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20-10s General Pimping Thread


RIPPA

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Wait, so is BEALE STREET on Hulu, too?  I’ve been wanting to watch that since I fell in love with MOONLIGHT.

I had KILLER JOE very high on my 2010-2014 list, but I haven’t seen it in forever.  Not sure how I’d feel about it now.  I remember it being super transgressive at the time.  The underlying themes about America’s working class always selling itself out for promises of wealth that’s never coming is, sadly, as relevant as ever.

I loved FREE SOLO.  Then a close friend of mine got into rock climbing, and we discovered that, wow, there are a lot of Alex Honnold’s out there in the world.  A really strange, fascinating subculture.

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I did, indeed, find IF BEALE STREET COULD TALK on Hulu, and, wow, that’s another great one by Barry Jenkins.  Not a masterpiece on the level of MOONLIGHT, but a hell of a follow-up, nonetheless.  This might be the most lovingly photographed film I’ve ever seen.  Every frame radiates warmth and affection for its characters.  The camera is as in love with Tosh and Fonny as they are with each other.  

I’ve never read the Baldwin novel this was based on, so I don’t know how much of the script is altered or invented or who to credit for what, but I’ll say that the story made a few key choices that I thought were really interesting and powerful:

1.  There are basically two stories happening here:  a tale of star-crossed lovers and the struggle to free an unjustly imprisoned man.  The latter type of story tends to be highly procedural in nature.  And there’s nothing inherently wrong with that, but it is inherently less emotional.  BEALE STREET basically cuts out, like, 80% of that stuff.  It spends exactly zero frames explaining the logistics, say, of how Sharon got to Puerto Rico and found Victoria, instead focusing on the emotions of what happened when she did.  Every scene in this movie exists to make you feel something for the characters.  It’s a lean, heart-string-pulling machine.

2.  Despite this being, in part, the story of an unjustly imprisoned man, we NEVER see Fonny in prison, outside of the visitation room.  Other movies would have at least given you a glimpse of the misery he was enduring.  Lesser movies would have reveled in it.  But BEALE STREET only lets you see him in prison through Tish’s eyes.  You can only guess at what he’s going through, but it comes through.  Sometimes he’s cut and bruised from a beating.  Sometimes he’s so scared he could scream.  Over time, you see the hope that he’ll ever be free slowly fading.  By removing any “prison-sploitation” scenes, we’re only left to see the human consequences*.

I feel like that choice is also in keeping with the aesthetics of the film.  As I said before, this is a loving, empathetic camera.  Hard to imagine it looking on while Fonny is beaten and abused.

*In some ways, this reminds me of Lynne Ramsay’s YOU WERE NEVER REALLY HERE (another great film that everybody should watch for this project!), a film in which a non-stop stream of horrific violence takes place, but none of it happens on camera.  We only ever see the aftermath.  And somehow that makes it all so much worse.

A great contrast to BEALE STREET is Steven Soderbergh’s CONTAGION (2011), which probably won’t be on my list, despite being really enjoyable.  In that film, Soderbergh’s camera is incredibly detached and clinical.  In some ways, that’s appropriate for a film about medical professionals racing to stop a plague.  But it also leaves actors like Matt Damon, Laurence Fishburne, and Kate Winselt on an island, while they’re trying to give some really emotional performances.  As a result, you never really feel the human impact of the virus.

Of course, yes, it’s interesting to watch that film now, in the time of COVID-19, and note all the things it gets right and wrong about a modern plague (hello, Jude Law trying to get rich while running a hydroxychloroquine-like scam).

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I can't really bring myself to ever award something just for being in-your-face, or challenging, or unflinching, or transgressive, or however you want to phrase it.  Sticking the landing matters.  And I don't think having Gina Gershon simulate fellatio on a chicken drumstick is sticking the landing.

But, I watched more shit.

I had no idea who Brady Corbet was, but now I'm sick of him

The Childhood of a Leader

Force Majeure

Melancholia (all Hulu)

The Captain (Showtime)

The first movie was one this Corbet guy wrote and directed, apparently based on some Sartre work?  You wouldn't know it by the quality.  Imagine The Omen if it had no supernatural elements, no compelling characters, and a kid who isn't so much creepy as someone you want to push off the roof, Francis Urquhart-style.  A few familiar faces here, but they're all completely wasted.  It's mostly Berenice Bejo not-so-secretly despising the kid, but who could blame her, really?  If you want to see this theme done right, check out We Need to Talk about Kevin, which is a film that would be just off my top 100 list.

