Saturday, December 29, 2007

Soaking It In: Crooklyn

CrooklynCrooklyn (1994) by Spike Lee: 115 minutes, 6.5 IMDB, 88% fresh tomatoes

My notes:
  • 0:16:00 Glue-sniffing scene takes us into an altered reality.
  • 0:28:30 I can't hear "Hey Joe" without thinking of Weird Al.
  • 0:30:20 David Cassiday, teen heartthrob.
  • 0:49:20 I have got to get this soundtrack. It comes in two parts: 1 and 2.
  • 0:55:40 Another trip into an altered reality; this time as a fevered dream.
  • 0:58:50 The dog is named Muttley. (Heh. If this were an Ingmar Bergman film the dog would be named Gegga.)
  • 1:07:45 Another altered reality. This time it's not glue-sniffing or fever; it's Virginia.
  • 0:55:50 I love the the-what-now? expression on Troy as her cousin is singing along with the white-bread Christian TV show.
  • 1:26:00 Queenie provides a horrible cautionary tale about being crushed by Southern living.
  • The altered-reality scenes come and go towards the end of the film. It's hard to distinguish what's real and what's not after Momma goes.

The cousinnephew summary:
  • Spike Lee is a very impressive director, judging on what you see here.
  • Incredible film work at the beginning. During the opening credits, you notice the camera work he did with the kids counting off and running. The camera's on a crane, then on a movie car. He has enough takes that when the girls are. He must have done at least four different angles for the girls-slapping-hands. Did an overhead shot of the rope jumping. Shows that these people all know each other.
  • Did their own custom opening titles, which made a statement about the time period.
  • In the household they do a lot of moving shots, though the dinner scenes seem to be stand-stills.
  • The camera follows the mother behind the stairs.
  • Acting was pretty incredible for the amount of youth. The kids were great actors.
  • It had such a realistic home/family feeling to it. It seemed so natural.
  • (Asked what he'd emulate or avoid in his own filmmaking:) I'd capture his style of doing different kinds of moving shots.
  • The editing was really pretty impressive.

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