Movie News, Reviews, and Discussion Super-Thread

[Mr. Nobody]

Mean Streets was pretty bad outside of De Niro being a scumbag

[HyperZoneWasAwesome]

THAT'S THE ONE. Lol it has Sandler? Should I watch it for the lulz?

You should watch no Adam Sandler film whatsoever with the expectation of laughter.

spoiler (click to show/hide)

Well, actually Happy Gilmore is great, and Punch Drunk Love is awesome. But yeah, nothing for a solid decade plus.

[close]

[Momo]

I want RDJ to make another couple of Sherlock Holmes movies and then dip into comedies/noir like Tropic Thunder and Kiss Bang Bang, maybe another one like Zodiac 

[Stoney Mason]

Watched The Phantom Thread & Darkest Hour

The Phantom Thread is the most technically competent of all the Oscar movies I've seen so far. The way the camera moves. The terrific music. The terrific editing. The quality of the acting. It's all top notch. Just effortless quality from that director.

So that leaves the actual story and themes of the movie. I won't spoil anything. I could see someone being of the opinion that the actual story and the characters presented are completely not worthy of your interest or that the relationship presented are two unrelatable characters orbiting each other in a world in the movie that is also unrelatable. And there is some truth to that. The people in the story don't exist in a world I can relate to personally and their behaviors aren't the behaviors that drive the world that I live in.

With that acknowledgement out of the way, I loved the movie and I didn't care that these characters weren't remotely like how I experience the world. That was the fun of the movie. It's basically like pretty women but not. And the not makes all the difference. The relationship is bizarre and works BECAUSE its not relatable. It's the story of the relationship between two specific characters in a specific place and time and I had no idea where it was going. And that feels really good. I was hooked from beginning to the end. It was the easiest watch of any of the Oscar movies I've seen so far because everything flowed so well. And that combined with my curiosity propelled the movie. I don't know that this movie has anything super large to say thematically about the world or humans in general. I do know that I found it fascinating and a great watch.

Darkest Hour I've heard kinda negative thing about. (I mean as negative as you can hear about an Oscar movie) but I thought it was quite good. It's basically a companion piece to Dunkirk. Dunkirk is the visceral boots on the ground story. And Darkest Hour is sort of the political drama part of the story. Maybe I'm just a sucker for political drama movies but I liked it. It's a movie that is centered around a stellar performance by Gary Oldman and that's the reason to watch it. He's great. I don't know enough about British History to even pretend to know how accurate or inaccurate it was but on the drama side it presents the large ideas well enough and sets the table for Churchill to do his thing. It was compelling for me in a way that The Post for example wasn't. It sets up its stakes. It shouldn't win best picture imo but it didn't embarrass itself or anything and I could watch it again some day.

[kingv]

Hey, what's that movie that came out kind of recently whose big theme was how everyone's connected by social networks and smartphones now, and it had a kind of gimmick that put the text messages on the screen House of Cards style?

It's gotta be in the past 5 years.

Black Panther

[paprikastaude]

https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/news/quentin-tarantino-brad-pitt-leonardo-dicaprio-new-film-a8234101.html

[benjipwns]

I want RDJ to make another couple of Sherlock Holmes movies and then dip into comedies/noir like Tropic Thunder and Kiss Bang Bang, maybe another one like Zodiac 

I think Tropic Thunder is one of those legitimately great films, where it is actually better than or as good as the movies it's parodying/homaging, like Hot Fuzz, Galaxy Quest, etc.

But I have a hard time thinking of how a sequel could be done for it. Even a spiritual sequel seems difficult.

I'd fear something like Anchorman -> Anchorman 2, where it's a bad parody of itself.

The one that I think could do it, is the one that was the biggest box office bomb and somehow has a 21% RT score. Semi-Pro. I don't think many critics would be familiar at just how realistic yet exaggerated it was in the type of stupid stunts and attempts at keeping fans that the late ABA franchises were attempting. And the politics of the merger, although it turns it into a bit of an absurdity. Then again, the whole Spirits of St. Louis saga is arguably more insane than the resolution of the film and would have made a better ending.

