Midweek Movie Free Talk

All Of Us Strangers

Before I get into my own thoughts on the film, let me give a bit of background on its release and reception. It premiered at one of the fall fests a few months ago to rave reactions, it had over a 90 on Metacritic. It was set to be a big Oscar contender with the ceiling being 5 nominations (Picture, Lead Actor, Supporting Actor, Supporting Actress, Adapted Screenplay). And then for some reason people stop talking about it, it falls out of the conversation. Yes it didn’t release until now really, but even among critics who saw it stopped talking about it. They moved onto May December and Zone of Interest and Killers of the Flower Moon instead. And it will likely end up with zero nominations.

Having watched it now, I can totally see why. I thought this was kind of boring. Not just boring, it’s like a stereotypical indie. Like what people think about indie movies. Characters sitting around talking about their feelings and their trauma and the main character is a screenwriter trying to come to terms with his parents and blah blah blah. He’s also gay so you get conversations about that.

And it doesn’t really work. The conversations the characters have don’t sound or feel real. There isn’t much depth to any of the characters. The emotional moments are all low hanging fruit. The form of the film is okay, it feels like Haigh was trying too hard to be artsy if I’m being honest.

I kind of relate this to last year’s Women Talking. Something that feels shamelessly Oscar baity, but is really shallow and not well written. It’s also something I think critics felt they had to praise when it came out but when push came to shove they don’t actually care about it that much.

Another parallel is that Claire Foy is in it. I like Foy a lot as a personality that I’ve seen in interviews. I also think she’s a good actress, but I don’t really like any of the movies she’s been in. I mean I enjoyed Girl in the Spider’s Web, but she’s never been in anything I actually truly like (I didn’t care for First Man either).

It’s not as bad as Women Talking (which I remain is the worst Best Picture nominee we’ve had this decade so far). It’s competently made unlike that film. But yeah it’s not engaging, like I desperately wanted to just look at my phone throughout it.

After seeing The Fabelmans I wanted to go back to some classic Spielberg and rewatched Close Encounters of the Third Kind. This was my childhood alien movie but it most have been in the VHS days since I last saw it.

I got the 4K edition on iTunes and man does it look (and sound) absolutely gorgeous. I was transfixed all the way through. What I like about the story is that it has a very unique balance with elements of curiosity and being awed by the unknown and the night sky, but also the rather tragic character arc of Roy slowly losing his mind and his family by something he doesn't understand. Even though the alien abduction of Barry is quite scary - and impeccably well made, the whole film has general aura about it that tells us that these are not evil aliens. While the military with the coverups is sort of the "bad guy" here, there aren't really evil and there aren't any outright bad people in this movie. Yet we still get some very tragic scenes with Roy's family and feel a great deal of sympathy for his wife, but also for Roy who is simply just caught in something bigger than himself.

Easily in my top three Spielberg along with Jaws and Jurassic Park.

Finally got around to sinking 4 hours of my life into “Love Exposure”

Weird, wonderful and funny but at times I felt religion was too front and center even though that is basically the plot of the film. It was just too bible-versey for me. I haven’t looked into any of the technical particulars of the film but someone knew their bible maybe a bit too well.

I would go as far to say that the run time was perhaps a bit excessive and felt that they could have easily shaved an hour off. It felt quite drawn out in the later part of the movie for me. I still recommend the film for a watch.

I also was really pleasantly surprised with “Death Trap”. I don’t like movies that deal with “the theater” so this was on the back-burner for quite a time. Full of surprises and incredibly well-acted (doesn’t hurt that Reeves is extremely easy on the eyes here). It’s not a film I think I could really watch again knowing all the things that are going to transpire. Talking about the film I think is very difficult because it would be almost impossible to do so without spoiling it. Like, even saying I can’t talk about it without spoiling it is almost a spoiler in itself. I’d recommend to just go in cold.

