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Post by ThirdMan on Dec 30, 2021 15:22:14 GMT -8
The Green Knight - I'm sure there will be plenty of people mesmerized by this film and willing to dissect and analyze all its different story beats and turns and unusual themes. But as well-crafted and good-looking as this movie is, I just found it so incredibly boring. Did not care about a single character, did not connect with the lead's emotional journey (due to the story's alarming lack of emotion), and spent much of the runtime waiting for something interesting to happen. I'm glad that a lot of people connected with this one (it's certainly preferable to connecting with The Boss Baby: Family Business), but I could not get over the idea that this was just a pretentious arthouse flick. Certainly better-looking than most pretentious arthouse flicks, but nevertheless. I liked the film, but it certainly leans more on hypnotic visuals and atmosphere than detailed characterization. I believe it's similar to director David Lowery's earlier A Ghost Story, in terms of how the final extended section is mostly rendered in montage, but I had a stronger emotional reaction to A Ghost Story, which had a (mostly) modern setting. I'm not really a big fan of medieval fare, but can enjoy it well enough if it's rendered with enough visual creativity. Liked the contrast between the two characters that Alicia Vikander played, as well.
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Post by ThirdMan on Dec 30, 2021 16:03:16 GMT -8
OK, Licorice Pizza. I guess, now that this film has gone into wider release, it seems to have ruffled a few feathers given that the two main characters are ten years apart, with the young boy, played by Cooper Hoffman, being 15 (I believe he was eighteen during filming, and could certainly pass for older), and the older woman, played by Alana Haim, being at least 25 (29 IRL, at time of filming). Truth be told, they could easily pass for being around the same age. Regardless, much of the content of the film is predicated on him needing her as a chaperone and/or partner for his acting career and various business ventures (waterbed salesman...heh). Yes, it is a coming-of-age love story, but their interactions for the majority of the film are almost entirely chaste. As someone who's watched a fair number of foreign films where adolescent characters have their first sexual experience (often entirely consensual) with a significantly older (adult) partner, it's interesting how up-in-arms some viewers get when the setting is shifted to North America. PTA's film doesn't really pass judgment on the two leads' relationship: he is a very precocious and ambitious teen that basically acts like an adult, and she is a young woman who still lives with her parents (and older sisters), and hasn't got her adult life figured out yet. They have a friendship that's vaguely romantic, but is never really acted upon physically, which is basically a catalyst for them to push one another's buttons, often from afar. I'm not gonna pass judgment on anyone who finds the premise of the film somewhat "problematic", other than to say that the depiction of an age-gap relationship (involving a minor), no matter how intimate or warmhearted it is at times, doesn't necessarily make it a full-blown endorsement of said relationship. Much of the interest lies in the tension, and this isn't really a clear-cut case of an adult woman "grooming" a teenage boy, unless you remove all dramatic context beyond their fictional ages. ALL THAT ASIDE, Hoffman is very confident as the male lead, and singer-songwriter Alana Haim (in her first film role) is a very unique screen presence, in terms of appearance, body-language and line-delivery. The film's dialogue is sharp, its structure and direction loose and playful (and a bit meandering, mostly in a good way), and it features some self-indulgent but often very funny supporting turns from Bradley Cooper (as coked-out film producer Jon Peters), Sean Penn (as a womanizing surrogate for actor William Holden), and Tom Waits. Yes, there's a character in the film who speaks to his Japanese wives in a racist manner, and once again, a depiction of something troubling or unpleasant isn't an endorsement of it, folks.
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Post by ThirdMan on Dec 30, 2021 16:19:21 GMT -8
Nightmare Alley looks great. A carnival is always a cinematic setting, and when you depict one in a film-noir, you're in for a striking visual experience. (Worth noting is how the characters are often captured as genuinely large in the medium shots, filling more screen space than is typical, making everything seem larger-than-life). That said, when the film moves away from that setting, it's a bit less engrossing, despite the strong work of a great cast of actors. Nonetheless, Bradley Cooper is very good in this film, and would not feel the least bit out-of-place had this film genuinely been shot in the 40s or 50s. He's basically a hustler with a strong grasp of psychology, which he uses to fleece people looking for existential answers in their lives. I won't give away much more than that. You'll probably see the ending coming a mile away, but this is a solid, stylish film, that's definitely worth seeing on the big screen.
