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2020 MOVIE DISCUSSION

RIPPA

By RIPPA
in MOVIES & TV

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BurningBeard

BurningBeard

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Posted
On 1/28/2020 at 12:24 AM, caley said:

The Peanut Butter Falcon: was a complete joy to watch.  A guy with Down's Syndrome escapes the retirement home where he's living, in pursuit of a career in pro wrestling, and goes on a Huck Finn-esque adventure with a ne'er do-well crab fisherman (Shia Laboeuf), while being pursued by bad guys (John Hawkes and Yelawolf) and not-so-bad guys (Dakota Johnson).  Big-hearted and lots of fun.  It's probably my favourite film of 2019 (That I've seen, so far).

I wanted to see this at the cinema after seeing the trailer but it never showed up ? 

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caley

caley

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Watched

Furie: Vietnamese film about a debt-collector for gangsters whose daughter gets kidnapped by organ thieves.  She rushes off to Saigon to track her down and mayhem ensues.  It's basically a Vietnamese martial arts flick.  The action is pretty good (Some of it looks like it was shot in real-time then sped up to make it look faster), some good stunts and fights.  The plot is fairly silly and by-the-book and the translated dialogue is often unintentionally hilarious ("Bastard! You're an illegitimate child!") but it's a short, entertaining actioner and it's on Netflix so it's easy to watch, and it was one of John Wick director Chad Stahelski's favourite films of 2019 (Which was why I watched it).

Spider-Man: Far From Home: Wasn't quite as good as the first one...previous one.  The whole problem with the plot is

if you know anything about Spider-man, you know right from the opening meeting that Mysterio is a bad guy, so when he reveals that it was all a set-up, you kind of go "Well...duh"


As much as I enjoyed the levity/comedy in the first one, I can't help but wonder if this wouldn't have been more fun if they'd got a crazy, visionary director to play around with the effects and the visuals and the ending might have hit harder in that case.

Marriage Story: This was my jam: good-looking, likable people eff-ing up their lives.  I think one of the things a viewer should know going into it is that the two leads play a theater director and actor.  So if that's the sort of thing that sets your teeth on edge already, you're probably not going to like it.  It's pretty pretentious and a little show off-y, but I actually throroughly enjoyed all of that.  All the actors are great, especially Adam Driver, but also Scarlett Johansson, Alan Alda, Julie Hegarty.  I was a little non-plussed with Laura Dern's performance, as it's basically the same as her 'Big Little Lies' character but more one-dimensional (Save for one speech).  You could probably lob the same accusation at Ray Liotta who is pretty one-note, too.  But this is Driver's show and he's spectacular: simultaneously selfish and giving; fun and gravely serious; angry and sad.  He's really great.

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LoneWolf&Subs

LoneWolf&Subs

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8 hours ago, The Natural said:

 

I actually watched Lighthouse the other day. I enjoyed it. I don’t know what the fuck I watched, but it had another entertaining Willem Dafoe performance. That automatically raises a films stock to me when you have Dafoe hamming it up in your movie. Though, you put in a subdued Dafoe, then that’s a waste of Dafoe. 

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Curt McGirt

Curt McGirt

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So I just watched this. 

I can't say anything more about the plot than what's in the trailer, but it is fucking hilarious. I've also never seen a closer cross-section of dumbass, Florida Man-style Americana in one movie since probably Gummo. The soundtrack is full of Creed, Nickelback, POD -- that says it all. At the same time it ends up somewhat sad and sweet. What a weird, WEIRD movie.

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Curt McGirt

Curt McGirt

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It's really good. The closest comparison I can probably make to it is Fargo, actually -- with way dumber cops. 

The director's prior film was Swiss Army Man which I haven't seen but appears to be even stranger.

Oh, and for Daily Show fans, Roy Wood Jr. has a role in this one

Edited by Curt McGirt
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Robert S

Robert S

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I was watching The Irishman over two sitting yesterday and today. While a (the?) big selling point for this is nostalgia, seeing the greatest mob-movie actors (plus director) one last time together in the roles they were born to do, the movie itself was definitely very good as well. While it did not feel (too) long, the movie did not create too many emotions (except the last 20 minutes and considering that was the endgame of the movie, it probably should have focused more on the family-life of Sheeran in the first 2.5 h) or suspense, though I suppose that was kind of the point of the movie, how emotionally dead the mobsters were, ordering and executing hits without any emotions or remorse (and that is the way they were presented in the movie, quick in, shoot to kill, no dramatic music, cuts or reaction shots, even in the theoretical climax of the movie, Hoffa's assassination).

I have never seen any clips or whatever of Hoffa, did he do that Trump-style subclause (is that the correct word) intonations in real life, or is that something Pacino brought in?

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caley

caley

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21 hours ago, Curt McGirt said:

It's really good. The closest comparison I can probably make to it is Fargo, actually -- with way dumber cops. 

The director's prior film was Swiss Army Man which I haven't seen but appears to be even stranger.

Oh, and for Daily Show fans, Roy Wood Jr. has a role in this one

'Swiss Army Man' is one of my favourite recent-ish movies! Paul Dano is a man stranded on a deserted island who finds a farting corpse (played by Daniel Radfcliffe) and uses him to survive.  It's absolute lunacy, startlingly touching and moving, really silly and just, there's nothing else much like it out there.