[HyperZoneWasAwesome]

So there's movie out about a guy, an upper-middle class father who's spurred to murderous vengeance in the wake of a random crime that targets his family. Its directed by a dude who made his bones as a horror director, it stars a guy who was a big deal in the80's but now its rare to see him as the lead in a studio film, its based on a Brian Garfield novel. I'm happy to report that 2007's Death Sentence is good, trashy fun. A mean, lean B-movie on a bigger than usual stage, tight direction amd scripting and an impressively committed lead performance make this potentially queasy premise a good and somehow unhypocritical time.

The recent re-do of Death Wish is pretty much none of these things. Its indifferently directed (except for the gore, Eli Roth still clearly loves his viscerca), and acted (really Bruce? Did they only pay you enough just to show up?). It doesn't even meet the low bar of expectations set by the Bronson fronted Death Wish sequels, which are at least made with some sort of energy and/or ridicoulous entertainment value(like, how about we blow up a guy with a soccer ball). I'm not even getting into the politics of it, real critics have that well covered. I'm just saying this is shitty even by the standards of a latter day Bruce Willis vehicle.

[Nintex]

Darkest Hour was great. Gary's performance was incredible. Having watched documentaries on Churchill he really brings him back to life.

The only downside of those type of movies is that you already know how it's going to end. 

[kingv]

Complete non-sequitur, but I just remembered that The Hobbit was originally shown at 48 FPS and it was terrible. 

I liked the 48 fps

I really wish I had seen it with the 48 FPS. I still don’t really understand what the critics had a problem with since I didn’t see it.

[Tasty]

Complete non-sequitur, but I just remembered that The Hobbit was originally shown at 48 FPS and it was terrible. 

I liked the 48 fps

I really wish I had seen it with the 48 FPS. I still don’t really understand what the critics had a problem with since I didn’t see it.

Look up 60fps IRL footage on YouTube. There you go.

From my own experience, 48+ FPS makes the sets look incredibly fake and play-like.

[toku]

Yeah I think filmmakers like Mann or Soderbergh could work 48fps since they seem to use a lot of real world locations (when shooting contemporary set films at least) but yeah anything with a lot of set and prop work looks goofy like a soap opera. Marvel is already pushing it in a lot of ways with how their films look rn at 24 lol

[Tasty]

Oh man I just imagined how terrible Black Panther would have looked at 48fps.

[I'm a Puppy!]

Murder on the Orient Express - 2017

I really thought there was no way this could stand up to the one from the 70s, but it does manage to stand on its own. You gotta accept it's a Brannagh film , so you gotta go into it knowing that it's going to romantic and almost rococo. But Brannagh pulls off Hercule without any issue, and makes the film very personal. Where the 70s movie was more an ensemble movie this one is much more personal. I really enjoyed it, but then I always have had a soft spot for Brannagh's work.

[BlueTsunami]

Game Night

The funniest movie I've seen in a long time. Whoever wrote this knows how to write comedy that utilizes running gags and their characters. Its what those Paul Feige McCarthy flicks wish they could be.

[toku]

So there's movie out about a guy, an upper-middle class father who's spurred to murderous vengeance in the wake of a random crime that targets his family. Its directed by a dude who made his bones as a horror director, it stars a guy who was a big deal in the80's but now its rare to see him as the lead in a studio film, its based on a Brian Garfield novel. I'm happy to report that 2007's Death Sentence is good, trashy fun. A mean, lean B-movie on a bigger than usual stage, tight direction amd scripting and an impressively committed lead performance make this potentially queasy premise a good and somehow unhypocritical time.

The recent re-do of Death Wish is pretty much none of these things. Its indifferently directed (except for the gore, Eli Roth still clearly loves his viscerca), and acted (really Bruce? Did they only pay you enough just to show up?). It doesn't even meet the low bar of expectations set by the Bronson fronted Death Wish sequels, which are at least made with some sort of energy and/or ridicoulous entertainment value(like, how about we blow up a guy with a soccer ball). I'm not even getting into the politics of it, real critics have that well covered. I'm just saying this is shitty even by the standards of a latter day Bruce Willis vehicle.

Been a long time since I've seen it but I remember really liking Death Sentence. Particularly how it showed the consequences of the dad's actions. Random circumstance took his son, but his actions after effectively killed his family.

[TVC15]

Game Night

The funniest movie I've seen in a long time. Whoever wrote this knows how to write comedy that utilizes running gags and their characters. Its what those Paul Feige McCarthy flicks wish they could be.

Just got out of this and I liked it a lot. It’s Jumanji-esque in how surprisingly good it was. Jess Plemons had me laughing after like every one of his lines. The man is a treasure. The audience loved it, too. Lots of laughing throughout.

