What was the last movie you watched?
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tennishabit
Legend
hybrid of horriwood n borriwood might revive the film industry for a while
))....................
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Deleted member 293577
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Finally saw Bohemian Rhapsody. If you are remotely a fan of Queen, this is a must see.
NonP
Legend
It's that time of the year again, if off by a couple of weeks: perhaps the most stimulating commercial release of the awards season gets unjustly ignored or panned amid all the attention paid to the front-runners whose fate is usually decided well in advance of the actual ballots. In 2016 we had Passengers, a two-of-a-kind space romance whose plot holes and supposed violation of the feminist ethos overrode for the majority of industry eggheads its provocative exploration of thorny ethical questions and their real-life implications. But if the lukewarm reception of Passengers was understandable in light of the recent election of Trump and what it represented to millions of women both home and abroad, the blackballing of Downsizing the following year was nothing short of a scandal, as the latter was in many ways Alexander Payne's masterpiece (its only serious contender is Election, the culmination of his satirical takedowns of retail politics) and arguably the very best film of 2017 which was, well, downsized for its bold tackling of a dizzying array of sacred cows both left and right and thereby hitting a tad too close to home. (The fact that its detractors were citing the Vietnamese character of Ngoc Lan as a racist stereotype, never mind the anecdotal consensus on the part of actual minority audience members that she was the best thing about the movie, shows how feeble and baseless their overall criticism really was.)
And now we turn to Replicas, a presumed 2018 title (more on this shortly) whose release was postponed till after New Year's as an ominous sign of things to come. I'll be honest, it was a morbid curiosity that prompted me to give this a go as I was intrigued to see just how bad a movie could be to have earned a putrid 12% favorable rating on Rotten Tomatoes despite its promisingly mind-bending premise. And it's not too hard to see why: the movie borrows shamelessly not only from the primordial soup of Metropolis and Blade Runner but also from the more recent smorgasbord of Minority Report, I, Robot and who knows what others. Still it's cases like this that make me wonder if a real conspiracy may be in place, as I don't see how any dispassionate analysis of the actual work on display could lead to such a dismissive assessment. According to the critics we're supposed to find Replicas several times less worthy of our time than the following top 20 earners at the current box office:
Aquaman
Escape Room
Mary Poppins Returns
Bumblebee
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
The Mule
Vice
Second Act
Ralph Breaks the Internet
Holmes and Watson
Bohemian Rhapsody
Mary Queen of Scots
The Favourite
If Beale Street Could Talk
Green Book
On the Basis of Sex
The Grinch
Simmba
Creed II
Instant Family
Now I won't pretend to have seen all of them (though the only ones I've missed are Second Act, Holmes and Watson, and Simmba), but I can also say this: with the only possible exception of Beale Street I find Replicas more rewarding than any of the above titles, and no doubt the most fascinating of them all including Jenkins' latest feature. So what could be behind such a wide divergence between the critical consensus and my own preference? Am I really so out of touch, or is there something else at work here?
At the risk of being presumptuous I suspect the latter. When you stay till the end of Replicas' closing credits (yes, I'm one of those weirdos) you'll see that the movie was copyrighted back in 2017, and upon further digging you find out that its very first screening was a private one at the 2017 Toronto festival and its public premiere didn't take place till November 2018 at the Night Visions festival in Helsinki. In other words the industry had already decided that this was a minor release despite its $30 million budget, and the so-called critics seem to have complied with its savage verdict on the film even before it was given a chance. If that sounds like an unduly harsh take on the situation consider the fact that Passengers and Downsizing themselves had a troubled history of being stuck in development hell for years. It could all be a coincidence, yes, but that's hard to square with the frivolous nature of attacks I've seen so far on Replicas, the most egregious and prevalent of which seems to be that the movie suffers from too many plot holes and logical lapses. OK, fair enough (let's assume for argument's sake), but so do the Bond and MI movies, not to mention other disposable entertainment many of these same critics have championed while giving it a pass for the very plot holes they somehow don't necessarily think are deal breakers. But why not? Even if we were to grant the validity of grading on a curve one could well argue that those lapses in plot should be held especially against the popcorn flicks as they depend entirely on the plausibility of their characters and situations the audience can identify with. And why grade on a curve at all? Are we not doing the studio heads' bidding when we insist on it in the first place? (I ask this as someone who did enjoy the latest MI installment, which I found almost as entertaining as the previous one - I generally prefer fewer plot twists, especially those one could see coming a mile away.) And why get so hung up on such superficial matters when the film clearly sets its sights on bigger targets? Are we not perpetuating the role of movies as moneymaking ventures first and foremost when we treat them as puzzles to be solved once and for all rather than as living things to reflect on over and over as we find our ways in this fascinating world that always seems within our grasp only to slip away?
I don't mean to oversell Replicas. Again it is derivative and won't be breaking any new ground for most, and some of the plot points are indeed head-scratching. (I still don't know what Jeffrey Nachmanoff and screenwriter Chad St. John were thinking when they - spoiler alert! - inserted that feel-good revival of Zoey at the end.) But I do feel it belongs in the venerable tradition of Metropolis, Solaris, Blade Runner and A.I. for its welcome meditation on where the self begins and ends in our age of increasing automation and corporate dominance, and while Reeves' limited range as an actor is as evident as ever he makes the most of it here. I suggest you give it a shot, and if you end up liking it half as much as I did, go ahead and spread the word.
Jenkins remains a frustrating filmmaker for me. Clearly talented and I applaud him for his adventurous projects, but his lyricism strikes me as more studied than intuitive (much like his own film criticism, I must add) and his films feel less like adventures than destinations. Haven't read the Baldwins novel but I'll probably like it better than Jenkins' take on it.
Despite its warm reception (most of it justified) so far I doubt the film will crack my top 10 of 2018, as I've got these ahead of it (in rough order of preference):
- First Reformed
- The Third Murder
- Roma
- The King (Eugene Jarecki's wildly ambitious documentary on America at large with the help of Elvis' old Rolls Royce)
- A Star Is Born
- The Apparition (Xavier Giannoli - forgot to include in my preliminary roundup this uneven but provocative inquiry into the role and nature of faith in our secular world)
- In the Aisles (Thomas Stuber)
- Leto (Kirill Serebrennikov - as I said below this has yet to open in DC)
- Shoplifters (still not sure about this, frankly)
- The Wife (not quite in the same league as the rest, but the best of the woman-as-auteur tracts of the year, and the acting apart from Max Irons' monotonic turn as nonstop crank David Castleman is sensational throughout)
- Maria by Callas (OK, that's moi fanboying with an all-time fave)
And I've yet to see the following contenders (though I'm cheating a bit as some of these titles including Cold War and The Image Book are premiering in DC this month or later to the best of my knowledge):
Did You Wonder Who Fired the Gun? (Travis Wilkerson)
The Rider
Disobedience
Leave No Trace
Burning
The Other Side of Wind
The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
Cold War
The Image Book (Godard)
So probably just outside the top 10. We'll see.
And now we turn to Replicas, a presumed 2018 title (more on this shortly) whose release was postponed till after New Year's as an ominous sign of things to come. I'll be honest, it was a morbid curiosity that prompted me to give this a go as I was intrigued to see just how bad a movie could be to have earned a putrid 12% favorable rating on Rotten Tomatoes despite its promisingly mind-bending premise. And it's not too hard to see why: the movie borrows shamelessly not only from the primordial soup of Metropolis and Blade Runner but also from the more recent smorgasbord of Minority Report, I, Robot and who knows what others. Still it's cases like this that make me wonder if a real conspiracy may be in place, as I don't see how any dispassionate analysis of the actual work on display could lead to such a dismissive assessment. According to the critics we're supposed to find Replicas several times less worthy of our time than the following top 20 earners at the current box office:
Aquaman
Escape Room
Mary Poppins Returns
Bumblebee
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
The Mule
Vice
Second Act
Ralph Breaks the Internet
Holmes and Watson
Bohemian Rhapsody
Mary Queen of Scots
The Favourite
If Beale Street Could Talk
Green Book
On the Basis of Sex
The Grinch
Simmba
Creed II
Instant Family
Now I won't pretend to have seen all of them (though the only ones I've missed are Second Act, Holmes and Watson, and Simmba), but I can also say this: with the only possible exception of Beale Street I find Replicas more rewarding than any of the above titles, and no doubt the most fascinating of them all including Jenkins' latest feature. So what could be behind such a wide divergence between the critical consensus and my own preference? Am I really so out of touch, or is there something else at work here?
