FeistyUpper
If you don't like this, we can't be friends.
Teringer
An Exercise In Nonsense
Pacionsbo
Absolutely Fantastic
TrueHello
Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.
pulp_post
I've just watched Drawing Restraint 9 again, maybe I did this because I wanted to give it a second chance... But no, it certainly doesn't deserve any praise from me, and for the second time it made me feel ill.Why? Because Matthew Barney probably thinks that it is OK to make "art" out of extinction, death and ignorance, and thinks it's a nothing to make a movie inside the Nisshin Maru, the protagonist of more than a deep scar on Earth's oceans history. By stating that his film is apolitical and refusing to take any position about whaling, he can be paired with all the brainless creatures that "think" that wearing a fur coat is OK, taking this sort of cheap appeal as something better than Nature and the Beauty of living beings. This film would be as bad as one refusing to take a position about human rights or such... so no Mr Barney, as much as I love good photography and while I think that your film has some merit in this particular point, it soon becomes very ugly when the slaughter you didn't want to make explicit becomes as clear as you metaphors about it... And please, once it was filmed inside the ship itself, don't expect me to believe that it carries any anti-whaling message underneath it... Shame, shame, shame on you Mr Barney. It's not art - it's just something cheap and very ugly at the end of the day.
mountain_lights
I watched this movie as a preview of a Matthew Barney art exhibit. It certainly prepared me. I almost skipped the exhibit and, in retrospect, probably should have.Aside from the score being great (Bjork) and the photography rich and colorful, the content was mostly tedious and predictable. Gee, I really needed to see someone wearing pearls to figure out what the pearl-divers were up to. The film was mostly a silly mixture of Japanese cultural references and industrial shots of modern whaling technology being used in a mock-hunt/harvest. The film "peaks" with enough gratuitous shock-art to turn your stomach.What was the point of the movie? While others might argue that it is an anti-whaling piece, one could equally argue that it somehow also justifies whaling. Personally I think it was Barney's attempt at "flashing" the audience with his anal, fecal, self-mutilation, and cannibalistic fetishes.Bottom line: unless you really get off on Barney's sense of art, don't bother seeing this movie. The message is obscure, the pace slow, and the cultural references pretentious. If you're after shock-art, you'll do better at one of the many "Undead" movies or hunting down an old copy of Hustler and taking in a fecal-cartoon.
xglimmershinex
I thought it would at least be aesthetically beautiful. It was slow, pretentious, and boring. I almost fell asleep. There are some decent songs, but there is this one song at the end which is just some guy yelling out "Yaowwww!" while someone taps randomly on a wooden object. That being said, there are some pretty songs, but it's not worth seeing hte movie over. Go on itunes (they have the album), preview it, and choose the good ones. Half the movie is some guy making tea. Well, that's a slight exaggeration. But you'll see what I mean if you see it. That being said: DON'T SEE IT!
istelle
This is a beautiful film, it has a very Japanese rhythm and pace to it, which may be hard to appreciate for certain American audiences. It is dreamy, serene and disturbing. Full of symbols and deeper meaning. I had no idea what it was about, and was glad I did not read anything about it beforehand. The film is pure enough to be filled with individual associations and references, which is a mark of high art form, at least for me.Bjork is no longer a girl, she is a woman: time and giving birth have laid their mark. She looked stunning to me.If you watch it - let it wash over you.
