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| marantzo |
 Posted: Tue Jan 12, 2010 3:44 pm |
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whiskeypriest wrote: Marc wrote: whiskey,
some of my Facebook friends (the younger ones) intensely dislike 500 Days Of Summer. I wonder if it might be a film about 20 somethings that actually speaks to 40 somethings and older. Really? I may be out of touch with the 20 somethings. It struck me as more likely to be admired by that group than my age group. What did they not like about it?
No video games, or texting. |
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| whiskeypriest |
| Posted: Tue Jan 12, 2010 3:48 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 6916
Location: "It's a Dry Heat."
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marantzo wrote: whiskeypriest wrote: Marc wrote: whiskey,
some of my Facebook friends (the younger ones) intensely dislike 500 Days Of Summer. I wonder if it might be a film about 20 somethings that actually speaks to 40 somethings and older. Really? I may be out of touch with the 20 somethings. It struck me as more likely to be admired by that group than my age group. What did they not like about it?
No video games, or texting. |
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I ask you, Velvel, as a rational man, which of us is possessed? |
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| Marc |
| Posted: Tue Jan 12, 2010 4:05 pm |
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Joined: 19 May 2004
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Quote:
What do they dislike about it? Maybe...just maybe...it hits too close to home.
Too cute. Trying too hard to be hip. Out of touch. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Tue Jan 12, 2010 4:43 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: New York City
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Marc wrote: Quote:
What do they dislike about it? Maybe...just maybe...it hits too close to home.
Too cute. Trying too hard to be hip. Out of touch.
To the naysayers I say, "Lighten up." |
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| Marc |
| Posted: Tue Jan 12, 2010 4:56 pm |
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Joined: 19 May 2004
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| me too. And I did. This is the same bunch of mouthbreathers who adore Juno. |
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| Marc |
| Posted: Tue Jan 12, 2010 5:49 pm |
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Joined: 19 May 2004
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| I've been watching the extended cut of The New World and am convinced more than ever that it is one of the great films of the past 20 years.Terence Malick has created something so cinematic and pure that it takes my breath away. |
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| Melody |
| Posted: Wed Jan 13, 2010 7:43 pm |
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Posts: 2242
Location: TX
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| On (500) Days of Summer, my 20-year-old daughter said Summer was acting like "the asshole boyfriend" in the relationship and she didn't care to watch it and was glad when it ended. I thought it was okay, not great, loved the acting, and could definitely tell it was written by a guy who'd just been through the worst breakup of his life. |
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My heart told my head: This time, no. |
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| Melody |
| Posted: Wed Jan 13, 2010 8:13 pm |
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The Soloist surprised the heck out of me. It's a smart, fast-paced, fascinating, downright original look at the mind of a mentally ill musician.
I don't want to say Jamie Foxx is a bad actor (do I?), but I was much more impressed with the way director Joe Wright used minimalist special effects, carefully choreographed flashbacks and overlapping sound to allow us access to the world of a crazy-ass homeless guy with a dubious grasp on reality and a whole lotta talent.
Foxx gets top billing, but it's Robert Downey Jr. who is the true soloist of the movie, navigating middle age, a career whose future is tentative at best, an ex-wife/boss who doesn't quite understand him, a wee bit of depression, not to mention a raccoon invasion (still not sure what that means, although it's clearly meant to symbolize SOMEthing).
Kudos to Wright and writer Susannah Grant who are clear-eyed enough to get the story of two lost guys so right on, without becoming mired in the movie-of-the-week maudlin mess this movie could so easily have become (and the reason I avoided seeing it for so long). Recommended. |
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My heart told my head: This time, no. |
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| chillywilly |
| Posted: Thu Jan 14, 2010 8:46 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: Salt Lake City
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| Spot on about The Soloist, Melody. One of my 2009 favorites. |
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Chilly
"If you should die before me / Ask if you could bring a friend" |
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| Ghulam |
| Posted: Fri Jan 15, 2010 2:44 am |
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Location: Upstate NY
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| Lynn Shelton's Humpday is about two straight guys planning to have sex with each other on camera. It got some raves when it was released and got good notices at Sundance. The main feature of the movie is dialogue, some of which is pretty good. It has a home movie feel. Mildly interesting. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Fri Jan 15, 2010 6:18 am |
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Humpday fits into that indie subgenre "mumblecore," which prides itself on what Ghulam calls a "home movie feel." Other examples are The Puffy Chair and Baghead and Funny Ha Ha. I like them all to varying degrees. The actors have a scruffy charm and the stories are deliberately uncataclysmic. They are directed with style, too. Whether you wind up with a strongly affirmative "I like it" (me) or a damning-with-faint-praise "mildly interesting" (Ghulam) depends on how you respond to that style.
Here's the Wikipedia entry on Mumblecore:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mumblecore |
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| whiskeypriest |
| Posted: Fri Jan 15, 2010 7:15 am |
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Location: "It's a Dry Heat."
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Melody wrote: On (500) Days of Summer, my 20-year-old daughter said Summer was acting like "the asshole boyfriend" in the relationship .... |
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I ask you, Velvel, as a rational man, which of us is possessed? |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Fri Jan 15, 2010 7:22 am |
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whiskeypriest wrote: Melody wrote: On (500) Days of Summer, my 20-year-old daughter said Summer was acting like "the asshole boyfriend" in the relationship .... I thought that was part of its charm.
Agree completely. But another thing that made it so interesting was that the character of Summer was so multi-layered. She was alternately "the asshole boyfriend" and "the level-headed realist" and "the only sensible member of the relationship," even as the thrust of the story placed us overwhelmingly on the side of the guy. |
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| Ghulam |
| Posted: Fri Jan 15, 2010 1:41 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: Upstate NY
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| Billy, thanks for the information on mumblescore. Ultimately however it boils down to whether a movie has an authentic feel. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Fri Jan 15, 2010 4:01 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: New York City
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Ghulam wrote: Billy, thanks for the information on mumblescore. Ultimately however it boils down to whether a movie has an authentic feel.
You're absolutely right, and mumblecore (no s) does sometimes lapse into self-conscious shtick. |
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