Sunday, January 11, 2009

Finding a good movie when you least expect it

Last night the football game I was interested in was a blow-out. So, after having cooked a big meal, and having had my fill, I flipped channels. I paused on Tilda Swinton's face. Then I couldn't break away from the movie. Even though it was on Lifetime (nothing against Lifetime per se, but it isn't the television channel where I end up watching movies most frequently, that's for sure) and it was showing with bleeped words and who knows what other censoring or editing or re-formatting, and with commercials, I couldn't stop watching the movie. I happened upon it at the beginning, and I stayed until the end. I stayed up 'til almost 2am watching it. I'm amazed it got shown on Lifetime. I mean the story fits their programming certainly, that I can see. But the construction of the film is so far from what I expected that I'm amazed it made it onto the list for Lifetime. Congrats to director/writer Hilary Brougher, as well as cinematographer David R. Morrison, and editor Keith Reamer, and perhaps most importantly (although they all did great work IMHO) the whole sound department, because the soundscape of the film is truly amazing. This film reminds me more of European styles than U.S. but certainly bears the marks of people certainly much more aware of both than am I. I'm definitely going to go rent this (maybe even buy it) so I can see it straight through, as intended. It could so easily have been done so badly, that I am still amazed at how Brougher handled the story. I knew Tilda Swinton was great, and this gave more confirmation of that, but now I have several more film names to watch for, especially Brougher. Whoever you are, if you dig filmmaking and like to see movies that probably came and went from the theaters so fast you missed it, or they never made it to your town in the first place, because they don't play so much by Hollywood conventions, then rush out and find a copy of this excellent film.

3 comments:

Margaret said...

Umm, David?

The title of said movie?

David E. Felton said...

Oh, yeah, the title!
The name of the movie is "Stephanie Daley".

Anonymous said...

hey! cool blog, i'll link it to mine.
couldn't find you on fb however.
take care.