[BlueTsunami]

Game Night

The funniest movie I've seen in a long time. Whoever wrote this knows how to write comedy that utilizes running gags and their characters. Its what those Paul Feige McCarthy flicks wish they could be.

Just got out of this and I liked it a lot. It’s Jumanji-esque in how surprisingly good it was. Jess Plemons had me laughing after like every one of his lines. The man is a treasure. The audience loved it, too. Lots of laughing throughout.

Man he really leaned into that creeper role, was so good to see. Also I love how the movie makes him a butt of the joke but then that thing happens and you feel like shit for laughing at him.

And damn I have to check out Jumanji now before it leaves theaters

[Bebpo]

Game Night

The funniest movie I've seen in a long time. Whoever wrote this knows how to write comedy that utilizes running gags and their characters. Its what those Paul Feige McCarthy flicks wish they could be.

Just got out of this and I liked it a lot. It’s Jumanji-esque in how surprisingly good it was. Jess Plemons had me laughing after like every one of his lines. The man is a treasure. The audience loved it, too. Lots of laughing throughout.

Interesting. Never would have thought there'd be a good movie starring Jason Bateman, looks like I was wrong! Will check it out (along with Jumanji) when it's streaming.

[TVC15]

Game Night

The funniest movie I've seen in a long time. Whoever wrote this knows how to write comedy that utilizes running gags and their characters. Its what those Paul Feige McCarthy flicks wish they could be.

Just got out of this and I liked it a lot. It’s Jumanji-esque in how surprisingly good it was. Jess Plemons had me laughing after like every one of his lines. The man is a treasure. The audience loved it, too. Lots of laughing throughout.

Man he really leaned into that creeper role, was so good to see. Also I love how the movie makes him a butt of the joke but then that thing happens and you feel like shit for laughing at him.

And damn I have to check out Jumanji now before it leaves theaters

Game Night was also really well done technically for a comedy. There are a bunch of neat effects and eye-catching shots. This directing team really upped there game since Vacation.

[BlueTsunami]

Wow John Francis Daley co-directed Game Night. From Freaks and Geeks to directing a funny ass comedy. You can tell there were some good people forming the film.

[TVC15]

For real. I feel like I’ve watched little Sam Weir grow up before my eyes. He’s somewhere between cute and hot now, too, for a white guy.

But really, if you’re reading this and dig comedies, check out Game Night. A very welcome surprise. Plemons forever.

[Stoney Mason]

And finished up the last of the Oscar movies.

Watched Call me by Your Name.

Another coming of age story but pretty different than Lady Bird in most ways. I liked this movie. I will make the caveat that this movie has a moment that strongly retroactively makes me feel stronger about the film in general. If I was the watch it again, I think in general I would like it more because its smarter than I thought it was.

The movie is a slice of life super low stakes (low stakes as in traditional conflict) story of a 17 year-old who is basically discovering his sexuality. And as always in any coming of age story, the closer your life is to the lead in the story, the more it resonates. So initially there is a slight culture difference and a different orientation difference between me and the subject matter (and age difference). Which is not to say that it makes that thing unrelatable to me, but it does make it slightly removed from me as I will never know the pressure and social stigma burden of a same sex relationship. I can mentally understand it but that's not the same thing. I only mention it just to be honest because that distinction matters imo.

Because its slice of life the movie can feel essentially like the rambling adventures of a horny teenager. And for a large portion of the movie I took it mostly in that vain. Which is one level of understanding and made me judge the movie at a certain level of quality. But there is a speech near the tail end of the movie by the father that is just so wonderful. And re-contextualized the whole movie for me. The movie is really the story of your first love. And how important that first love is. And once I realized that, then the whole movie clicked. Because if that first love is important enough and in the right place and time, it feels like the most important thing that will ever happen to you. And that is ultimately what this movie is trying to get across. And I missed it until that speech and it makes me reflect on the entire movie.

I'll try and do a super short thing later where I rank all the Oscar best nom pictures from my perspective.

[TVC15]

And finished up the last of the Oscar movies.

Watched Call me by Your Name.

Another coming of age story but pretty different than Lady Bird in most ways. I liked this movie. I will make the caveat that this movie has a moment that strongly retroactively makes me feel stronger about the film in general. If I was the watch it again, I think in general I would like it more because its smarter than I thought it was.

