Hey folks, Harry here... In addition to this being a test-screening, it seems to be additionally... a piece where we learn of yet another film that will be digitally removing the World Trade Center from the film. Perhaps, ya just say the date is 2000? Then it would all be taken care of. No real additional costs... and People would... whom I kidding, some would be upset, some wouldn't. Some would see the date card and think... Before all this hell came to earth... Others would be struck by the pain of what happened, no matter what. But realistically, that pain is good. It's important to remember and we should never forget it.
Saw a very much "work in progress" screening of "City by the Sea" tonight. We’re talking cards with "scene missing" six or seven times throughout, very rocky audio, and a completely temporary score.
This is a movie with potential and could be moderately entertaining or totally suck depending on what choices are made at this stage. The picture ran well over two hours and clearly needs to be trimmed heavily which will hopefully speed up a fairly boring series of chatty exposition scenes at the top.
Now I love Robert DeNiro and would pretty much pay to see him read the phone book but he seems a little lackluster here, not sparking up until near the very end. Perhaps this is his perception of the character; a little weary, soft-spoken, and reserved, but it could also pass for DeNiro being really bored with a character and script that although interesting are far from original.
James Franco, although playing a character that is wholly unsympathetic, manages to demonstrate some real talent and I hope we’ll see him again in something a little more fulfilling and a lot less predictable. Toward the end of the movie DeNiro’s character offers Franco’s a "second chance" and all I could think was "man, this guy’s had a second chance, and a third, and a fifth, and a sixth and he’s still a loser and a murderer – why doesn’t DeNiro just let the cops kill him?"
An announcement before the movie included an apology for the distraction of the "scene missing" cards and the occasional shots of the World Trade Center which the producers clearly intend to alter somehow. It will be interesting to see if they choose simply to cut those skyline shots entirely, start the clip once the WTC has been panned past, or maybe even remove the towers digitally. One shot of DeNiro and other cops removing a body from the water is a really wide shot with the WTC standing prominently in the background; it’s a fairly crucial scene as opposed to atmospheric transition and clearly can’t be cut entirely. Will they re-shoot? Remove the towers? Who knows.
All this sounds negative, but I really think with a decent score and some good editing decisions this will be an entertaining film. I found scenes of a dilapidated old abandoned Coney Island type boardwalk area fascinating, especially inside the old "casino" filled with broken skee-ball machines and other carnival leftovers like weatherbeaten carousel parts. Other scenes done in a "home movie" style compare the area as it was in it’s glory, adding a pallor to the whole film that I thought was compelling.
Final verdict? The jury’s still out – and they’re really on the fence.
Sign me
Earhart
