The We and the I Reviews
ray
May 26, 2013
Dramen spielen sich hier ab, und obwohl ich die wahren Lebensumstände von Afro-Amerikanern in den Großstädten der USA selbst nur aus den Medien kenne, erscheint mir das was Gondry zeigt, als etwas doch recht authentisches.
Weder verteufelt noch verklärt, fällt sein Urteil über diese Teenager aus. Wie in allen Anhäufungen von Menschen, finden sich die coolen Kiddies, Loser, Schüchterne, Charismatische, Bullies - nette wie unfreundliche Jugendliche in diesem Bus, und wer der persönliche Favorit unter diesen unterschiedlichen, und doch herzigen Charakteren ist, bleibt dem Zuseher überlassen.
Interessante Charaktere, die jedoch anonym genug bleiben um als Modelle für weit größere, gesellschaftliche und politische Probleme stehen. Der Konflikt im Kleinen wird hier sinnbildlich für das große Ganze. Eine andere Frage ist, ob Gondry das überhaupt so will.
Als Fan davon, was Gondry sonst so macht, war ich jedoch ein klein wenig enttäuscht. Bis auf einige Details bleiben seine rege Fantasie und sein Händchen für surreale, visuelle Geniestreiche ungenützt. The We and the I" ist definitiv kein The Science of Sleep" und so sehr der Film sich auch bemüht eine kleine Charakterstudie zu bleiben, so bitter ist genau diese Entscheidung Gondrys.
In seinem neuesten Film The We and the I" entführt uns Michel Gondry in einen Schulbus. Am letzten Schultag begleiten wir eine Gruppe eher bildungsferner, mehrheitlich, afro-amerikanischer Jugendlicher, die das Schuljahr Revue passieren lassen, und sich für die Freiheiten der Ferien wappnen.
Dramen spielen sich hier ab, und obwohl ich die wahren Lebensumstände von Afro-Amerikanern in den Großstädten der USA selbst nur aus den Medien kenne, erscheint mir das was Gondry zeigt, als etwas doch recht authentisches.
Weder verteufelt noch verklärt, fällt sein Urteil über diese Teenager aus. Wie in allen Anhäufungen von Menschen, finden sich die coolen Kiddies, Loser, Schüchterne, Charismatische, Bullies - nette wie unfreundliche Jugendliche in diesem Bus, und wer der persönliche Favorit unter diesen unterschiedlichen, und doch herzigen Charakteren ist, bleibt dem Zuseher überlassen.
Interessante Charaktere, die jedoch anonym genug bleiben um als Modelle für weit größere, gesellschaftliche und politische Probleme stehen. Der Konflikt im Kleinen wird hier sinnbildlich für das große Ganze. Eine andere Frage ist, ob Gondry das überhaupt so will.
Als Fan davon, was Gondry sonst so macht, war ich jedoch ein klein wenig enttäuscht. Bis auf einige Details bleiben seine rege Fantasie und sein Händchen für surreale, visuelle Geniestreiche ungenützt. The We and the I" ist definitiv kein The Science of Sleep" und so sehr der Film sich auch bemüht eine kleine Charakterstudie zu bleiben, so bitter ist genau diese Entscheidung Gondrys.
Emil K
Super Reviewer
March 24, 2013
I do admire the risks that director Gondry often takes with his art. He is by far one of the most talented music video directors around and his films like Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and The Scinece of Sleep has shown great innovation and talent. The We and the I is more closer to his critically acclaimed documentary Blockparty, which i myself did not care that much.
There is a moment in this film where things do shape up into a more coherent storyline and all the yelling and bullying steps aside, but that moment comes way too late. For the first hour into this film i just felt annoyed and did not like any of these characters that much. They all just seem to to be bullies with smartmouth and the way they treat each other and passengers is quite harsh and insulting. I did not find no sympathy towards them. In the final fifteen minutes things do luckily go much better direction when Gondry finally forces his characters to look into a mirror. I still think that it all came way too late to make any difference at that point.
There are moments that has raw hypnotic power in them but mostly this is just chaotic mess from Gondry.
There is certain kind of authenticy in Michel Gondry's new film The We and the I, but most of the part it is just like most of the teenagers in this film; noisy, uncertain and confused.
I do admire the risks that director Gondry often takes with his art. He is by far one of the most talented music video directors around and his films like Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and The Scinece of Sleep has shown great innovation and talent. The We and the I is more closer to his critically acclaimed documentary Blockparty, which i myself did not care that much.
