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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.
I watched Tenet this morning, which besides Insomnia is the only other Christopher Nolan film I hadn't yet seen, and Jesus Lord what an incomprehensible movie. I wanted to think the reviews were wrong, but the plot is too obtuse to welcome a second viewing, the first hour is almost entirely exposition -- which really doesn't help the viewer understand what's going on -- and wow the sound mixing is terrible.
Unfortunate stuff, and I'm not sure if Nolan just overestimated his writing ability or what.
I loved Tenet. Rewatched it a few times now. I've discovered/understood new things every time I've watched it. Even if it was purely a vibe movie, I'd have enjoyed it. Amazing cinematography, the high concept of 'Inverted Entropy', the set pieces and locations, all of it.
I watched one Nolan in theatres as he intended and will never willingly do so again. I need subtitles, and the ability to turn things way way down immediately when he decides to Nolan
Interstellar was unbelievable in theatres, but that's the last of his movies I saw on release. I'm definitely planning to go to The Odyssey, which hopefully isn't a mistake.
I'm really glad I saw interstellar in theatres. It's the closest I had to being actually in space. But even at the time the audio mixing/volume really bothered me. Love Hans Zimmer's music but I need it to be at reasonable volume without rocket noises
I'm sure the Odyssey will be a modern spectacle, just like when Ben Hur was in theatres
i’m certain that chris without jonathan is a recipe for a shitty movie that looks awesome.
of you’re willing to watch h it again, i can track down the fanedit i watched a few months ago that kind of fixed it. it still isn’t a great film, but it was better.
I'd be interested if you happen upon it. But don't spend Christmas looking up links please :) whenever much later is fine
There are a lot of cool effects, and the premise itself of future people exacting revenge / extracting survival from the current generation of waste appeals deeply to me. (I would help them if I could do so passively :| )
I don't do Christmas! Its Thursday for me :)
this is the fanedit
The concept is so cool -- even most of the execution. It just doesn't land.
I’ll do one more post here:
Marty Supreme
I have not seen any of the previous Safdie films (lol). I remember when both Good Time and Uncut Gems came out everyone said “this feels like a panic attack” and I was anxious at the time those two films came out so I avoided them.
This was great. From what I’ve read this is basically the third film in this sort of trilogy. It seems to be mostly inspired by Martin Scorsese’s After Hours (actually I think Scorsese is the main influence in general). I think the story structure and the sensibilities with characters are all very old Hollywood. 30s-50s type of storytelling. But using the technicality and explicitness of 70s cinema.
Chalamet is great. I wouldn’t say it’s his best performance (I think that’s still A Complete Unknown) but it’s very good and high energy. It all feels neurotic. One things leads to another. You buy that this is a guy who can trick people into doing what he wants. It’s also extremely funny. Odessa A’zion who I’ve only seen in Until Dawn surprised me by how emotionally charged her performance was. I also appreciated how classy the sex scenes were directed where you can still feel the passion but it’s not graphic or exploitative.
This has been a bad year for my psyche in terms of all this stuff, and i said this about Sentimental Value, but this is also a type of movie I thought I would make. I actually had a script with similar vibes. Where this is a movie about ping pong (but not really) I wrote something that was about a children’s show puppeteer. But it took on the same structure of bad decisions leading to one after another.
Alright Golden Globe Predictions:
Drama: Sinners
Comedy: One Battle After Another
Director: Paul Thomas Anderson - One Battle After Another
Screenplay: One Battle After Another
Lead Actor - Drama: Wagner Moura - The Secret Agent
Lead Actress - Drama: Jessie Buckley - Hamnet
Lead Actor - Comedy: Leonardo DiCaprio - One Battle After Another
Lead Actress - Comedy: Rose Byrne - If I Had Legs I'd Kick You
Supporting Actor: Stellan Skaarsgard - Sentimental Value
Supporting Actress: Teyana Taylor - One Battle After Another
Animated: Kpop Demon Hunters
Score: One Battle After Another
Song: Golden from Kpop Demon Hunters
Non-English language film: Sentimental Value
Box office achievement: Sinners
Recently rewatched Lilo and Stitch (the original, not the recent remake) and man, what a great movie. I just love how relatable and real Lilo and Nani are. Like their personalities and relationship don't feel over-the-top or manufactured at all (unlike a lot of family movies). Just two sisters trying to navigate a tough time. One is young and lashes out at society for not accepting her eccentricity, and the other has been thrust into this parental role and is just trying to do the best she can while being understandably frustrated by Lilo's shenanigans.
