Movie Discussion Thread

@Forza AudioWorks

Both McDormand and Rockwell just won the Golden Globe awards in their respective categories and now they are top picks for snagging the Oscars too. I love McDormand and knew what she could do but I agree, Rockwell really outdid himself in Three Billboards. Definitely his best performance so far in my book. I liked him in Moon too but the film as a whole dragged just a bit much for my liking.

I really enjoyed Woody Harrelson as well but Rockwell stole the show IMHO.

 

Fully agreed! Rockwell is fantastic in "Three bilboards...", he dwarfed everyone else, even the main character. Such a versatile actor.

 

Apologies if these have been posted before. They weren't coming up on a supersearch.

BLADE RUNNER 2049 - "Black Out 2022" Anime Short


BLADE RUNNER 2049 - "2036: Nexus Dawn" Short


BLADE RUNNER 2049 - "2048: Nowhere to Run" Short


Reminded me of the Animatrix series.

 

Okay, so I know I'm late to the game, but I finally got around to watching La La Land.

Really? REALLY? This is the film that generated all that hype?

For crying out loud people...

The cinematography, admittedly, was excellent at times. Beyond that, it was the pure definition of mediocrity.

 

@Skyline

For me it was magical and one of the best films I've seen in years, it reminded me of a different era in Hollywood long before we got three of these superhero movies each year. Each to his own

 

Haha, sure. I fully get that.

I just wish it could have reminded me of another era in Hollywood with better acting, singing, and dancing.

I think legit Broadway stars rather than Hollywood darlings may have been a better move.

 

@Skyline Thank you for agreeing with me Lol

 

We were bound to agree on something eventually.

 

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri was a treat.

A few things I didn't warm to:

• I felt that the film was teeming with a whole bunch of themes - some I just struggled to grasp. I think some degree of understanding and appreciation of the socio-political climate in the States was necessary in this context, which I admittedly lack as I am not from there (and have not been keeping abreast of global current affairs as of late).
• Without much experience with films of this genre, it was at times a bit tough to get accustomed to the infusion of absurdities.
• Certain scenes and certain character arcs seemed a tad out of place, or were somewhat awkwardly resolved.

Now for the good bits.

• Great acting. Frances McDormand and Sam Rockwell were the clear standouts. McDormand displayed moments of tremendously powerful, and yet controlled depiction of raw emotion. Rockwell I thought deserved a heck load of credit for what I would term 'nuanced eccentricity'. The sharp change in character towards the tail end of the film was not easy to balance, but he did so with grace and a light touch that seemed seamlessly natural rather than off-putting.
• The whole film was obviously superbly crafted and assembled. Several scenes were exceptionally impressive with regards to the overall directing, cinematography and writing.
• The gut-wrenching scenes flew in quickly and unexpectedly, and certainly hit home hard.
• Pacing of the film was top notch.

 

@muse

Yeah, I really liked it but it's not a perfect film. Peter Dinklage was pretty much wasted and his story ark didn't really go anywhere. I feel like maybe there's 15-30 minutes missing from the film overall, I think there were some missed opportunities to do more with the initial setup. And some characters feel like placeholder characters, like McDormand's son and Woody Harrelson's wife.

It's nice film but I don't think it's a masterpiece on the level of Fargo or The Big Lebowski.

 

Lady Bird was a good film.

I've always been a big fan of Saoirse Ronan since The Lovely Bones. I think she's a supremely talented actress, right among the very best of the 'new generation' of actors / actresses. This was yet another strong performance, though I felt the actress who played her mum really stood out in this film.

I grew to love each character, and the dysfunctional family as a whole. The roles were obviously very well written, with a depth and complexity that made this a standout film over contemporary coming-of-age dramas. Very similar in flavor to a recent film I just watched - The Edge of Seventeen, which stars Woody Harrelson and Hailee Steinfeld (another stellar young actress).

