Movies 2025 Movie Discussion Thread

[odessasteps]

Cross posting for max eyeballs  

just saw our local regal is showing Re Animator Monday night. Very tempting since I have the night off. 
 

also, what’s the deal with this new Romeo and Juliet movie? I was curious until I heard it’s full of pop songs, Baz luhrman style.

Edited May 12 by odessasteps

[Brian Fowler]

1 hour ago, odessasteps said:

Cross posting for max eyeballs  

just saw our local regal is showing Re Animator Monday night. Very tempting since I have the night off. 
 

also, what’s the deal with this new Romeo and Juliet movie? I was curious until I heard it’s full of pop songs, Baz luhrman style.

It's a straight up musical, and allegedly is the "real" story. Reviews are terrible. 

(It's also the third wholly distinct Juliet musical to hit either the screen or major stage in the last like six years, which is kinda odd.)

[Andrew POE!]

I'll be seeing Re-Animator tonight.

If I have no desire to see Juliet & Romeo just based on the trailers, you know it's pretty bad. I'm going to try to suffer less with movies (although I will see an Angel Studios movie to see if they've gotten any better at filmmaking).

[J.H.]

Some movies you need to suffer through but then you gotvto balance it out good or at least watchable movies.

My own viewing was light last week, though Sandra Violet made Daddy sit through Paul Blart: Mall Cop on Saturday. That was a movie I walked out on (to date the only full price admission movie I've ever walked out on and didn't return). I know exactly what needs to be done to that movie to make it watchable AND change its vibe all in one masterstroke!

Ladies and Gentleman, i give you my pitch for Paul Blart - Mall Cop but replace Kevin James with a deep fake Charles Bronson. I promise you, it will be a better movie!

I haven't figured out how to work in the ghost of Wilfred Brimley yet but give me time. I'd also add Stephen Tobolowsky and Bruce McGill to the cast... somehow!

James

Edited May 12 by J.H.

[Contentious C]

I wouldn't overdo it. 

GOWB would be an excellent "Kevin James's dad that everyone liked more than him" casting, in no small part because the second half of the statement is very obviously true.

[J.H.]

I like that I've used GOWB enough now that he's an acronym. 

James

[Andrew POE!]

Movies today....

Joint Security Area (Criterion Channel, leaving on 5/31) - 4/5 stars

Spoiler

With this as my first exposure to Park Chan-wook, it's a bit of a disappointment. Compared to his countryman Bong Joon Ho, Park Chan-wook tells his story much more subtlely. The movie tries to show that North and South Korea aren't that different from each other when it's broken down on an individual level; it's equivalent of 1980s Cold War movies about love between two people from Russia and the United States like Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears or Reds. The difference of course is none of the characters involved fall in love with each other.

Major Sophie E. Jean (Lee Young-ae) is brought in to investigate an incident involving Sgt. Lee Soo-hyeok (Lee Byung-hun) escaping after two North Korea guards were found dead. Jean is brought in for 'objectivity' during the course of the investigation; the movie depicts the events leading up to the incident. This includes a friendship with Soo-hyeok and North Korea's Sgt Oh Kyeong-pil (Song Kang-ho) and Pvt. Jung Woo-jin (Shin Ha-kyun) and eventually Pvt. Nam Sung-sik (Kim Tae-woo) joining in.

Of course, the truth is never quite clear. Soo-hyeok is trapped behind a mine and is rescued by the two North Korean guards with a dog; yet he presents a brave face as other South Korea soldiers recount his abilities and his bravery.

The last 15 minutes or so presents what Soo-hyeok says is the truth with Kyeong-pil having killed his commanding officer, but even that isn't completely honest. Soo-hyeok is shown having done it.

It also seems that both sides aren't interested in the truth - Jean is transferred out upon discovery of her father rejecting both North and South Korea, communism and capitalism to go to Argentina. Jean's objectivity isn't as desired as thought; what Park Chan-woo seems to be saying is that an united Korea is not in either country's interest. As mentioned during the movie, "one incident won't start a war" as a soldier is reprimanded before Jean walks in for the first time to interview witnesses.

One scene that sticks out to me is the swapping of cigarettes in the snow and later at the demarcation line. The act of sharing something that can cause death acknowledges the inevitability of death; but for now, why not be friends for a short time?

Park Chan-wook throughout the movie had a lot of brilliant tricks used - I loved the match cut from the top of the tower to an umbrella in one scene. Scene transitions using walls from one room to another were great as well. The choice of opening the movie with an owl is brilliant as well - owls usually indicate something under the cover of night. It seems throughout the movie that animals have meaningful appearances like the small dog the two North Korean soldiers have in their post.

The one thing that I can say that didn't work as well was the English actors were a bit flat in their reading - this can be forgiven with a South Korean director like Park Chan-wook not speaking English natively. I wonder how it would have gone if the Swiss/Swedish Maj. Gen. Bruno Botta (Christoph Hofrichter) and Capt. Persson (Herbert Ulrich) both spoke Korean but that may not have been possible.

Some of the movie also dragged a bit in the middle, but this movie is interested in being a character study than necessarily an action packed thriller.

Joint Security Area isn't bad and I'll seek out other movies from Park Chan-wook.

Mutt (Netflix, leaving on 5/15) - 2.5/5 stars

Spoiler

It's weird but Close To You is a much better movie compared to Mutt. There isn't a lot of post-transition movies out there, but I couldn't help to compare this to Elliot Page's effort in terms of the story. Both movies talk about the difficulty of the main character with dealing with other people's reactions to who they are now. I did like the lines toward the end of the movie - "Do you think I just woke up one day and decided to be trans?"

