Reply to Topic
I saw 13 Conversations About One Thing today. It's an independent film playing the art house circuit that's a nice alternative to the noisy blockbusters crowding the multiplexes this summer.
The "one thing" in the title would be Fate...or chance or luck or destiny or providence, whatever you'd personally call it. As one cliche a character says a couple times reminds us, "Fortune smiles on some and laughs at others."
This is an episodic look at multiple characters, with many of the stories overlapping in one way or another, but not in any major too-neat conclusion, just the random ways people connect or at least pass by each other, especially in Manhattan where the film is set. The main characters whose stories we chiefly follow are played by Alan Arkin, John Turturro, Matthew McConauhey, and Clea DuVall. Each is at a point in their lives where they're forced to reexamine what their lives mean and what part chance has played in their choices.
The acting is uniformly excellent, from those four principals and the many supporting cast around them, including Amy Irving, William Wise, Frankie Faison and Barbara Sokowa. The bitter and sad character Alan Arkin plays is the story I was most drawn into (and maybe it's just because I liked it best, but it seemed to have the most screentime as well), but all have their considerable strengths and high points.
13 Conversations About One Thing is not terribly inventive narrative wise or especially new thematically, but it's a well-made introspective drama with good acting, so what's not to like? No doubt it's such a small film and being released in the summer it won't be remembered come awards season early next year, but it's definitely worth tracking down, if nothing else remembering it for a video rental somewhere later down the line.
Grade: B
The "one thing" in the title would be Fate...or chance or luck or destiny or providence, whatever you'd personally call it. As one cliche a character says a couple times reminds us, "Fortune smiles on some and laughs at others."
This is an episodic look at multiple characters, with many of the stories overlapping in one way or another, but not in any major too-neat conclusion, just the random ways people connect or at least pass by each other, especially in Manhattan where the film is set. The main characters whose stories we chiefly follow are played by Alan Arkin, John Turturro, Matthew McConauhey, and Clea DuVall. Each is at a point in their lives where they're forced to reexamine what their lives mean and what part chance has played in their choices.
The acting is uniformly excellent, from those four principals and the many supporting cast around them, including Amy Irving, William Wise, Frankie Faison and Barbara Sokowa. The bitter and sad character Alan Arkin plays is the story I was most drawn into (and maybe it's just because I liked it best, but it seemed to have the most screentime as well), but all have their considerable strengths and high points.
13 Conversations About One Thing is not terribly inventive narrative wise or especially new thematically, but it's a well-made introspective drama with good acting, so what's not to like? No doubt it's such a small film and being released in the summer it won't be remembered come awards season early next year, but it's definitely worth tracking down, if nothing else remembering it for a video rental somewhere later down the line.
Grade: B
__________________
"Film is a disease. When it infects your bloodstream it takes over as the number one hormone. It bosses the enzymes, directs the pineal gland, plays Iago to your psyche. As with heroin, the antidote to Film is more Film." - Frank Capra
"Film is a disease. When it infects your bloodstream it takes over as the number one hormone. It bosses the enzymes, directs the pineal gland, plays Iago to your psyche. As with heroin, the antidote to Film is more Film." - Frank Capra
