Random Movie Thoughts Thread

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

As a fever dream yes, as any comparison against a cat. I say nay nay. Jon Pinette is a better comparison to a cat than Cats.

Does Cats personally offend you?

 

[The Cat]

Does Cats personally offend you?

Never been a fan. I suspect it was written by dogs.

 

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

[Video]

This movie is so good. I can see why it appealed to me as a teenager. There's this wonderful running theme about stepping up and saying the truth (including authentic feelings) in this buttoned down society that is always trying to paper over everything. There is also a running thing with repression of the arts and sciences when they don't fit this papered over reality.

I never tried to unpack the dimensional time travel stuff that much; I liked the movie for the sort of things I mentioned above, there's an almost philosophical bent to it at times. The time travel stuff is probably the least interesting part of the movie. It was the perfect movie for it's time which naturally (if coincidentally) meant that it had to stay buried for a bit before anyone saw it. I would say this movie was of it's time in the best way.

 

[The Cat]

 

[Totenkindly]

 

[Tomb1]

equalizer 3 was missing a villain who fights as good as the equalizer...that combination would have made a better final fight than what i saw

 

[ceecee]

View attachment 30035

I would watch.

 

[Totenkindly]

Did anyone else watch May December, and feel like they grasped what was going on. I'm going to post my review in the spoiler, but I'm feeling like I might have missed some of the things going on. Still thinking about it. I only scored it a 7/10 -- definitely worth watching, but as a whole I'm not sure how I feel. (This is coming from someone who read a lot about the Letourneau case in the past as it unfolded, I was around 30 when everything hit the news, and I followed it on and off over the years when it would show up.)

This is a film that improves as it goes, as the onion gets unpeeled further and further.

There's also an honesty to Melton's performance, a man who is supposed to be 36 but also feels like he could be much younger -- a boy trying his best to be a man so that his children might be able to be their age.

Moore feels like is breathing and living this part, her Gracie is similar to Joe in that she is a woman in her late 50's who also has a child-like fragility about her where she has the naivety of one much younger -- or at least carries herself as such even while understanding deep down the reality of things... yet she cannot fully embrace that knowledge without it cracking her.

Portman (who can be a great actress) is intentionally portraying one more suited for soap operas, a not-so-good actress who also is more concerned about herself and her roles than the people whose lives she is portraying. While perhaps some of her words to Joe are true, it's hard to know whether she actually cares about any of these people whom she is meeting. Or, maybe phrased differently, there are moments in the film where her character Elizabeth exudes veiled shock or offense at things she learns, and yet she also holds those truths at arms length so she can live in her comfy little actress bubble, making a career and money off what to someone else is their actual life or coping mechanisms they use to survive. Her "reality" might ultimately be as illusory as Gracie's, in that she pretends to experience meaning in what are ultimately superficial performances, while at the same time Gracie exists at a more superficial level because she's scared of what she might feel if she really grappled with her past actions and their impact on people in both her families.

Another thing the writing does smartly as it goes -- everyone has a reality of their own, a different way of looking at the situation, a different stance, a different method of dealing with the discomfort of Gracie and Joe's relationship. Often these understandings are based on the direct impact of what happened -- with more discomfort or bitterness coming from those directly impacted. These various narratives accumulate as the film progresses, some in sync, some in conflict, and sometimes conflicting accounts could both be true or even both partly true but not quite on the mark.

I think one of my biggest issues here (and it is somewhat a side issue, but impossible to dodge with so many docudramas out and especially from Netflix, where the veracity of the content could be defunct). Yes, this film intends that "all resemblance to actual people alive or dead... is coincidental" -- but it's not, as it's very clearly using a lot of basis from Mary Kay Letourneau's life. The easiest way to resolve this would have been to cast an actor from a different demographic to play her young husband. Yes, Melton is great, honestly... but I wonder how many people will watch this and overlay their understanding of Mary Kay Letourneau with certain revelations of the fictional film. This blurring of reality with fiction is already a plague on our society and this doesn't really help.

