Let's Talk Movies #35 – Sparrows and Panthers and Dinosaurs…Oh My!

[PeterG]

I believe 'The old man and the gun' and 'The hate u give' are also going to be released this week.

I find it strange that studios aren't more on the ball in terms of release dates for their movies. Dates are switched often enough that I always try to ensure the release date I have from my two sources...are actually correct. Sometimes imdb.com doesn't even have a release date even though google does. Sometimes I'm just left guessing as to what the correct release date will be.

Anyway, The Hate U Give debuted at #14 this past weekend. It made $480,107 playing at 36 theatres at an average of $13,336 per theatre. Which is a good average, slightly better than A Star Is Born, which made $12,373 per theatre (but it opened in over 3,500 theatres). Venom squashed them both with a $18,884 per theatre average, easily taken the #1 spot for the weekend.

The Old Man and the Gun has been out for two weeks, moving from number 31 to number 18 this last weekend. It opened in only five theatres and this past weekend it expanded to 49 theatres. Will be interesting to see if the number of theatres continue to grow over the upcoming weeks.

 

[aftershocks]

This is not about current movies, but nonetheless historically fascinating:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDBXKP6L9iY
How Grace Kelly in The Country Girl upset Judy Garland in A Star Is Born to win the Oscar in 1955.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-F_udvb6OCw
How Liza Minnelli won the Oscar for Cabaret in 1973 over Diana Ross, Liv Ullmann, Cicely Tyson, and Maggie Smith! Granted that Smith was miscast. Ullmann was a great actress from Sweden, but perhaps she was not as well known in Hollywood and thus she garnered little political backing. And sadly, it was frankly not in the cards for either Tyson or Ross who aced their respective roles. Either deserved to win ahead of Minnelli. A bit of insight perhaps into why Halle Berry was so overcome with more than a generation's worth of emotions and could not stop crying when she became the first African-American female to win an Oscar in the leading role category, in 2002 for Monster's Ball.

 

[VGThuy]

I understand the racial aspects, but I would have voted for Minnelli. I thought she was sensational as Sally Bowles and made it her own compared to the Broadway versions. I also love Bob Fosse's work in Cabaret. Liv Ullman is one of my favorite actresses. Tyson was great but it felt like a supporting role. Tyson is a sensational actress. I saw her on Broadway just a year or so ago with James Earl Jones in The Gin Game and at the age of 90 she was as energetic as any young performer. She projected well and blew me away.

 

[Wyliefan]

Maggie Smith was anything but miscast in Travels with My Aunt! The aging process was a little awkward, but that was the makeup, not her. Her performance was brilliant. She was like an Edward Gorey character come to life.

 

[aftershocks]

I understand the racial aspects, but I would have voted for Minnelli. I thought she was sensational as Sally Bowles and made it her own compared to the Broadway versions. I also love Bob Fosse's work in Cabaret. Liv Ullman is one of my favorite actresses. Tyson was great but it felt like a supporting role. Tyson is a sensational actress. I saw her on Broadway just a year or so ago with James Earl Jones in The Gin Game and at the age of 90 she was as energetic as any young performer. She projected well and blew me away.

Yeah true, Liza was fun to watch in Cabaret. She kinda played herself, but sure she's talented and the role was kinda taylor made for her. Plus, it was the perfect opportunity for Hollywood to in effect pay homage to Liza's mother, Judy Garland, who had missed out on winning the Oscar in 1955.

I believe 1973 was the first time that two African-American female actors were nominated in the leading role category in the same year. No matter the amount of her screen time, what Cicely Tyson accomplished in Sounder is searingly memorable to this very day. Tyson is one of the greats. There have been roles like that portrayed by other actors where the screen time is not huge, but the acting chops in those indelible moments light the scenery on fire. Diana Ross sunk her teeth and indeed her entire body, soul and emotions into playing Billie Holiday in Lady Sings the Blues. Some might feel that Ross was a bit overdramatic, but I felt she mostly hit all the acting notes (as well as the singing notes) just right, surprisingly and revealingly so for a singer who did not strictly have an acting background, somewhat similar to the winner, Liza Minnelli. Many felt the win would come down between Liza and Diana, but nope, it was always Liza all the way. And Liza was certainly good as well as in good company with the Cabaret cast, as well as with her fellow nominees. It was not a surprise that Liza won. She was good enough for there not to be many, if any, cries of Diana Ross being wuzrobbed.