At the risk of being presumptuous I suspect the latter. When you stay till the end of Replicas' closing credits (yes, I'm one of those weirdos) you'll see that the movie was copyrighted back in 2017, and upon further digging you find out that its very first screening was a private one at the 2017 Toronto festival and its public premiere didn't take place till November 2018 at the Night Visions festival in Helsinki. In other words the industry had already decided that this was a minor release despite its $30 million budget, and the so-called critics seem to have complied with its savage verdict on the film even before it was given a chance. If that sounds like an unduly harsh take on the situation consider the fact that Passengers and Downsizing themselves had a troubled history of being stuck in development hell for years. It could all be a coincidence, yes, but that's hard to square with the frivolous nature of attacks I've seen so far on Replicas, the most egregious and prevalent of which seems to be that the movie suffers from too many plot holes and logical lapses. OK, fair enough (let's assume for argument's sake), but so do the Bond and MI movies, not to mention other disposable entertainment many of these same critics have championed while giving it a pass for the very plot holes they somehow don't necessarily think are deal breakers. But why not? Even if we were to grant the validity of grading on a curve one could well argue that those lapses in plot should be held especially against the popcorn flicks as they depend entirely on the plausibility of their characters and situations the audience can identify with. And why grade on a curve at all? Are we not doing the studio heads' bidding when we insist on it in the first place? (I ask this as someone who did enjoy the latest MI installment, which I found almost as entertaining as the previous one - I generally prefer fewer plot twists, especially those one could see coming a mile away.) And why get so hung up on such superficial matters when the film clearly sets its sights on bigger targets? Are we not perpetuating the role of movies as moneymaking ventures first and foremost when we treat them as puzzles to be solved once and for all rather than as living things to reflect on over and over as we find our ways in this fascinating world that always seems within our grasp only to slip away?
I don't mean to oversell Replicas. Again it is derivative and won't be breaking any new ground for most, and some of the plot points are indeed head-scratching. (I still don't know what Jeffrey Nachmanoff and screenwriter Chad St. John were thinking when they - spoiler alert! - inserted that feel-good revival of Zoey at the end.) But I do feel it belongs in the venerable tradition of Metropolis, Solaris, Blade Runner and A.I. for its welcome meditation on where the self begins and ends in our age of increasing automation and corporate dominance, and while Reeves' limited range as an actor is as evident as ever he makes the most of it here. I suggest you give it a shot, and if you end up liking it half as much as I did, go ahead and spread the word.
Jenkins remains a frustrating filmmaker for me. Clearly talented and I applaud him for his adventurous projects, but his lyricism strikes me as more studied than intuitive (much like his own film criticism, I must add) and his films feel less like adventures than destinations. Haven't read the Baldwins novel but I'll probably like it better than Jenkins' take on it.
Despite its warm reception (most of it justified) so far I doubt the film will crack my top 10 of 2018, as I've got these ahead of it (in rough order of preference):
- First Reformed
- The Third Murder
- Roma
- The King (Eugene Jarecki's wildly ambitious documentary on America at large with the help of Elvis' old Rolls Royce)
- A Star Is Born
- The Apparition (Xavier Giannoli - forgot to include in my preliminary roundup this uneven but provocative inquiry into the role and nature of faith in our secular world)
- In the Aisles (Thomas Stuber)
- Leto (Kirill Serebrennikov - as I said below this has yet to open in DC)
- Shoplifters (still not sure about this, frankly)
- The Wife (not quite in the same league as the rest, but the best of the woman-as-auteur tracts of the year, and the acting apart from Max Irons' monotonic turn as nonstop crank David Castleman is sensational throughout)
- Maria by Callas (OK, that's moi fanboying with an all-time fave)
And I've yet to see the following contenders (though I'm cheating a bit as some of these titles including Cold War and The Image Book are premiering in DC this month or later to the best of my knowledge):
Did You Wonder Who Fired the Gun? (Travis Wilkerson)
The Rider
Disobedience
Leave No Trace
Burning
The Other Side of Wind
The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
Cold War
The Image Book (Godard)
So probably just outside the top 10. We'll see.
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Moose Malloy
G.O.A.T.
NonP
Legend
Just realized I forgot to mention two more features in my best-of-2018 rundown, though in my defense I happened to see both in Seoul (of all places) and strictly speaking should leave one of them out as it has yet to open in DC. Anyhoo here goes:
- In the Aisles, a German chamber drama - its setting mostly in a cavernous wholesale market notwithstanding - directed by Thomas Stuber. I'd missed its only DC screening as part of last year's Film|Neu festival back in November and was hesitant to brave almost an hour on the crowded Seoul metro to go see it, and on my last full day in the city to boot (my flight back home was early next morning), but I'm glad I did. (It didn't hurt that the theater is based at the scenic Ewha Womans University and I stumbled upon its free museum to kill time before moving onto the next theater for the last screening of my sojourn.) Stuber's film bears some similarity with another recent German arthouse standout in Maren Ade's Toni Erdmann (which topped the 2016 Sight & Sound poll, among others), and not least in their sharing of actress Sandra Hüller, but whereas Ade is content to lob a trendy critique of neoliberal capitalism through the rosy eyes of a decidedly upper middle-class family Stuber is more interested in the lives of the working class themselves, three of them in fact: recent ex-con Christian (one of the film's recurring shots is that of him covering up his extensive tattoos before work) and veteran employee Bruno who acts as a surrogate father of sorts to him, and a middle-class woman on the outside looking in named Marion who is trapped in an abusive marriage and mutually attracted to Christian. Suffice it to say I find Stuber's more modest and individualized focus less patronizing than Ade's ambitious but scattershot scope and flippant humor, and while I admire Stuber's film more than I love it I do hope his triumph at the Berlin festival (Prize of the Ecumenical Jury) will eventually introduce him to a wider audience.
- Leto (Summer), a curious Russian biopic/(post-)musical directed by Kirill Serebrennikov that I was lucky to catch in a special Christmas screening (the commemorative flyer I got tells me the film was scheduled for wide release on 1/3/19). This is the one that has yet to come to DC, but that's not why I should probably give it an honorary mention at best - I'm still not sure how I feel about the whole thing, no doubt in part because I didn't understand all the Korean subs but especially because it's not clear what kind of film it wants to be. First off to call it a biopic is misleading as Viktor Tsoi, the iconic Soviet rocker of (partial) Korean ancestry - one of the reasons why it is currently playing in Korea while it has yet to see even a limited release outside NY/LA in the US - is only one of its three protagonists, along with his mentor, champion and friend Mike Naumenko and Mike's wife Natalia (played by babe Irina Starshenbaum) who develops a crush on him to the nonchalant chagrin of Mike, and also for the compressed time frame it covers (centered around the formative days of the Leningrad Rock Club and the recording of Tsoi's first album 45).
So the film is less a biography than a vignette, but it's got more in store for its cast of dreamers as it turns into a rock 'n' roll La La Land (think a wistful, more live-action Who Framed Roger Rabbit) and back on a whim, where the characters act out their fantasies while singing their Western rock anthem of choice. (The choices themselves are less inspired than their execution.) These musical interludes are the film's highlights, but it wouldn't be accurate to say they turn it into a musical as the irony is too self-aware - the running joke is the narrator or one of the characters assuring us that the fantastical sequence we just saw never happened - to forestall such flights of fancy. If the point of these sequences is to remind us of the characters' unfulfilled aspirations Serebrennikov shouldn't have insulted his audience's intelligence to figure it out themselves. Or if the point was to express these very dreams and aspirations yearning to break free of the Soviet system of oppression he should have let them stand as they are: commingled with the lives of the characters whose imagination proves more powerful than a few easy laughs at the expense of a coherent fantasy-reality.
In short Leto is a bit of a mess (I won't get into the fair amount of flack it's caught for its supposed lack of verisimilitude from veterans of the Russian music industry) and Serebrennikov doesn't seem to understand the ingredients of a musical, but it's frequently such an exuberant mess I found myself drawn to it despite some real misgivings. And Vladislav Opelyants' B&W cinematography is ravishing. I'm not ready to second its inclusion in Cahiers du cinéma's top 10 of 2018 (but then this is the same group that counts among its members Spielberg's travesty The Post and shock auteur-cum-porn producer von Trier's The House That Jack Built), but you may want to check your local listings as Serebrennikov's curiosity seems to be expanding or hitting the festival circuits at least.
P.S. I should've known better but I didn't realize until my latest visit that there's such a vibrant arthouse scene in Seoul. I was actually pretty miffed to have to miss a Roma screening at Daehan Cinema and try a different theater, but that turned out to be a blessing in disguise because as I did my on-the-go research it became clear I was missing out a lot. Hit nearly all the indie arthouses I was able to find, with cinecube (where I caught Roma that same day) quite possibly replacing Daehan as my new fave movie theater in Seoul.
Two more things I love about Seoul's arthouse scene:
1) Respect for cinema and your fellow cinephiles is not only expected but all but mandated. No late arriving (they don't let you in after the first 5-10 minutes) and everyone is expected to stay seated through the end credits. In fact I can literally count on the fingers of one hand the total number of people who left early in all the screenings I attended this time (save one, but that was at a mainstream theater).
2) Seoul may no longer be quite the same bargain compared to Tokyo and other major metropolises (still on the affordable side, though), but moviegoing there remains dirt cheap: 8k-10k won per ticket, or about $7-$9. That's regular pricing, not bargain or matinee. Doubt any theater in non-rural America could match it.
