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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.
Challengers
I wasn't planning on watching this originally, but it got straight up raves from film critics, especially from high brows. So I figured why not. I think the film starts off strong, that first hour is genuinely electrifying. The tennis sequences, the electric score from the Nine Inch Nails guys. And the chemistry between Faist and O'Connor. It was all very entertaining. And then the film goes on for another hour and ten minutes. It just completely drags. The film also suffers because after that hour mark, Zendaya's character becomes the focal point. Her weak performance aside, she is a much less interesting character than the dynamic we see from O'Connor and Faist.
Diving deeper into Zendaya's performance. I think this makes it clear she can not act. It brought me back to the acting classes I took, and seeing these guys try their absolute hardest to show emotions. You can see the effort she's making in showing emotions. She scrunches up her face to show either sadness or anger. It does not feel like she ever goes deeper into the character. Often it's not even clear what her character is experiencing or thinking. The nature of the character, as well, adds onto the problem of Zendaya being extremely image conscious. This is her making her cake and eating it too. She gets to do the artsy film from the Call Me By Your Name director, but she also gets to girl boss all over the place. She gets lines like "I take care of my white boys" and gets to respond "I know" after her husband tells her he loves her. She gets to wear Gucci suits and make business decisions. It all feels so tailored to her, yet she struggles with even the more basic scenes.
I'll give her that she's better when the character is a teenager, she plays the naivete well, but once she's an adult with more complex emotions it just crumbles. I remembered Malcolm and Marie (2021) while watching this, somehow because I had completely forgot about that film's existence. She's also not good in that movie, but that movie is bad all around and she was acting opposite another bad actor. In Challengers both her partners are good actors, and are able to communicate emotions without trying to show emotions. And I think that emphasizes her lack of chops.
Moving on from that, there's a good film in here. One that's maybe 90 or 100 minutes long. That's told in sequential order. And is able to keep the energy from the first hour throughout. And also one with a real ending rather than the weird BS we got here. Oh and Luca incorporated these really off putting CGI tennis ball scenes, one in which a ball flies towards the camera and another where we're seeing the game from the POV of the ball. Get rid of that stuff too. It really feels like a film with wasted potential.
Do you think she's bad in Euphoria too? I haven't really seen her in anything else besides Dune I and in that she was kinda meh but she wasn't on screen that long. I think it worked in Euphoria. You're having me doubting my own judgement now...
I’ve seen bits and pieces of it. My sister was watching it and I would tune in every now and then. I’ve also seen the clips everyone share, namely the “are you auditioning for Oklahoma” scene, the scene where Zendaya is banging on the door asking for drugs, and the scene where some sort of cheating scandal is revealed.
From what I’ve seen Zendaya is mostly playing “cool.” Someone who speaks in a monotone voice most of the time, which I believe was probably written with her in mind. The scene where she’s having a breakdown is… fine I guess. I don’t think those types of acting moments are particularly difficult to perform. Tom Hardy actually has a quote that goes “if in doubt, and you have nothing to offer the world, get naked, cover yourself in paint, cry, or just bang your head against the table cause that’s drama.”
The real meat of acting is what I think Zendaya lacks, she very much still feels like an amateur despite doing this since she was a kid. I’m in the minority though and the only big critic that agrees with me is Robert Daniels
welp, this week starts off with The Ten Commandments. What a fucking slog. It isn't the worst, but it definitely hasn't aged well compared to Lawrence of Arabia. The sets themselves are nice, but when they go to the overlays, it looks absolutely horrible.
I stopped at the intermission and will finish the rest tonight. Yul Brynner is a fucking stud, though.
Uh, I have a soft spot for these classic massive epics and while The Ten Commandments isn't near the level of something like Ben Hur or Lawrence of Arabia I still think it has some charm despite its age.
typically I'm in the same boat, but they really should have taken it outdoors.
The Teachers' Lounge
This was the German entry in this years Oscar nominees for best international picture and I think it deserves at least the same level of attention as Anatomy of a Fall (which was awarded in other categories). They are even somewhat similar with the theme of a crime investigation, but where Anatomy of a Fall used a courtroom to mercilessly dissect a persons private personality, this is less about character exploration and more of an uncomfortable lense at group dynamics, social status, rumors, school politics and how even the best of people with the best intentions can have something totally spiral out of control. It provides even less resolve and answers than Anatomy of a Fall with no clear explanations, which can be very frustrating and challenging, but I love the boldness of it and how the film manages to create so much tension and personal drama on the nature of doubts with a relatively minor plot about some small time theft in a regular German school. I only know Leonie Benesch from Das Weisse Band but she is outright amazing here as well, where we really get her most inner thoughts and doubts and inner monologue just from facial expressions and body language, while still maintaining a personal boundary where we never really get to know her.
There is an interesting interview with the director here.
Unfrosted (2024) from Jerry Seinfeld is awesome. Its a pure comedy... it feels like its been ages since we had a pure comedy.
Interesting, I was annoyed by him falling into the pattern of "new movie coming out, time to complain about wokeness" from older male comedians. I may still pass on the movie as I've heard not great things too but good to know it's not all bad.
Basically, take The Founder and stack it with comedians and some really funny kids that were perfectly cast. Its got a similar tone to Comedians in Cars... when he did the goofy stuff with Michael Richards, if that makes sense.
I'm not an Amy Schumer fan, but she's also perfect for this. I went in expecting it to be awful since every comedian is on their podcast saying its amazing; but it lived up to the hype.
I think its also fine for kids. There are some jokes that would go over their heads, but so far as I can remember there isn't any swearing that isn't beeped out, and that's only during the outtakes during the credits.
That being said, I'll absolutely never watch this again and will most likely forget about it in a week. :)