State of Play

State of Play (2009) It's very important to give yourself time to process a film before writing about it. As you look back at the dwindling memory of the experience of watching a movie, that Hollywood glow slowly fades into a more two-dimensional image that is much easier to criticize. Which is why I'm writing about this movie RIGHT NOW.

Effing brilliant. I loved every moment of this film that I didn't fast-forward (I get really anxious during moments of high tension, so I fast-forward them. I don't miss any dialogue, and I still get a fairly thorough idea of the images). Everything about this film amazed me. The cast were perfect, and I'm not even a very big Russell Crowe fan (well, I wasn't).

The story may not contain anything ground-breakingly unheard-of, but the whole thing plays with (almost as a masterpiece) the intrigue drama. I was constantly amazed how such a classic story became fresh through this production. I never felt deja vu, or had flashbacks to other films. I simply enjoyed the ride as if I'd never been before.

The director, Kevin Macdonald amazed me. The tone, character interactions, the whole piece just fit amazingly well. I'm giving a shout-out to Rodrigo Prieto as the cinematographer. I don't know if he's directly or indirectly responsible for the amazing way I absolutely DIDN'T get annoyed by too many boring close-close-ups, and the framing of the scenes in the garage, but I thoroughly enjoyed it all very, very much. I'm going to have to appreciate Justine Wright's work as film editor, too. I haven't heard of these people. You probably haven't heard of these people, but they do their jobs well.

Rotten Tomatoes critics generally agree with me (84% on the tomatometer), but they probably gave themselves time to digest, and dig out the flaws. Ultimately, finding flaws with this film would only give you a false impression about how it felt to watch it. I saw none while I was watching. It was just a lot of fun. I'm going to watch the BBC series now, because A) it's got John Simm (of the BBC's Life on Mars - the BEST television show I've seen since Wonderfalls) and B) it'll give the plot some stretching room. 

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