Movies

DownIsTheNewUp said:
Anora was exellent. Baker might win himself a best picture, and it will be Everything Everywhere All at Once all over again where there will be a big generational devide over it.
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Curious on the generational divide on EEAaO, as well as how you think that'll play out for Anora. I saw it last night and thought it was pretty great, though I had to move to the other side of the auditorium from some people who were talking, which is annoying on its own but they were saying some real dumb stuff and their vibe was real unpleasant. They started really talking and laughing through the final shot, which was...a way to react.

I saw a letterboxd review which savaged the film for not quite fleshing out Ani and her motivations, and I found myself agreeing with its points, though I think the movie worked enough for me: I don't think she loved Vanya, but she wanted the cinderella story and the marriage to be real, and resented being called a prostitute by his family. It felt like she was joining this quest to find him in order to prove his sincerity, despite him completely lacking it. I did find myself worrying about how much the movie cared about her as the second act unfolded and I was pulled in by the goons/godfather; it's a movie about a woman yet here are the men upstaging her and being given more to do. Again, I think the movie earns all this thematically, especially in its final moments.
 
Bull Shannon said:
Curious on the generational divide on EEAaO, as well as how you think that'll play out for Anora. I saw it last night and thought it was pretty great, though I had to move to the other side of the auditorium from some people who were talking, which is annoying on its own but they were saying some real dumb stuff and their vibe was real unpleasant. They started really talking and laughing through the final shot, which was...a way to react.

I saw a letterboxd review which savaged the film for not quite fleshing out Ani and her motivations, and I found myself agreeing with its points, though I think the movie worked enough for me: I don't think she loved Vanya, but she wanted the cinderella story and the marriage to be real, and resented being called a prostitute by his family. It felt like she was joining this quest to find him in order to prove his sincerity, despite him completely lacking it. I did find myself worrying about how much the movie cared about her as the second act unfolded and I was pulled in by the goons/godfather; it's a movie about a woman yet here are the men upstaging her and being given more to do. Again, I think the movie earns all this thematically, especially in its final moments.
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I think everything you need to know about Ani and her motivations is already in the movie. So many people want this stuffed spelled out for them.
 
DownIsTheNewUp said:
Anora was exellent. Baker might win himself a best picture, and it will be Everything Everywhere All at Once all over again where there will be a big generational devide over it.
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Not sure I agree with the EEAAO comparison. Maybe in the sense that they're both indies, but the themes and style are really different. It's probably a sizable venn diagram of people who connect with and enjoy both.

But yes, looking forward to Baker finally getting some flowers.
 
ayayrawn said:
Not sure I agree with the EEAAO comparison. Maybe in the sense that they're both indies, but the themes and style are really different. It's probably a sizable venn diagram of people who connect with and enjoy both.

But yes, looking forward to Baker finally getting some flowers.
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I'm not comparing them directly as films. Baker's naturalist aesthetic is obviously very, very different from the excess of EEAAO.

It's more that I feel like Anora is going to alienate Boomers and leave them grasping for why the film resonates with millennials and Gen Z. Which is exactly what happened with EEAAO.

tvham said:
I watched it last night and really enjoyed it!
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Seems like the most polarizing film of the year- even more so than the Substance or TV Glow. Which means it's a must watch on my end as somebody that remains deeply dedicated to Team Babylon.
 
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Bull Shannon said:
Curious on the generational divide on EEAaO, as well as how you think that'll play out for Anora. I saw it last night and thought it was pretty great, though I had to move to the other side of the auditorium from some people who were talking, which is annoying on its own but they were saying some real dumb stuff and their vibe was real unpleasant. They started really talking and laughing through the final shot, which was...a way to react.