I've seen a few posters asking about things to do in Seoul so I figured some of you might find this helpful or interesting. You're welcome.
- In the Aisles, a German chamber drama - its setting mostly in a cavernous wholesale market notwithstanding - directed by Thomas Stuber. I'd missed its only DC screening as part of last year's Film|Neu festival back in November and was hesitant to brave almost an hour on the crowded Seoul metro to go see it, and on my last full day in the city to boot (my flight back home was early next morning), but I'm glad I did. (It didn't hurt that the theater is based at the scenic Ewha Womans University and I stumbled upon its free museum to kill time before moving onto the next theater for the last screening of my sojourn.) Stuber's film bears some similarity with another recent German arthouse standout in Maren Ade's Toni Erdmann (which topped the 2016 Sight & Sound poll, among others), and not least in their sharing of actress Sandra Hüller, but whereas Ade is content to lob a trendy critique of neoliberal capitalism through the rosy eyes of a decidedly upper middle-class family Stuber is more interested in the lives of the working class themselves, three of them in fact: recent ex-con Christian (one of the film's recurring shots is that of him covering up his extensive tattoos before work) and veteran employee Bruno who acts as a surrogate father of sorts to him, and a middle-class woman on the outside looking in named Marion who is trapped in an abusive marriage and mutually attracted to Christian. Suffice it to say I find Stuber's more modest and individualized focus less patronizing than Ade's ambitious but scattershot scope and flippant humor, and while I admire Stuber's film more than I love it I do hope his triumph at the Berlin festival (Prize of the Ecumenical Jury) will eventually introduce him to a wider audience.
- Leto (Summer), a curious Russian biopic/(post-)musical directed by Kirill Serebrennikov that I was lucky to catch in a special Christmas screening (the commemorative flyer I got tells me the film was scheduled for wide release on 1/3/19). This is the one that has yet to come to DC, but that's not why I should probably give it an honorary mention at best - I'm still not sure how I feel about the whole thing, no doubt in part because I didn't understand all the Korean subs but especially because it's not clear what kind of film it wants to be. First off to call it a biopic is misleading as Viktor Tsoi, the iconic Soviet rocker of (partial) Korean ancestry - one of the reasons why it is currently playing in Korea while it has yet to see even a limited release outside NY/LA in the US - is only one of its three protagonists, along with his mentor, champion and friend Mike Naumenko and Mike's wife Natalia (played by babe Irina Starshenbaum) who develops a crush on him to the nonchalant chagrin of Mike, and also for the compressed time frame it covers (centered around the formative days of the Leningrad Rock Club and the recording of Tsoi's first album 45).
So the film is less a biography than a vignette, but it's got more in store for its cast of dreamers as it turns into a rock 'n' roll La La Land (think a wistful, more live-action Who Framed Roger Rabbit) and back on a whim, where the characters act out their fantasies while singing their Western rock anthem of choice. (The choices themselves are less inspired than their execution.) These musical interludes are the film's highlights, but it wouldn't be accurate to say they turn it into a musical as the irony is too self-aware - the running joke is the narrator or one of the characters assuring us that the fantastical sequence we just saw never happened - to forestall such flights of fancy. If the point of these sequences is to remind us of the characters' unfulfilled aspirations Serebrennikov shouldn't have insulted his audience's intelligence to figure it out themselves. Or if the point was to express these very dreams and aspirations yearning to break free of the Soviet system of oppression he should have let them stand as they are: commingled with the lives of the characters whose imagination proves more powerful than a few easy laughs at the expense of a coherent fantasy-reality.
In short Leto is a bit of a mess (I won't get into the fair amount of flack it's caught for its supposed lack of verisimilitude from veterans of the Russian music industry) and Serebrennikov doesn't seem to understand the ingredients of a musical, but it's frequently such an exuberant mess I found myself drawn to it despite some real misgivings. And Vladislav Opelyants' B&W cinematography is ravishing. I'm not ready to second its inclusion in Cahiers du cinéma's top 10 of 2018 (but then this is the same group that counts among its members Spielberg's travesty The Post and shock auteur-cum-porn producer von Trier's The House That Jack Built), but you may want to check your local listings as Serebrennikov's curiosity seems to be expanding or hitting the festival circuits at least.
P.S. I should've known better but I didn't realize until my latest visit that there's such a vibrant arthouse scene in Seoul. I was actually pretty miffed to have to miss a Roma screening at Daehan Cinema and try a different theater, but that turned out to be a blessing in disguise because as I did my on-the-go research it became clear I was missing out a lot. Hit nearly all the indie arthouses I was able to find, with cinecube (where I caught Roma that same day) quite possibly replacing Daehan as my new fave movie theater in Seoul.
Two more things I love about Seoul's arthouse scene:
1) Respect for cinema and your fellow cinephiles is not only expected but all but mandated. No late arriving (they don't let you in after the first 5-10 minutes) and everyone is expected to stay seated through the end credits. In fact I can literally count on the fingers of one hand the total number of people who left early in all the screenings I attended this time (save one, but that was at a mainstream theater).
2) Seoul may no longer be quite the same bargain compared to Tokyo and other major metropolises (still on the affordable side, though), but moviegoing there remains dirt cheap: 8k-10k won per ticket, or about $7-$9. That's regular pricing, not bargain or matinee. Doubt any theater in non-rural America could match it.
I've seen a few posters asking about things to do in Seoul so I figured some of you might find this helpful or interesting. You're welcome.
NonP
Legend
And since I'm on a roll let me comment briefly on the year's critical darling. Yes, I'm talking about Roma. As you might have gathered I liked the film myself but not enough to rate it the best of 2018. In fact I have this sneaking suspicion that Cuaron's love letter a casa will end up occupying the same critical berth as Yang's Yi Yi: a universally acknowledged masterpiece of the decade (Yi Yi was released in 2000 but tends to be counted among films of the aughts) whose reputation while not entirely undeserved precedes its actual artistic worth. I've been struck by how many reviewers used "sweeping," "culmination," distillation" and other similar descriptors to praise Roma to the skies, as those happen to be the same words that have been applied to Yi Yi. And it's easy to see why: just as Yang's most famous (and accessible) work uses family drama to shed light on our understanding of nothing less grand than Taiwan and the world while pulling out all the technical stops at his disposal, Cuaron's most autobiographical work to date centers on an indigenous woman of Mixtec heritage and the upper middle-class family she serves as extensions of his own "past [through] the prism of my understanding of the present," to "examine my family, my city, my country and our world at large… and above all things, the random nature of existence," with the director doing triple duty as co-editor and sole cinematographer.
Pretty heady stuff. But ambitious scope alone does not necessarily equal success, and to me both films are bona fide but qualified successes compared to their respective director's best work (which for Yang is A Brighter Summer Day, arguably the single greatest Taiwanese film ever made, but let's focus on Cuaron for this capsule review). Yes, Cleo is a worthy avatar of female agency in the face of societal misogyny and classism, and Cuaron deserves credit for his refusal to pigeonhole her as a paragon of virtue while leaving the door open for redemption, but his Cleo is a sanitized version of the working-class mujer, one who is largely protected from the cruelties of the indifferent world around her by a loving family headed by matriarch Sofia, initially an understanding employer at best - understandable, given her frustrations with her philandering husband who abandons his family early in the film - who comes to accept her as a member of the household. And that's not the same as saying Sofia comes to accept Cleo as one of their own - theirs is still an employer-employee relationship, and critics should keep that important that distinction in mind before they draw on the admittedly heartwarming image in the widely distributed Netflix poster of the family huddled around Cleo (taken from shortly after she saves Paco and Sofi from drowning and then breaks down crying as she makes her big reveal) to divine the true nature of her standing at the film's conclusion.
It's also puzzling how silent Roma is on issues of race. I understand much of this blind spot has to do with my rudimentary Spanish and perhaps fluent speakers (preferably those who can recognize a Mixtec expression or two) can help me, but I just don't see the point of positioning an indigenous character as the film's heart and soul when her background outside her employer's home is all but hidden away. It's clear from his letter that Cuaron retains lots of love and affection for Cleo's real-life counterpart Libo, but I can't help but wonder if he ever consulted her more than once or twice, if at all, while making this film (all I've been able to dig up is this interview where he says she's seen it two or three times and loved it), and if yes how much of her input was incorporated into the world of Cleo. I do hope the answer is yes, otherwise the kind of universality Cuaron was aiming for in his self-professed quest takes on an ugly meaning as to which parts of the world are more universal than the others.
