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| billyweeds |
 Posted: Mon Dec 14, 2015 10:17 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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| Tried The Wire one more time, and lo and behold, I am finally into it and becoming a cult member. Will wonders never cease? |
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| yambu |
| Posted: Mon Dec 14, 2015 12:40 pm |
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Joined: 23 May 2004
Posts: 6441
Location: SF Bay Area
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billyweeds wrote: Will wonders never cease? |
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That was great for you. How was it for me? |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Mon Dec 21, 2015 8:23 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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| Alejandro González Iñárritu's new film The Revenant is about as far from his most recent Birdman as it is possible to be. The Revenant is one of the most unremittingly intense movies I've ever seen. From first frame to last (more than two-and-a-half-hours) the audience is subjected to non-stop horror of one sort or another. And it's riveting. The true (mostly) story of a 19th-century fur trapper named Hugh Glass who was mauled by a grizzly, left for dead by an evil companion, and crawled, fought, and grunted his way back to life in the name of revenge, it stars Leonardo DiCaprio in what is being touted as a likely Oscarwinning performance, though it's less about acting than survival. DiCaprio is very good in the role, but acting-wise it's no Wolf of Wall Street (what could be?). If he wins, it will be one of those "career" Oscars a la Al Pacino, Paul Newman, and Henry Fonda. See this movie, but brace yourself completely. |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Mon Dec 21, 2015 10:07 am |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Posts: 6963
Location: Black Hills
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| The ordeal takes place in South Dakota, in the side of the state where I reside. It is an important narrative here, in a way more central to the SD spirit than the stories of Deadwood or the Black Hills gold rush. The movie will no doubt pack the 'plex here. |
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He was wise beyond his years, but only by a few days. |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Mon Dec 21, 2015 11:03 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9016
Location: Shanghai
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I'm looking forward to Ernie Biscuit a 20 minute claymation short by Adam Elliot. He's the creative dynamo behind Harvey Krumpet and Mary & Max (2009). M&M was terrific. Too bad it takes so long to make stop-motion animation, especially feature length films. Ernie Biscuit started doing a festival this Summer and I'm not really sure what the fate is of short animation films, in terms of release and exposure. But I'm looking forward to seeing it when available.
From IMDb:
Quote: Ernie Biscuit is the clayography of a deaf Parisian taxidermist whose life is turned upside down and back to front when a dead pigeon arrives on his doorstep. |
Last edited by gromit on Mon Dec 28, 2015 2:41 am; edited 1 time in total
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Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
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| Syd |
| Posted: Tue Dec 22, 2015 9:49 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 12933
Location: Norman, Oklahoma
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| Looks like Jennifer Jason Leigh has two shots for a supporting actress Oscar nomination, though Hateful Eight is the more likely since she is voice acting in Anomalisa. I've liked her since The Big Picture and especially Miami Heat, where she plays a somewhat dullwitted, beautiful waitress who nevertheless outsmarts her criminal boyfriend. She's easily the best thing in the movie. Somehow she's never nabbed an Oscar nomination, though she's gotten quite a few nominations from other sources. And of course, she was the villain in Single White Female, and Margot's sister who had the wedding. |
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Rocky Laocoon foretold of Troy's doom, only to find snaky water. They pulled him in and Rocky can't swim. Now Rocky wishes he were an otter! |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Wed Dec 23, 2015 8:25 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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Jennifer Jason Leigh is a great actress whose superb performances are almost beyond calculation (Dolores Claiborne, anyone?).* I haven't seen either The Hateful 8 or Anomalisa, but the buzz seems to say 2015 is likely to be her year.