 

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

Has anyone here seen Ridley Scott's Napoleon?

I considered watching it but so far I've only heard bad things about it (uninspired, superficial, vacant, historically uninformed, historical characters as caricatures, no character depth, bad dialogues,...overall flat and lowbrow). Apparently the costumes and the cinematography are good though.

I haven't seen it. I was initially interested due to the subject matter (I think Napoleon is an interesting guy but not a great guy; see below) and Joaquim Phoenix , but the negative reviews combined with the runtime killed my interest.

There's a historical narrative, of which you are no doubt aware, of Napoleon as a sort of enlightened conqueror and despot. I am of course open for any information to the contrary, but it seems to me that this opinion is mostly due to people making too much of him sweeping away the traditional governments of territories he conquered and replacing them with republics. Holding office in these "republics" all had to be approved by Napoleon beforehand (presumably, this was contingent upon loyalty to Napoleon; although I can't recall reading anything stating this explicitly).

Beethoven was right to remove his name from the dedication for his Third Symphony. "He's just a rascal like all the others," he said.

 

[Totenkindly]

My son is a big fan of Joaquin Phoenix and really likes some of Ridley Scott's films, so he went to see it. He was pretty enthusiastic about Phoenix even while saying (I think?) it was too long and had some problems. I can't remember the details of what he said, just that he had a positive attitude about his watching the film even while agreeing about the criticism.

 

[Totenkindly]

This movie is so good. I can see why it appealed to me as a teenager. There's this wonderful running theme about stepping up and saying the truth (including authentic feelings) in this buttoned down society that is always trying to paper over everything. There is also a running thing with repression of the arts and sciences when they don't fit this papered over reality.

I never tried to unpack the dimensional time travel stuff that much; I liked the movie for the sort of things I mentioned above, there's an almost philosophical bent to it at times. The time travel stuff is probably the least interesting part of the movie. It was the perfect movie for it's time which naturally (if coincidentally) meant that it had to stay buried for a bit before anyone saw it. I would say this movie was of it's time in the best way.

I still love Donnie Darko even though I'm in my mid-50's.

I love the way it makes me feel when I watch it. There's this sweet dreamy sense of loneliness and longing and a semi-bittersweet ending that somehow still feels positive but sad especially considering the last frames. It's like the words "Cellar Door," they just roll off your tongue with such grace and ease and also feel mysterious.

I like how raw some of it is, emotionally.

I like that it is so damn quotable. Like, SO many freaking lines can be quoted from that film, not just the quirky funny ones. ("I'm beginning to doubt your commitment to Sparklemotion!" or that whole conversation around "fuck-ass" at the dinner table in the beginning, that STILL makes me laugh.) But also, "Every living creature dies alone." It's profound in its simplicity -- and that the search for God seems so meaningless if we die alone no matter what. That's not the only insightful line, it just seems peppered with them.

I like how it has so many cast members that went on to become much bigger names or were names. The Gyllenhaal's. Seth Rogan. Jenna Malone. Daveigh Chase. Jolene Purdy. And people who were already known like Patrick Swayze, Mary McDonnell, Katharine Ross, Beth Grant, Holmes Osborne, Noah Wyle, Drew Barrymore.

I like the original version better than the director's cut overall, which picks an interpretation for you and explains too much (IMO). I really like how the original cut leaves it unclear how much is science fiction vs Donnie's psychosis.

I like that it has a better cover of a Tears for Fears song than the original version.

And I really love the scene where Donnie is feeling so lost and alone on his bed, and he asks his mother, "How's it feel to have a wacko as a son?" and despite the gulf and friction between them, Mary McDonnell just puts her hand on his shoulder and says with such gentle love and affection and in total sincerity, "it feels wonderful." it is one of the best line deliveries in a film I've ever heard in my life and I will never forget it or how it made me feel to hear it.

Honestly, despite all the cool time trappings, it's a film more about how it feels to be lost and alone and somehow finding not just peace but feeling like even with inevitable loss at hand like you still have a place and you belong.