Put me in the category of people who don't really get why Force Majeure was anyone's cup of tea.  If it had been a short film, say 40 minutes or less, it might have been really punchy and memorable.  Instead, it's just 100% predictable "unhappy marriage" pap once the central event of the movie occurs.  There's one bit that is riotously funny - something so over the top that it's supposed to play as comedy - but aside from that, not much about this says, "One of the best movies of the last 10 years."  It's well acted enough, though, and pretty, what with all the snow and mountain shots.  Otherwise, meh.  Oh, also, Brady Corbet.

I'd been dreading watching Melancholia, since I thought Antichrist was a needlessly opaque waste of my time -- Darren Aronofsky's mother! is a far more effective film covering more or less the same material -- and Nymphomaniac was the most self-indulgent, flaming dumpster fire I ever sat through.  Like I said previously, I reserve film hate for Lars von Trier only, and it's mostly because I wasted almost 6 hours watching the full versions of Nymphomaniac.  But, now I have to say it's more like film pity.  Because, unfortunately, Melancholia is exactly as good as everyone says it is.  It could end up in my top 20 if I don't see anything else slotting above it, but right now I have it pegged a little below that.  Some of the imagery is hit-you-over-the-head obvious, but the stuff that's more subtly done is beautiful.  The acting is off-the-charts great from practically everyone, and there are a ton of familiar faces here, so it's fun to see so many of them blow you away, even phone-it-in choads like Keifer Sutherland.  Mostly, though, I just find myself wondering if von Trier is a fucking moron, or if he's just so goddamned bipolar that he can't help himself; willingly pissing on something this powerful and effective just because it's a "polished" movie is a special kind of solipsism that may be reserved only for film directors.   Oh, and also Brady Corbet.

And goddamnit, then I saw a whole movie with Bra--oh, no, sorry, The Captain stars Max Hubacker, who does look a lot like Brady Corbet.  But, this was based on a real member of the Nazi army in WW2, and it's fairly interesting.  Probably no place for it on my list, but I could see why someone would like it more than I did.  It does a nice job of starting out fairly tightly wound around its central conceit, but as the absurdity of each development grows and grows, the outlandishness of everyone's behavior just death-spirals to match that absurdity.  One of those "laugh at it because otherwise you'd cry" kind of films.

Some big-box movies, some indie stuff

Bohemian Rhapsody (HBO)

Rocketman (Epix/Hulu)

Tangerine (Hulu)

Green Book (Showtime)

The Dark Tower (Showtime)

Fruitvale Station (Tubi)

Sorry to Bother You (Hulu)

Why the Hell did everyone shit all over The Dark Tower so hard?  I mean, it wasn't good - thoroughly mediocre - but I seem to recall one review calling it a "try to jump over a fence and land balls-first type of fiasco".  It...wasn't that?  It was just not as interesting or as well-structured as it should have been.  Obviously not something to pick, but it's not exactly a *bottom* 100 movie, either.  It needed 15 more minutes focused on world-building details and less time spent in NYC.  Anyway, enough of that.

Bohemian Rhapsody was as shitty as lots of people said it was.  Take the Live Aid bit out of it, and it could have been in the running for Razzies.  Rami Malek probably didn't have any business winning Best Actor, since this is maybe his 4th-best role anyway.  Rocketman was significantly less of a disappointment, but I wouldn't call it a particularly compelling film at the end of the day.  And damnit, why have "Benny and the Jets" in the film if Taron Egerton isn't going to do the falsettos? 

Tangerine was done by Sean Baker, who directed The Florida Project.  But I didn't realize he also did Starlet, which was a fairly good little movie from some time ago.  This one is a lot like Florida, except considerably more raw and less restrained - at times almost farcical, but that comes at the cost, I think, of it being relatable and emotionally impactful like his later film is.  Plus, I found it more than a little difficult to relate to (in one case quite violent) transgender prostitutes.  This does have James Ransone hamming it up as the sleaziest pimp you've ever seen, because of course James Ransone is going to play the sleaziest pimp you've ever seen.

Green Book was a lot better than I thought it would be.  Kind of shocked a Farrelly brother directed this, when it comes right down to it.  But Ali and Mortensen were both really on top of their game, and it's hard to go that wrong when you have these guys carrying so much of the load.  This falls into a bit of a stew with some other Best Picture winners - The Shape of Water and Spotlight, namely - where I could see myself including them, but I think all three lack something that make me feel like I *must* put them on my list. 

Fruitvale Station made me see exactly what J.T. was talking about.  Easy top 50 pick.  Michael B. Jordan was probably my favorite Michael Jordan before this; it's a lock now.

Sorry to Bother You is just so far out-there and unconventional that I'll have to find a place for it.  One of the great lines from Tangerine was "Los Angeles is a beautifully wrapped lie" - this movie is a similar kind of lie, so zany and ridiculous that it circles the globe and comes back to a lot of uncomfortable truths in the process, almost feeling like a sort of response to Get Out, though I imagine this was already in the works before Get Out debuted.  Part of me wonders if Boots Riley has another movie like it in him; another part of me hopes he never makes another film just so this is left untouched. 

