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hate to say it: a netflix review full of regret

i think they are near genius creatively.

i was excited about seeing the film.

idlewild.

i missed it in theaters. i miss lotsa movies in theaters. haven't been to a theater in ages, so i rely on my netflix. most of the time, i just add movies to my queue as soon as they come out in theaters, cuz i'm very likely not to go see it.

so i finally got idlewild and watched it.

it bored me.

5 minutes into the film i wondered if i was going to like. then i thought about how i needed to make some flashcards for learning the preterite conjugations in portuguese. and i did that for a while. then i worked on a poem. then i realized it was over 30 minutes into the film, and i knew what was going on, i just didn't particularly care.

why?

it was a bit all over the place. and much as i love outkast's music, it played too much like a video anthology that they tried to loop together with the odd bit of drama.

basic story: percy and rooster are friends. percy is the quiet and dutiful young man, rooster the flashy and ambitious (but still somewhat dutiful) one. due to a couple of shady deals and murders, rooster inherits the nightclub where he's been performing with percy as his pianist. but he also becomes indebted to the local gangsters. o, and a beautiful young woman shows up who totally bewitches percy.

yeah, not terribly hard to follow. and it could have worked except it was disjointed...every once in awhile there was a song break which didn't advance the plot. relate to the plot, they did. but it the film kinda dallied around, went off on tangents, threw in effects just for the sake of it. it would've benefitted from a less is more approach.

if the songbreaks had advanced the plot, the film would have been gold. i loved the effects and animations - the rooster on rooster's pocket flask, the musical notes that came alive on the paper, the cuckoo clocks. but they were extra, not integral, and it's all gotta be bigger than the sum of its parts.

cohesion. it lacked cohesion.

oh outkast. i will say, though, that it was a first of its kind foray for them. they have the talent, and they have the bravery. i hope the next one works out better for them.

and since i really like shoes, here is a pair that i adore.

Le silla Wedge sandal

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