." There were a few sharp moments (e.g. tearful Dorff on the phone to ex saying he feels so empty, shallow ex says "Why don't you just volunteer or something?" Creepy sexual stuff going on with the daughter too, but I thought there was an implication that the women chasing Dorff were all really seeking their dads.

heard this was horrible

Did the chit-chat from Chris Pontius (the 'Jackass' guy) to Elle Fanning strike anyone else as slightly creepy/inappropriate?

― She Got the Shakes, Monday, December 13, 2010 10:29 AM Bookmark

Yeah, but I think it was supposed to be. I mean it's also inappropriate for him to be laying some random chick in a hotel and then having her to breakfast with his daughter. There's little that's appropriate about the environment she's being raised in (and it's kind of implied that the mom is just as bad, if in a different way). Hyper-sexuality is a big part of the film and that's what she's exposed to. I mean I think that has something to do with the uncomfortable figure skating scene too although I can't quite put my finger on it.

The only reason I might watch this is b/c Dorff is fun to look at. The trailer made me think "AGAIN?!" Again with the muted, drifting nothing-happens movie (I loved Lost In Translation and The Virgin Suicides, but by the time Marie Antoinette came out, that style felt like a gimmick), but mostly A-FUCKING-GAIN with the rich, bored, angst-ridden characters??

This review makes great points:
At the dawn of independent film, growing out of avant-garde culture, the movies reveled in their outsider status, portraying edgy misfits living on the cusps of society, in films like Stranger Than Paradise. Somewhere along the way, however, America’s self-styled outsider arts, the “indie” movement in all its manifestations across film, music and fashion, not only made their peace with the capitalist hierarchy, but began to celebrate it. Across culture, the “indie” world filed for emancipation from its downtrodden, protest-heavy forbears, and became something cloying, cutesy and simpering.

sophia makes very beautiful looking movies. nice w/ valium or percocet.

She does. When I saw the preview for this I was kind of excited about it but everything I've read has been horrible which makes me sad because I wanted it to be good.

if only welles and renoir had made more movies celebrating "edgy misfits living on the cusps of society" instead of pretending we have anything to learn from "rich, bored, angst-ridden characters."

yes, renoir and welles were indie movie directors.

it'd be nice if the anti-sofia crit club could make it through an entire review without resorting to creepy armchair-psychologist bs (armond: "sofia coppola’s pretense that her own father issues are again (the fourth time around) worthwhile movie content....")

otm

yes, I just stick to how she's a rich woman interested in increasingly boring things.

This movie also gets thrown on the recent pile of lonely-aging-guy-thinking-about-things films (Crazy Heart, Solitary Man, etc.)

*slothily washes face in dimly lit bathroom, examining stubble in mirror*

is this movie better than juno

yes

not even sure it is better than juno you know O_o

should've made marie antoinette II

http://somecamerunning.typepad.com/some_came_running/2010/12/the-kind-of-person-you-want-to-be.html

So...The Virgin Suicides was just sort of a fluke, then? All of her other movies have been horrendous. She went to my school, fwiw

saw virg suds a bit ago and kind of didn't like it very much, or actually didn't think that it was that special or anything, wasn't a bad movie by any means tho

nah virgin suicides is a great movie, but so is marie antoinette. i think i am right when i say that.

key: The Virgin Suicides' dialogue and plot is faithfully transcribed from Jeffrey Eugenides.

i never read the virgin suicides but neither of those but dialogue was def. not what made Middlesex a kickass book

I just rewatched VS and now I'm sure it's my fave S. Coppola by quite a bit. Only bit of dialogue that irked me at all was the too on-the-nose "you've never been a 13-year-old girl" right at the beginning. The last time I saw it I would have been around 14 or so, and I think I probably resented the way the movie nailed certain things about adolescent behavior.

I love Marie Antoinette.

"you've never been a 13-year-old girl"

i love that bit

vs is a rly nice film

"A bit too on the nose" describes a lot of what is wrong with her films.

nah virgin suicides is a great movie, but so is marie antoinette. i think i am right when i say that.

you are, 100% right

VS soundtrack is the best AIR album too. i still listen to it all the time.

