Hey, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab.
Nice. I knew they were going to be doing the screening last night, but I wasn’t sure if we’d be getting any feedback from the screenings. We got two reviews in so far, and if you were there, I’d love to hear from you.
First up, we’ve got Cheese Steak, pipin’ hot:
Thursday night Hollywood came to Conshohocken, PA and I was there!
This past weekend I was approached about seeing a preview of a Steven Soberer film starring George Cloony. Expecting to see a combination of OUT OF SIGHT and OCEAN’S 11, I decided to go. My expectations were wrong, what I got was much more than I could ever have imagined. It’s been five hours since the screening of SOLARIS ended and I can’t stop thinking about the film. It is unlike any movie I have seen in years. It raises questions about life and love with a style that is a testament to Soderberg's genius. While the movie is very stylized it delivers both on an intellectual and emotional level. It rocks!
Before the movie started the studio guy gave a speech about how the movie was a rough cut, that the music, sound effects and special effects were not done yet, blah blah blah. The music and sound effects seemed pretty good, the effects and there are not a lot of them were a bit cheesy but will probably be better when the movie is done. However, anyone going to see the movie just for the visual effects is going to be totally missing the point.
The movie begins with psychiatrist Chris Kelvin (Cloony) being asked to journey to a distant planet, Solaris, to try to find out what’s happened to a prior expedition that they’ve lost contact with. There’s a brief reference to a security team having already been sent: this lets us know that something’s gone seriously wrong up there. Since Chris is a friend of the mission commander’s, they think he’s got a shot at defusing the situation. Chris seems unsure - both about these guys intentions and about whether or not he can really help, but here goes:
What happens next, I can’t really tell ya. As one character says, “I could tell you what’s happenin’, but that wouldn’t really tell you what’s happenin’, if you know what I mean.” You’ve got to experience it. Chris arrives on the ship and strange shit starts happening. Is it (the planet) an alien. Is it human? What does it want?
Chris goes to one of the dead scientist rooms and goes to sleep only to be awakened by a woman’s hand on his shoulder. he rolls over and has sex with this totally hot naked stranger: so we think.
Big spoiler - beware!!!!
The woman is in fact his wife Rheya, who we later learn has been dead for several years! Holy fuck!! Literally!!!!
The rest of the movie is intense. It makes you think, that’s for sure. I’m still thinking, in fact: my brain hurts. It’s definitely not something you’ve seen before. Clooney is awesome. He’s never done anything like this before. I’d never seen the girl before. Don’t remember her name... Natasha somebody - but she was good and really hot (did I already say that???)
On the way out in the lobby this totally unworthy Conshohocken cinegeek almost tripped over the KING OF THE WORLD himself standing next to Soberer: it turns out the Cameron produced the film. I almost shouted out when are going to direct again but thought better of it.
Until Hollywood comes to Conshohocken again,
Cheese Steak out!
And now, for the other end of the spectrum in terms of reaction, we have the raw response of “Drummin,” who may weigh in with a more complete review later this morning. Hope so, anyway. I’m curious what he disliked...
drummin here
here just outside of Philly, the had what they called the FIRST screening of the movie SOLARIS starring George Clooney and directed by Steven Soderberg.
i can sum up my thoughts very easily....
"steaming cesspool of vile"
this was the first time i ever got to see an advance screening and i admit i may have been a little too excited, but the mound of crap that they showed us tonight killed any enthusiasm i had for the evening.
as far as how close to completion the movie was... it seemed pretty far along. Most of the special effects, with the exception of 2 scenes, seemed to be complete. The sound wasnt finished and the score was temporary, but the movie certainly felt 90% complete.
there was no story... there was no story... there was more story in this line than in the movie.
the... movie... was... also... very... slow.......
the basic premise of the movie... is that some disaster has befallen the prometheus(?) and george clooney is supposed to go to the ship, find out what happened and if possible, return safely with everyone. sounds like it was supposed to be a science fiction movie. its not.
what the movie wanted to be was a movie that made you question life and death and the existence of GOD or some kind of "higher intelligence."
what the movie actually was... was a kind of fantasy for george clooney's character to somehow feel reunited with his dead wife. asking us to question wether or not she was 'alive' and deserved to live because she wasn't 'really' human. the movie left the realm of science fiction for long stretches of time and seemed to turn into some kind of heart wrenching drama about how these 2 people met, fell in love, and ended there relationship. i felt like i was watching a really bad version of 'eyes wide shut' several times. and yes, soderberg is definitely trying to be kubrick in this one, but fails horribly.
take the mansion sex party scene from eyes wide shut. remember how slow it was. yes, it was a good scene, because while slow there was still much going on and it continued the movie on its course. but remember how slow and deliberate it was. stretch that scene over 2 hours and thats how SOLARIS felt. without the interesting parts.
these are my first thoughts, ill write something more like a review in the morning after some sleep. when i can get away from this movie a bit.
I know that our own Mr. Beaks is literally rabid about this script, which I read and adored. It’s an astoundingly dense piece of writing, filled with subtext and character sketches. I’m sure of one thing... this movie’s going to cause wildly different reactions. It’s one of those films, like THE THIN RED LINE or EYES WIDE SHUT or FIGHT CLUB, a film to polarize audiences.
Come on... more of you than two must have seen it...
"Moriarty" out.
