|
Post by Jeremy on Apr 28, 2020 16:19:59 GMT -8
Yeah, I saw The Departed a few years ago, as part of my little Best Picture binge. Liked it a lot, thanks in large part to the great cast. Still, my favorite Scorsese films tend to be non-mobster-related (King of Comedy, After Hours, Hugo).
Speaking of Best Picture winners, I noticed that a couple of other Oscar favorites were (like Goodfellas) leaving Netflix this week, so I decided to watch before they disappeared into the Internet ether. Driving Miss Daisy is every bit as okay as Green Book, which is to say it's a pleasant but largely benign film that takes the safest of glances at 1950s race relations. And hey, at least Green Book didn't have anything as jarring as Dan Aykroyd's awkward makeup.
Next BP winner on the list is Crash, because it's important for me to torture myself every now and then.
|
|
|
Post by Jeremy on May 1, 2020 13:55:41 GMT -8
Crash is... bad. It's the kind of film that really, really wants to be perceived as smart, but it's so self-indulgent (and its messages about racism hammered home with such anvilicious force) that it just winds up feeling dumb, and at times even offensive. Plenty have talked about this film's thumbfumbled attempts at emotional storytelling, and its cardboard characters and laughably bad dialogue. But the thing that pushed it over the top for me was... the music. The operatic score in this film is just painful to listen to, and only emphasizes how cheap and manipulative the whole charade is. So many great actors in this film, and they can't do anything to salvage it. What a mess. Incidentally, I finally got around to making a Letterboxd account (since I've been watching a lot of films lately and could use a handy way to document them), and you can read my highly serious review of Crash here.
|
|
|
Post by ThirdMan on May 1, 2020 15:17:40 GMT -8
Your review was pretty funny, and I can't argue with most of your points. I'd wager your least favourite sub-genre of film is quickly becoming "Heavy-handed Films About Racism". Heh.
|
|
|
Post by Jeremy on May 1, 2020 15:31:10 GMT -8
More broadly, my least favorite genre is “Films that Think They’re Saying Something Profound when They’re Really Not,” an umbrella under which Crash definitely falls.
|
|
|
Post by Incandescence 112 on May 1, 2020 15:56:42 GMT -8
Crash is... bad. It's the kind of film that really, really wants to be perceived as smart, but it's so self-indulgent (and its messages about racism hammered home with such anvilicious force) that it just winds up feeling dumb, and at times even offensive. Plenty have talked about this film's thumbfumbled attempts at emotional storytelling, and its cardboard characters and laughably bad dialogue. But the thing that pushed it over the top for me was... the music. The operatic score in this film is just painful to listen to, and only emphasizes how cheap and manipulative the whole charade is. So many great actors in this film, and they can't do anything to salvage it. What a mess. Incidentally, I finally got around to making a Letterboxd account (since I've been watching a lot of films lately and could use a handy way to document them), and you can read my highly serious review of Crash here. Perhaps we should set up a marathon where we all watch Crash, The Help, and Green Book together in a row. I also didn't know you were such a big fan of Being John Malkovich. I concur.
|
|
|
Post by guttersnipe on May 2, 2020 16:40:49 GMT -8
Driving Miss Daisy is every bit as okay as Green Book, which is to say it's a pleasant but largely benign film that takes the safest of glances at 1950s race relations. And hey, at least Green Book didn't have anything as jarring as Dan Aykroyd's awkward makeup. What people aren't really talking about with Green Book is that whilst a film about colour and image does give them pretty short shrift topically, it rather excels graphically: Come on now, you weren't really expecting those kind of Edward Hopper teals, ochres and light purples, or even anything like that gorgeous shallow focus from the Farrelly brothers.
|
|
|
Post by ThirdMan on May 2, 2020 17:35:27 GMT -8
Peter Farrelly hired a good DP and said, "Make it look fancy".
|
|
|
Post by Jeremy on May 2, 2020 18:15:09 GMT -8
Perhaps we should set up a marathon where we all watch Crash, The Help, and Green Book together in a row. I also didn't know you were such a big fan of Being John Malkovich. I concur. I watched Being John Malkovich on a long car ride a couple of years ago. I though it was phenomenal. Also, I'm not sure if those are my four favorite movies, but they provide a pretty great Mount Rushmore to cover a variety of different bases (classic musical, animated adventure, action drama, R-rated black comedy). And I like The Help! Kind of. It's an entertaining film with some very good performances; just happens to be a little too "safe" for its own good. It and Green Book are still miles ahead of Crash.
|
|
|
Post by ThirdMan on May 2, 2020 19:15:35 GMT -8
Being John Malkovich is my second-favourite Charlie Kaufman-penned film after Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and it was also my favourite film of (a very-stacked) 1999. Saw it in a downtown-Vancouver theater, and the audience was laughing its ass off through much of it.
