Gravity was an okay experience on a 50 inch 4K TV, but my problems with it will mostly be narrative which I don't think a big screen would fix. I much preferred The Martian which felt more like sci-fi and less like a roller-coaster ride.
Star Wars: The Force Awakens is a lot of fun, but another one that will barely miss my revisits. Arrival will be in my revisits.
There's a line for Science Fiction between stimulating adrenaline and stimulating the mind. Gravity is unexpectedly further to the one end than Force Awakens. The Martian is the film closest to the center, which may be why it's still to come in this Marathon.
I liked The King's Speech at the time. Not sure how I'd feel about it now. I tried not to have a knee-jerk reaction when it won the Oscar for best picture, mostly because the Oscars are silly anyways so I didn't feel the need to knock it for that,
On this measuring stick, it holds up better than Argo
I Saw the Devil is a great film I probably only want to see once. Tales of revenge are hard for me to get on board with and this one has some grueling moments. At least here I think the hero becomes so heinous that it complicates his quest for judgement to a certain extent. Still one of the most tense experiences of the decade. Probably won't make my list but more because it is not my kind of film.
When a film is so obviously
my kind of film, I look for other reasons to recommend it. Is it just something for me... which is fine. While I Saw the Devil has basic ground rules that will eliminate some people, I find it has a lot of substance (as opposed to Drive, which is more about style, but an excellent example of that style.) I'm reminded of my 00s decade which had Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance. Devil filmmaker Kim Ji-woon made A Bittersweet Life, which has a match this year with my next film The Man From Nowhere.
I need to see Bernie again. The events happened not far from where I live and I do think it does a great job of capturing some of the bizarre oddities of life in Texas. I think it's a career best from Jack Black but I kinda struggled with what it was saying about Bernie himself, who comes across as extremely likable and sympathetic even though I think he's a heinous human being. That's part of what makes the film so fascinating and watchable, but part of me wonders of Linklater was charmed by his subject matter into making a softer film than this subject deserves.
Can't think of a Linklater film that's hard on the characters. Closest would be Before Midnight, but that took two other films to build up the nerve. I think the key scene here is that crime because it's told from Bernie's point of view, giving him not so much an excuse but a psychological reason why he would act in that moment. You could just as easily make Bernie a more obvious villain, and my wife found most curious that Bernie goes from the event to a joyful rehearsal of The Music Man. Not relief or remorse, but joy for the first time in a long time.
I hate that the narrative is basically a video game fetch quest (I get that's part of the whole inspiration to video games but it's also lazy writing).
Yeah... but it's so the obvious way to frame a video game movie it'd be hard to come with something better that isn't just trying to avoid the obvious.
Spielberg can still direct like crazy,
He can, but no longer 100% A-Z. He's slowing down, but there are moments here as good as The Last Crusade.
I, Tonya was better than I expected. I liked the faux interview elements more than I usually would in a film like this. It's more of a personal bias that I won't revisit it as biopics are not my wheelhouse at all. Glad you got so much from it because I do think it is a film worth watching.
I figured I might be underrating A Separation, which has gone from being outside the list to hanging around the 50s, but I didn't expect I, Tonya would be at the top of what I've seen so far. I think that's because on this viewing I saw the filmmakers weren't being irresponsible in its portrayal of domestic abuse, the psychological damage that causes it and the way the cycle is allowed to continue for so long.
All caught up! Glad you're still plugging along in these trying times (both in terms of the state of the forum and the state of the world).
I hope for both to be resolved in appropriate measure. Meanwhile, this has become my best way of coping with a broken country, world and forum.