As far as "racial aspects," eh that's just a faux term. It's about systemic bias related to the history of humanity. It's at the very core of a lot of things that are still present with us in our culture. There are no different races really, but we can't escape having to use the terminology that's simply a destructive manmade construct. Lena Horne, Butterfly McQueen, Dorothy Dandridge, Ethel Waters, Beah Richards, Diahann Carroll, Diana Sands, Ruby Dee, Cicely Tyson, Angela Bassett, et al... Halle Berry was humbly crying a river of tears in honor of all these ladies on Oscar night in 2002.

 

[aftershocks]

Maggie Smith was anything but miscast in Travels with My Aunt! The aging process was a little awkward, but that was the makeup, not her. Her performance was brilliant. She was like an Edward Gorey character come to life.

Oops, there I go relying on what some millennial happened to say in the video I linked. Personally, I haven't seen Travels With My Aunt, but I do know that Dame Maggie Smith is some kinda wonderful actor with a capital A+

Perhaps it's a matter of opinion though regarding how well Smith aced the role that was supposed to have been played by Katharine Hepburn. I dunno. From the clips, it don't look like a film I'd be interested in seeing. But Maggie is like manna from heaven. She appeared to be made up to play Downton Abbey's Violet Crawley, Dowager Countess of Grantham well before her time and definitely before that series was ever imagined.

 

[VGThuy]

Ruby Dee was incredible in the film version of A Raisin in the Sun. The movie wasn't nominated for anything, but I believe it's still so relevant today.

 

[MacMadame]

I understand the racial aspects, but I would have voted for Minnelli. I thought she was sensational as Sally Bowles and made it her own compared to the Broadway versions.

That's interesting because I thought the recent revival with Alan Cummings and Emma Stone was much more interesting than the movie version. I was worried that the shadow of Minnelli and Gray would hang over the production but Stone and Cummings really made those roles their own.

 

[VGThuy]

It’s a different interpretation for sure. Natasha Richardson is many Broadway peeps’ ideal Sally Bowles. She won a Tony for it. The movie version deviated from the original stage version by going for more realism and the 1998 revival that was restaged with Alan Cumming reprising his role and Michelle Williams taking over for Sally and then Emma Stone taking the reigns after Williams’ contract ended was closer to the stage version but added some of the movie’s songs and tone but was even darker and even more sexual interpretation. Minnelli’s Sally is still a category of her own just because it’s different from the stage version.

 

[watchthis!!]

Oscars 2019: Natalie Portman’s ‘Vox Lux’ Role Confirmed for Best Supporting Actress Race
https://www.indiewire.com/2018/10/natalie-portman-vox-lux-oscars-supporting-actress-campaign-1202011083/

Vox Lux is a musical drama that comes out in December. It co-stars Willem Dafoe, Jude Law and Jennifer Ehle.

The above article provides a link to an article about the frontrunners for the best supporting actress race:


2019 Oscars: Best Supporting Actress Predictions
https://www.indiewire.com/2018/04/2019-oscars-best-supporting-actress-predictions-1201954615/

The article lists a lot of women, frontrunners (only those whose films have been seen), contenders and long shots.

 

[Vash01]

I saw 'First Man' today. It is 130 minutes long, but only the last 40 minutes are interesting and exciting. Seeing the moon surface, watching Armstrong walk on it, nearly made up for the extremely boring 90 minutes prior to that. It was like the editor was absent. The movie went on and on and on, with family scenes, some of which were meaningless. The most annoying (to me) scene was Armstrong's wife (Claire Foy) gets very angry with him, and tries to talk him out of going to the Moon. Heck, I would have risked My life for that kind of opportunity (I actually considered becoming an astronaut in my final year of graduate school; unfortunately I didn't try very hard).

ETA- I loved Apollo 13. No love for First Man.

In fairness to the movie, it kind of fulfilled my desire to experience space travel. In the Moon section of the movie, it was like you are right there. One should definitely see this movie in 3D IMAX. If it was not so boring, I would have paid for that experience. I may still buy an IMAX ticket but go inside after one hour.

