For the
sake of not having to write the same intro a million
different ways throughout the rest of time, just know that
this column avoids the overly long and sometimes dull
process of full film reviews and instead opts to break
things down based on what I thought going in, what happened
while I was there and what I learned at the end of it all.
Thanks for reading!
The
Breakdown - Margaret
The Impression:
Kenneth Lonergan’s You Can Count On Me is one of the
great films of all time, one I credit with dragging me in to
the world of obsessive film love. His second film
Margaret has sat on a dusty shelf for years, a three
hour cut that no studio had any interest in. Martin Scorsese
and Thelma Schoonmaker finally got their hands on it, and a
Lonergan film sliced by Scorsese is something to be excited
about.
The Reality:
Margaret is easily the worst film I’ve seen all year
and easily one of the worst films I’ve ever seen. I’m almost
positive that this is Kenneth Lonergan’s hate letter to the
denizens of New York. Every character in the film is either
a complete moron, totally reprehensible, or just a
non-entity dragged in to the truly stupid plot to patch some
monstrous hole. There’s a story here somewhere about Lisa
(Anna Paquin quickly sidling up the ranks as my least
favorite actor working today), a spoiled teenage Jew,
accidentally causing the death of a woman and the traumatic
aftermath, but only the barest allusions. The film is a
sprawling mess that seems to lack a definitive center, or
even a connection thread that makes the whole engine tick.
Watching the film, more so visually slogging through it’s
tedious three hours, I could only imagine Scorcese and
Schoonmaker sitting in a dark room methodically removing the
very soul of this film. Don’t see this film. It won’t make
it to a lot of theaters but don’t let the all-star cast and
the great director behind it fool you. This is a steaming
turd of independent cinema and the three hours you give it
will be three hours you want back.
The Lesson:
You can’t trust anyone in Hollywood to consistently make
good films. Unless it is Brad Pitt. That guy never fails me.
Right Brad? Never.
- Noah Sanders
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