“Aw man, the whole walk home from the Common I was thinkin’ thru everything I wanted to say ’bout this one. Then I got distracted when I got here. Now Im thinking about fishsticks. Gonna try to keep focused and actually do a decent write up.
First off, before we get into Buried, worth noting that I saw The Town again last night. Equally good as the previous viewing, especially since this time I wasn’t getting stuck on the whole hey-thats-right-down-the-street-from-me thing and could actually pay attention to the \m/ movie.
I had some concerns going into Buried. For one, I was in a bit of a funk all day, and was very much distracted on the walk over. That means the movie’s gonna hafta work extra hard to keep my attention. Nextly, there was the concept itself to be concerned about. The thought of the entire movie taking place in a box underground could either be brilliant or godawful.
Verdict? Brilliant! Im not even sure where to start. Guess the beginning. I was hooked from the opening credits. We’ve established that clever opening credits are something Im very much a sucker for. Between the music and the animation, it reminded me of the sinister aspect of the Lemony Snicket’s credits. Yeah, random, I know. Then from the first moments of Ryan Reynolds in the coffin, claustrophobia set in quickly. They wasted no time in establishing that.
In general, I was very impressed with the direction. The shots were beautiful in a sense and very interesting. The emotion was there on screen, and elicited from the audience. The concept actually worked incredibly well. I dont think there’s a better way to put that. It seems as though it accomplished exactly what they set out to do.
So yes, very very emotional movie. I hate the cliche “”emotional rollercoaster”” but this was a perfect example of that. There were scenes that almost choked me up, little bits of laughter here and there, utter digust and anger, suspense, just everything. The disgust and angry inducing bit came outta nowhere for me. Major points for any movie who can blind side me, given that I’ve seen just about everything that can be done on screen. The last few minutes of the film (dont worry, I wont spoil) were absolutely intense. I was sitting at the edge of my seat with my hand over my mouth and my eyes wide. When it was over, I had to sit there for a few minutes to process and let it sink in.
My biggest complaint really isnt reflective of the film itself, more just something that bothers me. As much as I enjoy (or at the very least am more than okay with) going to the movies alone, it really sucks when there’s a snake on screen and I dont have anyone to tell me when its okay to look up again. My usual position is hands in front of my face, head turned away and down a bit, eyes shut as tight as possible. When its just me, I hafta keep peeking to see if its okay again, and its usually not.
I think the only thing I got left to talk about is Mr Reynolds. Damn, I love that guy. You know, there are many far worse people you could choose to be essentially the only actor (voices and video clips dont count) for an entire film. So no complaints there! What I loved is that despite how desperate his situation was, they still managed to work in some of his signature charm/snark combo. But yes, he was def quite good in this one, thankfully because there woulda been no way to work around a bad actor this time.
Okay…fishsticks!!
Buried – \m/ \m/ \m/ \m/