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

[Cachoo]

For some reason?

I'm guessing you are not alone in having a feeling of distaste for movies about a loved one's body being taken over by Satan.

This movie said based on a true story so I went to read the Wiki about this priest and he sounds like a fruit loop. He thought Yoga was evil. But I still like Russell Crowe so I might still watch.

This mystery looks good: https://youtu.be/WEUX9HwlF5c

 

[MacMadame]

I watched BlacKkKlansman today. On my phone. (I was on a plane and my phone was all I had.)

I found it a lot more serious than I was expecting based on the trailers and very well done. It was a bit scary how much of what was going on in the 60s is going on again today though. The ending made me tear up a bit. I definitely recommend it!

 

[Vash01]

I watched BlacKkKlansman today. On my phone. (I was on a plane and my phone was all I had.)

I found it a lot more serious than I was expecting based on the trailers and very well done. It was a bit scary how much of what was going on in the 60s is going on again today though. The ending made me tear up a bit. I definitely recommend it!

I saw it on my tv screen a few years back. I really liked it. I was surprised to read that it is based on a true story.

 

[watchthis!!]

I was disappointed with The Batman. Moreso with the second hour. But probably the most with the third hour of this movie. Perhaps they should have hired someone to edit this movie instead of splicing all filmed moments of this production into such a long movie!!! The pacing was awful (awfully slow). I think the director was going for something moody, but it just came across as boring to me. Which is too bad considered what a great cast he had to work with, which included Robert Pattinson, Zoë Kravitz, Paul Dano, Jeffrey Wright, John Turturro, Peter Sarsgaard, Andy Serkis, and Colin Farrell. My biggest disappointment was that this movie received ZERO Razzie nominations. They were robbed! The Batman deserved nominations for worst picture, worst director, worst screenplay and worst supporting actor performance for Paul Dano (I practically squirmed in my seat with some of his poor acting choices). Seems like it's time to stick a fork in this series.

 

[Japanfan]

I just watched Tar, on TV. I found it boring, though Blanchett was certainly good. I know that something did indeed happen, but do not know what that was, exactly.

 

[Japanfan]

Next, watched Everything Everywhere All at Once.

That one eluded me too. Didn't see much of a point. But I'll admit I'm not a fan of silly.

 

[VGThuy]

I just watched Tar, on TV. I found it boring, though Blanchett was certainly good. I know that something did indeed happen, but do not know what that was, exactly.

A huge film fan whose opinions I only agree with half the time but whom I respect told me that Tar was a very “serious” movie but not a great movie. I still need to see it to see if he’s right, but I totally understand the sentiment with a lot of films I’ve seen that are meant to be taken “seriously”.

Next, watched Everything Everywhere All at Once.

That one eluded me too. Didn't see much of a point. But I'll admit I'm not a fan of silly.

This is a critique I totally understand as a fan of the movie with regard to silly. It’s not the deepest of movies to deal with the overarching topic but I loved that it skewered many of the very popular tropes that fans today hold in high esteem, but it did so from the perspective of also being fans of those tropes. The labor of love screamed out of that film that it made me accept “the silly”.

I will say

Spoiler

I still don’t think the bagel was funny and don’t get why fans liked that so much. And I kind of eye-rolled with the too “on the nose” Wong Kar Wai tribute. But, then, I loved the hot dog fingers and the most emotionally resonant scenes for me were the silent conversation of the rocks and “Rac-ca-coonie”… not saying Harry Shum Jr. deserved an award or anything, but I felt his pain the most out of all the actors in that film.

 

[MacMadame]

I'm not sure why this has to be in spoilers since it gives nothing about the movie away but...

Spoiler

I think the everything bagel could have been anything and still worked but now, every time I see an everything bagel, I giggle. So I'm okay with it.

What I liked about the movie is (a) they handled the multiverse trope much better than a lot of movies and (b) the movie wasn't really about that but it was a mechanism to explore deeper issues such as paths not taken and family dynamics.

Plus it was sweet without being cringe.

 

[VGThuy]

I'm not sure why this has to be in spoilers since it gives nothing about the movie away but...

Spoiler

I think the everything bagel could have been anything and still worked but now, every time I see an everything bagel, I giggle. So I'm okay with it.

