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2022 Movies Discussion Thread (v.2.0)


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15 hours ago, Contentious C said:

I Heart Huckabees - I have put off watching this for the longest time because I've heard so much about it in both directions that I had no idea who to trust.  Of course, had I looked into it more and realized David O. Russell co-wrote & directed, I wouldn't have been so worried.  This feels like the rare instance where watching a director's later films first helps to inform the earlier ones; I think the absurdity and dark humor of American Hustle or Silver Linings Playbook makes this all the more understandable, since this is in a similar vein, although considerably more abstracted and maybe a little too talky a lot of the time.  But this may be my favorite Mark Wahlberg performance of all time, and I wish we got to see that guy more.  Naomi Watts is pretty great in it, too, but when is she not?  I have never liked Jason Schwartzmann and I still don't, and the only role of his where I consider him good casting is Rushmore, because he's supposed to be a huge creep, but this is the closest to Rushmore quality compared to everything else he's done.  It's far from Russell's best work, but it makes the path he's walked a lot more obvious to have seen this.

Nothing better than that this time! I need to quit watching bullshit!

I get the Schwartzmann sentiment, but not unlike Owen Wilson (mostly) he's exceptional in everyone of his Anderson roles - I point you to the underrated Darjeeling Limited.  

I agree with the bolded comment there for newcomers, but you could also ready yourself with the early works like 'Spanking the Monkey' and the excellent 'Flirting with Disaster'.  Three Kings too.  Tho, the post Huckabees run is where I really fall in love.  Fighter, Silver Linings, Hustle, and (I get the underwhelmed reaction, the story is a bit by the numbers, but I loved) Joy.
 

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Paranoid Park - This has got to be Gus Van Sant's worst movie.  I almost couldn't believe it was him, except a lesser-known director probably wouldn't have been trusted to make something so confusing.  There are some decent uses of sound editing to drive home some of what's going on in the film, where the music choices just drown out or actively overwhelm, and you get the sense of what he's going for pretty well with those moments, but it might be the only thing that consistently works here.  And that one good thing feels all the more out of place because it just reminds you how much is missing otherwise: the actors aren't compelling, the script is basically non-existent, a lot of the dialogue that is relatively important is recorded at such a low volume you can miss it, and it plays around too much with your sense of time to give you enough of a reference point.  After a while, it dawns on you that some of the flashbacks and whatnot that happen only happen as they do because to tell the story in chronological order would be worse, and that's not a good enough reason to jumble up everything.  There's about 25% of a potentially very interesting movie here, dealing with some of the same things he's visited before, but I wonder what happened to the rest.

Interesting reading a take on this small, sorta forgotten Van Sant film.  That said, I disagree.  Especially with the idea of this being his worst - ha, I'm guessing you haven't seen Even Cowgirls Get the Blues?  I think if you take a look at the other films (Elephant, Last Days, Gerry) he made around this time it might make a little more sense.  He was pretty fixated on the European style of ppl like the late great Chantal Akerman and maybe even moreso the Dardenne Brothers.  The volume level isn't a mistake, this is very much cinema verite-fly on the wall style stuff trying to capture a certain feeling more than transparency (tho, I get how it's an annoyance).  This is a character study - the action and plot points are not the priority.  As is, I think it pretty well captures some of the general unease and shame of being a teen.  Or this teen.  All that said, I completely understand how this wouldn't be most ppl's bag of tricks.

I find Van Sant fascinating.  His earliest films are far and a way my favorites - Mala Noche, Drugstore Cowboy and especially My Own Private Idaho.  He followed that with the bigger budget Cowgirls which was a complete failure.  Then he started turning out commercial fair -  Good Will Hunting, Finding Forrester, the underrated (but sure, unnecessary) Psycho remake and the fantastic To Die For.  And then seemingly out of nowhere he starts churning out these Euro style (aimed clearly at the Art House) films; which were met with a lot of division (maybe some yawns) - Elephant won the Palm D'or, but Last Days, Gerry and the discussed Paranoid Park barely seemed to register.  I dig that period - Elephant and Gerry especially.  Following that he made the commercially and critically successful Milk (loved it).  I haven't seen Restless or The Sea of Trees, but his most recent Don't Worry He Wont Get Far on Foot was solid.  As was the quiet (and maybe a little bland) Promised Land.    

