Friday, March 14, 2008

Live from SXSW: Stop-Loss

So there I am, during my last night at SXSW, watching Stop-Loss at the Paramount Theatre in Austin. Sitting next to me: A documentarian who's actually spent time in Iraq, shooting... well, documentaries about the Iraq War. At the ten-minute mark, he turns to me and says: "I don't know how much longer I can put up with this." At the 17-minute mark, he says: "OK, I'm leaving. Talk to you later." And he bolts. I wasn't quite so upset by the film.

2 comments:

Toto said...

Joe,

Loved this line - "at least one key character is so obviously fated for an unhappy ending, he might as well have a vulture perched on his shoulder"

But what was the Iraq doc guy watching this movie upset about? Did he find the pic inauthentic? Too sad? Too critical? Not critical enough?

Joe Leydon said...

Far be it from me to put words in another person's mouth -- but, based on an after-the-fact conversation, I suspect the filmmaker viewed Stop-Loss as unbearably melodramatic (and inaccurate) B.S.