The movie is a slice of life super low stakes (low stakes as in traditional conflict) story of a 17 year-old who is basically discovering his sexuality. And as always in any coming of age story, the closer your life is to the lead in the story, the more it resonates. So initially there is a slight culture difference and a different orientation difference between me and the subject matter (and age difference). Which is not to say that it makes that thing unrelatable to me, but it does make it slightly removed from me as I will never know the pressure and social stigma burden of a same sex relationship. I can mentally understand it but that's not the same thing. I only mention it just to be honest because that distinction matters imo.

Because its slice of life the movie can feel essentially like the rambling adventures of a horny teenager. And for a large portion of the movie I took it mostly in that vain. Which is one level of understanding and made men judge the movie at a certain level of quality. But there is a speech near the tail end of the movie by the father that is just so wonderful. And re-contextualized the whole movie for me. The movie is really the story of your first love. And how important that first love is. And once I realized that, then the whole movie clicked. Because if that first love is important enough and in the right place and time, it feels like the most important thing that will ever happen to you. And that is ultimately what this movie is trying to get across. And I missed it until that speech and it makes me reflect on the entire movie.

I'll try and do a super short thing later where I rank all the Oscar best nom pictures from my perspective.

After the movie, my friend and viewing partner half-jokingly said to me

spoiler (click to show/hide)

”What was with the father’s last speech? Was he coming out to his son?”

I giggled a little, but I sort of felt the same way. The speech was very well delivered, but the content it was offering was way too progressive and thoughtful for the time period the movie was covering. It’s so well delivered that most people won’t realize it’s ridiculous. Maybe I’d buy it from a liberal father in 1993. Not 1983.

[close]

[Freyj]

Stuhlbarg deserved a nom for that scene.

spoiler (click to show/hide)

rather than sully a cmbyn post with a shitty movie I’ll hide it here: don’t bother with Red Sparrow. It’s 4 hours too long and there are much better uses of your time and money

[close]

[Stoney Mason]

After the movie, my friend and viewing partner half-jokingly said to me

spoiler (click to show/hide)

”What was with the father’s last speech? Was he coming out to his son?”

I giggled a little, but I sort of felt the same way. The speech was very well delivered, but the content it was offering was way too progressive and thoughtful for the time period the movie was covering. It’s so well delivered that most people won’t realize it’s ridiculous. Maybe I’d buy it from a liberal father in 1993. Not 1983.

[close]

lol. Yeah I could see that. I just imagine in my head that this is the most liberal family in Italy in that time and place. But yeah the message is more the important aspect to me. If this isn't how the world is, then its the world I wish we lived in. Fully recognizing that the speech is also too liberal even today for large swaths of America.

[TVC15]

After the movie, my friend and viewing partner half-jokingly said to me

spoiler (click to show/hide)

”What was with the father’s last speech? Was he coming out to his son?”

I giggled a little, but I sort of felt the same way. The speech was very well delivered, but the content it was offering was way too progressive and thoughtful for the time period the movie was covering. It’s so well delivered that most people won’t realize it’s ridiculous. Maybe I’d buy it from a liberal father in 1993. Not 1983.

[close]

lol. Yeah I could see that. I just imagine in my head that this is the most liberal family in Italy in that time and place. But yeah the message is more the important aspect to me. If this isn't how the world is, then its the world I wish we lived in. Fully recognizing that the speech is also too liberal even today for large swaths of America.

Stuhlbarg deserved a nom for that scene.

I pretty much agree. I was mesmerized by the scene. He sold it. It was only upon further examination that made me say “wait a second.” That’s good acting.

[Stoney Mason]

As far as the Oscar nom movies here is my ordering. This is strictly personal preference and not a prediction thing.


1st Tier
The Phantom Thread
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

These two just stood out the most for me. The Phantom Thread is so technically strong and I thought the story was super intriguing. Three Billboards is a super messy film but I think it has things to spotlight. It doesn't solve anything or point to any solution. It's just an exploration of the dark underbelly of things with a comic tinge.

2nd Tier
Lady Bird
Get Out
Call me by Your Name

All good films but a just cut beneath those two movies above for me. Lady Bird and Call me by your name are flips sides of the coin. A quirky comedy coming of age and a sexual coming of age story. Get Out is fun trashy pulp. Just a great popcorn movie and the movie of all these I would actually want to watch with friends. I'd still be cool with any of them winning best picture.

