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| Befade |
 Posted: Fri Oct 31, 2014 7:00 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 3784
Location: AZ
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I want to see Nightcrawler.......
Carol........Gone Girl is long.......2 1/2 hours. It's fairly faithful to the book. A lot of flashbacks. I still don't get why people love it. it's such a downer.....book and movie. |
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| carrobin |
| Posted: Fri Oct 31, 2014 9:49 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 7795
Location: NYC
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| When I finished "Gone Girl," I gave the book to my friend David, who likes to find movies on the Internet and put them on disks. Once he's read it, I may ask him to copy the movie for me. There are too many other films out right now I'd rather see. |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Sun Nov 02, 2014 10:22 pm |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Posts: 6961
Location: Black Hills
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| Nightcrawler is proof that Jake G. can turn off the boyish charm and make your blood run cold as icewater. This is a disturbing sketch of a sociopath that shows you the cold hard ambition that will flatten anything that gets in its path. IOW, an American success story! I'm a bit gobsmacked - the thing is superbly done - so can't say right now if this is one of the year's best. I wanted to say American Psycho meets Drive, but that's not quite right....but if you liked either or both of those movies, then I'd guess you would find Nightcrawler worth a look. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Sun Nov 02, 2014 10:28 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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bartist wrote: Nightcrawler is proof that Jake G. can turn off the boyish charm and make your blood run cold as icewater. This is a disturbing sketch of a sociopath that shows you the cold hard ambition that will flatten anything that gets in its path. IOW, an American success story! I'm a bit gobsmacked - the thing is superbly done - so can't say right now if this is one of the year's best. I wanted to say American Psycho meets Drive, but that's not quite right....but if you liked either or both of those movies, then I'd guess you would find Nightcrawler worth a look.
Seeing it Tuesday. Can't wait. |
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| knox |
| Posted: Mon Nov 03, 2014 12:59 pm |
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Joined: 18 Mar 2010
Posts: 1246
Location: St. Louis
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Don't wish to be dogmatic, but I'm saying if you like film and you hang out at a film forum, then you go see Nightcrawler.
What amazes me is that this director just came out of nowhere...."nowhere" defined as "some random writer you never heard of who is married to Rene Russo and somehow managed to write and direct something that people will be talking about for years long after they've forgotten Gone Girl...."
Gone Girl was a pretentious chuckle about marriage and angry feminism. Nightcrawler dips your soul in liquid nitrogen and persuades you not to leap out of the vat even as you feel all hope is dying. No instant karma here, folks. Ted Levine was a posturing buffoon with mommy issues - Jake G is what the psychos really look like. Isolated, empty, malice-filled, yet reeking a terrifying charm and understanding. |
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| Befade |
| Posted: Mon Nov 03, 2014 1:59 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 3784
Location: AZ
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| Guess I better go see it this afternoon before other things intrude |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Tue Nov 04, 2014 3:20 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9016
Location: Shanghai
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knox wrote: Don't wish to be dogmatic, but I'm saying if you like film and you hang out at a film forum, then you go see Nightcrawler.
I know very little about it so far.
But if it's one of those nihilistic psychopath films, I'll be sure to miss it.
I skipped Drive and generally don't like violent films.
Violence in films is usually boring and lazy -- and a whole film centered around it really tries my patience. And who wants to spend their time with ugliness and violence? I don't get the appeal. |
Last edited by gromit on Wed Jan 21, 2015 2:28 am; edited 1 time in total
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Tue Nov 04, 2014 6:46 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: New York City
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I get the point about ugliness and violence, but if the violence is done with style I can dig it.
There's no violence at all in Elsa & Fred, the new remake of an Argentinian film with the same title--but neither is there much of anything else. Shirley MacLaine and Christopher Plummer play the title roles, two oldsters who wind up living in adjoining apartments in New Orleans. He's an over-the-top recently-widowed curmudgeon and she's a congenital liar obsessed with Fellini's La Dolce Vita and they just melt each other's gosh-darned hearts for 90 minutes. It's borderline unwatchable.
The actors are fine, although MacLaine is miscast as an earth-mother/life-affirmer/crazo and Plummer's accent comes and goes like the wind. They're not to blame. It's the script, which wanders here and there, introducing unearned catharses and sudden, radical character changes and so many peripheral characters played by so many wasted name (and no-name) actors that I lost count. The names include Scott Bakula, Chris Noth, James Brolin, George Segal, and Marcia Gay Harden--all of whose roles could have been played by robots. The aging process has been hard on Segal, Brolin is near-unrecognizable, and Noth gives a surprisingly inept performance, but really, it doesn't matter. This was a no-win situation.
Oh, and did I mention? You're a half-hour ahead of the plot almost every step of the way, always a fun exercise. Just for instance (and this MIGHT be a spoiler alert if you're not at all hip): when one leading character has given up on life and has to be brought out of his shell by a yes-to-life go-getter--then if you don't know which of these two has to die before the final credits roll, you need to see more bad movies. |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Tue Nov 04, 2014 9:20 am |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
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Location: Black Hills
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gromit wrote: knox wrote: Don't wish to be dogmatic, but I'm saying if you like film and you hang out at a film forum, then you go see Nightcrawler.
I know very little about it so far.
But if it's one of those nihilistic psychopath films, I'll be sure to miss it.
I skipped Drive and generally don't like violent films.
Violence in films is usually boring and lazy -- and a whole film centered around it really tries my patience. And who wnats to spend their time with ugliness and violence? I don't get the appeal.
