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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.
@TheD00d
I'm a little late to the party but I finally got to seeing 28 Years Later the other night, and I really really enjoyed it. I was quite excited going into this as Days is one of my favourite horror movies and in preparation I got to re-watching that and Weeks.
The first half works brilliantly in terms of a follow-up to the earlier entries (despite a quick neutering of the great final shot from Weeks). It stays firmly within the world established by the first two movies, developing an interesting picture of how people might adapt to living alongside the virus and start to re-establish long-term communities.
The back half of the movie seems to have put off some folks, and that's understandable as it is a bit of a gear switch. I quite liked it though, Boyle and Garland had a few new tricks up their sleeves that I was able to get on board with fairly friction-free. What it brought to my mind was George A. Romero returning to make Land of the Dead - here was a king of the genre who had set the course for years to come now back to shake things up, as is their right.
Here be spoilers:
When Ralph Fiennes shows up - in wonderful form, I must add - and explains the concept of *memento mori* to Spike things started to click for me as to how the whole film is really about Spike's coming-of-age as he learns about what death means, or can mean as he gets different interpretations each from his father, mother and Dr Kelson.The bizarre ending was completely left of field, but, having learned a sequel was already shot, well fuck me if I ain't on board for more Ninja Savile Rangers mentalness!
Overall, I thought the film was beautifully shot with some absolutely gorgeous scenes throughout, and a ton of style on Boyle's part. The fast-paced editing work paired with the abrasiveness in the score paired so well together, I really enjoyed all the great production work throughout.
So yeah, very excited to see the next instalment.
F1: The Movie
I loooooved Top Gun Maverick. I've rewatched it an embarrassing amount of times. I don't think any of Tom Cruise's projects have come close to it since, and this doesn't either. Kosinski is a great visual director, Tron: Legacy is incredible, Oblivion is a beautiful looking movie that looks better than 99% of blockbusters released today, and Only The Brave was a solid drama.
This is probably the worst screenplay Kosinski has ever worked with. Ehren Kruger wrote this, he wrote the original draft for Top Gun: Maverick. The issue is that Cruise had Christopher McQuarrie and Kosinski had Eric Singer (co-writer on both Only The Brave and American Hustle) come on board to re-write whatever drivel Kruger came up with. Look up Kruger's filmography, it's mostly garbage. Yet he was able to coast to an Oscar nomination with Top Gun and now has some prestige attached to him. I don't know why Singer wasn't brought on for this (McQuarrie was busy with the Mission Impossible films). This is poorly structured, the characters are thin and dull, and the dialogue is often embarrassing.
Brad Pitt is also low-key phoning it in and has no chemistry with Kerry Condon who is inexplicably his love interest and serves no real other purpose to the plot.
Really the only things elevating it to entertainment is Kosinski's masterful filmmaking and Zimmer's score. Kosinski is clearly inspired by films like The Right Stuff. And that's more than admirable in the current landscape. He really just needs better screenplays, or keep Singer on as a collaborator like how Cruise has McQuarrie.
M3GAN 2.0
I'm a big fan of housebound and thought M3GAN was a solid self-aware horror comedy. Not as good as critics touted at the time but good nonetheless. The change in genres here doesn't matter to me. What annoys me is how terrible the character of Gemma is (that aunt in the first movie). She consistently makes the worst decisions possible.
It's still entertaining and the action is solid. I actually think Johnstone could make a good action director if he was given more time to write the screenplay.
This is no Smile 2 though, there's no real reason to watch this unless you wanna kill nearly two hours (even though it should be 90 minutes).
Half way through the year and I’ve seen 29 films in theaters:
So the 100 best movies of the 21st century list gave me some motivation to try and watch some of the movies I was missing.
The Gleaners and I directed by Agnes Varda is a quirky odd documentary about gleaners and food waste scavengers in France in 2000. It is very artsy and experimental, and sort of interesting. There is a not so subtle criticism of capitalism here with how it creates food waste and removes people from connecting with nature and food resources. But even though it is fairly short at 82 minutes, it doesn't really have enough to warrant that runtime. It is an interesting unique little film by Varda, but not anywhere near it being needed on such a list. I suspect it is because Varda is a French new-wave legend and this was a way for people to include her in the 21st century.
I also watched Moonlight, the famous Oscar winner from 2016, and it was ... fine. Can't say I was blown away. I did like how it showed genuine loving compassion between two male adults, which is sadly such a rare thing to see depicted in mainstream movies.
I suppose I like Moonlight more than you (which might have to do with me growing up around a similar type of person), but I do think other dramas from that year are better/more engaging. Manchester by the Sea, Arrival, and Hell or High Water stand above it.
I think maybe it was a little over praised at the time, but it did take me two or three rewatches for me to connect with it. I remember not caring about it all that much after the first time I watched it, unlike my experience watching the three other films (and also La La Land) which I just fell in love with instantly.
This video kind of helped me with the film at the time. I was already decent at analysis but I was still quite young at the time so I missed quite a bit of it. Although I remember Jenkins being asked a question about symbolism in the film and he kind of sighed and went “I’m glad people are reading into the film but we just tried to tell the story the best we could.” Since then though I haven’t been that into Jenkins’s work.
There is definitely an element of high expectations, not just from its Oscar win but also that is so quickly have been added to various "best of all time" mentions. I think it is stronger in the second half, where the characters got some more interesting complexity. The relationship between Kevin and Chiron was interesting in how it how it was filled with conflicting emotions and uncertainty for both of them.
I am probably also lacking a bit in the relateability department. I also recently watched Summer of '85, about two young men falling in love during a summer in France, a film I got more from because it hits a bit closer to home than a story about a young black man growing up in a crime and drug infested world.
Two movies for me this week (so far): Rebel Ridge and Past Lives.
I wasn't sure how I felt about Past Lives as I watched it, but I spent a lot of today thinking about and I think I'm warming up to it. My experience watching it was that it was a touching reunion, but there wasn't a lot of friction and ultimately made it seem fairly small stakes. I think I wanted, at the time, to see more of their lives apart. But this isn't really a star-crossed lovers story, and Nora's part of the conversation at the bar sells this so well. She's no longer the girl he had a crush on, but that part of their lives still happened. It's still real, and it's still meaningful and important, and lives in their memories. Honestly the scene in the bar is so well done. They're having this deep, intimate conversation in Korean, sitting right next to Nora's husband who knows enough Korean to at least make polite conversation, so while he's not following a long perfectly, he's at least getting bits and pieces. But he also knows Nora and is comfortable enough in his marriage that, like, he knows Nora isn't going to run off with this stranger, this man from her past. Even so, there are parts from her history he doesn't really have access to until this reunion. She was a crybaby back in Korea but steeled herself after immigrating. And then the first thing she does after Hae Sung leaves is break down sobbing in Arthur's arms.
Anyway -- that's all to say I think I liked it.
The other movie, Rebel Ridge, is great. I was so impressed with this movie. It's a really tight, competent thriller that's never quite what it seems on the surface, and Aaron Pierre's physicality is so impressive. I thought the ending was a bit corny, but ultimately a really cool movie. I learned after that John Boyega was initially supposed to be the lead and damn it's good he dropped out. He just doesn't have the raw strength/presence to sell this character.
Yeah I agree with Boyega not being a good fit. Hes not intimidating. Pierre is just huge, and I think him having a pretty face gives him this nice contrast that fits with the character. I also love the no kill rule he has, it makes for some interesting action.