movies

[lukethedrifter]

from May 24, 2014

Why in the hell is Chef getting the (relatively) huge release it's getting? Is it this year'ms Little Miss Sunshine?
God what a stinker.

[Freed Roger]

Once again, I am behind the curve on watching movies. Just enjoyed the heck out The Grand Budapest Hotel.

The prison escape scene, I thought it couldn't be topped, but then the movie carried on and got better. If anything negative, I thought the story's end was a bit rushed -but only because the characters/castings/setting and all had me locked in. Benny Hill meets James Bond, plus something else. classier, I can't quite place. A whole lot of fun to watch. Type of movie that I wanted to see dvd extras, with how things were done - and backstory etc.

[The Third Man]

Once again, I am behind the curve on watching movies. Just enjoyed the heck out The Grand Budapest Hotel.

The prison escape scene, I thought it couldn't be topped, but then the movie carried on and got better. If anything negative, I thought the story's end was a bit rushed -but only because the characters/castings/setting and all had me locked in. Benny Hill meets James Bond, plus something else. classier, I can't quite place. A whole lot of fun to watch. Type of movie that I wanted to see dvd extras, with how things were done - and backstory etc.

I loved, loved, loved Grand Budapest Hotel - probably my favorite Wes Anderson to date, with the huge caveat that I haven't even seen Rushmore yet - and the rushed ending was unsatisfactory for me only in that I could've spent many more hours in that world with those people. But on a narrative level, it functions perfectly. It's a story nested inside a story nested inside a film, at each level of remove becoming more exaggerated and comical, and as such functions as a loving tribute to the act of storytelling itself - but the ending is a bittersweet slap in the face, a reminder that storytelling doesn't always suffice in making perfect sense of life.

[SHOW]

That Gustave was shot by the film's fictional Nazi analogues, and that Zero's wife passed away from disease shortly after their marriage, are terribly unromantic resolutions to an incredibly romantic story.

I just watched Boyhood, and I'll try to give my thoughts without dwelling on the breathless adulation it's received. I mentioned it already, but when I was a kid, long before I had any real interest in film as a medium, I was fascinated with the idea of a film that spanned somebody's entire life. Years later I discovered the Up series of documentaries (which I still haven't watched), but I've always been more into fiction. Then I heard about this one a couple years back and got pretty excited, even if twelve years is only a fraction of a person's life. So I was totally on board with the concept from minute one.

The main problem here - really, my only complaint, though it's a substantial one - is that, in following this kid Mason from childhood to young adulthood, I never felt any strong sense of his interior life. It hangs pretty loosely together. Towards the end of the film, due to a moment of empty nest syndrome, Mason's mom (Patricia Arquette) has a bit of an emotional breakdown. Quote: "You know what I'm realising? My life is just going to go. Like that. This series of milestones. Getting married. Having kids. Getting divorced. The time that we thought you were dyslexic. When I taught you how to ride a bike. Getting divorced... again. Getting my masters degree. Finally getting the job I wanted. Sending Samantha off to college. Sending you off to college. You know what's next? Huh? It's my [expletive] funeral! Just go, and leave my picture! [...] I just thought there would be more." That's pretty much how I felt about the movie: a series of milestones, when I thought there would be more. Perhaps that's how Linklater processes adolescence, but it doesn't ring true to my own experience. I internalized all those milestones, they're a part of me every day, informing my attitudes and dreams and fears and wishes. I can't help but feel the ambition of the premise itself either overwhelmed Linklater and co., or that they were relying on it to carry a heavier emotional burden than it proved capable of, but I suspect that the praise for this film would be quite a bit more reserved without its central gimmick. Mason is a character assembled from snapshots like the ones he eventually grows up to take, but this is a film - they should ideally cohere into a stronger narrative than the one we got.

Still, a lot of those snapshots are great, and instantly relatable, so it's still a fine film. Linklater even managed to make me feel wistful for my own experience moving away from STL after 8th grade with nothing more than a shot out a car window of a kid on a bike waving goodbye set to Sheryl Crow's "Soak Up the Sun." That moment lasts less than probably 5 seconds, but will leave more of a mark on me than just about any other moment in a film this year. I just wish the rest of it had hit me on that level. It seems to have hit everybody else that way.

[33anda3rd]

With Linklater, a lot of the time I feel like it's what you're describing, especially "the praise for this film would be quite a bit more reserved without its central gimmick." Waking Life is a really cool use of technology, and interesting, but doesn't reach the greatness it could have. It's an elevated Slacker, also a great film but not a Great Film. Scanner Darkly, meh. I love love love the Before series and Dazed and Confused, but I admire/like but don't love anything else by Linklater. He's at his best (Befores, Dazed, Fast Food Nation, School of Rock) when he's removed from gimmick and focused on characters and ideas that don't need to support gimmick IMO.

[Jocephus]

[The Third Man]

With Linklater, a lot of the time I feel like it's what you're describing, especially "the praise for this film would be quite a bit more reserved without its central gimmick." Waking Life is a really cool use of technology, and interesting, but doesn't reach the greatness it could have. It's an elevated Slacker, also a great film but not a Great Film. Scanner Darkly, meh. I love love love the Before series and Dazed and Confused, but I admire/like but don't love anything else by Linklater. He's at his best (Befores, Dazed, Fast Food Nation, School of Rock) when he's removed from gimmick and focused on characters and ideas that don't need to support gimmick IMO.

Yeah, I felt the same way about Bernie to an extent. Though I do really dig Scanner Darkly. Sadly, I still haven't seen Waking Life, the Before series, or Slacker. All look very promising.

[Schlich]

I saw the first half of waking life while I was stoned and it blew my mind. I'm not sure I'd have liked it sober.

Edit: wait, I already told you guys this

[The Third Man]

Now here's a movie that deserves an oral history.

[Vidor]

Now here's a movie that deserves an oral history.

As opposed to, say, the "fist bump" scene from Big Hero 6.

http://www.avclub.com/article/read-oral ... o-6-212834

[JL21]

Now here's a movie that deserves an oral history.

1. That's a great read.

2. This is [expletive] hilarious.

William H. Macy
Paul and I were having lunch, shooting the breeze, this young girl who weighed about 90 pounds soaking wet sat beside us, and she was from the porn industry. And she says to Paul, “Can I ask you a professional question?” He says, sure. She says, “You’ve seen me in these scenes; you’ve seen what I can do. In your professional opinion, should I go legit or should I go anal?”

3. Thomas Jane really should have had a bigger career.