Come Anticipate "Brokeback Mountain" With Me

http://www.slate.com/id/2131264/?nav=fo

Read his lovely review of The Lion, the Witch, & The Wardrobe

http://notonlybutalso.typepad.com/notonlybutalso/2005/12/brokeback_promo.html

Armond White doesn't always 'review the reviews.' He critiques the way 'good' films are ID'd and positioned in the culture by the marketing-media complex, which inevitably requires mentioning his peers sometimes. Esp when it's the most visible movie critic in the nation idiotically dismissing War of the Worlds on the grounds that 'tripods are illogical.' Or those who hail a filmmaker who makes one interesting movie (Christopher Nolan) as a visionary, which enables him to make bilious mega-budget juvenilia like -- you know.

Morbs appears to be correct, at least for this guy.

I only saw one of those VV picks (Brokeback Mountain) and thought it was pretty bad.
-- n/a (nu...), December 23rd, 2005 1:54 PM. (Nick A.) (later)

Though I'd like to see most of them.
-- n/a (nu...), December 23rd, 2005 1:58 PM. (Nick A.) (later)

Wait, why am I posting here?
-- n/a (nu...), December 23rd, 2005 1:58 PM. (Nick A.) (later)

I guess mainly to say: Brokeback Mountain = NOT THAT GOOD.
-- n/a (nu...), December 23rd, 2005 1:59 PM. (Nick A.) (later)

I guess mainly to say: Brokeback Mountain = NOT THAT GOOD.
Why didn't you say so when I asked everyone (in Chicago) what they thought? I still really want to see it.

-- jaymc (jmcunnin...), December 23rd, 2005 2:11 PM. (jaymc) (later)

Mainly because I didn't want to offend my friends on that thread who loved it and also because in the week since I've seen it I've moved gradually from "It was OK, kinda boring but some good acting" to "Wait, that was a pretty sucky movie, huh?" I think before long, I'm going to be all-out hating on it, that's usually how these things work for me.
-- n/a (nu...), December 23rd, 2005 3:35 PM. (Nick A.) (later)

So what you're saying is, you hate fags.
-- jaymc (jmcunnin...), December 23rd, 2005 3:37 PM. (jaymc) (later)

I hang out with you.
-- n/a (nu...), December 23rd, 2005 3:40 PM. (Nick A.) (later)

I think it's the opposite, I'm so gay-tolerant (YAY ME!) that just a movie being about gay people isn't enough to make it "daring" or "fascinating" for me. There didn't seem to be much point to the movie other than HERE ARE SOME SEMIFAMOUS HUNKY DUDES PRETENDING TO DO EACH OTHER IN THE BUTT, which basically makes it mainstream gay porn but not much more in itself. The story was predictable and dull, Ledger was good but Gyllenhaal was pretty bad, the scenery was nice I guess.
-- n/a (nu...), December 23rd, 2005 3:46 PM. (Nick A.) (later)

It wasn't even good gay porn: too many tits.
-- n/a (nu...), December 23rd, 2005 3:47 PM. (Nick A.) (later)

Jake's tits or the cows'?
-- Erick Dampier is better than Shaq (wooderso...), December 23rd, 2005 3:49 PM. (miloaukerman) (later)

Princess Diary's tits, Dawson's Creek's tits.
-- n/a (nu...), December 23rd, 2005 4:34 PM. (Nick A.) (later)

POW - I'M THERE
-- j blount (jamesbloun...), December 24th, 2005 2:31 AM. (papa la bas) (later)

Hathaway is actually pretty good in this, considering she has to play a pretty young cowgal as well as a wealthy, manipulative wife straight out of Dallas. As a whole, the aging among the characters in the film was rather unconvincing: I cringed as Heath Ledger's daughter skyrocketed through adolescence while Ledger himself looked the same.
-- jaymc (jmcunnin...), December 24th, 2005 10:35 AM. (jaymc) (later)

Hathaway is actually pretty good in this, considering she has to play a pretty young cowgal as well as a wealthy, manipulative wife straight out of Dallas. As a whole, the aging among the characters in the film was rather unconvincing: I cringed as Heath Ledger's daughter skyrocketed through adolescence while Ledger himself looked the same.
-- jaymc (jmcunnin...), December 24th, 2005 10:35 AM. (jaymc) (later)
I agree with the second part of this, but thought Hathaway was too cartoony-stereotypey. I thought the cute one from Dawson's Creek was better.

-- n/a (nu...), December 24th, 2005 12:23 PM. (Nick A.) (later)

Actually, the whole Gylenhaal plotline post-butt sex is pretty fucking ridiculous exaggerated redneck family drama, like Raising Arizona but "serious."
-- n/a (nu...), December 24th, 2005 12:32 PM. (Nick A.) (later)

mostly agreed, that plotline didn't go much of anywhere but otherwise i thought this was pretty great.

"this is the kind of tasteful tearjerker that's often overrated and smothered with prizes because it flatters our tolerance and sensitivity. Lee focuses on the men's wasted lives and the heartbreak of their spouses and other relatives, but the movie makes one hanker for the sort of unabashed queer stories found outside the mainstream."

Actually, I liked Gyllenhaal much more than Ledger. For once he acts like a sex symbol, putting those blue eyes to good use.

A more legitimately controversial film would have shown Ennis and Jack having fun fooling around whenever they got away to Brokeback Mountain, but perhaps Lee thought this would have violated Proulx's intentions.

The best part of the movie (for me) was recognizing that the Mexican prostitute was played by the director of photography (Rodrigo Prieto).