Lincoln

I was talking to a friend the other day about Spielberg and how his career trajectory has changed. In the beginning, he made really well crafted audience pleasers. Nowadays, he seems to split his time between those well crafted audience pleasers (Tin Tin and War Horse being his most recent) and making equally well crafted passion projects, like his latest film, Lincoln. The problem with the latter type of project, the one made from passion, is that, while they are well crafted, they are often times the kind of movies I like to call "One and Done". In other words, you see them once, it was enjoyable enough for you to not want to leave, and then you never have any interest in seeing it again.

While the performances were commendable, the cinematography outstanding (though, in my opinion, not as inspired as many have written), and the writing well done, Lincoln is, ultimately, kind of mediocre. While the events it covers are definitely important events in the history of America, and even the world, ultimately, it's two hours of guys arguing with each other. Honestly, the conflict of Joseph Gordon Levitt's Robert Todd Lincoln, who wanted to join the Union, but his mother and father were against it, is the closest thing the film really comes to having an interesting story.

I like Spielberg's stuff, and I think he is still a valid and creative filmmaker, but, for me, Lincoln joins the likes of Munich, War of the Worlds, and The Terminal, as a somewhat mediocre film from a filmmaker who is the standard bearer in Hollywood.

The Amazing Spider Man

Hey, remember that Spider Man movie that came out over a decade ago? Well, apparently Sony doesn't, because they spent a whole lot of money to remake it. The Amazing Spider Man, directed by 500 Days of Summer's Marc Webb, is a retread of the Spider Man origin story with, thankfully, more likable actors in the lead roles. Andrew Garfield (The Social Network, Red Riding Trilogy) plays Peter Parker, Emma Stone (Easy A, The Help, Superbad) plays Gwen Stacy (Parkers girlfriend in the comics before the legendary Mary Jane), and Rhys Ifans is Dr. Curt Conners, a man who worked closely with Peter's father, and who, eventually, becomes the villain of the film.

The real tragedy of this film is that Sony had a chance to do something REALLY cool with this, and they kind of fumbled it. Yes, they'll make they're money back, but they're going to have to try really hard on the next one to get over the collective sigh that audience members have been greeting this film with. Rumor has it, Sony did this film to keep the rights. Well, if they knew they were going to make a film anyway, why not just go ahead and make something new? Now, The Amazing Spider Man just ends up as a lost opportunity.

DVD - Sybil

Mental illness is, probably, one of the hardest things to truly express in film. It is, almost always, attempted with the best intentions, but, often times, either falls short of shedding any new light on a condition, or it runs head long into ridiculousness. There are a hand full of films that have done it right, and hundreds that fall into one of these two categories. Sybil, which was originally devised as a mini-series, gets it as right as it could for the time that it was made.

Sybil stars Sally Field as the titular character, a young New Yorker who's dream is to move from substitute teaching into full time slot teaching art. She is taking a class of youngsters on a field trip to Central Park, when, upon witnessing an event near her, she loses time, and wakes up, knee deep, in a pond with all of her students and another teacher staring at her. Strange things keep happening, and the occurrences come more often since the park. Sybil seeks help from a psychologist, Dr. Wilbur, who, over time, discovers Sybil has multiple personalities. As Wilbur learns more about the dark aspects of Sybil's childhood, she is left to wonder how Sybil survived at all, and if she can, honestly, do anything to help bring Sybil's personalities together.

Sybil was originally aired as a mini-series, and, as such, retains its three hour plus run time. This makes it kind of a hard watch, especially since its not separated into its original episodes, only presented as whole. That being said, Sally Field does an amazing job as a woman who is so incredibly divided, internally, that she often times doesn't know who people are that her alters met, or how she got to where she is. She is the consummate lost individual. Brad Davis, as Richard J. Loomis, a love interest in the story, brings a much needed dimensionality to Sybil's problems that would not have existed, had her interactions only been with strangers or with Dr. Wilbur. Jane Hoffman is incredibly creepy as Sybil's mother, the mentally ill woman who inflicts all of the torture on Sybil. While the film moves along pretty well (barring, as I said before, its long run time), the only thing that seemed odd to me was the ending. It seemed like Sybil, with the help of Dr. Wilbur, was able to bring her personalities together so easily at the end, once she had discovered what was going on. The ending just feels like they wrapped everything up real quick to keep it within an allotted run time. To me, I would think going more in depth on how Sybil was cured would be the more interesting thing, once you've established her problem. I think Sybil was worth the watch, but I would have liked an episode separation so I could watch it in chunks like it was originally presented.