I’ll be honest with you guys. I wasn’t a big fan of this film. I know a lot of you guys are. I’m a bigger fan of Swiss Army Man, Daniels’s first feature film. And for as much as this is being...
I’ll be honest with you guys. I wasn’t a big fan of this film. I know a lot of you guys are. I’m a bigger fan of Swiss Army Man, Daniels’s first feature film. And for as much as this is being hyped, I just don’t see it. I think the writing of it is weaker than it was in Swiss Army Man, specifically the characters. It tries very hard to get these emotional moments, but I don’t think it earns them. I think the film is a bit shallow in its themes and in its presentation of those themes.
Regardless, I was hesitant earlier in the year when a bunch of awards pundits started predicting this. For obvious reasons I’d say. But then, it made a lot of money, people in the industry kept talking about it and praising it like it was the second coming of christ. And most importantly, a lot of films ended up bombing with critics at both Cannes and the fall festivals. So it’s pretty obvious this is happening at this point. It’s basically Get Out but with flashier techs.
I don’t think it’s winning Picture (I think Fabelmans is probably gonna run away with this and if not that it’ll be something else). But it’s easily getting nominated for Picture, Director, Original Screenplay, Lead Actress, Supporting Actor, Film Editing, and VFX. A24 doesn’t even have to campaign EEAAO and it’ll still get those nominations.
In all my time enjoying movies, Everything does something that I have never seen before. There is basically only one barometer that determines whether I will enjoy a movie or not. And that is if a...
In all my time enjoying movies, Everything does something that I have never seen before.
There is basically only one barometer that determines whether I will enjoy a movie or not. And that is if a movie succeeds in either making me think about things or if it makes me feel substantial emotions. And the thing about those kinds of movies is that it is increasingly lonely to like them. If I go to a theater and watch them I notice that a good portion of the other members of the audience don’t seem to really get what they just saw. They laugh when there is no jokes, and their eyes glaze over when they stop to deal with an emotional moment, and they leave quickly at the credits regardless of how powerful the message was. And more and more often there is no audience other than me and my husband.
But Everything was different. For the first time I was not the only one crying in the theater. I wasn’t the only one sitting down still trying to process the full scale of what I had just watched. This is a movie with meaning that for the first time I feel I can share with other people. There are people out there who say that this movie made them better at watching movies. There are even some who say that it inspired them want to be better people. I’ve never seen this kind of thing happen before.
There is a train of thought that states that a storyteller is only as good as their ability to tell a story that can be understood, and I think that is the greatest compliment that you could give to Daniels. They made this complex story with complex feelings, and yet they are completely understandable to a general audience who normally wouldn’t be able to. It’s fantastic
I think it's the best movie I've seen in a while, but it also benefits from it being so long since I last saw a good movie. Freddie deBoer had a good review.
I think it's the best movie I've seen in a while, but it also benefits from it being so long since I last saw a good movie. Freddie deBoer had a good review.
Yeah. I agree with almost everything in that review. Including Stan culture surrounding films, though that’s less specific to this film and I can point to other examples of this happening like...
Yeah. I agree with almost everything in that review. Including Stan culture surrounding films, though that’s less specific to this film and I can point to other examples of this happening like last year with Power of the Dog or 2019 with Parasite, or even 2016 with Moonlight. It’s been a long problem where a certain segment gets infatuated with one movie and pushes that movie everywhere and accuses its detractors of some sort of bigotry. Even saying something as simple as “don’t think it’ll win Best Picture” will be met with a very loud negative response.
As for the actual substance, I disagree with is his criticism of Swiss Army Man. It is still sentimental in a way that this film is, but it’s developed better and it feels like a proper pay off as opposed to EEAAO where it feels like we’re skipping a step and they want the pay off before the development. I think this film was more concerned with its homages to kung fu movies and other genre films than the central heart of the story.
And it is very exposition heavy, which is why I’m shocked that it’s been so praised for its screenplay. I think something like Get Out (which EEAAO is matching in attention), while being high concept and having a fair amount of exposition in it, was primarily concerned with its characters and the social critique which made it feel more complete.
I’m not so much bothered by the mechanics of the film or internal logic. That doesn’t matter to me, I don’t need a film to stay on a path and follow a specific logic. I think that’s the wrong way to criticize a film and it’s very YMS-like. But he does mention that he wouldn’t care about it if the themes/emotions of the film were better written, so that’s fine.
At some point this backlash will grow greater. I don’t think it ends up winning any major awards because of that. Because if I have these critiques I imagine the older and WHITE members of these awards bodies won’t be as enchanted by the spectacle of it all which feels very youth/internet oriented.
Part of deBoer’s schtick (right there in the headline) is reacting to what others said on the Internet, and I’m mostly ignoring that part. I don’t know what Stan culture is and I don’t see why...
Part of deBoer’s schtick (right there in the headline) is reacting to what others said on the Internet, and I’m mostly ignoring that part. I don’t know what Stan culture is and I don’t see why letting it influence me would help. It seems like talking about the collective opinions of abstract groups is moving a bit too far away from judging a movie on its own merits, or even reacting to specific film criticism that’s worth reading and quoting.