In this, Fena (Lio Mehiel) has to deal with life situations and getting his half-sister Zoe (MiMi Ryder) back home. The scenes with Cole Doman as John, his ex, were the best part of the movie; although their goodbye scene was a bit rough to watch - "No one likes you not because you're trans, but because you're an asshole."

Script had a strangely stilted feel to it and the movie almost tries too hard to make the characters appear realistic. In the act of doing so, none of the characters are realistic. Alejandro Goic as Pablo had decent scenes although was hampered by the stilted dialogue for his character too.

Cinematography wise, most of the shots were a bit too dark and occasionally the movie would handle dialogue in scenes kinda poorly - too many 'start stops' where a person is talking, the person finishes, it cuts to the other person, that person talks, that person finishes, then cuts back to the first person. It makes less of a conversation and more of “waiting on my turn to speak.”There were a few great shots though - I liked the shot of Fena and Zoe on top of a car while eating pizza. The early scenes in the club and in the streets had great camerawork as the camera tracked Fena across the street for his phone call.

Mutt is a nice effort though and I hope to see the next feature from Vuk Lungulov-Klotz.

Re-Animator (saw in the theaters) - 4/5 stars

Spoiler

Re-Animator as a movie is more than the sum of its parts. The main character Herbert West (Jeffrey Combs) has an "otherness" shared with Arnie from John Carpenter's Christine. Herbert West is simply not interested in love or girls or anything like that - he has a laser focus on his experiments to revive the dead. It can be argued that like Arnie, Herbert is a queer character; I noticed the degree of affection Herbert has towards Daniel Cain (Bruce Abbott) in one scene when he drapes his arm over his shoulder. Before the Bernard Hermann-esque/Psycho opening theme/titles, he has to hold back his now dead mentor before the mentor's head explodes.

In addition to John Carpenter and Alfred Hitchcock as inspirations, it can be easy to say that David Cronenberg has influence on this movie. For awhile, I thought this movie was part of Cronenberg's oeuvre; it was something he did after Scanners, Videodrome and The Dead Zone. The truth is this isn't the case - although this movie fits neatly with those three movies. The difference being the movie takes place in Massachusetts whereas a lot of Cronenberg's work takes place in Toronto.

Having talked about the inspirations and influences for this movie, the actual movie has hilarious bits throughout the movie. The contrast between Herbert West and his roommate Daniel Cain is comical; Cain, at his start to the movie, is not expecting the fact that a patient had died. Cain begrudgingly functions as an Igor to Cain's Dr. Frankenstein as they sneak into the school and into the morgue. The security guard tries to peak at the body but Cain stops him.

Oftentimes, the security guard is the source of humor for this movie. I literally busted out laughing in the theater when the guard was walking down the hallway and sees an undead Dean Halsey (Robert Sampson) and a headless Dr. Hill (David Gale) bust through the door. After reading Boudoir magazine, he declares that it's 'break time' and leaves his desk.

Even though it's a tad morbid, the scenes with Dr. Hill brought back to life are absolutely hilarious. His body is stumbling around in his office knocking things over. His holding his own head is actually funny as well in a creepy way; the effects around that are great and definitely gross.

The other great aspect is Barbara Crampton as Cain's girlfriend Megan. Crampton acts similar to Janet Leigh in Psycho (notice the "shower theme" playing when she is being grabbed in the elevator towards the end of the movie). Plus, for the guys, she's naked a lot. And Hitchcock would be proud of her scream. The drawback though is Crampton isn't given that much to do as Megan; her character is able to sway her father from succumbing to Dr. Hill's control towards the end.

One scene I really liked from a cinematography standpoint is near the start of the movie as Herbert and Daniel are trying to get the re-animated cat off of Herbert. The light source sways back and forth from the overhead lamp as both are looking for the cat. Although I'm not a fan of violence against cats in movies, it does show how completely unhinged Herbert West is. There's no hope for the character; it's hard to feel sympathy for him when he has intestines wrapped around him.

The scenes toward the end when Dr. Hill brings back the dead in the morgue to life is absolutely insane to watch; it definitely feels like a Cronenberg movie in those scenes as the naked figures are under dr. Hill's control. Once Dr. Hill is killed, they lose their minds and attacking anything that moves. Towards the end, I really loved the onsie as Daniel is carrying Megan to a hospital room to revive her. Seemingly, one of the dead came back to life.

The ending is a great ending - everything is darkened except for The Substance (REMEMBER YOU ARE ONE) - I mean, the Re-Animator - as it is injected into Megan then we hear Megan's scream.

I saw Re-Animator during the 40th Anniversary theater showing and it was a great classic.

 

[odessasteps]

Didn’t make it to Re-Animator, but I love it all that same. Teenage me loved That scene.

they are all great in it. 

[J.H.]

For the record, my favorite Wilfred Brimley performance is him as Uncle Doovee in Hard Target just because it is so out of left field casting that WB nearly steals the whole movie!

A close second is his role in The Firm as the law firm's head of security, simply because you get the vibe that's how WB handled shit as Howard Hughes head of security/bodyguard.

Hell, knowing what is known about WB's life, the least believable role he played was the kindly old grandpa in Cocoon!

James

Edited May 15 by J.H.

[Contentious C]

17 hours ago, J.H. said:

I like that I've used GOWB enough now that he's an acronym. 