To me Cuaron's best work remains the first half of Children of Men (though I should add I've yet to see Gravity and the sole Harry Potter he directed). Its conceit of women as vessels of fertility in times of existential peril is more radical than any feminist trope in Roma (it's likely no coincidence that Children of Men is an adaptation of a P. D. James novel whose screenwriting credits Cuaron shares with four others, as opposed to Roma which he wrote by himself), and if its second half becomes a casualty of Cuaron falling in love with his virtuosity (which of course most critics ate up) as he turns it into a rather mindless action thriller, the same criticism could be made of his role in Roma which despite its laudable experimentation doesn't break much new ground. Cuaron unlike his compatriots del Toro and Inarritu has been loath to stick to a single genre or grand theme sometimes even within a same film, for better or worse. Roma is another Cuaron vehicle in the same haphazard vein, and while I admire and appreciate his insatiable willingness to try new things I can't shake the feeling that too much of his time and effort is spent behind the camera and inside the editing room and would be better directed elsewhere.
You should do your part and go see it in a theater! Noticed earlier that it didn't even crack the top 10 at the weekend box office, and its RT score now stands at a pathetic 9%. Geez, what's so bad about the movie that makes it so much worse than the likes of Bumblebee, Escape Room and Vice (which in my book is far more risible as a travesty of history)? Is it the title which obviously its detractors took as less an homage to Blade Runner than as a rip-off? I don't get it.
Another thing I forgot to note earlier is that Replicas like Passengers and Downsizing is a SF film and I do wonder if its horrendous reception so far may have something to do with a stubborn industry-wide anti-SF bias. One might point to Star Wars or Star Trek as a counterexample but I say that's less a sign of genuine appreciation than a function of marketing.
Yeah I actually noticed I'd gotten the release year of Downsizing wrong as well and corrected it before I posted. Forgot to make the same correction for Passengers. Will do in a minute.
As you may recall Leave No Trace (and Disobedience) had a pretty long run at the arthouses, so I kept thinking I could wait... till it was too late. No matter, I see it's on Amazon and will check it out soon. (The Rider is currently on Starz but I'm sure it'll migrate to one of the big services eventually.)
Pretty heady stuff. But ambitious scope alone does not necessarily equal success, and to me both films are bona fide but qualified successes compared to their respective director's best work (which for Yang is A Brighter Summer Day, arguably the single greatest Taiwanese film ever made, but let's focus on Cuaron for this capsule review). Yes, Cleo is a worthy avatar of female agency in the face of societal misogyny and classism, and Cuaron deserves credit for his refusal to pigeonhole her as a paragon of virtue while leaving the door open for redemption, but his Cleo is a sanitized version of the working-class mujer, one who is largely protected from the cruelties of the indifferent world around her by a loving family headed by matriarch Sofia, initially an understanding employer at best - understandable, given her frustrations with her philandering husband who abandons his family early in the film - who comes to accept her as a member of the household. And that's not the same as saying Sofia comes to accept Cleo as one of their own - theirs is still an employer-employee relationship, and critics should keep that important that distinction in mind before they draw on the admittedly heartwarming image in the widely distributed Netflix poster of the family huddled around Cleo (taken from shortly after she saves Paco and Sofi from drowning and then breaks down crying as she makes her big reveal) to divine the true nature of her standing at the film's conclusion.
It's also puzzling how silent Roma is on issues of race. I understand much of this blind spot has to do with my rudimentary Spanish and perhaps fluent speakers (preferably those who can recognize a Mixtec expression or two) can help me, but I just don't see the point of positioning an indigenous character as the film's heart and soul when her background outside her employer's home is all but hidden away. It's clear from his letter that Cuaron retains lots of love and affection for Cleo's real-life counterpart Libo, but I can't help but wonder if he ever consulted her more than once or twice, if at all, while making this film (all I've been able to dig up is this interview where he says she's seen it two or three times and loved it), and if yes how much of her input was incorporated into the world of Cleo. I do hope the answer is yes, otherwise the kind of universality Cuaron was aiming for in his self-professed quest takes on an ugly meaning as to which parts of the world are more universal than the others.
To me Cuaron's best work remains the first half of Children of Men (though I should add I've yet to see Gravity and the sole Harry Potter he directed). Its conceit of women as vessels of fertility in times of existential peril is more radical than any feminist trope in Roma (it's likely no coincidence that Children of Men is an adaptation of a P. D. James novel whose screenwriting credits Cuaron shares with four others, as opposed to Roma which he wrote by himself), and if its second half becomes a casualty of Cuaron falling in love with his virtuosity (which of course most critics ate up) as he turns it into a rather mindless action thriller, the same criticism could be made of his role in Roma which despite its laudable experimentation doesn't break much new ground. Cuaron unlike his compatriots del Toro and Inarritu has been loath to stick to a single genre or grand theme sometimes even within a same film, for better or worse. Roma is another Cuaron vehicle in the same haphazard vein, and while I admire and appreciate his insatiable willingness to try new things I can't shake the feeling that too much of his time and effort is spent behind the camera and inside the editing room and would be better directed elsewhere.
You should do your part and go see it in a theater! Noticed earlier that it didn't even crack the top 10 at the weekend box office, and its RT score now stands at a pathetic 9%. Geez, what's so bad about the movie that makes it so much worse than the likes of Bumblebee, Escape Room and Vice (which in my book is far more risible as a travesty of history)? Is it the title which obviously its detractors took as less an homage to Blade Runner than as a rip-off? I don't get it.
Another thing I forgot to note earlier is that Replicas like Passengers and Downsizing is a SF film and I do wonder if its horrendous reception so far may have something to do with a stubborn industry-wide anti-SF bias. One might point to Star Wars or Star Trek as a counterexample but I say that's less a sign of genuine appreciation than a function of marketing.
Yeah I actually noticed I'd gotten the release year of Downsizing wrong as well and corrected it before I posted. Forgot to make the same correction for Passengers. Will do in a minute.
As you may recall Leave No Trace (and Disobedience) had a pretty long run at the arthouses, so I kept thinking I could wait... till it was too late. No matter, I see it's on Amazon and will check it out soon. (The Rider is currently on Starz but I'm sure it'll migrate to one of the big services eventually.)
Moose Malloy
G.O.A.T.
I think you may be reading a bit much into RT. I don't think a higher score there means there is a consensus that one film is 'better' than another. It's just a number, and there are flaws in their method(I'm friends with a critic who's often confused by how they decide which of his reviews are fresh or rotten)
It's like IMDb, I dint interpret their score to mean Star Wars is a better film than Citizen Kane.
Also RT has added a ton of reviewers in the last year for diversity reasons. And there are quite a few critics that clearly seem like they are being influenced behind the scenes by studios. I read a few critics I respect, 'scores' by themselves mean nothing to me.
It's like IMDb, I dint interpret their score to mean Star Wars is a better film than Citizen Kane.
Also RT has added a ton of reviewers in the last year for diversity reasons. And there are quite a few critics that clearly seem like they are being influenced behind the scenes by studios. I read a few critics I respect, 'scores' by themselves mean nothing to me.
acintya
Legend
Just realized I forgot to mention two more features in my best-of-2018 rundown, though in my defense I happened to see both in Seoul (of all places) and strictly speaking should leave one of them out as it has yet to open in DC. Anyhoo here goes:
- In the Aisles, a German chamber drama - its setting mostly in a cavernous wholesale market notwithstanding - directed by Thomas Stuber. I'd missed its only DC screening as part of last year's Film|Neu festival back in November and was hesitant to brave almost an hour on the crowded Seoul metro to go see it, and on my last full day in the city to boot (my flight back home was early next morning), but I'm glad I did. (It didn't hurt that the theater is based at the scenic Ewha Womans University and I stumbled upon its free museum to kill time before moving onto the next theater for the last screening of my sojourn.) Stuber's film bears some similarity with another recent German arthouse standout in Maren Ade's Toni Erdmann (which topped the 2016 Sight & Sound poll, among others), and not least in their sharing of actress Sandra Hüller, but whereas Ade is content to lob a trendy critique of neoliberal capitalism through the rosy eyes of a decidedly upper middle-class family Stuber is more interested in the lives of the working class themselves, three of them in fact: recent ex-con Christian (one of the film's recurring shots is that of him covering up his extensive tattoos before work) and veteran employee Bruno who acts as a surrogate father of sorts to him, and a middle-class woman on the outside looking in named Marion who is trapped in an abusive marriage and mutually attracted to Christian. Suffice it to say I find Stuber's more modest and individualized focus less patronizing than Ade's ambitious but scattershot scope and flippant humor, and while I admire Stuber's film more than I love it I do hope his triumph at the Berlin festival (Prize of the Ecumenical Jury) will eventually introduce him to a wider audience.
- Leto (Summer), a curious Russian biopic/(post-)musical directed by Kirill Serebrennikov that I was lucky to catch in a special Christmas screening (the commemorative flyer I got tells me the film was scheduled for wide release on 1/3/19). This is the one that has yet to come to DC, but that's not why I should probably give it an honorary mention at best - I'm still not sure how I feel about the whole thing, no doubt in part because I didn't understand all the Korean subs but especially because it's not clear what kind of film it wants to be. First off to call it a biopic is misleading as Viktor Tsoi, the iconic Soviet rocker of (partial) Korean ancestry - one of the reasons why it is currently playing in Korea while it has yet to see even a limited release outside NY/LA in the US - is only one of its three protagonists, along with his mentor, champion and friend Mike Naumenko and Mike's wife Natalia (played by babe Irina Starshenbaum) who develops a crush on him to the nonchalant chagrin of Mike, and also for the compressed time frame it covers (centered around the formative days of the Leningrad Rock Club and the recording of Tsoi's first album 45).
