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Post by Jay on May 16, 2021 13:36:05 GMT -8
That was certainly an important part of my film history to patch up as I'm now recognizing references in films as various as Hot Fuzz and You're Next. It was a clumsy movie in some respects, but very much enjoyable. Three quick takeaways:
1) If anyone asks, The Wicker Man is my favourite musical.
2) Sergeant Howie is a giant nerd.
3) It amuses me that the "pagans" are portrayed as Scottish. The spread of Christianity in the Isles started with the Irish and Scots and Picts and only later progressed to the Angles and Saxons, whose invasion as heretics was considered a sort of divine punishment when it happened. Later, as the Vikings appeared... (That said, a friend of mine claims that her family was kicked out of Ireland for being "too pagan"). In any case, that might also serve to explain why a number of the traditions were English and not Scottish as they were effectively imported back to the island.
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Post by ThirdMan on May 16, 2021 13:43:02 GMT -8
Oh yeah, Hot Fuzz is very influenced by the movie.
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Post by guttersnipe on May 16, 2021 16:33:13 GMT -8
That's another thing to appreciate about the country: Weirdly good music scene in addition to strong bookstore scene. Björk once claimed this was partially engendered by certain repressions upon the people, such as a ban on use of the Icelandic language under Danish occupation and a prohibition that lasted three times as long as the more famous one, so music and throat-singing became a subversive means of communication and expression. You marry that up to a tiny population, turbulent soil, a history of idiosyncratic witchcraft, a natural yet treeless landscape, sulphurous water and unusual sequencing of seasons, and an interesting culture is born. EDIT: Penis museum!
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Post by Jay on May 16, 2021 17:41:53 GMT -8
Björk once claimed this was partially engendered by certain repressions upon the people, such as a ban on use of the Icelandic language under Danish occupation and a prohibition that lasted three times as long as the more famous one, so music and throat-singing became a subversive means of communication and expression. You marry that up to a tiny population, turbulent soil, a history of idiosyncratic witchcraft, a natural yet treeless landscape, sulphurous water and unusual sequencing of seasons, and an interesting culture is born. EDIT: Penis museum! HA! I did attend the famous penis museum too while I was there. The flight back from Norway had a hiccup and we were stuck in Reykjavik for an additional day, so I figured it was as good a time as any to stop by. Took a lot of pictures which I then realized could probably not be published online in any capacity.
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Post by Jeremy on May 30, 2021 19:46:58 GMT -8
For the first time in nearly 15 months, I returned to the theater to watch a movie. I had almost forgotten how theaters looked (messy), sounded (loud), or smelled (bad). It's good to be back.
Anyway, A Quiet Place Part II was the perfect film to watch in the setting - it's not quite at the caliber of the original, and the larger budget (a staple of horror sequels to low-level originals) tends to diminish some of the horror. (Much of the film takes place in the daytime, allowing Krasinski to show off more of the spiffy alien effects.) Still, it remains a taut and suspenseful survival thriller, with compelling performances from Emily Blunt and Millicent Simmonds. Definitely glad to see it on the big screen, and I look forward to returning to more big screens in the future.
Other films I watched recently include The Woman in the Window, a psychological horror film starring Amy Adams as an agoraphobic recluse. Despite a promising setup and some creative staging (and I mean "staging" in more than one sense - the screenplay is by Tracy Letts, and the minimal use of sets and claustrophobic camerawork gives the film feel of an onstage production), a lot of it feels cheesy and exploitative, particularly as the central mystery unspools. And the good cast can only do so much with such weak dialogue. The film isn't quite as bad as the critics are saying, but it's not good enough to recommend either.
Also watched Fatman, a fairly bonkers film that asks "What if Santa Claus (Mel Gibson) was a gun-toting old codger being hunted by an assassin and also caught up in the US military-industrial complex?" Which is exactly as entertaining as it sounds. Ho-ho-homicide!
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Post by otherscott on May 31, 2021 4:42:46 GMT -8
I was visiting my parents last weekend and we tried to watch The Woman in the Window, but the internet cut out about 40 minutes in. As it was, the setup should have been interesting and there should have been some form of intrigue there, but neither I nor my parents cared at all about what was happening. I can't quite pinpoint exactly what went wrong in the execution of the movie but it was just poor and uninteresting - they didn't make you care about anyone but still wanted you to care about their mystery.
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Post by Jeremy on May 31, 2021 11:09:53 GMT -8
I've heard a few critics describe Woman in the Window as "Rear Window by way of Brian de Palma," what with its flashy editing and split perspectives. It certainly looks distinctive (and as such, held my attention more than Joe Wright's previous film, Darkest Hour) but the look doesn't add much to the story or characters, who remain generally shallow throughout.
