Frank TJ Mackey

Has anyone seen the new film "Undertow" from director David Gordon Green yet?

He did "George Washington" and "All the Real Girls" before
this one.

marty888

I saw this a few weeks ago - quite good, well acted and directed, and very atmospheric.. good "southern gothic".

PopcornTreeCt

I'll see it. I really enjoyed George Washington.

sundog

I immensely enjoyed Undertow. I found Green's direction at its most assured. And while the narrative is much more linear than his two previous features, it doesn't diminish this film in the least.

Cygnet74

saw it a few weeks ago when it was released. i felt the stylization hindered the truthfulness of the characters a bit, but that is a minor quibble. there is quite a lot to love about this picture

Debaser

I really enjoyed 'All the real girls' but never got around to seeing GW. I wasn't even aware DGG had a new movie out. I'll check it out but I kinda hate going to the movie theater.

ReduxGuy

I saw it at the Savannah Film Festival AND I met David Gordon Green after the screening.

I thought it was a very good film. And quite disturbing at times.

QuikSilver

These film looks great but maybe a little too intense of a drama for me. Jamie Bell sure did grow up from his days playing Billy Elliot.

Jason Bovberg

Just caught this on video. Am I the only one who finds Green's films to be a bunch of art-house hooey? I'm trying to find some way to appreciate this guy's films, but they just come across as empty exercises in mediocre style, and--most infuriating--dialog that no real human (let alone child) would ever actually speak. In "Undertow," he's trying for deeply emotional and mythological, but I didn't feel for any of the characters in this half-hearted, rambling mess.

Cygnet74

The experience I've had watching his work is a deeply engrossing one. In George Washington, All the Real Girls and Undertow, David Gordon Green has brought a naturalistic poetry to his unique portraits of working-class southerners in which plot generally takes a back seat to capturing the truth and beauty of a particular time and place. By merging realism with surrealism, Green appeals to our inclination for the intangible. This fusion is apparent when his characters speak as you expect they would but from an entirely unique perspective. For example, "can I carve my name in your face?"

Jason Bovberg

Yeah, believe me, I know what he's going for. I just don't think he's much of a poet. I find his characters to be pretentious ciphers, and his cinematic techniques kinda obvious. Maybe he would do better with still photography.

Geofferson

I watched this over the weekend and absolutely loved it! I'm just now hearing about David Gordon Green and plan on hunting down his two previous movies. I love his style!

talemyn

I finally got around to watching this tonight (after having purchased it quite a while ago (release week, I believe). I really enjoyed it, but I think that All The Real Girls is still my favorite of his work. No regrets on this blind buy, though.

Completely agree . . . I find his work fascinating. Interesting to see that Jason thinks that he should focus on still photography since that aspect of his cinematography is so powerful. However, I think that is a huge strength in his films and, as Green says himself, the visual representation of the locations in his films becomes an additional character in the story. He's steadily moved away from it (somewhat) as his career has progressed (George Washington was packed with it, ATRG was more balanced, Undertow focus much more on the characters and story, but still uses visuals extremely well to tone the story.

Anyway . . . I enjoyed it and look forward to his next endeavor (whichever project it ends up being ).

Geofferson

Looks like he currently has 2 projects in the works:

The Secret Life of Bees & Goat.

talemyn

Yeah, I saw that, but after everything that he went through with A Confederacy of Dunces, I'm not holding my breath until one of those status' changes to at least "pre-production".

flixtime

Saw this one a while back so my recall isn't too great. It was certainly commendable in certain regards - atmosphere & performances - but I ultimately found it rather mediocre. I liked the first half (but I hated some of those very, very ill-fitting stylistic flourishes - freeze-frames and the like if I remember right). I lost interest when it went all later on. I would have preferred they just stretch out the first half some more (maybe too include the latter part but drastically compressed) and come to the wire with maybe a 90 minute film instead of the longer route they went in the second half.