As expected, this is still no Virgin Suicides, but it’s not another Lost in Translation either, which is something, I suppose. Kinda feels like Sofia Coppola got deep and tried to kill herself, got sent to Japan to recover, got back from Japan feeling dejected having found nothing there and wrote “Lost …”, then proceeded to play with her old dollhouse and wrote a story about that too. Sometimes the coordination of the actors onscreen is pretty dreadful, as stilted as a school play. Part of me, from what I’ve seen of the girl in interviews etc, can’t help but imagine her giving a direction along the lines of, “Just, like, walk over here,” and, asked how, answering, “I don’t know, like walking?” BTW, please no comments on this last paragraph in the comments, I’m just thinking out loud and I don’t mean much of it. Like Sofia, in fact

It’s kind of worth it for Kirsten, who I can now officially declare I like again, and it of course looks gorgeous – but like “Lost in Translation”, it just comes over so daddy’s spoiled little girl and film-student-ish at times it’s hard to bare. I mean, “Virgin Suicides” is like that too, I guess, but for some reason that movie remains by far Coppola’s best – I’d even say her only actually good film, at least in my opinion. I kind of get Sofia Coppola and I think that annoys me more than anything. When I read so many people saying that the only explanation for people who hate her movies is that they’re narrowminded, and don’t get it. Believe me, I get it, and I really want to like it. I actually liked something I read on her IMDb message board today, someone defending her work – “Adolescence is adolescent!” And I get that maybe the lack of co-ordination, the bittiness, the awkwardness, the shallowness, the selfishness is all a part of that in her films. But in the end, it just doesn’t fill 2 hours as well as I think she thinks it does.

The sheer fact that I’ve written more on this movie than Babel even though I thought Babel was far better should tell readers that I’m not completely ready to dismiss Sofia Coppola yet. In fact I could sit for hours trying to get to the bottom of what it is that irks me so about her movies even while I appreciate her skill. I think she’s a really interesting director with a definitely distinct voice, and I’ll watch anything she makes. I just don’t particularly like her last two movies.

edit Just in case anyone’s interested, this is apparently post #1000! lol.

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