Apparently this is Tracy Letts' first screenplay that was not adapted from one of his prior stage plays. I can see this film working as a stage production - and heck, I can even see it working as a film that more obliquely digs into its main character's paranoia. But that would require a more subtle touch than the Netflix film offers.
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Post by Jay on Jun 6, 2021 12:49:29 GMT -8
A few more gaps I was filling: The House on Haunted HillVincent Price is probably enough of a selling point, but the movie treads a line harmoniously between being campy and an actual mystery (though partly for how few details anyone bothers to explain and how many red herrings there are). To the contemporary viewer, it would probably prove unsatisfying for how little advantage it takes care of its non-Price cast and how Nora's role is almost entirely "scream-and-run", with the initial intro providing as much backstory as most characters get or why they so desperately need the money (that said, fond of the columnist and secret gambler whose primary role is to drink scotch and peace out).
The Abyss I first saw this as a teenager but found that I didn't recall much of it beyond certain iconic scenes: The rat in the liquid oxygen, the water face, the finale. I was wondering if I had just failed to absorb much of it but as it turns out there isn't much there to begin with and even with the clipped introduction and ending, the movie probably runs at least a half hour too long. James Cameron seems to have a passion for that in particular, along with tough ladies, wedging in a romance subplot, Michael Biehn, and some combination of aliens and robots. I also got the distinct sense that he was trying to imitate 2001: A Space Odyssey and wasn't quite smart enough to pull it off.
Mad Max I had heard this was the weakest entry in the franchise but I felt obligated to check it out anyway as someone who extensively played the early Fallout games. There were a few things that I found interesting about it. The aesthetic is basically 50s/60s American car / bike culture meets A Clockwork Orange meets Australia. The idea of presenting society during but not after its collapse was novel given how much straight dystopia have taken over media. That everyone in the film was competent but by no means exceptional in the stunts they pulled off also added some charm. And there was an old lady with a shotgun. Aside from that and a few other individual moments, it didn't strike me as all that special and I spent a lot of time thereafter considering whether the ability to produce quality work EVENTUALLY is less about talent and more about money and continually being provided with opportunities.
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Post by Jay on Jun 7, 2021 19:48:17 GMT -8
I too wound up at a theatre for the first time in about sixteen months to watch A Quieter Place 2 Quiet 2 Place A Quiet Place, pt. II. I would also agree that the feeling of the movie was greatly enhanced by the social distancing and the discomfort in being around people generally, but the first minutes before the title were great, in that it was the before "that day" world and you got to see how folks were reacting to it in the moment. Towards the middle it got a little into the "who is the real threat" but honestly, my big dread coming in was that yon babby would be used for cheap noise and ways of attracting the monster and was surprised to discover that they'd thought that portion through. So instead I ended up miffed at the older children for doing dumb stuff which didn't seem necessary. That aside, good movie in which Emily Blunt remains flawlessly coifed once more in the face of apocalypse.
I also peeped in on other films in the area and discovered that the theatre closest to me is still running Demon Slayer: Mugen Train. I've read the entirety of the manga and am sorely tempted to go but I also don't think that it's a movie that distinctly benefits from the theatre experience and I already felt overly indulgent just going to one this week.
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Post by Jeremy on Jun 8, 2021 19:35:23 GMT -8
I really appreciated all the little ways in which the second Quiet Place naturally bridged off the first. (Notably with the larger, more front-and-center role for the kids.) It's clear that Paramount and Krasinski have plans for a franchise, and those can easily go off the rails if the same story is overcomplicated or repeated to death (see the Paranormal Activity series for examples of both), but QP2 managed to tell a tight story while adding juuust enough meat for future installments.
My second theatrical venture of 2021 was The De Vil Wears Prada - oops, I mean Cruella, a film that was roundly disappointing. Emma Stone is as magnetic as ever, and the film is a shoo-in for some Costume/Hairstyling noms come Oscar season, but it comes off as little more than a Disneyfied spin on Joker. I was hoping the PG-13 rating would give the film room to explore a dark story about the rise of a defining villainess, but it's remarkably soft-pedaled, with superficial messages about feminism and classism tethered to a lengthy story (134 minutes) that never gets as cruel as its title would suggest. Certainly better than the live-action carbon copies of Aladdin and Lion King that Disney has churned out in recent years, but hardly as biting as it could have been.
A better Disney film I watched this week was Raya and the Last Dragon. Great animation and compelling characters (if a few too many serving the role of comic relief), this is a lean, taut story that keeps up an action-packed pace for the bulk of its running time. Could have done without the modern references in a period story, but it's not at the level of a DreamWorks film, so it wasn't too distracting. Not one of the Mouse House's finest, but one of their stronger efforts in a while.
