Midweek Movie Free Talk

A Complete Unknown - 8/10

I knew like one Bob Dylan song going into this movie, so safe to say next to nothing about him. This movie was great though, it's pretty long but felt short which is of course always a great thing to pull off. Timothy Chalamet is one of the biggest names in Hollywood and despite holding him as one of my personal favourite actors, I most of the time forgot I was watching him.

Being a film about music it is, of course, best watched in a good cinema or at least I'd recommend a good sound setup at home because while it's a good movie without it, I think it amplified it a lot that the cinema had good sound.

After the movie, I went home to get to know Bob Dylan a little bit more but after listening to Spotify's top 10 songs I gave up. Really not to my taste in any way - it's boring, even. But so even if you don't like his music, definitely still watch the movie!

Saw The Monkey, was surprisingly very funny for a Stephen King-based movie. Nothing really “scary” with it, the trailer ruined some parts for me, and I do think it leaned a bit too much into humor in regards to some of the dialogue at the end…but overall a very well acted (with fun cameos/bit parts) and well made movie. One of those “recommended if you want a solid ~90 minute movie”, which have gotten rarer with time

Also has served as a reminder I need to watch Longlegs, by the same director

Watching Braveheart (1995) for the first time. I don't really like movies like this... but its on the list. That said, Mel Gibson is always good (in movies), Brendan Gleeson looks so young, and Brian Cox was born looking sixty years old. Oh! also love Patrick McGoohan and Tommy Flanagan, too! Great cast.. but man, these movies just aren't for me.

Thursday and Saturday have me watching:

• How to Make Millions Before Grandma Dies (2024)
• Night on Earth (1991)

I'm really looking forward to both.

My wife picked the Mean Girls musical to watch for her birthday over the weekend. I'd never seen the musical or heard any of the music but we're both big fans of the original movie.

The musical seems like something I would enjoy live, but as I was watching the movie version, I kept thinking how much better it would be if we were just watching the 2004 movie.

Inherently characterization is shallower in a stage performance -- particularly in musicals. Characters announcing their intentions in song is like the definition of telling vs. showing. But it works because of the medium. But when you take an extremely popular movie, filter that down into a musical and then try to strain it back up into a film, it just seems too thin.

It really hurt the musical version to not have Cady's monologue, too

Saw Mickey 17 in the theatre. What a mess and a waste of an interesting idea. What starts as an interesting exploration of a dystopian concept, slowly devolves into chaos, contrived ideas and characters that are nothing more than caricatures. The plot is steadily moved forward by events happening for the sake of moving the action forward. There’s so many plot threads that don’t say or mean anything, that don’t go anywhere satisfying. The writing was on the level of a pre-teen having one too many ideas. I remember reading some reviews on it, and even the Rotten Tomatoes page praises the “social critique”. Sorry, what? There’s as much critique as me yelling “you are wrong because you are an idiot and your face is stupid” - which literally happens in the movie.

Besides Robert Pattinson’s performance, there’s not much to laud here. I can’t believe it’s made by the same person who put Parasite out. Genuinely: how?

I have spent the last week watching the classic Japanese war epic The Human Condition directed by Masaki Kobayashi. It is almost 10 hours divided into three films, and the tagline could basically be a decent human being looses the battle against the military's dehumanization during WW2. It is bleak and exhausting, but the main character Kaji is a beacon of idealism, that he maintains to the very end, even though he gradually is broken by the abuse of the military system. The films are from 1959 to 1961 and it is clear that it has influenced a lot of later war films. In particular Full Metal Jacket and Come and See comes to mind for me. What I think sets it apart is how it isn't really the usual "war is hell" type of thing, though there is some of that too. It is more about how the military system and its way of thinking leads to dehumanization of everyone.

So a cool little marketing thing. Florence Pugh recently said making Thunderbolts felt more like making an A24 movie. Which led to Disney releasing this teaser which I thought was really cool.

It’s gotten a lot of backlash online, people saying it’s desperate and that it’s the studio going “hey this is a real movie unlike those recent ones we’ve made.”

I like it. I think it’s a cool little teaser, it’s a cute marketing thing, and it just made me more excited for the movie.

I watched Michael Clayton last night. Tony Gilroy is such a good writer -- he might be my favorite screenwriter. This movie is fascinating from the opening monologue right to the last shot of Clooney in the cab. Just immaculate.

I recently re-watched "Thank you for Smoking".

Curious what other people thought about it if they have seen it. I am particularly interested in the below scene.

Mickey 17

This seems to be rather polarizing. I loved this.

I'm a big fan of Adam McKay, so I like loud and obvious political satire that kind of talks down to the audience. Don't Look Up was in my Top 3 for 2021, like I really dig this type of social commentary.

I thought it was really funny, I thought it was operatic, and I thought it was grand scale filmmaking. And that's scale without action scenes, there's like maybe one scene that can even count as an action sequence.

Robert Pattinson is incredible in this, it shows off his physicality. You can feel the difference in the versions of the character that he's playing. Mark Ruffalo is great as well, doing a mild Trump impression.

I can see why people don't like it, just like I understand why people don't like Don't Look Up. But this is right up my alley. The first great film of 2025.