"The puppeteer's voice need not merely be the record of man. It can be one of the pillars, the props to help him endure and prevail,' and I believe that." LMAO!
And that's before we even get into the strange pathos of the film. "Look away! Look away...look away."
This despite most of the film's characters being self-absorbed jerks.
|
|
|
Post by Jeremy on May 2, 2020 20:01:53 GMT -8
It's a hilarious film, made especially so by how awful the characters can be (especially after you find yourself sympathizing with them early on). High-concept storytelling at its best.
Eternal Sunshine was also very good, although it's probably a film I need to watch a second time in order to fully appreciate it. On first viewing, I was too busy focusing on the individual pieces rather than the film as a whole (and trying to ignore the comparisons to the great Simpsons episode that riffed on it).
|
|
|
Post by ThirdMan on May 2, 2020 23:57:15 GMT -8
I really enjoyed ESotSM on my first theatrical viewing, but it resonated considerably more on subsequent home viewings, when I had more of a handle on its elaborate structure, and could just respond to the emotion of the piece.
|
|
|
Post by guttersnipe on May 3, 2020 0:03:38 GMT -8
Peter Farrelly hired a good DP and said, "Make it look fancy". That is quite possible, I grant you, and the Farrellys are quite charmingly self-deprecating, so he might have even admitted that.
|
|
|
Post by Jeremy on May 15, 2020 14:17:26 GMT -8
I watched The Willoughbys, a new animated film from Netflix. It has a distinct animation style (akin to Peanuts Movie or Spider-Verse in the way it jiggles with the frame-rate, allowing for nifty effects such as the main characters' hair looking like pieces of string) and the first act works as a delightfully dark fable about a dysfunctional family. Unfortunately, the film soon devolves into typical kiddie-flick shenanigans (mostly involving a wacky nanny and some dude who live in a candy castle or something) and doesn't really start coming together again till the last 10-15 minutes. When it does hit, it's on target, and the stellar voice cast keeps things breezy. But the animation style is the real selling point.
Also, I finally watched the Back to the Future trilogy! Highly entertaining; not sure why I never saw it a kid. (Oh wait, probably because it wasn't a cartoon. Lol, I was a sad child.)
|
|
|
Post by Jeremy on Jun 21, 2020 20:12:24 GMT -8
Been a lull of a week, so I've been catching up on films in my Netflix queue and elsewhere.
Snowpiercer - Vivid, provocative film from Bong Joon-Ho with great performances (Tilda Swinton is brilliantly bizzare) and skillful direction. Messages aren't subtle, but the delivery packs a punch. (I am not watching the TV show.)
Knight and Day - Lightweight but highly entertaining escapist film, with Tom Cruise living it up, and Cameron Diaz (too bad she's retired) getting to play more than just the damsel in distress. Also, Marc Blucas is made to look like an idiot, which is always a bonus.
The Spectacular Now - Excellent romantic film carried on the shoulders of Miles Teller and Shailene Woodley, who lift it well above the standard schlock it could have been.
Almost Famous - Probably a little overrated, but it's still a very well-done and heartfelt film, with some excellent musical cues. And talk about a memorable cast!
Drive - Apart from some nifty driving scenes, didn't really care for this one. The characters are mostly flat and the violence is tasteless. Ryan Gosling does a lot with a little, though.
A Serious Man - I'm probably a bit biased, but this film was really absorbing, both in its depiction of mid-century Americna Judaism (presumably inspired by the Coen Brothers' real childhoods) and its use of black humor. Fizzles out near the end, but a nuanced and rewarding film overall.
|
|
|
Post by ThirdMan on Jun 21, 2020 20:48:25 GMT -8
A Serious Man - I'm probably a bit biased, but this film was really absorbing... I imagine you've gone through much of your life insisting to people, "But I didn't DO anything!"
|
|