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March 28, 2024, 01:35:28 PM

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Kurt Vonnegut: Unstuck In Time (2021)

Started by Blue Jam, July 21, 2022, 09:36:28 PM

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Blue Jam

Well, I'm gonna be at this with bells on:


zomgmouse

You are clearly very excited about this so don't read if you don't want a dampener:

Spoiler alert
I saw this a couple of weeks ago and it was very disappointing, the documentary maker (Robert Weide, who also created Curb Your Enthusiasm) turned it more and more into a documentary on his own personal friendship with Vonnegut and as a result forgot about structure and it became very overblown.
[close]

Sebastian Cobb

Got a ticket to see it at the weekend.

Blue Jam

Quote from: zomgmouse on July 22, 2022, 12:44:33 AMYou are clearly very excited about this so don't read if you don't want a dampener:

Spoiler alert
I saw this a couple of weeks ago and it was very disappointing, the documentary maker (Robert Weide, who also created Curb Your Enthusiasm) turned it more and more into a documentary on his own personal friendship with Vonnegut and as a result forgot about structure and it became very overblown.
[close]

No worries, thanks for the review. Will be good to see interview footage in among the rest of it. I'm just happy to see the great KV getting a bit of appreciation.

Blue Jam

Saw this tonight, will write more later but for now I'll just say I found this absolutely fucking joyous and now I want to read all of Vonnegut's novels again.

Think we could do with a Vonnegut thread in Shelf Abuse as well.

bigfatheart

I saw it at the weekend and really enjoyed it. Some really interesting stuff in there, particularly his evasiveness when it came to discussing his emotional response to Dresden. Also the disconnect between how cuddly and loveable he came across and how emotionally remote he seems to have been up until his success.

Had mixed feelings about Weide inserting himself into it so much. I guess it was meant to be a homage to Vonnegut inserting himself into his own works, but where that feels playful and like he's experimenting with how far he can push the metatextual conceit, in the film it often felt a bit mawkish and, well, bland. Not always - there were definitely times where I did feel it worked, and I get the parallel he was drawing with how Vonnegut worked and worked at Slaughterhouse-5 until he found his way in - but a little could have gone a long way.

Also, the cut to Vonnegut's adopted nephews, with (I think) three of them looking absolutely identical to him, right down to the moustaches, made me laugh out loud.

Blue Jam

All four of them had moustaches, it was incredible.

The stuff about him being evasive about Dresden reminded me of Cat's Cradle and the passage where one of Felix Hoenikker's children sees him up close and doesn't see this brilliant scientist but a very scary, hairy, smelly man who doesn't seem like a father at all. I did wonder if that was Vonnegut commenting on himself being this distant genius who was more dedicated to his work than being a father, maybe a bit of guilt?

Weide talking about his wife's illness really moved me to be honest. I felt it was a perfect example of the whole "So it goes"/"We are put on Earth to fart about" sentiment. I loved the way it showed someone getting some comfort from Vonnegut's works, a bit like Terry Pratchett when he would talk about terminally ill fans writing to him to tell him they found the character of Death comforting- "it's life that kills you, Death releases you from suffering". What higher praise is there?

I was also quite jealous that Weide's school had a Kurt Vonnegut reading group. Why did mine have to have a bloody Gilbert & Sullivan group, eh?

Blue Jam

Also as someone who has seen and enjoyed Weide's film adaptation of Mother Night I did like the fact that it was mentioned while the adaptation of Breakfast of Champions starring Bruce Willis was completely glossed over. Still haven't brought myself to watch that.

I also appreciated the use of KV's drawing of an asshole as a bullet point. It didn't really need explaining though, I just found that a nice little Easter egg.

bigfatheart

Funnily enough, Cat's Cradle is the one I went straight to re-read after watching it, because it didn't really click with me first time (one of the few that didn't), and the passage you mentioned immediately leapt out at me after seeing the film.

Yeah, you're right about the "so it goes"-type philosophy. I think maybe that's where I found some of it a little clunky, because the documentary is inherently going to be standing in contrast to someone who was a master at threading the needle of making simple yet powerful statements that didn't fall into the trap of coming across like Live Laugh Love-type guff. It's probably unfair to judge the documentary by that, most people would come across second-best next to that.

The film version of Breakfast of Champions is genuinely dreadful, it made me furious when I watched it. It completely misses all the warmth and compassion that's the whole point of the book. Nick Nolte's quite good in it, though, which it has in common with Mother Night, obviously.

Saw this last night and loved it (despite there being two people in the tiny cinema who took their phones out and took photos with flash of the screen at multiple points, demented behaviour).

I didn't find the director putting himself in the story too intrusive as it often illustrated points and gave a human element to Vonnegut who seemed to detach himself from a lot of feelings (or at least pretend to publicly) in order to cope.

One thing I thought was rubbish and distracting was the smoke effect on screen every time he was pictured with one of his Pall Malls, once I spotted it I can't see anything else.

Similarly has made me want to go back and enjoy his books all over again, probably the writer who has given me the most joy.

Mobbd

I largely didn't mind Weide putting so much of himself into it. It became a bit much towards the end though. Made the whole cinema laugh when he said "I took it in my stride" when he was mentioned in Timequake. It was the laughter of "Did ye, aye?"

The one thing I didn't know about was his adoption of the 5 boys to prevent them from being split up. Heart of gold. I liked the sound of their fucking insane house after the adoption too, making bombs and the likes and prompting Papa Kurt to come raging out of his writing room, shouting abuse at everyone.

The video of him dancing was delightful.

I'd forgotten about the prickish elements of his story, leaving his wife as soon as he became famous. Can't defend that. Made me sad.

But generally, yeah. I liked this. Not especially revealing, a little bit too indulgent (but I allowed him most of it - he's done good work in his life and deserves to be known somewhat), but lots of nice intimate footage to make it all worthwhile. Plus, it's just nice to think about Kurt Vonnegut for a bit, especially in a room full of other people who love him.

Dropshadow

I wouldn't have minded the annoying Weide being such a turd-that-wouldn't-flush so much if he hadn't said early on in this shagshow that he didn't like documentaries where the guy who was making it inserted himself into the damn thing too much, and so on.

But he ended up doing just that, which was annoying. He lied. A fan-edit that flushes most of his annoying input would be very very welcome. I'd do it, but I can't be bothered.

Otherwise, a good show. 9/10 for Kurt, 3/10 for...... you know.

SteveDave

Saw this last night. I was in tears several times. I was a bit pissed though.   

Slaughterhouse 5/5