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Author Topic: Respond to the last movie you watched  (Read 684749 times)

Bondo

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Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #2940 on: January 10, 2019, 02:00:04 PM »
The delay was mostly owing to the Weinstein Company's bankruptcy, not so much its quality. That said, having seen the original I don't know that I will bother with this one.

don s.

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Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #2941 on: January 10, 2019, 03:28:49 PM »
The delay was mostly owing to the Weinstein Company's bankruptcy, not so much its quality. That said, having seen the original I don't know that I will bother with this one.

Did you like the original?
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smirnoff

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Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #2942 on: January 10, 2019, 03:46:29 PM »
The Upside (Neil Burger, 2019)

I think I’ll go seek out The Intouchables now.

I can't say as the trailer for The Intouchables matches the tone of the film all that well (mostly due to the choice of music). Had I not already seen the film it would put me off it. I'm curious if you would say the same is true of The Upside? I watched its trailer out of curiousity and it plays like an obvious bromantic comedy. Off putting in it's own way.

A second viewing of The Intouchables took the shine off for me. What I initially though was a fresh take on a prone-to-being-cheesy story, actually had more to do, I think, with its non-North American sensibilities. The rhythm of the filmmaking was just foreign enough (to me) to disguise the underlying tropes. Unfortunately the effect seemed to have wore off on a second viewing. While I still thought it was a fine film with good moments, I now noticed more of the bad ones.

All that said, it does seem like a story you could tell over and over with different actors or actresses and get different enough results each time to have made the experience worthwhile. That's what keeping me from dismissing The Upside entirely, even in the face of a bad trailer. And your review reinforces that: "the goodwill the smaller moments between Cranston and Hart provide".

Bondo

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Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #2943 on: January 10, 2019, 06:17:03 PM »
The delay was mostly owing to the Weinstein Company's bankruptcy, not so much its quality. That said, having seen the original I don't know that I will bother with this one.

Did you like the original?

Yes, I think I gave it a B or B+.

Bondo

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Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #2944 on: January 10, 2019, 08:44:50 PM »
Never Goin' Back (2018)

A film I had added to my Amazon watchlist before finding the list of women-directed films on streaming, this had a respectable 75% on Rotten Tomatoes. It is one of those tricky films that challenges my adherence to my political views. Friends, roommates and coworkers Jessie and Angela share their two-bed apartment with Jessie's brother and another guy. They are teenagers but somehow are in the care of her marginal adult brother, have dropped out of school and apparently have to earn their keep working as waitresses because the brother mostly aspires to be a drug dealer. Angela wants to take Jessie on a trip for her birthday and the brother botches his plan leaving all of them in a tricky financial spot.

There is so much bad decision making here, and a lot of drug use that compounds it. The conservative view is that these things are personal decisions and failings. And it is hard not to get really frustrated watching them. But science is pretty supportive of the concept that their poverty is the cause of their poor decisions and drug use, not the result of it (though there is certainly a feedback loop). And so the informed liberal wants to be more tolerant in my view, figuring society has failed them more than they have failed society. I don't know which perspective aligns with my skepticism of a happy ending to this story.

Let The Sunshine In

Watched this one last night (which is incorrectly absent from the aforementioned list). Couldn't really get into it. I find it hard to get too empathetic with Isabelle (Juliette Binoche) whining about a hard romantic life seeing as she first is shown with a whatever married man who is a jerk. And though he isn't a romantic figure in this, if Gerard Depardieu is the answer, you've asked the wrong question.

1SO

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Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #2945 on: January 11, 2019, 01:15:33 AM »
The Strangers: Prey at Night
★ ★

Some nights you get off work late and just can't into Agnes Varda.
I prefer the title without the colon.

The story here is as simple as Mandy. It doesn't have the gallons of style, but there's also a nice lack of pretentious importance. Logic is tossed aside for slasher moments. Much as I hate to give credit to a jump scare there's a quiet dialogue scene interrupted by something that startled me. There's also one solid super scare - if, like me, you haven't seen the trailer - when the 3rd Stranger appears. (The moment is flat sounding in the trailer, but beautifully mixed with a slight echo in the feature.) Those creepy masks are better than anything in The Purge, and their every appearance is effective, which is good because even for such a short film, not much happens.