What I liked about the movie is (a) they handled the multiverse trope much better than a lot of movies and (b) the movie wasn't really about that but it was a mechanism to explore deeper issues such as paths not taken and family dynamics.

Plus it was sweet without being cringe.

I put it in spoilers because the movie made it this huge reveal and it’s the vehicle that raises the stakes and provides the danger of the central conflict…

Spoiler

the one we’re introduced to and the one we realize is the real central conflict and who the victims are (everyone).

 

[Mozart]

I saw Scream 6. I really enjoyed it.

 

[MacMadame]

Yes but all you said was

Spoiler

"I don't understand the Everything bagel"

which does not reveal anything.

 

[PeterG]

Next, watched Everything Everywhere All at Once.

That one eluded me too. Didn't see much of a point. But I'll admit I'm not a fan of silly.

I think there had to be silliness to counter the heaviness of a topic such as generational trauma.

 

[PeterG]

I went yesterday to see "The Whale". Very well-done, a bit disturbing and dark, with excellent acting all around. I get the kudos for Brenden Fraser, I can't imagine anyone topping his performance in this for the Academy Award. He really was immersed in the character, and the character was both sympathetic and frustrating. The actress who played the daughter was also very good, as well as the friend. It kind of is a story about addiction, although his addiction is food, because he's using it to numb his emotions. A bit of a challenging movie to get through.

Has anybody else seen The Whale? It looks like Brendan Fraser will be winning an Oscar tomorrow. But from watching the trailer for The Whale and all the clips I've seen on talk shows he has appeared on, each makes it look like some pretty bad over-acting. So much so that I don't plan on seeing this movie? Would that be a mistake?

For now, I'm hoping Austin Butler takes the win.

 

[Aussie Willy]

I saw Empire of Light yesterday. Such a good movie. Olivia Coleman is such a good actress. Colin Firth plays sleezy very well.

 

[PeterG]

In past years I have watched movies that were nominated for an Oscar, but never focussed on much other than just seeing the ones that most interested me. But this year I'm going to see how many I can find at the library to watch. (Yup, I'm still not streaming!)

If my count is correct, there are 41 nominated films. (I'm not including the short films as they aren't usually released on DVD.) Here's the list:

91 - Top Gun: Maverick
86 - Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris
77 - Everything Everywhere All at Once
68 - Elvis
47 - The Batman

A House Made of Splinters
Aftersun Paul Mescal
All Quiet on the Western Front
All That Breathes Shaunak Sen
All the Beauty and the Bloodshed
Argentina, 1985 Santiago Mitre
Avatar: The Way of Water
Babylon Damien Chazelle
Bardo, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
Blonde Ana de Armas
Causeway Brian Tyree Henry
Close Lukas Dhont
Empire Of Light Sam Mendes
EO Jerzy Skolimowski
Fire of Love Sara Dosa
Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery
Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio
Living Bill Nighy
Navalny Daniel Roher
Puss in Boots: The Last Wish
RRR S. S. Rajamouli
Tár Todd Field
Tell It Like A Woman Silvia Carobbio
The Banshees of Inisherin
The Fabelmans
The Quiet Girl Colm Bairéad
The Sea Beast – Chris Williams
The Whale Brendan Fraser
To Leslie Andrea Riseborough
Triangle of Sadness
Turning Red – Domee Shi
Women Talking

I've added a director or actor's name after some titles to make searching for them easier at the library website. I have only seen five, which are at the top of this list. I've rated each out of 100. Each movie has been rated in the following areas:

Script (out of 25)
Direction (out of 20)
Acting (out of 25)
Editing (out of 10)
Cinematography (out of 10)
Music (out of 10)

Now I'm wondering if the top three should be out of 20 and another area added for sets, costumes, etc. The look of the movie. Hmm....

 

[peibeck]

In past years I have watched movies that were nominated for an Oscar, but never focussed on much other than just seeing the ones that most interested me. But this year I'm going to see how many I can find at the library to watch. (Yup, I'm still not streaming!)