And the show is pretty good too, my kid's been watching it which is why I felt like rewatching the original movie. Haven't seen the remake yet, but having seen a bunch of the other Disney remakes lately I doubt it could live up to the original.
I haven't seen the shows or the new remake, but I really enjoyed the first one as well. Ultra low stakes of "will this small family be torn apart by well meaning family services agents" was so much more important than the galactic fate of earth
Right! Like that Agent Bubbles (the family services guy) has this personality of being super tough and stoic, but he's actually doing a stand-up job. From his point of view, he's legitimately concerned for the two sisters and trying to do everything in his power NOT to split them up, but unbeknownst to him there's a whole sci-fi plotline running concurrently in the background.
And the show is pretty cool. You know how Stitch was experiment 626? Well that means that there are 625 other experiments that have accidentally found their way to Earth and now Lilo, Stitch, and the gang have to round them up and find them good homes based on their unique abilities, roughly one per episode. Like one experiment loves bouncing and making earthquakes, so they find him a home where he can jump into the ocean every day to create massive waves for the surfers, who are super happy to have him. Another one can manifest people's worst fears, so they find him a nice haunted house where he can terrify willing participants every Halloween. And so on...
That sounds like an adorable spin on the Monster of the Week formula. Also reminds me of the time I fostered cats, there really is a cat for every type of person. Moewtain was abandoned by his family at a mountain cabin, and he meowed extremely loudly incessantly: he was adopted by an artist who worked from home who has his own sound proofed studio, so Meowtain wouldn't bother neighbours and also his person would be home all day.
The show might be up my alley I'm a big sucker for finding a found family (see comment where I gushed about The Holdovers(2024))
Ha! Moewtain (or is it Meowtain?) sounds like one of the experiments from the show. Reminds me of the Futurama episode where Zoidberg finds a woman to love him despite his horrible stench.... because she doesn't have a sense of smell.
And yeah, I haven't seen all the episodes yet but I'd definitely recommend it in your case. The 'found family' aspect comes into play not just for the experiments that they find homes for, but also Stitch, Jumba, and Pleakley who become full-blown members of Lilo and Nani's ohana. As far as kids' shows go, it's no Bluey (nothing is), but I prefer it to a lot of the Mickey and Minnie shows we've been watching lately.
Does anybody want to talk about:
The Holdovers (2023): ★★☆
A good Christmas movie. It's unfortunate that it contains a shot of a student hiding a dirty magazine inside their textbook. I would recommend this to my folks, but that one shot is a dealbreaker. The dialogue is witty at times and there are only a few characters (especially in the second half) so that even an idiot like me could follow along. I didn't watch many Christmas movies this year, but I'm glad I found this one.
The Housemaid (2025): ★☆☆
I tried this on a lark, but I left disappointed. It was okay through the middle, but it was too predictable and I didn't like the ending. I also ended up not liking any of the characters. I hesitate to criticize Sydney Sweeney's acting because of how politicized that topic has become, but I really noticed the difference in the opening scene where she's just talking with Amanda Seyfried. It also broke my suspension of disbelief sometimes by how they dressed Sweeney and then showed her running down the stairs or bending over and the like. It reminded me that this is a story being told by people trying to keep your attention at all times and took me out of it for a bit.
I want to watch Hamnet tonight. If I can't, I probably can't see it until January. Hopefully my local theater won't drown it out with Avatar showings by that point.Edit:
Hamnet (2025): ★☆☆
This movie made me feel stupid, and now I feel stupider because I can't articulate why.
I haven't seen The Holdovers yet, but I remember seeing the trailer in theaters and being surprised at how genuine and nostalgic it felt, like it was just trying to set expectations instead of subvert or exceed them like most movie trailers now (the fact that more movies are dependent on pre-existing IP has a lot to do with that, I imagine). It felt like the sort of thing I'd see on a VHS pre-roll back in the day. I think I'll watch it this weekend and add to your discussion, thank you for reminding me of it!
It's not a golden age nostalgia pandering Hallmark :) I hope you like it
I watched Holdover last year and I really really liked it!