The first sentence of your reply bears scrutiny. It's not centered on the violence so much as how people, and the media that serve them, drive a market for lurid news video. This is a much smarter film than what you are describing. There is satiric wit, and some notably funny moments when you see how people can be taken in by a charmer who knows what they want. |
Last edited by bartist on Tue Nov 04, 2014 9:26 am; edited 1 time in total
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| gromit |
| Posted: Tue Nov 04, 2014 9:21 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
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Location: Shanghai
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Since the one character in Elsa & Fred likes Fellini films, I assume it plays off Ginger & Fred, Fellini's late film with an aged Mastroianni and Masina. But maybe it's not worth it to see its take/relation to that film.
I realize you saw the American remake, but it's been a while since I've seen any good recent South American films.
The Secret in Their Eyes was highly praised but I thought it was overlong, boring and the title clue was beyond ridiculous. The Maid had some nice local color, but really went nowhere. There was another, with Milk in the title which was a little better or maybe just more vaguely remembered.
Going back a few years:
The documentary Nostalgia De La Luz (2010), which essentially uses the barren Atacama Desert as a metaphor for modern Chile. Guzman (The Battle of Chile) presents an interesting array of astronomers and relatives of the disappeared, and manages to entwine the two. There are also assorted left-wing intellectuals and artists, plus one military coup leader who reflects back and evades responsibility.
I especially liked the Colombian film The Wind Journeys (2009), which I've touted before. Accordions with animal horns, machetes, wandering around jungles and salt flats, interesting local music -- quite good.
Karen Cries on the Bus (2011) was okayish but disappointing.
Colors of the Mountain (Colombia 2009; Film Movement) and Mutum (Brasil 2007; Global Lens) both deal with a small boy trying to grow up and comprehend the world amidst adult violence. In the case of Colors, the villagers are trapped between the guerrillas and the army; while Mutum focuses on family dysfunction. Both are fairly good but nothing to really go out of your way for. |
Last edited by gromit on Wed Jan 21, 2015 2:31 am; edited 1 time in total
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| carrobin |
| Posted: Tue Nov 04, 2014 10:22 am |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 7795
Location: NYC
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| I tend to agree with Gromit about violent films, but this forum sends me to movies I otherwise might not see, and "Drive" was one of them. It was terrific, and I've been a Ryan Gosling fan ever since. So I'm going to try to see "Nightcrawler." (Last night Jake was on the Daily Show and told Jon Stewart that he was his model for the character.) |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Tue Nov 04, 2014 1:39 pm |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
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Location: Black Hills
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carrobin wrote: I tend to agree with Gromit about violent films, but this forum sends me to movies I otherwise might not see, and "Drive" was one of them. It was terrific, and I've been a Ryan Gosling fan ever since. So I'm going to try to see "Nightcrawler." (Last night Jake was on the Daily Show and told Jon Stewart that he was his model for the character.)
Hahaha! Bet Stewart loved that!
I don't want to misrepresent the film as somehow a delight to watch, or try to sell it to anyone who is truly averse to any blood. There are scenes that are hard to watch, for sure. I'll just add that, after a couple days, "Nightcrawler" has stayed with me in a way that only a fine work of art can do. (full disclosure - my viewing partner insisted we take a long walk, afters, and then holed up in her den and watched "Mulan" to clear Ncrawler from her thoughts....)
[/b] |
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| Befade |
| Posted: Tue Nov 04, 2014 4:56 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 3784
Location: AZ
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I'm with Carro and Gromit about avoiding violent films. But I have to disagree with Bart and Knox about Gyllanhal's character being a psychopath. A psychopath is smooth, charismatic, fools people and confuses people. Gyllanhal's Lou was not slick (that hairdo did him in). He was an obsessive, driven nerd with no moral compass. Not to say that Gyllanhal's performance wasn't masterful. It was.........he wasn't even a shadow of his former self.
I think one of the values of the movie was its spotlight on tv news and its interaction with our sensibilities. I used to watch Diane Sawyer on ABC and was fond of David Muir and happy when he took over. Now my impression is he is reporting more in the style of local news. "Shock them. Scare them. Rivet them." That's why I don't watch local news. Maybe PBS is the way to avoid the mayhem.
There's a new book out about Gary Hart and the media frenzy about his affair and how the media has headed in a sensationalist direction. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Tue Nov 04, 2014 9:57 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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Can I say without getting a lot of flak that I've never been a fan of Taxi Driver? To me it's not all that. But Nightcrawler is. It's everything Taxi Driver wanted to be and wasn't. Gyllenhaal's "nightcrawler," a tabloid cameraman building his business from the ground up with no scruples at all, is not so much a psychopath as a sociopath with a disorder that reminds one of autism or Asberger's. But he's definitely on the evil curve, and Jake fulfills the role to the max. The direction and writing by Dan Gilroy are aces, the photography is splendid, and the mood is dark as pitch, noir as hell. I liked it immensely, though as bart says "liked" is probably not the right word. My wife said she constantly wanted to run out of the theater and away from the movie, but couldn't because it was so riveting. This is a must, a classic, and certainly one of the best of the year.
What a family those Gilroys are. Dan has Nightcrawler, his brother Tony did Michael Clayton, and their dad Frank D. won the Pulitzer for The Subject Was Roses. |
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| whiskeypriest |
| Posted: Wed Nov 05, 2014 2:30 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 6916
Location: "It's a Dry Heat."
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| I do not like or dislike violent movies. Depnds on the movie. But I heartly loathe being told that if I consider myself a movie person I must see some movie. I see what I choose to see, fuck you very much. |
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