I like the films of Sofia Coppola. All of them. I like Marie Antoinette a lot. Like, I think it’s a Great Movie. That said, the trailer for her latest, Somewhere, fills me with dread. See, it’s another disaffected/sad rich people movie.
Maybe this is just her finishing up her trilogy of Sad Rich People movies, with Somewhere seeming to be a tonal sequel to Lost in Translation. But if Somewhere is just the latest in an endless series of movies where Sofia examines just how, like empty, the lives of rich people are I might be tapping out of this match. I don’t know how many more times I can work up empathy for really rich people with basic boring existential crises. At least give these people real problems, like AIDS or a dead kid or having to spend millions of dollars in 30 days.
But Somewhere does look lovely, and I’m sure that Sofia knows jack shit about the lifestyles of anyone middle class or lower, so I guess this is where her general comfort zone is. But at this point she might as well just make a scifi movie for all the resonance her body of work has with 95% of America’s population.
30 comments
That Emperor is stark naked. I swear the majority of this type of film is nicely shot but manipulative tosh. While *some* critics may eat this stuff up and love to shower it in acclaim – I see these films as less driven by talent than your average summer blockbuster. Give me a camera or two and a few select emotive tracks and I'll deliver a artful film about a disaffected person trying to cope with the woes of life. Ask me to take the reigns of Iron Man 3 though and I'd poop m' pants. Lost in Translation is one of the few Bill Murray films I haven't seen numerous times (right there next to Larger than Life). Still if this is your bag…
where does Virgin Suicides fit into this mix? Or does that not count because its an adapted work?
At least Bret Easton Ellis threw in like…psycho killers, crazy super model terrorists and ghosts to change things up.
good grief another one of these movies? i suppose she really took to heart that film school mantra, "write/make what you know". and yup. she sure knows being a rich chick. plus, it's not like she needs the money. or the success. daddy'll make sure she keeps making movies regardless.
Fuck all that noise. Stephen Dorff!
God, you always find a way to be so mopey about everything. It's amazing.
Danger! Danger! This does not look good.
I guess as much as middle and upper class white people love watching films about the rich lives of lower class and poor people they also love watching films about the poor lives of middle and upper class people.
I watched this with the sound off and it was awful.
Is this like the "Kramer vs Kramer" for the rich?
It would be more interesting and artistically challenging if she were to take on the lives of working or middle class people. I'm tired of overeducated rich people telling me their ennui and emotional problems are more important than mine simply because they "understand" it more because of said overeducation. I say this as someone who was genuinely moved by "Lost in Translation" and as an admirer of Coppola's style. Challenge yourself, Sofia!
daddy can't even get his own movies made. at this point, if he ever makes another studio film, it's likely to read: Exec Produced by Sofia Coppola.
Man, this looks like someone trying to copy Sofia Coppola. That last shot of the girl with hear head on Dorff's shoulder? Looks like a blatant copy of the shot of Johanssen with her head on Murray's shoulder in Lost in Translation.
I'm not a fan of the alienated celebrity/estranged father seeks redemption stuff but I'm happy to see Stephen Dorff get a leading role like this to play. I've always thought he was an underrated actor and as familiar and manipulative as this role may end up being, I think he'll probably do a pretty great job in it.
As for Sophia Coppola, this seems to be more of the same for her. If you asked a group of people a month ago what the trailer for her next movie would look like, 99% of them would've said "beautiful shots of sad, lonely people set to melancholy tune by hip artist from the 00's." It's more of the same, and while it doesn't look bad at all, it's a little underwhelming to see something so familar.
Say what you want, fucking impeccable taste in music though. Long live The Strokes.
I don't suppose anyone here would consider that her films humanize people from the upper class in ways that Hollywood or reality TV rarely do. I'm not rich and never will be but I find much in her films to relate to.
I'm with Mark on this one. I also do not even care about the fact that these people are rich. It's a father daughter story. Those are universal and it's also STEPHEN FUCKING DORFF AS THE MALE LEAD! Seriously that's worth celebrating not worrying about Sofia making movies for rich people.
You do know that she did in fact spend some part of her life as a broke as chick right? It's not the last 20 or so years that her father really started to make that wine money and before that he spent the better part of Sofia's childhood as close to broke as someone in his position gets. So this is not some rich chick making movies about rich people. This is some chick making movies about people that rarely get a fair shake in film all because of their pay scale.
Man, if I'm gonna be depressed I want to be Rich and Depressed rather than Poor and Depressed. Poor and Depressed would SUCK. When you're Rich and Depressed people make movies about you! And you're RICH!
WTF? Stephen Dorff…acting!? Who did he fuck/kill/marry for this gig?
I think you missed one interesting note about this trailer.
Jackass' Chris "Party Boy" Pontius makes apparently plays a part in this film. See him at 1:21
Interesting.
What was all that about the tyranny of realism, again?
Why should it matter if they're rich or not? The story of a father bonding with his daughter has potential, regardless of social status. Some people just like to complain…
Another great looking trailer from Mrs. Coppola. This bitch really knows what she's doing.
Oh hey, it's the "greatest actor of his generation". Did Deuces Wild 2: Deuce Bags not get greenlit? Sad to see such talent reduced (redeuced?) to this.
I think it looks good. What's wrong with a simple drama about someone who's rich? If you 'get' that money can't buy happiness then who cares about the financial state of your characters? Rich or poor just give us a good story, and Sofia does that. Did yall complain about the cops in Bad Boys II driving badass cars and wearing pimped out clothes? No, because it makes things fun. Have more fun.
This prequel to Blade does not look interesting or good.
Do we really need a crappy slow "Garden State" style cover of an excellent Strokes song in the background? That sucks!
I went to the cast and crew screening when it wrapped and this trailer is nothing in how the film really is.
I think this looks gorgeous.
Disaffected? Rich?
Boring.
I like her work too, although each successive film has been a little less interesting. The quesiest aspect of her former films is that not only are they blatantly about herself, but she has replaced herself with a buxom blonde surrogate. At least this time the blonde is lissome and willowy, as Sofia is, but the cloying (and very bourgeois) obviousness of her 'God I wish I had headturning cuvves like Valley Girl next door Kirsten or quasi-Scandinavian Scarlett' cries out like someone downright in need of a sitdown with a therapist who'll tell her 'It's OK pretty failed actress, failed photographer, talented director who though more than able would never have made it without her father's influence and there's probably 100 equally talented film school grads every year who will never, ever, ever get to direct a feature, it really is OK, we love you just the way you are, all Mediterranean and brunette'. The psychology of this woman would probably make for a great documentary. I want to see Sofia the Hearts of Darkness version, although it'd probably be a lot like a modern version of Marie Antoinette.
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