Change Your Image
clefzet
Reviews
Treehouse Masters (2013)
Them That Can, Do; Them That Can't, Get 15 Min of Fame on Reality TV
As far as the production of the show, I have no complaint with it other than my general refusal to watch nearly all "reality" TV featuring no-talent nitwits performing mundane tasks in front of a camera for an audience of people who have no lives to live.
As for the premise of the show, I have big problems with it. I'm an old guy, having been around a long time and have seen a lot. One of the things I saw back in the 60s and 70s were real tree-houses that real people lived in. No, not quarter million dollar redwood, oiled teak and triple-pane glass fantasy "clubhouses" with secret doors, an observation dome and ADA-approved access ramps, but salvaged wood, metal and glass and concrete homemade structures that sheltered people from the elements and provided a safe place to live. AND the tree-houses were built by the residents themselves,. They scraped together whatever they could, poured the concrete, cut the wood (often with a chainsaw because they had no power), hammered the nails, and finished they job the best way they could with what they had. Maybe some friends pitched in to help and in return got some help back on their next project. But NONE of them ever hired any professional carpenters, riggers, or cabinetmakers to do the job for them. They couldn't afford it.
And that is my problem. Young upscale, yuppie losers hiring professionals to build them a fantasy tree-house is just all wrong. Having your main home built by contractors is OK. Unless you are really skilled and have more time than money, a contractor home makes sense. But you are supposed to build a tree-house yourself. Hiring a pro to do one for you is like hiring someone else to whittle you a wooden whistle, do a crossword puzzle for you or paying someone to play hopscotch in your kid's place. With people out of work, having to share housing or living on the streets, there is something really wrong with professional tree-houses. As for the guy with the tree-house company, I can't blame him if there is a whole country full of rich dipsticks who want something quaint and charming cranked out for them that they lack the class to do for themselves. If he can make an honest buck doing carpentry, good for him. But putting it on TV is where I draw the line. I don't need to be reminded about these vacuous morons and their excessive lifestyles. So the answer is obviously to not watch the show and beyond the three episodes that I wasted my life on, I don't watch it. One star is generous of me.
O Convento (1995)
Amateurish Effort
Two stars for fairly competent cinematography. Good composition and good camera movement without glitzy focus-racking thru the forest.
Malkovich and Deneuve are there only for their names. The real acting takes place with the Porteguese? actors. And they struggle with the pretentious dialog.
The two worst offenses are committed by the director who explains the characters and their actions thru narration ( or awkward scenes with minor actors describing the main characters by using some vaguely occult terminology) rather than showing their characters and motivations thru their actions and their own dialog. It is a movie, after all, not an essay. Second offense is the music, which is overwhelming at times. Using Stravinsky with violent string passages to imply evil, danger, foreboding etc could work, but it didn't for this production. Just loud and annoying without any real matching action.
It reminded me greatly of a university master's thesis film I worked on 37 years ago--(fortunately not mine). Lots of fantasy, lots of literary allusions, lots of mood, pointless scenery long shots, more than a few long takes that the director fell in love with and the editor was not inclined (or allowed) to abbreviate, and some really over-the-top acting moments (as when Baltar meets the prof's wife for the first time). Down, boy, down! I rented it because I am trying to catch up on some Deneuve films that I missed over the years, but I'm sorry I did. She must have really needed some money to have done this one.