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56 minutes ago, EVA said:

*In some ways, this reminds me of Lynne Ramsay’s YOU WERE NEVER REALLY HERE (another great film that everybody should watch for this project!), a film in which a non-stop stream of horrific violence takes place, but none of it happens on camera.  We only ever see the aftermath.  And somehow that makes it all so much worse.

Eh, not quite.  There's the bit of following in the house as he goes from room to room, but the few moments we see there are "distant" since they're security footage.  Plus, there's the bit in the hotel room, but again, we do get that degree of separation as everything happens through the ceiling mirror instead of in first-person.  Otherwise, yeah, your point holds.  I still don't know what I think of that movie, though.  I watched it somewhere amongst these big lists of crap I've posted, and it sort of slipped through the cracks with regards to talking about it.

Edited by Contentious C
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I have very similar feelings about Lars von Trier, but I also loved MELANCHOLIA and will have it high on my list.

Last night, I watched THE FAREWELL (Wang, 2019).  This was a delightful little movie, but I’m not sure if it will make my list.  Awkwafina won some awards for her performance, and...she’s fine in it?  Its very much a “comedian tries to be serious” type of role, but she’s better at it than, say, somebody like Jason Segel.  The real breakout star of the film is Zhao Shu-zhen as the grandmother.  I would defy anyone to try and not fall in love with Nai Nai.

The script by Wang is feather-light, which is both a strength and a weakness.  Her direction isn’t showy, but it’s really sturdy.  There are SO MANY scenes of large groups of people eating around a table, and, as that infamous scene from BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY exemplifies, those scenes are a lot trickier to shoot and edit than most people think.  She nails them all.

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The Farewell has been sitting in my queue for what seems like forever.

I guess the big reason for delaying on pulling the trigger is the fear of it being too depressing and I really am not in the mood for that right now

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3 hours ago, RIPPA said:

The Farewell has been sitting in my queue for what seems like forever.

I guess the big reason for delaying on pulling the trigger is the fear of it being too depressing and I really am not in the mood for that right now

It’s waaaaaay less depressing than you’re probably imagining. I know I went in thinking it was going to be a big downer, and it really isn’t.

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The Farewell would be in the vast sea of pretty-damn-good-but-not-transcendent stuff that is just off my list.  But yeah, not that depressing; the conceit of the film really just serves as a way of seeing how everyone in the film draws down to one side of the issue or another.

Anyway, more stuff...

Also, fun fact: if you have a Roku TV or something similar, you can sign up for a free STARZ trial through Amazon and then still get a second free trial directly from the app on the device!  Might work if some of the other streaming services have their own app, too; worth trying.

STARZ Garbage

Magic in the Moonlight

After the Wedding

Who We Are Now

I Think We're Alone Now

Aside from the Woody Allen movie, which is preposterously cast and even more preposterously written and I'll say no more on what a turd it was, all of those *looked* interesting on the surface.  But After the Wedding is a remake of a Danish film, and I'm betting the original is better.  Michelle Williams is pretty great in it, but that's like saying, "Pope wears dress and funny hat to work."  The rest is good but inessential.  Who We Are Now has Julianne Nicholson (the widow from The Outsider) and Emma Roberts doing the best work I've seen out of either of them, but it's one of those movies where the bomb has already gone off, so to speak, and we have to watch them put their lives together in a bleakly-shot, score-free, wobbly camera zone like about five thousand other films have done in the last 15 years.  This isn't bad, but it adds literally nothing new, and the ending is fairly telegraphed.

I Think We're Alone Now starts off like a kind of neat post-apocalyptic movie with Peter Dinklage in the main role, but as much as it tries to throw thinky kinds of curveballs at you, it's ultimately just dragged under by the weight of its own seriousness.  It's well done, but there's a sad-sack dreariness to it that doesn't really work after the story begins developing.  It tries to say something about how we actually live now with its conclusion, but falls flat in that regard.

STARZ Keepers

The Rider

Seeking a Friend for the End of the World

Imagine if John Cassavetes directed a faux-documentary (note: not a mockumentary) that threaded the needle between The Wrestler and My Own Private Idaho.  That's The Rider.  The cast members are all non-actors giving fictionalized performances of their real lives, which you wouldn't guess at all if you didn't already know or hadn't seen the casting list.  The locations and cinematography are wonderful, as they're enormous and expansive but also serve to zero in even further on the isolation of the characters and the difficulty of their choices (thus the comparison I'm drawing to Private Idaho, which did a lot of the same thing).  Million billion stars, as the man says.