So the film is less a biography than a vignette, but it's got more in store for its cast of dreamers as it turns into a rock 'n' roll La La Land (think a wistful, more live-action Who Framed Roger Rabbit) and back on a whim, where the characters act out their fantasies while singing their Western rock anthem of choice. (The choices themselves are less inspired than their execution.) These musical interludes are the film's highlights, but it wouldn't be accurate to say they turn it into a musical as the irony is too self-aware - the running joke is the narrator or one of the characters assuring us that the fantastical sequence we just saw never happened - to forestall such flights of fancy. If the point of these sequences is to remind us of the characters' unfulfilled aspirations Serebrennikov shouldn't have insulted his audience's intelligence to figure it out themselves. Or if the point was to express these very dreams and aspirations yearning to break free of the Soviet system of oppression he should have let them stand as they are: commingled with the lives of the characters whose imagination proves more powerful than a few easy laughs at the expense of a coherent fantasy-reality.
In short Leto is a bit of a mess (I won't get into the fair amount of flack it's caught for its supposed lack of verisimilitude from veterans of the Russian music industry) and Serebrennikov doesn't seem to understand the ingredients of a musical, but it's frequently such an exuberant mess I found myself drawn to it despite some real misgivings. And Vladislav Opelyants' B&W cinematography is ravishing. I'm not ready to second its inclusion in Cahiers du cinéma's top 10 of 2018 (but then this is the same group that counts among its members Spielberg's travesty The Post and shock auteur-cum-porn producer von Trier's The House That Jack Built), but you may want to check your local listings as Serebrennikov's curiosity seems to be expanding or hitting the festival circuits at least.
P.S. I should've known better but I didn't realize until my latest visit that there's such a vibrant arthouse scene in Seoul. I was actually pretty miffed to have to miss a Roma screening at Daehan Cinema and try a different theater, but that turned out to be a blessing in disguise because as I did my on-the-go research it became clear I was missing out a lot. Hit nearly all the indie arthouses I was able to find, with cinecube (where I caught Roma that same day) quite possibly replacing Daehan as my new fave movie theater in Seoul.
Two more things I love about Seoul's arthouse scene:
1) Respect for cinema and your fellow cinephiles is not only expected but all but mandated. No late arriving (they don't let you in after the first 5-10 minutes) and everyone is expected to stay seated through the end credits. In fact I can literally count on the fingers of one hand the total number of people who left early in all the screenings I attended this time (save one, but that was at a mainstream theater).
2) Seoul may no longer be quite the same bargain compared to Tokyo and other major metropolises (still on the affordable side, though), but moviegoing there remains dirt cheap: 8k-10k won per ticket, or about $7-$9. That's regular pricing, not bargain or matinee. Doubt any theater in non-rural America could match it.
I've seen a few posters asking about things to do in Seoul so I figured some of you might find this helpful or interesting. You're welcome.
lovely post!! Thanks! Watched Toni Erdmann when it came out - great movie - I am very curious about In the Aisles - will watch it 100%.
NonP
Legend
Of course I know the RT metric is flawed, but it sure did its job when it helped send Replicas tumbling down into 12th place in its weekend debut, thereby denying it a chance to even get off the ground. Hell, even I've fallen under its spell as I'm still grousing about this stuff! (Reminds me of the never-ending debate about whether it's right to give Trump's tweets and PR stunts like his latest made-up "crisis" so much coverage.)
I still don't agree with all the old fogeys that rail against RT and its competitors which have their own place in today's ever-changing showbiz, but it's cases like this that make me wonder if we may be better off without them after all.
Bitte! As you might have gathered I didn't like Toni Erdmann as much, but glad I whetted your appetite for In the Aisles.
thehustler
Semi-Pro
Watched Solo: A Star Wars Story. Ugh. Finished it, but I just didn't care about anybody in the film. I think it's hard with a prequel like this...you know the main characters and that they're going to survive no matter what since they appear in some other "sequels". Things like these 'marauders' being revealed...oh a lady. Ok. Should I care? Do I know her? Is there some compelling backstory to her that helps me understand who she is? No? Oh, then why do I care? Oh someone dies in an early sequence? Umm don't care, not enough time to care. Big 'scary' monster at the beginning doesn't like sunlight....ok, why? Han got his ship in a card game? Just like it was stated in a sequel? Never saw that coming. Honestly I might've liked it a little more if Harrison Ford had done the movie and they just digitally took years off of him. Whoever was playing Han, umm just wasn't it. He's not Harrison Ford which I think made it harder for him to play the role. Chewie was great as always though, never seems to age. Wonder what he uses to stay looking so young.
acintya
Legend
this movie - doesnt even for a second allow you to take a breath. its really full of **** - too much worthless action if you ask me. why they dont do a like blade runner slow paced like star wars movie that would be long and dark!!would be quite the banger
Steady Eddy
Legend
I watched "The Little Hours" on Netflix.
I thought it was fun.
I thought it was fun.
Sentinel
Bionic Poster
First Reformed (2017)
Interesting, thoughtful.
Director: Paul_Schrader.
Starring:. Amanda_Seyfried, Ethan_Hawke, Cedric_the_Entertainer, Michael_Gaston.
https://imdb.com/title/tt6053438/
-----------------
The Rider (2017)
Director: Chloé_Zhao.
Starring:. Brady_Jandreau, Mooney, Tim_Jandreau, Lilly_Jandreau.
https://imdb.com/title/tt6217608/
Interesting, thoughtful.
Director: Paul_Schrader.
Starring:. Amanda_Seyfried, Ethan_Hawke, Cedric_the_Entertainer, Michael_Gaston.
https://imdb.com/title/tt6053438/
-----------------
The Rider (2017)
Director: Chloé_Zhao.
Starring:. Brady_Jandreau, Mooney, Tim_Jandreau, Lilly_Jandreau.
https://imdb.com/title/tt6217608/
acintya
Legend
Of course I know the RT metric is flawed, but it sure did its job when it helped send Replicas tumbling down into 12th place in its weekend debut, thereby denying it a chance to even get off the ground. Hell, even I've fallen under its spell as I'm still grousing about this stuff! (Reminds me of the never-ending debate about whether it's right to give Trump's tweets and PR stunts like his latest made-up "crisis" so much coverage.)
I still don't agree with all the old fogeys that rail against RT and its competitors which have their own place in today's ever-changing showbiz, but it's cases like this that make me wonder if we may be better off without them after all.
Bitte! As you might have gathered I didn't like Toni Erdmann as much, but glad I whetted your appetite for In the Aisles.
hey man, watched In the Aisles today and I am very proud someone here still has taste! I love this move... everything is great about it! Sad about BRUNO
.btw there is only one mistake in the movie -- when they have this Christmas "party" at the company --- they are loud but when Marion comes to the alone sitting Christian at once there is silence in the background like all people would leave immediately..
but thats more a "technical" mistake by the producers...
very heart warming drama who brings a smile on your face here and there - would love to work there for a year! good company is the most beautiful things - no mather where you are\where you work.
maybe you have something similar for me?
Toni Erdmann - Moonrise Kingdom - In the Aisles ------ i found out those are the movies which some people just dont understand - and i cant imagine why - I guess they live at a different frequency. - they are not deep enough
rainingaces
Legend
Killer Joe and his Kentucky fried chicken.
The house that Jack build but couldn't find the right material so made it out of people.
The house that Jack build but couldn't find the right material so made it out of people.
rainingaces
Legend
That is my second favourite Johnny Depp movie. Sleepy hollow number 1.
NonP
Legend
Just saw Le Semeur/The Sower (not to be confused with the 2013 documentary of the same name) tonight, part of the French Cinémathèque series at the Avalon Theatre and an early contender for my top 10 of 2019 (it might have opened in your hood last year or earlier, as it's a 2017 release). It's clear Marine Francen wanted no shot to be wasted for her feature debut, for it looks and feels like a sumptuous Millet painting throughout. That's not always to its advantage when the travails of the long-suffering townswomen and especially the inner turmoil of its heroine Violette (Pauline Burlet in a pluperfect performance) call for a more brutalist aesthetic, but what Francen achieves is so lovely to look at she's allowed to indulge herself a little.
Neil Young of The Hollywood Reporter smartly called this film "The Beguiled meets Black Narcissus" and there's much to the analogy, but the one thing that separates The Sower from the two female-libertine classics is class: these countrywomen are forced to fend for themselves not only because their men are no longer around or obtainable due to politics or dogma, but because their peasant livelihood depends on it. Suffice it to say Francen isn't blind to this harsh reality and no woman in the film comes off as irredeemable even when we disapprove of her behavior. And whoever did the casting deserves her own kudos, not only for her eye for women but also for her wisdom to have settled on Alban Lenoir as the unsuspecting and unconventionally handsome lothario Jean (whose age of 39 is almost the same as his real-life counterpart's of 38, interestingly enough).
