Random Movie Thoughts Thread

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

I'd really like to see more intensity in film. Or maybe only Keaton and Pacino can get the job done.

Was Diane ever in a talking snowman movie? This is the standard by which I judge all Keatons.

 

[Totenkindly]

Wonder Woman 1984's Release Highlights Major Rotten Tomatoes Flaws

 

[Jaguar]

Even after all these years, I still want to beat the shit out of Neil's father when I watch Dead Poets Society.

 

[Stigmata]

It seems like the trend nowadays is to have movie trailers/teasers which end up being better than the actual films. The first one to jump out in my mind is for Suicide Squad. The teaser trailer was fucking amazing but the actual movie was pretty meh.

 

[Totenkindly]

Even after all these years, I still want to beat the shit out of Neil's father when I watch Dead Poets Society.

OMG yes.

I mean, he's one of the least nuanced characters in the film (I really like some of the subtler character work better -- the boys are great, and what's amazing is that it's some of the first film work for notables like Ethan Hawke and Robert Sean Leonard and Josh Charles, he's done a lot of TV ... I guess Hawk has remained the most prominent over the years; and when Williams isn't cracking jokes, he's doing some lovely dramatic work)...

... but man. I hate that guy, he is like everything wrong with parenting that I can imagine, and all while portraying himself as the long-suffering victim.

It kind of took me some time to disassociate my bad feelings from Kurtwood Smith, the actor, since the first two things i ever saw him in was this and Robocop.

 

[Totenkindly]

Watched the Director's Cut of Midsommar. Of course it looked as amazing on 4K as you can imagine, considering how great the blu-ray transfer was.

It's interesting, more as a study of how you can tonally change a movie based on the editing that might occur, as well as tracking a vision from early filming through post-production and editing.

It's still the same film, but you get a lot more footage of Christian -- snippets here and there -- that personally I think make him look worse. Stuff you were imagining in the theatrical cut, but now it is no longer imagined. Basically he looks like more of a wishy-washy guy who won't commit to things unless he thinks it will benefit him directly and then he pushes it with conviction. (Notably, his choice of a thesis after sitting on the fence and not doing his work, in part by ripping off his friend's idea.) I think it is also more explicit that he forgets her birthday despite just talking about it a day or two before. All the characters in fact come out a little worse, although Dani seems to be the only one who is self-aware and it inhibits her because she's trying to not be invasive.... which puts her own needs on the backburner.

Also, the DC makes Christian more aware of the love ritual he is being dragged into, and he's more complicit than the TC portrayed -- which I think is a strength of the TC, it kind of leaves things more ambiguous and he fees like more of a victim and confused about what he is doing. (If I recall the TC correctly, it's been awhile.)

So basically the DC is really great if you want the story, backstory, and intentions fleshed out more, along with a bit more crazy footage. Meanwhile, I think the TC might be more effective at keeping things ambiguous, which plays into the large feeling of dread that builds throughout the film.

Again, though, I'm really reminded how Dani basically how already had a messed up family life that results in the tragedy that opens the film, and it affects all of her relationships so that she is unsure of which of her needs she can ask others to meet, legitimately. So she ends up feeling dreadfully alone -- and she's with a "nice" guy who doesn't want to not be perceived as "nice" while harboring darker ambitions with his studies. Like, he has that game down pat, of trying to look good while not committing to anything. So often in this film, Dani is going off alone to wail because she is in such pain and doesn't want to impose on anyone -- it's even more noticeable in the DC. THe only time she finds comfort is when the other women surround her and although she tries to fight them off at first, they are in sync with her and she feels surrounded and in connection for the first time in her life.

It's kind of a great example too of how cults emulate community and can be enticing when you don't have any healthy relationships in your life... they are providing something you desperately need.



I am a big fan of the closing song (Frankie Valli's "THe Sun Ain't Gonna SHine anymore") because it's such a weird song in itself -- the music is happy, the lyrics are sad. I actually prefer the original here compared to most of the covers (including the Walker Brothers' version that got a lot more play), although I also feel like the Keane version has similar energy.

It seems like the trend nowadays is to have movie trailers/teasers which end up being better than the actual films. The first one to jump out in my mind is for Suicide Squad. The teaser trailer was fucking amazing but the actual movie was pretty meh.

Yeah, I think I had a similar thought earlier in the thread but I forget which film I was referring to. But SS was definitely another one of those films -- the trailer kind of leaves your knees weak in anticipation... and then that FILM comes out...

But basically it doesn't seem hard -- you are just getting a good editor to boil a film down to 2-3 mins of its key scenes, with any spin you want and with any music you want. (I love watching those trailers on YouTube that totally spin a movie around, like changing rom-coms into horror films and vice versa.)

