Movie Reviews (20)14: Modern Times Edition

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The ones tonight were real winners; check them out when you have a chance. Looking forward to Larceny & Breaking Point the most tomorrow.
 
Rush 7/10: I normally don't go for sports movies but this one was pretty good. There was some tension but not too much so that might be a flaw, but the acting and characterizations were well done. It's hard to film fast traffic and make it entertaining. The main rivals get the chance to duke it out but also spout their life philosophies so that was more than I expected. Beats the hell out of Days of Thunder though.

Favourite scenes were the lung vacuuming/Olivia Wilde's bland acting and extreme hotness/Revenge on a reporter,
 
Did Daniel Brühl end up winning any awards for his role as Niki Lauda? Of the handful of movies I've seen in the past year or so that was my favourite acting role. He was absolutely brilliant, and as someone who's followed F1 for a long time he did a tremendous job. Really captured Lauda very well.
 
Did Daniel Brühl end up winning any awards for his role as Niki Lauda? Of the handful of movies I've seen in the past year or so that was my favourite acting role. He was absolutely brilliant, and as someone who's followed F1 for a long time he did a tremendous job. Really captured Lauda very well.

It's good acting but the competition is really stiff this year. Even Hanks didn't get an Oscar nomination. Though he has two Oscars already so it doesn't really matter.

Bruhl was nominated for Golden Globe and BAFTA awards.
 
Oh god yeah, The Wind Rises is staggering. Miyazaki as his most elliptical; some of the deftest handling of the passage of time I've seen done in cinema in ages. You can tell how deliberately storyboarded and conceived this was, in terms of matching of motion and space from shot to shot, extremely sophisticated layering of ideas. Especially by the end, this film is really refreshing and sometimes brave in what it decides not to provide us, narratively and structurally. The animation is second to none of course, and oh my I'm so glad I got to see this subtitles in theaters, because Hideaki Anno's performance is astounding and unique. This is like all my respective favorite things of Princess Mononoke, My Neighbor Totoro and Ponyo all mixed together, with a new ruminative element as the backbone.
 
:sad:, we came home from the museum because of the snow instead of staying for the late showing.
 
Oh god yeah, The Wind Rises is staggering. Miyazaki as his most elliptical; some of the deftest handling of the passage of time I've seen done in cinema in ages. You can tell how deliberately storyboarded and conceived this was, in terms of matching of motion and space from shot to shot, extremely sophisticated layering of ideas. Especially by the end, this film is really refreshing and sometimes brave in what it decides not to provide us, narratively and structurally. The animation is second to none of course, and oh my I'm so glad I got to see this subtitles in theaters, because Hideaki Anno's performance is astounding and unique. This is like all my respective favorite things of Princess Mononoke, My Neighbor Totoro and Ponyo all mixed together, with a new ruminative element as the backbone.

That's good to hear:up: I haven't gone to the theatre to see it precisely because I'm worried it will be dubbed.
 
That's good to hear:up: I haven't gone to the theatre to see it precisely because I'm worried it will be dubbed.

Most showings around the city are dubbed. Only two screenings in this particular theater even are subbed, among three or so dubbed ones. Good luck finding a screening.
 
bad move dudes

I know, I know. But the MSI closes at 4:00 PM!!! I thought they were going to close at, like, 6 or some normal time. So we would've been stuck in Chicago with nothing to do for about 6 hours. And the snow. And I have to work in the morning. And...I'm just giving out excuses now. I'm really glad you enjoyed it, though. At this point, I'm resigned to waiting for the DVD. I just really wanted to see it before the Oscars and that's no longer an option, so I'm less enthused about managing to be in Chicago at the right place/right time.
 
Yeah I'm really glad I didn't see the dub - Joseph Gordon Levitt, Emily Blunt and John Krasinski kill yourself Hollywood. Tucci and Martin Short though are good picks.
 
I saw the dub yesterday, it was intolerable. This is the first one of his I not seen subtitled. The English dubbing took me out of the movie.

I enjoyed From Up On Poppy Hill much more than this one. I hope we can get some more from Goro if his pop's really is quitting.
 
The only Ghibli dub that has absolutely destroyed me was the one for Ponyo. Because of that, I won't be risking anything a second time.
 
Enduring Love

After reading and enjoying the book, I was curious to see how they'd done the movie.

Curiosity bored the Cori.
 
Nebraska 8/10: Wow, I didn't expect to like this as much as I did but the performances were well done. There was definitely a Fargo quality to the comedy. I needed a lot of tissue by the end of it. Maybe living in the Prairies and seeing how authentic the perceptions were in this movie hit me hard. There's something about places where people have nothing to do and no goals that sucks the purpose out of some people. Bruce Dern was awesome. Strangely movies like this one and other Payne movies are ones I love but I don't want to see them again (except for Sideways). It's like they are so well done that there isn't anything more to get out of it. The Descendents was the same way. If there is a fault is that some of the comedy (which was mostly great) was a little heavy-handed, especially with the mother.

