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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.
In my PTA-a-thon, tonight was The Master; a homoerotic origin story of not-Scientology.
I love this film... absolutely everything about it is perfect. Where a lot of PTA's work up to this point has been relatively dialog heavy, I always feel that The Master is where he really learned to let a story breathe. I might change my mind on this as I refresh, but I think we really see this lesson in heavy practice with Phantom Thread.
A few things I would have preferred for this: Amy Adams is great, but I would have loved to have seen Julianne Moore in that role... purely to keep the gang together. Also something from Philip Baker Hall -- anything.. just get him in there. Maybe John C. Reilly in the mix too, but not taking the role from Christopher Evan Welch, who was perfectly cast. Nobody could do 'arrogant dick' like he could.
edit: Inherent Vice (2014) tonight! I love this movie. I love the book. I think I like Doc more in the film. Phoenix is such an amazing actor as it is, but I'm always impressed by the amazing prat-fall he does when he's going to chat with Bigfoot about halfway through.
John C Reilly did an interview recently that after Magnolia he went to Paul and went 'I don't want you to cast me because I'm your friend. I want you to cast me because I'm the best for that part." And then just never did anything with him again (until his cameo in Licorice Pizza as Eddie Munster).
I love The Master. I remember when it came out, and I still wasn't into movies, I would see a lot of hatred towards that film from normal people. In fact I saw it referred to as "The Master(bater)." I saw it when I was 15, in high school and it became one of my favorite movies back then. I was just going through my extreme atheism phase so that it critiqued organized religion was definitely part of why I liked it so much. It's such a beautiful looking film too, unreal to look at. I remember doing the interrogation scene between Phoenix and Hoffman on my own, like I would act it out including the intense slapping he does.
In my opinion there's two PTA's. There's high brow PTA and chill PTA. Chill PTA is stuff like Boogie Nights, Punch-Drunk Love, and Licorice Pizza. High brow PTA is stuff like The Master and Phantom Thread. I prefer chill PTA, but this connected with me in a way that Phantom Thread didn't.
I am totally on-board with the two PTAs theory. He's pretty close to alternating, too.
Of all of the things in Phantom Thread that I think on the most, its when he's getting ready and runs the brushes through his hair. I don't know what it is about that, but it captured something.
Reilly kind of blew up after the first few, too. I wonder if he still considers him his bestie... I hope so.
I like that scene a lot. There's a comforting elegance to it. I remember when I watched it for the first time, because I was still on the heavier side when it released in theaters, going "when I'm skinny that's how I'm going to be." And now my morning is not dissimilar, and it's partly based on DDL's routine in the film.
one thing that really amazes me about DDL's performance is how he really captures 'the maker's eye' when analyzing the first dress. The way he looks at it, it really feels like he's spent a lot of time looking at it and I have no idea why.
ha thats awesome! elegance is an excellent term for it. My friends tease me because I'm really into grooming and all that. I think its important and it doesn't take a lot of time with the right tools / product. It just makes everything in life better.
congrats on coming over to the skinnier side! :)
Tron: Ares
I fucking love Tron: Legacy. It is a comfort watch for me. I watch it on a loop sometimes, it's like a video art exhibit. It's so incredibly beautiful set to Daft Punk's music. Also I am still in love with Olivia Wilde in that film. I still vividly remember seeing it in theaters as a child.
This is not a great looking film. It looks plain most of the time. It has some cool shots. That's all that can be said about it really. The score is also okay. Nine Inch Nails doesn't come near what Daft Punk did. Jared Leto is fine. I don't think Leto is a bad actor, I actually think he's a really good actor. But in terms of what he does here, Wilde did better in Legacy. The CGI here is also somehow worse than it's 15 year old predecessor.
To sum it up this is basically the emo version of Tron: Legacy. It also strangely holds the original Tron in more reverence than Legacy which felt like it was trying to move on and not focus on nostalgia.
It's a good experience in 4DX I'll say that much.
Roofman
Derek Cianfrance has not made a movie in 9 years. He last made The Light Between Oceans in 2016. It released to mixed-negative reviews, and bombed at the box office. It was the last film released under Disney's Touchstone label. I saw that film at an advance screening. Because I would often go into those things blind, I didn't know it was from the director of Blue Valentine and Place Beyond the Pines. It didn't feel like that. It had his dramatic intimacy, but it was shot and felt more like the studio drama that it was. I really liked that movie. I was actually shocked when the reviews for it came out and they were negative. Since then he's made a TV show with Mark Ruffalo (my long-lost father), and had a writing credit on Sound of Metal which delivered him his first Oscar nomination.
I didn't like the trailers for this. I was confused as to the state of Cianfrance's career (prior to this he was attached to the Wolf Man film that Leigh Whannel ended up directing earlier this year). This seemed like a light comedic romp. Actually watching the film, however, feels more in line with Cianfrance's work on Valentine and Pines. Cianfrance's films have this thematic through line of choice. He doesn't believe in fate, he believes that our choices mold our lives. And even the simplest choice can have dire consequences. That's all present here, and it's more overtly stated than in any of his other films. But it is shot like his indie work again. You can see the grain from the celluloid he uses, there's a lot of hand held and following shots.
It's expertly crafted. And it uses Channing Tatum's comedic ability to its fullest.
I also like it as a piece of Americana. A very specific look at 00s U.S.A. It's like a more modern version of last year's The Bikeriders.
Yeah. I've only seen it the once, but Alicia Vikander's performance throughout it is so devastating.