*(On the other hand , there's her horrendous turn in The Hudsucker Proxy, but let's not even mention that.) |
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| inlareviewer |
| Posted: Wed Dec 23, 2015 7:24 pm |
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Joined: 05 Jul 2004
Posts: 1949
Location: Lawrence, KS
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| Besides all those egregious overlooks others have mentioned, Jennifer Jason Leigh was robbed by that, um, film society for Georgia and Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle, period. |
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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: Sat Dec 26, 2015 8:58 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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No Star Wars yet, but catching up on some of the touted films of the year. The Diary of a Teenage Girl is the essence of Sundance mediocrity, an indie with all the self-indulgence and blahness often criticized in indies. Of course it was called brilliant in some circles, but this tale of a girl who sleeps with her mother's boyfriend is just...there. It desperately wants to be another Juno. But no. Still, Bel Powley as the girl got a critic's prize. She's okay, but the big takeaway is more evidence that Kristen Wiig (as the mother) is a superb actress. In just a few scenes, none of them comedic, Wiig puts the movie in her pocket.
Truth is the story of the scandal that more or less ruined Dan Rather's brilliant career, when the team led by Mary Mapes acted on too-scant evidence that George W. Bush had landed a cushy job in the National Guard during the Vietnam War and then bagged on the deal anyway. No matter that the story was probably true, the evidence didn't back it up. The movie is galvanizing, and Cate Blanchett as Mapes is sensational--much more effective than in her overpraised turn in the oversold Carol. And Robert Redford as Rather gives one of his best-ever performances, harking back to his mind-blower in All the President 's Men. This movie is more melodramatic but in many ways more exciting than the excellent Spotlight, another current and more-praised film about reporting. A great supporting cast including Dennis Quaid, Topher Grace, Elisabeth Moss, and Stacy Keach nails the sad saga of Truth to the wall. |
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| Syd |
| Posted: Sat Dec 26, 2015 9:20 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 12933
Location: Norman, Oklahoma
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billyweeds wrote: Joy is wonderful, my favorite movie of the year to date. ...
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.
I'm really hoping Ramirez and Cooper both get nominations. They'd probably wind up competing against each other in the supporting category. It's very much Lawrence's movie. I found it totally believable that Joy and Tony would marry, get divorced and still wind up very close friends.
The storytelling here is very odd in the early scenes; you have to take it on faith that the movie is going someplace. It turns out to be an interesting and offbeat story about an inventor of a more perfect mop battling to bring it to the world while fighting the villains of the corporate world (and the home shopping network). By the way you forgot to mention Melissa Rivers doing a dead-on interpretation of her mother.
I think the Miracle Mop must have been the inspiration for pretty much every mop I've ever bought. I wonder how many of of Joy Mangano's other inventions I have around the house. |
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Rocky Laocoon foretold of Troy's doom, only to find snaky water. They pulled him in and Rocky can't swim. Now Rocky wishes he were an otter! |
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| Syd |
| Posted: Sat Dec 26, 2015 10:46 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 12933
Location: Norman, Oklahoma
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One interesting thing about Joy is that there is no romantic interest at all (except for her ex-husband in flashbacks, and he's still her second closest friend), no male savior (Joy figures out how to win her ultimate confrontation all by herself), no hunk as an award for being fantastic. The movie avoids a lot of cliches.
It also makes me realize that every David O. Russell film I've seen is different than the one before. I don't always like his films, but he certainly doesn't repeat himself. |
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Rocky Laocoon foretold of Troy's doom, only to find snaky water. They pulled him in and Rocky can't swim. Now Rocky wishes he were an otter! |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Sun Dec 27, 2015 7:50 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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Syd wrote: One interesting thing about Joy is that there is no romantic interest at all (except for her ex-husband in flashbacks, and he's still her second closest friend), no male savior (Joy figures out how to win her ultimate confrontation all by herself), no hunk as an award for being fantastic. The movie avoids a lot of cliches.
It also makes me realize that every David O. Russell film I've seen is different than the one before. I don't always like his films, but he certainly doesn't repeat himself.