I mean, his whole point is to talk about the reactions to the film and how they’re greater than what it should be. You can’t have that discussion by ignoring the broad reactions to a film....
I mean, his whole point is to talk about the reactions to the film and how they’re greater than what it should be. You can’t have that discussion by ignoring the broad reactions to a film.
Otherwise we can’t point out that maybe The Dark Knight isn’t the greatest movie ever made, because most critics don’t say that it’s “the collective opinions of abstract groups” that are saying they.
I’ll be honest with you guys. I wasn’t a big fan of this film. I know a lot of you guys are. I’m a bigger fan of Swiss Army Man, Daniels’s first feature film. And for as much as this is being hyped, I just don’t see it. I think the writing of it is weaker than it was in Swiss Army Man, specifically the characters. It tries very hard to get these emotional moments, but I don’t think it earns them. I think the film is a bit shallow in its themes and in its presentation of those themes.
Regardless, I was hesitant earlier in the year when a bunch of awards pundits started predicting this. For obvious reasons I’d say. But then, it made a lot of money, people in the industry kept talking about it and praising it like it was the second coming of christ. And most importantly, a lot of films ended up bombing with critics at both Cannes and the fall festivals. So it’s pretty obvious this is happening at this point. It’s basically Get Out but with flashier techs.
I don’t think it’s winning Picture (I think Fabelmans is probably gonna run away with this and if not that it’ll be something else). But it’s easily getting nominated for Picture, Director, Original Screenplay, Lead Actress, Supporting Actor, Film Editing, and VFX. A24 doesn’t even have to campaign EEAAO and it’ll still get those nominations.
In all my time enjoying movies, Everything does something that I have never seen before.
There is basically only one barometer that determines whether I will enjoy a movie or not. And that is if a movie succeeds in either making me think about things or if it makes me feel substantial emotions. And the thing about those kinds of movies is that it is increasingly lonely to like them. If I go to a theater and watch them I notice that a good portion of the other members of the audience don’t seem to really get what they just saw. They laugh when there is no jokes, and their eyes glaze over when they stop to deal with an emotional moment, and they leave quickly at the credits regardless of how powerful the message was. And more and more often there is no audience other than me and my husband.
But Everything was different. For the first time I was not the only one crying in the theater. I wasn’t the only one sitting down still trying to process the full scale of what I had just watched. This is a movie with meaning that for the first time I feel I can share with other people. There are people out there who say that this movie made them better at watching movies. There are even some who say that it inspired them want to be better people. I’ve never seen this kind of thing happen before.
There is a train of thought that states that a storyteller is only as good as their ability to tell a story that can be understood, and I think that is the greatest compliment that you could give to Daniels. They made this complex story with complex feelings, and yet they are completely understandable to a general audience who normally wouldn’t be able to. It’s fantastic
I think it's the best movie I've seen in a while, but it also benefits from it being so long since I last saw a good movie. Freddie deBoer had a good review.
Yeah. I agree with almost everything in that review. Including Stan culture surrounding films, though that’s less specific to this film and I can point to other examples of this happening like last year with Power of the Dog or 2019 with Parasite, or even 2016 with Moonlight. It’s been a long problem where a certain segment gets infatuated with one movie and pushes that movie everywhere and accuses its detractors of some sort of bigotry. Even saying something as simple as “don’t think it’ll win Best Picture” will be met with a very loud negative response.
As for the actual substance, I disagree with is his criticism of Swiss Army Man. It is still sentimental in a way that this film is, but it’s developed better and it feels like a proper pay off as opposed to EEAAO where it feels like we’re skipping a step and they want the pay off before the development. I think this film was more concerned with its homages to kung fu movies and other genre films than the central heart of the story.
And it is very exposition heavy, which is why I’m shocked that it’s been so praised for its screenplay. I think something like Get Out (which EEAAO is matching in attention), while being high concept and having a fair amount of exposition in it, was primarily concerned with its characters and the social critique which made it feel more complete.
I’m not so much bothered by the mechanics of the film or internal logic. That doesn’t matter to me, I don’t need a film to stay on a path and follow a specific logic. I think that’s the wrong way to criticize a film and it’s very YMS-like. But he does mention that he wouldn’t care about it if the themes/emotions of the film were better written, so that’s fine.
Neither Fred, nor me, are the only people bringing up these same critiques as you can see from this post.
At some point this backlash will grow greater. I don’t think it ends up winning any major awards because of that. Because if I have these critiques I imagine the older and WHITE members of these awards bodies won’t be as enchanted by the spectacle of it all which feels very youth/internet oriented.
Part of deBoer’s schtick (right there in the headline) is reacting to what others said on the Internet, and I’m mostly ignoring that part. I don’t know what Stan culture is and I don’t see why letting it influence me would help. It seems like talking about the collective opinions of abstract groups is moving a bit too far away from judging a movie on its own merits, or even reacting to specific film criticism that’s worth reading and quoting.
I mean, his whole point is to talk about the reactions to the film and how they’re greater than what it should be. You can’t have that discussion by ignoring the broad reactions to a film.
Otherwise we can’t point out that maybe The Dark Knight isn’t the greatest movie ever made, because most critics don’t say that it’s “the collective opinions of abstract groups” that are saying they.