3rd Tier
Darkest Hour
Dunkirk

Neither of these two films deserve to win best picture to me but I still enjoyed both of them. Another flip side of the coin thing as they both cover the same material just from different angles.

4th Tier
The Post
The Shape of Water

Both of these are "okay" movies but neither of them do I love. And honestly, they would be the ones I would pull if I could. The Post feels like it should have been an HBO movie/miniseries and The Shape of Water was the most predictable possible mashup of Beauty and The Beast and ET.


Overall I liked this set of nominations. I think they do a decent job of covering stuff. There will always be things I wish got nominated or didn't but this set is pretty good and there really wasn't one overwhelming, this is clearly the best movie of this year selection imo.

[TEEEPO]

i might be the only person to ever say this but phantom thread is easily my favorite pta film

and the only film of his that i personally loved. boogie nights was very cool though

[Assimilate]

i might be the only person to ever say this but phantom thread is easily my favorite pta film

that's honestly insane. it was well made but fucking boring as all hell

[TEEEPO]

sucks for you bro

[Stoney Mason]

It's been interesting to catch and see what all the drama is about regarding these movies after the fact as I tried to avoid as much of that as I could including reviews because I like to form my own opinion without it being formed in the wake of media narratives.

Some of it you can't avoid due to cultural osmosis but I avoided a lot of it.

I was surprised to read up on the controversy around 3 Billboards.

I can see a person having problems with that movie. I do think its kind of all over the place and that's noticeable when you watch it but I still think that is by design. There are absolutely parts of it that aren't realistic and are broad but its so clear its going for that. I don't think its a flaw that the movie doesn't have answers for racism and sexism. It's a movie that has racism and sexism in it, but its not a solution film for those things. If anything its about anger and ignorance and what that leads to. I thought it was pretty clear that everybody in the movie is a complete mess including the lead. I didn't think that was a redemption arc for that deputy cop. I just thought that is where that character happened to end up and he is still just as fucked in most ways as he began the movie.

People have compared it to Crash and I don't see that at all. 3 Billboards doesn't offer solutions and a person may want it to but that's not that movie. Crash is fundamentally flawed because it pretends to be a solution and understanding film. It wants to say something about the issues its dealing with and it explicitly fails because what it says is so simplistic and on the nose. Which is not to say that a person can't dislike 3 billboards. But I don't think that movie is trying to do what some people think it was trying to do. As compared to say American Sniper which I did always feel was disingenuous for example or Crash which is just flat out too simplistic while going for a very direct parallel to the real world.

[Assimilate]

I was surprised to read up on the controversy around 3 Billboards.

There's no fucking controversy. Just because some fucktard 'journalist' quotes a few angry twitter posts doesn't mean it's a 'controversy'

People really want to prove Trump right. Shit is fake news.

[Quaker]

Rewatched Creed for the first time since the theatrical run. Held up well aside from the graphical overlays with boxing stats that show up when a new boxer is introduced coming off as corny.  Still super cool whenever something that seems like a cynical cash grab ends up proving everyone wrong(same goes for Rocky 6 and the last Rambo, actually). I just watched Rocky 2, 3 and 4 last month and I'd probably rank them like

Rocky / Creed
Rocky Balboa
...
Rocky 2
...
...
Rocky 4(Best left as a memory of kitschy Cold War-era propaganda, but it can be pretty fun if in the right mindset of if you have nostalgia goggles on)
Rocky 3(I like the Creed stuff but it starts to suffers from franchise fatigue)


 

It also bummed me out that even aside from the questionable CGI, Black Panther isn't nearly as impressive visually as far as cinematography goes. So much craft in the editing and compositions here.

And finished up the last of the Oscar movies.

Watched Call me by Your Name.

Another coming of age story but pretty different than Lady Bird in most ways. I liked this movie. I will make the caveat that this movie has a moment that strongly retroactively makes me feel stronger about the film in general. If I was the watch it again, I think in general I would like it more because its smarter than I thought it was.

The movie is a slice of life super low stakes (low stakes as in traditional conflict) story of a 17 year-old who is basically discovering his sexuality. And as always in any coming of age story, the closer your life is to the lead in the story, the more it resonates. So initially there is a slight culture difference and a different orientation difference between me and the subject matter (and age difference). Which is not to say that it makes that thing unrelatable to me, but it does make it slightly removed from me as I will never know the pressure and social stigma burden of a same sex relationship. I can mentally understand it but that's not the same thing. I only mention it just to be honest because that distinction matters imo.

