Random Movie Talk XV: You Asked For It, Cobbler

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Sounds like something I should check out.

I thought Grunge did direct a film under the guise of Cameron Crowe. :wink:

Hahaha,

This line from a review I'm reading might have it better, "A cross between Todd Browning’s “Freaks” and the “Garbage Pail Kids” stickers,"
 
I watched Hereditary a few months ago and then watched Midsommar tonight...I did not realise they were the same director, but the fact that I thought both were terrible should have clued me in.

Though I am aware that is a more uncommon opinion as they were reviewed very well.

But I kinda felt they were 2 hours odd of not going anywhere. I would say Hereditary was better than Midsommar and I generally like psychological horror, but I found both lacked any tension and were at times I think unintentionally funny (Midsommar was great to look at though, about all it had going for it).

Might be giving the new Suspiria a play tomorrow night, hopefully that is better.
 
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I just watched A Face in the Crowd....how the hell did The Andy Griffith Show ever even happen when his career started with THIS film?
 
My movie watching has gone down significantly since parenthood, but some good things I've seen recently:

- Bacurau: major tonal shift from the lovely Aquarius and even Neighborhood Sounds from Kleber Mendonça Filho (who co-directs this one with the guy was was art director for those two earlier features). There have been some comparisons to Parasite here, other than some big themes I don't think it's that apt - it's more of a John Carpenter-goes-to-small-town-Brazil kind of thing, but hugely entertaining.

- The Whistlers: I like most of the stuff in the Romanian New Wave, but with a few exceptions (4 months, 3 weeks, 2 days; Tales of the Golden Age), they tend to be very deliberately paced. Not here, as the 90-minute running time flies by in the thriller with an incredulous premise (corrupt police officer travels to the Canary Islands to learn a whistling language that will allow him to break someone out of prison). Tarantino-meets-Cohen Brothers-meet-post-Communist-Romania.

- Good Time: I have not seen Uncut Gems yet, but decided to watch the Safdie Brothers' earlier feature, which focuses on an everything-goes-wrong-after-a-bank-robbery motif in such a depressing and yet thrilling way. Wonderful depiction of the pulse of New York City at night (the movie is mostly set in Queens). Robert Pattinson gives a fantastic performance in this one. I really want to check their other stuff.

I also saw Death of Stalin recently, which I found terrible.

Oh, and the Criterion Noir series is back online so I'll get back to it. There were a bunch of gems I watched when they first screened it last year.
 
Rewatched Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace for the first time in aaaaages yesterday. Casino is as good as I remember, but I was surprised how much more I enjoyed Quantum this time than at the cinema. I think watching them on the same day helped. Original plots are never the movies strong suit, but having it deal with the immediate fallout from Casino works in its favour. Right from the start the pace never lets up, what I thought of as rushed back then is taut now. It's probably one of the best directed films in the series, each location is engrossing and captures so well. Love the editing in the establishing shots, gives a real sense of the place and flavour rather than just an exotic backdrop. Bolivia in particular was a highlight.

Planning on watching Skyfall again later this week, but I'll leave it there until No Time to Die finally comes out. Fuck Spectre.

- Good Time: I have not seen Uncut Gems yet, but decided to watch the Safdie Brothers' earlier feature, which focuses on an everything-goes-wrong-after-a-bank-robbery motif in such a depressing and yet thrilling way. Wonderful depiction of the pulse of New York City at night (the movie is mostly set in Queens). Robert Pattinson gives a fantastic performance in this one. I really want to check their other stuff.


Really enjoyed this, caught a 70s vibe from the camera and lighting. New York is a location I'll never get sick of watching.
 
Can a person have a low-key favorite director?

Because that would be Joel Schumacher for me. This has been a really sad day over here, the longer I think about it. I think I'm just sad that he didn't do much over the last decade, and I happen to be someone who likes what he was doing towards the end of his film career (I.E., I actually love Phone Booth).
 
Mixed bag for me.
Some stuff I really like, Lost Boys, Flatliners, Phone Booth.
St Elmo's Fire was decent brat pack fare.
But really none too pleased with his 2 Batman movies. Even though I grew up constantly watching reruns of the campy TV series, as an adult much prefer the darker take on Batman, not the silly stuff Schumacher presented.
But he did the video for The Devil Inside, so that tips the scale to positive overall.