Watched

Brightburn which was entertaining and pretty gory.  It's basically the story of Superman, if Superman was a bastard.  I think it could have been a little longer as the arc of the parents loving their adopted foundling to

trying to murder him feels a little abrupt

Once Upon a Time...in Hollywood was all right.  I liked the first 2/3 -3/4 of the movie and thought it did a great job pulling us into this world (Although you could probably cut down on the amount of time people drove around and listened to music).  Thought the depiction of Bruce Lee was pretty bafflingly bad (Never mind him acting like a jerk but getting beat up by a random stuntman?) and

did not dig the ending whatsoever.  Then again, I did not care for the end of 'Inglourious Basterds' either.  Not sure what it is, but these Tarantino "happy revenge" endings feel wrong and almost like a disservice to the actual victims but I know other people like it so...


I wish Margot Robbie was given more to do, as all she does is act sweet and look pretty.  How many lines of dialogue does she even have in the film?  So, thought this was just okay.  I mean Brad Pitt is super entertaining, but there's not any real depth to his performance.  I like him but, you know.  Also weird that he was Best Supporting as he's in like, what, 70-80% of the movie.  He definitely seems to be in more movie than DiCaprio.  

Uncut Gems: was just crazy.  Baffling to me that Sandler didn't get nominated.  I'd put it up with just about performance I saw this year.  Having never been there, myself, I feel like this is the New Yorkiest movie maybe ever.  Super intense movie, basically 130ish minutes of suspense, intensity, and just "Noooo don't do that!"  I thought the supporting cast were surprisingly eclectic and good: Lakeith Stanfield is always good; it took me forever to realize who Eric Bogosian was, Idina Menzel as Sandler's wife and I really LOVED Keith Williams Richards as the heavy (Who has somehow NEVER acted before!).  Like 'Parasite' getting its own series, I think there could be some entertaining stories told from this universe, too.

The Breaker Upperers: I can't quite get a handle on this one.  It's a New Zealand film about two women who run an agency breaking couples up on behalf of one or the other's behalf.  At times, it seemed REALLY funny (I particularly liked when the one woman visited her family) but at other times the humour felt pretty juvenile or like it was lifted from other films, then I would find myself loving it again.  An odd one.

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Mister TV

Mister TV

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Posted (edited)
59 minutes ago, caley said:

'Swiss Army Man' is one of my favourite recent-ish movies! Paul Dano is a man stranded on a deserted island who finds a farting corpse (played by Daniel Radfcliffe) and uses him to survive.  It's absolute lunacy, startlingly touching and moving, really silly and just, there's nothing else much like it out there.

Watched

Brightburn which was entertaining and pretty gory.  It's basically the story of Superman, if Superman was a bastard.  I think it could have been a little longer as the arc of the parents loving their adopted foundling to

  Reveal hidden contents

trying to murder him feels a little abrupt

 

Once Upon a Time...in Hollywood was all right.  I liked the first 2/3 -3/4 of the movie and thought it did a great job pulling us into this world (Although you could probably cut down on the amount of time people drove around and listened to music).  Thought the depiction of Bruce Lee was pretty bafflingly bad (Never mind him acting like a jerk but getting beat up by a random stuntman?) and

  Reveal hidden contents

did not dig the ending whatsoever.  Then again, I did not care for the end of 'Inglourious Basterds' either.  Not sure what it is, but these Tarantino "happy revenge" endings feel wrong and almost like a disservice to the actual victims but I know other people like it so...


I wish Margot Robbie was given more to do, as all she does is act sweet and look pretty.  How many lines of dialogue does she even have in the film?  So, thought this was just okay.  I mean Brad Pitt is super entertaining, but there's not any real depth to his performance.  I like him but, you know.  Also weird that he was Best Supporting as he's in like, what, 70-80% of the movie.  He definitely seems to be in more movie than DiCaprio.  

Uncut Gems: was just crazy.  Baffling to me that Sandler didn't get nominated.  I'd put it up with just about performance I saw this year.  Having never been there, myself, I feel like this is the New Yorkiest movie maybe ever.  Super intense movie, basically 130ish minutes of suspense, intensity, and just "Noooo don't do that!"  I thought the supporting cast were surprisingly eclectic and good: Lakeith Stanfield is always good; it took me forever to realize who Eric Bogosian was, Idina Menzel as Sandler's wife and I really LOVED Keith Williams Richards as the heavy (Who has somehow NEVER acted before!).  Like 'Parasite' getting its own series, I think there could be some entertaining stories told from this universe, too.

The Breaker Upperers: I can't quite get a handle on this one.  It's a New Zealand film about two women who run an agency breaking couples up on behalf of one or the other's behalf.  At times, it seemed REALLY funny (I particularly liked when the one woman visited her family) but at other times the humour felt pretty juvenile or like it was lifted from other films, then I would find myself loving it again.  An odd one.

I'm assuming Uncut Gems, Sandler, Kevin Garnett and The Lighthouse didn't get nominated since Netflix spent a ton of money to get noms for their movies and A24 didn't. You could have easily replaced Jonathan Pryce with Sandler and Anthony Hopkins with either Willem Dafoe or Kevin Garnett. 

I'm really surprised that so many people didn't pick up that the whole Bruce Lee fight was basically an unreliable narrator daydream by Cliff Booth.

Edited by happjack
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Brian Fowler

Brian Fowler

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1 minute ago, Curt McGirt said:

Is it a daydream? He got fired for the results of it. 

It's a memory, but the way he remembers it might not be exactly what happened. It's not uncommon for people to remember things in a way that makes them look better. Whether Tarantino intended it to be questionable, I have no idea.

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supremebve

supremebve

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Posted

I watched Once Upon a Time in Hollywood last night and let me tell you, I wasn't very impressed.  If you were to cut everything but the scenes that directly lead to the conclusion that movie would be about 27 minutes long...but it's almost 3 hours.  Everything was done well, all the actors chewed up all the scenery, but there is so much nothing going on in that movie.  Other than The Hateful 8, I've been a huge fan of Tarantino, but this movie bored me to tears.  

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