BBC 영화 소개와 리뷰 프로그램 Talking Movies에서 가져온 것입니다.


Closer





A few years back New York theatre land, and before that London, played host to Patrick Marber’s play 'Closer', a lacerating examination of sexual gamesmanship. Top notch talent has been brought together for a cinematic adaptation: Julia Roberts, Jude Law, Clive Owen and Natalie Portman play the four characters, all under the guidance of veteran director Mike Nichols.

It’s hard to find four actors who could generate more excitement in Hollywood these days, and only the heavily pregnant Julia Roberts was missing at the 'Closer' premiere. The film looks at the deception that goes on in relationships by examining two couples who change partners over a four year period in nineties London.

Owen performed in the London production of the play that the film in based upon and he says it’s easy to see yourself in the characters.

Clive Owen: "I think it’s a weird piece in that your empathy and sympathy changes depending on your own emotional history. If you've betrayed someone or been betrayed, there’s some big powerful scenes in there about loving, coming together, breaking up. And depending own your own experiences you relate to different characters."

In an age when Hollywood is trying to make films that appeal to the broadest audience possible, 'Closer' is truly for adults, focusing entirely on adult themes.

Mike Nichols, the 73 year-old director, has a history of making films about desperation and passion. He was the man behind 'Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?' and 'The Graduate'. In 'Closer', he wanted to make a film that was very sexual despite not having one single sex scene in it. Nichols also wanted to be honest in exploring people’s motivation behind their love.

Mike Nichols: "One of the things that the movie is about is the question, 'which is stronger - passion or men’s need to kill each other?' That’s wound like a braid through this story and because a lot of it is funny it’s possible to examine and experience what happens in love and rivalry between guys and women."

There’s already buzz that two of the stars of 'Closer', Natalie Portman and Clive Owen, could get Oscar nods for their performances. Many Hollywood insiders are saying that 'Closer' is Portman’s first real grown-up role.

Despite her relative youth - Portman is 23 while her co-stars are older - the actress had a strong grasp on the film’s themes.

Natalie Portman: "In so many ways you can become automatons in relationships and go along with patterns, and do nasty things, and not think and not realize the other person is a person and all of these things. Even though it shows all this nastiness, it’s a very moral play because it asks you to pass judgement on everything."

Critics have mixed feelings about both the performances and the final product. Some think this role marks a breakthrough for Oscar winner Julia Roberts, while others say she is the weakest link in 'Closer'. While several critics say the film is extremely realistic many others say it feels more like a play than a movie.

Regardless, 'Closer' is likely to do well with its powerhouse lineup, and it may scratch an itch for those craving some serious and articulate cinema.

프리젠터가 Tom Brook으로 바뀌면서 리뷰

'Closer' is truly disconcerting, troubling cinema, but you have to admire its expert depiction of gamesmanship.

It’s nicely constructed and has symmetry. It feels a bit stagey but sharp directing and exceptionally good acting keeps it alive. Julia Roberts does seem miscast not so much that she lacks acting skills, but because of the soft romantic comedy baggage she carries with her.

'Closer' is more intellectual entertainment for the bourgeoisie than a deep portrayal of credible characters. It’s hard to believe the mysterious woman Natalie Portman plays could exist, someone who can slide in and out of a brazen dramatic sexual exhibitionism without apparent psychic harm.

But 'Closer' is not without social value. By making explicit the human capacity for cruel primitivism it serves to remind us of the dark, at times seductive, territory into which we should not go.

This film is a mass of contradictions: cold, obscene, tender, funny and very entertaining. It's a well executed bleak view of sad humanity, but there is a moment of genuine joy – seeing Clive Owen coming into his own as a great actor.


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팀 어메리카






'Team America: World Police' is an exercise in audacity. It spoofs terrorists, satirises the bravado of he-men, and makes fun of Hollywood movies. It’s in very bad taste and it’s the first venture into puppetry from the creators of the hit animated TV series and movie 'South Park'.

Only in the minds of Trey Parker and Matt Stone could the North Korean leader Kim Jung Il emerge as a marionette who sings about his loneliness. Parker and Stone are best known as the makers of 'South Park', an animated television series and movie which features potty-mouthed children in middle America.

'Team America: World Police' a group of puppets portray American crime fighters out to stop Middle-Eastern terrorists and spread their concept of freedom. Along the way the team manages to destroy Paris, Cairo and the Panama Canal.

Trey Parker: "'Team America' is just a metaphor for the sort of military might of America. A lot of us as Americans have heard the phrase ‘stop policing the world, you think you’re the world’s police’, so we’re like let’s make that a real thing The world police, Team America, who live in Mount Rushmore and go and fight world crime."

But lest you think Parker and Stone are lefties, they also skewer, sometimes literally, a dozen of America’s most famously liberal actors who have spoken out against America’s current foreign policy.

Matt Stone: "I personally can’t believe more people don’t make fun of the actors. To me Alec Baldwin on TV talking about nuclear weapons, is just, come on, just come on. What do you think you’re doing man? He’s an actor, he’s a good actor."

The duo insist they are not mocking America’s so-called war on terror but simply making fun of the political situation and what it’s like to live in the US right now.

Matt Stone: "Obviously we have political views, we’re people. But I don’t think they’re very good or well thought out. Our job, our role and what people seem to respond to, is us satirizing stuff and us creating stories and characters. Our political views come out subconciiously or consciously. It’s in the movie."

Trey Parker: "A lot of people are going to go looking for, well what are these guys saying, what’s their point? We don’t really have a point. It’s supposed to be a movie about, here’s what, for us, it’s felt like to be an American for the last 2 years, and for us that’s a story."

Not everyone may find it funny to see Kim Jung Il feed the UN Arms inspector Hans Blix to sharks, or to witness a strangely graphic sex scene between two marionettes, but critics are praising the filmmakers for pushing some Hollywood boundaries and not caring whether they make or lose any friends along the way.

Not everyone may find it funny to see Kim Jung Il feed the UN Arms inspector Hans Blix to sharks, or to witness a strangely graphic sex scene between two marionettes, but critics are praising the filmmakers for pushing some Hollywood boundaries and not caring whether they make or lose any friends along the way.

톰 브룩의 리뷰

It might not be to everyone’s taste but this film does have a coherent narrative. On that front the screenwriting team of Trey Parker, Matt Stone and Pam Brady have succeeded.

And in technical terms the film’s puppets are expressive and enticing creatures that are clear descendants of the 1960’s British TV series 'Thunderbirds'. No effort has been made to hide the fact that they are marionettes and they move around in a deliberately clunky manner.

But for me at any rate the humour does get tedious. The best thing in the picture are the songs – stirring tunes with lyrics that mock the military bravado of the USA and Ben Affleck’s acting skills.

At its heart this film is a cynical entertainment. It may be intermittently very amusing, but it’s terrifically uninspiring.