Movie Review Thread

[mimekiller]

General SOLO thoughts

-the origins of his name was something no one needed or wanted and it was so dumb it made me sad

-Droid gags and stunts make me laugh, the SJW droid was a lot of fun, for sure Lando was fucking her

-the kid who did HAN SOLO was pretty good but I echo Phoebe in not being super into Glover as Lando.

-Overall my fav star wars film in the new era since Awakens.

[Phoebe]

I don't know if the darkness Mike is mentioning is a function of the theatre or the film - I don't recall anything like that? I was also half-drunk and lacking my glasses, so... take with grain of salt. I went back and looked at some clips of the original Lando and that actually improved my feeling about Glover's Lando - he is closer to the spirit of the guy than I remembered. It could be that after watching Glover's work in other contexts I read his expressions differently than I would if I had never seen him before until Solo. The cape thing also bugged me for reasons I can't quite articulate - nope, can't articulate!

Anyway, now that I've seen some reaction elsewhere, the main problem seems to be failure to make oodles and oodles of millions, as opposed to mere oodles of millions. Or maybe it's a slow grower, people, have you considered that? Lots of competition from other movies in the same category this past weekend, and lots of nice weather cross the land. I would be interested in seeing a chart of where movies make their money geographically speaking, by the way - some of you doubtless know where to find such a thing. Like on any given weekend, where is the bulk of in-theatre profit coming from? I can't imagine it's where I live. The point is, I haven't heard any real complaints about the movie itself besides people who don't happen to like the guy and are sad he's not Harrison Ford after some reverse-aging process.

[Mike]

Darkness was Kyle. I did not notice it.

[Phoebe]

I was so puzzled. Like, there are edges from time to time but I wouldn't call it Darkness. Indeed he's very cheerful, almost programmatically upbeat and cheerful! I know it's a lot of low end slasher flicks to contend with, but think of all the ska as a counterbalance. Okay, you mean the movie lighting. Yeah, no clue what that's about either.

[Phoebe]

Dr. No, it just suddenly appeared on Netflix. Does this mean other Bond movie friends are there? In other news, whatever my failings as a parent are, and they are myriad, at least I raised kids who either chose to rent The Sound of Music and sing along with it cheerfully (the oldest), were utterly transfixed by it (middle), or were so passionately consumed by their first viewing of it that the singing of the others was deemed a terrible crime (the youngest).

[mimekiller]

Hereditary has some pacing issues(no horror movie should be over 2 hours long) and is a little high off its own fart gas AND doesn't quite stick the landing BUT it still stands out as one of the most original and provoking and terrifying scary films I've seen in many a moon.

[Phoebe]

Well, if you care to go back in time I just watched Werner Herzog's Nosferatu. It has the oddly exaggerated dialogue, puzzling quiet spaces, and other things I've now come to expect as part of his movies. The truly horrifying part has nothing to do with Dracula and everything to do with the fact that Klaus Kinski is a monster, and he channels that pretty successfully as an actor. Now if you'll excuse me people are meddling with the fan, which is one of the great no-nos of life.

[Phoebe]

Watched some other truly shitty movies, including one called Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist. Everyone involved in making that movie should be punished in some way for having contributed. So bad, it hurts to watch. I was trapped in there with the laundry and I just didn't have the energy to hunt down the remote or remove myself from the vicinity, I just sat there folding and folding and sorting papers and when it was all over, I had accomplished great things and still felt dirty and ill because the movie was so bad. It's that bad. I never want to see those people again.

Now I'm watching a movie about a guy who moves his family from Zaire/Congo to rural France so he can practice medicine. It's not the greatest but it's so much better than its predecessor I can't even be objective. I don't know if I'm artificially elevating it in quality, in comparison, or if everything has been tainted by the stench of the other one.

[Phoebe]

Thor: Ragnarok

- PAY ATTENTION!!!! ASGARD IS NOT A PLACE, IT'S A PEOPLE!!!

I see, yeah...

- Looooooook!!!!! THIS IS WHERE HELL COMES IN!!!!

Okay. Why... what does...

- MOMMM YOU'RE SLEEPING AGAIN!!!! OTIS IS HERE.

- Uhhh... Here I am. Awake. That's maybe Odin. Odin, not Otis.

- HELL IS COMING

Uhhh... Ok.

- (squeeeee) thisisthewavethatANNOUNCESthatHELLiscomingsoon....ooooooh.. eeeee....

Hey, there's Loki! Hi... Oh, who's this?

- WHY does she say it like there's an A on the end? It's HELL!!!!!

Um, I think it really is pronounced like that. Hella, but spelled with an e on the end.

- That's ridiculous. SHHHH LOKI is going to do something stupid. THIS IS HER BATTLE FORM!!!!!! She's going to put them in the garbage place.

