Movies

kvetcha said:
I feel like the ending showed him realizing he has possibilities in front of him once again, options. I never got the impression that Helen Hunt expected him to wait. She’d moved on. He was dead. She still loves him, and may always love him, but she can’t move back in time for him. She has a life. No matter what they may have been feeling in the moment, they ultimately knew they could simply blow things up and go back to how they were years ago.

The artist’s package, with its angel wings, is a particularly Zemeckis-y symbol of hope. I think it’s about that deep.

I will say you are not alone in your complaints about the ending. I remember disliking it as well, but for whatever reason it all really clicked for me when I watched it again recently.

As an aside, did you know there was a full year break in shooting between halves of the movie, during which time Hanks actually grew the beard and lost 50 pounds?
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I think i'd just need to rewatch it again at some point. I remember thinking Hanks got super skinny after the 4 years
 
Lord Diaper Baby said:
I know it's been mentioned here, but if you have HBO, you owe it to yourself to watch Tina.

Notice I didn't say if you're a Tina Turner fan. I mean, of course watch it then too. I know most of her big hits from being of a certain age and her being such a star and part of the popular songbook. I'll play her now and again but I wouldn't say I'm a fan as much as I can appreciate it. Doesn't matter - it's superbly done.

HOWEVER, the doc is SO well done. Gave me even greater respect for the woman. How soberly, emphatically, and almost one degree removed from it she talks about her life is a master class in the beauty of Stoicism (I don't know if that's the right word or how she'd describe it - but she seemingly talks about her life with a certain degree of acceptance and resignation that is remarkable).

My wife (@MsLoganHenney) and I watched it and it is eerie to see a lot of the old footage (not just the days with Ike but also when she was rebuilding and then when she had her "comeback" and still lived in the shadow of the infamy of their story) or images and see her giving these superhuman performances or interviews where she is all smiles and to know the torture that bookended those moments. I walked away from it thoroughly convinced she is one of the strongest (no further qualifiers; just one of the strongest....simply the best).

Again, highly recommend!

And I'd be remiss if I didn't say: that fucking voice!!!
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Rare is it that a documentary executive produced by the subject being examined is this honest, this heartbreaking, this triumphant. I loved it.
 
David A. said:
Rare is it that a documentary executive produced by the subject being examined is this honest, this heartbreaking, this triumphant. I loved it.
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Triumph and heartbreak are definitely two dichotomies that sum it up.

That honesty is also central. She has an uncanny ability to talk about herself and her life - to examine herself - in a detached way. I don't want to be so reductive to say it's her introduction to Buddhism, because who knows how different or similar her perspective would have been on another path. Plus the fatalist in me wants to say it doesn't matter.
 
Chucktshoes said:
Yes.
Don’t even know what role to which you’re referring, and it doesn’t matter. The answer is yes.
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I think he’s incredible in Hannibal but in this case I was referring to Another Round. Watching him play what is essentially an everyman is such a nice change of pace from all his more heightened, often evil-tinged American roles.
 
gouis said:
Honestly not sure why everyone LOVES Minari. Kinda veers into misery porn territory.
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Disagree with both this and Nomadland being misery porn. They're sad sure, but neither of them wallow in their characters' pain, with the express point of 'look how awful this character has it, doesn't this suck to watch?' Both of those films feel much more layered than that to me. Feel like they focus more on willpower and coping with hardship, rather than just relentlessly punishing their characters for no reason other than to make it painful to watch.

Maybe our criteria is different, but when I think misery porn, I think Lars von Trier or The Handmaid's Tale, or most recently, Them, which I refuse to watch on principle.
 
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ayayrawn said:
Disagree with both this and Nomadland being misery porn. They're sad sure, but neither of them wallow in their characters' pain, with the express point of 'look how awful this character has it, doesn't this suck to watch?' Both of those films feels much more layered than that to me. Feel like they focus more on willpower and coping with hardship, rather than just relentlessly punishing their characters for no reason other than to make it painful to watch.

Maybe our criteria is different, but when I think misery porn, I think Lars von Trier or The Handmaid's Tale, or most recently, Them, which I refuse to watch on principle.
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Yeah that's fair, I won't touch those movies with a 10 foot pole (asides Melancholia which is prophetic and wonderful). It's just that film is a wonderful medium and most things that get attention is either an explosion-fest or a low-key examination of why life is hard (as someone who has dealt with dementia I would rather watch paint dry than watch "The Father").

My issue is that these are the ONLY kinds of movies that get Oscar buzz. It's extremely limiting. And if you want a quiet heartfelt dramatic movie tinged with sadness, First Cow is sitting right there.
 
gouis said:
Yeah that's fair, I won't touch those movies with a 10 foot pole (asides Melancholia which is prophetic and wonderful). It's just that film is a wonderful medium and most things that get attention is either an explosion-fest or a low-key examination of why life is hard (as someone who has dealt with dementia I would rather watch paint dry than watch "The Father").