BAFTA nominations predictions:

Film:

1. Oppenheimer
2. Poor Things
3. Killers of the Flower Moon
4. The Holdovers
5. Anatomy of a Fall

Director:

1. Christopher Nolan - Oppenheimer
2. Martin Scorsese - Killers of the Flower Moon
3. Yorgos Lanthimos - Poor Things

Original Screenplay:

1. The Holdovers
2. Anatomy of a Fall
3. Barbie
4. Past Lives
5. May December

Adapted Screenplay:

1. Poor Things
2. Oppenheimer
3. Killers of the Flower Moon
4. American Fiction
5. All of Us Strangers

I sat down and watched The Pirates Of The Caribbean: the curse of the black pearl, on Blu-ray.
I finally watched with one of the 3 (count 'em three!) commentary tracks with the four main writers.
Firstly: I miss commentary tracks; they are like free Film School. And secondly: it cemented my opinion that POTC 1 is the single best Disney live action film. Now, I am willing to be convinced otherwise, but I doubt there is another Disney film as water tight and unbloated in writing, with such invested performances. I could go on for quite a while about how great that movie is.

This last week I watched The Hot Rock (1972) and Cleopatra (1934) twice each -- once normal and once for the commentary tracks. Both great pictures. The Hot Rock can fall under the radar, but its an important picture for Redford.

(quick insert) -- Cleopatra was the last film to have nudity before the Hays Code kicked in. The film was released after and also received the approval.

I also watched Shaolin vs Wu-Tang to pull the samples used on the first Wu-Tang record. I've seen it a few times -- its a good one, if you're into kung-fu movies... but if you are, you're most likely familiar with this. Gordon Liu is boss.

late edit: just finished It Happened One Night (1934), which is another gem with Claudette Colbert. Colbert and Gable have an excellent chemistry. I think pre-code romantic comedies are my fav. Anyway, this was the first film to win best picture, best director, best actor, best actress and best screenplay --- only a handful have done it since.

Watched a Korean movie called Midnight Runners from 2017 a few days ago and really enjoyed it. I was a fan of both the lead actors in their roles in various KDramas so when I learned that they played the leads in a movie together, I knew I wanted to it.

The movie follows two police academy recruits turned best friends. When out drinking one night in Gangnam, they witness a girl getting kidnapped. However, when they go to the police station to report it, the police prioritize another kidnapping case instead and are in no hurry to help them. Knowing that they are in the critical hours after a kidnapping occurs, they take matters into their own hands to try and rescue the woman.

The movie starts off as a comedy but transitions really smoothly into something more serious and filled with action. It honestly had my whole attention from start to finish. Highly recommend it!

I was at the theater last night watching Poor Things. It has gotten plenty of high praise and while I did like many aspects of it, I am less thrilled than most others it seems.

The general premise and story with a steampunk-ish retelling of Frankenstein in a femnist lense is a cool concept and basically all the actors and their performances are absolutely top tier.

The black and white start makes for a great setup with themad scientist incredibly well played by Dafoe and a very convincing performance by Emma Stone, who throughout the movie show the gradual development from toddler to something resembling adulthood. A modern look with heavy inspiration from the aesthetics of 50s mad scientist movies.

Bella's learnings and reactions to the world around her is interesting and funny at first. How she speaks her mind with no filter or any sort of social inhibitions is refreshing. But it also got old after a while and my main problem with the movie is how it doesn't really change that. Her first experience with sexuality or dancing is genuinely funny and a way to reflect on social norms, but after about an hour it just became predictable scenes where she goes through the motions of discovering and blatantly commenting on various aspects of life and society. And while it makes sense that Bella talks and react like that, with how she came into this world with a baby mind in an adult body, as a viewer it almost removed any need to think or reflect for myself. Because it is not only her; everyone is speaking with little to no filter, saying things as they are and all that, but when all the included symbolism is being spelled out in capital letters all the time it doesn't leave much for me to take home. Not that every movie needs to instill something that one can ponder and reflect on for days afterwards, but Poor Things generally seems like a movie that wants to be more than just empty funny calories.

I was waiting for all this to maybe built up to something greater insight in the end, but all we get is a dumb revenge fantasy against a horrible aristocrat? Again, spelling out the symbolism in big letters isn't that interesting. Which is a shame, because Bella makes for a very unique character to throw into the world to use as a lense to focus on problematic current issues, but I was left with nothing when it is handled in such a clumsy way. Every sense of subtlety, doubt or ambiguity is removed.

I feel like Godwin, played by William Dafoe, was the most interesting and nuanced character, because he was the only one that managed to challenge me in some way. How he is clearly an absolute abhorrent crazy scientist torturing humans and animals in the name of science, but as his background is revealed and we see how he influences the people around him in the end, makes for a much deeper character portrayal than the others.

A bit long at 2 hours and 20 minutes, but worth seeing - because I seem to be in the minority of not giving this very high praise. Would love to hear other perspectives.