RIP.
 
I can't believe Interference is the home of the single solitary pocket of fans of Phone Booth out there.
 
Oh it’s not. I know quite a few people that like it. And it’s got a decent rating on IMDb.
 
There are two of us!

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I'm trying not to think about it. I feel weird. I was in shock, and then I read what it was and like, I'm glad we didn't know. Colon cancer is such a horrible diagnosis to receive. To have kept it so private, just...amazing he gave us as much as he did in the time that he had.
 
God dammit 2020 is such a kick in the balls.

I don’t mean this statement to be controversial but I genuinely gave up on Marvel and just really didn’t care about what I found to be boring ass movies, but Black Panther reinvigorated my interest and helped change my mind. Chadwick was a damn good actor and inspired me and this is just fucking terrible news. Didn’t even know he had cancer.
 
He appeared in films and television before 2013, but LOOK at what he did from his breakthrough performance in 42 until now:

Da 5 Bloods
21 Bridges
Avengers: Endgame
Avengers: Infinity War
Black Panther
Marshall
Message from the King
Captain America: Civil War
Gods of Egypt
Get on Up
Draft Day
42
 
Not going to bother digging up the Movie Review thread.

So, here in Australia we got this new movie called Tenet and I went to see it today. I think it might be coming out in the US this week. Wasn’t sure I was going to take the risk sitting in a confined space with a bunch of strangers for 2.5+ hours, but I wrangled an extended lunch break from work and went to the first session of the day. Chatted to the only other 2 people in there from afar for a bit, was nice.

I don’t really discuss any spoilers in the film, but as it’s not actually out in the US as I’m writing I’ll chuck the tags on.

The movie itself? Well, it’s a lot of movie. Frankly it’s exhausting. I’d recommend seeing it on the big screen if you can because films this big should be experienced that way, but you won’t be missing out on one of Nolan’s better films at the cinema. It would have been a shame to miss The Dark Knight or Inception and only catch them later at home, but this is not going to held up as a generational touchstone in the years to come.

Everything about it is fine to pretty good, but the film sacrifices all but the most perfunctory of human drama for a clever-clever script that challenges you to unlock its non linear narrative as the soundtrack booms and blares over it. To be fair the structure is not that far removed from Memento and has similar beats that are meant to illicit an ‘a-ha’ from you, but none of the sympathy for its characters that Memento had. And I’m not usually one to spot twists before they’re revealed, but some of these are pretty blatantly telegraphed.

The action and the hook of watching inverted time in the same frame as linear events is very well done, but that’s the start and end of the rewards here. Definitely on the Interstellar end of his filmography for me, sadly.
 
No one else seen / want to discuss Tenet? Shame.

Watched the new Charlie Kaufman on Netflix this week. A different spin on the whackadoodleness of the mind, but probably my least favourite from the guy. I wasn’t familiar with the source material going in but I had an inkling where the story was going by the halfway point. Everything up until there was great, the initial drive and the stay at the parents house. Things took a turn for the worse after they drove off and crikey, the resolution made me sour on the whole film.

It’s very intriguing on paper, but the way it was handled felt like a bait and switch. Waste of great performances and character exploration. On the other hand, I rewatched Adaptation for the first time a few months back and loved it. Hoping his next film five years from now is back at that level again.
 
No one else seen / want to discuss Tenet? Shame.

Watched the new Charlie Kaufman on Netflix this week. A different spin on the whackadoodleness of the mind, but probably my least favourite from the guy. I wasn’t familiar with the source material going in but I had an inkling where the story was going by the halfway point. Everything up until there was great, the initial drive and the stay at the parents house. Things took a turn for the worse after they drove off and crikey, the resolution made me sour on the whole film.

It’s very intriguing on paper, but the way it was handled felt like a bait and switch. Waste of great performances and character exploration. On the other hand, I rewatched Adaptation for the first time a few months back and loved it. Hoping his next film five years from now is back at that level again.
I would have seen Tenet by now if Covid-19 wasn't a thing. I just don't feel comfortable going and sitting in a movie theater right now.
 
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