Movie Reviews part 13: How many movies will Jessica Chastain star in?

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bono_212 said:
I don't feel DDL deserves best actor. Lincoln was fine, but DDL did nothing groundbreaking. He acted, as he does and as he is meant to do.
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I love something about the phrase "as he does and as he is meant to do".
 
lazarus said:
I agree that DDL didn't exactly surprise like Cooper.

But for me Joaquin Phoenix is head and shoulders above both this year.

Hoffman is co-lead, I agree. As is Waltz. A shame, as DiCaprio and Jackson should both have made the Supporting category.
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I thought Hoffman outshone Phoenix to such a degree, it's hard for me to consider him quite as much, but he was absolutely great as well.

Waltz, I guess, I can see as supporting, but I feel he was a lead, just didn't last as long as Foxx, is all.

Dicaprio's lack if a nomination might be the biggest joke of this year's Oscars.
 
Looking through some of the reviews, I don't know what made The Master seem so opaque for some. My interpretation is that it's a movie about two losers, one of which who has a working facade, while the other does not. Lancaster is marrying off his daughter and finding less to keep him going. Then Freddie comes into his life and he finds a new project. In the meantime, Freddie's booze keep him from sinking under the weight of his own depression. With her husband growing increasingly absent from his church (which is pathetically tiny), she assumes role as The Master, guiding him to make the choices necessary to keep The Cause going, but he refuses to do as she asks in excommunicating Freddie, because their friendship means more to him at that point. Note the ending, when both characters make the same conclusion about Freddie, with Lancaster basically pleading with him to return. A capella On a Slow Boat to China is one of Hoffman's greatest moments. There's so much resentment in his delivery.

Any comparisons between Lancaster and Plainview are unwarranted, because Plainview had legitimate power and fearful qualities. Lancaster is nearly as pathetic as Freddie, only with a minute degree of prestige and a domineering wife to keep him upright. There is much in the film to suggest that he was every bit as self-destructive as his PTSD-stricken friend.
 
All of that makes sense to me. I'm guessing because of the similarities The Cause has to Scientology, people were expecting something more blatantly critical about religious organizations, I don't know. But yes, it's primarily a character study, but works just as well as a broader look at masculinity in the post-WW2, Baby Boomer era.
 
Oh, man, sorry. I don't know if you could tell or not, but I absolutely adored it. I had to watch a stream of it, though, so let me save a full glowing review until after I pick up the 3-D Blu and you will have my review.


In short, I loved the story, and I thought the visuals were great. At first, they looked really cheap and cheesy, but as the story progressed and I realized I wasn't actually looking at reality, I opened up to them big time. Plus, the Tiger really was phenomenal for CGI ( when he wasn't a real tiger...I assume there were moments that was a real tiger).

The music, also, was killer and I'm SO glad it won score. It was by far and away my favorite this year.

Need to get my hands on the book stat. I have enough time to read it between now and when the home release is, since I have spring break next week.
 
can't believe nobody has mentioned this

Side Effects - solid 7.5 - 8

this is one of the better Soderberghs for me.


He says this is his last film. Well he did good job here.

Good cast, non-conventional script. I like how this film deals with Hollywood hunk Channing Tatum. Probably won't be in theater much longer. I recommend it. Oh yeah,Rooney Mara, blah, blah, she's good too.
 
I like both of these people fairly well

but after reading this interview, my opinion of them both has gone up a couple of notches

STEVEN SODERBERGH: Did you think you were Little Miss Hot Shit in college, or did that come later?

ROONEY MARA: When I was at college, my nickname was Keds, because I wore Keds. I guess it wasn’t really a nickname, because nicknames are usually given to you by people who are your friends and who know you. But I didn’t know the people who called me Keds. I think that they didn’t like me because I didn’t want to join a sorority. I left that school.

SODERBERGH: Sounds like you would have been asked to leave if you hadn’t left on your own, especially since you think that all sororities should be abolished. Your background is boring me, so let’s get to the movie stuff. When you were working with [David] Fincher on The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo [2011], why did he have to do so many takes of all your scenes?

MARA: Har, har . . . Because I am such a pleasure to be around, Fincher would prolong my scenes so that I would be on set all of the time. And maybe because I am stubborn, I thought that I could out-stubborn him. But you can’t out-stubborn a Finch. He was always right, though. Not everyone can make films with “less than one take,” like you.

