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| marantzo |
 Posted: Wed Dec 29, 2010 12:10 pm |
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"blocking it from the audience to whom it would mean the most."
My son and daughter-in-law would be good candidates for that movie. To my utter surprise neither of them knew anything about Edward VIII and his gold-digging slut of a wife. My son was indignant about my being surprised and was of the opinion that just because I knew about them, why should everyone else know about them. I told him that virtually everyone of my generation and beyond knew about them and they weren't even born when it all took place. He wasn't convinced when I told him that it was a huge story.
History and even recent history seems to be lost on the last 2 or 3 generations. |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Wed Dec 29, 2010 12:35 pm |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Posts: 6958
Location: Black Hills
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Syd -- I would seriously consider living anyplace that has $3.75 matinees for first-run movies. Holy shit.
And warm thoughts about Oklahoma are not uncommon among Nebraskans in late December -- highs usually seem to be 10-20 degrees warmer down there.
Nice synopsis, and I look forward to seeing HBC in a non-eccentric role. |
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| jeremy |
| Posted: Wed Dec 29, 2010 5:20 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 6794
Location: Derby, England and Hamilton, New Zealand (yes they are about 12,000 miles apart)
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| King's Speech is likely to garner a significant number of award nominations and is favourite for the best actor Oscar. It is probably a deliberate ploy to put it out as on limited release in the hope that all the Oscar attention will facilitate a post-awards run at the multiplexes. |
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I am angry, I am ill, and I'm as ugly as sin.
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I know the meaning of life, it doesn't help me a bit.
I know beauty and I know a good thing when I see it. |
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| inlareviewer |
| Posted: Wed Dec 29, 2010 5:38 pm |
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Joined: 05 Jul 2004
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Location: Lawrence, KS
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jeremy wrote: King's Speech is likely to garner a significant number of award nominations and is favourite for the best actor Oscar. It is probably a deliberate ploy to put it out as on limited release in the hope that all the Oscar attention will facilitate a post-awards run at the multiplexes.
Precisely what's up with the release strategy. Mr. Weinstein is banking on a sizeable scoop of the AMPAS slate after the January 14 nomination ballot deadline. It's looking increasingly out here like a safe bet (and not just for Colin, who is a Cemented Given).
Industry word-of-mouth on The King's Speech is favorable and building exponentially to challenge The Social Network's supremacy, and The Fighter is rapidly gaining ground. True Grit, Inception, The Town, The Kids Are All Right, 127 Hours, Toy Story III and Black Swan all have vocal proponents among the Local Gentrified. Will see what next month's end produces.
One interesting development: neither King's Speech nor Toy Story III are eligible for Writer's Guild noms, due to falling outside of specific WGA guidelines. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Wed Dec 29, 2010 7:54 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: New York City
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inla--Have you seen Abby Elliott's screamingly funny take on Mrs. Gummer on SNL? You owe it to yourself to seek out "Meryl Streep on Ice." Oh, hell, I'll do it for ya. Here 'tis.
http://tinyurl.com/28g4yks |
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| inlareviewer |
| Posted: Wed Dec 29, 2010 8:29 pm |
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Joined: 05 Jul 2004
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billyweeds wrote: inla--Have you seen Abby Elliott's screamingly funny take on Mrs. Gummer on SNL? You owe it to yourself to seek out "Meryl Streep on Ice." Oh, hell, I'll do it for ya. Here 'tis.
http://tinyurl.com/28g4yks
Oh.
Mah.
Gah.
Too, too funny, attagirl, Abby, a parody to rank with Catherine O'Hara's SCTV take on Celebrity Farm Film Blow-Up. Thanks ever so much for sharing. Now, of course, am awash with regret that Mrs. Gummer never did a Sonja Henie biopic. |
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"And take extra care with strangers/Even flowers have their dangers/And though scary is exciting/Nice is different than good." --Stephen Sondheim |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Thu Dec 30, 2010 10:19 am |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
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Location: Black Hills
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Saw True Grit -- not much I can add to Lorne's and Billy's "good-but-not-great" appraisals. I'll only say it's a darn sight better than the original, faithful to Portis' fine book, and one of those films where all the actors melt into their characters and refrain from emanating Star Power, leaving me to follow the story and revel in the cinematography. And the sets, both interior and exterior, were stunning, and already have my Blanche vote.
