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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.
So fall festivals are done. Digger has screened a few times and it’s getting wrecked by critics, it’s also tracking horrendously at the box office. So that’s DOA, sorry Tom Cruise maybe another time.
Anyways here’s my updated Oscar predictions now with all this additional information.
Best Picture
Director
Original Screenplay
Adapted Screenplay
Lead Actor
Lead Actress
Supporting Actor
Supporting Actress
Film Editing
Cinematography
Had a fantastic surprise yesterday with a Mexican film from 1951 starring Ninón Sevilla called Victims of Sin. Absolute crazy operatic film about a nightclub dancer who adopts an abandoned baby, and has to fight through all kinds of horrible treatment from men around her. Combined with beautifully staged Mexican dance scenes with Sevilla who has great screen presence. A film with big contrasts, as the narrative is very tragic, but delivered at breakneck pace and full on melodramatic acting. For a film the 50s, the woman in this film are all surprisingly fierce with how they violent fight back against their male oppressors. Don't know if it can be regarded as such, but it does feel like an early feminist power movement film. It is glorious.
Just a quick top 5 of the year for me so far:
Also underrated this year (less than 60% on RT that I liked): Wuthering Heights, The Moment, The Dog Stars, How To Make a Killing, Mercy.
ok, I did Nolan's Batman trilogy
... I don't think they hold up as well as they should. Most of Nolan's work is bloated... and these are no different. They aren't bad, but they could use a heavy edit. Also, in Rises he totally breaks the prison TV right before he leaves. Absolute dick move.
Tonight is Spider-man 2.1 (Extended). I don't normally watch superhero stuff, but I figured I should knock this trilogy out too.
edit: Mary Jane sux.
edit: The Score (2001) --- I haven't seen this since it came out. I just like this movie. It isnt the same, but I like De Niro like this, Heat, Ronin etc. One thing i wish it had more of is more Rififi-like tension and maybe a little more of Norton in character before the reveal. Not a lot, but a little.
Primetime
This was okay for the most part. I was enjoying it a lot until the fifty minute mark. Then it gets too opaque and pretentious for its own good. There's a dreamlike quality to the majority of the film, and while I understand what it's going for, it doesn't fully work.
It's too unfocused as well. There's three major storylines: Hansen, his producer, and one of the decoy's. I don't understand why the decoy subplot was as prominent as it is. It has no effect to most of the movie and it's so detached from the themes. It's a random struggling actor plotline shoehorned into this story of reality TV being exploitative. I'm sure they could have padded the runtime with something more interesting.
Pattinson is great in the part. As far as I'm aware this is the first time he's ever played a real life person. At the very least it's the first time I've ever seen him play a real person. Pattinson has always had good physicality and voice control. Now that he has a specific source to draw from, you can see how much he studies his part. He clearly observed a lot of footage of Hansen. He's able to perfectly capture Hansen's mannerisms, even his subtle ones. So, I would say the film is worth it just to see Pattinson give such a good performance.
The look of the film is ugly. I, again, understand what they were going for. But it looks a bit weird. The score however is so good. It's probably one of my favorite scores of the year.