Because its slice of life the movie can feel essentially like the rambling adventures of a horny teenager. And for a large portion of the movie I took it mostly in that vain. Which is one level of understanding and made men judge the movie at a certain level of quality. But there is a speech near the tail end of the movie by the father that is just so wonderful. And re-contextualized the whole movie for me. The movie is really the story of your first love. And how important that first love is. And once I realized that, then the whole movie clicked. Because if that first love is important enough and in the right place and time, it feels like the most important thing that will ever happen to you. And that is ultimately what this movie is trying to get across. And I missed it until that speech and it makes me reflect on the entire movie.

I'll try and do a super short thing later where I rank all the Oscar best nom pictures from my perspective.

After the movie, my friend and viewing partner half-jokingly said to me

spoiler (click to show/hide)

”What was with the father’s last speech? Was he coming out to his son?”

I giggled a little, but I sort of felt the same way. The speech was very well delivered, but the content it was offering was way too progressive and thoughtful for the time period the movie was covering. It’s so well delivered that most people won’t realize it’s ridiculous. Maybe I’d buy it from a liberal father in 1993. Not 1983.

[close]

Actually, that's a pretty common interpretation.

spoiler (click to show/hide)

I didn't think the message of the speech was unbelievable considering he's an uber academic living in Italy, married to a European. Sure, you could nitpick that people aren't that articulate in real life but I'm fine with stylized dialogue in movies. And I think the movie acknowledges that the average person wouldn't be nearly as tolerant by having Armie Hammer bring up that his dad would have put him in a correctional facility.

[close]

[Tasty]

I didn't know much about the controversy until my viewing and I kinda-sorta-maybe agree with it. Doesn't drag the film down but I just wonder what the point of having a sympathetic super hardcore racist, who never apologizes for it, in the movie is. That said he does get a kind of judgment towards the end of the movie but then he's best buds with Cantankerous Mom and I didn't really buy it.

Film would have been better if Rockwell was a pure mommy's boy archetype.

[Stoney Mason]

I didn't know much about the controversy until my viewing and I kinda-sorta-maybe agree with it. Doesn't drag the film down but I just wonder what the point of having a sympathetic super hardcore racist, who never apologizes for it, in the movie is. That said he does get a kind of judgment towards the end of the movie but then he's best buds with Cantankerous Mom and I didn't really buy it.

Film would have been better if Rockwell was a pure mommy's boy archetype.

This probably goes back to a falling down type discussion but I don't think he was sympathetic. He is a character who learns one thing at the very end of the movie where he is pretty much on the verge of killing himself and nobody would mourn him except his mother.

This was not a hero character. This was a character. If people judge him sympathetically, I feel that says more about them. (Not aimed at you) For me it just felt self evident. I preferred it that way instead of having another character come up to him and say you are a racist piece of shit at the end of the movie. We already know that. I don't like it when it a movie has to pander to the dumbest part of the audience just to make sure they don't take home a mixed message. (Once again not aimed at you) Trump people are gonna trump no matter what. I think people are ascribing an agenda to that film that from my perspective I didn't feel. Once again I'll use American Sniper as an example of an agenda film.

But that's just my take.


edit: I've seen some people also say that actor shouldn't win best supporting award because of what that character represents. And I also think that is foolishness. If Sam Rockwell was actual racist or the movie was actually racist, then yeah punish him. But that's not what that movie was. Although he wouldn't be my first pick if I'm being honest. I thought he was fine in the movie but I preferred Woody Harrelson in his role if we are just talking about those two. I haven't seen enough of the other roles in that category to even judge that particular award.

[Nintex]

Sam Rockwell easily played the most interesting character. In some ways he's aware that he's a complete fuck-up and doesn't even blame others for lashing out at him.
Yet, he can't control his worst impulses. He fits the movie very well.

spoiler (click to show/hide)

I would say the biggest theme of the movie is 'I thought you were better than this' from the cop who suffers from cancer and thinks that the lady will take the billboard down. From the son who can't come to terms with the fact that he has an abusive father. From the mother who (as it turns out) blames herself for her daughters death and is obsessed by it. etc.

