With much anticipation, I watched Zodiac over the weekend and it was worth the wait. I'm a big fan of All the Presidents Men and also, The Insider, as I've mentioned. They are both thrillers, but not really in the conventional sense. They are thrillers with drama cranked up a few notches. Zodiac is very much the same type of movie. All three involve men who are obsessed. Obsessed to the point where it consumes their lives. In the case of Zodiac, it is the infamous Zodiac killer who murdered 5 people, frightened countless others, and in the end, was never captured that obsessed such men. The first third of the film has some intense and hair-raising scenes involving some of the murders. It then settles into a film about process and obsession as different investigators and newsmen try to solve the crimes and it is engrossing.
The performances are excellent across the board. Mark Ruffalo, Jake Gylenhaal, Robert Downey Jr, Anthony Edwards, Elias Koteas, Donal Logue, Dermut Mulroney, Chloe Sevigny and Brian Cox are all wonderful. Ruffalo particularly impressed me. So did Chloe Sevigny, but I'm a fan of them anyway.
David Fincher, the director, delivers one of his best films date (Fight Club is still number one in my book.) His attention to detail is impressive in all of his films but here it really shines in a period that has always appelaed to me. It looks like it was shot in the late 60's/70's. They even used the old paramont logo. Fincher is very restrained here. He has a few camera tricks up his sleeve and some very complex moves, as usual, but nothing overly flashy. As he said, "Two guys walk into a room, sit down over a cup of coffee and then proceed to rip through six pages of dialogue."
The film was shot in HD (High Definition) all recorded directly to a hard drive. The video I just shot for Steve Depino was recorded in a similiar manner (see a post below). We didn't record to hard drives, we recorded to what is called a P2 card. Either way, it's interesting to me because this is the new trend and I'm excited. Michael Mann shot 85% of Collateral in High Def and recorded directly to a hard drive. Fincher is doing his next film, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, the same way. As an editor, I can tell you firsthand that digitizing (loaded the footage off tape and into your computer) sucks. It's boring and frustrating for someone like me because once I start seeing footage I start getting ideas for cutting and get even more impatient. Now you can import or copy/paste the files and find something else productive to do rather than babysit the ingest of footage. Granted, I'm sure problems can arise this way, but so far so good for me and hopefully the more the workflow is ironed out, the less the problems will be. That being said, Zodiac is a very good film and well worth checking out.
The performances are excellent across the board. Mark Ruffalo, Jake Gylenhaal, Robert Downey Jr, Anthony Edwards, Elias Koteas, Donal Logue, Dermut Mulroney, Chloe Sevigny and Brian Cox are all wonderful. Ruffalo particularly impressed me. So did Chloe Sevigny, but I'm a fan of them anyway.
David Fincher, the director, delivers one of his best films date (Fight Club is still number one in my book.) His attention to detail is impressive in all of his films but here it really shines in a period that has always appelaed to me. It looks like it was shot in the late 60's/70's. They even used the old paramont logo. Fincher is very restrained here. He has a few camera tricks up his sleeve and some very complex moves, as usual, but nothing overly flashy. As he said, "Two guys walk into a room, sit down over a cup of coffee and then proceed to rip through six pages of dialogue."
The film was shot in HD (High Definition) all recorded directly to a hard drive. The video I just shot for Steve Depino was recorded in a similiar manner (see a post below). We didn't record to hard drives, we recorded to what is called a P2 card. Either way, it's interesting to me because this is the new trend and I'm excited. Michael Mann shot 85% of Collateral in High Def and recorded directly to a hard drive. Fincher is doing his next film, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, the same way. As an editor, I can tell you firsthand that digitizing (loaded the footage off tape and into your computer) sucks. It's boring and frustrating for someone like me because once I start seeing footage I start getting ideas for cutting and get even more impatient. Now you can import or copy/paste the files and find something else productive to do rather than babysit the ingest of footage. Granted, I'm sure problems can arise this way, but so far so good for me and hopefully the more the workflow is ironed out, the less the problems will be. That being said, Zodiac is a very good film and well worth checking out.
8 comments:
Awesome recommendation, now I will definetly see this movie!
yeah it's badass. I want to watch it again. hey what did you think of the machinist?
funny you should ask- I was at home alone trying to watch it and the arm in the machine scene came on and I had to turn it off! I got so freaked out- plus looking at Christian Bale THAT skinny was actually making me sick to my stomach. Must be cgi b/c there is no way he could have lost that much weight! Very dark movie, I know I should have pressed on but...
God I sound so lame!! I am embarassed to admit that I had to do that!! LOL can't wait to hear your take, as usual!
I loved the machinist. nice and fucked up. and yes he did lose all that weight- NO CGI. he then promptly gained it all back and then some to play batman. little trivia; the director is from madison, ct
really? holy f'in crap! More blog posting please, you are totally SLACKING! ;)
You have good taste in movies!
Glad to see that I am not the only one slacking on my posting!
Post a Comment