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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.
Freakier Friday
I remember watching the original in theaters as a child. Probably 3 or 4 years old. I rewatched it for the first time in a while recently. Really tightly scripted.
This is messier. Though I will say they did try to make it more of a tear jerker and made the mother daughter aspect of the story stronger. It’s overall a funny entertaining film. Lohan is unfortunately kind of a weak part of the film, I think after her long break from acting she lost what made her so good in the early 00s. Julia Butters is great though, it’s weird seeing her so grown up since she was a child in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. No doubt she’ll be a future Oscar nominee (Tarantino really worked magic on that OUATIH cast).
Weapons
Incredible. It’s structured so beautifully. Different perspectives are interwoven together so elegantly. It’s visually dynamic with so many whips, pans, and zooms. Both structurally and visually you can see the Magnolia influence.
It’s also the best meditation on school shootings (as much as Cregger denies it). It examine the collective grief we experience in such tragic events. And it’s paired well with themes of addiction and self-destruction.
So far the film of the year for me.
All That Breathes (2022): ★⯪☆
This is a documentary about some guys in India who rescue injured birds. It's interesting for a while, but since it's a documentary, there isn't really a plot. You're just a fly on the wall as the guys do things. It loses its novelty after a bit, and feels slow despite only a 90-something minute runtime.
The Naked Gun (2025): ★⯪☆
I was kinda disappointed. Some people online had been talking this up as a proper laugh-out-loud movie, but the jokes were mostly just okay. I kinda feel the same way about the plot as I did about Wes Anderson's Phoencian Scheme - the big picture is really straightforward with no surprises, but the way you get there is bizarre and you just need to go along for the ride. It isn't bad, but it wasn't as enjoyable as I had hoped. Perhaps it would have helped if the theater had been full; my showing was pretty empty.
I'm almost certain that Fantastic Mr Fox or something around that time broke Wes Anderson and he's been cranking out almost parody of his own work ever since. Moonrise was absolutely like this --- all that twee bullshit to the max. For me, I think Life Aquatic was the perfect balance... I really liked The French Dispatch and The Grand Budapest Hotel, but I think they tipped too far into we saw with this and Asteroid City.
I still enjoy his work... but I think he should take some time away from features and do more Roald Dahl shorts.
Tonight was No Country for Old Men --- a film I've likely seen a dozen or so times. Read the book about three or four. Anyway, love the film and love the book. What I really love about this adaptation is how... sort of uneventful everything is. I'm so thankful when the adaptation sticks with it. This was originally written as a screenplay that turned into a novel... so there's little reason to change much.
Tommy Lee Jones looking out the window at Ellis' place while the coffee heats up. Every little monologue he rolls out is great anyway, but TLJ says so much with his looks.
look at that fucking bone...
edit: tonight was Burn After Reading --- which is so enjoyable but also the most ridiculous. Excellent performances all around.
edit edit: A Serious Man --- its okay, but not my favorite. This might be my third watch... but I didn't remember a lot.