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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 Train Dreams last night. I read the novella shortly after I graduated college, but even as I was starting the movie last night, I couldn't remember too much of what it was about besides the fact that the main character was a logger in the early 20th century and had a dog, and that the book itself was very sad, and that not much happened. (I remember really liking the book as well.)
Very strong Terrance Malik vibes from this movie. Lots of atmosphere and intensely, deeply human and moving. No surprise that it's a sad movie. I've read a lot of people saying they cried a lot through this film -- I'm an easy crier but did not at this movie. I did, however, feel very melancholy by the end. This is a movie that sits with you for a long time.
After I watched the movie, I went back and read the novella's synopsis, and wow, the movie somehow had even less happening than the book did, which is kind of crazy cause the book is only like 100 pages. I think it's interesting that they made Robert less culpable in the opening scene with the Chinese logger. In the book, Robert is very much helping to wrangle the man up (who eventually gets away), even though he doesn't understand why they're doing what they're doing. He also believes the man puts a curse on him after. I need to think more on what the implications of this change are, but that's one difference that affects what comes after for Robert. Also: I remembered the dog having a bigger presence in the book, but I might be wrong. There's more justification in the book for Robert to think the girl who shows up and then disappears again is actually his daughter and not just a wish of his (though it's clear in the book still that she's almost certainly not his daughter).
Anyway: definitely deserves its Oscar nom, but I doubt it will win.
Sinners (2025)
Watched this last week and man what a beautiful movie. I am usually not a fan of horror movies so I put this one off for too long. However, my YouTube Feed was getting filled with clips from the movie and I enjoyed what I saw so I decided to watch it. I'm glad I did. I really enjoyed the story, characters, sound track and the cinematography. Everything was so well done and worked together really well. Highly recommend watching this!
Does anybody want to talk about:
A Minecraft Movie (2025): ★★☆
I had heard bad things about this movie, but also that it had funny bits. It was on sale at a local store for "please someone just buy this already so we can use the shelf space for something else," so I gave it a shot. I didn't think it was that bad. It's a silly comedy, not some deep and meaningful drama, but it isn't terrible. For all the hubbub about "chicken jockey," I'm surprised that the other jokes like "Steve's lava chicken" and "yearning for the mines" didn't become bigger memes as well.
My Cousin Vinny (1992): ★★☆
Are "legal comedies" a thing? I'd describe this movie's genre as a legal drama, but it's clearly presented as a comedy. Besides the titular character's sudden turn from bumbling buffoon to expert cross examiner, the plot is well-constructed and entertaining to follow. It was also interesting to read afterwards that a lot of the legal procedure in the movie is pretty close to reality, at least as far as movies go.
Iron Man (2008): ★★☆
And so begins my Marvel catch up plan. Thanks to everyone last week who helped recommend which movies to watch and which to skip! This movie was okay. It has the same issue as Marty Supreme where I struggle to sympathize with the main character because they're a jerk, but the premise and twists were entertaining but predictable.
Man, I love My Cousin Vinny. I watched it the first time only a couple years and it very immediately became a movie I'll stop and watch whenever I come across it. It's funny, the legal aspects are accurate, and Marisa Tomei is fantastic.
The jokes are pretty memorable too, not just throwaways to get a laugh. I'm never going to forget how long it takes to cook grits.
Bullet in the Head (喋血街頭) (1990) --- heavy film.
edit 01/31: I just finished Tootsie (1982) --- and I fucking HATE the ending! boooooooo! Good movie overall, though. I think it'd be punchier under ninety minutes.
The Testament of Ann Lee
I wasn’t the biggest fan of last years The Brutalist. And this is the same creative team but flipped (with Corbet’s wife Mona Fastvold taking over directing duties). Not unlike how Sing Sing and Train Dreams also did the same thing with the creatives teams flipped.
This is a THOB film. This Had Oscar Buzz. Meaning people pegged it as a contender early on but ended up with 0 Oscar nominations. And while The Brutalist inspired a bidding war, this struggled to sell and sold to Searchlight for just enough to cover the production costs. And I can see why.
This is boring. I read a little about the real life shakers, and watched some videos but didn’t find that story terribly interesting. And that carries throughout the film. And while Corbet took inspiration from Old Hollywood epics for the way he shot The Brutalist, Fastvold takes a modern day indie approach. The film is shot almost entirely in a very distracting handheld. It’s sometimes pretty but nowhere near the beauty we saw with Brutalist. The editing here is also extremely sloppy, poorly put together, and Fastvold decided to go with a superfluous voice over narration.
Just not good at all.
Got around to watching the F1 movie and it positively surprised me. I didn't have the highest expectations, knowing that it would probably be closer to Days of Thunder than Rush, which held true, but just as it surprised me how much I ended up liking Top Gun: Maverick, this won me over too. Yes the story is clichéd and done before, but everything is just extremely well made, the racing is exciting and there is a charm and love for the sport throughout the entire film. As a Formula 1 fan there may be things that makes your eyes roll at how ridiculous it is, but surprisingly for the most part - almost everything have happened in real races from team mates running each other off track, to shady tactics, dubious investigations and the surprise underdog win. Yes it is heavily dramatized to all happen in a single season, but I was pleasantly surprised how the narrative kept me engaged from start to finish. The technical marvel behind the production is a masterpiece in its own right. The blend of fictional and real drivers and races is seamless and could have been basically any episode of Drive to Survive.
I wish I liked that more man. I said this back when it came out but Eric Singer, who co-wrote Maverick and also has writing credits on American Hustle and Only the Brave should have been given the screenplay. I felt like a lot of the dialogue was cringe inducing and the relationship between Pitt and Condon could have been better developed.
Beautiful looking movie though and technically well constructed. That’s true of all of Joseph Kosinski’s work from Tron: Legacy onwards. Not that this has an actual impact on filmmaking, but he was originally an engineer which is probably partly why he’s so good and focused on those technical aspects.
Claudio Miranda is such an incredible cinematographer, he started off working for Fincher and eventually was promoted to DP for Benjamin Button. He’s shooting Star Wars: Starfighter which comes out next year
I agree that Maverick has the better script, but it is easy to get lost in the on track battles, and just like Cruise did with Days of Thunder, Pitt makes the corny dialogue with his charm.
Yeah, as a F1 fan of more than 30 years it was not well done. From the very beginning when Pitt tests a current car in-season, the easily avoided mistakes had me rolling my eyes every few minutes. It's spectacle, not Formula 1. The in-movie racing, while beautifully captured, was absolute nonsense that completely disregarded reality.
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Anyone ever seen Triangle of Sadness from 2022? This is that but with a horror bent. Like imagine if this was the 70s and Roger Corman decided to make a rip off of that film.
It's great. So much fun. I think Triangle is fine, it looks real nice too, but it's quite slow especially in the beginning. This is wildly energetic, even in the opening scenes that take place in a corporate office. And it gets real brutal and gory real quick.
It has the class analysis of Triangle, but it also examines abuse. With it's central thesis that trauma begets trauma, violence begets violence and so on.
Both performances are great, but McAdams is a force. So versatile.
Love it.
(4.5/5)