There is a moment in this film where things do shape up into a more coherent storyline and all the yelling and bullying steps aside, but that moment comes way too late. For the first hour into this film i just felt annoyed and did not like any of these characters that much. They all just seem to to be bullies with smartmouth and the way they treat each other and passengers is quite harsh and insulting. I did not find no sympathy towards them. In the final fifteen minutes things do luckily go much better direction when Gondry finally forces his characters to look into a mirror. I still think that it all came way too late to make any difference at that point.
There are moments that has raw hypnotic power in them but mostly this is just chaotic mess from Gondry.
thepersonwhowatchesmovies
March 9, 2013
Director: Michel Gondry
Cast: Michael Brodie, Teresa Lynn, Raymond Delgado, Jonathan Ortiz
Rated: R
Running Time: 103 Minutes
Michel Gondry's return to independant filmmaking after his 2011 semi-blockbuster The Green Hornet is a messy and experimental melodrama set almost entirely on a Brooklyn public bus, replete with a slowly dissapating number of urban high school students on their last day of classes. In my review of Rebecca Thomas' coming of age drama Electrick Children, I commented that the feature felt so subtle at times that it could drift away at any moment. Although The We and the I certainly isn't subtle, the same principle applies here as well. By purchasing a ticket to the movie, you're signing up to spend an intentionally unpleasant bus ride with an eclectic group of mildly likable characters. There's little plot: Just multiple threads slowly playing out, all overlapping across each other like a quilt stitched entirely with teenage angst. The realism of the piece is amplified when knowing that Gondry is directing amateurs from a local Brooklyn high school, and all of the characters are only slight variations of the actors who play them. It's fiction intended to emulate reality, and the end result is urbanized mumblecore with occasional accents of Gondry's trademark absurdism. For fans of experimental cinema or Michel Gondry this might be worth seeking out, but even for the more adventurous moviegoer, this might not be a bus ride worth taking.
The We and the I
Director: Michel Gondry
Cast: Michael Brodie, Teresa Lynn, Raymond Delgado, Jonathan Ortiz
Rated: R
Running Time: 103 Minutes
Michel Gondry's return to independant filmmaking after his 2011 semi-blockbuster The Green Hornet is a messy and experimental melodrama set almost entirely on a Brooklyn public bus, replete with a slowly dissapating number of urban high school students on their last day of classes. In my review of Rebecca Thomas' coming of age drama Electrick Children, I commented that the feature felt so subtle at times that it could drift away at any moment. Although The We and the I certainly isn't subtle, the same principle applies here as well. By purchasing a ticket to the movie, you're signing up to spend an intentionally unpleasant bus ride with an eclectic group of mildly likable characters. There's little plot: Just multiple threads slowly playing out, all overlapping across each other like a quilt stitched entirely with teenage angst. The realism of the piece is amplified when knowing that Gondry is directing amateurs from a local Brooklyn high school, and all of the characters are only slight variations of the actors who play them. It's fiction intended to emulate reality, and the end result is urbanized mumblecore with occasional accents of Gondry's trademark absurdism. For fans of experimental cinema or Michel Gondry this might be worth seeking out, but even for the more adventurous moviegoer, this might not be a bus ride worth taking.
March 13, 2013
This isn't reality TV. It's writing and filmmaking and while you won't get stellar acting across the board from these non-professionals, all acting under their own names, some of them are quite good and are able to bring the text to life. It's almost like Speed meets My Dinner with Andre, if that makes sense - you're stuck on this bus for the long haul, and it'll be suspenseful... there will also be a lot of talk, and buffoonery, and, really, genuine emotion at this turning point of the end of a school year with some betrayals and bewilderment going around.
And while the first two-thirds are mostly a lot of fun, the final third, when the bus crowd thins out, becomes even more interesting than it was before when it focuses on Michael and Teresa, and another kid who we haven't seen much of (wrapped up in a comic-book and in headphones), and that scene in particular is great for these guys having (or thinking they have) grown up just on this bus ride alone. It's a heart-to-heart scene that shows after all of the bluster and big talk from the group-in-the-back, being down to earth is the tough part and what makes kids into the outcasts and bullies and bystanders and so on.
