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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 have been enjoying Criterion Channels 70s Car Movies so far with Steven Spielberg's debut Duel and The Last American Hero about NASCAR driver Junior Johnson. Duel was super intense and really shows Spielberg's talent for making the most out of what he has to work with to create suspense with simple but effective means. A talent he later mastered with Jaws. The Last American Hero is a very straight forward "from zero to hero" type story, with a super charming young Jeff Bridges and of course plenty of lovely muscle car engine sounds. There is something really appealing about these simple 70s movies that I never get from modern car movies such as Fast and The Furious. Short running time, simple stories and just letting the cars speak for themselves without destroying it with overly hectic fast paced editing. Really looking forward to the rest of the collection.
Duel blew my mind the first time I saw it. I was already a Spielberg fan, so a little biased, but to think that such a young filmmaker could do so much with so little was amazing to me. The small scope, the palpable tension, an inanimated object that becomes a real, threatening antagonist... A little masterpiece.
Film festivals are happening. So before awards are handed out later this week (i think?) I'll go over some stuff that's changed over the Oscar race.
Maestro everyone was expecting this to flop. To get mixed to negative reviews and for Netflix to completely abandon it in favor of something like David Fincher's The Killer. It got praised and is currently labeled must see on Metacritic (their equivalent of certified fresh) indicating Universal Praise. Pretty clearly going to be Netflix's main contender this year, and could possibly even be one of the bigger contenders this year.
Poor Things people weren't necessarily expecting this to flop. But they were, at best, expecting reception similar to Nightmare Alley. Mixed to positive reviews and a minor awards contender. Instead, it got Yorgos Lanthimos's best reviews of his career (even better than The Favourite) and is bound to be a huge contender for Searchlight this year. It's the type of techy critically acclaimed film that can end up with 10+ nominations come announcement morning. Picture, Director, Adapted Screenplay, acting nominations for Emma Stone and Mark Ruffalo, a bunch of technical nominations. And I don't think anyone expected that, even Searchlight who originally slated the film for September in a vote of no confidence.
The Killer received softer than expected reviews. If Maestro did in fact flop with critics at Venice then the argument could be made Netflix would prioritize this even with the softer reception. However, this will probably be a minor contender at best. Netflix is usually good at getting two Best Picture nominations when they have the movies. But whether they can get this genre film will just depend on the other competition.