Spoilers
(uniforms, red brick buildings, choirs, hymnals, communal worship, older dorm brothers friendship, mentorship | wealth inequality, nepotism, rigidity, enabling of problematic adults, academic excellence of the poor sold as a product to the rich, bullying, ignoring bullying)
Found family stories. I love them so much more than kum-ba-ya biological family Christmas movies
The chef's story breaks my heart. Where did the traditions go? They were sent to die because the school values money more than the true spirit of the school; her son was the best embodiment of their values. It's an anachronistically pretend non issue in the film, but race would have been a factor as well.
Took me till the very end to realize the professor is the Holdover, singular. This is his coming of age story. Well done with the head fake.
Hamnet is just a bad movie
So I'm not just an idiot? Spoilers below.
Ending spoilers
I understand that the final play is supposed to reconcile Shakespeare and his wife, but I don't understand how. I never read Hamlet in school and am sometimes slow to parse Shakespearean writing, so maybe I just didn't understand what some of the lines meant. But the ending goes play -> Agnes' reaction -> play -> Agnes' reaction over and over, and half the time I didn't understand what specific thing from the previous line prompted her reaction. Since this is supposed to be the big emotional crescendo of the movie, it fell completely flat for me.
From what I recall from reading Hamlet in high school. He’s a depressed guy and then dies. So all the stuff he’s saying is about how depressed he is and the melancholy of life. Basically, in the movie, it’s being used to say how Shakespeare used art to reconcile with his grief.
Well that's just poor story telling then, if they didn't spend time to make references make sense
And anyway Hamlet is about a prince whose father had just died, and his mom hastily and eagerly remarried his dad's brother, who killed him. Hamlet comes home from school abroad to grieve, and plot revenge. Not sure how it applies to grieving a baby son who died of natural causes. The famous graveyard scene with the skull is a comedic one.
I just got out of the theatre for No Other Choice, I really enjoyed it! The transitions and camera work were fantastic, and it was really darkly funny in a laugh out loud way that Parasite didn't have. It's still super dark and commentary about the hyper late stage capitalism we have today but also poignantly talks about the mental health of being a breadwinner and patriarch in this kind of society. Some guys will do anything but go to therapy amirite?
Watched Freakier Friday and really loved it. I think they did a great job referencing the first without just feeling like a nostalgia tour. As an LA native and current resident, it felt nice seeing some areas around the palisades. I don’t love LA but this movie made me feel happy to be here!
Watched Ne Zha just to see it before Ne Zha 2 which has so many good reviews, and it really won me over! I was not a huge fan of the aesthetic and the kind of toilet adjacent humor. I have no taste for illumination movies and this felt like that to me in my first impression. But the main character really captured my heart. Simple scenes resonated strongly with me emotionally and now I’m just waiting for the time to watch the next one.
I don’t celebrate Christmas, so… it is Wednesday for me.
anyway, Mulholland Drive tonight. i really enjoy Lynch’s work and the sort of pantomime-like physical performances he gets out of everybody.
i need to keep digging, but I have a VHS rip of the pilot he made for ABC. i think it’s mostly the same as the movie, but i could be wrong. If it is and all of the pieces are there, i’ll probably remake the pilot using the 4k criterion.
anyway, great film — always a joy to tuck into it again.
edit: 12/25 -- The Red Shoes (1948) tonight. Great film. I popped this in my list because (I think) its referenced in the Black Swan commentary. Since then, it seems like this movie is being talked about on a daily basis --- here, Del Toro's Criterion Closet, etc..
Some neat cuts in this, especially around the shoes themselves.
edit: 12/27 -- watched Hot Rod... what a great movie.
Let me try a roundup of all the movies I saw in theaters this past year:
Also watched two re-releases: Back to the Future and Little Women (2019). I think those were the only ones but there might have been more. I think this was more than last year, and what prompted that was I switch my subscription from Regal to AMC, which is closer and also I don't have to pay a fee to see every movie (with Regal you have to pay 50 cents to see a movie in standard and then 7 dollars to see it in IMAX).
That's a lot of films! Which ones stood out as being good and which ones unexpectedly good?
Lot of good ones.
I’ll do a quick run down of surprisingly good ones and disappointments. I have a top 10 but I’ll post that in a week or so once I finish all the watches for Best Picture contenders.