[close]

[Assimilate]

I didn't know much about the controversy until my viewing and I kinda-sorta-maybe agree with it. Doesn't drag the film down but I just wonder what the point of having a sympathetic super hardcore racist, who never apologizes for it, in the movie is. That said he does get a kind of judgment towards the end of the movie but then he's best buds with Cantankerous Mom and I didn't really buy it.

Film would have been better if Rockwell was a pure mommy's boy archetype.

Come onnnnn brooooo. Everyone has to be perfect moral creatures now ? Goddamnit this generation is insufferable.

I guess i can't expect much from groups of people that now get triggered by Shakespeare

 

[toku]

[Bebpo]

So here's my Stoney-take of the night when it comes to expectations from praise. I just finished Lady Bird and as someone who loves quirky hs/college coming of age films like Anderson stuff, Juno, or more recently End of the F***king World, Lady Bird didn't grab me.

It was good, but Ronan's acting as a HS kid felt really awkward to me. It's especially echo'd by the very minor timeskip college era where suddenly she's acting normal. And I'm not talking about the manneurism, as much as the style of speech in her HS-era. It's like she was trying to act young and naive and not always the brightest and she delivers her dialogue in this weird way that for me just felt like bad acting. Like most of the movie felt really cheesy and even a little cringe, which I've never felt in other hs stuff. Her character didn't feel like a HS senior to me in the extreme naivety, it felt like the character was written at a maturity level of a Jr. High kid (along with the other school kids) and not 17 year old seniors. Or maybe it's just that in most movies about HS kids, the kids act more mature than HS kids, so my baseline's been thrown off.

Anyhow, because it felt pretty cheesy to me (felt more like a retro throwback Fast Times in Richmond High kind of film than a Rushmore [again that was college so maybe bad comparison] kind of film), I enjoyed and identified and had more empathy toward the parents and adult characters. The kids were just too...kiddy. I felt like 20 years too old for this movie.

That being said it was pretty well directed, and the story is solid with some good music choices. I think it felt a little too short, you're supposed to have all this growing up experiences stuff happen in the HS-era so the college-era reflection pays off, but it was just a bunch of short snippets. Knowing where the movie is going in the end, I think I'd probably enjoy it more on a re-watch.

But yeah, I liked it, 3/4 style, but don't really get the raving and oscar noms kind of stuff from it. I think it handled the themes of catholic school, small forgotten towns, and low income families well. The mother/daughter, family relations were good. The coming of age stuff was...ok, and I feel I've seen a lot better coming of age teen movies.

Anyhow I thought End of the F**king World was a much better coming of age thing, also helped the characters actually felt their age while Ronan felt like a 20+ year old playing essentially a 15 year old which never felt natural to me.
 

I didn't know much about the controversy until my viewing and I kinda-sorta-maybe agree with it. Doesn't drag the film down but I just wonder what the point of having a sympathetic super hardcore racist, who never apologizes for it, in the movie is. That said he does get a kind of judgment towards the end of the movie but then he's best buds with Cantankerous Mom and I didn't really buy it.

Film would have been better if Rockwell was a pure mommy's boy archetype.

Dude is a piece of shit, but an interesting one, and even at the end he's shitty and he knows & feels it (almost kills himself), and he's trying to do some good things to be a better person. He has a good character arc. I think the movie highlights how a lot of racism is inherited basically though family brainwashing. His character is so dependent on his mother, whose a horrible racist which has in turn created this character who is a piece of shit and lives an awful life and wonders why everything bad happens to him, only in the end to wake up a bit and grow.

----------------

Also not sure if there's a different thread for oscar talk, but just saw the winners. Pretty ok with everything across the board. I probably would've given Best Picture to Three Billboards or Dunkirk over Shape of Water (haven't seen Call my By my Name yet), but everything else seems like solid choices I can't really complain about.

[Stoney Mason]

Fish Sex is the new oscar bait.....

Good for Guillermo del Toro. He seems like a nice dude. Wish he had won for something like Pan's Labyrinth but what are you gonna do.

I'm not really a fan of Shape of Water and think its one of the poorer best oscar picture winners but at least he's not a douche.

Was happy to see Jordan Peele win in screenplay. I think Call me by Your Name won the other screenplay award which is nice too.

[VomKriege]

Good. We can all go back to talk about films without caring about tiny statuettes for the next 10 months now.

