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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.
Just booked our tickets for Boppenheimer (Oppenheimer -> Barbie) this Sunday. It's a goofy trend / name but I love that the juxtaposition of the two has led to a massive social media movement to see both, and it could lead to exposure of 2 very different film genres to audiences that don't normally overlap. With both films receiving good initial reviews, not being sequels, and not being tied into a cinematic universe I'm hoping their strong performances could spark a bit more risk taking and originality in the coming years.
So far 2023 has given us plenty of great reasons to get to the theater with Across the Spiderverse, Suzume, Astroid City, Barbie / Oppenheimer, and the upcoming Dune Part 2.
Alright so I know it's late at night, but I just have to get this out.
Barbie's review embargo dropped today. It's at 81 on Metacritic. Mix that in with the fact that it's going to open to 150 million dollars (at the low end) that means it's locked for a Best Picture nomination. Here's the minimum it's getting:
Pretty crazy stuff for a movie about Barbie. Oppenheimer is also locked considering the rave reactions and also that it's opening above 70 million for the weekend. It should be good to go for a lot more noms (I'm talking 10+) and even outright wins for Director and Supporting Actor.
If I had to put money on it right now. I'd say Barbie is winning Lead Actress and Adapted Screenplay and Oppenheimer is winning Director and Supporting Actor.
So I finally got around to watching the new Mission Impossible, and it was actually much better than I expected! Obviously it's not a 'good' film, but it's a really fun watch.
What that mean
Well it's not going to be making any IMDB top 100 lists for it's incredible storytelling or anything like that. It's not a film an artsy type person would enjoy.
Nah in online film circles the Mission Impossible movies are revered. These last two especially have been wildly acclaimed.
Wow! I didn't know that. I haven't watched any of them since the first couple and I just thought of it as a goofy action flick.
The reputation of the series really changed after Ghost Protocol (the fourth film). That's where the focus on Cruise doing death defying stunts for this series came from. That's also when Christopher McQuarrie (Oscar winning writer of The Usual Suspects) came on board (he did re-writes on Protocol). And then McQuarrie took over directing duties for Rogue Nation, after having directed Jack Reacher with Cruise, which also got acclaim though not as much as Protocol. But then Fallout comes out to this incredible reception. It was being called the best action movie since Mad Max: Fury Road, one of the best action movies of all time. And so that reputation sort of stuck.
I like most of the movies (2 is the only one I don't like). If you haven't seen 3 I'd recommend starting from there and just watching all the ones you haven't seen yet. I'd say it's worth your time.
Personally, I'm not really into making these kinds of distinctions. It's certainly got different goals than like, Past Lives or something, but it's not like these movies take any less skill, care, or creativity to make. I think it's easy to think that these kinds of action movies don't have the emotional impact that something more serious does, but I can certainly say that I thought some of the big set pieces in Mission Impossible were extremely exciting — that totally counts as an emotional impact too!
In my opinion, it's best to approach movies on their own terms. There's no need to pay much attention to categorization or prestige or whatever, just how the movie makes you feel. Of course it's fine to not like action movies (or whatever genre), but I think it's better to frame this through your own interest in the subject matter, rather than looking at the work as being "less important" in some way.
I would say stuff like Mission Impossible Dead Reckoning/Fallout and Top Gun: Maverick are more technically proficient than stuff like Past Lives or other A24 films (which I do like). The craftsmanship of those films is a form of pure cinema.
Yeah man! I'm not trying to say I don't like it or anything. I totally agree :)
I interpret as meaning "it's not high class cinema". Which isn't an insult IMO, though every once in a while you get the weird cinephile that thinks so.
I made it a goal for myself this year to watch a lot of movies -- particularly movies I haven't seen before but always intended to, or movies I haven't seen in a really long time. I've been working, essentially, part time from home so I've had a lot of time on my hands. So far I'm at 160 movies for the year. A lot I've watched in the background while I was doing other things, so if the movie didn't really catch my attention, it sort of became background noise while I loosely followed along with the plot.
In the last 7 days, I've watched:
My movie watching has slowed down considerably over the last month and half -- just finished up a big cross country move and have been settling into the new city. But this weekend my wife and I and some friends have tickets to Barbie, and I'm sure I'll see Oppenheimer soon, too.
Hot Fuzz is also an old favorite of mine. I’ve watched it so many times but never seem to get tired of it!
The Grand Budapest Hotel is great. Every time I watch a Wes Anderson film, I walk away imagining myself in one. Speaks to how interesting and fun his style is.
The only other Wes Anderson film I'd seen was Moonrise Kingdom... about a month ago. I think I preferred Moonrise Kingdom, but I'm a sucker for coming-of-age stories. I liked the palette and ratio changes throughout Grand Budapest, and Ralph Fiennes was great
I rewatched Hell or High Water (2016) last night. If you haven't seen it, highly recommend. I'm a simple man, you put Ben Foster in a film and I'm here for it. Really though, everyone gives a great performance, the plot is tight and the movie doesn't run even a second too long. Anyway, for anyone who has seen the movie:
Potential Spoilers
At the very end, when Hamilton and Toby are at the ranch and the family shows up, it's clear that whatever was building between the two of them can't continue and Hamilton moves to leave. Toby says something along the lines of "I have an apartment in town, you're welcome any time and I'd like to be done with this. Maybe I can give you some peace." Was this supposed to be a quiet threat along the lines of "Show your face around me again and I'll kill you" or more of an understanding offer like "you're the lawman at the end of his run, I'm the outlaw, let's finish this in proper old-west style if that's what you're looking for"?Typically I'd say it's the former but Toby isn't a killer and really isn't threatening throughout the film. He's accomplished what he wanted and probably is feeling tortured by what went down, is he ready to go into the sunset at the hands of the Ranger?
I Just finished watching Ravenous (1999) after hearing about it from the youtuber Atun Shei Films and I think it might be my favourite movie now. It has an amazing soundtrack and the acting is absolutely fantastic, especially from Robert Carlyle.