So do I, it is a great album/soundtrack.

very much anticipating this movie

wait is it true that you hear all of gwen stefani's "cool" in this? because that's awesome

It's not particularly awesome. It's a long scene featuring Elle Fanning doing an ice skating routine, intercut with her father going from bored-on-his-blackberry to coolly-epiphanic-about-his-daughter's-heretofore-unappreciated-talent. It's a couple of long takes. I guess I didn't notice it being creepy, as mentioned above, but it wouldn't surprise me.

Not sure what she was going for with the soundtrack on this one either.

I remember reading some appropriately ponderous quote from the Phoenix guy saying they wanted the soundtrack to sound "like a Ferrari driving through L.A. at night time" or something like that.

Just heard a clip of an interview with her where she says something like "I liked the image of him going to this track in the middle of nowhere with his ferrari because it was a good way to visually set up his life -- going around in circles," and it's like JESUS as if it wasn't heavy-handed enough in the film you have to spell it out for us.

Drama introduces tension and then does something interesting with it -- that's the fun part. And that's also the part missing from this movie.

I liked it. Not The Virgin Suicides, not Lost in Translation, but good. And among my music-lovin' favourites, I feel better about Coppola right now than I do about either of the two Andersons, and I also liked Somewhere better than Greenberg (Baumbach's the fourth I place in that group). I'm all of a sudden in the market for a Black Flag T-shirt.

Reminded me of Brown Bunny sometimes, other times La Dolce Vita. As good as I expected, after hearing all those tired old complaints about nothing happening --not that I couldn't have been wrong. I don't think anyone could decide to hold that shot of Steve plaster-head for so long without knowing full well that it'd make a lot of people gnash their teeth and call it arty (whatever that means).

this was actually p good!

icey likes twin poledancers movie upset

Dorff was way too flat and empty even for a character who was supposed to be flat and empty, and didn't come off as a strikingly good-looking leading man type who could be a star as big as he was supposed to be while completely lacking substance

idk i liked this element that theres absolutely nothing special abt him

I remember reading some appropriately ponderous quote from the Phoenix guy saying they wanted the soundtrack to sound "like a Ferrari driving through L.A. at night time" or something like that.

― She Got the Shakes, Friday, January 7, 2011 11:16 AM (3 weeks ago)

uh arent soundtracks supposed to be ~evocative~ seems like in this context there is nothing ponderous about this at all

i liked this....could watch dozens of movies w/ people driving around california/nevada in a turquoise&pink washed out business class chillwave colourset, somnolent drifting with occasional disquieting moments

brown bunny was probably my favourite us indie of the last decade

dorff was alright, fanning boringly precocious etc, lolled when reminded of those ppl saying how lost in translation was 'so much more poignant' because unconsummated

the previous centuries were full of elegant cultural products depicting desiccated/artifical courtly life...shibuku/velazquez/mozart etc....it doesn't necessarily seem reprehensible that one hwood boutique director turns the camera on themselves

So was the soundtrack to this ever actually released?

this was hardly as bad as reviews and word of mouth made it seems. yeah she seems to like to make movies about bored rich people. but it looked good and elle fanning was great. it was hardly 'without a story' as Id read; if anything it was too deliberate and predictable. but I thought it was fine. not great, but you know, it was ok.

the scene with the rubber mold on his head was the best

The biggest thing that bothered me about this movie is that I could never figure out what level of a movie star he is. Feted in Italy for his movies with Meryl Streep, Sharon Stone, and Al Pacino -- but I don't get the impression that he's like Brad Pitt-famous or anything.

I guess I didn't notice it being creepy, as mentioned above, but it wouldn't surprise me.

The skating routine wouldn't be creepy except for the fact that it comes not long after two other long scenes in which dude passively, distractedly gazes upon slender long-legged young women in short skirts moving about in a stylized, choreographed fashion.

The only good part of this was the replication of Italian tv, and the tagline for his movie, "HOW FAR WOULD YOU DO?" Other than that, dud.

i liked this....could watch dozens of movies w/ people driving around california/nevada in a turquoise&pink washed out business class chillwave colourset, somnolent drifting with occasional disquieting moments

3 Women?

The only good part of this was the replication of Italian tv

S Coppola really thinks foreigners are weird eh?