We should make a list sometime of the most notable offenders, lol.

 

[Totenkindly]

Man, I love CHarlie Kaufman, but sometimes he goes so far off the reservation.

THis is my SECOND attempt to get through "I'm THinking of Ending Things" on Netflix. First time, I got about 15 minutes in, then quit because I knew it would necessitate more focus than I had at the time. This time I got to the middle of the film and am just struggling to keep going. It's kind of a "MOther!" experience but less intriguing -- it's really clear that the film is not as literal as it starts out seeming, because of the behavior of the parents, the quick cuts where things aren't where you expect, the blurring of identity. I think it is supposed to be generating feelings about a new romance and the uncertainty of it, the internal conflict between the life and death instincts; like, where you might desperately want to like someone, while also run screaming from the room, while at the same time STILL feeling either indifferent in the face of all that strong ambivalence. ANd parents are such a weird thing too when you are meeting the other person's, they have all this history and drama that you are suddenly launched straight into (as a new SO) without any context or awareness ahead of time.

Okay, so maybe I am understanding it? I really don't know. Kaufman leaves little road map to even know if you are on the right page. His most confusing film to me so far has been Synecdoche NY, which left me sobbing at the end despite all the non-articulable stuff (it works more on the level of human experience), and maybe that is what this is, except on a very very specific and personal level vs the broad "humanistic" one of that film?

I still favor the stuff by him like BJM or ESotSM, that is still complex but a little more understandable. Even Anomalisa was a bit aimless, but it was more clear what it was driving at. I get why some folks bail on his films.

 

[Stigmata]

Yeah, I think I had a similar thought earlier in the thread but I forget which film I was referring to. But SS was definitely another one of those films -- the trailer kind of leaves your knees weak in anticipation... and then that FILM comes out...

But basically it doesn't seem hard -- you are just getting a good editor to boil a film down to 2-3 mins of its key scenes, with any spin you want and with any music you want. (I love watching those trailers on YouTube that totally spin a movie around, like changing rom-coms into horror films and vice versa.)

We should make a list sometime of the most notable offenders, lol.

DC seems to be the most repeat offender of this. While I'm hoping the upcoming Matt Reeves "The Batman" film is as good as the trailer has set the tone for, in reality it will probably be another example.

I, too, love the spin around versions of movie trailers. It just goes to show how much music and editing affect the tone of movies.

 

[Doctor Cringelord]

OMG yes.

I mean, he's one of the least nuanced characters in the film (I really like some of the subtler character work better -- the boys are great, and what's amazing is that it's some of the first film work for notables like Ethan Hawke and Robert Sean Leonard and Josh Charles, he's done a lot of TV ... I guess Hawk has remained the most prominent over the years; and when Williams isn't cracking jokes, he's doing some lovely dramatic work)...

... but man. I hate that guy, he is like everything wrong with parenting that I can imagine, and all while portraying himself as the long-suffering victim.

It kind of took me some time to disassociate my bad feelings from Kurtwood Smith, the actor, since the first two things i ever saw him in was this and Robocop.

I'll forever appreciate him for the best lines in Robocop and also for being the only funny character on that 70s show. Plus he was President of the Federation

 

[Totenkindly]

I'll forever appreciate him for the best lines in Robocop and also for being the only funny character on that 70s show. Plus he was President of the Federation

 

[Doctor Cringelord]

also, whenever I am watching any Kurtwood Smith role, I have to riff "dumbass" after his lines. Works well in Star Trek VI.

 

[Totenkindly]

The second film only made money because the first was better (so people tuned in), but the more i think about this latest film, the worse it actually is.

Poor DC... still struggling.

 

[Doctor Cringelord]

I want to watch Confessions of a Dangerous Mind again. I love Sam Rockwell. Clooney is a much better director than an actor and should go the Eastwood route. There are exceptions--he's good in Coen Brothers stuff, but they tend to elevate even the most mediocre of actors. The Chuck Barris CIA story is so crazy, but I could see strong cases for it being either total fiction or truth hiding under the guise of practical joke. Regardless of what the reality is, it was kind of a win-win for him telling that to the world. Rather than being remembered as a footnote to the worst of seventies camp, he will forever be remembered as that goofy tv host who may or may not have murdered people for the CIA. I can think of no better way to mold one's own legacy.

 

[Jaguar]

See? Someone bloodied his face for killing Neil.