It's sometimes rambling, sometimes unfocused, but that too is part of the charm. And, in a sense, this becomes Gondry's most surprising feature in the sense that he isn't with star-power team-ups (Jim Carrey, Kate Winslet, Gael Garcia Bernal, Seth Rogen, etc), or with his large grab-bag of surreal/magic-fiction camera and mis-en-scene tricks. Not to say there aren't exceptions - at one point, if I'm not mistaken, Jesus comes on to the bus to break up what could be an escalation-cum-fight on the bus - but it's really just a bunch of slices of life strung together, maybe not too unlike Spike Lee's Get on the Bus but without the baggage of the Million-Man-March message. What is it like to be a teenager, not just in the Bronx but anywhere? Teenagers especially would do well to watch a movie like this, which paints a more captivating and, for me at least, entertaining portrait of life than an MTV show could do. It doesn't stop for a chance to be funny, sometimes with ridiculous results, but its got a big heart and that's what is always wonderful about this director.
The kind of movie you either will like or you won't. I liked it quite a bit for what Michel Gondry was experimenting with, which was a cinema that is both very real and yet fantastic at the same time; when the kids tell their stories, be they funny, dramatic, sad, strange, it carries those qualities Gondry can bring to elevate the material through his grungy-magical (is that a term? I just made it up so there) aesthetic. When we see the teenagers driving a beat-up old car, it's shot to look a little warped as if from a camera phone, but not just any phone.
This isn't reality TV. It's writing and filmmaking and while you won't get stellar acting across the board from these non-professionals, all acting under their own names, some of them are quite good and are able to bring the text to life. It's almost like Speed meets My Dinner with Andre, if that makes sense - you're stuck on this bus for the long haul, and it'll be suspenseful... there will also be a lot of talk, and buffoonery, and, really, genuine emotion at this turning point of the end of a school year with some betrayals and bewilderment going around.
And while the first two-thirds are mostly a lot of fun, the final third, when the bus crowd thins out, becomes even more interesting than it was before when it focuses on Michael and Teresa, and another kid who we haven't seen much of (wrapped up in a comic-book and in headphones), and that scene in particular is great for these guys having (or thinking they have) grown up just on this bus ride alone. It's a heart-to-heart scene that shows after all of the bluster and big talk from the group-in-the-back, being down to earth is the tough part and what makes kids into the outcasts and bullies and bystanders and so on.
It's sometimes rambling, sometimes unfocused, but that too is part of the charm. And, in a sense, this becomes Gondry's most surprising feature in the sense that he isn't with star-power team-ups (Jim Carrey, Kate Winslet, Gael Garcia Bernal, Seth Rogen, etc), or with his large grab-bag of surreal/magic-fiction camera and mis-en-scene tricks. Not to say there aren't exceptions - at one point, if I'm not mistaken, Jesus comes on to the bus to break up what could be an escalation-cum-fight on the bus - but it's really just a bunch of slices of life strung together, maybe not too unlike Spike Lee's Get on the Bus but without the baggage of the Million-Man-March message. What is it like to be a teenager, not just in the Bronx but anywhere? Teenagers especially would do well to watch a movie like this, which paints a more captivating and, for me at least, entertaining portrait of life than an MTV show could do. It doesn't stop for a chance to be funny, sometimes with ridiculous results, but its got a big heart and that's what is always wonderful about this director.
March 10, 2013
Gondry's put out a dense, multi-facetted piece of work here, but he hasn't made anything profound; not enough at least. And if profundity wasn't the goal, and a day in the life of struggling kids in the Bronx was all that was meant to be here, then it's just not that interesting. You'll end up with a hundred questions to be sure, not the least of which being: why?
March 8, 2013
Despite some impressive amateur performances, this was mostly a mean spirited and jumbled film. It's like Spike Lee remade "Kids".
March 1, 2013
L'usage d'acteurs non professionels est un choix plutôt efficace pour le film. L'histoire, bien que basique (une bande de jeunes dans un bus) reste tout de même intéressante jusqu'à la fin sans qu'on s'ennuis trops. Original
Takis Garis
February 28, 2013
Who isn?t really a big aficionado for Michel Gondry?s Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind? Even fascinated by the big ideas nesting on The Science of Sleep, several years before Looper?s recent time travel novelties. An inspired, world renowned music video director and a visual artist in the literal sense of the notion, the Frenchman didn?t exactly struck gold with his hallow, Seth Rogen scripted adaptation of The Green Hornet for the Hollywood blockbuster scene. Viewed under this prism, The We and The I comes initially as a welcome surprise, a pilgrim to the Bronx community centre(s) scene, flooded by black and Hispanic students, kids that usually don?t have the lion?s share in life, strained by dysfunctional families and empty pockets. But, you know, they?re kids, not horny meanies in the sense of Ken Clark?s ambiguous peeping tom show- it -all epic, or dazed and confused like the little serial killers in Gus Van Sant?s superior Elephant. Gondry doesn?t strive for excellence; this is more than apparent here. He?s keen interest focuses on chit chat, pranks, borderline violent exchange, bullying and acceptance at the age of sexual awakenings. All that jazz which is shapes our characters through this morpheme which we signify as adolescence. As a short, (around 45 min.) The We would mean much more than The I, this bus trip on the last day of school, feels running much more than the 90 min. of its actual duration. At very end, the appropriate preaching and happy ending knocks heavily on our door, giving away too much of Gondry?s best intentions. What?s left is the remnants of a day spent in our junior citizen?s private moments, an odour that can be simultaneously fresh and stale, depending on the side we are propelled to choose.
