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| billyweeds |
 Posted: Wed Nov 25, 2015 6:23 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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inlareviewer wrote: Has anyone seen Beasts of No Nations? Am torn on whether to stream it or not.
I am a big Idris Elba fan on the strength of the television series Luther, co-starring a scene-stealing Ruth Wilson. (And if you haven't seen it, stream NOW.) But Beasts of No Nation doesn't call to me. I haven't seen it, and feel I should, never a good sign. |
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| inlareviewer |
| Posted: Wed Nov 25, 2015 7:21 pm |
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Joined: 05 Jul 2004
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Location: Lawrence, KS
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| willybeeds, have Luther in the queue, and have been a fan of Mr. Elba ever since he played Stringer Bell on The Wire, not to mention new Dunder-Mifflin head honcho Charles Miner on The Office and painter Lenny on The Big C. But, yes, my general sense that BONN is a film I'm being told I'm supposed to see, even though critic after critic has noted how disturbing, harrowing and visceral it is, unnerves me more than a little. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Thu Nov 26, 2015 7:53 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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| Must admit I have never been able to grasp what it is people adore so much about The Wire. I have tried no less than three times to get into it, but the sheer density of the writing alwqys seems to lose me halfway into the first episode. Had the same problem with Syriana. Clueless as to what my brain cannot compute about these things, but I have to live with it. |
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| inlareviewer |
| Posted: Thu Nov 26, 2015 10:59 am |
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Joined: 05 Jul 2004
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Location: Lawrence, KS
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| willybeeds, well, it is dense, that's for sure, and I ultimately stopped watching it, but I did like Mr. Elba as the crime boss's sensible money man. |
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"And take extra care with strangers/Even flowers have their dangers/And though scary is exciting/Nice is different than good." --Stephen Sondheim |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Sun Nov 29, 2015 8:17 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: New York City
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Joy is wonderful, my favorite movie of the year to date. The mostly true story of inventor Joy Mangano--a self-made woman if there ever was one--it's funny, heartwarming, and altogether satisfying even though it threatens at certain points to turn into a modern version of the silent screen serial The Perils of Pauline. Joy meets hurdle after hurdle, coming out on top against all odds. But star Jennifer Lawrence makes it work.
Lawrence has not ever been my favorite actress (or female actor, if you must). Her masklike visage can turn into a perpetual deadpan. In her breakthrough movie Winter's Bone, she was terrific, but subsequent outings have not been as successful IMO. I thoroughly loathed everything about American Hustle, and her Oscar for Silver Linings Playbook seemed completely undeserved, especially in the face of her competition from octogenarian Emmanuelle (Amour) Riva. But in Joy she scores a particular triumph, carrying this complicated saga with humor, pluck, and occasional fierceness recalling Winter's Bone.
She is backed by a superb supporting cast including the David O. Russell regulars Robert De Niro and Bradley Cooper along with Diane Ladd, Virginia Madsen, Isabella Rossellini, Dascha Polanco, and most of all Edgar Ramirez, who should be rewarded with an Oscar nomination. As should Lawrence. A great many Oscars are belatedly awarded for the wrong movie (I'm talking Paul Newman for The Color of Money, Meryl Streep for The Iron Lady, Denzel Washington for Training Day, and most egregiously Al Pacino for Scent of a Woman). In Lawrence's case she was PREMATURELY Oscared, but here is the one she should have won for. Or may still. Who knows? She's still the flavor of the millennium. |
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| Ghulam |
| Posted: Sat Dec 05, 2015 2:20 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: Upstate NY
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The Canadian movie "Room" is this year's favorite on the international film festival circuit and fully deserves all the accolades it has received. The story is about a six year old boy holed up in captivity since birth with his mother in a little room. The mother was kidnapped when she was 17 by a sadistic man. The way the mother tries to make the life of the child "normal" by telling him about the outside world is deeply affecting. The second half of the movie is devoted to the painful adaptation to the outside world that both of them have to go through after their escape. Very sensitively directed by Lenny Abrahamson. Brie Larson is extraordinary as the mother.
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| bartist |
| Posted: Sat Dec 05, 2015 2:56 pm |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
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Location: Black Hills
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I'm starting to think Larson* is extraordinary, period. Sounds like it was inspired by that captivity case in the news, a couple years ago.
* I have yet to see Brie give a cheesy performance. |
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| whiskeypriest |
| Posted: Sat Dec 05, 2015 3:34 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: "It's a Dry Heat."
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I do not know what is so great about Rivas's performance. She pretty much just laid there the entire second half of the movie!
I preferred Lawrence to Rivas, but admit to favoring comic performances in general.