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1 hour ago, odessasteps said:

You wonder if Watts would have loved or hated Boz.

Boz played college ball at Oklahoma, so I'm sure Watts had a strong opinion of him one way or the other.  

Is JR on twitter?  Someone ask him!

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16 hours ago, Log said:

Boz played college ball at Oklahoma, so I'm sure Watts had a strong opinion of him one way or the other.  

Is JR on twitter?  Someone ask him!

Oh man, what if we got Bozworth vs Dr. Death.  That would be some real Sophie's Choice shit for JR on commentary.

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12 minutes ago, Technico Support said:

Oh man, what if we got Bozworth vs Dr. Death.  That would be some real Sophie's Choice shit for JR on commentary.

Ross and Watts would still be all in on Dr. Death, the Boz was too flashy and brought dishonor to OU.

That Watt's didn't recruit former Cornhuskers or Longhorns to feud with Dr. Death is promoter malpractice, same with Fritz not finding some old Steeler to feud with his boys. 

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Bruce Willis is stepping away from acting for the foreseeable future as he has been suffering from aphasia, per his daughter.

This might go a ways towards explaining why he's chosen to do only undemanding direct to streaming movie roles for the past few years.

 

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That's fucking sad, man. 

So OK Magazine was right, which is kind of amazing.  They'd reported a little over a year ago, I think, that WIllis was suffering some cognitive issue and there was speculation he was banking "Geezer Teasers" to make money while he still could.  This really makes the Razzie people look shitty.

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19 minutes ago, Technico Support said:

That's fucking sad, man. 

So OK Magazine was right, which is kind of amazing.  They'd reported a little over a year ago, I think, that WIllis was suffering some cognitive issue and there was speculation he was banking "Geezer Teasers" to make money while he still could.  This really makes the Razzie people look shitty.

I googled just to see the stories and apparently OK Magazine had gotten it from someone who worked with Willis on Broadway when Willis was doing Misery - he apparently couldn't remember his lines and ended up wearing an earpiece so he could be feed lines (the play was back in 2015 - the story was from Jan 2021)

 

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Yeah he wears an earpiece in a lot of the recent movies too. I watched an episode of Half In The Bag on youtube where they covered a lot of Willis' geezer teasers and they point it out several times. This was before the rumors about his mental state came into play, and they've done a recent episode where they express regret for mocking Willis at the time. 

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On 3/28/2022 at 5:41 PM, Death From Above said:

I had no idea Brian Bosworth (a contemporary of Bo Jackson who kinda flopped in the NFL) ever made movies but this looks absolutely batshit insane incredible.

 

It also has a cameo by "Megaman" Tom Magee.

 

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5 hours ago, Technico Support said:

That's fucking sad, man. 

So OK Magazine was right, which is kind of amazing.  They'd reported a little over a year ago, I think, that WIllis was suffering some cognitive issue and there was speculation he was banking "Geezer Teasers" to make money while he still could.  This really makes the Razzie people look shitty.

It makes a lot of people who published "Bruce Willis is ruining his legacy" takes the last couple of years look shitty.

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Some people are displeased with the LA Times for their story released today which is currently titled "Concerns about Bruce Willis’ declining cognitive state swirled around sets in recent years"

Various notes from that story:

Willis was getting paid $2M for 2 days of work, an actor was feeding Willis lines through an earpiece, action scenes used body doubles, Willis unexpectedly fired a gun with a blank on the wrong cue. The actor feeding lines was given bit roles in movies and paid $4150 a week. Willis' assistant was making $200K a movie.

I've read the "Bruce was making all these movies to leave his family money" theory on Twitter. The LA Times story would lead one to think there were some people trying to get their share of cash for Bruce Willis movies while they still could, like Bruce was their meal ticket.

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5 hours ago, EVA said:

I understand the desire to protect Bruce’s dignity as much as possible, but the behavior being described in that article is more than just aphasia.

I just read the article and holy shit.  This:

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Filmmakers proceeded to quickly film the actor’s parts, even as Willis questioned where he was: “I know why you’re here, and I know why you’re here, but why am I here?” two crew members said he asked aloud.

Sounds much more like dementia.  Jesus.  And that was a year ago.

In other news, apparently the Razzie people have rescinded "The Bruce Willis Award." 

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