James

Nah, I just couldn't be bothered to type it and have his name be in my phone's auto complete for the rest of recorded time.

[Andrew POE!]

Movies today...

Tully (Netflix, leaving on 5/15) - 4/5 stars

Spoiler

Tully as a movie is about a mother named Marlo (Charlize Theron) pushed to an absolute breaking point without realizing it.

The thing with the movie is it's within a common film type involving nannies and families: Mary Poppins, Nanny McPhee, Mrs. Doubtfire. Marlo and her husband Drew (Ron Livingston) talk to her rich brother Craig (Mark Duplass) about hiring a night nanny so that Marlo can finally get some sleep. Tully (MacKenzie Davis) appears one night and the nanny you need is Tully indeed.

A lot of Marlo's troubles are misunderstanding her older children Sarah (Lia Frankland) and Jonah (Asher Miles Fallica). To be honest, I didn't like Jonah that much - because I felt like Marlo and Drew never took him aside and never really had him understanding the gravity of what's going on. The problem isn't Jonah though. It's adults not understanding him and not understanding that he has autism. So on a lot of levels I felt the scene where Marlo lashes out in the meeting with the school administrator about "Jonah leaving the school." "This is me when I'm not trying anymore."

What Tully does a bit differently is an almost mythical/"magical realism" component to the movie - it's similar to what Guillermo Del Toro did in The Shape of Water and in Pan's Labyrinth. A common image that appears frequently is mermaids. Drew falling asleep in a hospital waiting room while a reality show about Mermaid Cove is on. Sarah watching an animated show that talks about mermaids. Images that appear sporadically with a mermaid in water. Near the end after the car crash, a mermaid that looks like Tully comes to rescue Marlo from the car.

Which brings us to the reveal about Tully. The movie presents that Tully is a figment of Marlo's imagination. In a lot of ways, she is. Tully seemingly has all the answers and Marlo asks her how she knows these things. "You're 26," Marlo tells Tully. When checking in Marlo to the hospital, Drew indicates that "Tully" is Marlo's maiden name. So that does confirm it. Also, the flashback to the night out in Brooklyn showing that Marlo is riding a bike by herself and drinking at a bar by herself.

But there's a lot of scenes that cast doubt on Tully being a figment of Marlo's imagination. I thought it was interesting that Marlo and Tully would role-play as a waitress with Tully wearing the outfit for Drew. Tully talks at the prompting of Marlo and Drew in that scene looks at Tully, not at Marlo. But the next scene, he doesn't ask about Tully when talking about the previous night. He thinks it was great - and Marlo goes along with it.

One thing I really like is how the movie uses needledrops of music. In a lot of movies, musical choices are done in homages to Scorsese and Tarantino without really fitting the characters or the story. In Tully, the choices are really great - I loved the montage scene set to Rufus Wainwright's "Tiergarten" as well as a later one showing Marlo and Tully hanging out to a cover of "You Only Live Twice." Another great usage of music was Marlo and Tully riding to Brooklyn with various Cyndi Lauper song snippets being played - denoting a passage of time during the car ride. In all three cases, the song choices reveal something about Marlo as a character in those scenes.

The opening and closing scenes have a nice bookend with Marlo and Jonah. At the start of the movie, Marlo brushes Jonah based on what was advised by a child psychologist (until they couldn't afford it anymore). Towards the end of the movie, Jonah questions whether even doing the act of this is actually beneficial and hugs his mom. The ending has Drew and Marlo listening to the same song through earbuds, which means that Marlo and Drew are now part of the same world.

What I didn't like as much is how Marlo and Drew as characters seem to be fine with being overwhelmed while claiming to 'do better.' It makes much of the conflict presented in the movie trivialized, when it could be something more. Marlo jokes about suicide in a scene, which is a cry for help for her. Drew flies off for work with his company and is seemingly absent throughout the entire movie while lamenting that he's not more present. Although, to be fair, he does help with the older children in the mornings and when he gets back from work, but there's never scenes with him helping with the baby with Marlo together or with Tully and the baby. Marlo as a character believes that she needs relief so the "night nanny" becoming a figment of her imagination is a release; it doesn't explain how Drew conveyed the benefits to her brother or how he knew. Not to mention we hear the baby monitor, so it's presumed the "night nanny" was there. And Drew had overheard it, so the "night nanny" had to be there.

The movie with the fantasy of the night nanny tries to be a similar construct as David Fincher's Fight Club, but not quite to the same effect or nearly airtight way to tell where the invented character is there and when it isn't.

Despite some character and story issues I have with the movie, Tully is a great comedy/drama.

The Cry of Granuaile (Criterion Channel, leaving on 5/31) - 3/5 stars

Spoiler

The Cry of Granuaile is very Antonioni or Bergman-esque at times; the first hour or so is truly compelling as it delves into the creative process for a filmmaker trying to research a historical figure with a sift through fact, fiction, myth and legend. At points, it reminded me of Radu Jude's The Potemkinists short film but in Ireland.

At the center of the fact/fiction conflict are two characters, a film director Maire (Dale Dickey) and her Irish assistant Cait (Judith Roddy). The movie has Maire reading of the story to her grand-daughter while Cait is dealing with a breakup. I liked the scenes where Maire is discussing her work while Cait is arguing with her boyfriend; it shows a parallel conflict for each of the characters.

The problem is as the movie delves more into Maire's creative process and actually creating the film, The Cry of Granuaile loses its way. The resulting "film with the film" is confusing and is difficult to tell what exactly is going on; it turns into "images washing over you" rather than a coherent story about the creative process or about a creative person.