SODERBERGH: So do you really have any tattoos? Or was that acting?

MARA: I don’t have any. That was acting.

SODERBERGH: And are you an expert hacker? Or was that acting, too?

MARA: That was also acting. Unfortunately.

SODERBERGH: So why didn’t you win the Oscar?

MARA: Lots of reasons . . . I know how much you love your Oscar. My dog’s name is Oskar.

SODERBERGH: As an Oscar-winner, I find that incredibly insulting. By the way, do you know that your dog hates the way you smell?

MARA: He’s sleeping next to me right this very moment. He loves everything about me, bless his little heart.

SODERBERGH: In our movie, Side Effects, you were asked to play a woman who is struggling with clinical depression—amongst other things. I must note for the record that, as your director, I did not see you do any preparation for this role. Do you wing it all the time, or were you just trying to fuck up this movie specifically?

MARA: Clearly, on the eve of your retirement, you stopped paying attention to everything. When I do a film, I follow the director. And because you wing everything—like this interview—I decided that that’s the way I should work as well.

SODERBERGH: I think we both know how much I prepared for this interview. But just to give the Interview readers a little bit of insight . . . For the first week of shooting, I told you to do the opposite of what I wanted you to do, because I knew that you would do the opposite of what I asked. Then you stopped doing that, so I started asking you to do what I wanted, which you did for a while, and then I went back to asking for the opposite, and then, after about day nine, I was so medicated that I’m not sure what happened. Tell me about that.

MARA: If you hadn’t lost your ability to read people, you would have known that at first I was doing whatever you asked—and then slowly, bitterly, I started doing the opposite.

SODERBERGH: Glad it was a short shoot. By the way, you wanted your fee on Side Effects to be paid to you in small, unmarked bills. What’s up with that?

MARA: Shh . . .
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Rooney Mara and Steven Soderbergh have hilarious Q&A in ‘Interview’ | PopWatch | EW.com


img-rooney-mara-3_164144680446.jpg


I don't want to cheer lead too much, but Side Effects is really good
 
bono_212 said:
Oh, man, sorry. I don't know if you could tell or not, but I absolutely adored it. I had to watch a stream of it, though, so let me save a full glowing review until after I pick up the 3-D Blu and you will have my review.

In short, I loved the story, and I thought the visuals were great. At first, they looked really cheap and cheesy, but as the story progressed and I realized I wasn't actually looking at reality, I opened up to them big time. Plus, the Tiger really was phenomenal for CGI ( when he wasn't a real tiger...I assume there were moments that was a real tiger).

The music, also, was killer and I'm SO glad it won score. It was by far and away my favorite this year.

Need to get my hands on the book stat. I have enough time to read it between now and when the home release is, since I have spring break next week.
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If you had told me the tiger was real the whole time I'd nearly believe you. Looked so authentic.

Maybe it was just where I was sitting/the theatre/the glasses but I wasn't that impressed with the 3d.
 
Django Unchained

After Inglorious Basterds I was kinda left wondering if I was over Tarantino's films, but I was happy to be proved wrong. Though the movie was long I only started to feel a tad impatient at the very end, when the film kept on going after what felt like an ending. I understand the need for it because Django had to come into his own etc. etc. but it still felt a bit like a fourth act. Also, the romance part of the film didn't work for me, mostly because I found Broomhilda's character rather vapid - not sure if it was the writing or the actress or both. Other than that I thought the film was a blast, and that Waltz and DiCaprio (with his horrible stained teeth) in particular were amazing. Oh and that the film had the funniest KKK scene ever.

Silver Linings Playbook

Really enjoyed it. Lawrence was fantastic but I was even more impressed with Bradley Cooper. Not just the performance itself but also the fact that he actually came off as likeable, something that I thought I'd never put in one sentence with his name.
 
Blue Valentine

Ashley and I were searching through schedules of various film festivals tonight looking for something fresh that was on the horizon, something with some depth and intrigue about it. I saw a couple of films that interested me, but I mostly saw a lot of movies with posters that had couples lying on a bare floor together, staring at things, etc. You know the kind. It put me in the mood to watch a really troubling romance picture with some grit to it. So I decided to watch Blue Valentine, which I had put off for a while because it looked exasperating, but I was in the mood for it.