Seeking a Friend for the End of the World is one of my favorite films from the last 10 or 15 years, and easily one of the most underappreciated - or maybe I just have Keira Knightley goggles, since I could say the exact same thing about Never Let Me Go, which will end up in my top 10.  But there's just nothing about this film that doesn't work.  The first 20 minutes are ridiculously funny, but somewhere along the way it grows tendrils into your heart and just starts tugging for all it's worth so that the ending is both tragic and also perfectly sweet.  It's not the best end-of-the-world movie from a decade obsessed with them, but it's easily the most rewatchable and relatable.  

War movie one-upsmanship

Dunkirk

1917 (no idea if/where they're streaming free; I own both)

Amazon had the blu-ray for Dunkirk on sale a while ago, so I just broke down and bought it.  Jesus, this is a beautiful movie.  I'm not sure Nolan has a *prettier* film in his catalog than this.  The way the stories intertwine is a little disconcerting the first time the perspective shifts and you realize you're kind of being fucked with, but once it pays off, it pays off nicely.  I'd have to agree with the consensus that this is his most empathic film.  But, having said that, it's still only his second-best film of the decade, as well as the second-best war film of the decade.  Nevertheless, that's still good company and an easy inclusion.

I know 1917 got its share of love from everyone when it came out, but goddamn am I glad this was the last film I saw in the theaters before the shit hit the fan.  I knew it'd be a high finisher when this project got mentioned; I'll probably rewatch it soon and see if it goes into my top 10 after all.  As I've gotten older and more accustomed to watching stuff streaming (aka, piecemeal, because I can screw off and pause and do other stuff), this is the rare film that not only forbids that but rewards you for your diligence.  I mean, really, I fucking dare you to take your eyes off this movie.

Quit making funny voices, Christian Bale

Vice (Hulu)

I really want to like Adam McKay's work more, and a part of me wouldn't mind including The Big Short on my list, but there's just something about the 4th-wall-breaking and the tone of his stuff that I find unsatisfying.  This was interesting because the oiliness and discomfort of all the goings-on are more up-front and in your face than they were in The Big Short, or, at the very least, they're distilled down to following the Cheneys, and so your stomach for tolerating awful crap just gets full faster.  I don't know.  I can see people voting for it, but I certainly won't be.  If film is supposed to elicit an emotional reaction, this was not really the kind of reaction I had in mind.

What the fuck!?!?

Madeline's Madeline (Kanopy)

Before even considering watching this, know it's not a film for everyone.  Some would probably find it to be too experimental and possibly even a little too full of itself given the way it's presented, but sticking through, say, the first 30 minutes with an open mind begins to see a lot of threads draw together in a way that's highly disconcerting and just as compelling.  This is another one that threads a careful needle, taking the barebones plot points of something like "The Rocking Horse Winner" and couching it in the theater troupe absurdism that will be familiar to anyone who's seen Barry, along with some heavy escapism and perspective work that reminded me a lot of The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, and it comes out the other side to tell a story about manipulation, exploitation, co-dependency, families, mental illness, power dynamics, and abuse.  I mean, there's a *LOT* going on here, and nearly every minute of it is there to make you horribly uncomfortable with the behavior of the three main characters towards one another.  Fully expect to pause this a handful of times, because, whew, it's hard to sit through.  But, it's gutsy and ridiculously well-acted, and it perpetually blurs the lines between fantasy and reality, and the only comfort the viewer can take is in knowing that, yes, you are just watching a movie.  I'm fully prepared to be the only person who votes for this.

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Due to Universal's deal with HBO - the only "free" option for 1917 will be via HBO GO (I don't have it so I am not sure if it is even available there yet)

Otherwise it is a $6 rental via Amazon Prime (and I would assume your local cable provider)

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It's not there yet.  But, Joker came out 2+ months sooner and only just reached HBO.  Take from that what you will.  Pretty easy answer for "Last legitimately great film of the 2010s" though (1917 being the answer, not Joker, for those who might not have read my other posts closely, or at all).  I guess I should see what would qualify as the *first* one...

Looks like the first movie to really hold up was Winter's Bone (6/11/10). At least among US releases. 

Edited by Contentious C
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1 hour ago, Contentious C said:

It's not there yet.  But, Joker came out 2+ months sooner and only just reached HBO.  Take from that what you will.  Pretty easy answer for "Last legitimately great film of the 2010s" though.  I guess I should see what would qualify as the *first* one...

You misspelled “once upon a time in hollywood.” ? 

