Not sure what I'm reviewing here, since this isn't so much a movie as a movie so wholly in thrall to other movies as to be reduced to a kind of essay, or, better, a kind of scrim thrown over pre-existing movies. That may all sound a little arty-farty, but seriously, it's impossible to watch the awful Tobey Maguire acting like an actor acting like a craven American solider in occupied Berlin without immediately beginning to experience the movie as a movie about movies rather than a movie. Then the sublime Cate Blanchett comes on and proceeds to do a passable Marlene Dietrich impersonation. What is the point of all this? Why would you watch this instead of The Third Man or Casablanca? Soderbergh is such a weirdo; I genuinely like this about him. The Good German is the filmmaking equivalent to The 1900 House, and just as perverse and fascinating.
May 27, 2007
The Good German, Steven Soderbergh (2006)
Not sure what I'm reviewing here, since this isn't so much a movie as a movie so wholly in thrall to other movies as to be reduced to a kind of essay, or, better, a kind of scrim thrown over pre-existing movies. That may all sound a little arty-farty, but seriously, it's impossible to watch the awful Tobey Maguire acting like an actor acting like a craven American solider in occupied Berlin without immediately beginning to experience the movie as a movie about movies rather than a movie. Then the sublime Cate Blanchett comes on and proceeds to do a passable Marlene Dietrich impersonation. What is the point of all this? Why would you watch this instead of The Third Man or Casablanca? Soderbergh is such a weirdo; I genuinely like this about him. The Good German is the filmmaking equivalent to The 1900 House, and just as perverse and fascinating.
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