movies

[Jocephus]

was going to see bombshell on xmas day with the folks but our only option was front row so we decided not to see it. i read ghost's flow chart to my mother as we were driving home and she thought that was true hah.

i've heard performances are good and all but story is a bit meh. charlize really does look like megyn, at least from the trailers.

[tlombard]

Yeah, there wasn't really a lot to the story which I kind of appreciated really. I get the impression that they didn't take many liberties for the sake of drama and just kind of put it out there like it really was unlike so many other movies that are 'based on a true story' that have made me mad over the years (I'm looking at you Remember the Titans!). They mentioned death threats and such but thankfully they didn't manufacture any actual attempts at violence or anything like that which was refreshing for me in a way.

[The Third Man]

Wait, An Elephant Sitting Still is streaming on CC? I went to all the trouble to pirate it, since there was no physical release available. Huh, go figure. I'll watch that soon.

[33anda3rd]

Wait, An Elephant Sitting Still is streaming on CC? I went to all the trouble to pirate it, since there was no physical release available. Huh, go figure. I'll watch that soon.

Y'know what else is on there right now is all the Petzold films. Transit was the first of his I saw and I was just utterly floored the first time I saw it, so I'm going through his other stuff on Criterion now, trying not to take them too fast and savor each one. Phoenix is another incredible one.

I gave it some thought, my 2019 list would go:

Tier 1: Parasite, Little Women, Transit
Tier 1A: The Souvenir, Atlantics (calling it 1A because on any day I might put either or both with the other three, if they were released in 2016 they'd be in Tier 1 with Nocturnal Animals and Toni Erdmann and if they were 2017 films they'd probably be alone in Tier 1. This was a good year for great movies.)
Tier 2: Uncut Gems, High Life, Irishman
Tier 3: Booksmart, Beach Bum
Tier 4: Joker, OUATIH, Midsommar
Tier 5: John Wick 3, Last Black Man in San Francisco, Long Shot
Special Mention: HBO's Watchmen episodes 5, 6, 8 (the Looking Glass origin story, Hooded Justice origin story, and Dr. Manhattan/Angela episodes respectively) would all go somewhere between Tiers 2 and 3. I thought that show was really special.

[stlouie_lipp]

Went to Uncut Gems today and enjoyed it. it's definitely an in your face movie that makes you feel uncomfortable at times. I was reading about how this is remarkably a 2012 period piece, that it gets down all the aesthetics of a very recent past. It sure does.

[33anda3rd]

Went to Uncut Gems today and enjoyed it. it's definitely an in your face movie that makes you feel uncomfortable at times. I was reading about how this is remarkably a 2012 period piece, that it gets down all the aesthetics of a very recent past. It sure does.

It's such an intense 2+ hours. Darius Khondji's camera spends a lot of time nice and tight on faces, you're right in the characters' grills the whole time. I love Khondji, the films he's shot over the years--among them Delicatessen, Se7ven, Midnight In Paris, Amour, Okja--they've all had such a great look and have been uniquely different. The way he places the camera in this, the form of the film really matches the content and heightens the anxiety and tension of the movie in a really awesome way. It feels so immediate. That last scene with Sandler and KG where Sandler is telling him about the bet he's going to place, that could have been a wider shot where you see the back and forth, but the way Khondji makes it a back and forth shown by cutting between tight shots on their faces ramps the intensity of it up. By the end of that movie I was ready to get outside, I felt claustrophobic like the whole thing was a weighted blanket of desperation and yelling tossed over me for a couple hours. Some war porn like 1917 will probably win best cinematography at the Oscars for making stuff blow up on a green screen but this was IMO the movie this year that made best use of the camera to heighten the stakes of the drama.

Also worth noting is how good some of the non-actors are in this, especially KG, Mike Francesca as the bookie, and the two strongmen who hang out with Bogosian.

[stlouie_lipp]

Went to Uncut Gems today and enjoyed it. it's definitely an in your face movie that makes you feel uncomfortable at times. I was reading about how this is remarkably a 2012 period piece, that it gets down all the aesthetics of a very recent past. It sure does.

It's such an intense 2+ hours. Darius Khondji's camera spends a lot of time nice and tight on faces, you're right in the characters' grills the whole time. I love Khondji, the films he's shot over the years--among them Delicatessen, Se7ven, Midnight In Paris, Amour, Okja--they've all had such a great look and have been uniquely different. The way he places the camera in this, the form of the film really matches the content and heightens the anxiety and tension of the movie in a really awesome way. It feels so immediate. That last scene with Sandler and KG where Sandler is telling him about the bet he's going to place, that could have been a wider shot where you see the back and forth, but the way Khondji makes it a back and forth shown by cutting between tight shots on their faces ramps the intensity of it up. By the end of that movie I was ready to get outside, I felt claustrophobic like the whole thing was a weighted blanket of desperation and yelling tossed over me for a couple hours. Some war porn like 1917 will probably win best cinematography at the Oscars for making stuff blow up on a green screen but this was IMO the movie this year that made best use of the camera to heighten the stakes of the drama.

[SHOW]

It was a relief when he got shot. Ok, I can relax now.

Also worth noting is how good some of the non-actors are in this, especially KG, Mike Francesca as the bookie, and the two strongmen who hang out with Bogosian.

And Julia Fox was outstanding.

[33anda3rd]

Re your spoiler I 100% agree, it's

[SHOW]

just kind of an enormous relief because you know as soon as he collects the $1.2 million from Fox that he's going to blow through it on degenerate sports betting in under 3 months. He'd pay his debts, then buy a Rolex and a Benz and drop like $20K taking her on a Caribbean vacation and the whole vacation he'd be trying to place bets on the NBA Finals.

[Jocephus]

[thrill]

I read this yesterday and it's legitimately incredible.