Yeah, I get the hype. Both leads were tremendous and felt entirely human in their own way. It was a bit stereotypical; the dude was a dumbass with a heart of gold and the chick was an unfeeling bitch with her head on straight. It's been done a thousand times at least but the acting made it feel real. I have no idea why Gosling didn't get an Oscar nom; his performance was multi-faceted, more so than Michelle Williams', who admittedly does her ice queen thing superbly.

The ending left me wondering what to take from the film though. Young people get married for stupid reasons and it goes to shit? Yeah, I knew that already. What I'm not sure of is what the consequences were for the shitstorm Dean causes. Do they get a divorce? Does Cindy just "need some space" and everything goes back to normal? I also felt that the transition from happy-go-lucky couple to Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf was rough. The assumption is that they fell out of love, but there are no intermediate scenes to show us why. The picture that we get of their relationship is, then, a bit two dimensional. Things are really good and then eventually get really bad. For a film that appears to treasure the details, I feel it could have stretched itself out a bit more. The storytelling is rich, but it could use a solid 20 minutes of exposition. I love the character depth, but I don't know how realistic this situation actually is, as it's given to us.

Grizzly Bear's soundtrack was dope btw.

7.5/10
 
Bel Ami

This would have been a decent costume drama (based on a novel by Guy de Maupassant, which I haven't read though I adore the writer), if it wasn't for the lead character played by Robert Pattinson, who is wooden, out of depth, and whose facial expressions have exactly three settings: smiling, scowling and blank. Shame because Uma Thurman, Kristin Scott Thomas and Christina Ricci play the women in his life, and each one of them is beautiful and interesting and really deserves much better.
 
The Gangs of New York

I don't really have much to say about this one, as it didn't really stir me up in any way, but it is definitely watchable, with a few flaws. It was tense and fun up until Cameron Diaz appeared, at which point I knew the film was going to wind up like most dramas. And it did, ending precisely the way I knew it was going to once Bill the Butcher talked about how impressive it was that he made it to 47. Leo breaks the love triangle by death, saves New York, etc.

The shot of New York under a clearing skyline with Leo mumbling platitudes in a crappy New Yawka accent has to be one of the low points of Scorsese's career, and the haphazard 40 minutes before that did it no favors. Basically everything after DDL headbutts Leo to oblivion could have been cut out and replaced with shot of Bill the Butcher dying and I would have gotten the gist.

I wish Liam Neeson would have gotten a different role. Something that lasted longer than 10 minutes. Maybe he and Jim Broadbent could have switched roles. They were both great, but Liam had his head in the game. Every scene with Bill the Butcher and Priest Vallon was badass. All one of them.

6/10, rounded up to a 7/10 because DLL.
 
If you only cared about the resolution of the Amsterdam/Butcher storyline and think the last 40 minutes are a waste, you're missing the point. The reason their personal struggle is crosscut with the draft riots (a brilliant piece of montage work) is to show how insignificant the former is in the face of the latter, which is why their final duel is staged so anticlimactically, and in the fog.

It's similar to how the three main male characters of Once Upon A Time In The West are brushed aside by the literal train of progress, and the last surviving one just fades off into the sunset. Not a surprise Gangs was mainly a Leone homage.

It's messy, and the actual ending is as lame as you described it. But there's more great filmmaking inside Gangs than most films in the last 10 or so years.

And considering how many phenomenal works Marty has, 7th best is still mighty fine/
 
Alright. I forgot how many Scorsese movies I've seen, with some greats still to come.

Classic:

1. Raging Bull (greatest sports movie of all time)
2. Taxi Driver (has risen immensely on multiple viewings; an atmospheric masterpiece)
3. After Hours (one of my all-time favorite comedies, I doubt anyone else would place it this high but I find it extremely appealing)
4. Goodfellas (expect this to rise on future viewings; the ending is sensational)

Great:

5. Casino (Pesci.)
6. The Departed (wrote a review for this one the other day; didn't care for the ending but loved everything else)
7. Hugo (makes you fall in love with movies all over again; Sacha Baron Cohen was a weak spot)

I like it, with reservations:

8. Shutter Island (only saw it once; I remember being amused and fascinated but find it to be a lesser work)
9. Gangs of New York (you know)

Never cared for it:

10. Cape Fear (need to see it again but didn't like the aesthetic of it; DeNiro should have stepped on a rake)

I now own Mean Streets and will watch it very soon. Sounds like it would be right up my alley.
 
