Tuesday

Recently, I have very rarely stopped watching a new film half-way through. If it's an old one, I'll perhaps feel justified, but definitely not a new one. Last night I began watching To Die For, and within ten or fifteen minutes I was bored. I drifted away and came back to it again and again, to see if it had become interesting, but eventually turned it over to Family Guy. What's happened to me? To Die For is perhaps a favourite film for many people, but I couldn't find it interesting at all. The acting was terrible, to begin with, and then there was the style of it. It's one of those early 90s films that thinks it's very clever, thinks it's an astute social satire. The problem is they date very quickly. Nothing about it felt relevant at all. It was clearly adapted from a book - and the first fifteen minutes were almost entirely voice-over. But then this film was directed by Gus Van Sant. Isn't he a respected director? I've never seen much of his work: Good Will Hunting, and the brilliant Elephant, but that's it. I was interested in his shot-by-shot remake of Psycho too. Perhaps, then, he isn't a good director, or perhaps I just don't like his style. It will be hard for me to ever sit down to watch To Die For again.