[Momo]

I like Del Toro, but fuck that fish fuckery. Hollywood is too far up it's own ass, and you can really tell by the Oscars. They should just let the populace vote and watch Transformers win everything every year, that'l show 'em.

[VomKriege]

Emily Blunt tho

[Momo]

She should go make an All you need is Kill prequel instead

[HardcoreRetro]

Did Boss Baby at least win the animation one?

[Joe Molotov]

Anime fans been telling y’all normies about monster girl/boys for a while now

[Momo]

kinda like this dude's videos, found him today

[Assimilate]

The silver lining for this years Oscars was the fact that some deserving roles/films did win some stuff.

1. Sam Rockwell
2. Allison Janney
3. Roger Deakins Cinematography for Blade Runner

but the Fish fucking movie won best picture over Three Billboards? GTFO. 

[Joe Molotov]

Is he cool?

[ToxicAdam]

I love Bill Simmons' idea of giving out Oscars 5 years after the fact. Like they do for sports HOF nominations. It would obviously never happen because of marketing reasons, but it's a much better design than the one they have now.

It would really cut down on these "make up" Oscars and the psuedo-lifetime achievement ones.

In a recent podcast they went over the 2013 noms and no one picked the winner (Argo). They all went with The Master (which wasn't even nominated that year) or Django instead. Having that extra perspective can really change your mind on a set of movies.

[Assimilate]

I love Bill Simmons' idea of giving out Oscars 5 years after the fact. Like they do for sports HOF nominations. It would obviously never happen because of marketing reasons, but it's a much better design than the one they have now.

It would really cut down on these "make up" Oscars and the psuedo-lifetime achievement ones.

In a recent podcast they went over the 2013 noms and no one picked the winner (Argo). They all went with The Master (which wasn't even nominated that year) or Django instead. Having that extra perspective can really change your mind on a set of movies.

I agree.

Like the year King's Speech won over Social Network. While the Social Network became a movie of a generation, spawning all types of imitations (Mr Robot, the endless minimalistic NIN score) the winner of the Oscar vanished completely from everyone's mind. It was a particularly ridiculous win considering how strong the other nominees were.

The last 5 years has been pretty bad if you think about it

2010- King's Speech over Social Network/Black Swan/Inception
2011- The Artist (a really weak year)
2012- Argo over Django Unchained/Zero Dark Thirty/Lincoln
2013- 12 Years a Slave over Gravity/Wolf of Wall Street/ Her/
2014- Birdman may have deserved it, this year was kind of weak
2015- Spotlight over The Big Short/Mad Max: Fury Road
2016- Moonlight over every other movie in this category was better. No one will remember Moonlight

I'm not sure what the Oscar voters think sometimes. I can't stand voting based on agendas or "for the time this is important" no one is going to remember that shit. People want the best movies/actors/actresses to win. The political agenda in Hollywood sometimes is so hypocritical. No one even takes hollywood serious, why do they even bother?

[Tasty]

So game Night was pretty good.

Jesse Plemons is god tier.

His Black Mirror episode was basically the only one from S4 I liked.

[Tasty]

TSN <3

[BobFromPikeCreek]

Also killed it in Fargo Season 2. Dude's among the best around right now.

[Momo]

I think the problem with Hollywood is they try to project so hard what they make is art/important that they try and over correct blatantly in Oscar voting. Most of what keeps them afloat is Marvel movies and Transformers garbage (nothing really wrong with this). This isnt to say there's no artistry in film making, I think if you take it down to single disciplines like composer, cinematographer, it's clearly art but when you look at it on the macro level as a thing jumbled together at the end by editors, producers, marketers and directors it gets a bit more murky and producty. I think they know this and that sits in their minds when selecting films/products for artistic consideration.

[Momo]

What's the best film adaptation of 'And then there were None?' Murder on the Orient Express got me in the mood for more.

[Tasty]

What's the best film adaptation of 'And then there were None?' Murder on the Orient Express got me in the mood for more.

Sorry, I'm not familiar with that one. Do you mean Ten Little ****ers?

[Momo]

That's the one, give me the max racism version pls

[Joe Molotov]

What's the best film adaptation of 'And then there were None?' Murder on the Orient Express got me in the mood for more.

I like the René Clair one, although the one from the 80's starring Donald Pleasence and Frank Stallone is certainly....a thing that exists.