Movies

mdmost said:
Watched Tar last night on Peacock. Cate Blanchett is amazing in that role. I could easily see that winning Best Picture next month.
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Maybe I need to give this a second chance. I loved Blanchett's performance and believe she more than deserves the Oscar, but the movie as a whole left me a bit underwhelmed. When it was over I was like "...that was it?" which is the last thing you want to feel when the credits start to roll.
 
gaporter said:
Maybe I need to give this a second chance. I loved Blanchett's performance and believe she more than deserves the Oscar, but the movie as a whole left me a bit underwhelmed. When it was over I was like "...that was it?" which is the last thing you want to feel when the credits start to roll.
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I had the same feelings after it was over. It just ended. I thought a lot more about it this morning. I feel that's the point though. She went from this massive high of the beginning to relative obscurity. She had so much power that she abused and got away with for years. She has the breakdown when she's not allowed to perform Mahler that she's then such a pariah that the only work they can find for her is in the Philippines doing a video game live score with cosplayers. Yet she's still a professional and treats it with the same reverence she treated Mahler.
 
mdmost said:
I had the same feelings after it was over. It just ended. I thought a lot more about it this morning. I feel that's the point though. She went from this massive high of the beginning to relative obscurity. She had so much power that she abused and got away with for years. She has the breakdown when she's not allowed to perform Mahler that she's then such a pariah that the only work they can find for her is in the Philippines doing a video game live score with cosplayers. Yet she's still a professional and treats it with the same reverence she treated Mahler.
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Yeah, I get this, it just didn't really feel like a satisfying conclusion for the character to me. I suppose it's the more "realistic" ending but I got the idea the movie was slowly unveiling piece by piece that she was more tormented by the guilt and shame of her actions than her outwardly pompous attitude let on. Then the "cancel culture" plot of the final act sort of removed a lot of that intrigue by having outside forces be the reason she loses her status of privilege and respect rather than it being of her own doing. I feel like the ending would have a lot more bite to it if Tár was able to use her position to successfully bury the accusations/spin the narrative at first but then ultimately her inner turmoil and unhinged behavior lead to her downfall anyways.

Admittedly the ending also probably fell flat for me partially because I didn't know the game they were referencing so the punchline went over my head a bit. I'll chalk that up to a general lack of knowledge of the current video game scene on my part but it just feels off to me to have the payoff to the story you built up over two-and-a-half hours basically be little more than an inside joke.

All that said, I did like it more than I disliked it and Blanchett's acting is freaking phenomenal. I can respect that this is a movie that asks its audience to soak in what they've just seen and analyze it in their head, so I think having discussions like this is good and what the filmmakers intended. Despite my complaints, I wouldn't be mad if this took home the Oscar, because I'm always down for the Academy rewarding things that are more unconventional and challenging rather than giving it to milquetoast dramas. I just didn't completely agree with the hype over this specific movie.
 
It's the end of January, when I like to finalize my favorite movies of last year, so here's my top 20!

boxd.it

Top 20 of 2022

A list of 20 films compiled on Letterboxd, including Petite Maman (2021), Aftersun (2022), TÁR (2022), The Banshees of Inisherin (2022) and All the Beauty and the Bloodshed (2022).
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20. This Much I Know to Be True
19. Bones and All
18. Cha Cha Real Smooth
17. Hit the Road
16. Women Talking
15. Fire of Love
14. Top Gun: Maverick
13. The Fabelmans
12. Jackass Forever
11. After Yang
10. Nope
9. Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio
8. Everything, Everywhere, All at Once
7. RRR
6. Decision to Leave
5. All the Beauty and the Bloodshed
4. The Banshees of Inisherin
3. TÁR
2. Aftersun
1. Petite Maman
 
ayayrawn said:
Was not really a fan of this one. One of the more bizarre best original screenplay wins in recent years.
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I liked it. Had completely forgotten it won best original screenplay and looking at the nominees, i think maybe either Licorice Pizza or Don't Look Up could have been a "worthy" winner but i've never been good at guessing which film might win best screenplay 🙂
 
The Denmarkian Wonder said:
I liked it. Had completely forgotten it won best original screenplay and looking at the nominees, i think maybe either Licorice Pizza or Don't Look Up could have been a "worthy" winner but i've never been good at guessing which film might win best screenplay 🙂
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The category was really rough last year, but I would have gone with Worst Person in the World, no contest.
 
i watched face/off last night for the first time in yeeears. one of those movies that's just so earnestly absurd and all the major players buy in 100% so it just works. the action stuff is never boring and almost always looks phenomenal. and it doesn't play like a 25 year old movie, either- it has held up well. if you've never seen it, it's worth it to watch just for the cage-playing-travolta and travolta-playing-cage angle alone.
 
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