 

[Totenkindly]

Did anyone else watch May December, and feel like they grasped what was going on. I'm going to post my review in the spoiler, but I'm feeling like I might have missed some of the things going on. Still thinking about it. I only scored it a 7/10 -- definitely worth watching, but as a whole I'm not sure how I feel. (This is coming from someone who read a lot about the Letourneau case in the past as it unfolded, I was around 30 when everything hit the news, and I followed it on and off over the years when it would show up.)

This is a film that improves as it goes, as the onion gets unpeeled further and further.

There's also an honesty to Melton's performance, a man who is supposed to be 36 but also feels like he could be much younger -- a boy trying his best to be a man so that his children might be able to be their age.

Moore feels like is breathing and living this part, her Gracie is similar to Joe in that she is a woman in her late 50's who also has a child-like fragility about her where she has the naivety of one much younger -- or at least carries herself as such even while understanding deep down the reality of things... yet she cannot fully embrace that knowledge without it cracking her.

Portman (who can be a great actress) is intentionally portraying one more suited for soap operas, a not-so-good actress who also is more concerned about herself and her roles than the people whose lives she is portraying. While perhaps some of her words to Joe are true, it's hard to know whether she actually cares about any of these people whom she is meeting. Or, maybe phrased differently, there are moments in the film where her character Elizabeth exudes veiled shock or offense at things she learns, and yet she also holds those truths at arms length so she can live in her comfy little actress bubble, making a career and money off what to someone else is their actual life or coping mechanisms they use to survive. Her "reality" might ultimately be as illusory as Gracie's, in that she pretends to experience meaning in what are ultimately superficial performances, while at the same time Gracie exists at a more superficial level because she's scared of what she might feel if she really grappled with her past actions and their impact on people in both her families.

Another thing the writing does smartly as it goes -- everyone has a reality of their own, a different way of looking at the situation, a different stance, a different method of dealing with the discomfort of Gracie and Joe's relationship. Often these understandings are based on the direct impact of what happened -- with more discomfort or bitterness coming from those directly impacted. These various narratives accumulate as the film progresses, some in sync, some in conflict, and sometimes conflicting accounts could both be true or even both partly true but not quite on the mark.

I think one of my biggest issues here (and it is somewhat a side issue, but impossible to dodge with so many docudramas out and especially from Netflix, where the veracity of the content could be defunct). Yes, this film intends that "all resemblance to actual people alive or dead... is coincidental" -- but it's not, as it's very clearly using a lot of basis from Mary Kay Letourneau's life. The easiest way to resolve this would have been to cast an actor from a different demographic to play her young husband. Yes, Melton is great, honestly... but I wonder how many people will watch this and overlay their understanding of Mary Kay Letourneau with certain revelations of the fictional film. This blurring of reality with fiction is already a plague on our society and this doesn't really help.

Yeah, so this is what my entire last paragraph was about.

Julianne Moore and Natalie Portman Address “May December” Criticism from Vili Fualaau

"It's not based on them," Portman said while discussing 'May December' at the 2024 Golden Globes

www.yahoo.com

Yes, it is a "fictional work."

But it also doesn't even try to distance itself from the obvious subject matter, going so far even as to the casting of the main characters. It would have been easy to cast the film a bit differently to "shake things up" and avoid any assumptions that the film is commenting directly on Letourneau, but instead they doubled down with the casting and tied the film more closely than needed.

 

[Kingu Kurimuzon]

My personal top 5 moments or sequences from the James Bond series:

-Foot/parkour chase in Casino Royale

-Bond’s train fight with Red Grant in From Russia With Love

-Midair cargo plane fight in The Living Daylights

-Tracy’s death in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service

-kicking henchman’s car off the cliff in For Your Eyes Only

Honorable mentions:

-Oddjob fight in Goldfinger
-race to disarm warhead in Octopussy (yes, the infamous clown makeup part)
-Bond showing Sanchez the lighter inscription at the end of Licence To Kill
-skydiving into plane in Goldeneye
-meeting new M in Goldeneye
-Q’s final goodbye in The World is Not Enough

 

[ceecee]

Has anyone here seen Ridley Scott's Napoleon?