Edited by odessasteps
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1917 will make my list somewhere, just because the craft of the filmmaking is A+ all the way through (the night scene with the fire and all the flares and shadows...wow), but I didn’t love it.  I actually fell like the oner gimmick actually kind of undermined the reality of the story.  Felt like the theme park version of WW1, especially gags like the rat in the bunker and the plane crash.  The oner gimmick definitely lent a sense of propulsion to the events of the film, and indeed I did not look away, but it didn’t at all feel visceral to me, which one would assume was the intent.  Probably didn’t help that the story was kind of thin and the military logistics of what was going on didn’t make a lot of sense.

Sam Mendes had an interesting decade, especially as it relates to Christopher Nolan.  His first Bond film, SKYFALL (will be on my list, toward the bottom), was almost a beat-for-beat riff on Nolan’s DARK KNIGHT.  Then Nolan makes his WW2 movie (DUNKIRK will be very high on my list), and Mendes answers with his WW1 flick.  I’ve never watched a minute of SPECTER, so I have no idea how it echoes THE DARK KNIGHT RISES, though some (many?) would argue that both of them made the same mistake of trying to make follow-ups to their genre masterpieces when they probably should’ve left well-enough alone.

Edited by EVA
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I watched a few movies that qualify!

I LOST MY BODY (2019) is a French animated film about a disembodied hand trying to find it's own. It lost its body, if you will. The film alternates between telling the story of Naoufel, a Moroccan kid in Paris who falls in love with Gabrielle. His story is all about courting Gabrielle and, presumably, losing his hand. Anyway, the love story is charming and the hand story is weird, so check this out if you like charming weirdness. Might make the back half of my list.

DEADPOOL 2 (2018) was fine, right? I think it was fine. It had a lot going for it and yet it was kinda like some thoroughly satisfying fast food you forget eating the next day. Zazie Beats is gorgeous.  Two or three superhero movies will make my list--probably not this one.

LONG DAY'S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT (2018) has been described as a combination of Wong Kar-Wei and Andrei Tarkovsky, and really that's the best description I can offer. Visually more IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE, while the storytelling is very Tarkovsky-esque. The last shot of the film goes on, uninterrupted, for an hour, and includes shit like a ping-pong game and some pool. It didn't totally hang together for me--in the way that Tarkovsky doesn't always hang together for me--and I was never emotionally invested, but I was also never bored and, holy shit, if you're going to be flashy with your film making, you might as well go all out.

Edited by Control
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A smaller batch of stuff, some of it rewatches but mostly things that could/will end up on my list.

Amazing Grace (Hulu) was more interesting than good.  Heck of a set of performances and something of a technical marvel that they managed to cobble it back together, but the article I read when it was released made it sound better than I felt it actually was.  Not to the level of the documentaries I have included on my list.  I'm not sure they actually credited a director for it at all, as Sydney Pollack is in the Thanks rather than a proper credit; could be the only movie in the whole set to have that distinction.

The rest of these are HBO.

Dragged Across Concrete made me wish the movie had been 2:43 of seeing someone being dragged across concrete, rather than what it was. Mostly ridiculous and full of itself.  Though "bad, like lasagna in a can" was something of a keeper.

Nocturnal Animals was Tom Ford's second feature film, and I gotta say, I do like the way his movies look.  I'm not sure the story quite lives up to the stars in it or the way it looks, though.  Having said that, the ending is pretty devastating.  This won't make my list, but it's an interesting take on a lot of different genres.

BlacKkKlansman would have been more memorable if John David Washington were half the actor his father is.  And it didn't need the Charlottesville chunk at the end to get its message across.  The rest of it was like the very, very best parts of Mad Men, where it splits its audience into 3: the people who marvel at how the world used to be, the people who wish the world were still that way, and the ones with brains who realize nothing's actually changed.  This is on my list, but not super-high. 

Winter's Bone is a million percent bare-ass obvious Hero's Journey to the core, but damn if it isn't one of the most awful sets of circumstances to watch a person get dragged through.  It's one of those films where I feel like I could leave it off my list entirely, or I could end up throwing it in the top 50 and not feel bad about either decision.  It's got its flaws, but it's really got some great great great moments, too.

But Prisoners was probably the big winner out of this cohort; I could recall not being super enthusiastic about it when I watched it maybe 5 or 6 years ago - it does drag just a bit in the middle when the case takes a turn - but I don't think I've had an opinion of a movie improve this much since The Big Lebowski finally clicked for me on about the 3rd viewing.  Jesus this movie is so tightly wound and so well-executed.  Quite possibly Hugh Jackman's best performance, this or Logan, and it's kind of crazy to think Gyllenhaal was in the middle of a run of End of Watch, this, Enemy, and then Nightcrawler.  Holy fuckballs.  He's had some real shit this decade - I mean, he did Prince of fucking Persia - but still.  The hammer scene about an hour in sees Terrence Howard in the background, not saying a word but managing to completely fucking steal it just with the devastated look on his face.  The insane, blurry, strobing rush to the hospital towards the end is just so well-done.  But still, probably only Denis Villeneuve's third-best movie behind Arrival and Blade Runner 2049.  I should really rewatch Incendies, too...