The last 10 minutes or so were utterly confusing; apparently, Maire is in jail (?) for drowning Cait's boyfriend but how much of that is true isn't even know. Cait immediately goes to two of the men selected as 'actors' for this project as they talk about defending the land. We then see Maire as Granuaile telling us what she sees before the movie abruptly ends.

Donal Foreman is obviously a talented director (for his first two movies he did, Out of Here and The Image You Missed) but this seems like a lesser work for him. I did like how cinematic it appears compared to Out of Here, but that movie story wise was much stronger.

Mission: Impossible - Fallout (marathon to watch all the Mission: Impossible movies before the new one is out) - 5/5 stars

Spoiler

Hunt. Ethan Hunt.

Mission: Impossible - Fallout takes every lesson learned from every action movie ever made. Some scenes throughout remind me of Nolan's The Dark Knight Trilogy - the planned hijacking/rescue of Solomon Lane (Sean Harris) is shot similarly to scenes that were in The Dark Knight. The penultimate scene with Hunt (Tom Cruise) and August Walker (Henry Cavill) hanging over the cliff with a helicopter dangling. The rivalry between Hunt and Lane evokes Batman and Bane; like Bane, Lane (hey, it rhymes!) has no agenda other than to destroy the world and turn what the world has against itself.

The entire movie reminds me of the entirety of the Bond franchise too. Some scenes like Hunt infiltrating Spectre - I mean, the White Widow (Vanessa Kirby)'s meeting as John Lark felt like a similar infiltration with Bond seeing the organization Blofeld is running in Spectre. The high stakes of the nuclear bombs needing to be disarmed is pure Bond (and at least several incarnations of Bond have done it).

But what makes M:I - Fallout so great is the character arcs and characterizations involved. I loved the scene where Luther (Ving Rhames) explains why Hunt and his wife Julia (Michelle Montagne) can never be together again to Ilsa Faust (Rebecca Ferguson). "And she would wonder: Who's watching the world while Ethan is watching me? Deep down they both knew that someday, somehow, something truly terrible was going to happen. All because they were together." (Finally, Ving Rhames has more to do than just shake his head at Tom Cruise throughout the movie!). Benji (Simon Pegg) is more brave due to working with Hunt. The Secretary of Defense (Alec Baldwin) even enjoys the teamwork and double crossing Walker. Let's not forget Julia's lines to Ethan: " I love what I do and I never would've found this if I hadn't met you."

Tom Cruise in this is incredible: he embodies Batman and Bond like I mentioned, but also Jack Ryan from Tom Clancy movies too - The Sum of All Fears, Clear and Present Danger, Patriot Games. The Hunt For Red October. Ethan Hunt is patriotic but the movie never beats it over everyone's head about it - his character values loyalty to his teammates over himself. It's an archetype that Cruise excels at with every character he plays - from Top Gun to Cocktail to Days of Thunder to so forth.

While I'm raving over the acting performances, the cinematography is just incredible as well. Every shot in this movie has a ton of color and perfectly captures everything in the frame. The fight in the bathroom is a wonder of cinematography as Walker and Hunt fight off "John Lark" (including the famous "arm pumps" from Cavill). Every scene never overstays its welcome even with a 2 hour and 30 minute runtime; it took a similar formula that occurred in Rogue Nation but made it better.

For the most part, Mission: Impossible - Fallout is just incredible to watch. I really wish they re-released it in theaters before The Final Reckoning came out. I would see it again.

 

[J.H.]

I'm very disappointed that Tully isn't a movie about Tully Blanchard with Nicholas Cage as the lead and, I dunno, Deniro as Joe Blanchard

James

Edited May 14 by J.H.

[Andrew POE!]

46 minutes ago, J.H. said:

I'm very disappointed that Tully isn't a movie about Tully Blanchard with Nicholas Cage as the lead and, I dunno, Deniro as Joe Blanchard

James

I guess we should expect it to be part of an cinematic universe with a movie called Arn (that has John C. Reilly as Arn), Ole (with Zach Galifianakis as Ole) and Ric (with Will Ferrell as Ric Flair). Then, of course, the resulting movie called The Four Horsemen.

[J.H.]

But who plays JJ Dillon? 

Lord a pro-wrestling comedy sounds like the perfect thing for Danny McBride

James

[Andrew POE!]

10 minutes ago, J.H. said:

But who plays JJ Dillon? 

Lord a pro-wrestling comedy sounds like the perfect thing for Danny McBride

James

The Ghost of Wilfred Brimley, of course.

Danny McBride could play Dusty Rhodes.

[Mister TV]

48 minutes ago, Andrew POE! said:

The Ghost of Wilfred Brimley, of course.

Danny McBride could play Dusty Rhodes.

I always pictured McBride as Jimmy Garvin. 

[Johnny Sorrow]

1 hour ago, Mister TV said:

I always pictured McBride as Jimmy Garvin. 

I always pictured him as Nick Patrick. 

[J.H.]

Lord, are we really attempting to cast "World Championship Wrestling: The Motion Picture"?

Because if we are, then we need AI mock-up of the Star Trek poster replacing Kirk, Spock and Ilea with Flair, Dusty and Jim Cornette

James

Edited May 14 by J.H.

[AxB]

No, we don't need AI art for anything.