The We & The I (4/10)
Who isn?t really a big aficionado for Michel Gondry?s Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind? Even fascinated by the big ideas nesting on The Science of Sleep, several years before Looper?s recent time travel novelties. An inspired, world renowned music video director and a visual artist in the literal sense of the notion, the Frenchman didn?t exactly struck gold with his hallow, Seth Rogen scripted adaptation of The Green Hornet for the Hollywood blockbuster scene. Viewed under this prism, The We and The I comes initially as a welcome surprise, a pilgrim to the Bronx community centre(s) scene, flooded by black and Hispanic students, kids that usually don?t have the lion?s share in life, strained by dysfunctional families and empty pockets. But, you know, they?re kids, not horny meanies in the sense of Ken Clark?s ambiguous peeping tom show- it -all epic, or dazed and confused like the little serial killers in Gus Van Sant?s superior Elephant. Gondry doesn?t strive for excellence; this is more than apparent here. He?s keen interest focuses on chit chat, pranks, borderline violent exchange, bullying and acceptance at the age of sexual awakenings. All that jazz which is shapes our characters through this morpheme which we signify as adolescence. As a short, (around 45 min.) The We would mean much more than The I, this bus trip on the last day of school, feels running much more than the 90 min. of its actual duration. At very end, the appropriate preaching and happy ending knocks heavily on our door, giving away too much of Gondry?s best intentions. What?s left is the remnants of a day spent in our junior citizen?s private moments, an odour that can be simultaneously fresh and stale, depending on the side we are propelled to choose.
February 26, 2013
An excellent story and performance by the entire cast! Full of genuine honesty in script and performance. The cast comes across more professional than most professional actors and actresses. The director, Michel Gondry, did a fantastic job of creating a n ensemble cast and crew, in order to fulfill his vision. A good cat + a good director = a good film. Will see it again.
February 2, 2013
Michel Gondry es un director muy creativo que no siempre encuentra el material apropiado para expresar su creatividad (ejemplo claro: "The Green Hornet"). Con "The We And The I" ha creado un experimento filmico en el cual nos pone la prueba de aguantar casi dos horas de estar encerrados en un camion con un grupo de personajes desagradable e irritantes. La cinta no utiliza a actores profesionales y supongo que Gondry esta tratando de crear un retrato honesto de los jóvenes afroamericanos (en su mayoría) en Nueva York. Pero "The We And The I" nunca enfoca ni nos hace empatizar con nadie y aunque Gondry al final quiere redimirlos, es muy tarde. Siento decir que esta es otra decepcion para el director.
January 26, 2013
Entre les murs dans un bus, Gondry confirme son talent pour ce cinema urbain fait d'impros et de bricole. Pour autant la precision dans l'etude de moeurs de cette jeunesse peu civilisee en mode tribal demontre que derriere le format apparemment bordelique du cineaste, il y a avant tout beaucoup de reflexion et de maitrise.
January 21, 2013
the whole idea of the film is very interesting, but actings are not that good. the ending is also sort of cheesy. we didn't have to see the happy couple sit next to water and chit chat and laugh! just his hand over her shoulder when they were walking was enough!
October 5, 2012
Michel Gondry ne fait rien comme tout le monde. Ce road movie circulaire dans le bronk est étonnant. A la fois un peu creux parce que les histoires en question ne sont pas franchement palpitantes et étonnement touchant car ce sont des histoires qui touchent immédiatement. Les acteurs amateurs sont bluffants d'authenticité. L'ensemble est attachant : horripilant de bétise, étonnant de vivacité et émouvant de simplicité. Une expérience originale!
September 30, 2012
Kokonaan bussissa tapahtuva elokuva ei jää pelkäksi muotokokeiluksi, vaan piirtää uskomattoman rehellisen kuvan teineistä teinien ongelmineen. Kuka seukkaa kenen kanssa, kuka pussas ketä, mitä aiot tehdä kesälomalla, missä bileet on?