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Post by Jeremy on Jun 13, 2021 20:14:42 GMT -8
Army of the Dead is, in typical Zack Snyder tradition, really dumb and ridiculously violent . And while it might seem ridiculous to criticize a 148-minute zombie film for being "overlong" after witnessing the 242-minute epic that was The Snyder Cut, I stand by the claim that the Justice League characters are fun to watch, while the characters in Army of the Dead felt like a garden-variety gun-toting motley crew. And so much was shot in murky, hazy close-ups, which might be okay if this was a horror film, but it's clearly leaning more towards the action side of zombie fiction.
Still, it was... watchable enough. Definitely needed some trimming, but undoubtedly not without moments of visual flair and a few funny lines of dialogue. The opening credits sequence can't top the one from Watchmen, but it's clever and sets an amusing tone - one that the rest of the film struggles to recapture.
Also, every time Tig Notaro showed up onscreen, I couldn't help noticing she was more visually in-focus than any of the other characters. Wonder why...
Had a much better time with Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar. How much people like this film will depend on how well they can tolerate the doting, middle-aged voices that Kristen Wiig and Annie Mumolo supply the title characters. Much of their dialogue appears to be improvised, but it's very funny, and I daresay the scripted and unscripted scenes mesh better here than they did in Bridesmaids. The film is part buddy comedy, part action thriller, and part musical - it really throws everything at the screen, but an impressively high proportion of it sticks. Just a good, fun time all around.
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Post by Jeremy on Jun 18, 2021 14:46:27 GMT -8
In the Heights was a fun film, though the staging and Lin-Manuel Miranda's conversation-in-song style is probably better geared to the stage than the screen. The cast is lively, the tunes are bouncy, and director Jon Chu (taking some cues from his Step Up work) gives the film a dynamic visual energy. (The swimming pool number is a particular show-stopper.) The stakes aren't quite high enough to justify the 140-minute runtime, and the film does unfortunately drag in spots - Spielberg's West Side Story remake might not turn out to be a masterpiece, but it does have potentially meatier source material.
Kind of bums me that the film has been overshadowed by the controversy surrounding the skin color of its cast. Miranda showcases a lot of different cultural perspectives within New York's Hispanic community (Dominican, Cuban, Puerto Rican), but he's faced a lot of pushback for the lack of dark-skinned Latinos. (Contrary to online reports, there is an Afro-Latina in the main cast, but people are too busy focusing on literally skin-deep issues to notice that.)
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Post by Jeremy on Jun 25, 2021 14:47:37 GMT -8
I initially wanted to see Tenet during its theatrical release last fall, but unfortunately theaters in my area were shut tight, and I wasn't in the mood of driving 30 miles to a state that had them open. After postponing it for several further months for one reason or another, I finally watched it at home this week. My expectations for watching it on my TV were lower than they would have been had I seen it on the big screen - and yet it still failed to meet them.
Sure, Tenet has spiffy effects and a lot of trippy backwards-forwards storytelling, which potentially could add up to an intriguing story. But Christopher Nolan has once again gotten so caught up in crafting Pure CinemaTM that he's forgotten to imbue any of his characters with depth or personality, or the plot with any emotional drive. It unspools a long, expository path from Point A to Point B (and then back to Point A, natch) without ever giving its audience a reason to care. Yes, bullets being fired into guns looks pretty cool, but it's not the sort of image that can carry a 150-minute movie.
In some ways, I think the film benefited from my watching it at home. On the big screen, the loud, overbearing score (which drowned out much of the exposition, rendering much of the already convoluted dialogue fully incomprehensible) would have given me a migraine. Still, there's no question that a theater would have at least provided an experience - if not necessarily a great one - while home viewing is simply a dull exercise as I wait for the script to finally give Elizabeth Debecki something to do. (Was left disappointed on that front as well.)
Probably the worst Nolan film I've ever seen (yes, it's worse than Dark Knight Rises), which is unfortunate. There was genuine potential for this to be an interesting mind-bender of a movie, if only it hadn't been told in the most rote and generic way possible.
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Post by guttersnipe on Jun 25, 2021 23:14:52 GMT -8
I initially wanted to see Tenet during its theatrical release last fall, but unfortunately theaters in my area were shut tight, and I wasn't in the mood of driving 30 miles to a state that had them open. You drive in New York?!
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Post by Jeremy on Jun 26, 2021 18:47:00 GMT -8
I do, though usually not the area of New York you're thinking of. Any travel in Manhattan is best accomplished by subway. (Although post-Covid, downtown traffic has lightened a bit, since fewer people are clogging up the arterial highways on their commute to and from work.)
I typically don't go to the big city solely for film screenings (unless there's a special showing of a film that I can't get closer to home); it's much easier to keep it local. I'm glad that New York has finally allowed theaters to fully reopen, even if, despite the widespread vaccination rate in the city, it will probably still take some time for the seats to really fill up again.
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