[Log]

I swear I've heard McBride talk about wanting to do something related to older pro wrestling before. Maybe the season of Righteous Gemstones where they get into Eli's backstory was enough for him. If not, I'd love to see his take on the territory era.

[J.H.]

5 hours ago, Andrew POE! said:

The Ghost of Wilfred Brimley, of course.

Danny McBride could play Dusty Rhodes.

And the GOWB as Gorilla Monsoon!

"Now look here gawdummit, gimme a break Brain!"

James

[Andrew POE!]

Movies today...

Kandahar (Hulu, leaving on 5/18) - 2/5 stars

Spoiler

Kandahar as a movie just isn't very interesting. Gerard Butler as Tom is a CIA operative who gets exposed due to a journalist Luna Cujai (Nina Touissant-White). Tom has to reach a CIA base with "Mo" Doud (Navid Negahban). Butler does about as well as he normally does in his movies although he's less of an outward ahole like his character was in Den of Thieves series. The only thing about him is needing to sign divorce papers (is it in his contract to playing divorcing dads?) and seeing his daughter. The introductory scenes has him setting up a hack into Iran's nuclear facility.

Much of the movie focuses on the chase for Tom and Mo and the various countries and governments wanting him. On its surface, this should be an interesting premise; for whatever reason, in the hands of Ric Roman Waugh, it crumbles.

The lone highlight is Ali Fazal as ISI agent Kahil Nasir doing James Bond shit and riding a motorcycle while hunting down Tom and Mo. Honestly, I would watch more movies with Fazal as an action movie star; he has the charisma and presence for it. We see him matching with a woman on a dating app while coercing a military operative to letting him chase after the CIA operative.

The movie attempts to incorporate themes about "family" but is rather clunky in its handling. We see the person who captured Luna named Farzad (Bahador Foladi) talk to his wife about being home then is killed when Tom shoots down his helicopter. The story arc around his body being accepted re-appears in the last five minutes. The movie tries to be much deeper than it actually is; the song at the end of the movie tries to tie everything together. The choice of song, like most of the movie, isn't very interesting.

What's irritating is the fact that the movie could have said something about journalism in the region and how even leaking CIA operatives and endangering them is a failure of journalism, but the movie never does that. There's also the implication that the US government essentially left Tom to fend for himself as a CIA operative after the leak, except of course towards the end when it's convenient and having Taliban vehicle bombings from jets. What the movie seems to focus on is beautiful desert scenery and the characters going from point A to point B.

Kandahar is B-movie/straight to Blu Ray filmmaking that's not very good at times but it could have been worse.

A Simple Favor (Netflix, leaving on 5/18) - 4/5 stars

Spoiler

A Simple Favor practically drips from French style at the word 'oui.’

The premise of the movie with Stephanie (Anna Kendrick) making friends with a domineering woman who 'has it all' named Emily (Blake Lively) is literally The Talented Mrs. Ripley (or the original Purple Noon); Emily has what Stephanie wants out of life. The movie sets about Emily being the object of Stephanie's attention as they grow closer until one day....Emily vanishes. After Emily vanishes, Stephanie begins to adopt clothing and some of her habits - I especially love the scene where Stephanie cleans out the closet at Emily's house only to come back to see it back in place. The scene with Stephanie dancing to Serge Gainsbourg's "Bonnie and Clyde" is infectious as is watching Emily and Stephanie kiss in a flashback.

Much of the movie then sets about a Hitchcock plot structure: Stephanie seeks to find out what happened to Emily and what was going on in her life prior to her death. As it turns out, it becomes a bit like Henri-Georges Clouzot's Les DIaboliques - which Anna Kendrick's character hilariously namedrops to the Cary Grant-like Henry Golding as Sean - and a bit like Vertigo and Suspicion.

Most of the fun of the movie is the twists and double crosses that appear and how much of it is lead by Kendrick's character. Kendrick is a bit like a female James Stewart in some ways until towards the end; she presents herself as a wholly innocent person as something breaks in her. Blake Lively is also the best part of the movie with her sardonic yet slightly evil manner she portrays the character; another review online compared her to Julie Christie in this for her maniacal and ruthlessness. The "twin sister" storyline with Blake Lively playing two sisters does capitalize on the Vertigo influence, although the difference being that Emily killed her own sister. I absolutely loved the wide angle shot as Emily drowns Faith in the lake.

The last 10 minutes is bonkers with the melding of comedy - as friends of Stephanie get busted for pot - and the drama as Stephanie reveals she's been live streaming the entire time after Emily admits to the murders and cuts the wiretapping.

Compared to other works from Paul Feig that I've seen, this is practically his best movie. I loved the melding of flashbacks, split diopter shots, and closeups that are used - the comedy really works against the Hitchock/Clouzot like suspense thriller attributes.

The Time Traveler's Wife (Max soon to be HBO Max, leaving on 5/31) - 3/5 stars

Spoiler

There's something positively sweet and earnest about The Time Traveler's Wife. It's not a sequel to The Astronaut's Wife (although I guess both could be part of an unofficial series). In this, Eric Bana plays Henry, who is able to go forwards and backwards in time; every time he arrives to a place, it's like Kyle Reese in The Terminator and he has to procure clothes. In a nice homage to The Terminator, the first time we see Henry on screen, he's arrived in a library.

Playing his wife is Rachel McAdams as Clare. McAdams has an unbelievable ability to melt snow with just her smile. The character is very much a traditionalist, despite meeting Henry as an older man while her character is still a child. To be honest, that is a bit of grooming going on and rather icky to think about it. The movie doesn't really address that aspect of it and just aspects it on face value nor does the younger Clare and Henry avoid each other when meeting.