If my count is correct, there are 41 nominated films. (I'm not including the short films as they aren't usually released on DVD.) Here's the list:

91 - Top Gun: Maverick
86 - Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris
77 - Everything Everywhere All at Once
68 - Elvis
47 - The Batman

A House Made of Splinters
Aftersun Paul Mescal
All Quiet on the Western Front
All That Breathes Shaunak Sen
All the Beauty and the Bloodshed
Argentina, 1985 Santiago Mitre
Avatar: The Way of Water
Babylon Damien Chazelle
Bardo, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
Blonde Ana de Armas
Causeway Brian Tyree Henry
Close Lukas Dhont
Empire Of Light Sam Mendes
EO Jerzy Skolimowski
Fire of Love Sara Dosa
Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery
Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio
Living Bill Nighy
Navalny Daniel Roher
Puss in Boots: The Last Wish
RRR S. S. Rajamouli
Tár Todd Field
Tell It Like A Woman Silvia Carobbio
The Banshees of Inisherin
The Fabelmans
The Quiet Girl Colm Bairéad
The Sea Beast – Chris Williams
The Whale Brendan Fraser
To Leslie Andrea Riseborough
Triangle of Sadness
Turning Red – Domee Shi
Women Talking

I've added a director or actor's name after some titles to make searching for them easier at the library website. I have only seen five, which are at the top of this list. I've rated each out of 100. Each movie has been rated in the following areas:

Script (out of 25)
Direction (out of 20)
Acting (out of 25)
Editing (out of 10)
Cinematography (out of 10)
Music (out of 10)

Now I'm wondering if the top three should be out of 20 and another area added for sets, costumes, etc. The look of the movie. Hmm....

I've never noticed a Netflix produced to come out on DVD (which would include "Blonde," Guillermo Del Toro's "Pinocchio" "All Quiet on the Western Front" and "Glass Onion"). Do Netflix films ever make it to DVD? (I honestly couldn't even tell you the last movie I saw on DVD though.... Maybe "Boyhood?")

 

[PeterG]

I've never noticed a Netflix produced to come out on DVD (which would include "Blonde," Guillermo Del Toro's "Pinocchio" "All Quiet on the Western Front" and "Glass Onion"). Do Netflix films ever make it to DVD? (I honestly couldn't even tell you the last movie I saw on DVD though.... Maybe "Boyhood?")

So I have to beg my friends to re-watch these movies with me?

I just searched "Netflix" at my library's website. These movies came up:

Roma
Beasts Of No Nation
Okja
...and a few other foreign language films. So not much.

 

[peibeck]

So I have to beg my friends to re-watch these movies with me?

I just searched "Netflix" at my library's website. These movies came up:

Roma
Beasts Of No Nation
Okja
...and a few other foreign language films. So not much.

Well I'd advise skipping "Blonde" as I thought it was probably amongst the worst films I have ever, ever endured. Honestly I feel like de Armas got an Oscar nod out of sheer pity of being publicly degraded non-stop for 150 torturous minutes.

 

[Spikefan]

I started “Blonde”, stopped and tried one more time. Finally called it quits when the fetus was talking. Horrible movie.

 

[PeterG]

The Killers is a 1946 crime drama/film noir. It stars Burt Lancaster in his film debut, along with Ava Gardner and Edmond O’Brien (two-time Oscar nominee, winning in 1954 for The Barefoot Contessa). It is based on a short story by Ernest Hemmingway and is about the murder of Lancaster’s character and the (life) insurance detective who investigates what brought about Lancaster’s death. The story is very strong, the details of which I should have paid closer attention to. While I found everything about this movie to be delivered in a strong way, I didn’t get involved with it that much. There’s a coolness to the movie that left me distracted. But don’t let my reservations influence you, if you read about this movie at Wikipedia, you will see that it is a beloved movie in film history.

Trailer for The Killers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Kqajuyp0k0

 

[PeterG]

The ten movies I watched in 2022 which I enjoyed the most:

The Heiress, 1949, Olivia de Havilland
The Cakemaker, 2017 Israeli-German drama
Fall, 2022 survival thriller
Free Guy, Ryan Reynolds
Ambulance, Jake Gyllenhaal

Three Thousand Years Of Longing, Tilda Swinton
Zombieland Double Tap
Downton Abbey: A New Era
Lawrence Of Arabia, Peter O'Toole
Maleficent Mistress Of Evil

 

[watchthis!!]