 

[Doctor Cringelord]

 

[Doctor Cringelord]

I actually liked the first half or so of Alien Covenant, the part that felt like a true sequel to Prometheus. Then it just turns into a dumb alien movie in the last act. Plus it fucked with the established lore and continuity. David didn’t create the Xenomorph, they were designed thousands of years ago

Ridley Scott is a terrible storyteller, but a master at visualization

 

[Totenkindly]

I actually liked the first half or so of Alien Covenant, the part that felt like a true sequel to Prometheus. Then it just turns into a dumb alien movie in the last act. Plus it fucked with the established lore and continuity. David didn’t create the Xenomorph, they were designed thousands of years ago

Ridley Scott is a terrible storyteller, but a master at visualization

Well, a secret admission on my part -- I actually rewatch this film from time to time because it is visually beautiful, esp in 4K. Utterly amazing. The close-up shots of the neomorph are pretty wild too. But yeah, great visuals, great art direction. The opening segment on the planet is great. This is in a handful of films I find frustrating, yet will still rewatch because it is the best I will ever get for an idea that was appealing but poorly executed.

But Scott is pretty terrible, he basically "SW Sequels' his own freaking film by ruining / negating any legitimate plot carry-over from Prometheus and abandoning any goodwill that film happened to earn. And it, like Prometheus, suffered severe dramatic mutilation at the hands of Scott and his overzealous editor in the cutting room.

 

[Doctor Cringelord]

Well, a secret admission on my part -- I actually rewatch this film from time to time because it is visually beautiful, esp in 4K. Utterly amazing. The close-up shots of the neomorph are pretty wild too. But yeah, great visuals, great art direction. The opening segment on the planet is great. This is in a handful of films I find frustrating, yet will still rewatch because it is the best I will ever get for an idea that was appealing but poorly executed.

But Scott is pretty terrible, he basically "SW Sequels' his own freaking film by ruining / negating any legitimate plot carry-over from Prometheus and abandoning any goodwill that film happened to earn. And it, like Prometheus, suffered severe dramatic mutilation at the hands of Scott and his overzealous editor in the cutting room.

Yeah, the visuals of the spacecraft and the solar sail are phenomenal. And did you notice they referenced the original Goldsmith theme in the opening?

I do wish they had included that prequel scene that was filmed with Franco. It would have made the main heroine’s struggle more understandable and relatable.

Minimizing Elizabeth Shaw to a few flashbacks was pretty criminal too.

 

[Totenkindly]

Okay, I've watched "The Hunt" twice now. I think it works best as a horror comedy/parody, with a scene or two that has legitimate acting drama (which is what happens when you get people of Gilpin and Swank's caliber in a film). It plays around with the idea of highlighting the inability of opposing political sides to get along but only starts to scratch the surface of that, it really is just meant to be amusing for folks who like shock horror, more in the veins of "Ready or Not" or other films with Samara Weaving (who is not in this film).

I think the fight between Athena and Crystal at film's end is one of the best choreographed fight scenes I've watched, as well as in my top ten favorites to view. It manages to not just be a maxed out fight, with technical expertise (Swank and Gilpin trained pretty hard for it and it shows, and it's almost all actually them, not doubles), but has these brief pauses in the action that actually work -- kind of like how "Moulin Rouge" is able to drop during the amusing parody of "like a virgin" to brief instants of pathos of Satine coughing her life away and then back into the humor.

There is almost nothing there to seriously discuss, almost everyone is just playing a caricature aside from Athena and Crystal (except maybe the disparity between the caricatures each side paints of each other, versus the actual reality which starts to come out near film end), but some of the performances are amusing as heck. It's kind of amazing how "off" some of the early diatribers were about this film long before it released, resulting in a postponed release.

 

[Totenkindly]

Yeah, the visuals of the spacecraft and the solar sail are phenomenal. And did you notice they referenced the original Goldsmith theme in the opening?

I do wish they had included that prequel scene that was filmed with Franco. It would have made the main heroine’s struggle more understandable and relatable.

TOTALLY.

I know some people don't like Franco, but that was the kind of thing they needed in order to anchor the movie because it's driving Daniels' behavior and explains her backstory emotionally. Similarly, we have to spend a lot of time observing Oram newly taking the captain's seat while feeling unliked/inadequate because of his religious faith -- but in a film about faith and origins, they never do a real thing with this. It could have been pretty fascinating stuff. We needed a way to connect with him despite his holding more fundamentalist views.

Scott really gets off the path when he starts discounting emotional journeys or building that bond with the viewers as irrelevant.

Minimizing Elizabeth Shaw to a few flashbacks was pretty criminal too.

Yeah, don't get me started. That was the same crap we got with Newt and Hicks at the beginning of A3. I wonder whether she bailed. The story they set up from Prometheus was about HER journey to find heaven and deal with memories of her father, so what exactly happened here? It's like Scott made a different film.