As an aside, to please my wife I watched the entirety of the Angelique series of movies. The third best highlight was the moment I said "Holy shit that is Jean-Louis Trantignant!" Best moment was when Michele Mercier was being tortured by being locked in a roomful of cats. With live cats clearly being tossed at her from off screen.
Second best moment was every time they showed Mercier, naked, laying on her front, with various pieces of furniture strategically placed to cover her ass from the camera view. |
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| inlareviewer |
| Posted: Mon Dec 07, 2015 2:07 pm |
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Joined: 05 Jul 2004
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I have scant objectivity on Emmanuelle Riva in Amour, who was, at all stages of dessication, a ringer for the late mater. Made the mistake of going to see it not long after her passing; BFF Bret had to half-carry me up the aisle at the end. That notwithstanding, her performance seemed (after my shakes stopped) incredibly nuanced by stages, as though she was wasting away before Mssr. Trintignant and the viewer's eyes while the person she once was somehow flickered inside her own lighthouse eyes. Liked JenLaw in SLPB, quite a bit, actually, but it wasn't exactly difficult to determine the technique and approach by which she assayed bipolarity, whereas I have no idea how Mme. Riva achieved what she did from inside out. As ever, it's all so subjective.
Ghulam wrote: .
The Canadian movie "Room" is this year's favorite on the international film festival circuit and fully deserves all the accolades it has received. The story is about a six year old boy holed up in captivity since birth with his mother in a little room. The mother was kidnapped when she was 17 by a sadistic man. The way the mother tries to make the life of the child "normal" by telling him about the outside world is deeply affecting. The second half of the movie is devoted to the painful adaptation to the outside world that both of them have to go through after their escape. Very sensitively directed by Lenny Abrahamson. Brie Larson is extraordinary as the mother.
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Couldn't agree more, and Jacob Tremblay as the kid is right there with her, easily my tandem-performance picks of 2015 thus far. 10-Second Review is up on that forum, Current Film thoughts are here:
http://www.thirdeyefilm.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=242586&highlight=#242586
bartist wrote: I'm starting to think Larson* is extraordinary, period. Sounds like it was inspired by that captivity case in the news, a couple years ago.
* I have yet to see Brie give a cheesy performance.
It's based on Irish/Canadian author Emma Donoghue's remarkable 2010 novel, which is told from the child's POV in his syntax, and she got the idea in 2008, from the Elizabeth Fritzl case in Austria, but it's not specifically about any real-life case, but about, in her own words, "the shock of motherhood." And it's also about a lot more than that -- sometimes limitations and specificity yield wide-ranging results -- and the less one knows going in, the more the impact. And yes, Brie is anything but cheesy -- her first name might well be Caviar, because even her superb turn in Short Term 12 didn't prepare me for what she accomplished in this one. |
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"And take extra care with strangers/Even flowers have their dangers/And though scary is exciting/Nice is different than good." --Stephen Sondheim |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Mon Dec 07, 2015 7:06 pm |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
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whiskeypriest wrote:
As an aside, to please my wife.... Best moment was when Michele Mercier was being tortured by being locked in a roomful of cats. With live cats clearly being tossed at her from off screen.
Second best moment was every time they showed Mercier, naked, laying on her front, with various pieces of furniture strategically placed to cover her ass from the camera view.
I'd appreciate the title, if you recall it. I don't think it will please my wife, but I'd like to see this. |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Mon Dec 07, 2015 7:09 pm |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
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| Inla, thanks for correcting my speculation on the origins of "Room." |
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| inlareviewer |
| Posted: Mon Dec 07, 2015 7:36 pm |
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Joined: 05 Jul 2004
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Location: Lawrence, KS
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bartist wrote: Inla, thanks for correcting my speculation on the origins of "Room."  |
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"And take extra care with strangers/Even flowers have their dangers/And though scary is exciting/Nice is different than good." --Stephen Sondheim |
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| Ghulam |
| Posted: Tue Dec 08, 2015 10:08 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: Upstate NY
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As heart-strings pulling movies go, Creed is a pretty good effort. Somewhat less thrilling than Rocky perhaps. Brutal boxing close-ups.
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| whiskeypriest |
| Posted: Tue Dec 08, 2015 11:34 pm |
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Location: "It's a Dry Heat."
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bartist wrote: whiskeypriest wrote:
As an aside, to please my wife.... Best moment was when Michele Mercier was being tortured by being locked in a roomful of cats. With live cats clearly being tossed at her from off screen.
Second best moment was every time they showed Mercier, naked, laying on her front, with various pieces of furniture strategically placed to cover her ass from the camera view.
I'd appreciate the title, if you recall it. I don't think it will please my wife, but I'd like to see this.
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I ask you, Velvel, as a rational man, which of us is possessed? |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Wed Dec 09, 2015 10:07 am |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
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Location: Black Hills
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| Merci, Prêtre du Whisky. |
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