Great Movie Review Site and The Prestige
Yesterday, I stumbled on a great movie review site called cinekklesia.com. The site has thoughtful reviews of both popular mainstream films and off-beat, independent, and special interest works.
I have one gripe with the site though: its review of The Prestige. I really liked the movie, (despite my experience being hampered by a fussy child) and since cinekklesia is powered by a blogging engine, I was able to argue my case in the comments section. O'Donovan, the reviewer, even posted a swift reply (he thought the themes I loved were overshadowed, incidental and undeveloped--I thought they were subtle and appropriately non-didactic). You can find the review, my response, and his reply here.
Even though blogs can be an especially frustrating format when you don't see eye-to-eye, the site is excellent and worth a periodic check whenever new films appear.
I can't really disagree with anything he says. When describing the movie to my roommate I said it was basically a magical pissing contest. But you are right that this guy misses the point. I think he expected more from it than probably should be.
I did not write my own review because I felt like I had more to say about other movies, but I did give it a grade along with those reviews at Possum Holler.
Also, I thought I would recommend a website that I really like for film criticism, http://www.filmspotting.net/
You have to listen to the podcasts to really get their takes on movies, but they cover a lot of ground, have some interesting conversations and stay up to date with current movies. They also discuss older movies and overlooked movies.
Miles, in their most recent podcast they discuss The Prestige...you should check it out.