Is that Cate Blanchett?!

- NO!!! PAY ATTENTION! It's HELL!!!!

- MOMMmmmmmmMMmm you're sleeping again!!! This is where she awakens her wolf!

Yes. Her wolf.

- WAKE UP!!!!

What happened to Thor's hair? Wait, is that the Hulk? ??? Wha...

[Phoebe]

Discussed this movie further with the rest of the family and all kids agree it's great.

[mimekiller]

Mollys Game

Movie was buried at the start of the year but it's well worth hunting down now that it's on blu ray. I think Sorkins writing actually lends itself better to film rather then episodic story telling. Makes the worlds of high stake poker very interesting with a villainous Michael Cera almost stealing the show.

[Phoebe]

Carol (2015)

Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara star in this story about a shop clerk who aspires to be a photographer for a newspaper, and falls in love with an older married woman who is going through a divorce. Although the characters suffer serious and realistic difficulties related to trying to establish their relationship in 1950's America (I think this is based on a novel which in turn is loosely based on real-life events), the movie focuses on that particular relationship and not as much on making a statement about lesbian relationships or other issues related to sexual identity. To some extent Mara's character struggles with who she is, because when she meets Carol she already has a boyfriend who wants to marry her, though she doesn't love him or want to marry. It seems like this is the first time she's ever been attracted to a woman, and the question is raised in various ways whether she is uniquely attracted to Carol, who appears as a very stylish and sophisticated woman always draped in a furs and nonchalant in air, or whether she is discovering that she is a lesbian. I liked that the movie would introduced these issues without insisting on certainty or a neat resolution to anything, because that seems more like real life where answers are not so pat, as opposed to the typical movie romance approach. I also liked that Carol never has any questions about who she is or feels the need to apologize for it; her only problem is that she's unhappily married to a man who is able to use her lesbian identity against her to sue for custody of their daughter. The way that gets resolved was also well done in the movie.

So overall the story and movie had a lot going for it, as both actresses are as good as ever, but something went awry with the way they put the whole thing together. The pacing was off, it felt disjointed, and though you get a few glimpses via Blanchett of her character's inner life, the viewer otherwise remains sort of disconnected from the emotional life of the movie. I feel like either important parts of the character development and interactions were simply left out, or else perhaps cut out of the movie at the editing stage. This made some scenes make little sense, and the emotional motivations and connections were lost accordingly. The whole thing moves slowly and quietly, like drifting through mush, like the goal was for Cate Blanchett's silky-voiced murmurings to put us to sleep. Sarah Paulson also appears in a supporting but significant role, and unfortunately there is just something about her that bugs me, irrationally I'm sure, but I always see her as "Sarah Paulson, playing another stilted, off-putting character" and I can't shed it and get into the moment with the story when she's onscreen. Could be that I once saw her in a really, really bad movie and that influenced my reaction, but usually I am lost within the movie 100% so when she annoys and grates on me it spoils the effect.

[Phoebe]

Bad movies I (mostly) saw that you are unlikely to be tempted by in the first place, but just in case, don't do it:
Set It Up (netflix movies; I was told that this was a good movie and I will never trust those people's taste again)
Heavy

[Phoebe]

The Clouds of Sils Maria

This movie came out a few years ago and stars Juliette Binoche and Kristen so-and-so from the Twilight movies. Hmmm, Not Wiig. Not Dunst. She got an award for acting in this movie probably because her character is supposed to be boring and bland. She plays the assistant to a sophisticated European actress played by Juliette Binoche. The actress is going to appear on stage in a reprisal of the play that made her famous as a teenager, except this time she's playing the role of the middle aged woman while a younger American actress who has been starring in superhero movies plays her former role. She has gone off to the mountains of Sils Maria to rehearse for the role with the help of her assistant Kristin somebody. The script has a few humorous echoes that remind you Kristen played Bella in those Twilight vampire movies, but now here she is playing a boring assistant. While these women are together and rehearsing the play, I got the sense that the play was supposed to be reflecting hidden currents within their relationship. Since I did not understand or like either of the main characters much, who really knows. I spent a lot of time folding laundry while watching this, so my time was not wasted in the larger sense, but some portion of my mental space was wasted by having watched this movie.

The good news is, Nietzsche lived in Sils Maria for a time during his career, and the movie is filled with the most fabulous scenery imaginable of this place. It makes me want to go to Switzerland. I also have this whole mental story I sometimes tell myself about an outdoor picnic that involves Nietzsche - a larger and hotter version who has muscular thighs and no mustache. Usually the way this plays out is that he stumbles across me while I'm out there on my picnic blanket, and we have a meeting of the kindred free spirits. The movie was excellent at provisioning mental imagery to support this whole thing, so in that sense it was a win for me.