A couple small points....campfires only show flame for a couple minutes, after starting. After that, you get heat from ruddy glowing logs, then coals. Damon's little speech about how they do campfires differently in Texas was incorrect -- that's how they do campfires everywhere. Secondly, horses NEVER GALLOP, and certainly not riding into town, or towards any kind of rendezvous where there is uncertainty. Galloping is exhausting to a horse, and you would never travel any distance at a gallop if you planned to make it. You walk them into towns, especially if they are in a team and under load....and if you are just riding, you walk them because anything faster means either a huge cloud of dust (no pavement) or major mud problems if it's wet. As for what happened to Blackie at the end, that's pure fiction and I guess Portis intended it as an over-the-top dramatic thing, but it was disgusting for this horse-lover. No one who knew ANYTHING about horses would put Blackie at a full gallop, no matter what the emergency, because you would know that you wouldn't make it if you treated the horse like that. Blackie would've been dead (or lying down in full mutiny) miles and miles before Rooster and Mattie got to the ranch.
In most westerns, I would just ignore these things, but I guess I've started to expect a lot from the Coen boys, and they did get so many things right that it kind of raised my expectations further. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Thu Dec 30, 2010 11:25 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: New York City
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| On second and third thoughts, I'd like to amend my appraisal to "fairly good though intermittently very boring and only reasonably well acted." True Grit is one of the major disappointments of recent months for me. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Thu Dec 30, 2010 11:26 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: New York City
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On the other hand, Another Year has opened to the kind of reviews it deserves--in other words, outright raves. It's the best movie of 2010 IMO.
Ignore the neurotic, insane pan in the Village Voice. It's out of control. |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Thu Dec 30, 2010 11:28 am |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
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Location: Black Hills
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| Great horned toads, Billy....hope my horse rant didn't tip you over the edge or something. I still think it's a pretty good adaptation of the novel. |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Thu Dec 30, 2010 11:31 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
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Location: Shanghai
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What's Another Year?
Never heard of it.
Did you review it here before? |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Thu Dec 30, 2010 11:32 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: New York City
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bartist wrote: Great horned toads, Billy....hope my horse rant didn't tip you over the edge or something. I still think it's a pretty good adaptation of the novel.
Don't worry, bart. I just realized that I may have overpraised it and wanted to set the record straight. I think True Grit has gotten too many (and even one is too many) great reviews from "top critics." |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Thu Dec 30, 2010 11:36 am |
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gromit wrote: What's Another Year?
Never heard of it.
Did you review it here before?
From December 20:
Lesley Manville has won, I think, the National Board of Review award as Best Actress for Another Year, directed by Mike Leigh. Whether she belongs in that category or in Supporting Actress may be a moot point since she probably won't be in contention anyway for the Oscar, but she is amazing, as is the entire cast of this career peak for Leigh. A year in the life of some "ordinary people" doesn't sound like an automatically compelling enterprise, but this movie is possibly the best of the year. Not only Manville but Jim Broadbent and the whole largely unknown cast are superior in ways that defy description. You feel life happening. It's funny, depressing, sad, dynamic, horrifying, sensational, humdrum, and all the stops in between. Wowowowowow!!!!!!!
Since then I've had time to process the movie--I can't get it out of my head--and decided that nothing else this year equals it. |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Thu Dec 30, 2010 11:44 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
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Location: Shanghai
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Sorry, I just processed it as the new Mike Leigh film.
Not much into his films, so was waiting to hear more, and the title didn't register, as those generic sounding titles easily drop out of mind. And suddenly something called Another Year is being touted as best of the year. |
Last edited by gromit on Thu Dec 30, 2010 11:45 am; edited 1 time in total
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Thu Dec 30, 2010 11:45 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: New York City
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| Lesley Manville and the entire Another Year cast are in that "ensemble" category that for Manville in particuar defies "star" and "supporting" definitions. Whatever she gets is okay, however. She's totally mind-blowing, but so are Ruth Sheen and several others. The movie is hard to describe because very iittle happens. It's completely character-driven. A group of friends and/or associates and/or relatives get together four times, one meeting per season, and things progress according or not according to plan. You have to see it to grasp how real the whole thing it, and how amazingly well acted and directed. Mike Leigh should win the Oscar, though I can't see that happening. |
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