It's a shame this resplendent gem was passed over for distribution by the likes of The Square and Loveless (to name just two 2017 co-French productions) whose slick misanthropy proved an easier sell to the prestige (read: awards) studios. It doesn't seem to be playing or streaming anywhere yet, but here's hoping this and future screenings will provide enough word of mouth to remedy this state of affairs.
Now onto housekeeping:
Trust me, the movie doesn't begin to approach the Boccaccio book it's based on in raunchy wit and punchy humor. If you're interested in the original Decameron I can recommend the Rebhorn translation which has served me well, but pretty much any edition from the major publishers should be fine as I couldn't find anything damning about them last time I checked.
This has been one of the sleeper documentary hits of the year (along with Won't You Be My Neighbor, RBG and Three Identical Strangers), but I just didn't see the appeal. Granted I'm really not the best one to judge as I have next to zilch interest in climbing or mountaineering, but as a profile of true heroism and an illustration of nature's majesty 2016's The Eagle Huntress was several degrees better:
This is the kind of movie you wanna see on the big screen. Its extreme long shots of the Mongolian steppe are truly breathtaking.
It is. I really was pleasantly surprised 'cause I'd yet to see a single Schrader film that I liked without much reservation (that includes the arty Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters which he'd considered his best work as directer, and of course Taxi Driver, which he did not direct but one could argue he was one of its three auteurs along with Scorsese and composer Bernard Herrmann), but he really outdid himself in this one. And he knows it.
Now I do find parts of it too buzzy (I suspect its environmentalist angle won't age too well) to declare it a masterpiece, but then no 2018 film I've seen thus far belongs to that rarefied field. Would like to see it again and perhaps write an actual review, because it deserves a more thorough appraisal than this.
How did you watch it already? I actually checked if there were any streaming options before posting that review but couldn't find any. Torrent? (NM, don't tell me.
)
Glad you liked it. As for that "mistake" you speak of I think that was just Stuber's way of showing us how deeply Christian and Marion were beginning to connect. I wouldn't read too much into it.
And as someone who doesn't care much for Anderson's patented twee I loved Moonrise Kingdom myself. Probably his best, though Rushmore has a lot going for it. (Here I should add the caveat that I've yet to see The Darjeeling Limited and Fantastic Mr. Fox.)
Since you seem to like oft-kilter stuff I think you'll dig this:
I didn't have high expectations going into it myself because Abel and Gordon (who are a real-life couple, FYI) from what I'd read were passable Wes Anderson imitators at best, and its opening shot did feel awfully like an Anderson rip-off, but it turned out to be the best comedy I saw in 2017, with by far the most hysterical scene of the year (short version: the male counterpart Dom gets mistaken for a family friend at a funeral and proceeds to give an increasingly demented speech where he denounces the deceased as a closet racist who hated the homeless and fashion-challenged like him). The whole movie's worth seeing just for that scene alone (the last time another movie had made me roll with laughter in such sheer discomfort was when Tom Bennett in Stillman's Love & Friendship makes a complete fool out of his Sir James character in one of his utterly tone-deaf conversations), but it's got plenty to offer on top of easy laughs.
Neil Young of The Hollywood Reporter smartly called this film "The Beguiled meets Black Narcissus" and there's much to the analogy, but the one thing that separates The Sower from the two female-libertine classics is class: these countrywomen are forced to fend for themselves not only because their men are no longer around or obtainable due to politics or dogma, but because their peasant livelihood depends on it. Suffice it to say Francen isn't blind to this harsh reality and no woman in the film comes off as irredeemable even when we disapprove of her behavior. And whoever did the casting deserves her own kudos, not only for her eye for women but also for her wisdom to have settled on Alban Lenoir as the unsuspecting and unconventionally handsome lothario Jean (whose age of 39 is almost the same as his real-life counterpart's of 38, interestingly enough).
It's a shame this resplendent gem was passed over for distribution by the likes of The Square and Loveless (to name just two 2017 co-French productions) whose slick misanthropy proved an easier sell to the prestige (read: awards) studios. It doesn't seem to be playing or streaming anywhere yet, but here's hoping this and future screenings will provide enough word of mouth to remedy this state of affairs.
Now onto housekeeping:
Trust me, the movie doesn't begin to approach the Boccaccio book it's based on in raunchy wit and punchy humor. If you're interested in the original Decameron I can recommend the Rebhorn translation which has served me well, but pretty much any edition from the major publishers should be fine as I couldn't find anything damning about them last time I checked.
This has been one of the sleeper documentary hits of the year (along with Won't You Be My Neighbor, RBG and Three Identical Strangers), but I just didn't see the appeal. Granted I'm really not the best one to judge as I have next to zilch interest in climbing or mountaineering, but as a profile of true heroism and an illustration of nature's majesty 2016's The Eagle Huntress was several degrees better:
This is the kind of movie you wanna see on the big screen. Its extreme long shots of the Mongolian steppe are truly breathtaking.
It is. I really was pleasantly surprised 'cause I'd yet to see a single Schrader film that I liked without much reservation (that includes the arty Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters which he'd considered his best work as directer, and of course Taxi Driver, which he did not direct but one could argue he was one of its three auteurs along with Scorsese and composer Bernard Herrmann), but he really outdid himself in this one. And he knows it.
Now I do find parts of it too buzzy (I suspect its environmentalist angle won't age too well) to declare it a masterpiece, but then no 2018 film I've seen thus far belongs to that rarefied field. Would like to see it again and perhaps write an actual review, because it deserves a more thorough appraisal than this.
hey man, watched In the Aisles today and I am very proud someone here still has taste! I love this move... everything is great about it! Sad about BRUNO
btw there is only one mistake in the movie -- when they have this Christmas "party" at the company --- they are loud but when Marion comes to the alone sitting Christian at once there is silence in the background like all people would leave immediately..
but thats more a "technical" mistake by the producers...
very heart warming drama who brings a smile on your face here and there - would love to work there for a year! good company is the most beautiful things - no mather where you are\where you work.
maybe you have something similar for me?
Toni Erdmann - Moonrise Kingdom - In the Aisles ------ i found out those are the movies which some people just dont understand - and i cant imagine why - I guess they live at a different frequency. - they are not deep enough
How did you watch it already? I actually checked if there were any streaming options before posting that review but couldn't find any. Torrent? (NM, don't tell me.
)Glad you liked it. As for that "mistake" you speak of I think that was just Stuber's way of showing us how deeply Christian and Marion were beginning to connect. I wouldn't read too much into it.
And as someone who doesn't care much for Anderson's patented twee I loved Moonrise Kingdom myself. Probably his best, though Rushmore has a lot going for it. (Here I should add the caveat that I've yet to see The Darjeeling Limited and Fantastic Mr. Fox.)
Since you seem to like oft-kilter stuff I think you'll dig this:
I didn't have high expectations going into it myself because Abel and Gordon (who are a real-life couple, FYI) from what I'd read were passable Wes Anderson imitators at best, and its opening shot did feel awfully like an Anderson rip-off, but it turned out to be the best comedy I saw in 2017, with by far the most hysterical scene of the year (short version: the male counterpart Dom gets mistaken for a family friend at a funeral and proceeds to give an increasingly demented speech where he denounces the deceased as a closet racist who hated the homeless and fashion-challenged like him). The whole movie's worth seeing just for that scene alone (the last time another movie had made me roll with laughter in such sheer discomfort was when Tom Bennett in Stillman's Love & Friendship makes a complete fool out of his Sir James character in one of his utterly tone-deaf conversations), but it's got plenty to offer on top of easy laughs.
tennishabit
Legend
very funny movie, 'beauty n beast'......ao2019 version. lolololol big momamam........wata contrast
................
................thehustler
Semi-Pro
You don't mean Blade Runner 2049 do you? That was so slow paced my toddler turned into a 7 year old while he was in my arms when I was watching it (He was asleep). I had to fast forward thru some of it and lookup what was happening to certain characters.
Northern
Hall of Fame
Thank you for your very thoughtful reviews. You make me want to watch some movies. I have found smaller productions (the art film, or independent movie type) far more satisfying than mainstream cinema for a while, but usually I don't have the time or patience to hunt down this stuff. I know a movie is my type because it tends to get under my skin and I remember how it made me feel long after I watched it.Just saw Le Semeur/The Sower (not to be confused with the 2013 documentary of the same name) tonight, part of the French Cinémathèque series at the Avalon Theatre and an early contender for my top 10 of 2019 (it might have opened in your hood last year or earlier, as it's a 2017 release). It's clear Marine Francen wanted no shot to be wasted for her feature debut, for it looks and feels like a sumptuous Millet painting throughout. That's not always to its advantage when the travails of the long-suffering townswomen and especially the inner turmoil of its heroine Violette (Pauline Burlet in a pluperfect performance) call for a more brutalist aesthetic, but what Francen achieves is so lovely to look at she's allowed to indulge herself a little.