I considered watching it but so far I've only heard bad things about it (uninspired, superficial, vacant, historically uninformed, historical characters as caricatures, no character depth, bad dialogues,...overall flat and lowbrow). Apparently the costumes and the cinematography are good though.

Yes. Saw it at the theater. The battle scenes are amazing and the costumes are great and the individual acing is also great. But this is a director who's directorial philosophy is YOLO and the movie is more about Napoleon and Josephine's marriage - which was volatile even on good days. Still, it's very epic (and long) which should be expected and, I think, worth seeing.

 

[Totenkindly]

Also, Josh Ryder -- the other person selected as "Most Likely to Win an Oscar" along with her for her high school class:

INDIGENOUSTV on Instagram: "Lily Gladstone reacts to a surprise video from Josh Ryder, who was voted “Most Likely to win an Oscar” alongside Lily in High School 🥹 #GoldenGlobes #LilyGladstone (via @accesshollywood)"

1,618 likes, 22 comments - indigenous.tv on January 8, 2024: "Lily Gladstone reacts to a surprise video from Josh Ryder, who was voted “Most Likely to win an Oscar” alongside Lily in High School 🥹 #GoldenGlobes #LilyGladstone (via @accesshollywood)".

www.instagram.com

 

[ceecee]

View attachment 30046

Also, Josh Ryder -- the other person selected as "Most Likely to Win an Oscar" along with her for her high school class:

INDIGENOUSTV on Instagram: "Lily Gladstone reacts to a surprise video from Josh Ryder, who was voted “Most Likely to win an Oscar” alongside Lily in High School 🥹 #GoldenGlobes #LilyGladstone (via @accesshollywood)"

1,618 likes, 22 comments - indigenous.tv on January 8, 2024: "Lily Gladstone reacts to a surprise video from Josh Ryder, who was voted “Most Likely to win an Oscar” alongside Lily in High School 🥹 #GoldenGlobes #LilyGladstone (via @accesshollywood)".

www.instagram.com

I'm happy for her, I hope this is the first of many.

 

[Totenkindly]

Diana Rigg and Helen Mirren
A Midsummer Night's Dream (1968)

It doesn't seem to be highly regarded, but I would watch it just for this casting:

• Ian Holm as Puck, or Robin Goodfellow
• Judi Dench as Titania
• Helen Mirren as Hermia
• Diana Rigg as Helena
• Ian Richardson as Oberon
• David Warner as Lysander

 

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

Diana Rigg and Helen Mirren
A Midsummer Night's Dream (1968)

View attachment 30059

It doesn't seem to be highly regarded, but I would watch it just for this casting:

• Ian Holm as Puck, or Robin Goodfellow
• Judi Dench as Titania
• Helen Mirren as Hermia
• Diana Rigg as Helena
• Ian Richardson as Oberon
• David Warner as Lysander

My dad told me he had a major thing for Diana Rigg, and I told him that she was on a show I watched (Game of Thrones), and pointed her out to him. But yes, that's a great cast. The only one I don't recognize is Ian Richardson.

 

[Red Herring]

My dad told me he had a major thing for Diana Rigg, and I told him that she was on a show I watched (Game of Thrones), and pointed her out to him. But yes, that's a great cast. The only one I don't recognize is Ian Richardson.

He played the main role (Francis Urquhart = Frank Underwood) in the original House of Cards (the role Kevin Spacey plays in the American remake). He was good in it too.

 

[Totenkindly]

As a dorky American, the first thing I saw him in where I actually recognized his name was Alex Proyas' Dark City where he played the alien leader Mr. Book (although he had been in Brazil and other things I'd seen already). But yeah, his repertoire goes far beyond that, into film and TV and stage. The BBC "House of Cards" seems to be what I've heard mentioned most.