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On 5/11/2020 at 7:52 PM, RIPPA said:

Because of all the hype I was like "Well clearly after I watch Wonder Woman that will go on my list."

Then I watched it

Yeah... Wonder Woman is not going on my list

Have you watched Wonder Woman (2009) from the DC Animated Universe? That's a great film. I enjoyed it so much, I said for years that it should be the live action Wonder Woman movie long before Wonder Woman (2017).

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On 5/11/2020 at 9:28 PM, EVA said:

Much like BLACK PANTHER, I think WONDER WOMAN “greatness” lies more in its cultural significance than its artistic merit. Like, I don’t really feel compelled to watch Wonder Woman anymore.  There are a couple of striking sequences that hold up (No Man’s Land, specifically), but the overall plot is kind of...eh.  And, again, similar to Black Panther, the climactic battle is really flat.  But when we’re talking about art, cultural significance matters quite a lot, too!

And, man, when this movie came out in 2017, it was a cultural thunderbolt that forced change in the franchise film business.  Moreover, it was simultaneously a perfect antidote to both the grey, joyless posturing of the DCU *and* the candy-colored, soulless, self-obsessed MCU product.  It was a big-budget comic movie that dared to be both fun *and* about something other than itself.  It took big swings.  It didn’t hit them all, but at least it took them.  It was refreshing.

I think Black Panther's (2018) overrated, ditto Wonder Woman (2017) and the Guardians of the Galaxy 2014, 2017) movies.

On 5/11/2020 at 9:51 PM, Contentious C said:

I'd rather include - in fact, almost certainly will include - the first time they made Wonder Woman, when it was Captain America: The First Avenger.

I almost feel bad I've managed to find space for at least 8 superhero/comic book movies on my list so far.  Once you really pump the brakes and re-examine them, "grading on a curve" really is the best way to explain the phenomenon.  Star Wars Writ Large.  Well, larger.

I liked Captain America: The First Avenger (2011) when I first watched it. I've appreciated it more as time's gone on. It's underrated. Chris Evans is great in the title role, the period setting and the supporting cast in Hayley Atwell, Sebastian Stan and Tommy Lee Jones. My favourite piece of MCU dialogue comes from this movie: "I don't want to kill anyone, I don't like bullies, I don't care where they're from."

Also, never feel bad for what you like. I'll be representing my favourite film genre despite RIPPA's disapproving glare ;).

On 5/11/2020 at 10:23 PM, EVA said:

They definitely cribbed the form of THE FIRST AVENGER, no doubt.  But I would also argue that they improved upon it.  The first Cap film is stellar right up until the point that he really becomes Captain America, the war hero...then it montages through everything you want to see before abruptly skipping to the end.  As a result, Wonder Woman’s multi-ethnic crew of cohorts are much better developed than Cap’s (which is to say “developed at all”), and Diana/Steve is a far more emotionally resonant relationship than Steve/Bucky in that first film, which is weird, when you consider how important Bucky becomes to the MCU in later films.   (It probably helps that Steve Trevor is basically Bucky and Peggy, the sidekick and the love interest, in one character, which makes the script tighter.  TFA had to make choices between the two, and largely chose Peggy.). 

I’m not even sure the plot of TFA really earns Cap’s sacrifice at the end.  He goes in the ice because that’s where he has to go for everything else to happen.  Conversely,  Steve’s sacrifice in WW feels like the only choice to make in that situation, and his reasons are sound (they even do the gimmick where Diana’s ears are ringing, so she can’t understand his plan and, therefore, can’t stop him).

Yeah it was a little rushed from the montage on but not enough to detract for me from what came before.

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Every time I do this, there's a movie or three I forgot I watched; let's try to catch them all up.

Please Give (Criterion Channel) was Nicole Holofcener's film from 2010 about white privilege; I had relatively few strong opinions about this, which is not much of a good sign.  It is probably the best thing I've ever seen out of either Amanda Peet or Oliver Platt, though that also doesn't really say anything.  It basically felt like a Woody Allen movie without the guilt of supporting a creeper.  Pass.

