8
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.
Saltburn
Didn't like it - aside from the edgy gross-outs, the plot and characters aren't as interesting. Seems to be a less good version of The Talented Mr Ripley.
Triangle Of Sadness
Very funny, despite me just complaining about gross and this one is probably one of the gross-est films I've seen :) but like, sad-fun gross, which is my kind of humour. The ending didn't seem like it came out of nowhere, and I had some very excellent conversations with my spouse about class / wealth / gender / race. It's not a deep movie, more like a fun Don't Look Up kind of thing, without the obvious eat the rich overtone. Just....people are not totally awful but they're not really very nice either, and any of us could end up doing things differently depending on circumstances. I like it a lot.
Fall Guy
Top notch popcorn comedy flick. Don't think too hard about it: not because it has glaring plot holes but because there isn't a deep mystery, it's a well done small stake personal mystery. Love Stephanie Hsu small appearance. Feels like a love letter to the stunt industry. There is an uncomfortable scene where I feel like they played off imbalance of film making power dynamics for laughs....could have been a bit more clear that no, that is not okay and we should support stunt workers' fight for more safety and protection on set. Excellent on screen chemistry between Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt. I wish there were a lot more Emily Blunt.
Barbie
Speaking of Ryan Gosling. This is a re-watch with a tween. I think us old people enjoyed it a lot more than the tween did. The movie got a lot of buzz last year but it's not the kind of film that really stands up over time or over re-watching. I did and still applaud the movie for its ambition: to gently poke fun at Mattel even as it fawns over it, to point out the absurdity of impossible female beauty standards even as it puts a shine on the ever gorgeous Margot Robbie. Solid watch even if it won't make any cult classic lists.
I also didn't like Saltburn and found the ending predictable.
I more recently watched The Fall Guy as well and I think it only works for the action scenes. I love hearing from stunt people and learning about their trade, like the Stuntmen React series on Corridor crew. The rest of the movie was forgettable.
Oh that's a great recommendation! I would also love to learn more about the stunt people and their craft :). There was an interview with Michelle Yeoh about her stunting days in HK and how she almost died when she fell off a truck (or bus?) and only didn't die because she landed on the hood of the car with the camera following the action. Absolutely wild
I was pretty surprised by the fall guy. I earlier thought it's just another gray man movie, a little comedy, a lot of action and some chemestry. But I was wrong. Although it's still similar genre the movie touched my heart with it's vibe. The music, characters, simple story and an amazing appreciation to the stant team. I loved the song and how it's used in the movie.
That's a new terminology for me, "gray man" movies! How fun! Does it specifically refer to Gosling's 2022 film titled that way, or is it a generic way to describe "male Mary Sue" action films?
I really liked the ending song about Stune People not getting Oscars but they totally should :)
i watched civil war finally after forgetting about it. i love the director but the previews for this movie did not interest me at all. once i started watching it, though, i was surprisingly interested. it definitely was not what i thought it would be like based on the trailers. kirsten dunst plays this type of character extremely well. i think the film was good, though not my favorite of his (men, previously, i thought was incredible) but i’m glad i saw it. i think i would have liked it more in the theatres though.
What kind of movie did it end up actually being? From the trailers I got a sort of..... "This Sunday, Sunday, SUNDAY --- only in megadome!! *Explosions sfx * leave your brain at home and come watch Americans Kill Americans! Red or Blue come one come all and see people die with many many many guns! *Gun sfx *" Which would not be of interest to me
It is more a film about journalism and its role in wars, and how it also destroys the humanity of the journalists.
Interesting......! Why didnt they make a trailer like that? How do people feel about the movie, I expect there are some disappointed people and some surprisingly delighted?
That is sadly quite common for Hollywood marketing if they have a movie that isn't the typical blockbuster entertainment type, and they are afraid they won't sell enough tickets with an honest trailer, so they create these exaggerated versions instead.
It's not at all that type of movie. It's a work of art. A pretty deep film, very philosophical, really got my mind going. I really loved it though, rated it 9/10, so maybe I'm biased, but yeah it was so absorbing and gripping throughout! Definitely give it a try - I think it would interest you.
The Bikeriders
I loved this. I expected to enjoy it as I’ve enjoyed Nichols’s previous work, but I did not expect to outright love it as much as I did. I haven’t seen Take Shelter, but this is the best film I’ve seen from Nichols. As soon as the freeze frame title sequence happened, which was obviously inspired by Scorsese, I was in.
It’s such a gorgeous looking film, with so much texture to it. Theres a richness to every shot with so much detail from this time period of Americana. I thought Butler was fantastic as this James Dean character, and Comer and Hardy were in the pocket as well.
