Let's Talk Movies #36 - 2020 - Yep it is a new decade

Maofan7

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Upcoming Movie Releases between 3.1.20 - 10.1.20

3rd Jan 2020


The Grudge

City of Joel


10th January 2020

Like A Boss

Underwater

The Informer

The Murder Of Nicole Brown Simpson

Les Miserables

The Corrupted

Three Christ’s

Inherit the Viper

My Spy
 

canbelto

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Just saw Knives Out. Really enjoyed it. Thought it was a fun murder mystery. Still can’t get anyone to go see Little Women with me.
 

annie720

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Saw Ford vs Ferrari. After what I thought was a bit of a slow start, I was into it and enjoyed it. Christian Bale gave a great performance.
 

Aussie Willy

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Saw two movies today - JoJo Rabbit and The Gentlemen.

The Gentlemen is Guy Ritchie's latest and is back to what he did with Snatch and Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Great to see Hugh Grant move away from his usual movie persona. Very strong cast and some really great humour, including more of the dark kind.

JoJo Rabbit was really good and again I enjoyed it. It probably was not what I was expecting from the trailer. But it did have some very funny but then very sad moments as well.
 

canbelto

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As for Little Women, as someone who adored the 1994 version is the new version worth another trip to the movie theater?
 

Spikefan

Rooting for that middle-aged team
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Just saw Knives Out. Really enjoyed it. Thought it was a fun murder mystery. Still can’t get anyone to go see Little Women with me.
I just went by myself, a majority of those in my theater were in the same boat. I even had someone strike up a discussion about the movie with me as we were leaving. That would not have happened had I been with someone.
 

jl22aries

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Another YES re: Little Women.

I saw it for a second time yesterday.

The audience clapped at the end. It was not an arthouse theatre. This was standard Cineplex big box vibes, and we were moved to this formality and it was wonderful!!
 

cocotaffy

Fetchez la vache... mais fetchez la vache !
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Not a new movie but I watched Boy erased and I just want to shout my love for Nicole Kidman as well as the wonderful performances from Joel Edgerton and Russell Crowe. I discovered Joel Edgerton thanks to an other great subtle movie, "Loving", and this time around he's also the director. Very moving and intense movie which portrays how complex a family dynamic can be when deeply religious people are forced to face the fact their son is gay. It doesn't rely on tear jerking tropes instead it delivers a thoughtful yet harrowing picture of what many youngsters must face when coming out in a god fearing family. But again, Nicole Kidman is just great and so spot on in her delivery. Move over Meryl, Nicole is setting herself up with her interesting choices and amazing performances to challenge your all time great status imo. In all seriousness though, I'm a firm believer of GOAT on the plural sense. No one is ever THE only greatest just "one of the greatest" is already quite an achievement.
 

misskarne

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Took myself to see Frozen 2 last night. It's pretty good - and actually pretty dark for a Disney fairytale tbh! I saw a couple of the plot twists coming, but the story is fairly decent.

I totally saw it coming that their mother was from the magic tribe. As soon as I saw the girl who looked like a younger Anna playing in the wind I was like, yep, the mysterious person who saved their father was their mother. And I also saw it coming that Elsa was the "fifth spirit". I did enjoy the slight retconning to show their parents in a better, more loving light, and it even makes the first movie make more sense. I knew Elsa would probably get hurt at Atahollen, but I gotta admit I was 100% not expecting them to actually kill her and then kill off Olaf too. The cinema was really quiet at that point. Of course I knew they'd come back, it's Disney, but holy yikes. And Anna's song immediately afterwards was so dark and grief-filled. I bet there are a few traumatised kids in that theatre.

On the flip side, not looking forward to the dozens of Into the Unknown programs we'll get this year. For me, I liked Show Yourself better. Would probably even skate to it myself if I thought I could do it justice.
 

clairecloutier

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I'm going to a movie for the first time in months. What should we see? The choices are:

Knives Out or Little Women

I was hesitant about Little Women, because I'm a huge fan of the 1994 Winona version. But the reviews have been so good .... My husband, of course, is more interested in Knives Out. :D
 

Integrity

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If you are able, see both. Go to Knives Out with your husband and Little Women alone or with someone who's interested in it if you don't like to go solo. I'm glad I was able to see LW in the theater before it leaves, it is a gorgeous movie. I hope you enjoy whatever you choose!
 

jl22aries

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I'd also go see both if possible. Knives Out was so fun and energetic. It's a legit well done movie, and also one of the rare original stories out and about right now. It's important to support these movies so that more can be made, before Disney buys everything :)

I love the 1994 version of Little Women. And now I love both versions. There's space for both - they're so unique from each other.
 

