We watched ‘Gravity‘ last night, Alphonso Cuaron’s new space film. From the trailer, I was expecting sort of a steroidal ‘My Dinner with Andre‘ in space suits. More philosophical and psychological. I’ve never been keen on Sandy Bullock. But what the hell, said I. Cuaron is a great director – let’s give him the benefit. I imagined the film would be the two of them floating, ultimately, into oblivion and unavoidable demise. An existential film. Neither Clooney or Bullock capable of controlling their destiny in the inky depths of space… going with the non-gravitational flow.
What I found was more of a traditional Hollywood film. Budgeted at $100M it seemed okay technically but not ‘roll your sock down’ technical. It got stale pronto when Sandy hopped from technical lillypad to lillypad in hopes of enduring — I was disappointed that Clooney was brought back in — for what seemed like a cartoon moment(/was a cartoon moment). I totally understand why — he was needed. Clooney always kills. I don’t think, objectively, Sandra Bullock has the emotional range to pull a film of that type off on her own. It was weird. I kept getting angles of her that made me think that she looks exactly like the King of Pop. I began to do the psychological math — is that a good thing or a bad thing? Some people think of Michael Jackson as the King of Pop — which he likely was — but he had another side that to my mind greatly overshadowed King of Pop Culture. So I suppose it depends on where you come down as to bonus or malice.
I kept thinking that it was going to show us our mortality but by some crazy hook and crook — Sandy survives and ends up on an island. And survives — well, depending on which island she washed up on, no?
All in all, I was disappointed in that I was led around by my nose, pretty predictably, and I think that’s what seemed stilted. Too heavy handed. Too predictable. I don’t think that Gravity, and I was pulling for it — pushed Kubrick’s ‘2001: A Space Odyssey‘ off of it’s pedestal. That’s the cool thing about true art — it’s more tractable. But who knows… The producers probably had a big voice in (fucking up) the comings and goings here. (Thus the BS — well, it was their $100M, right)? I prefer to think that Sandy was cast because availability or scheduling prevented the other top two choices for the role… Ah, we’ll never know.
I really was hoping to say that Gravity, when compared to some shittily scripted cowboy movie, was MOVIE MAKING. But alas, Poor Yorick, it was not. It was fait a compli…
Sandy Bullock — Oscar nominee? That sounds like the same dudes that tell you the new iPhone (that looks and feels just like the old one) — is AMAZING. Like Orwell said: ‘Marketing is the rattling of a stick in a swill bucket…’
Cheers. I guess…