About Love 7/10: This was another surprise. I felt the first 30 mins was formulaic and not particularly engaging. There were lots of good mild laughs (no guffaws) but the "deathbed philosophy without perfectionism" was something I tend to agree with. Though anyone who has read Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl will find this philosophy familiar. For the majority of the population who hasn't read the book they will find some truth in it. I needed some more tissues by the end of this one. I think Kleenex must invest in movies like these.
 
Frozen is really good. I love the idea of a Disney animated movie centered around the relationship between two siblings as opposed to the typical girl meets boy romance thing. The songs in the first half are really awesome, too. But it doesn't completely come together for me, and I think it's a step or two short of being a bonafide all-time Disney classic.

It's how they handled the Elsa character. The whole thing was set-up from the opening to be this huge tale of redemption for her. And ultimately she fades into the background and becomes just a minor piece. Anna is the heart of the movie and just a delightful character so it makes sense to focus on her more, but I just wish that Elsa had been painted a bit differently. They seemed to spend a lot less time developing her as we rolled along, and I thought something was missing in the final interactions with her sister.

Oh, well. I still LOLd a bunch and had a lot of fun, I really appreciated the switch in the standard Disney formula, and the "Do You Want To Build A Snowman?" sequence in the first act rivals that infamous UP montage for saddest thing I've ever seen in a kid's movie.

I think this nails it. Elsa, to me, was the most interesting character in the movie. That's no slight to Anne, who has a good arc, but I thought it diluted the impact of Let It Go a little to have mostly viewed the conflict of Elsa's powers through Anne's perspective as opposed to Elsa herself. And then at the end there's a bit of pieces-moving-around just to create action at the climax of the movie. But Frozen's still good on its own terms focusing on dismantling and rebuilding Anne's sense of romance and sibling relations, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
 
Holy shit, Rosemary's Baby. So good. So fucked up. That dreamlike atmosphere. Mia Farrow with as good a performance as I've ever seen in a movie. The hints of terror. The slow decoding. Fur Elise. The paranoia. That phonebooth scene. I don't think I took a breath for the last 30 minutes, once she truly catches on to everything and suspects them all. The fucking borderline comic ending that I had somehow avoided all these years. SO glad I finally saw this.
 
Blue Is the Warmest Color

I watched this over two nights (three hours of a quiet movie with subtitles? I have to split it.).

Not sure what I thought about it at first - I'm glad I watched it, and I appreciated its quiet approach to coming-of-age and the life-cycle of a relationship.

Now, a day later, I can't stop thinking about it, so I guess I really did like it.
 
Glad you enjoyed this. I think it's a film that anyone who's been through the ups and downs of a relationship can get something out of.

And since you're down for long LGBT love stories in French, allow me to recommend another film. In case you haven't seen my previous stumping for it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1YjIWEky81M


Has a much bolder visual style than Blue (with a great song selection), and it hit me a lot harder, personally. And it's funnier. And a little shorter!
 
Grand Budapest Hotel is the film I've been subconsciously willing Anderson to make since I started liking cinema. Perfect.
 
Maybe the funniest thing he's ever done and Fiennes so good he's Lubitsch-worthy, but this didn't affect me emotionally on the level of Rushmore or Moonrise Kingdom. Great visuals, but script-wise after a fantastic 30-40 min the prison stuff brought it down a little. Enjoyable all the way through regardless.
 
Snowpiercer is also really good. I definitely prefer Bong when he's clearly having the most fun. This and The Host are contemporary best-in-genre works. As for the new film, I can't really recall the last film that is so blissfully unpredictable in its violence and characters meeting surprising deaths. So much fun. Technically tight as shit too as you'd expect.
 
Yeah, which version did you see? That's the movie that got re-editted for US release, isn't it?
 
No, the original cut was retained, surprisingly. The concession was that it isn't going to open as wide as the distributor (Weinstein Company) had planned.
 
Yeah The Immigrant is major. Should have kept the "Lowlife" title, but couldn't yeah yeah. Amazingly pleasant to look at. Deft and concise. Dat ending. It's no Two Lovers though. Nothing is Two Lovers.
 
No, the original cut was retained, surprisingly. The concession was that it isn't going to open as wide as the distributor (Weinstein Company) had planned.

Oh, awesome news...maybe. I guess that sucks they're not going to go wide, but, at least it stayed as is.
 
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