Movie Reviews (20)14: Modern Times Edition

[LMP]

2 Live Crew's "We Want Some Pussy" makes for a great singalong jam.

 

[purpleoscar]

The Drop 5/10: Mixed bag of mediocre accents and tired gangster plots. There were some twists and turns but it's totally forgettable. I did laugh at some lines towards Gandolfini. "Are you ready to eat"? "You need to eat."

 

[purpleoscar]

The Trip to Italy 7.5: Really fun Coogan and Brydon trek through Italy. Gorgeous photography and mostly decent impressions. They managed to repeat some of them without it being stale. Pleasant surprise. Slightly better than the first one.


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[cobl04]

Saw What We Do in the Shadows... anyone else seen it? Thought it was fucking great, such a brilliant subversion of two extremely disparate genres. And Tarantino would have been stoked with the bleeding.

 

[purpleoscar]

A walk among the tombstones 7/10: This was a good private eye genre movie. Liam Neeson has to hunt down some creepy psychopaths. There is some formula to it but it was genuinely scary and disturbing in parts. I wouldn't mind seeing sequels.


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[purpleoscar]

Tracks 6.5/10: One of two movies this year about a lone woman trekking the wilderness to find meaning in her life. Mia does a good job showing her disdain for routine life, and her aversion to people leads inevitably to loneliness. The movie isn't great mainly because it's often uneventful yet the photography and music create an entertaining hypnotic quality, (the director must have liked Terrence Malick.) The animals add personality to the desolate outback. This movie is destined to be a Nat Geo channel movie for sleepy Sundays.

 

[bono_212]

Snowpiercer was a lot of fun, but boy was it full of little issues.

7/10

 

[purpleoscar]

Two faces of January 4/10: This is the poor man's Talented Mr. Ripley. The acting is indifferent, especially when there's supposed to be sexual tension between Oscar Issac and Kirsten Dunst (where?). As the plodding movie continues the second part of the movie in Crete gets more interesting but only slightly more interesting. There isn't much tension in trying to see the bad guy escape. One imagines if Minghella was still alive what he would have done with it.

 

[Lancemc]

Was pretty nuts for Annabelle not surprisingly. Directed by Wan's recent cinematographer, he completely nails the aesthetic and general form I love so much from Wan's work. This one is actually a lot scarier for me than any of Wan's films. The scares are all pretty well telegraphed in advance, naturally, and you could say kind of cheap but it earns them with beautiful creepy imagery and effectively suspenseful set pieces. Also benefits from not being as procedural and ensemble-driven as The Conjuring. Has a strong if not-too-subtle Rosemary's Baby influence, and even a little Hannibal thrown in (yesssss). It doesn't really have the extra goofy funhouse quality of Wan's films, but really beautifully fits in line with them, and actually scared the shit out of me a couple times. Also really benefits and uses its period setting to better thematic effect than The Conjuring managed. loooooooooove

 

[bono_212]

I want to see it, but I'm disappointed that they chose to expand on what was already the scariest thing I've seen in film. The ten minutes was enough to get the job done.

I'll still see it anyways, though.

 

[deep]

Gone Girl

I'll agree with the current IMDB score 8.8. It is very good, no real weaknesses. I had a couple of small nit picks, not worth listing. For me the high points were scoring, Rosamund Pike (wife, gone girl) , the casting and acting was consistently good throughout.

 

[purpleoscar]

The Skeleton Twins 5/10: Bi-polar movie with screwed up brother and sister who try to pick up their lives. The funny parts are genuinely funny but the depression side was tedious and grated throughout the running time. I liked Luke Wilson as the nice guy that gets walked all over. That was the most memorable performance.

Gone Girl 6/10: I'm still processing this one but I don't think it's best picture material unless it's a thin year. The acting (especially in the beginning) was like robots reading lines and then it picks up towards the last half of the movie. It's difficult to review for me because I find Fincher's style of film-making to allow for one view only. I have no desire to repeat view his movies (except for Seven and maybe Zodiac, but I haven't done so yet). Rosemund Pike does good acting later on in the movie, but in the 1st half it's all stilted. I did like the editing and felt the plot was interesting and made the running time a breeze. Yet would I want to sit through it again?

 

[lazarus]

I'm a big Fincher fan but this was pretty MEH for me. No desire to see it again.

Was fun to watch while it was happening but pretty disposable.

Guy needs to change genres.

 

[gump]

Clouds of Sils Maria was just fantabulous. I've always considered Assayas a great director of women, and here he takes it to another level (in the post-film interviews, Binoche explicitly mentioned Bergman as an influence). The interplay between Binoche and Kristen Stewart is breathtaking at times. Binoche is fantastic as usual, but Stewart really surprised me. The meta-narrative created some very funny moments for her character, and she delivered them perfectly. Just a beautiful film from one of the best working directors at the moment.