My issue is that these are the ONLY kinds of movies that get Oscar buzz. It's extremely limiting. And if you want a quiet heartfelt dramatic movie tinged with sadness, First Cow is sitting right there.
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Did wish for more love for her 😔

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It was a great day for revenge as I watched both Nobody and Promising Young Woman today. I thought Nobody was fun but I think I was expecting a bit more as I really enjoyed the John Wick and Atomic Blonde movies and while the action was alright it felt like it was missing a couple killer fight scenes or car chases. It’s nice to see Odenkirk, Christopher Lloyd, and The Rza kick ass though.

Promising Young Woman was fun too and reminds me a bit of Get Out in that it doesn’t feel like the kind of movie the Academy Awards would typically nominate but the social commentary the movie provides gets it a nod. Carey Mulligan gives a brilliant performance.
 
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Made it through the best picture noms I'm going to watch, my rough preferences and thoughts

1. Sound of Metal - I really loved this movie. One of the things I actually really enjoyed about most of this slate is that a lot of the movies didn't take a lot of pre-amble time to get into the core of the story. I'm not hearing impaired so I can't speak to the authenticity but the sound work really brought me into the film and the very strong emotional work throughout the film, the believable plotting, and the smaller details left me in a good space. I would love to see this in a theatre with surround sound and the full effect of what they intended.

2. Minari - The more I think on it the better I feel overall about the high ranking. I certainly agree that Oscar movies often veer into "misery porn" territory, I just don't think Minari got there. The movie felt honest and was a pretty fascinating world view into a slew of different societal and personal issues - in a bit of a weird way it felt like an alternate universe version of last year's Marriage Story to me. The dynamics of the family all felt very well thought out and very American if you will. I would love for it to pull off the Oscar upset.

3. Promising Young Woman - What a statement of a movie. For me the most unique story of the ones I watched and the one that sticks in my mind. Carey Mulligan continued to prove she can do no wrong and I thought the casting throughout was really strong and the right story forks were taken. This deserved a bigger audience than it got.

4. Trial of the Chicago 7 - This was Sorkin all the way through: a lot of 3-5 minute scenes pieced into a movie with a really interesting narrative feel and some characters who were just a bit too caricatured. I actually really enjoyed most of it, with my markdowns being more in the realm of losing the full picture of the trial and probably being a bit too overlong in spots.

5. Nomadland - I hope this one is in theatres by the time I'm vaccinated fully and I get a shot there. I think it'd play better than it did on a small screen in a room full of distractions, especially if I'm going in knowing what I'm seeing. There was a very interesting comparison to me between this film and Boyhood, which was one of my all time favorite movies, and that crystalized to me that my lack of interest was probably just in my inability to relate to most of the characters. A me flaw if you will. If it wins, and I think it will, I certainly won't be mad. Feels like a movie that is very re-watchable.

6. Judas and the Black Messiah - I felt really bad that I couldn't get into this as much as I wanted to, I just couldn't. That's more on me than the movie

7. Mank - Yeah, didn't care for it, I never really love the old Hollywood reflection films though.

I didn't watch The Father - after the experience known as Amour I pretty much refuse to watch dementia related films. I'm sure Hopkins was amazing and the film is great and special and that's all good.

I didn't watch as much as I want to this year at all, I do feel like One Night in Miami was relatively robbed (it'd be probably #3 or #4 on this list if it were nominated for best picture). Soul wasn't going to break out of the animated category but it was just as good as most of these. Palm Springs is not an Oscar movie but I had more fun with that than anything on the list.
 
Nice little piece revisiting FGF 20 years on. Tom Green is an introspective guy, to be sure

thefilmstage.com

Tom Green Reflects on 20 Years of Freddy Got Fingered

20 years ago, Tom Green directed his first film. Now he’s living in a van. Picture this: A disturbed young man, prone to zoophilic outbursts, returns to his family home in Portland, Oregon, after being fired from a factory job in LA. His father berates and belittles him, often leaving his mother...
thefilmstage.com
 
Melt Face Molly Drop said:
Nice little piece revisiting FGF 20 years on. Tom Green is an introspective guy, to be sure

thefilmstage.com

Tom Green Reflects on 20 Years of Freddy Got Fingered

20 years ago, Tom Green directed his first film. Now he’s living in a van. Picture this: A disturbed young man, prone to zoophilic outbursts, returns to his family home in Portland, Oregon, after being fired from a factory job in LA. His father berates and belittles him, often leaving his mother...
thefilmstage.com
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Kammie would you like some sausage?
 
Oscars are pretty predictable in most categories this year, but it will be nice to have the 2020 slate out of the way and eyes forward towards the good stuff coming this year. I'll still have a good time watching, though this will be the first year in a while that my roommate and I aren't watching at the movie theater at our college, gaming our ballots and winning a couple blu rays.
 
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