As the movie goes through, I realize that it isn't necessarily about time travel. The author of the book had it be a metaphor for failed relationships, but with this movie, it's more of a metaphor of being at the wrong place at the wrong time in life. Henry never really feels a permanence with his situation and with Clare; the next thing he knows, he is disappearing and somewhere else again in a different time.

The movie does have some elements of Dr. Who and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode "The Visitor" as Henry goes through time and makes slight changes to his and his wife's life. I loved the scene where Henry gives Clare the winning lottery numbers; the next scenes after that shows Henry and Clare house-hunting until they find a specific house with a studio in the backyard. After the lottery winnings, there is an element of upper class wish fulfillment with the characters and their stations in life. Initially in the movie, Henry tries to romance Clare in a small one bedroom apartment (although he disappears).

I will say the choice of “Love Will Tear Us Apart” is an interesting choice for a bride and groom dance at a wedding (when the song was basically a suicide note from Ian Curtis).

Robert Schwentke did the classic The Captain and this movie is vastly different from his later work. There's almost a Spielbergian sense of humanity to the movie; I absolutely loved the tracking shot where it shows Henry and Clare walking through their house with baby Alba.

The drawback is the introduction of Alba (Hailey McCann) as she time travels too; I had wished Alba as a character felt like she had to re-appear to prevent her father from dying, but is always too late to stop it. In that instance, even those that control time can't control everything. But the movie kept the focus on Henry realizing that his death is oncoming in the last couple of scenes in the movie and teleports to the time that he got shot.

Even with the premise issues and some ickiness involved, The Time Traveler's Wife is worth the trip.

Hurry Up Tomorrow (saw in the theaters) - 2/5 stars

Spoiler

Leading into this movie, I had virtually no awareness of who The Weeknd/Abel Tesfaye is. I knew he played at a Super Browl halftime show, he had a hit song called "Blinding Lights" and he really fucking loves 1980s style synths that go 'meow' in his songs. For awhile, I thought The Weeknd was a band.

With Hurry Up Tomorrow, will it be as self indulgent as Prince's movies like Under The Cherry Moon and Graffiti Bridge were? Yes. Is it going to be an examination of the pressure of fame cracking a person like Smile 2 was? Yes and no.

So much of Hurry Up Tomorrow is literally carried by the visuals. They are absolutely overwhelming and conjure to mind for me Gaspar Noe's visuals in Enter The Void and Climax among others. The introductory scenes has a woman screaming, presumably into an answering machine and it's seemingly Jenna Ortega's voice. We see a photo negative image of an eye on a person's face. There are a ton of tracking shots throughout the movie; one of the first scenes follows Tesfaye into a dressing room and pans around the room, like Scorsese did in Taxi Driver when Travis Bickle is first shown at the taxi company. Ortega is soon followed around in a tracking shot brandishing a gasoline can as she doses a house and belongings with it.

Until the characters meet, I had thought that Ortega's character Anima was Tesfaye's ex-girlfriend. In one scene prior to his concert, we see him screaming a message that he's leaving on a voicemail for someone. The movie never explains who it is that draws his ire; Anima suggests later that it's himself.

Hyping up Tesfaye is Barry Koeghan as his manager Lee. What we do know about Lee, we know that he quit school to follow Tesfaye as his manager. Seemingly, the two know each other. Also, Lee has his own destructive habits like cocaine usage that Tesfaye feels he has to participate. The scenes at the club with Lee and Tesfaye near a DJ booth has a real 'la vie de la fete' vibe to it and you never feel the two will come down.

When Anima and Tesfaye finally meet, it seems to be a blossoming relationship. We find out that the house Anima burned down was her mother's, not Tesfaye's house. The movie implies that the two have sex (for whatever reason in 2025, that's never shown anymore or even have a scene with the characters going into bed with each other - it's like it's the Hays Code all over again). The next scene has Anima in a bathrobe as the two share breakfast. Tesfaye begins to leave and just sees Anima as a 'means to an end' without any concept of a relationship. Anima knocks him out and we have an extended Stanley Kubrick The Shining dream sequence that sucked the life out of the movie - including Tesfaye walking down empty hotel lobbies and empty streets.

It's when Tesfaye comes to that we realize Anima is an obsessive fan. Her character is literally Katey Bates' character in Misery; she derives value and meaning from The Weeknd's music and it means more to her than anything else. She has Tesfaye tied up and dances around to his songs like "Blinding Lights" and "Gasoline" while asking him who they are about (he doesn't know, he's a drugged out musician, he can't remember where he was last week). Lee finally breaks in and gets killed; Anima pours gasoline on Tesfaye and....he starts to sing with the camera focused on his face. Deux ex machina, that frees him!

The end of the movie has the hotel room on fire while Tesfaye walks down a hallway to a dressing room and stares into the mirror/camera for the ending.

As I mentioned, the cinematography from Chayse Irvin and Trey Edward Shults' filmmaking literally carry this movie. Abel Tesfaye is not a very good actor at all; I would love to see do another role where he plays an actual character instead of a character that's an extension of himself. The best part is Jenna Ortega and she tries her best with the very loose characterization that's available; her character feels very underwritten. Barry Keoghan also feels underwritten.

The main aspect seems to be the theme of fame destroying a person and destroying their meaning, although that theme is a bit undercooked at times.

Hurry Up Tomorrow makes you want to Hurry Up Today for some aspirin afterwards.