Neil Young of The Hollywood Reporter smartly called this film "The Beguiled meets Black Narcissus" and there's much to the analogy, but the one thing that separates The Sower from the two female-libertine classics is class: these countrywomen are forced to fend for themselves not only because their men are no longer around or obtainable due to politics or dogma, but because their peasant livelihood depends on it. Suffice it to say Francen isn't blind to this harsh reality and no woman in the film comes off as irredeemable even when we disapprove of her behavior. And whoever did the casting deserves her own kudos, not only for her eye for women but also for her wisdom to have settled on Alban Lenoir as the unsuspecting and unconventionally handsome lothario Jean (whose age of 39 is almost the same as his real-life counterpart's of 38, interestingly enough).
It's a shame this resplendent gem was passed over for distribution by the likes of The Square and Loveless (to name just two 2017 co-French productions) whose slick misanthropy proved an easier sell to the prestige (read: awards) studios. It doesn't seem to be playing or streaming anywhere yet, but here's hoping this and future screenings will provide enough word of mouth to remedy this state of affairs.
Now onto housekeeping:
Trust me, the movie doesn't begin to approach the Boccaccio book it's based on in raunchy wit and punchy humor. If you're interested in the original Decameron I can recommend the Rebhorn translation which has served me well, but pretty much any edition from the major publishers should be fine as I couldn't find anything damning about them last time I checked.
This has been one of the sleeper documentary hits of the year (along with Won't You Be My Neighbor, RBG and Three Identical Strangers), but I just didn't see the appeal. Granted I'm really not the best one to judge as I have next to zilch interest in climbing or mountaineering, but as a profile of true heroism and an illustration of nature's majesty 2016's The Eagle Huntress was several degrees better:
This is the kind of movie you wanna see on the big screen. Its extreme long shots of the Mongolian steppe are truly breathtaking.
It is. I really was pleasantly surprised 'cause I'd yet to see a single Schrader film that I liked without much reservation (that includes the arty Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters which he'd considered his best work as directer, and of course Taxi Driver, which he did not direct but one could argue he was one of its three auteurs along with Scorsese and composer Bernard Herrmann), but he really outdid himself in this one. And he knows it.
Now I do find parts of it too buzzy (I suspect its environmentalist angle won't age too well) to declare it a masterpiece, but then no 2018 film I've seen thus far belongs to that rarefied field. Would like to see it again and perhaps write an actual review, because it deserves a more thorough appraisal than this.
How did you watch it already? I actually checked if there were any streaming options before posting that review but couldn't find any. Torrent? (NM, don't tell me.
Glad you liked it. As for that "mistake" you speak of I think that was just Stuber's way of showing us how deeply Christian and Marion were beginning to connect. I wouldn't read too much into it.
And as someone who doesn't care much for Anderson's patented twee I loved Moonrise Kingdom myself. Probably his best, though Rushmore has a lot going for it. (Here I should add the caveat that I've yet to see The Darjeeling Limited and Fantastic Mr. Fox.)
Since you seem to like oft-kilter stuff I think you'll dig this:
I didn't have high expectations going into it myself because Abel and Gordon (who are a real-life couple, FYI) from what I'd read were passable Wes Anderson imitators at best, and its opening shot did feel awfully like an Anderson rip-off, but it turned out to be the best comedy I saw in 2017, with by far the most hysterical scene of the year (short version: the male counterpart Dom gets mistaken for a family friend at a funeral and proceeds to give an increasingly demented speech where he denounces the deceased as a closet racist who hated the homeless and fashion-challenged like him). The whole movie's worth seeing just for that scene alone (the last time another movie had made me roll with laughter in such sheer discomfort was when Tom Bennett in Stillman's Love & Friendship makes a complete fool out of his Sir James character in one of his utterly tone-deaf conversations), but it's got plenty to offer on top of easy laughs.
BTW, I blew a tire yesterday and it was too late to get it fixed, so I left my car, and today I got an Uber and the driver was from Mongolia, so of course I mentioned to him "The Eagle Huntress" movie (what a coincidence.) He didn't know about the movie, but told me that most eagle hunters live in the Eastern part of Mongolia and tend to be of Kazakhstani origin. Since I saw the thumbnail from the trailer you posted, I told him that this woman looked Mongolian to me, but he said that apparently they look much the same (at least the ones who live in Mongolia.)
NonP
Legend
Heh, I should've thought of it earlier but turns out one can search for one of the musical asides in Leto when you type in the name of the song rather than "Leto" itself. Here you go, the "Psycho Killer" on Booze Train Edition (I must say watching it with the Korean subs on again brings a certain sense of nostalgia already):
Hopefully that's more helpful than "a wistful, more live-action Who Framed Roger Rabbit." Left out of this clip is the glassed instigator telling you at the end of this exhilarating pop samizdat-bacchanale that what you just saw is in fact a figment of the characters' imagination (addendum: the end of this sequence can be seen here), which almost reduces an otherwise yearning, riotous cry for freedom to a punky punchline (hence my earlier grousing about "easy laughs"). The end of this meta-trailer declares "Youth Is Leto [Summer]," and I wish Serebrennikov hadn't chickened out and had instead turned his film into a full-blown musical while showing more respect for the young and young at heart it claims to speak for. That would've been a true middle finger (see below) to the forces of oppression everywhere.
Three more sequences, the first one courtesy of Iggy Pop's "The Passenger":
(Yes, it's the glassed one on the bike explaining what you just saw didn't happen in the end.)
The next one, Reed's by-now-hackneyed (not in this case!) "Perfect Day," takes on a particular resonance as it shows Mike putting on a stoic face while his wife Natalia is carrying on a possible affair with Viktor:
(Same glassed one, same shi-ite.)
Finally Bowie/Mott the Hoople's "All the Young Dudes":
(Y'all can guess what the finger represents.)
Anyway if it sounds like I've become quite a fan since my initially more mixed review... that's because I have! When I updated my top 10 of 2018 I placed Leto 8th under In the Aisles, but now I'd probably bump it up to 5th or 6th place, above not only In the Aisles but also The Apparition (which takes an unexpected and disappointing turn in its denouement, otherwise it could've given a serious run for my top spot) and possibly A Star Is Born too.
Here's the full soundtrack (the music really is the lifeblood of this movie):
Glad I could do my part! Are you a movie insider by any chance? (Saw your post in the "LA museums" thread, hence the seemingly offhand Q.)
Sure thing. Yeah, keeping abreast of all this stuff can be a challenge. Even as someone who tries to catch nearly every local arthouse release I know I still miss out a lot because 1) I don't live in NY or LA which screens an exclusive batch of additional indie/foreign films before a select few are greenlighted for wider distribution and 2) I don't have time to check out who knows how many more exclusive titles on the streaming services. Nobody can watch "everything" (however loosely or generously defined) these days, not even the pros.
And what a nice coincidence that was! I'm not surprised to hear that many Mongolians and Kazakhs look much alike. With my own background I think I can tell apart Korean, Japanese and Chinese people, but while I get it right more often than not it's definitely not something I'd hang my hat on, LOL.
Hopefully that's more helpful than "a wistful, more live-action Who Framed Roger Rabbit." Left out of this clip is the glassed instigator telling you at the end of this exhilarating pop samizdat-bacchanale that what you just saw is in fact a figment of the characters' imagination (addendum: the end of this sequence can be seen here), which almost reduces an otherwise yearning, riotous cry for freedom to a punky punchline (hence my earlier grousing about "easy laughs"). The end of this meta-trailer declares "Youth Is Leto [Summer]," and I wish Serebrennikov hadn't chickened out and had instead turned his film into a full-blown musical while showing more respect for the young and young at heart it claims to speak for. That would've been a true middle finger (see below) to the forces of oppression everywhere.
Three more sequences, the first one courtesy of Iggy Pop's "The Passenger":
(Yes, it's the glassed one on the bike explaining what you just saw didn't happen in the end.)
The next one, Reed's by-now-hackneyed (not in this case!) "Perfect Day," takes on a particular resonance as it shows Mike putting on a stoic face while his wife Natalia is carrying on a possible affair with Viktor:
(Same glassed one, same shi-ite.)
Finally Bowie/Mott the Hoople's "All the Young Dudes":
(Y'all can guess what the finger represents.)
Anyway if it sounds like I've become quite a fan since my initially more mixed review... that's because I have! When I updated my top 10 of 2018 I placed Leto 8th under In the Aisles, but now I'd probably bump it up to 5th or 6th place, above not only In the Aisles but also The Apparition (which takes an unexpected and disappointing turn in its denouement, otherwise it could've given a serious run for my top spot) and possibly A Star Is Born too.
Here's the full soundtrack (the music really is the lifeblood of this movie):
Glad I could do my part! Are you a movie insider by any chance? (Saw your post in the "LA museums" thread, hence the seemingly offhand Q.)