Even better, it motivated me to reread some of the poetry that Nietzsche wrote up there. He is a poor but enthusiastic poet! And I will give you a sam-ple (in Translation so to be fair this probably makes him seem like a worse poet than he really is):

Off with those who spoil earth's gladness,
Blow away all clouds of sadness,
⁠Till our heaven clear we see;
Let me hold thy hand, best fellow,
Till my joy like tempest bellow!
⁠Freest thou of spirits free!

When thou partest, take a token
Of the joy thou hast awoken,
⁠Take our wreath and fling it far;
Toss it up and catch it never,
Whirl it on before thee ever,
⁠Till it reach the farthest star.

(you have to imagine that he's reading this to me while we sit on the picnic blanket among the mountain rocks)

[Phoebe]

Unleashed (2016)

This is a 48-star movie out of 5. This movie is about a woman whose pets turn into human men. It's a comedy. I'm not sure what else I need to say. In the abstract I realize this was an absurd and ridiculous movie that nobody should appreciate. My husband clutched his head and said things like, "your strange tastes!!" before falling asleep in despair. No matter! I cried with laughter, I shook, I screamed out with mirth and clawed helplessly at the bed. This movie is f****** hilarious. I thought the man who played The Cat was Wil Wheaton at first. It's some other guy. The whole thing was so amusing. Samwise from the Hobbit plays a human non-pet love interest. All movies should be like this one really.

[Ronster]

Not a movie reviewer, but I know what I like...

The Beyond (2017)
Some hate it, some love it, but this movie had some originality to it which is rare. I would call it hard sci-fi. The characters are believeable. The technology is as well. It is supposed to take place in 2019, but I would give it another decade.

No space wizards.
No star ships.
no laser swords.
THERE IS ACTUALLY NO SINGLE PERSON YOU FOLLOW, MORE LIKE A SMALL GROUP AND YOU WATCH THE EVENTS take place around them.

It has a bit of a documentary feel in parts of the film, but that actually adds to the realism.

Ronster recommends 4.5/5

[Phoebe]

Dare to be Wild (2015)
1.2 of 5 stars

Really hitting the Netflix backlist hard lately, we decided that a movie about Gardens sounded appealing. The gardens were in fact appealing but there were far too few of them observed, and the movie had no other redeeming characteristic besides casting the hot guy who plays Prince Albert in the TV version of the Queen Victoria show. He is a lot hotter as Prince Albert, supportive yet independent and progressive-minded husband to the Queen, than he is as a bad boyfriend who lives in a treehouse and tries his best to kill our heroine's dreams before maybe helping a bit. And what dreams are these? Mary from Ireland, inspired by her childhood fairy visions and a subsequent life spent laying around in the grass in forested areas, is hoping to become a designer of fabulous gardens that bring elements of wilderness into the designed-garden setting. There is a treacherous employer, a big contest, a bad romance (and by bad I mean, dull, pathetic, and awful, as opposed to bad/exciting), hippies, fairies, the I Ching, and spiritual experience in Kenya (i.e. white people go to Africa to help the desperate natives and find magical insight, courage, and fulfillment).

The joke was on me at the end when I discovered that all of the above is a True Story about a woman who seems to be doing nice garden things and helping the world. If only they had made a movie about her instead!

[poorpete]

Oh, mama Coco,

[Phoebe]

Fantastic beasts and where to find them...
It has some neat aspects but overall? I'm not feeling it.

[Phoebe]

The Hunt for Red October
Not sure how many times I have seen this; it sucks you in the moment it's onscreen. This time I tried to figure out why. Is it the acting, the sound, the directing... it's all of it. This is simply a really well-done movie on every level. Even when Russians have, supposedly, a heavy Scottish accent.

Saturday Night Fever
Not as consistently well-done but an amazing story and writing, and the perfect actors for the parts. It's a shame that it became so widely known only for its dance scenes and contribution to disco-era pop culture, because the movie is so much more than that. A whole range of disturbing human emotions and experiences of life are represented, in a manner that challenges the audience to think it through without much if any resolution or comfort. Flawed characters struggling with human existence in flawed ways, sometimes gaining your sympathy but most times making you pessimistic about everything. Themes of beauty, hope, and innocence are important, but every such scene is countered with an even worse example of human wickedness, degeneracy, and despair. All of it presented as wholly mundane and typical. (In case anyone does not know this already, MAJOR themes of sexual violence including rape scenes, other physical violence, and all sorts of other bad human dealings with other humans.)

OK, taking a break from work has just meant that I don't think I can keep working and get a good product, so goodnight. These are good movies. Black Panther is coming to Netflix soon so I'd like to see it. I was going to watch Doctor Strange but I don't know... should I do that? Maybe Friday night.