Slipstream

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Slipstream

28% Liked It
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Slipstream

Anthony Hopkins, Stella Arroyave, Lana Antonova, Kevin McCarthy, Gavin Grazer

Aging screenwriter Felix Bonhoeffer has lived his life in two states of existence: in reality and his own interior world. While working on a murder mystery script, and unaware that his brain is on the...( read more  read more... ) verge of implosion, Felix is baffled when his characters start to appear in his life, and vice versa.

Id: 10888092

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Slipstream Recent Reviews
  • Stinger839
    March 2, 2009
    Stinger839
    As I write this segment at 59mins in, I can't decide if this film is brilliant or pretentious. Certainly the first third (and pretty much all) of the camera work that isn't a jump cut is pretentious (esp the color changes are not earned). And this second third I've just finished ...( read more)is plain brilliant, a new sendup of movie production on par with The Player, Swimming with Sharks, and Day of the Locust. I do know that however I turn out feeling about this movie in the end, I will probably rent the DVD and do tons of research on how/why Hopkins put this project together. Okay, resuming screening.

    1:hr10mins: this movie is tripping me out, but also annoying me too(again with the unearned color and cutting "style").

    Okay, the SAVE creen is awesome! I'm totally geeking out on the writer aspects too, cuz it's like very much in the vein of a William S. Burroughs or Philip K. Dick confrontation b/w the self and reality. Perhaps other writers oft wonder if their lives will turn into that blur of story and objectivity; the multiple layers of reality that stack themselves before us cannot be ignored and must be grandly experienced, like a fever dream spanning a few decades. This film captures that very well. It is all really hinging on the last 10-15mins though.

    Alright, I thought it was awesome with the horror detour to the framed beginning/ending tragic device. Awesome as
    Schizopolis or Adaptation or Naked Lunch? Hellz NO. But I enjoyed; others will rate 3 to 3.5. I give it that extra bump just because the stylistic blend confused and angered me in a kinda fun way.
  • sitenoise
    May 28, 2008
    sitenoise
    It really is David Lynch meets Oliver Stone to redo Fellini. It's funny and it's weird, and only mildly difficult. If mildly difficult troubles you, stay away.
  • ceWEBrity
    April 1, 2008
    ceWEBrity
    Kudos to Anthony Hopkins for trying something fifty times more creative and ambitious than any other actor-cum-director would, but this just didn't work for me. You can't pull off David Lynch unless you're actually David Lynch, and that's solely based on name recognition - half o...( read more)f his quality is inflated by his reputation alone, but I digress. This is a lousy, wasteful movie, peddling style without actually having a fundamental understanding of it. Like I Know Who Killed Me before it, Slipstream tries to imitate Lynch while completely ignoring what makes his style (sort of) work.

    There is a sickening amount of jump cuts, freeze frames, crossing the line, all sorts of gimmicky editing devices scattered throughout this film. The first twenty minutes are nearly unwatchable. Past this point, these little glitches still occur, not as severe but certainly just as annoying.

    I understand that this movie was an attempt at a stream of consciousness narrative, so why did Hopkins let an eight year old edit it? It is perfectly possible to tell a story such as Felix's without disorienting camera changes, sudden removal of color and stuttering images. Maybe, MAYBE things like this could have enhanced the movie if they were used sparingly, and even then there would have been the risk of gimmickry. But Hopkins goes way the fuck overboard. It makes Slipstream into something deeply amateurish, not the product of someone who has worked in film for over 40 years.

    Past all that, it doesn't even change the fact that there isn't anything going on in the movie. The time that these camera tricks detract from the movie really begins to add up, and by the time you're an hour in there's this unshakable feeling that you've only seen twenty minutes of movie. It is not without its charms, but I'll be damned if I'm going to sit through an hour and a half of visual masturbation just to watch S. Epatha Merkerson laugh at something inappropriate.

    Skip this one, unless you're one of those indignant pseudo-intellectuals who thinks that anything "different" is automatically good.
  • puffchunk
    February 27, 2008
    puffchunk
    Were I to watch this film not knowing anything about it, I'd have given it 2 stars for being obnoxiously confusing. But, knowing that it is an autobiographical interpretation of Anthony Hopkins' career and views of todays dying film art and overlap of media, I would give it 3 st...( read more)ars. Put um together and you get 2.5 stars. Watch it when you have something else to do at the same time.
  • LisaMJ
    March 15, 2009
    LisaMJ
    Weird and messed up. It felt more artistic than trying to tell a story. It reminded me of a David Lynch movie.
  • stefany2121
    December 18, 2009
    stefany2121
    When I read a summary of this movie, I run to get the DVD, but the film is dissapointing, extremely confusing. Surreal film.
  • filmguy450
    November 22, 2009
    filmguy450
    I cannot desricbed this film, at all. I could tell you what happens, but I cannot descirbe, partially because it will ruin the beauty of how astounding it is, but mostly, words cannot do this thing justice. Athony Hopkins directs a very assured movie, and does not care to make it...( read more) easy on the viewer. A must watch, even if you wind up hating it, I bet it'd be apperciated on come levels.
  • jasontmartin3
    October 11, 2009
    jasontmartin3
    I dont even know what was going on maby I missed some thing I dont know but it was very bad, maby I was to high? If I should watch it again let me know!
  • phaedrus99
    September 17, 2009
    phaedrus99
    Sir Anthony Hopkins is a true artist. He wrote, directed, composed and conducted this groundbreaking film, which explores the premise of a man who is caught in a slipstream of time and remembers his own future.

    Much like a picasso painting, this film's artistic value is often mi...( read more)sunderstood or under-appreciated by the casual viewer. Without prior explanation, the meaning may seem confusing and the style perhaps even uncomfortable. However, there is a deeper device at work here which merits a more considered preponderance.

    The key to understanding Sir Hopkins' work is found in the title. 'Slipstream' is an effect experienced out of cognitive dissonance when inconsistent or fantasy elements intersect with otherwise realistic or consistent settings, creating simultaneous feelings of strangeness with familiarity. Here, tropes and cinematography are skilfully employed to create a slipstream for the viewer, in order to portray the slipstream felt by the central character.

    The best explanation of Slipstream's true meaning is expressed by Anthony Hopkins himself, in the following quote :
      "I'm fascinated by time. I've written a script about the nature of reality... It's about reality and the illusion of life because life to me, as I get older, is so illusion-like, so dream-like, that I think it's all a dream. It's about a man, who's caught in a slipstream of time falling back on itself and he remembers his own future. My own interpretation is if there's a God, that God is actually time. I'm fascinated by the fact the older I get every moment just slips past. What is real? You grasp this moment and then it's gone. I was talking 10 minutes ago but that's all gone, it's all a dream. Maybe the puzzle of life is asking what it's all about. I've got a theory that at the moment of impact of death we'll wake up and say, 'Ah, that was it all along.' My life has been governed a lot by those thoughts and feelings."
  • Sloirishbud
    September 2, 2009
    Sloirishbud
    I am myself a big fan of surreal films and I found this film utterly confusing at best and nonsensical at worst. Even though the continuity in the story line was no where to be found, I found the film to be a visually pleasing delight. Anthony Hopkins is one intelligent man and t...( read more)his film of his is truly the most confusing film I have ever watched. I will give the style, artistry, and solid cinematography a rating of 3 but the rest of the film deserves a 2.5.
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