Sure thing. Yeah, keeping abreast of all this stuff can be a challenge. Even as someone who tries to catch nearly every local arthouse release I know I still miss out a lot because 1) I don't live in NY or LA which screens an exclusive batch of additional indie/foreign films before a select few are greenlighted for wider distribution and 2) I don't have time to check out who knows how many more exclusive titles on the streaming services. Nobody can watch "everything" (however loosely or generously defined) these days, not even the pros.
And what a nice coincidence that was! I'm not surprised to hear that many Mongolians and Kazakhs look much alike. With my own background I think I can tell apart Korean, Japanese and Chinese people, but while I get it right more often than not it's definitely not something I'd hang my hat on, LOL.
onehandbh
G.O.A.T.
The world is like a giant matrix where everyone is connected within 7 degrees to Kevin Bacon.
Sentinel
Bionic Poster
The Official Story (1985)
Interesting historical movie about Argentina.
Director: Luis_Puenzo.
Starring: Héctor_Alterio, Norma_Aleandro, Chunchuna_Villafañe, Hugo_Arana.
https://imdb.com/title/tt0089276/
Interesting historical movie about Argentina.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Official_Story#cite_note-5
Director: Luis_Puenzo.
Starring: Héctor_Alterio, Norma_Aleandro, Chunchuna_Villafañe, Hugo_Arana.
https://imdb.com/title/tt0089276/
Sysyphus
Talk Tennis Guru
Watched Michael Haneke's much prized Amour (2012), featuring starring Jean-Louis Trintignant & Emmanuelle Riva, notable from such seminal films as Trois couleurs: Rouge (1994) and Hiroshima mon amour (1959) respectively, portraying an octogenarian couple of former music teachers whose love and lives are tested when one of them suffers a stroke. Isabelle Huppert portrays their daughter. A stark look at love's effect on death and death's effect on love, of care and commitment at life's end, we follow the couple through that trying journey, never seeing the outside of their impressive Parisian appartement.
Both Riva and Trintignant turn in seismic performances, tapping into both nuance and puissance in a way that disquiets the viewer but always keeps a certain humanity present in the handling of their characters. This is quietly rendered in long static shots, which at times add an itching suspense to what's taking place.
The film's treatment of its subject will no doubt raise (and has raised) some ethical uneasiness among some viewers. But in the end it stands as a forceful piece of filmmaking.
Both Riva and Trintignant turn in seismic performances, tapping into both nuance and puissance in a way that disquiets the viewer but always keeps a certain humanity present in the handling of their characters. This is quietly rendered in long static shots, which at times add an itching suspense to what's taking place.
The film's treatment of its subject will no doubt raise (and has raised) some ethical uneasiness among some viewers. But in the end it stands as a forceful piece of filmmaking.
Sentinel
Bionic Poster
Riva passed away a year back IIRC.Watched Michael Haneke's much prized Amour (2012), featuring starring Jean-Louis Trintignant & Emmanuelle Riva, notable from such seminal films as Trois couleurs: Rouge (1994) and Hiroshima mon amour (1959) respectively, portraying an octogenarian couple of former music teachers whose love and lives are tested when one of them suffers a stroke. Isabelle Huppert portrays their daughter. A stark look at love's effect on death and death's effect on love, of care and commitment at life's end, we follow the couple through that trying journey, never seeing the outside of their impressive Parisian appartement.
Both Riva and Trintignant turn in seismic performances, tapping into both nuance and puissance in a way that disquiets the viewer but always keeps a certain humanity present in the handling of their characters. This is quietly rendered in long static shots, which at times add an itching suspense to what's taking place.
The film's treatment of its subject will no doubt raise (and has raised) some ethical uneasiness among some viewers. But in the end it stands as a forceful piece of filmmaking.
Bobby Jr
G.O.A.T.
I saw the new superhero film Glass last weekend. It's got Bruce Willis, Samuel L Jackson and James McAvoy.
I've usually disliked McAvoy in films but he is so good in this film it's possibly Oscar-worthy. Very entertaining film and a cool follow-up story to Unbreakable (came out years ago) where Willis and Jackson's characters come from.
I've usually disliked McAvoy in films but he is so good in this film it's possibly Oscar-worthy. Very entertaining film and a cool follow-up story to Unbreakable (came out years ago) where Willis and Jackson's characters come from.
Sentinel
Bionic Poster
A Real Vermeer (2016)
Interesting biographical movie about a Dutch painter/forger.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Han_van_Meegeren
Director: Rudolf_van_den_Berg.
Starring:. Jeroen_Spitzenberger, Lize_Feryn, Roeland_Fernhout, Porgy_Franssen.
https://imdb.com/title/tt1668016/
Interesting biographical movie about a Dutch painter/forger.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Han_van_Meegeren
Director: Rudolf_van_den_Berg.
Starring:. Jeroen_Spitzenberger, Lize_Feryn, Roeland_Fernhout, Porgy_Franssen.
https://imdb.com/title/tt1668016/
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Zara
G.O.A.T.
I watched Remains of the Day on AMC (I think). Was flipping channel and got stuck on that one. Very good movie. I enjoy watching British movies immensely - always my top favourite. Even the stupid movies have some sort of depth that keeps me engaged.
Also watched Deja Vu. This might have been my 2nd viewing however. The plot is interesting (sci-fi thriller) though the making is a bit commercial.
Also watched Deja Vu. This might have been my 2nd viewing however. The plot is interesting (sci-fi thriller) though the making is a bit commercial.
2good4U
Professional
Watched 'Peppermint' starring Jennifer Garner.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6850820/
It wasn't too bad, BUT if Jennifer Garner was born a female, I'm the Queen of Sheba!
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6850820/
It wasn't too bad, BUT if Jennifer Garner was born a female, I'm the Queen of Sheba!
thehustler
Semi-Pro
Just saw Lego movie 2. Not going to reveal much. Thought it was fun. Lots of jokes for adults, stuff for kids as well. Is go back again and so would my 7 year old.
Sent from my LG-LS993 using Tapatalk
Sent from my LG-LS993 using Tapatalk
ollinger
G.O.A.T.
"Vice"
Must have gotten the makeup people from the group that made the Churchill film, as they turn another slender middle aged guy into an overweight well-known elderly politician with uncanny skill. Otherwise, the film is cartoonish with more agenda than a biopic should ever have.
Must have gotten the makeup people from the group that made the Churchill film, as they turn another slender middle aged guy into an overweight well-known elderly politician with uncanny skill. Otherwise, the film is cartoonish with more agenda than a biopic should ever have.
Zara
G.O.A.T.
I am in the middle of a deadly shooting. Finding very hard to watch. Just feels so real. What a movie.
Zara
G.O.A.T.
Hold The Dark was very good. It has many layers and stories within stories. Very dark and grim and yet, very captivating. The movie doesn't detail much and leaves most of its mystery to its audience to figure it as it drops clues all throughout the movie, but from what I read, the book details far more. Very well acted and directed. Highly recommended. Has one nude scene but doesn't last for long but quite violent.
I also watched Morgan - a sci-fi thriller - your la Ex Machina but only inferior. It's a movie where you are constantly confused because you try your best to get attached to it - to Morgan or the movie itself, but it leaves you with no emotion. It has its moments though and has a surprise but I was able to figure it out halfway through the movie. I still feel it's a decent movie and was mostly shot in Vancouver and Ireland so visually beautiful and gothic.
I also enjoyed Wrong Turn a horror flick. It's a low budget B grade movie but it does do its job.
I also watched Morgan - a sci-fi thriller - your la Ex Machina but only inferior. It's a movie where you are constantly confused because you try your best to get attached to it - to Morgan or the movie itself, but it leaves you with no emotion. It has its moments though and has a surprise but I was able to figure it out halfway through the movie. I still feel it's a decent movie and was mostly shot in Vancouver and Ireland so visually beautiful and gothic.
I also enjoyed Wrong Turn a horror flick. It's a low budget B grade movie but it does do its job.
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Poisoned Slice
Bionic Poster
Silence of the lambs.
D
Deleted member 764118
Guest
Birdman
Didn’t like it that much tbh
Didn’t like it that much tbh
Zara
G.O.A.T.
Well, Richie - have the lambs stopped screaming?
Poisoned Slice
Bionic Poster
It wasn't very good.
Sentinel
Bionic Poster
Green Book (2018)
Interesting biographical movie about Dr. Don Shirley a jazz pianist back in the 60s and his chauffeur Tony Vallelonga.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Shirley
Director: Peter_Farrelly.
Starring:. Viggo_Mortensen, Mahershala_Ali, Linda_Cardellini, Sebastian_Maniscalco.
https://imdb.com/title/tt6966692/
Interesting biographical movie about Dr. Don Shirley a jazz pianist back in the 60s and his chauffeur Tony Vallelonga.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Shirley
Director: Peter_Farrelly.
Starring:. Viggo_Mortensen, Mahershala_Ali, Linda_Cardellini, Sebastian_Maniscalco.
https://imdb.com/title/tt6966692/