La La Land (HBO) is not a sucky movie; it's actually pretty charming.  But I do love Emma Stone, and this is easily her best role, so, YMMV.  If anything, I found it to be a less egregious case than, say, Argo or The Artist of blowing smoke up the asses of Hollywood-at-Large, since the central characters are pretty clearly paying a price for their dreams, and more than a few scenes take a swipe at the nature of show business.  The ending is pretty devastating, too, but it's also more or less a stream-of-consciousness playback of the end of Casablanca, and you can make a convincing case that "stream-of-consciousness take on a famous scene from _______" defines a lot of scenes in the film.  Won't be on my list, I don't think, but a fine enough second feature for Damien Chazelle.  Interested to see what he does next.

Side Effects (HBO), at least for the first hour-ish, might be Jude Law's best role since The Talented Mr. Ripley.  Then again, Jude Law has also done a lot of garbage in the last 20 years.  But once it has to start tying up loose ends, the movie just kind of stops working altogether.  The plot gets more than a bit convoluted, and the payoff is thin gruel.  Given the cast and the director, it's pretty damn mediocre.  Waste of time.

The Fighter (HBO) was a rewatch - saw it in the theaters when it came out - and was slotted at #50 when I started thinking about this list.  I wouldn't put it that high now, but that's really because I've just seen so much other stuff that's better.  This is still really great, even if it is only David O. Russell's second-best movie.  Being more familiar with his work helped the ridiculous moments land a lot better, and I found myself laughing at it as much as anything else.  And if the Oscars did Championship Belts for their respective acting categories, I'm not sure that anyone would have knocked off Christian Bale & Melissa Leo in the subsequent 10 years.  A 60s/70s pick, somewhere in there.

The rest of these are Blu-rays I own...

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes was better than I expected it to be, but shit is it a depressing movie.  I mean, the premise of the film telegraphs the ending, but by the time you get there, you just see how bleak and awful and avoidable so much of it was.  There's some touching stuff here, but mostly you kinda wish they'd done more to CGI some more complex emotions for Caesar et al, as they're good at rage and shock, but not so much with getting subtler touches across as consistently.  Wouldn't come close to making my list.

12 Years a Slave was something I bought 5+ years ago because hey why not, and then I didn't watch it until last night.  It's a pretty inconsistent film.  The first hour-plus is pretty standard-fare Oscar-bait kind of stuff, aside from the hanging scene, but then those last 30-40 minutes kick in and, holy fucking shit does this become something else.  This will end up on my list just for that, but also fairly low, somewhere in the 60s.  I'm also quite certain that, despite its subject matter, this isn't nearly as powerful or as challenging as Shame was.

Beginners I think is available on one of the streaming services - STARZ, IIRC - but this is probably going to be Top 10 for me.  I saw it on HBO or something many many moons ago and was just totally blown away by how well-done it was, and it still feels as moving and real and beautiful as it did the first time I saw it.  This is Ewan McGregor's best non-Danny Boyle role, Mélanie Laurent is the most charming woman in the history of women and charm, and Christopher Plummer still makes them look like they're doing Shakespeare in the Park by comparison.  The script is wonderful; the direction is perfect.  And I didn't realize Mike Mills also wrote & directed 20th Century Women, which is definitely going to be my next watch now.  It might be too cute by half for some people, but every time I glance over at the DVD case sitting on my shelf, I smile a little bit, so that should tell you something.

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Nope, managed to forget at least one thing while watching a bunch of new stuff, so...

The Fits (Kanopy)

I don't know; I suppose I didn't really get this.  It's an interesting piece of work to be sure, done primarily with setting and looks and atmosphere and very very little dialogue, but a film about social acceptance was never going to be my cup of tea.  Not sure why it was so bloody high on that Vulture list; a lot of the stuff on there was pretty choice, but this was merely pretty good.  But it is very short (under 75 minutes), so it's not like it's a waste of time at all.

The Adjustment Bureau (HBO)

Wow, this was a tepid pile of junk.  It's kind of too bad, though, that Matt Damon & Emily Blunt haven't had something else to do together, because they did have chemistry in spades.  The rest of this came nowhere close to living up to the premise.

Anna Karenina

Blue Ruin

Frances Ha

20th Century Women

The Danish Girl (all Netflix)

Now here are some good movies.  I think I more or less have them ranked from worst to first.  Karenina is...well...something, but Keira Knightley and Aaron Taylor-Johnson have chemistry like baking soda and more baking soda.  In fact, if Aaron Taylor-Johnson isn't portraying a character who's a total dick, I'd rather he didn't exist at all.  Alicia Vikander was easily the best part of this; will be circling back to that.

Blue Ruin makes for a really compelling companion piece to You Were Never Really Here, which treads a lot of the same ground.  Somewhere between the two exists the perfect revenge film about self-abnegation, but no one's made it yet.  This wouldn't make my list, but it's definitely something worth seeing.