Agree. Even when I despise his movies (American Hustle, I Heart Huckabees) I have to give them points for originality. And his best films (Three Kings, The Fighter, and now Joy) all take genres that could have been absolutely cliche-ridden and make them fresh and exhilarating. |
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| inlareviewer |
| Posted: Mon Dec 28, 2015 12:32 am |
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Joined: 05 Jul 2004
Posts: 1949
Location: Lawrence, KS
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Saw Carol today. willybeeds, you predicted correctly, although I can also see exactly what you were talking about -- it is restrained, controlled and tasteful almost to a fault -- and can also see why more political/radical of my colleagues are taking issue with its gender queries and a certain Hollywood studio, not quite misogyny, but not quite not, either. That said, loved it, easily one of the most refined fillums of this or any year. La Blanchett and Ms. Mara are beautifully attuned, with scrupulously modulated, Golden Age-nuanced performances -- we kept thinking Lauren Bacall and Audrey Hepburn, which is likely what Mr. Haynes, whose most accomplished and cohesive work to date this is, intends us to think, and while Cate is more calculated in her Ingrid/Ingmar Bergman effects, Rooney more oblique in her transparent motivations, given their character specifics, that seems appropriate. Ms. Paulson and Mr. Chandler are particularly effective in support, and as a piece of cinema-as-composition, it is impeccably achieved, not least Ed Lachman's purposely desaturated Super 16 MM lensing -- Edward Hopper meets Richard Avedon by way of Ben Shahn -- and Sandy Powell's usual ace job on the wardrobe angle. Even the shameless lift from Brief Encounter in the framing device is of a piece with Mr. Haynes' vision and, yes, Ms. Highsmith's original novel, which Ms. Nagy adapts rather than replicates. That is its only valid comparison to Brokeback Mountain -- if I hear one more person calling it the lesbian Brokeback, I'll just yip -- in that it manages to retain the central essence of a tale while rendering it accessible to 21st-century sensibilities. Though perhaps ultimately more elegant than rending, it's a remarkable achievement, right up to its indelible final shots.
Edited for missing pluralities. |
Last edited by inlareviewer on Tue Dec 29, 2015 12:56 am; edited 1 time in total
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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: Mon Dec 28, 2015 7:28 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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| Room soars right to the top of my 2015 movie list (tied with two other one-syllable titles, Joy and Truth). Don't want to talk too much about the plot of Room, but it's the kind of ripped-from-the-headlines story that could have been cheesy and melodramatic. It's anything but. Under the astute direction of Lenny Abrahamson, Brie Larson and a child actor named Jacob Tremblay brilliantly play mother and son trapped in a small room. The child knows no other world. I'll let you find out why for yourself, but make sure you do. You won't have a more emotionally wrenching, ultimately empowering experience at the movies this year. |
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| inlareviewer |
| Posted: Mon Dec 28, 2015 12:47 pm |
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Joined: 05 Jul 2004
Posts: 1949
Location: Lawrence, KS
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billyweeds wrote: Room soars right to the top of my 2015 movie list (tied with two other one-syllable titles, Joy and Truth). Don't want to talk too much about the plot of Room, but it's the kind of ripped-from-the-headlines story that could have been cheesy and melodramatic. It's anything but. Under the astute direction of Lenny Abrahamson, Brie Larson and a child actor named Jacob Tremblay brilliantly play mother and son trapped in a small room. The child knows no other world. I'll let you find out why for yourself, but make sure you do. You won't have a more emotionally wrenching, ultimately empowering experience at the movies this year.
What willybeeds said. It's a wee Great Film, and stays with one thereafter.
I actually quite liked Truth, even though, as I told Mr. Weeden in a PM a bit ago, I was rather overly aware of what it took The Redford to Dan Rather-ize himself. But it popped along, it didn't get too didactic/TV-movie in its film syntax, and La Blanchett was, if anything, the film-stealer there -- wouldn't be at all surprised to see her land a double nod from that other, um, film society.
Haven't seen Joy yet, but I suppose I must. I did, however, see Brooklyn," and it at present joins Room and End of the Tour as my top picks for the year, with Carol coming in a gorgeous, albeit somewhat bloodless fourth, and Ex Machina a creepy, chill-your-blood-ness fifth. Will be speaking of the Irish immigrant tale at length once I stop sniffling. A beautifully made, wonderfully acted, unpretentious and, by our lights, thoroughly satisfying Old-School fillum, and Ms. Ronan has grown up marvelously, just saying. |
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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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