 

[Lancemc]

Not sure how excited I am for that. Kristen Stewart is just terrible in everything though I'm hearing quite the opposite re this film. But also while Assayas is great his last two film bored me to tears and Summer Hours was good though just a shade of his early work. Really enjoy him the most in his euro-trash Demonlover/Boarding Gate mode.

 

[lazarus]

No Fincher review, Lance?

Can't remember if you were a fan or not.

Agree on Assayas, though I haven't seen his last. I didn't really understand all the hosannas for Carlos, which was entertaining but left me pretty meh. Give me Irma Vep and the others you mentioned.

I'm much more of a Desplechin fan, though I know that's not the cool choice.

 

[LMP]

The Austin Film Society had a 35mm screening of Possession the other night -- for such an art house staple, the print wasn't too beat up. Soundtrack issues in the first reel, but the film is so goddamn commanding and intense that you barely notice. Easily one of my favorites; Adjani is otherworldly, yet Neill never gets as much credit as she does. Emotionally ragged and gonzo performances in a West Germany populated by ghosts & demons.

Then I went off and caught Gone Girl. For an All Women Are Evil / Marriage Suuuuuucks double bill, it's a solid combo. Fincher's second straight airport bookstore pulp adaptation is akin to watching one of the greatest craftsman working at a Sears, even if I'm a bigger fan of his Dragon Tattoo than most. In that though, part of the fun is seeing Fincher distance himself from the material in a "can you believe this bullshit?" type of glee. Dragon Tattoo breaks its narrative down into component parts, and almost feels like it's about the formation of itself, like you're watching a remake come into fruition.

This is a jangly, tonally-bizarre mess that feels unsure of itself from scene-to-scene. It whips forward with a momentum that justifies its existence. Between this and Soderbergh's Side Effects, seeing two digital masters dabble into that late '80s/early '90s Psycho Bitch thriller is a delight -- Fincher puts more of Psycho into it though. Neil Patrick Harris' Anthony Perkins Lite performance was a lot of fun, as was Tyler Perry wandering out of his universe into this one... then leaving like a goddamn rock star.

A world where Fincher can barely get a project off of the ground and Christopher Nolan can make anything he wants (but make the eternally boring version) makes me a little sad. My respect for him extends to his wanting to save film stock, even if it presents more of a headache for film exhibitors than it does good. Oh well.

 

[gump]

Agree on Assayas, though I haven't seen his last. I didn't really understand all the hosannas for Carlos, which was entertaining but left me pretty meh. Give me Irma Vep and the others you mentioned.

I'm much more of a Desplechin fan, though I know that's not the cool choice.

I also lean towards Desplechin, but I love them both. I thought Carlos was really good, if a bit over-indulgent at times. The first two hours in particular were great. The themes he explores in some of his recent movies like Summer Hours and Clouds of Sils Maria really resonate with me, even though his earlier films are stylistically more interesting (the train scene in Clouds is quite something, though). I'm also fond of Late August, Early September.

Desplechin seems to be working quite a bit now after the big hiatus before Jimmy P. Apparently he's adapted a play for TV (La Forêt), which was screening as a side event in the NYFF, and is shooting a prequel to My Sex Life. What did you guys think of Jimmy P? I can't overstate how much Amalric facinates me in almost everything he does (perhaps James Bond aside).

 

[LMP]

Y'all need to check out Duke of Burgundy when it hits your towns. Peter Strickland, the dude behind Berberian Sound Studio, mines Euro-sex cinema (Jess Franco, Jean Rollin, Tinto Brass...) for an arrhythmic and gonzo romance between two ladies in the '70s. For all of the think-pieces folks are writing on the State of Marriage RE: Gone Girl, fewer modern movies hit at the power-plays & reversals than this one.

This is definitely up your alley, Laz.

 

[lazarus]

Then I went off and caught Gone Girl. For an All Women Are Evil / Marriage Suuuuuucks double bill, it's a solid combo. Fincher's second straight airport bookstore pulp adaptation is akin to watching one of the greatest craftsman working at a Sears, even if I'm a bigger fan of his Dragon Tattoo than most. In that though, part of the fun is seeing Fincher distance himself from the material in a "can you believe this bullshit?" type of glee. Dragon Tattoo breaks its narrative down into component parts, and almost feels like it's about the formation of itself, like you're watching a remake come into fruition.