Surprisingly good: The Housemaid, The Strangers Chapter 2 (I enjoyed how trashy it was), I Know What You Did Last Summer, Final Destination: Bloodlines, The Running Man, The Accountant 2, Eternity, Presence and Black Bag.
Disappointing: Mission Impossible, F1, Wicked: For Good, The Naked Gun, The Smashing Machine, Predator: Badlands, Fantastic Four, The Mastermind, Wolf Man
Not to say that all the ones that surprised me are great or even the disappointments are bad. I might even slot Wake Up Dead Man in the disappointing category even though I consider it a good movie.
I feel as if I'm going crazy by thinking F1 was disappointing. Everyone around me raved about it and I genuinely thought it was lackluster at best.
The script needed rewrites. The writer of F1 was the same guy who wrote the first drafts of Top Gun Maverick. Except Top Gun Maverick was re-written by both Eric Singer (American Hustle) and Christopher McQuarrie who is Tom Cruise’s closest collaborator and also an Oscar winning screenwriter for The Usual Suspects.
the story was stupid, the way he broke a bunch of rules etc was stupid and bad for the sport, the love interest was unprofessional… the footage itself was good.
not a great film — especially for f1 fans.
which Safdie brother is more talented? :)
Josh easily. I think this was a Coen brother situation where everyone found out Joel was the talented one in the relationship.
haha yeah, that seems to be the consensus. its gotta be tough to be the other brother in these situations.
It will be a travesty if Infinity Castle doesn't win in the animation category of the Oscars, though it would certainly be extremely on-brand for them to snub a major anime hit for something made by a US studio (Kpop Demon Hunters). While the latter has been a flashy trend and was certainly a fun film, Infinity Castle was record-breaking at the box office and it can't really be overstated how popular and influential Demon Slayer is as a whole. (KDH was also a very limited run, like a weekend, purely for awards eligibility, which is more malicious compliance than a good-faith participation in cinema.)
To say nothing of Ufotable's advancement of 2D animation and compositing. I went back and watched Mugen Train, which I thought was amazing looking at the time, and it's crazy how much they've improved their lighting and detail work.
Kinda funny that you compared demon hunters to demon hunters.
Kimetsu made more money at the box office than KPop, yes. As a fan of Japanese cultural exports and anime, it took me a while to give KPop a try both because of its Korean inspiration and its American origin, but it won me over by the music finally when I did watch it. I would be shocked if their platinum single doesn't at least get a nomination for Best original song at the Oscars.
Kimetsu would have to be nominated to be considered; the new prime minister seems very proactive about pushing Japanese culture though so we'll probably see a good push ($$$$) happen, unless they're going to try 100 Metres instead...lol
Speaking of demons and animation. Have you seen Chainsaw Man: Reze? How do you think it compares to Kimetsu? The trailer for Reze ticks so many boxes of [✓] creative MAPPA animation [✓] boy meets girl, boy indecisive about two girls summer romance [✓] interesting action sequences well choreographed to banger tracks, and [✓] youthful heartbreak ending up in flames.
I still have yet to give Chainsaw Man a try, despite it having multiple openings by Kenshi Yonezu, who I like due to his history with Vocaloid. I did see the trailer for the movie at a theater though, and it do look interesting. I tend to watch anime more often than not with my partner, and she seems thoroughly uninterested in the series.
Part of me also wants to see a nomination for the Hatsune Miku movie, even though I know it wouldn't win lol.
I'm thoroughly uninterested in the violence of Chainsaw Man, but I enjoy watching it "on the side" with my partner because they do such a good job with the human aspects of the story. For me, the violence / monsters is a dramatic story telling device for what growing up feels like. Much like how Kimetsu is an allegory of the human spirit, perseverance, and investing in the next generation so they can live in a new world you won't have access to.
Got started a little early on this years Criterion Challenge. Kicked it off with a first watch of the Red Shoes and was completely blown away. Not only was every aspect of the film great but the 4k restoration is stunning.
Red Shoes is absolutely fantastic. Wrote about it last week. And thanks for reminding me that the Criterion Challenge is a thing. Spent some time making my list.
I need to find a cheaper theater to watch trash movies because what do you mean I paid $20 to watch The Housemaid. Sydney Sweeney could be replaced by a cardboard cutout and I think the movie would have been exactly the same.