Midweek Movie Free Talk

Letterboxd lets you track your watch history in a diary, but doesn't show it to you in a calendar format, so I went and did it myself.

Does anybody want to talk about:

The Zone of Interest (2023): ★★☆

I really wish they hadn't burned the subtitles into the video and let me use the normal subtitle toggle instead. The ones burned into the video are too small and hard to read at times because they don't have an outline. They also really need to make the setting clear when the movie opens the way that it does. It also would have been nice to be able to try and follow the German on my own. It's been more than a decade since I took classes in school, but I could make out bits and pieces on my own.

Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986): ★★☆ (rewatch)

I'd seen this once before. After that, I read some people's opinions that the movie is really about Ferris' friend Cameron, and I tried to watch it from that perspective this time. I get where people are coming from, but Cameron's arc has a 30-minute TV episode's worth of material, not a two hour movie. You still need all the rest of it to make it a satisfying movie.

Taste of Cherry (1997): ★☆☆

Add one to the list of movies that make me feel stupid. I was confused at the end and felt nothing as the credits started rolling. Clearly I missed something since this movie is so well-regarded, but I can't really explain my frustration without going deep into spoilers.

I watched Fight Club (1999) (2026 4k Remaster) last night! This was my first time watching this movie and I was excited to finally watch it. This movie actually left me speechless, in a good way. My knowledge of the movie was admittedly nonexistent, I only knew that Brad Pitt was in it and that the first rule of Fight Club is you do not talk about Fight Club. I had long assumed this was an action movie so you can imagine my surprise when I learned that this was a psychological thriller, and actually considered by many to be the quintessential psychological thriller. I really enjoyed this movie overall, great cinematography, great story, great acting, great directing. I definitely understand the hype.

I watched Primal Fear (1996) for the first time since it came out. Great film. I miss this sort of film. Excellent performances across the board and the cast is absolutely stacked for where they all ended up.

Michael

This was indeed as bad as the reviews have been saying. I don't think critics were being exceptionally harsh on the film just because Jackson is a pedophile. Cause I don't factor that in, I still listen to his music and I still think he's one of the best artists of all time. This really is just a poorly made film.

A lot of people are gonna bring up Bohemian Rhapsody. Because that was just a greatest hits compilation, and a glorified concert experience like this film is trying to be. This film also shares the main producer of BoRap, Graham King, it also had production and post-production issues. The editor of BoRap is one of four editors credited on this film (the other three editors have worked on Minari, Titanic, and La La Land respectively). And there's even a Mike Meyers cameo in this, although it made sense in BoRap due to the Wayne's World connection and it doesn't make any god damn sense here.

But I will say, BoRap at least felt like a complete film. Like there was an attempt to have characterization, and drama, and stakes, and conflict. The visual language, while boring, was at least easier to watch than the weird shit we get here. So much of Michael is shot through close up, the CGI crowds at the concert scenes look worse than what we saw from BoRap 8 years ago. The editing is atrocious. People famously complained about BoRap's editing, but outside of a few scenes that weren't the best I do think that film had strong editing. And was better put together than this film despite having less drama during the actual production (such as Singer being absent and subsequently fired from the film mid-shoot). The pacing of the film is so odd, it fast forwards through so much stuff, but it's still boring. BoRap had more entertainment value.

Jaafar Jackson can't act. I don't know why he's getting praised for this. Outside of the dancing, he's not good. He does not make a single facial expression throughout the film. Malek's performance wasn't great or anything, but at least he tried to play a person with emotion.

The concert sequences just aren't good enough, the only interesting visual scene of the film is when they recreate the Thriller music video because Jackson's music videos were actually visually interesting.

Last weekend, I watched Is This Thing On? and as a big fan of Will Arnett, I gotta say, this movie was a huge disappointment. I'd go so far as to say it really sucked. I love the idea in concept—as a marriage collapses, someone with no experience winds up doing comedy at stage and finds a new passion. It's a conceit that worked extremely well in The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, but Is This Thing On? gives you absolutely no reason to believe in what it's pitching. Arnett's character is awful at standup, and he does not get better over the course of the movie, even though he continues to find more success. He does just about the exact same bit from his first attempt to his last attempt, and it's never funny. He just delivers it with a little more confidence each time.

His relationship with Laura Dern is never really improved. They just mutually agree they'd rather stay together than get divorced. There's a whole subplot with their kids which seems entirely designed to set up this credit roll with a performance of Under Pressure (seemingly exclusively because of the lyric, why can't we give love that one more chance). I couldn't tell you what his kids names were, and I honestly could've easily forgotten they even had kids were it not for the last scene. Payton Manning shows up randomly to take Laura Dern out on a date and it literally takes five full minutes in scene for it to become clear that he's playing a character and isn't just cameoing as Payton Manning. Bradley Cooper is absolutely insufferable, as are the rest of Arnett's friends. The whole first hour of the movie is just utterly boring, too.

Huge letdown.