Let's All Go to the Movies

Mr Gundam said:
Ghostbusters II sucked hard. I saw it opening day and it was the first time as I kid that I walked out of the theater disappointed. The next time I felt that way was Alien 3.

GB 2016 is fine, I just wish they let the actors improvise and not stick to the terrible jokes written for them.
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I’ve seen GB2 way more times than the first one because it was on Comedy Central all the time. Have a soft spot for it because of that.
 
LurchingBeast said:
The collective confusion of most in my showing was a sight to behold.

The Green Knight owns.
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Agreed and my first impression walking out was how the artistic liberties def falls into retelling/interpretation, besides it'd be unreasonable for someone to expect a perfect remake of an ancient story. I never read the source material myself, but I looked stuff up on sparknotes for having to do an essay assignment in hs, so the important thematic elements came back to me (for example the 5 virtues of a knight which unfolded in the story as the trials/conflict Gawain faced - not going into too much detail thinking/writing about all that but it is definitely easy to spot)

On that note, I would love to see A24 do something with Beowulf too

Excellent performances by Dev Patel and Alicia Vikander, definitely leaves the audience a ton to ponder about, however idk how I feel about seeing it again (at least not anytime soon)
 
Can't say I was going to go out of my way to see Stillwater but I may make more of an effort to actively avoid it if/when it pops up on cable tv/streaming services. Excellent thread from the inspiration of the movie (it includes spoilers). This reminds me of the BS with the Richard Jewell movie, too, where the reporter's character was fictionalized in order to present something far more lurid than reality.






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The Green Knight - 9/10

Surprise! I loved it. If ever there was a movie made specifically for me, it's a period-accurate Arthurian legend told not as an epic action adventure but as a slow-burn, unsettling phantasmagoria about fulfilling your duties and earning the valor you seek, while really leaning into the weird shit from the old stories. It's funnier than I expected, somewhat due to that weird shit. Gawain's journey from the immature nephew of the king to who he is at the end is well told here without needing to spell out every exact thing happening. Enigmatic and less than widely approachable. I still have questions - and that's a good thing.

This movie looks like it cost $100M. The period detail of the costumes along with the effects - some practical, a lot of seamless digital - belie the smaller A24/Bron budget. It all made sense when I learned the team behind last year's micro-budget effects wizardry that was The Wanting Mare did the VFX. Incredible matte backgrounds abound.

Director David Lowery's stamp is in every scene. While nobody eats an entire pie in one shot, he's not afraid to take almost ten minutes just watching Gawain ride his horse through the gorgeous countryside with an incredible shot of the castle in the background. There are several times where the camera seems to be content watching Dev Patel smolder.

After this and last year's Personal History of David Copperfield, Patel is a bonafide leading man. Alicia Vikander still nearly steals the show towards the end. All of the bit role performances are very good, from Sean Harris' wise but frail King Arthur to Ralph Ineson's titular Green Knight.

It cleared the bar set by prolonged anticipation. I'm trying to make time this afternoon to see it again.
 



thor GIF


Anybody else notice that Universal put F9 out on VOD today? $19.99 to rent. damn quick.

Vudu - Browse

www.vudu.com www.vudu.com
 
dan said:
Can't say I was going to go out of my way to see Stillwater but I may make more of an effort to actively avoid it if/when it pops up on cable tv/streaming services. Excellent thread from the inspiration of the movie (it includes spoilers). This reminds me of the BS with the Richard Jewell movie, too, where the reporter's character was fictionalized in order to present something far more lurid than reality.






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I didn't pay too much attention to the trailers, but it just struck me as some jingoist bullshit I was going to avoid in the first place. Still going to avoid it.
 
quirk6 said:
I didn't pay too much attention to the trailers, but it just struck me as some jingoist bullshit I was going to avoid in the first place. Still going to avoid it.
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It got pretty good reviews out of Cannes, a festival not exactly known for their love of jingoistic American movies. I usually like Tom McCarthy's work too so reading that thread is a bummer.
 
The Green Knight- 8/10
Not knowing the source material well might have been a mistake, but before I give this a second viewing (which it certainly deserves) I'll be a little more well-versed. I tried to stay as spoiler-free as one can for a year, but picking up on the allegories a little more clearly would have enhanced the experience.
Anyway, this is a really lovely arthouse film that takes its time to set a scene and develop a mood. Dev Patel was excellent to watch, and nearly all the performances were outstanding, even if a bit muted. Even people who have panned this film have gushed about the cinematography, and for good reason. It was atmospheric and vast at times, and personal and intruding at others. I really did not mind the pacing of the second act at all, and I never felt antsy. I thought it was great.
Overall, a fantastic film that felt like a labor of love realized into an achievement.
Highly, highly recommended for the big screen. It's the first film in a while where I feel like I want to go back and take it in again in that format. We had to sit 2nd row, which is not optimal, so I'd like to rectify that.
 
I don't think I posted about this, but recently finally caught Tenet. My in-laws have a home theatre, so we got to watch it on a big screen, which is definitely the way to go. I've always been a big Nolan fan, but I wasn't really a fan of Dunkirk. I thought it was a technical feat - the way that he played with three different timelines that converged with ingenious and seamlessly integrated, but it felt like it had very little in the way of substance. Conversely, Interstellar was so much of everything, and one of his most human movies, even if the ending was a little silly.

I felt similarly about Tenet as I did to Dunkirk. First off, my wife and I are huge time-travel fans and absolutely love stories that mess with time. We've watched just about everything out there with good time travel work, we love to discuss it, and our bar for what is difficult to understand is probably higher than most. That said, neither of us found the time manipulation to be particularly confusing. Just like he does in any of his twist movies (especially The Prestige, which is still my favorite Nolan movie), he gives you the keys to the puzzle early on, you just don't know it. Only, in Tenet, it seemed very obvious when a character said something that was going to be obviously important later on. Similarly, the structure of the movie became very clear at least by halfway, if not before, which put together the major pieces of the first half almost immediately, and later filled in most of the gaps.

The action was fun; because we were in a theatre, we didn't have any sound issues; Washington was solid and Pattinson was, unsurprisingly, fucking amazing. I enjoyed Branagh as a villain, but his story was...kinda dumb. Overall, I don't think I'll ever feel a desire to see Tenet again, but I'm glad I watched it. It was fun.
 
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