Cherwell, the Oxford University student newspaper, has a weekly feature called Film Fanatic, in which someone describes "a formative or remarkable film experience." I was asked to contribute, and wrote 400 words on why Ocean's Twelve is my favorite movie. Go read it now.
Because of space limitations I had to pick a scene to stand for a device the film used over and over: I mentioned the silly heist, but there are two more (one by our team, one my a competitor); I mentioned the way actors play themselves, but didn't have space to mention the fantastic Eddie Izzard cameo (where he basically plays himself), or the Bruce Willis one, in which he does play himself (and has to endure Matt Damon saying he figured out the ending of The Sixth Sense); I implied the way the movie puts style over substance, but did not have time to mention the way the meaningless thieves' cant scene, the holographic egg and the Capoiera laser-dance scene stand in for the film as a whole in this respect; and I didn't get to mention the wonderful meta-narrative detail -- not unlike the "actors play themselves" thing -- that the whole "plot" of Twelve is set in motion by an "American businessman" on a boat -- played by Ocean's Twelve producer Jerry Weintraub (who also has a cameo in Eleven).
I tried to plug this blog in Cherwell, but my editor wanted the last line to say "Geoff Klock is the author of ..." To make matters worse he got the title wrong: the correct title is of course How to Read Superhero Comics and Why.
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3 comments:
congrats on the print. any movie that geoff recommends is a definate winner. check them out!
Just read your Cherwell entry on why Oceans' 12 is your favorite. It seems as if the actors were "putting on their fiction suits", like Morrison's quote used in HTRSCAW. Any thoughts?
It's a bit like that, but the "fiction" of Ocean's Twelve is so insubstantial you don't need a suit to get there. In Morrison, a sci fi guy, fiction is a weird otherworld with its own technology; here the fiction is just a daydream about how much fun movie stars must have on vacation. Your comment raises the question of whether all actors use "fiction suits" to play parts in films, which is an interesting idea.
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