Some major flaws:

In an effort to glorify Armstrong, the completely ignored Buzz Aldrin and the third Astronaut Michael Collins. Yes, the characters were in the movie, but were almost absent, except for their faces on the screen.

Why did Armstrong not place the US Flag on the moon? I thought in real life he did!? Instead, he threw his departed daughter's bracelet in a pit on the moon, with tears running down his cheeks.

My biggest disappoint was - Not seeing Walter Cronkite utter the famous line : ' one small step for man, one Giant step for mankind'. Instead they went for the family stuff.

There was some good material in the movie- the hardships and dangers of becoming an astronaut were well displayed, but they were overshadowed by the other stuff.

Acting wise, Ryan Gosling and Claire Foy were both good. I am not sure Gosling's performance is Oscar worthy but he will be nominated and he may even win, as someone in the queue. This movie should get many technical awards.

Terrible screenplay and editing (but sound editing is good), and I am afraid poor direction. How could the Director not realize that more than half the movie is not effective?

In short, this movie came up very short. JMO. It could have been so much better! I was thinking during the movie - I wish they had made this a documentary. May be there is one already. In that case I will definitely watch it. I would give it 7/10 only because of the moon scenes. Rest of the movie deserves 3/10.

 

[PeterG]

1939: Jamaica Inn. An Alfred Hitchcock joint. Maureen O'Hara. Charles Laughton. Zero award nominations, but a fun adventure mystery/thriller-ish kinda flick. There are about five full versions of this on youtube. A good Sunday afternoon flick.

 

[vgerdes]

Saw Star is Born. A very good movie. Some pacing issues, but otherwise, wonderful. Lady Gaga is very good, but Cooper was soooooo great. My favourite lead actor performance in a very long time. The music is great too. Can’t wait to see it again!

I knew I would probably like this movie, but I LOVED it. I'm not really a crier, but the tears were coming pretty fast at the end of this one. Would highly recommend it... though I also recommend that you bring tissues. As others have said, the chemistry between Gaga and Cooper is what makes the movie, and even though the ending was telegraphed a little too much, it was still heartbreaking. That poor dog!

I also went to see Venom last night. The reviews have been terrible, but I enjoy Tom Hardy, so I went. I'm glad I did. I really enjoyed it. Much less dark than I was expecting. It's somewhat in the Deadpool vein, though the jokes don't fly quite so fast and furious. LOTS of people die, but... most of them really, really deserve to be killed, and killed hard. Tom is really good, and I also very much enjoyed Michelle Williams' performance as the beleaguered ex-girlfriend. They had a slightly odd chemistry, but it worked, at least for me. And Venom... I actually ended up liking him by the end.

 

[Vash01]

I started watching Warren Beatty's Reds. Very very long (200 minutes) but never boring. It is on two disks. The politics of that time were quite different from today's. I think the people were more open minded about communism and socialism and those were not equated with 'evil' the way it is today.

I finished watching the first disk but the second one had a problem. It just would not play. So I have to call Netflix and ask for a replacement. I am disappointed because this stopped the momentum for me. I am holding on to disk 1, in case I want to see the whole movie again (or parts of it, since it is so long).

It is very exciting to watch the period around the October revolution in Russia. It is recreated very well. Beatty won the best director Oscar. It may have won the Best Picture Oscar too. I will have to look it up. It was interesting to see Jack Nicholson and Gene Hackman in small roles. The acting is good by all.

I didn't know that it was the real life story of John Reed and his wife Louis Bryant, and the commentators/witnesses are real life people who knew the real life Reed and Bryant.

 

[skatesindreams]

^^^
A period of which most are unaware.
When you see the rest of the film, share again.

I had just finished studying about John Reed/Louise Bryant when I saw the film for the first time.

 

[smurfy]

I saw 'Puzzle' yesterday, Stars Kelly Macdonald as a housewife that lives in a small world and discovers that she is good at jigsaw puzzles. Nice quiet movie, with great acting by Macdonald and Irrfan Khan (who is always great) and rest of cast. Interesting look at Macdonald' long marriage - it appears good and her husband is a decent person, but they are not the best fit. Felt realistic and interesting how their kids view their mother.