It’s an examination of masculinity without it being a deconstruction of it, it’s not critical and it’s not glorifying it either, it’s a simple observation that shows both the upsides and the downsides of these motor clubs.
————————————
So with that said, and now that we’re more than halfway done with the year. My top 3 so far are:
These are the only three I actually expect will end up on the top 10 come January. Unless the rest of the year is just really bad and both Furiosa and Abigail are still on there.
This week I watched Blow Out (1981) and The Lady Vanishes (1938). I loved both. I've seen Blow Out a few times --- I love the rhythm and Travolta has never been better. I love his serious stuff far more than his campy / goofy stuff.
The Lady Vanishes is fantastic for early Hitchcock. I could be wrong, but I think this is the first gay relationship in film --- and if not the first, the first that just lets it be normal and intimate without being part of the story.. if that makes sense. Great film.
I watched I Saw the TV Glow last night. Absolutely loved it. It's this really artsy and emotional film. Wikipedia calls it a horror, which definitely isn't my cup of tea, but it has no jumpscares or super tense scenes or anything like that.
It has this lovely message about the importance of media in one's life, but the film is mostly an allegory for the experience of being transgender. It's the first time I've seen a film that captures what being trans is like for me, so it really resonated with me.
Inside Out 2
I loved the idea of inside out. It focuses on what's going on inside the brain of a child and it helps you understand and acknowledge the complex emotions you go through every day. One of my therapist friend suggested me it and it was so worth it. The second part explores emotions of a teenager... I won't spoil anything but it gives some life long lessons with a simple and lovely story. The characters are ofcourse relatable. I wish they keep making more and more movies where mental health is focused.
A Quiet Place: Day One
I really like the first two Quiet Places. The first one is in my top 10 of 2018, and I really liked Part II, more than most. I thought this was the worst one. It's still fine, and the opening 40 minutes are really good, there's a lot of tension in the beginning of the film. But then it gets repetitive, the characters don't have much to them (especially Joseph Quinn's character who just exists to service Lupita N'yongo). I just never understood what their relationship really was, why they were so attached to each other, because they hardly know one another.
I think there's definitely a different visual language to this film. The first two Quiet Place's feel more studio and this feels more indie, with more handheld documentary-like camera work. It was sometimes pretty, and I think there were a lot of clever visuals. I don't think Sarnoski's heart was totally in this though. I wasn't the biggest fan of Pig, his directorial debut, but this felt like Sarnoski only did it for the paycheck. Fair enough, but I don't love that I can feel his indifference towards the project.
Kinds of Kindness
I was pretty vocally in love with Poor Things on here six months ago. And this was shot right after Poor Things entered post-production (at one point both this and Poor Things were going to release the same year). I thought this was really bad. It's an anthology film, which I think I'm slowly learning that I don't like in general. It's three different short films and none of them are connected unlike say The French Dispatch.
This felt so empty. I don't think any of the shorts are actually saying anything. I thought the first one was slightly interesting, but the next two were so dull. I just wanted the film to end. And it's quite a long film, I didn't care for French Dispatch very much but that at least had the decency of being short. This just dragged and dragged.
Really disappointing.
Recently saw It Follows from 2014 which was an interesting way to subvert the usual tropes of the teen horror movie, with having an extra layer those movies normally don't have. It has the feel and astehics of an arthouse movie and it makes some well needed minor changes to the usual formula. I like how everyone approaches this scary phenomenon with a reasonably methodical and intelligent approach. They are not dumb teenagers and everyone is generally friendly and supportive. I also appreciate how the movie respects the viewer and doesn't go overboard in exposition. We are allowed to fill in the blanks ourselves, and letting our own imaginations create the unsettling emotions. I don't think it was entirely successful as a horror film as it isn't really able to finish its setup. The movie just sort of stops without an ending, but I really like the whole style and different approach to a well known formula.
I saw this back when it came out (it was released wide in the U.S in early 2015), and I remember the hype for it on the internet was unreal. Everyone loved it, there were some saying it was one of the best horror films of the century etc etc. The overall aesthetic of the film was very in at the time, a sort of 80s call back that would continue with Stranger Things and It the following years. The synth score really brings that aesthetic together. I've only seen it once but I remember a lot from it, especially the opening image with the girl in heels.
Yes the opening scene immediately told me this was going to be a bit different, even though that scene is as cliché as they comes. We have seen it countless times with a young woman in underwear running scared away from something sinister. Despite this movie also has plenty of young people in scant clothing, it didn't feel as sexualized as it usually is. The cast was allowed to be themselves and not merely pretty looking plot devices.