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Midweek Movie Free Talk
Have you watched any movies recently you want to discuss? Any films you want to recommend or are hyped about? Feel free to discuss anything here.
Please just try to provide fair warning of spoilers if you can.
I'm super looking forward to the Barbie movie.
Which is somewhat surprising: I've never owned a single Barbie; I find dolls in general creepy and sexist; I honestly don't think the movie is going to be some sort of feminist powwow or anything ground breaking.
So perhaps it is my insane crush on Margot Robbie, plus mild interest in Ryan Gosling as an actor, and curiosity about the sets and costumes design......
I thought I would be a lot more excited about Spiderverse and Asteroid City even though I am a big big fan of the first Spiderverse movie, and a big Wes Anderson fan. It is unlikely I will run out to see either in theatres. Triple surprise at myself.
I think the excitement about Barbie has been quite infectious. I first became aware of it in places like /r/sewing and /r/femalefashionadvice with posters being inspired by the aesthetic and my desire to see the movie has sort of spiraled from there.
Similar to you, I have no interest in barbies whatsoever but something about the film has pulled me in. Watching trailers though, it does feel like it's more than a mindless cash grab - actual thought has gone into it, unlike a lot of other films-based-on-toy-lines in recent years.
I agree that it's not going to be like a feminist takedown of the patriarchy or anything but it does feel refreshing to have a big movie celebrate 'girly' things while aiming for more universal appeal.
Edited to add: I did actually see Asteroid City at the weekend and I thought it was okay. I'm not the biggest Wes Anderson fan and I felt like it set itself up to be more profound than his films sometimes are but then didn't really deliver and ended up sort of gesturing vaguely at 'deeper meaning' without really exploring what that meaning was. But ymmv and I'm probably not the best person to judge in the first place.
marketing for Barbie has been great, they even built her malibu dream house you can AirBnB... and then i saw a tweet saying "You're move Oppenheimer marketing team... "
Two films I rewatched in the last few days:
Man of Steel, and Arrival.
Man of Steel, like Superman's chest symbol, gave me hope that we could have Henry Cavill BE superman for a decade of awesome films. Unfortunately the fuckery to copy Marvel ruined any chances of that. I still love it as a standalone movie. He(Superman) never gets to be a proper character again in any of the movies after this one, only existing as a set piece or ex machina to save the day.
Arrival, coincidentally another movie with Amy Adams.
Arrival, if you haven't seen it, is nothing short of fantastic. The pacing, the effects, the sound, all great.
The concept is fantastic. The weakest part, however is the script. For every scene with a beautiful 'show-don't-tell' moment, there's a bad piece of dialogue with characters saying dumb things.
My watchlist is ginormous and every now and again I make an effort to watch movies from the back of my queue which have been in there sometimes for upwards of 10+ years.
I recently watched The Searchers, dubbed one of the greatest Westerns of all time...
...meh. It was OK, but it had an unnecessary romance subplot and an odd choice of humor that just didn't pair well with everything else. Beautiful scenery, some great shots, and I enjoyed the themes explored, but overall I just thought it was fine. Probably not going to recall much of it a few years from now other than the getting-shot-in-the-butt joke cracked minutes before the credits rolled.
I felt the same about The Searchers, just didn't make much of an impression on me other than the gorgeous cinematography. Much more of a Peckinpah/ Wild Bunch or Eastwood /Unforgiven kinda guy.
I just never really could get into John Wayne's acting style either. Cool to see a pre Star trek Jeffrey Hunter though.
I saw three movies in theaters this past weekend.
Past Lives
A beautiful, sweet, warm look at regret. It’s visually gorgeous and the music in it is just amazing. Really good stuff. I don’t usually fall for overhyped twitter movies (cough EEAAO cough) but this was legitimately great. Crazy that this was a first time director, there’s so much confidence displayed in the camera.
Asteroid City
I wasn’t a big fan of French Dispatch and this was… worse. The narrative is even less engaging and it manages to even be more emotionally hollow. French Dispatch looked better and had more interesting things going on. At this point Anderson needs to go back to more intimate character dramedies cause this is getting boring.
No Hard Feelings
I’m not on the part of social media where this is causing tremendous uproar (which aGe gAp discourse is just dumb). But I was looking forward to this from the trailer. It’s great. It’s really funny, Lawrence is wildly charismatic. It’s the definitive Gen Z sex comedy.
That once in a blue moon thing happened where the wife and I decided we were going to just drop the usual evening work routine (she runs a small online shop making custom tees and teddies, etc) and just lounge in front of the TV.
After much Netflix "noping", I finally just settled on a Rom that I would typically roll my eyes at, called Purple Hearts. In the UK it's a 12, so I wasn't expecting much. If you like a bit of a singing show with a little life hurt and a story or two that may change your mind on war and joining the army, it's not a bad watch.
With one evening and a film down, we decided we don't do this enough so sat and watched an oldy that we had both never seen before, How Do You Know from 2010, starring Reese Witherspoon, Owen Wilson, Paul Rudd and Jack Nicholson in his final film role. This is a solid RomCom if you haven't seen it. Expect a fun movie, a little awkward at times buy nothing over the top. We laughed, we awwwed, we rolled our eyes.
Finally, I got to sit and watch Mr Wick in Chapter 4. I love Keanu, I enjoy most of his movies. Chapter 4 is just a long "how many people can I kill for the next 25 minutes straight, without getting over tired and being hit by multiple objects that even with a bullet proof suit on would kill me" movie. I actually got bored, which is something I didn't think would happen. Sometimes a saga needs to call it a day.