I saw a letterboxd review which savaged the film for not quite fleshing out Ani and her motivations, and I found myself agreeing with its points, though I think the movie worked enough for me: I don't think she loved Vanya, but she wanted the cinderella story and the marriage to be real, and resented being called a prostitute by his family. It felt like she was joining this quest to find him in order to prove his sincerity, despite him completely lacking it. I did find myself worrying about how much the movie cared about her as the second act unfolded and I was pulled in by the goons/godfather; it's a movie about a woman yet here are the men upstaging her and being given more to do. Again, I think the movie earns all this thematically, especially in its final moments.
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I think that Boomers were raised on filmmakers who specialize in sentimentality and often need to like and / or relate to the characters within a film. Meanwhile, millennials grew up on anti-hero TV, QT and the such. And I think that the themes of the film and its commentary on how hard it is to escape being lower class (and the desperateness to do so) + the insane economic inequality of the modern world will fail to resonate with suburbanite, educated boomers that tend to watch Oscar films. Meanwhile, the film will be too artsy for working class Boomers / Gen Xers that voted for Trump.

As to your critique-- one of my friends that I went with had a similar take. I get it but don't agree. She is left intentionally hard to read, yes. But its done in a way that lends to people walking out with different readings of the film -- until the final 5 minutes snap everything into place. A take that my friend who adored the film also had.

I loved how each act had a different tone. It starts out as a twisted Cinderella fairy tale, morphs into tense, darkly comedic Sadfie Brothers panic attack and the morphs into a "sad, depressurizing reality check on what it really means to be poor in America. And how if you are lacking power, how hard it is to shortcut your way out of that". (Later words borrowed from Fennesey).

I thought it was funny, well acted, tonally ambitious and thematically rich. And I've been thinking about it all week.
 
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Updated list:

Tier 1: (4.5 but might flip to a 5 upon rewatch)
1) I Saw the TV Glow
2) The Substance
3) Anora

Tier 2: (4.5)
4) Civil War
5) Kneecap
6) Dune Pt. II
7) Mad Max Furiosa

Tier 3: (4)
8) Didi
9) Love Lies Bleeding
10) The Biker Riders
11) It's What's Inside
12) Inside Out 2
11) Challengers
12) Hit Man

Tier 4: (3.5)
13) Monkey Man
14) Maxxxine
15) Rebel Ridge
16) Strange Darling
17) My Old Ass
18) Sasqauatch Sunset
19) Snack Shack
20) Beatlejuice, Beatlejuice

Tier 5: (3)
21) Thelma
22) Alien Romulus
23) Twisters
24) Long Legs
25) Late Night with the Devil
26) Saturday Night
27) Immaculate
28) The Remarkable Life of Ibelin
29) Greedy People

Tier 6: (2.5)
30) Blink Twice
31) Fall Guy
32) Woman of the Hour
33) Megaopolis
34) Fly Me to the Moon
35) Drive Away Dolls
36) Anyone But You
37) Self Reliance

Tier 7: (2)
38) Abigail
39) The 4:30 Movie
40) Greatest Hits
 
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We watched Smile 2 last night. It was such a different feel than the first one. Which in a lot of ways is good because it wasn't a movie that needed a sequel and had they just tried the horror trope of sequels being the same movie with new characters it would have fallen especially flat. That said, I didn't much care for the main character in this one as much as I did in the previous one, so that took it down a notch. The fact that it wasn't exactly what I expected was also overshadowed by the fact that we guessed what would happen at the end of this one within the first ten minutes.

I probably need to rewatch it to give it a fair shake on it's own rather than as a sequel. And I think a rewatch is justified since it was made well enough to keep me entertained and it added some interesting effects to the body horror aspects.

This season was kind of a let down for me with horror movies, despite the couple standouts this year. So this one feels like it's tending higher than I'd typically think it would in my rankings just because of the lack of quality horrors to compare it to.
 
The Denmarkian Wonder said:
Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse

Ending on a cliffhanger, huh? Good thing the next one will be out real so... *hm* What's that? It's been delayed until 2027??!? *groans*

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I still think this movie rules. Both Spider-Verses are so good that I have absolute faith in them to stick the ending.
 
Forget it, Jake. It's 70s bleak movies.

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