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Post by Jeremy on Dec 30, 2021 20:09:55 GMT -8
I liked the film, but it certainly leans more on hypnotic visuals and atmosphere than detailed characterization. I believe it's similar to director David Lowery's earlier A Ghost Story, in terms of how the final extended section is mostly rendered in montage, but I had a stronger emotional reaction to A Ghost Story, which had a (mostly) modern setting. I'm not really a big fan of medieval fare, but can enjoy it well enough if it's rendered with enough visual creativity. Liked the contrast between the two characters that Alicia Vikander played, as well. I like some of the visual/emotional stuff that Lowery did in Pete's Dragon and A Ghost Story (although I don't think I wound up finishing the latter). Just didn't connect with anything here. Also I don't think it registered with me that Vikander was playing two different characters in the film. (But hey, it took me a while to realize that Kristen Wiig was playing two characters in Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar, so maybe that's a me problem.) I think a lot of the controversy surrounding the film's relationship is irrespective of the context in the film itself. (This is how a lot of film controversies seem to bubble up nowadays; see The Last Duel for another example.) In any case, I do find it interesting that this film is generating a lot more "relationship age gap" complaints than Call Me by Your Name did.
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Post by ThirdMan on Dec 30, 2021 21:43:58 GMT -8
In Call Me By Your Name, the Chalamet character was 17 years old, while Hammer's character was 24. Seventeen's close enough to eighteen that many would give that a pass. Also, there are so few semi-mainstream gay-themed romantic dramas, that I imagine many in media didn't want to draw any (potentially) negative attention to the film. ALSO, many gay relationships, particularly historically, were often clandestine in nature (due to bigotry, of course), where the participants had fewer opportunities to explore their sexuality, and may have taken what they could get, with age disparities not being as much of a consideration. That can play into the conflict and pathos of films like that: the desire for connection, and the means by which marginalized groups achieve it. Also, I would imagine far fewer people have seen CMBYN than will see LP. Is The Last Duel "controversy" related to them depicting a rape scene twice, from two different perspectives? Like, people suggesting it was exploitative?
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Post by Jeremy on Dec 31, 2021 10:51:29 GMT -8
I think the Last Duel controversy was largely stirred up by people who had not seen the movie, and assumed it was in poor taste based on an unfortunate tendency of films to depict sexual assault in exploitative ways. In reality, most people who watched The Last Duel (an admittedly small group, as evidenced by its dismal box office numbers) realized that it was more of a progressive #MeToo justice fantasy, with more emotional emphasis on Jodie Comer's character than either of the men in the story. I certainly won't deny the scene is tough to watch (I watched the film at home and skipped over it), but it certainly isn't trying to be cheap or exploitative.
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Quiara
Grade School
Posts: 775
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Post by Quiara on Jan 1, 2022 23:26:57 GMT -8
Final update on current/recent movies I've seen this year: Old - Another M. Night Shyamalan film where no one talks like an actual human and the plot features several moments that aim for scary and accidentally wind up being funny. There are some gross-out body-horror moments in this film, and it's boosted by a talented cast, but the actors are limited by stilted dialogue and some off-kilter tonal beats. (On the plus side, there is a character named Mid-Sized Sedan.) The twist at the end is not particularly shocking - and indeed, there are clues dropped throughout the film - but it does put an interesting period on an otherwise underwhelming story. Old was good. Great, even! This will sound like an insult, but I love that the movie feels like it was written by an eight-year-old. Maybe I should watch more of Shyamalan's films? I've never actually seen The Sixth Sense, for instance, having been told that the movie is dependent on its Big Shyamalan Twist, but honestly maybe that's being mean? I love The Crying Game, another '90s movie that's so often reduced to its twist instead of the weird gay noir at its heart.
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Post by Jeremy on Jan 2, 2022 6:59:45 GMT -8
Despite leveling this criticism at nearly all of Shyamalan's films, I do enjoy his inability to write characters who talk like actual human beings. There's a lot of unintentionally funny dialogue in his movies; despite his uneven output, he's one of the most distinctive writer-directors in Hollywood.
The Sixth Sense is quite good, even if you know the twist going in (as I did). But my favorite Shyamalan film is actually Unbreakable, which has a great sense of place and atmosphere (and managed to cleverly explore the tropes and clichés of superheroes years before our current Marvel/DC blockbuster deluge).
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Post by guttersnipe on Jan 2, 2022 14:23:51 GMT -8
Unbreakable is a borderline amazing film (at least compared to his surrounding library) , and the cinematography is absolutely delicious. I was going to insert some screencaps to highlight the recurring boxed-into-parallel-lines motif, but a quick scout delivered this article, which covers that with aplomb, and then some.
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