 

[odessasteps]

I noticed on Peacock they have the new Nosferatu and also an extended cut that’s 2 minutes longer. 

[Brian Fowler]

7 hours ago, Andrew POE! said:

Movies today...

Kandahar (Hulu, leaving on 5/18) - 2/5 stars

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Kandahar as a movie just isn't very interesting. Gerard Butler as Tom is a CIA operative who gets exposed due to a journalist Luna Cujai (Nina Touissant-White). Tom has to reach a CIA base with "Mo" Doud (Navid Negahban). Butler does about as well as he normally does in his movies although he's less of an outward ahole like his character was in Den of Thieves series. The only thing about him is needing to sign divorce papers (is it in his contract to playing divorcing dads?) and seeing his daughter. The introductory scenes has him setting up a hack into Iran's nuclear facility.

Much of the movie focuses on the chase for Tom and Mo and the various countries and governments wanting him. On its surface, this should be an interesting premise; for whatever reason, in the hands of Ric Roman Waugh, it crumbles.

The lone highlight is Ali Fazal as ISI agent Kahil Nasir doing James Bond shit and riding a motorcycle while hunting down Tom and Mo. Honestly, I would watch more movies with Fazal as an action movie star; he has the charisma and presence for it. We see him matching with a woman on a dating app while coercing a military operative to letting him chase after the CIA operative.

The movie attempts to incorporate themes about "family" but is rather clunky in its handling. We see the person who captured Luna named Farzad (Bahador Foladi) talk to his wife about being home then is killed when Tom shoots down his helicopter. The story arc around his body being accepted re-appears in the last five minutes. The movie tries to be much deeper than it actually is; the song at the end of the movie tries to tie everything together. The choice of song, like most of the movie, isn't very interesting.

What's irritating is the fact that the movie could have said something about journalism in the region and how even leaking CIA operatives and endangering them is a failure of journalism, but the movie never does that. There's also the implication that the US government essentially left Tom to fend for himself as a CIA operative after the leak, except of course towards the end when it's convenient and having Taliban vehicle bombings from jets. What the movie seems to focus on is beautiful desert scenery and the characters going from point A to point B.

Kandahar is B-movie/straight to Blu Ray filmmaking that's not very good at times but it could have been worse.

A Simple Favor (Netflix, leaving on 5/18) - 4/5 stars

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A Simple Favor practically drips from French style at the word 'oui.’

The premise of the movie with Stephanie (Anna Kendrick) making friends with a domineering woman who 'has it all' named Emily (Blake Lively) is literally The Talented Mrs. Ripley (or the original Purple Noon); Emily has what Stephanie wants out of life. The movie sets about Emily being the object of Stephanie's attention as they grow closer until one day....Emily vanishes. After Emily vanishes, Stephanie begins to adopt clothing and some of her habits - I especially love the scene where Stephanie cleans out the closet at Emily's house only to come back to see it back in place. The scene with Stephanie dancing to Serge Gainsbourg's "Bonnie and Clyde" is infectious as is watching Emily and Stephanie kiss in a flashback.

Much of the movie then sets about a Hitchcock plot structure: Stephanie seeks to find out what happened to Emily and what was going on in her life prior to her death. As it turns out, it becomes a bit like Henri-Georges Clouzot's Les DIaboliques - which Anna Kendrick's character hilariously namedrops to the Cary Grant-like Henry Golding as Sean - and a bit like Vertigo and Suspicion.

Most of the fun of the movie is the twists and double crosses that appear and how much of it is lead by Kendrick's character. Kendrick is a bit like a female James Stewart in some ways until towards the end; she presents herself as a wholly innocent person as something breaks in her. Blake Lively is also the best part of the movie with her sardonic yet slightly evil manner she portrays the character; another review online compared her to Julie Christie in this for her maniacal and ruthlessness. The "twin sister" storyline with Blake Lively playing two sisters does capitalize on the Vertigo influence, although the difference being that Emily killed her own sister. I absolutely loved the wide angle shot as Emily drowns Faith in the lake.

The last 10 minutes is bonkers with the melding of comedy - as friends of Stephanie get busted for pot - and the drama as Stephanie reveals she's been live streaming the entire time after Emily admits to the murders and cuts the wiretapping.

Compared to other works from Paul Feig that I've seen, this is practically his best movie. I loved the melding of flashbacks, split diopter shots, and closeups that are used - the comedy really works against the Hitchock/Clouzot like suspense thriller attributes.

The Time Traveler's Wife (Max soon to be HBO Max, leaving on 5/31) - 3/5 stars

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There's something positively sweet and earnest about The Time Traveler's Wife. It's not a sequel to The Astronaut's Wife (although I guess both could be part of an unofficial series). In this, Eric Bana plays Henry, who is able to go forwards and backwards in time; every time he arrives to a place, it's like Kyle Reese in The Terminator and he has to procure clothes. In a nice homage to The Terminator, the first time we see Henry on screen, he's arrived in a library.

Playing his wife is Rachel McAdams as Clare. McAdams has an unbelievable ability to melt snow with just her smile. The character is very much a traditionalist, despite meeting Henry as an older man while her character is still a child. To be honest, that is a bit of grooming going on and rather icky to think about it. The movie doesn't really address that aspect of it and just aspects it on face value nor does the younger Clare and Henry avoid each other when meeting.