I think most people that love film would place After Hours very high.

Edit - that's a little too sweeping of a statement, my bad.

But, I love that film.

My top 10 for Scorsese is almost irrelevant in that the gap between 1 and 5 is slight, and the gap between 1 and 10 isn't exactly a chasm.

You will like Mean Streets, I think.
 
People describe lots of films as "dreamlike," but After Hours actually functions like a dream. Without such impeccable comedic timing from the cast and the inherent humor in the situations Joseph Minion drew up, it would be inexcusably absurd. But, thankfully, it is easy to suspend disbelief with that one. What a great yarn.
 
LemonMelon said:
Alright. I forgot how many Scorsese movies I've seen, with some greats still to come.

Classic:

1. Raging Bull (greatest sports movie of all time)
2. Taxi Driver (has risen immensely on multiple viewings; an atmospheric masterpiece)
3. After Hours (one of my all-time favorite comedies, I doubt anyone else would place it this high but I find it extremely appealing)
4. Goodfellas (expect this to rise on future viewings; the ending is sensational)

Great:

5. Casino (Pesci.)
6. The Departed (wrote a review for this one the other day; didn't care for the ending but loved everything else)
7. Hugo (makes you fall in love with movies all over again; Sacha Baron Cohen was a weak spot)

I like it, with reservations:

8. Shutter Island (only saw it once; I remember being amused and fascinated but find it to be a lesser work)
9. Gangs of New York (you know)

Never cared for it:

10. Cape Fear (need to see it again but didn't like the aesthetic of it; DeNiro should have stepped on a rake)

I now own Mean Streets and will watch it very soon. Sounds like it would be right up my alley.
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I think that is a pretty good listing

I agree with 3 of your top 4. I don't remember After Hours, I am sure I watched it once when it first came out. I also usually don't rate comedies real high. I did think The King of Comedy was darn good when it came out.
The Departed is the best thing he has done since Goodfellas, except maybe Casino.
 
Nice. I need to see Taxi Driver again, it's been a while. I rate Shutter Island more too, but as far as ranking goes it still faces stiff competition.

Mean Streets is a great next choice. After that I'd line up The King of Comedy, The Last Temptation of Christ and The Age of Innocence, they'd all make my top ten.
 
No spoken words said:
I think most people that love film would place After Hours very high.

Edit - that's a little too sweeping of a statement, my bad.

But, I love that film.

My top 10 for Scorsese is almost irrelevant in that the gap between 1 and 5 is slight, and the gap between 1 and 10 isn't exactly a chasm.
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No Butcher-quoting smackdown for El Mel's blasphemous take on Gangs? Disappointing.


monkeyskin said:
Nice. I need to see Taxi Driver again, it's been a while. I rate Shutter Island more too, but as far as ranking goes it still faces stiff competition.
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I think Shutter Island is second of his post-millennial work after Gangs; not as ambitious but more perfectly executed. Being a fan of 50's film noir and some of the films Scorsese was referencing here, I really dug his take on the genre, and after The Age of Innocence I think it's the most moving of Scorsese's films. DiCaprio may have outdone himself here. It's painful to watch what he goes through in this film.

I'm not accusing El Mel of calling it "minor" because it's a suspense thriller, but there's a LOT more going on here than a simple genre exercise (same with Cape Fear, though this is superior), and much more personal than it may appear at first viewing. And the use of pre-existing "avant-garde" (or more modern) orchestral music is fantastic, much like Kubrick has used in the past.

Lancemc said:
The Age of Innocence is fucking essential.
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Yes. It's a glorious work.
 
FWIW, and I know I've done this here before:

1. Raging Bull
2. Taxi Driver
3. The Age of Innocence
4. Gangs Of New York
5. GoodFellas
6. The Last Temptation Of Christ
7. Shutter Island
8. After Hours
9. Kundun
10. New York, New York

I've seen everything else but this is as far as I'm going. If anyone hasn't seen Kundun yet, check it out immediately. Unlike anything else Marty has done. Cast of mostly unknowns with no strong central male performance, Phillip Glass score, Roger Deakins photography. Just gorgeous.
 
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