Let's All Go to the Movies

LurchingBeast said:
Saw a bunch of things...

Minari - I need to watch this again as I wasn't in the right headspace for it. A Korean family buys a farm in rural Arkansas looking for a new start but finds the broken promises of the American Dream. Even with some heavier subject matter, it's hard to escape how charming Minari is. All of the acting is stellar, including the always underrated Steven Yeun, but the star is Youn Yuh-jung who plays the foul mouthed, gambling, and all around inappropriate grandmother. Will revisit when it is widely available.

Sound of Metal (7.5/10) - What I thought was just the story of a heavy metal drummer losing his hearing turns out to be one of the more interesting depictions of addiction and co-dependence committed to screen in some time. Riz Ahmed is getting a lot of deserved buzz for his lead role and I wouldn't be surprised if he scored a Best Actor nomination. Some touching supporting performances from the deaf actors in the cast as well. Sound of Metal shows how far a magnetic lead actor and stunning sound design can take a film that on paper doesn't seem to have wide appeal.

Ammonite (5/10), or, Portrait of a Lady Who is just a Bit Warm. Kate Winslet is a famous, yet odd, palaeontogist toiling away in a very well shot small town on the harsh English coast when her life is upended by a rich tourist and his wife (Saoirse Ronan). The queer story of longing reeked of Oscar bait but it measures up so poorly to a similar movie from just last year in Portrait of a Lady on Fire that I don't think it will even see consideration. Winslet and Ronan are such accomplished actors that their lack of chemistry was surprising.

Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets (8/10) might be the oddest movie of the year but I couldn't stop thinking about it the entire next day. The "documentary" chronicles the final 24 hours of a Las Vegas dive bar, far from the lights of the strip. The movie captures so many small truths and universal experiences among the bar's regulars, the viewer would be shocked to learn it's not really a documentary, the bar is actually in New Orleans, and these are all actors. And yet it is the perfect ode to the American dive bar. This very much pushes the envelope for the documentary genre, reckoning with the artifice inherent in a documentary in an interesting way. I'm excited to check out the filmmakers' other work.

Wolfwalkers (7/10) - The best animated movie I've seen so far this year comes from Irish studio Cartoon Saloon. Set during the English occupation of Ireland in the 1600's, it has gorgeous 2-D loose line animation and stunning backgrounds. Shits all over the major studio animated fare from 2020. More complex themes of colonialism, environmentalism, religious fanaticism, and even some queer undertones while remaining a decidedly kids' movie. I know Soul is supposed to be the big animated feature this year but Wolfwalkers sets a pretty high bar.
Click to expand...

God damn, dude. I love reading these reviews. Thank you for always sharing these with us.
 
They released some on-set photos from Coming 2 America and I laughed at this....

EpcsqgvU0AAZmxa

How old are the barber shop guys supposed to be by now? 130 years old? LOL.
 
Lutter said:
They released some on-set photos from Coming 2 America and I laughed at this....

EpcsqgvU0AAZmxa

How old are the barber shop guys supposed to be by now? 130 years old? LOL.
Click to expand...

I think it kind of tracks though. The barber I went to for my first haircut and for some years after looked old as fuck in the mid 80s.

Went to his shop about a year ago on a whim to get a beard trim and he looks exactly the same.
 
Tonight I finished my Cameron Crowe business.

I didn't particularly enjoy We Bought a Zoo, though I do absolutely love Sigur Roa, and as a result, the Jonsi score. This was just a little too fucking cute for my taste. There were some moments that did get me (the connection between his wife's passing and his reticence to put down the very clearly well past his time tiger, for example). But not enough for me to like the movie overall.

Aloha is a well acted movie with an pretty amazing cast that I thought was a shockingly bad movie. First of all, no white guy should write a movie that purports to represent authentic native cultures in any way. We're fucking past that, just dont do it. Second, this went very suddenly from like basic romantic comedy tropes to Cuban missile crisis type shit without any warning. Again, I actually and sincerely liked the whole cast and thought everyone was very good. But the story was dog shit. If I wanted to watch a movie that featured Hawaii porn and was good, I would watch Descendants for the 500th time.

I think I'm gonna do a few James Cameron movies on Xmas eve, and then WW1984 and some other stuff on Xmas day. What is everyone else doing?
 
seedavid said:
If I wanted to watch a movie that featured Hawaii porn and was good, I would watch Descendants for the 500th time.
Click to expand...
Now that I have been to that Kualoa Ranch (Didn’t do any tours because of my stupid broken arm but I did enjoy the car ride and the view) and realized how much gets filmed there, I humble submit OG Jurassic Park for Hawaii porn.
 
OceanOfMead said:
Now that I have been to that Kualoa Ranch (Didn’t do any tours because of my stupid broken arm but I did enjoy the car ride and the view) and realized how much gets filmed there, I humble submit OG Jurassic Park for Hawaii porn.
Click to expand...

When I was 16 I took a helicopter tour of Kauai, and at that point they still had the actual main Jurassic Park gates set up where they shot many years ago. We flew all around the island but seeing the gates from that vantage point was so fucking cool. They have apparently since been removed, which is too bad. But you're right, JP is probably the winner. Lost certainly has some good stuff too, but JP really shows it off.
 
seedavid said:
When I was 16 I took a helicopter tour of Kauai, and at that point they still had the actual main Jurassic Park gates set up where they shot many years ago. We flew all around the island but seeing the gates from that vantage point was so fucking cool. They have apparently since been removed, which is too bad. But you're right, JP is probably the winner. Lost certainly has some good stuff too, but JP really shows it off.
Click to expand...
A ton of stuff is filmed at that ranch. Those mountains do not look real when you pull up to them, they are so tall and ripple like shower curtains.
 
seedavid said:
I think I'm gonna do a few James Cameron movies on Xmas eve, and then WW1984 and some other stuff on Xmas day. What is everyone else doing?
Click to expand...
My plan of attack this week is to try to get through Steve Mcqueen's Small Axe movie series on Prime. Maybe watch a couple rentals I have in-queue like Freaky or Black Bear. Probably watch Soul on Christmas.
 
15090 More Posts...
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top