Harry Potter 20th Anniversary - Return To Hogwart’s is a recent documentary that is very good, but seemed to leave me wanting more of something. I’m not really sure what, though. Maybe it’s a nice documentary and I wanted something more touching...or dramatic...or surprising. I was glad to see them include SO MANY cast members from this eight-movie series. All interviewees are entertaining. And there were some touching moments from the three lead actors. I do recommend this documentary. Maybe my expectations were too high, I was too excited to see what this would be like. So if you plan to watch it, lower your expectations and then maybe you will love it.

 

[manhn]

A Married Story is on DVD. CODA is not.

 

[Vash01]

My DVD Netflix queue has reached 500, with the addition of The best of enemies (2019). I had never heard of this movie, but it sounded interesting, so I moved it to the top.

EEAAO is showing 'very long wait', not surprisingly. I am likely to get Whale (and the best of enemies) after I return my current two (Women talking and Banshees). I have not yet watched either one. Just returned home after a week away.

 

[manhn]

The ten movies I watched in 2022 which I enjoyed the most:

The Heiress, 1949, Olivia de Havilland
The Cakemaker, 2017 Israeli-German drama
Fall, 2022 survival thriller
Free Guy, Ryan Reynolds
Ambulance, Jake Gyllenhaal

Three Thousand Years Of Longing, Tilda Swinton
Zombieland Double Tap
Downton Abbey: A New Era
Lawrence Of Arabia, Peter O'Toole
Maleficent Mistress Of Evil

The Cakemaker is a very well made movie, even if I think the ending is one of those annoying indie endings.

 

[Yehudi]

I saw the Regal Mystery Movie yesterday, which was Paint, with Owen Wilson playing a thinly veiled caricature of Bob Ross. It was very enjoyable, very farcical in tone. I wonder if they couldn’t make up their mind what time period it would be in, which explains the Archeresque anachronisms (the cars look old, Fake Bob has Old tvs and a VCR, but people talk about Uber and dancing with the stars). The characters all likable. I don’t know if I would have paid full price to see this, but I’m not mad I saw it.

And as far as the Mystery Movie concept goes, this was the perfect movie - a small indie that probably won’t get wide release, but enjoyable enough to get me out of the apartment on a Monday.

 

[Cachoo]

"All the Beauty and the Bloodshed" has to rank among the best documentaries I've seen in a lifetime of good films. The content is so rich, covers so much ground and packs an emotional punch. The title is perfect for the story that follows. Through the prism of Nan Goldin's life we see so much regarding mental illness, gay rights, the AIDS crisis, the Sackler family and the devastation caused by Oxy and the people who fought back on each front. Rich tapestry indeed.

 

[PeterG]

Fanny: The Right To Rock is a documentary about the first all-female band signed to a major record label. I had never heard of them, but in the middle of the documentary, they played Fanny’s second (and last) top 40 song, Butter Boy. “Hey, I know that song!” It’s one of those songs that I don’t think I’ve heard since my childhood. So they had some success during their heyday, but with time, that limited success faded away. Now with this documentary, we see how they were respected by many of their contemporaries. Featured in this documentary is Bonnie Raitt, Joe Elliott (Def Leppard), Cherie Currie (The Runaways), John Sebastian (Lovin’ Spoonful), Kathy Valentine (The Go-Go’s), Todd Rundgren and Kate Pierson (The B-52’s). I enjoyed this one.

Trailer for Fanny: The Right To Rock: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zspd9hFRtkw

 

[Mozart]

I saw cocaine bear. Lots of hilarious moments and very campy.

 

[watchthis!!]

Recently I realized that I hadn't seen Star Wars The Rise Of Skywalker. Not sure if I was bored with the series or if I wanted to keep from having the series be over for me! Might have been the former, but I liked this movie enough that it turns out I’m a little sad the series is done. Of course, since this movie came out there’s been a bunch of TV spin-offs. But I’m not THAT much of a Star Wars junkie! But I liked the characters in this movie and I enjoyed the story they went through. Plus the action was really good. I wish a certain storyline had a happy ending, but it seems Star Wars isn’t a very happy tale. Guess that’s an understatement? And as much as I liked seeing Carrie Fisher, Mark Hamill and Harrison Ford again, I would have been okay with each of them getting much more screen time.