 

[DannyCurry]

Finally watched a good movie : Girl

To overly simplify it : a mix between Black Swan and the Danish Girl. Well actually, it tells the story of a Belgian teenager, Lara, who dreams of becoming a ballerina, but was born as a boy.

Main actor Victor Polster did a fantastic job. He was so amazingly convincing as Lara !! I loved most of the movie. Despite some sugar coated aspects (I mean, Lara was very lucky to grow with a supportive dad and seemingly harmless classmates), you could definitely feel Lara's pain and struggles. One bullying episode was especially grueling to watch.

To top it all off, director Lukas Dhont is quite a cutie. Plus he comes grom Ghent, a city that I love.

 

[Wyliefan]

I started watching Warren Beatty's Reds. Very very long (200 minutes) but never boring. It is on two disks. The politics of that time were quite different from today's. I think the people were more open minded about communism and socialism and those were not equated with 'evil' the way it is today.

It was probably a little easier to be open-minded before the gulags, the Berlin Wall, and so forth.

 

[watchthis!!]

It's interesting to see discussion about the movie Cabaret, because I watched it a few weeks ago and forgot to post about it. The thing that surprised me most about it was the number of songs I knew. I thought there'd be one or two, but every time a new song was performed, I was like, "hey, I know this one!" The performances of Liza Minnelli, Joel Grey and Michael York were highlights as well. I don't know if any of them got what they deserved throughout their careers, considering their talents. Minnelli has done well with awards, but never had a hit album or hit song. Only made two movies that John Q. Public would know anything about. I think all three of them maybe would have been more popular if they had been young in this age of HBO and Netflix and amazon and hulu. They're all probably too old now to care about getting on a tv series for any of those networks now. But we'll always have Cabaret.

 

[VGThuy]

Speaking of Liza, I actually was surprised at her abilities as an actress. I saw her in this film when she was still a teenager called The Sterile Cuckoo and she wasn't Liza! yet. She was a seriously gifted and grounded actress. I also caught her in some TV movie I don't think anybody heard of in the 1990s with Shirley Maclaine and Jennifer Grey where she played this dowdy homebody New York tenant of this apartment building and she was seriously believable as that glammed down, insecure character. Then there's of course her in Arrested Development where I thought she was award worthy. She may not have been a major movie star or major recording artist but she is certainly a Broadway star and had a great concert career. She's also an EGOT though she may not count because her Grammy was in a non-competitive category, but who really cares about EGOT since it's a manufactured distinction anyway.

I always loved this Tony Award performance. Apparently this show was a mess and Martin Scorsese was the original director who everyone realized did not know how to direct for the stage so they got in a bunch of show doctors. The show became less of a strict book musical and became more-or-less a Liza concert with iffy songs by the usually great Kander/Ebb but her star power was huge that it led her to winning her second competitive Tony.

https://youtu.be/TvAURkgx-D0?t=50

 

[VALuvsMKwan]

Speaking of Liza, I actually was surprised at her abilities as an actress. I saw her in this ifilm when she was still a teenager called The Sterile Cuckoo and she wasn't Liza! yet. She was a seriously gifted and grounded actress. I also caught her in some TV movie I don't think anybody heard of in the 1990s with Shirley Maclaine and Jennifer Grey where she played this dowdy homebody New York tenant of this apartment building and she was seriously believable as that glammed down, insecure character. Then there's of course her in Arrested Development where I thought she was award worthy. She may not have been a major movie star or major recording artist but she is certainly a Broadway star and had a great concert career.

I always loved this Tony Award performance. Apparently this show was a mess and Martin Scorsese was the original director who everyone realized did not know how to direct for the stage so they got in a bunch of show doctors. The show became less of a strict book musical and became more-or-less a Liza concert with iffy songs by the usually great Kander/Ebb but her star power was huge that it led her to winning her second Tony.

https://youtu.be/TvAURkgx-D0?t=50

The TV movie you cited was the adaptation of a Broadway play called "The West Side Waltz" which starred Katharine Hepburn and Dorothy Loudon (the creator of Miss Hannigan in the original Broadway production of "Annie"). If I remember correctly, the critics at the time considered it to be pretty much only a KH star vehicle. Liza played the Dorothy Loudon role in the TV version.