As the movie goes through, I realize that it isn't necessarily about time travel. The author of the book had it be a metaphor for failed relationships, but with this movie, it's more of a metaphor of being at the wrong place at the wrong time in life. Henry never really feels a permanence with his situation and with Clare; the next thing he knows, he is disappearing and somewhere else again in a different time.

The movie does have some elements of Dr. Who and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode "The Visitor" as Henry goes through time and makes slight changes to his and his wife's life. I loved the scene where Henry gives Clare the winning lottery numbers; the next scenes after that shows Henry and Clare house-hunting until they find a specific house with a studio in the backyard. After the lottery winnings, there is an element of upper class wish fulfillment with the characters and their stations in life. Initially in the movie, Henry tries to romance Clare in a small one bedroom apartment (although he disappears).

I will say the choice of “Love Will Tear Us Apart” is an interesting choice for a bride and groom dance at a wedding (when the song was basically a suicide note from Ian Curtis).

Robert Schwentke did the classic The Captain and this movie is vastly different from his later work. There's almost a Spielbergian sense of humanity to the movie; I absolutely loved the tracking shot where it shows Henry and Clare walking through their house with baby Alba.

The drawback is the introduction of Alba (Hailey McCann) as she time travels too; I had wished Alba as a character felt like she had to re-appear to prevent her father from dying, but is always too late to stop it. In that instance, even those that control time can't control everything. But the movie kept the focus on Henry realizing that his death is oncoming in the last couple of scenes in the movie and teleports to the time that he got shot.

Even with the premise issues and some ickiness involved, The Time Traveler's Wife is worth the trip.

Hurry Up Tomorrow (saw in the theaters) - 2/5 stars

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Leading into this movie, I had virtually no awareness of who The Weeknd/Abel Tesfaye is. I knew he played at a Super Browl halftime show, he had a hit song called "Blinding Lights" and he really fucking loves 1980s style synths that go 'meow' in his songs. For awhile, I thought The Weeknd was a band.

With Hurry Up Tomorrow, will it be as self indulgent as Prince's movies like Under The Cherry Moon and Graffiti Bridge were? Yes. Is it going to be an examination of the pressure of fame cracking a person like Smile 2 was? Yes and no.

So much of Hurry Up Tomorrow is literally carried by the visuals. They are absolutely overwhelming and conjure to mind for me Gaspar Noe's visuals in Enter The Void and Climax among others. The introductory scenes has a woman screaming, presumably into an answering machine and it's seemingly Jenna Ortega's voice. We see a photo negative image of an eye on a person's face. There are a ton of tracking shots throughout the movie; one of the first scenes follows Tesfaye into a dressing room and pans around the room, like Scorsese did in Taxi Driver when Travis Bickle is first shown at the taxi company. Ortega is soon followed around in a tracking shot brandishing a gasoline can as she doses a house and belongings with it.

Until the characters meet, I had thought that Ortega's character Anima was Tesfaye's ex-girlfriend. In one scene prior to his concert, we see him screaming a message that he's leaving on a voicemail for someone. The movie never explains who it is that draws his ire; Anima suggests later that it's himself.

Hyping up Tesfaye is Barry Koeghan as his manager Lee. What we do know about Lee, we know that he quit school to follow Tesfaye as his manager. Seemingly, the two know each other. Also, Lee has his own destructive habits like cocaine usage that Tesfaye feels he has to participate. The scenes at the club with Lee and Tesfaye near a DJ booth has a real 'la vie de la fete' vibe to it and you never feel the two will come down.

When Anima and Tesfaye finally meet, it seems to be a blossoming relationship. We find out that the house Anima burned down was her mother's, not Tesfaye's house. The movie implies that the two have sex (for whatever reason in 2025, that's never shown anymore or even have a scene with the characters going into bed with each other - it's like it's the Hays Code all over again). The next scene has Anima in a bathrobe as the two share breakfast. Tesfaye begins to leave and just sees Anima as a 'means to an end' without any concept of a relationship. Anima knocks him out and we have an extended Stanley Kubrick The Shining dream sequence that sucked the life out of the movie - including Tesfaye walking down empty hotel lobbies and empty streets.

It's when Tesfaye comes to that we realize Anima is an obsessive fan. Her character is literally Katey Bates' character in Misery; she derives value and meaning from The Weeknd's music and it means more to her than anything else. She has Tesfaye tied up and dances around to his songs like "Blinding Lights" and "Gasoline" while asking him who they are about (he doesn't know, he's a drugged out musician, he can't remember where he was last week). Lee finally breaks in and gets killed; Anima pours gasoline on Tesfaye and....he starts to sing with the camera focused on his face. Deux ex machina, that frees him!

The end of the movie has the hotel room on fire while Tesfaye walks down a hallway to a dressing room and stares into the mirror/camera for the ending.

As I mentioned, the cinematography from Chayse Irvin and Trey Edward Shults' filmmaking literally carry this movie. Abel Tesfaye is not a very good actor at all; I would love to see do another role where he plays an actual character instead of a character that's an extension of himself. The best part is Jenna Ortega and she tries her best with the very loose characterization that's available; her character feels very underwritten. Barry Keoghan also feels underwritten.

The main aspect seems to be the theme of fame destroying a person and destroying their meaning, although that theme is a bit undercooked at times.

Hurry Up Tomorrow makes you want to Hurry Up Today for some aspirin afterwards.

 

Another Simple Favor is somehow even wilder than the first.

[J.H.]

So I googled "Ghost of Wilfred Brimley" and let's just it didn't disappoint... but the board won't post the ljc gawddummit!

James