Friday, December 29, 2006
FEAR OF IMPENDING DOOM
Today's NYTimes Best 1176 Film was Alan Pakula's
This is a lefty paranoid fantasy movie.
It works.
There was this feeling of dread throughout.
There is an entity—not the government—that is killing off Senators and other people and there are investigative commissions who are a lot like the Warren or worse.
It is fast paced and there are a few bumps but it gets there in a way that makes you very antsy. It is very skillfully done in this respect.
And, when you get 'there', you won't like it.
No spoilers here but it does not pay to be too optimistic.
Warren Beatty stars as a rather naive, 'third rate reporter' who stumbles on the activities of the Parallax Corporation. Hume Cronyn (love Hume) is his boss/editor.
He decides to go undercover and go to work for the Corp.
In the process of this there is a great 'visual' test like a lie detector thing. A series of film clips that make a neat little film within a film.
The title has a double meaning of course. Everything is seen from a certain angle and with a parallax effect. Sort of side-long distortion.
I think that it is difficult to view these older films from today's perspective; subject material, production values, that kind of thing.
Judged from that standpoint, this film probably has a number of faults or comes up short.
Nevertheless, it is not dated. The only jarring moment is the appearance of a Pong game.
I try to put myself in the movie seat without the bias of today's fraught high digital, fast paced, action films. They are aimed at a different sensibility and a certain tolerance for ambiguity. There isn't much of either today.
I will give it a 4 out of Netflix5.