This is a jangly, tonally-bizarre mess that feels unsure of itself from scene-to-scene. It whips forward with a momentum that justifies its existence. Between this and Soderbergh's Side Effects, seeing two digital masters dabble into that late '80s/early '90s Psycho Bitch thriller is a delight -- Fincher puts more of Psycho into it though. Neil Patrick Harris' Anthony Perkins Lite performance was a lot of fun, as was Tyler Perry wandering out of his universe into this one... then leaving like a goddamn rock star.

A world where Fincher can barely get a project off of the ground and Christopher Nolan can make anything he wants (but make the eternally boring version) makes me a little sad. My respect for him extends to his wanting to save film stock, even if it presents more of a headache for film exhibitors than it does good. Oh well.

Yeah, I listened to the commentary on Dragon Tattoo the day after seeing Gone Girl, and while I still think it's slumming, he certainly had a lot to say about the material, and it's a visual tour-de-force. While his framing remains impeccable, I just didn't find much creativity in his Gone Girl work. He could have directed that in his sleep.

I'm glad you mentioned Side Effects, because honestly I don't think Fincher adds much to the subject matter/genre, and I'd argue from a thematic standpoint Soderbergh's film says more about more things theme-wise. Gone Girl has a higher prestige factor, but SS cranked his film out quick and made another one the same year. I don't want to see Fincher wasting 2-3 years on shit like this.

For all the criticism of Benjamin Button, it's so visually inventive and comes from a much more personal place that it's a shame Fincher doesn't get more credit for elevating an often trite screenplay to something much greater.

 

[LMP]

The one thing that stood out in Gone Girl for me was his elliptical use of cutting-to-black. It reminded me a lot Chris Marker's piece on a similar device in Vertigo, though it's more to the surface with Fincher. The "power and freedom" line reverberates with the Cool Girl construct that Pike's character inhabits. They're by no means on the same level, I just dig that Fincher may absorb the same bits from Hitchcock that I tend to as well.

Benjamin Button's dismissal stems from him stepping outside of his thriller wheelhouse & it being a "prestige" picture. It's a damn shame because I find it to be stellar, again in spite of a treacly script like you mention. If The Game can get a re-appraisal, surely this can, too.

 

[lazarus]

Glad I'm not alone there. I can't get over how many glorious compositions are in that film. Need to have a screencap orgy in here soon.

The Social Network has so much energy and is fine-tuned to the last second, but there's no heart in it, and even Fincher himself said it was more of an exercise than a passion project. Give me Button any day.

 

[LMP]

Glad I'm not alone there. I can't get over how many glorious compositions are in that film. Need to have a screencap orgy in here soon.

The Social Network has so much energy and is fine-tuned to the last second, but there's no heart in it, and even Fincher himself said it was more of an exercise than a passion project. Give me Button any day.

Daisy dancing in the gazebo at night is the most poignant stuff in his CV.

The Social Network is a perfectly harmonious studio picture. I'm psyched for his noir series with James Ellroy; it'll make up for losing Dahlia.


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[lazarus]

I wish there's an alternative universe where Fincher managed to make Dahlia, and De Palma does Dragon Tattoo. Even if it meant losing Zodiad.

 

[LMP]

I wish there's an alternative universe where Fincher managed to make Dahlia, and De Palma does Dragon Tattoo. Even if it meant losing Zodiad.

De Palma would have been perfect for Gone Girl, even if that's beneath his standards too.


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[lazarus]

De Palma would have fully embraced the batshit insanity of the material, which would have been more fun, I think.

 

[LMP]

De Palma would have fully embraced the batshit insanity of the material, which would have been more fun, I think.

Same with Verhoeven.


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[Lancemc]

No Fincher review, Lance?

"Ehhh..." - Lancemc (10/3/14)

Really liking this conversation right now though. Gone Girl is pretty close to the bottom of my Fincher ranking at this point, though I was having some issues with my knee from work while I was cramped in the theater and spend a good 45 minutes watching the damn thing standing from the side isle. But yeah, easily the least formally interesting of his digital period, outright ugly at times, and the material is just so so fucking silly I can't stand it. That being said, 100% closer to De Palma's wheelhouse and might have made for an even wilder film as source material than Passion. Oh man, can you imagine the set piece/entire film he might have spun out using solely the Pike/Harris parts of Gone Girl.

Also I'm a really big fan of Fincher's Dragon Tattoo precisely because it does a lot of what Gone Girl doesn't always do, ala swing for the fences tonally and stylistically, and is fucking gorgeous and sensuous in the process. Which also ties back in a way to why I love Assayas in that mode as well.

 

[LMP]

Continuing the De Palma train, a double bill of Dressed to Kill and Phantom of the Paradise is a perfect one-two introductory punch.


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[Lancemc]

Rewatched Phantom again today as part of our Halloween thon. Just gets better and better.