...ya' know?? It's often quite interesting and intriguing, the evolution of a filmmaker. The inaugural hits...the initial misses...and that marked milestone of a film, which carries said filmmaker to greater heights, even to the point where, for good or for bad, whatever comes after, is still quite anticipated and well-received by viewing critics and audiences alike. For most, one's introduction to a specific filmmaker is typically something wrought well-after that aforementioned milestone, and after having been privy of latter, higher-profile work, curiosity prescribes...even sometimes demands one to back-pedal to that now-renowned and revered filmmaker's earlier work...
...cutting to the chase, let's just throw the name out there, 'kay?? Ready, go...Director Oliver Stone. Bam!! Right away, what comes to most folks' minds are the high-profile films of keen political rhetorics, observations and engagements, whether such things are observed and/or depicted in the exploitative media ("Natural Born Killers"), in a war-torn battleground ("Platoon", amongst others), in the high-rise financial arena (...can you say, "Wall Street"), on the grassy football gridiron (...a la, "Any Given Sunday"), or heck, even in the obvious of politically-driven locales...namely Washington, D.C., itself (..."JFK", "Nixon", "W.", etc.), Of course, there are those moments of filmmaking escapism...for lack of a better word...'breaks' in the political rhetorie, so to speak, as director Stone etches out the smaller, eclectic, more character driven stories (...of course, we're talking "Talk Radio", "U-Turn", "Savages"...the
...admittedly, there was a time when this ardent purveyor of cinema would, without fail, amorously engage and embrace the dramatic sub-genre of 'unconventional and idealist teacher, called in by the 'establishment' to help educate the seemingly impossible-to-educate...to help, where others have failed...in an arena of hypocrisy, where the 'establishment' really doesn't seem to care, and becomes irate, when said teacher repeatedly bucks the system, does things his/her own way, and in the end, succeeds where the so-called 'establishment' and 'system' have failed'. After all, it's so easy to get caught up in the emotion, relatability and compelling sense of inspiration of these stories...even those often labeled as 'based on a story'. We've all seen these stories, often before, in naming just a few of these dramatic films like 1989's "Lean on Me", 1955's "Blackboard Jungle" and 1988's "Stand and Deliver". Exploitative takes on the genre, like 1981's "Class of 1984", and 1987's "The Principal". Even humorous facets, like 1987's "Summer School", and the recent 2012 chuckle-inducing, "Here Comes the Boom". As irresistible as these films are, one cannot help but feel that the sub-genre has long since fallen into the niche of 'cliche', and as such, seem less sensitive, compelling and inspirational...you know, the ol' yawn-inducing, 'been there, done that' syndrome...
Open Water was a huge hit in 2003. With the constraints of a low budget of $500,000 dollars it went on to make a hundred times that in worldwide sales. I’ll give director Chris Kentis and his producers a pat on the back for that. That’s an amazing accomplishment. Maybe I’m in the minority though because Open Water bored me to tears. Andrew Traucki’s The Reef has been compared to said film. Going into this I was hoping the comparisons weren’t of all the negatives that littered the highly overrated Open Water. Let’s just say I was pleasantly surprised.