Midweek Movie Free Talk

My wife and I saw Inside Out 2 in the movie theater, which is the first movie we've been to since Barbie last summer. It was about what I expected: they remade the first movie but added a few emotions. (I should note that if Inside Out isn't my favorite Pixar movie, then it's in the top 3. I really do love that movie.) I guess I'm not sure what else the narrative arc could be, but the basic beats are pretty much identical: emotions get stranded away from the headquarters and have to find their way back or else Riley will become a different person for good. I also didn't notice that neither Bill Hader nor Mindy Kaling had returned so either it's been a long time since I've seen the first movie or I'm not as good at picking up voice actors as I thought I was. Overall, it was one of the better recent Pixar movies but didn't really make a case for itself.

Elsewhere, I had a James Cameron double feature on the weekend and watched two classics that I've actually never seen before: Aliens and The Abyss.

Aliens was a fun ride. Once again corporate greed fucks everyone over. The guy who convinces Ripley to tag along with the Marines (can't remember his name) is an absolute snake. Really well crafted turns throughout, the aliens were creepy and there was a good amount of tension and suspension even in light of all the additional action compared to the first movie.

The Abyss felt like a good movie with a hunchback no one wanted to look at. (I should also mention that I did not watch the director's cut because the original was all that was available on Hulu. From what I understand people feel very strongly about whether the additional footage helps or hurts.) My first takeaway from the movie is that James Cameron is insane and filming this movie must've been awful for everyone -- and that was before I read about everyone's experiences on set. The scene where Ed Harris's ex wife volunteers to drown herself and hopefully get revived on the ship is harrowing, as is the resuscitation itself. I kept expecting the aliens to... I guess, matter, in the story. They're there--they obviously set the plot in motion--but that's kind of it until the deus ex machina ending. And even that, I felt very ambivalent about. The movie ends with their emergence. Okay, now what? If I'd read this story in a workshop, I would've told the writer they needed to rethink the pressure points of the story and find a way to get this third party more directly evolved so that the ending feels earned, rather than, well, a deus ex machina.

All that said, I enjoyed the movie and I would watch it again. Ed Harris was great and I thought his sacrifice was moving, especially after bringing Lindsey back. Gut wrenching stuff. It sucks how terrible of a time everyone has making that movie, tho.

following my movie calendar, tonight was Paprika (2006). I realized a few minutes in that I watched it a few years ago, but I figured I'd give it another.

What a beautiful, bizarre story. The domain at the end of the movie, radio-club.jp, is available. Its different than the domain used at the start, radioclub.jp, but it'd still be neat to have for a fan.

I have been catching up with some 2023 movies and the more I watch, the more I believe 2023 will stand as one of the greatest year of movies. Not just the whole Barbenheimer phenomenon, but also a year where auteurs like Wes Anderson and Yorgos Lanthimos had success with Asteroid City and Poor Things and international films like The Zone of Interest and Anatomy of a Fall got wider recognition than just the Cannes festival.

However, The Old Oak was a bit of a disappointment. It is one of those movies with a good moral message and "the heart in the right place", but it isn't really a good film. Tells a sympathetic story of Syrian refugees arriving in a poor mining town in England and their mere presence upsets the locals as they have plenty of struggles of their own. It starts off good enough by giving the locals a somewhat nuanced portrayal. They are not just dumb narrowminded racists, but have been let down by society as the economic prosperity has run past them and they feel a justified amount of unfairness. However as the movie progresses, they are reduced to the simplest form of dumb racists and the movie is so focused on getting the right moral message across that most of the dialogue comes of as clunky and unnatural. What does make it worthwhile is the two leads played by Dave Turner and Ebla Mari.

Perfect Days was a more pleasant viewing showing the beauty of routine and appreciating the small details in life. The movie follows Hirayama, a middle aged man, who works as a toilet cleaner in Tokyo. We see his meticulous process of his job and how he genuinely enjoys what he does. It feels like a very Buddhist film with its themes on simple living, appreciation and kindness. While Hirayama seems perfectly content and happy with his daily small social interactions with waiters or booksellers, it also seems like a lonely life. The arrival of his niece seems to throw him a bit off balance and reveals some sadness in him. However the ending shot of his facial expression tells a ton of complex and conflicting emotions. He appears to accept the sadder parts of his life and is able to be appreciate and be happy with that as well.

I have seen a couple of Aki Kaurismäki's films and liked them but his style really fell into place for me with Fallen Leaves. I guess this could be categorized as a romantic comedy of sorts, though sort of light it both aspects. At least on the surface as the acting is very restrained and devoid of almost all expressions of emotion. The usual deadpan humor doesn't come as often, but it appears when you least expect making the impact much greater. Like when Ansa goes shopping for the data. This very minimalist filmmaking demands the viewer to fill in the blanks, making it all the more powerful when the actors reveal some emotions at pivotal moments. I don't know understand how Kaurismäki does it, because on paper this shouldn't really work as well as it does. My taste is generally partial to subtle acting, but this is beyond subtle - it is closer to anti-acting. Yet the mere presence of Alma Pöysti, who reminds me a lot of Liv Ullmann, is totally mesmerizing. The sparse minimal dialogue gives room for the visuals and my own thoughts, compared to say most western romantic comedies that are often very talky.

In preparation for our Fallout talk I picked up Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning and while it was at least 30-40 minutes too long, it had the basic ingredients for a decent MI movie. But also very much a missed opportunity with the concept of an AI that forces the team to go analog because nothing digital can be trusted is a really good and relevant problem to tackle, and it has tons of potential to be really good. It just isn't used that much outside a few scenes here and there. Maybe it will be more prevalent in the second part, because here it is just an almost superfluous backstory for the rather dumb constant quest for the "macguffin" key. It has some decent individual scenes like the car chase in the small yellow car and the final train sequence is bonkers, but nothing really stands out like the opera scene from Rogue Nation or the bathroom fight in Fallout.

We watched Space Cadet on Prime. It is about a Florida bartender who follows her dream to become an astronaut. The plot is pretty unlikely on its face, but there were enough character development points to make suspension of disbelief possible. The beats of the movie were predictable, but the comedy and acting made it a fun watch. It had a good message about being and believing in yourself, the power of friendship and teamwork, and following your dreams. Recommended for older kids and teens.