11
votes
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 saw Basic Instinct the other night and my previous knowledge on this was basically only the infamous upskirt scene. I expected an erotic sleazy thriller, which I got, but I didn't expect the opening scene to be so bloody and violent. I had somehow missed that it was directed by Verhoeven and then many things fell into place.
I like how the basic plot is more a less a parody on itself and Verhoeven's approach is this super heightened reality - not to the level of Starship Troopers but still up there - yet it doesn't become silly and it still takes itself seriously. Sharon Stone as the extremely attractive femme fatale that uses her "powers" to manipulate everyone around her is a delight to watch. I also liked how we are kept in a perpetual uncertainty on who did it. They even acknowledge that it is too obvious that is herself committing the murders depicted in her book, but it is also a great smokescreen. And then the end turns everything around again providing "proof" for another hidden story, but there is still something off and unclear. Even after the final frame. It is stylish and playful.
There was a discussion here previously on unnecessary sex scenes in movies and I think this passes the test for sex scenes that advance the character development and are for the most part necessary. Not denying that a part of it is to show hot attractive people nude, but the way the scenes are filmed and the characters body language tells a lot about their state of their relationship and their attractions. And some sex scenes are only implied because at that point in the story it wasn't necessary to show it.
I just finished watching Blade Runner 2049 about an hour ago.
Blade Runner 2049 Spoilers
Wow, just wow. Firstly, the stuff that's easy to put into words: the movie is gorgeous. Almost every single shot is just so perfect. There are so many details and it just adds to the believability of the world. On top of that, the soundtrack and sound design is also perfection. So this is already two of the most important things to making an immersive movie and I've barely started talking about it.
The acting: good fucking god, the acting is some of the best I've ever seen, all the way down to the minor side characters. Every character feels like they belong in that world, they all have a past, present, figure, goals, etc., they're all just so believable. I think this is the first Ryan Gosling movies I've seen (except some really old ones like Remember the Titans) and he absolutely killed it. His emotional range was both amazing and soul crushing, he did such a good job of projecting what a replicant would be feeling during this story.
Speaking of the story: wow, perfection (man, I'm really saying everything is perfect, aren't I?). The story feels important, yet just a small part of the wide world. Joe going through his normal motions and then "waking up" (for lack of a better term) as he's nudged into thinking he's special is just so good. He's spent years being a good little replicant and all he needed to realize he's human, after all, was a convincing lie. His transition from replicant to human was just amazing to watch and it just devastated me when we find out he's not the chosen one and he's just another guy, but I think that twist is what makes the story stick. It makes his scene earlier in the movie with Ana so much more impactful, that she was seeing her own memories through him. And it really drives home that he didn't need to be special to be human, he could just be him.
Joe's relationship with Joi was also devastating. From the start, we as viewers think that of course she's just telling Joe what he wants to hear, she's just an AI, but then you buy into her the longer the story goes on, and just as you're feeling bad for her death, it's revealed she wasn't human after all, wasn't feeling emotions, she was just following a program, and she took almost the opposite storyline as Joe, who grows more human.
I'm a huge fan of transhumanism themes and stories about what it is to be human and I think this movie does a wonderful job of exploring those themes. 10/10.
On the subject of Denis, I am now extremely hyped for Dune part 2 and I'll need to rewatch part 1 this weekend.
Just watched Past Lives --- what a fantastic film with a fantastic pace and fantastic casting. It's so nice to see a film that is allowed to breathe.
edit: a quick hot take; I really felt like this was a normal Lost in Translation --- no fame, swanky environments, nothing really 'cool' --- just a really lean, realistic time shared.
I mindlessly browsed documentaries the other day and decided just to put one on based on the title and cover without knowing anything else. It's a fun exercise I like to do sometimes because it also highlights what words and pictures you seem attracted to in the moment. I ended up watching Great Photo, Lovely Life. I won't spoil anything here but it was an intense look into a family with a horrible secret and unhandled trauma told by the granddaughter. I highly recommend it. It was personal and at times hard to watch because of the difficulties of having these deeply discomforting conversations with people you love. I commend her for making this for everybody involved.
Drive-Away Dolls
This was originally supposed to come out in September of last year. It was delayed due to the strikes. I was looking forward to this as a fan of B-movies and Geraldine Viswanathan.
This was bad. Really bad. It's less than 90 minutes long but feels three hours. There wasn't a single joke that landed. I thought it was annoying, insufferable, and grating. The only performance that didn't make my skin crawl was Viswanathan. Qualley's accent made this harder to sit through than it had to be.
Also Beannie Feldstein has got to be the weirdest nepo baby in the industry. Because she doesn't have the looks of other nepo babies (like Qualley for example), and she really can not act. Her casting in the Broadway revival of Funny Girl was a fucking joke, and this really cements her as a poor actress.
With Ethan Coen having this, and also having his Broadway play met with mixed reviews, really makes it clear who was the brother with the most talent. I didn't really love Tragedy of Macbeth, but Joel Coen was pretty clearly the driving creative force behind the duo.
I just finished watching NYAD on Netflix, starring Annette Benning and Jodie Foster. Film based on the true story of Diana Nyad who swam 100+ miles from Cuba to Florida in 2013, at the age of 64. (She's the third person to complete the swim, and the first to do so without a shark cage.) Really enjoyed watching these powerful actresses portray these amazing women.