Cachoo

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I think this year I'm most looking forward to The French Dispatch (Wes Anderson, Bill Murray, Timothee Chalamet among others---what's not to love?), Tenet (I'll all in on Christopher Nolan) and anything PIXAR so Onward and especially Soul are so appealing.
 

just tuned in

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A "no" vote here for Knives Out. I found it very unpleasant. The movie was about a lot of unpleasant, lying bickering people. The house where it took place was filled with unpleasant visual images of statues and paper mache clown masks, etc., and the sound track was unpleasant, too. The unraveling of the mystery was, in my opinion, ho-hum. It was no "Murder on the Orient Express." Does Jamie Lee Curtis really smoke, or were those prop cigarettes?
 
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Aussie Willy

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A "no" vote here for Knives Out. I found it very unpleasant. The movie was about a lot of unpleasant, lying bickering people. The house where it took place was filled with unpleasant visual images of statues and paper mache clown masks, etc., and the sound track was unpleasant, too. The unraveling of the mystery was, in my opinion, ho-hum. It was no "Murder on the Orient Express." Does Jamie Lee Curtis really smoke, or were this prop cigarettes?
I think the point was to see the unpleasant people get their comeuppance.
 

manhn

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I was surprised how much I enjoyed The Downton Abbey movie. It was better than their Xmas episodes and they balanced the Upstairs and Downstairs characters in the film better than they had during certain seasons.

I liked Booksmart but was kinda expecting to love it, but didn’t. The two leads are very good. But the supporting characters really felt flat to me. I am quite upset all those idiots are going to good colleges. The movie tries to say that one can excel academically and still have fun, but these supporting characters are IDIOTS. With privileges that the film hints at (which the two girls don’t have, especially one of them), but does not delve too much into, as they wanted the two main girls to feel all that angst.

But the the pool scene and subsequent tracking shot? STUNNING!
 
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Aussie Willy

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Has anyone see a movie called The Laundromat. I watched it on Netflix last night.

A Steven Soderburgh movie. Deals with the Panama Papers crisis and stars Meryl Streep, Gary Oldman and Antonio Banderas.

While the intent of presenting the problem was good and stylistically it tried to simplify the subject, my biggest problem was the execution. It was a bit slow and also the story not straightforward. I did sit there for a while wondering what it was all about and I don't even think I figured it out by the end. I do think the performances were very good, particularly Streep.
 

Wyliefan

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Just saw Knives Out. Really enjoyed it. Thought it was a fun murder mystery. Still can’t get anyone to go see Little Women with me.

I had the exact same problem! Finally this afternoon I went by myself. :) It was excellent.
 

canbelto

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Well I came back after finally seeing Frozen 2. I turned to the guy I saw it with and said "You realize this was supposed to have been Little Women right?" With that being said I liked Frozen 2 a lot. The theater was full of kids but adults can enjoy it too. I liked the very grown up ending. I thought the animation was amazing. ANd I really love how Elsa still has no love interest -- it's refreshing to see a heroine who is strong and on her own and doesn't need to fall in love to become an icon to billions of children.
 

clairecloutier

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So we wound up seeing Little Women instead of Knives Out. I enjoyed it a lot; it was very good.

Mentally, I couldn't help but compare it with the 1994 version of Little Women, with Winona Ryder. The 1994 movie is probably one of my top 5 favorite films ever. My husband and I watch it every year at Christmas. So I know it really well.

In general, I prefer the actors in the 1994 version. For me, the actors who shone in this version, relative to 1994, were Florence Pugh as adult Amy and Meryl Streep as Aunt March. I also liked Eliza Scanlen as Beth and Louis Garrel as Friedrich (while not feeling they were superior to Claire Danes or Gabriel Byrne).

This version has a stronger emphasis on the whole question of women's roles in the society and the family and what that meant for the characters. So it definitely felt more modern in that sense, and I liked that. Telling the story in non-time-linear way was something I'd been hesitant about, but it ended up working well.

I do find the reception of this movie, versus the reception of the 1994 movie at the time, to be quite interesting. The reviews in 1994 were almost uniformly positive, as I recall, and it was acknowledged even at that time that the film might become a classic of sorts. Yet, the movie did not crack much into the awards picture that year. (List of 1994 Best Picture Oscar nominations.) And no one seemed to have an issue with that. Whereas 2019 Little Women has also received glowing reviews, and this time around, it is seen as an issue when the film doesn't receive the number of awards nominations that might be expected. I think that's a good thing.
 
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manhn

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Little Women competed against Forrest Gump and Pulp Fiction, not Schindler’s List. :)

That Best Actress category was quite weak, no? Only Wynona’s perf has stood the test of time.
 

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