 

[emason]

The Sterile Cuckoo is from 1969, so Liza was no teenager. She was born in 1946 and would have been in her 20s.

(PS For the record, I have seen both The Sterile Cuckoo and Cabaret exactly once. I loathed both movies and Liza Minnelli and have no desire to ever see these films again. There, I said it, shocking I know, but there is actually at least one person in this world who cannot stand Cabaret.)

 

[MacMadame]

I wasn't a big fan of the movie Cabaret, but it was more the story and direction. The musical is much better IMO.

That link to a Liza performance freaked me out a bit because Liza looked and sounded so much like her mom, Judy Garland in it.

 

[VGThuy]

The Sterile Cuckoo is from 1969, so Liza was no teenager. She was born in 1946 and would have been in her 20s.

(PS For the record, I have seen both The Sterile Cuckoo and Cabaret exactly once. I loathed both movies and Liza Minnelli and have no desire to ever see these films again. There, I said it, shocking I know, but there is actually at least one person in this world who cannot stand Cabaret.)

Ok, so I was about 3 years off. I'm sure you're not the only one to not like Cabaret so I'm not shocked.

 

[Vash01]

I am almost embarrassed to say that I had never seen The Bucket List, although I made and updated my bucket list many times. I finally saw the movie tonight and I really liked it. I liked the humor (most of it), the acting was great, the dialogues were crisp. I laughed and I cried. There was a subtle message without being preachy.

 

[PeterG]

The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle (1939) is Fred and Ginger's last movie for RKO, the ninth of their ten movies made together. All were from the 30's except for 1949's The Barkleys of Broadway. I enjoyed this one, but it has a much more serious tone than most of their other movies. Even though the other movies had a lighter, more fun tone, their movies are really about the dancing and there's plenty of dance routines in this movie. Most (if not all) are available for viewing at youtube. What's missing is a general trailer for the movie...otherwise I would have provided a link!

 

[Seerek]

Just saw this documentary; just, totally wow, in both good and horrifying ways. Some of the crap that "higher ups" do for whatever reasons shouldn't blow my mind at this point, but it does. I guess I try to think to much of people being better than they are. Three identical strangers . 10/10

Yes, my biggest takeaway from the documentary overall.

Indeed, the individual stories of Three Identical Strangers are undoubtedly heartbreaking, but one wonders the prevalence of similar activities going on "behind the scenes" during that post-war II era (with what appears to be very little concern of lifetime accountability from the "higher ups").

 

[annie720]

It was a wintry weekend so we saw the following:

Old Man with a Gun - Kind of slow, but liked it
The Sisters Brothers - Liked the last 30 minutes
All the Money in the World - It was a huge chore to sit through
Suburbicon - I liked it much more than the others who watched. Just wished they had gone with one plot or another and didn't try to mesh the discrimination story
with the other.

 

[Kruss]

1939: Jamaica Inn. An Alfred Hitchcock joint. Maureen O'Hara. Charles Laughton. Zero award nominations, but a fun adventure mystery/thriller-ish kinda flick. There are about five full versions of this on youtube. A good Sunday afternoon flick.

I'm particularly fond of the BBC (I think) production of it starring Jane Seymour, Patrick McGoohan and Trevor Eve from the 80s, I believe.

The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle (1939) is Fred and Ginger's last movie for RKO, the ninth of their ten movies made together. All were from the 30's except for 1949's The Barkleys of Broadway. I enjoyed this one, but it has a much more serious tone than most of their other movies. Even though the other movies had a lighter, more fun tone, their movies are really about the dancing and there's plenty of dance routines in this movie. Most (if not all) are available for viewing at youtube. What's missing is a general trailer for the movie...otherwise I would have provided a link!

Definitely one of their good movies.

Spoiler

Did you cry at the end? Because Ginger definitely made me cry.

 

[skatesindreams]

The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle (1939) is Fred and Ginger's last movie for RKO, the ninth of their ten movies made together

Fred taught Ginger the Castle's dances,
He was familiar with them; she was not.
Irene Castle "consulted".