I think I'd like Frances Ha - and really, Lady Bird, too - if they were *less* autobiographical.  Watching them in reverse order also makes Frances seem a bit more tragic, even if the ending is fairly upbeat.  Gerwig's stuff is hilarious and interesting, and I love her as an actor, but I wonder what else she's got in the bag that isn't so specifically personal or an adaptation (haven't seen Little Women; don't know when/if I will).  And there's a line early in the film about how works can be "authentic" that seems like a wry in-joke, but, at the end of the day, the joke is kind of on the movie itself, since it leaves you with a lot less to think about than Lady Bird ultimately does.

20th Century Women - hey, more Greta! - is a bit like  Frances Ha/Lady Bird, too, in the sense that Mike Mills goes back to the well pretty heavily.  If you saw Beginners, you've kind of seen a lot of the stuff going on in 20th Century; the pacing and script and setup will feel remarkably similar, maybe too much so.  The biggest difference with 20th is that it's a broader set of stories that are being worked with, and there's a great push & pull going on throughout the film as Gerwig's (wonderfully acted) character and Elle Fanning's (even more wonderfully acted) character both alter the trajectory of the teenager at the center of it all.  

The Danish Girl wasn't something I expected to enjoy, but, hey, Alicia Vikander, so I gave it a shot.  Damn.  I can't stand Eddie Redmayne; let's just say that upfront.  He creeps me out something fierce; the Bojack Horseman joke about him playing Sextina Aquafina's fetus is the most deplorably perfect joke in comedy history.  But...that creep can act, man.  And as good as he is, Vikander is just soooooo much better in this.  The biggest fault I saw with all of it was that their lives seem too put-together prior to things changing; it made me wonder why things changed at all, if they had actually been that happy and (seemingly) well-suited.  There probably needed to be a little more introspection from the very beginning to make it clear that Einar was ultimately unhappy.  However, I have to completely take back what I said about Melissa Leo in the previous post; Vikander definitely has the Best Supporting Actress Championship Belt right now.  This probably won't make my list, but...it's close.

 

Blue Jasmine

First Reformed (Amazon Prime)

I love Cate Blanchett.  I increasingly despise Woody Allen.  Turns out, when the two meet, the latter eventually wins, like wood rot.  I appreciated why she won Best Actress for this, but...eh.  Enough already.

First Reformed felt like a movie that didn't have the courage of its convictions.  I haven't seen The Last Temptation of Christ, so I can't really comment on the similarities regarding the endings, but...there was probably a more challenging, ballsy ending to be had that would have left people even more baffled by its meaning, and they just didn't follow through on it.  Having said that, though, this movie has two really big things going for it: it's the only time I've ever, in the entirety of my life, 1) been able to stand Cedric the Entertainer or 2) thought Ethan Hawke was the best choice for a film.  They're both just great in this.  Won't make my list, but if quiet and thought-provoking is what you're going for, this has a lot of that.

 

Interstellar

The Grand Budapest Hotel (own both of these)

I hadn't watched either of these in 5+ years, since seeing them on HBO or in theaters.  I was reminded why I love them both.  Interstellar definitely has some hokey bullshit going on with the plot - does Murphy really need to burn her brother's fucking crop just to stand in a room and ponder things? - but it's got some of Nolan's prettiest work, too.  It's like he watched The Tree of Life and said, "Hey!  I can do that!" and so he did.  This might sneak into the 91-100 range just because of that, and because McConaughey and Hathaway act the Hell out of a not-so-great script.

Grand Budapest is probably the epitome of Wes Anderson's work.  If you can't love this, you may just not appreciate what he has to offer.  And I'll admit, I used to be one of those people.  I think Bottle Rocket was a turd, and it took about 4 watches before Rushmore clicked for me, and even then that's mostly because I think Olivia Williams secretly carries the movie.  But, by the time he did Fantastic Mr. Fox, I was hooked, and this has all the same charm and wonder and zaniness in a live-action nesting doll of a film.  Easy top 50, but probably outside the top 30, though, as no one person in the film, aside from Ralph Fiennes, really turns in that super-memorable performance you might hope for. 

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I think it could very well be that I have barely seen 100 movies from the last decade. I felt like I only went to the movies on rare occasions, likely either a Marvel movie or a film by QT or Wes Anderson or some import.

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I can remember actors and movie titles for the most part (though I have finally hit the age where it is really tough for me to know the really really young actors who are 20 and in things like Outer Banks)

My issue is I can't remember the thing I wanted to tell my wife 30 seconds ago (which legit just happened while writing this post)

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Has anyone else watched something for the first time and immediately wanted to put it at the top of your list, but you weren’t sure if it was only because of the immediacy of having just watched it? 

I’m struggling with that for Tree of Life and Parasite, because I watched both this week and they are near perfect to me. 

Edited by (BP)
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