Bondo

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Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #2946 on: January 11, 2019, 05:13:03 PM »
A Star Is Born (2018)

It feels weird to be this touched by a story told this many times, though Shakespeare manages it often enough. My past interactions with the tale were the Judy Garland version and The Artist (which seems to be omitted when we talk of remakes of the story, but it really obviously is). The Garland version left no impression, probably a mix of coldness to older film and often to the navel-gazing nature of movies about movies at the time, though I did enjoy The Artist which does that same thing, but with more pizzaz. In this latest telling, like the 70s remake, it avoids the issue by being about musicians rather than actors.

Lady Gaga (and I guess she's being credited that way) is a fascinating presence in the role of Ally. Having recently watched the documentary about her, I can see the parts of her life she would draw from to capture the early part of her character as full of self-doubt, and perhaps ironically when Ally makes it big, it comes off as a sell-out phase (complete with really awful music) that arguably represents the Lady Gaga that we first became familiar with (though her style of attention-getting pop was never as awful as branded Ally). In between, and perhaps at the end, we see the more recent version of Gaga with less of a mask and a more folky sound. So between this reality to draw on, and the fact that so much of her persona is performative, seeing her display quality acting skills is not surprising.

But the role of Ally, ultimately, is one of audience surrogate, welcoming us into the life of Jackson Maine so that we can observe his ups and downs and feel affected by them. In capturing his depression and alcoholism, this film became the most emotionally impactful for me since Les Miserables some 6 years ago. Watching this struggle that so often feels like an unstoppable train, left me a bit broken in my seat as the credits rolled. Then as now, I respect a film that has that kind of physical effect. For the time my top film of 2018.

P.S. Was very excited by the Brandi Carlile cameo. It's almost like this film was pandering to me.
« Last Edit: January 11, 2019, 09:01:27 PM by Bondo »

jdc

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Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #2947 on: January 11, 2019, 10:37:18 PM »
A Star Is Born (2018)
. Then as now, I respect a film that has that kind of physical effect. For the time my top film of 2018.



I pretty much mirror what you just wrote, especially this. 
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Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #2948 on: January 12, 2019, 01:11:45 AM »
Never Goin' Back (2018)

A film I had added to my Amazon watchlist before finding the list of women-directed films on streaming, this had a respectable 75% on Rotten Tomatoes. It is one of those tricky films that challenges my adherence to my political views. Friends, roommates and coworkers Jessie and Angela share their two-bed apartment with Jessie's brother and another guy. They are teenagers but somehow are in the care of her marginal adult brother, have dropped out of school and apparently have to earn their keep working as waitresses because the brother mostly aspires to be a drug dealer. Angela wants to take Jessie on a trip for her birthday and the brother botches his plan leaving all of them in a tricky financial spot.

There is so much bad decision making here, and a lot of drug use that compounds it. The conservative view is that these things are personal decisions and failings. And it is hard not to get really frustrated watching them. But science is pretty supportive of the concept that their poverty is the cause of their poor decisions and drug use, not the result of it (though there is certainly a feedback loop). And so the informed liberal wants to be more tolerant in my view, figuring society has failed them more than they have failed society. I don't know which perspective aligns with my skepticism of a happy ending to this story.

I don't think there's a happy ending, it's not something I did much reading on, but the way things were shot, the lead up to those final scenes made it seem to me that when we see them on the beach it's just a shared dream, like they talk about earlier (on the bus?) rather than what happens. It reaffirms their togetherness, but for me it doesn't play, and isn't shot, as straightforward as it would seem.

Bondo

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Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #2949 on: January 12, 2019, 06:06:19 AM »
It is definitely very golden houry. I’m fully prepared to accept your logic and even if it is a literal ending I expect we are supposed to know it can’t last. Within my broader view the question is whether the cycle of poverty can be broken.