Unfortunately, I've never been to Sacramento before, so I can't quite understand the nuances of Sacramento life or culture which were touched on. It's odd because I've always assumed based on my experience in LA and SF that all Californian cities (the large ones anyways) were fairly similar.

 

I love the Feb-March period. Movie theaters in where I live typically screen the critically acclaimed, award nominated films around this time.

Kinda bummed out that I missed out on Phantom Thread, but I fully intend to watch The Shape of Water, The Florida Project, and Black Panther this coming week.

Good times.

 

Oscar acceptance speech! Probably the best speech of the evening too.



Also really glad to see Guillermo del Toro getting best director for Shape of Water, we need more directors like him.

 

Tomb Raider was meh.

I felt it was a rather lazily put together film. The characters were poorly written, and the writing in general was just shoddy. I wouldn't even call it an action film - more like several disjointed actionesque scenes pieces together with a sprinkling of some puzzle solving.

I'm a fan of Alicia Vikander and she definitely has the acting chops (A Testament of Youth, The Danish Girl, Deus Ex) but her performance as Lara Croft was flat and I don't entirely think it's her fault. She simply did not have a chance to show off her acting range since this version of Lara was just... boring.

 

Does anyone here use Letterboxd? It's a nice site for logging the films you watch and to add ratings/reviews.

It has a social aspect where you can follow friends.

I typically put my reviews/thoughts on there rather than boring everyone here with whatever I've watched on a given week.

 

Ready Player One.. to all that have read the books, I salute your nerd1ness. I honestly think I'll be crying the whole time if it's faithful to the book (first challenge apparently is not). But the 80's pop culture references/music and all the video game characters (Tracer main) that I've seen in the trailer just slays me. Really hope they don't blow it.

 

It would be an easy one to utterly screw up. I hope it is an epic movie. Spielberg is doing it, so it could be good.

 

Finally got around to watching The Last Jedi. Damn, am I glad I didn't spend any money at the box office on that one.

This video sums up my feeling pretty well:



**Spoilers** (sort of)

Magic space floating Leia, the empire falls for prank calls, SJW purple haired leaders who can't speak to their crew about a plan, plot holes big enough to park the death star in, Phasma is pointless again, Finn and Asian girl goes on a needless mission and fails, sleezy thief character who is sleazy betrays them (what a surprise), Rey can't do anything wrong because she's the chosen one or something, memory cave sequence which was supposed to give answers lead nowhere, Luke is a tit-milking hermit who wants to die... holy f**k. I'm not even a hardcore fan and even I'm kind of upset.

 

Anyone seen Humanity stand-up by Ricky Gervais? It just premiered on Netflix and it's a blast.

 

Silence by Scorsese was a marvelous film. Brutal, bleak, cold, heart-wrenching. Constantly probing for the applications and limits of faith. Such a delicately handled work of art. The slow, crushing despair of Rodrigues was too much to bear, and I shed a couple of tears in certain scenes. Definitely my favorite film of Scorsese seen to date. Garfield gave a great performance.

I'm having a really tough time digesting The Shape of Water because it was such a exotic film. At minimum, it is a fantastic work of art. The set pieces were stunning, and the cinematography for me tops anything I've seen this past year. Not saw Blade Runner yet, but I cannot fathom how another film can win best Oscar for this category. Sally Hawkins was amazing in this one, and I can understand why there were some who felt she was deserving of the Oscar for best actress.

Black Panther is the best Marvel film made to date. The music and score I thought was stellar. Set pieces were amazing as well. This was a film that aimed to tackle social issues in the same way TLJ did, but in this case very well woven into the storyline, and certainly not contrived. The plot was engaging, the characters well developed, and the fighting choreography was great. Good performances all around. Only downsides for me were the pacing towards the end, the smattering of sloppy editing in certain scenes, a couple of instances where humor was injected unnecessarily, and Michael B Jordan's character being a little underdeveloped relative to the others.