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The Black Dahlia (Brian DePalma)
Yowza. Brian DePalma has made some horrible movies in his career. He's got a couple great ones mixed in there, a couple good ones, but mostly it's a crapfest. He's got an overwhelming visual and editorial style that can work, the few times the material has actually suited it, but mostly it's gaudy style leading to embarassingly inept storytelling with horrible overacting - even from good actors. His latest is The Black Dahlia, adapted from James Ellroy's novel that incorperated the infamous 1947 murder of Elizabeth Short into his tale of corrupt cops and shady dealings in post-War Los Angeles. This is the first of his L.A. Quartet of novels, the third of which was already adapted into the brilliant film L.A. Confidential (1997). In every way that earlier movie succeeds, DePalma's fails. It is awkwardly told, over the top, full of hammy performances not rooted to anything else in the movie and has sequences that are almost laugh-out-loud funny they're so dreadful. Almost. Unfortunately there isn't even "so bad it's good" pleasure to be drained from this cinematic turd.
The good actors in the movie, namely Aaron Eckhart and Hilary Swank, look ridiculous as they go waaaay over the top for no apparent reason. If the movie can manage to make good actors look like amatures, imagine what it does for the far less talented like Scarlett Johansson and frippin' Josh Hartnett. While Hollywoodland was a pleasnant surprise to find Ben Affleck can actually act, The Black Dahlia is just further proof that Harnett is out of his depth on screen playing anything other than a Ken doll. Watching him try to brood or emote is painful. But to single him out is really unfair as every aspect of the film is shoddy. The cinematography, while crisp and stylized and definitely DePalma all the way, does nothing to evoke a time and place, only to make the sets look like sets. The costumes make the cast look like they're in Bugsy Malone more than The Maltese Falcon. The music, while genre and period correct, is awkwardly laid about. And the editing choices...my goodness. DePalma, while a competent enough technician if you're making a television commercial or music video that's mostly about image and doesn't need to worry too much about narrative, has no idea how to stage and then pace a film properly. It's really just a big ol' mess, leaving any shred of potential this project had cut in half and left for dead like the title corpse.
The story of Short's murder has been told before on screen, and I'm sure it'll be told again, with or without Ellroy's characters and plot. But this version is best forgotten.
GRADE: D
The Black Dahlia (Brian DePalma)
Yowza. Brian DePalma has made some horrible movies in his career. He's got a couple great ones mixed in there, a couple good ones, but mostly it's a crapfest. He's got an overwhelming visual and editorial style that can work, the few times the material has actually suited it, but mostly it's gaudy style leading to embarassingly inept storytelling with horrible overacting - even from good actors. His latest is The Black Dahlia, adapted from James Ellroy's novel that incorperated the infamous 1947 murder of Elizabeth Short into his tale of corrupt cops and shady dealings in post-War Los Angeles. This is the first of his L.A. Quartet of novels, the third of which was already adapted into the brilliant film L.A. Confidential (1997). In every way that earlier movie succeeds, DePalma's fails. It is awkwardly told, over the top, full of hammy performances not rooted to anything else in the movie and has sequences that are almost laugh-out-loud funny they're so dreadful. Almost. Unfortunately there isn't even "so bad it's good" pleasure to be drained from this cinematic turd.
The good actors in the movie, namely Aaron Eckhart and Hilary Swank, look ridiculous as they go waaaay over the top for no apparent reason. If the movie can manage to make good actors look like amatures, imagine what it does for the far less talented like Scarlett Johansson and frippin' Josh Hartnett. While Hollywoodland was a pleasnant surprise to find Ben Affleck can actually act, The Black Dahlia is just further proof that Harnett is out of his depth on screen playing anything other than a Ken doll. Watching him try to brood or emote is painful. But to single him out is really unfair as every aspect of the film is shoddy. The cinematography, while crisp and stylized and definitely DePalma all the way, does nothing to evoke a time and place, only to make the sets look like sets. The costumes make the cast look like they're in Bugsy Malone more than The Maltese Falcon. The music, while genre and period correct, is awkwardly laid about. And the editing choices...my goodness. DePalma, while a competent enough technician if you're making a television commercial or music video that's mostly about image and doesn't need to worry too much about narrative, has no idea how to stage and then pace a film properly. It's really just a big ol' mess, leaving any shred of potential this project had cut in half and left for dead like the title corpse.
The story of Short's murder has been told before on screen, and I'm sure it'll be told again, with or without Ellroy's characters and plot. But this version is best forgotten.
GRADE: D