Author Topic: Respond to the last movie you watched  (Read 684111 times)

smirnoff

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Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #6180 on: October 25, 2021, 03:28:41 PM »
It really does, and the film is not as entertaining thereafter. I can't argue with you there at all.

I would only add that Cruise, once back to his more familiar form, is still very good. Just good in the usual way. I think the plot is on autopilot at that point and you feel where it's headed, which hurts the engagement. For me anyways.

Eric/E.T.

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Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #6181 on: October 26, 2021, 12:06:04 AM »
On Dune, I did not know that Part Two (and beyond) have not yet been confirmed. While I like the film on its own merits, it foreshadows something much greater. I don't think I'd ever revisit the film if Part Two did not actually happen.

Really enjoyed the Filmspotting review on the film, by the way. The discussion on both the white savior and exotic female love interest tropes were particularly fruitful. The notes on the design of the production highlight some serious strengths of the film. Also agree that this was not a role totally suited to the charms and idiosyncrasies of Timothee Chalamet. It's so incredibly serious, and I'm not sure he's totally able to play a role that seems so strictly solemn (which is the way the book is written as well). They mention Oscar Isaac's performance, and while I think it's a tough ask just because Leto Atreides is one of the least interesting figures in the book, Isaac can do formal, contemplative, and dour than his younger counterpart.
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smirnoff

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Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #6182 on: October 28, 2021, 02:39:58 AM »
Whiplash (rewatch)

In my original viewing I observed a lot of Fletcher's (JK Simmons) actions with uncertainty. What was genuine and what was a manipulation? On a second viewing I find most of that uncertainty is gone. All of it really. I don't think there's anything that Fletcher does that's not a manipulation. I think every criticism he makes of his players (and every other action of his) is done for reasons which have nothing to do with how well they just played. He's a character with a singular idea of success (i.e. you're Charlie Parker or you're not), and his belief in how to achieve that success is equally singular (an anecdote about how someone threw a symbol at Charlie Parker). It's such an unbelievably narrow view and approach, that literally the only person who such an approach would benefit is a student who believed the exact same thing. And that's the story.

Fletcher begins to feel rather like a comic book villain in his ability to predict where the chips are going to fall though. As if he knows exactly how a mean comment at this moment, or benching Andrew another moment, or supposedly letting himself be seen with his guard down, will in turn cause Andrew to go through exactly the right emotional and practical journey needed to reach a certain conclusion. I think the heist in Ocean's 11 was less intricate than Fletcher's machinations regarding andrew. Or maybe Fletcher didn't really know for sure how his actions would all play out but this is just the story of the one time they did. I guess that's fine. Lots of stories are told about the one time an series of unbelievable things DID happen, and that's what makes it a story worth telling. You can sweep a lot of dirt under that particular rug. If the movie has earned my good will I don't usually begrudge it for that.

But I don't have good will for the movie, because I don't have good will for Andrew. The prick.
« Last Edit: October 28, 2021, 03:04:35 AM by smirnoff »

St. Martin the Bald

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Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #6183 on: October 28, 2021, 07:56:58 AM »
It's a difficult film that I doubt I'll ever revisit again.
The 1st time made me feel like I needed a shower afterward - there's nobody I like in the film.
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Antares

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Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #6184 on: October 28, 2021, 02:15:25 PM »
My wife and I bailed after 40 minutes. It had nothing that seemed redeeming or interesting about it. If we had been playing a drinking game and had to take a drink every time in the 40 minutes where we looked at the elapsed time, we'd have been comatose by the time we bailed.
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Bondo

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Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #6185 on: October 28, 2021, 02:50:57 PM »
Whiplash did inspire one of my more vivid negative reviews, so there’s that.

Sam the Cinema Snob

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Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #6186 on: October 28, 2021, 03:19:21 PM »
My sister in her music education had an experience with a husband/wife teacher duo similar to Whiplash, so it's not a film I plan on revisiting. :-\

jdc

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Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #6187 on: October 28, 2021, 05:55:52 PM »
I remember Teproc wrote a fairly negative review of this and completely forgot about it until it came recommended from my new favorite Podcast (Pure Cinema).

I subscribed to this podcast back when you mentioned it here but hadn’t listened to it until recently.  Certainly can see what it is your favourite, they pull out lot of obscure films from all eras on what ever the topic is and genuinely find love in their choices.  They even had me tempted to go back and watch Halloween 4… but who has the time.  But certainly found new titles to add to my list to try to explore.. Alan Clarke seems like somebody I will like…
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Bondo

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Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #6188 on: November 02, 2021, 11:02:25 PM »
Slalom

The French in particular have a complicated and frankly problematic history re telling stories about teenage girls coming of age as paramours of older men. When I was younger and closer to their age, I clicked with some of that, but now that I'm more the age of the creepy men of the films, it stands out as cringe, usually too obsessed with gazing at the actresses, even when directed by a woman (as this one is), and even when it seems to aspire to be some kind of condemnation of sexual predation. Lyz (Noee Abita) is a teenager aspiring to be a skiing champion who is in a training group led by former ski champion Fred (Jeremie Renier). He is a demanding and verbally abusive coach, and perhaps that plays out to a grooming strategy because so much the better when he takes a shine, based on results, and pays too much "positive" attention. Haunted in part by the long history of French films, there are moments that fall into eager and willing, though probably moreso a sort of fatalist acceptance that this is just something that happens to women, unpleasant though it is, just another step in growing up.

I think one issue in this as a me too movie is focusing on the abuse itself. The Assistant succeeds so much for not centering either the victim or predator, but rather on the people in the system around that enables it. A movie that was just scenes of a Havery Weinstein type coercing women would be an absolutely miserable watch, potentially exploitative, and not enlightening.

Anyway, I wonder how many films I formerly praised would come crashing down on rewatch.

Eric/E.T.

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Re: Respond to the last movie you watched
« Reply #6189 on: November 02, 2021, 11:50:32 PM »
When I was younger and closer to their age, I clicked with some of that, but now that I'm more the age of the creepy men of the films, it stands out as cringe, usually too obsessed with gazing at the actresses, even when directed by a woman (as this one is), and even when it seems to aspire to be some kind of condemnation of sexual predation.

Anyway, I wonder how many films I formerly praised would come crashing down on rewatch.

Pushing 40, I have this experience. Like, when I was 21 or whatever, yeah, I can totally see what an older man sees in a younger woman (or vice versa, this wasn't gender-specific thinking to me then or now). To be totally crass, but transparent in where my thinking was: Yeah, late teens/early twenties, the peak age, right? Now, where I am, much easier to see the problems. Also, much easier to see the larger problem of fetishizing youth when you are so far removed from being youth. Truly, there is no substitute for experience, experience comes with years.

How do you think American Beauty might fare? That's the first film I thought of when reading your general thoughts here. I think I rewatched it last year (or the year before?) and while we know he's not exactly a hero, I still think a fair few older men related to his own sexual fantasies of a high school girl and the need to believe you "still got it."
A witty saying proves nothing. - Voltaire