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| gromit |
 Posted: Thu Dec 30, 2010 11:47 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9010
Location: Shanghai
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Sounds Woody Allenish.
And speaking of -- I just picked up his 2010 film this evening.
Either that or The Alright Kids is going on momentarily as soon as everyone gets to their seats. |
Last edited by gromit on Thu Dec 30, 2010 11:49 am; edited 1 time in total
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Thu Dec 30, 2010 11:48 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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gromit wrote: 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, such as Another Year, easily drop out of mind.
I agree that the title is unfortunately generic, though perfect for the film. I am far from a Mike Leigh fanatic, having been totally meh about Topsy-Turvy, bored out of my skull by Vera Drake, and finding Happy-Go-Lucky unwatchable while loving Secrets and Lies and Naked.
Another Year leaves them all so far in the dust that it's almost weird. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Thu Dec 30, 2010 11:50 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: New York City
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gromit wrote: Sounds Woody Allenish.
Allen's never done anything this realistic, or as good, except for Manhattan.
If you want Woody Allenish (Woody at his best) try Please Give. It's fantastic. |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Thu Dec 30, 2010 12:08 pm |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
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Location: Shanghai
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Didn't like Please Give.
Found it mostly phony and forced.
Was glad when it was over.
Watching new Woody Allen films has become sort of an obligation. I don't expect much, and have no idea what Tall Dark Stranger is about. Whatever Works was pretty terrible. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Thu Dec 30, 2010 12:17 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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gromit wrote: Didn't like Please Give.
Found it mostly phony and forced.
Was glad when it was over.
Watching new Woody Allen films has become sort of an obligation. I don't expect much, and have no idea what Tall Dark Stranger is about. Whatever Works was pretty terrible.
Whatever Works was beyond terrible into all-time-worst-list. |
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| knox |
| Posted: Thu Dec 30, 2010 12:19 pm |
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Joined: 18 Mar 2010
Posts: 1246
Location: St. Louis
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I put Mike Leigh in that rare cateogy of directors, with Robert Altman and (sometimes) Allen, who can achieve a kind of naturalism in film -- gives you a feeling of looking through a window into other lives. So I hope Another Year gets here (the middle U.S.) before, ahem, another year passes.
I'm less kind to True Grit than some here -- for me, it may be partly to a feeling that Jeff Bridges has been overexposed of late, tottering around in roles of laid-back boozy dilapidation, grunting and expelling phlegm. His Cogburn seemed very "one note" to me and (and this is rare in a Coen film) just boring. The 14 year old was okay, but I was aware of her laboring to get out some of those precocious speeches. Damon was as ho-hum as I've ever seen him. The horse bloopers were standard Western cliches. Still, some good scenes -- maybe the best, for me, was the "horse trading" scene in Fort Smith. |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Thu Dec 30, 2010 12:46 pm |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9010
Location: Shanghai
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| Also picked up Catfish, which sounded somewhat suspect, but now I forget mostly why. IIRC, it sounded like a less honest version of talhotblond, which I highly rec. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Thu Dec 30, 2010 1:32 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: New York City
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knox wrote:
I'm less kind to True Grit than some here -- for me, it may be partly to a feeling that Jeff Bridges has been overexposed of late, tottering around in roles of laid-back boozy dilapidation, grunting and expelling phlegm. His Cogburn seemed very "one note" to me and (and this is rare in a Coen film) just boring. The 14 year old was okay, but I was aware of her laboring to get out some of those precocious speeches. Damon was as ho-hum as I've ever seen him. The horse bloopers were standard Western cliches. Still, some good scenes -- maybe the best, for me, was the "horse trading" scene in Fort Smith.
I agree with every syllable of this. |
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| jeremy |
| Posted: Thu Dec 30, 2010 3:31 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
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Location: Derby, England and Hamilton, New Zealand (yes they are about 12,000 miles apart)
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billyweeds wrote: 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.
Billy, I haven't seen the Another Year as yet (it will be good to do so with genuine expectation rather than out of a sense of duty) but I was on Metacritic scanning the reviews when I saw that, in marked contrast to the other critics) Karina someone of The Village Voice had given it 0 (nought) out of a hundred. I was compelled to read the article. She must be squirming with embarrassment or ought to be. Karina totally fails to understand what Mike Leigh is trying to achieve and seems to unable to develop any empathy for unsympathetic characters (a bit of a handicap in film reviewer methinks). |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Thu Dec 30, 2010 4:03 pm |
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jeremy wrote: billyweeds wrote: 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.
Billy, I haven't seen the Another Year as yet (it will be good to do so with genuine expectation rather than out of a sense of duty) but I was on Metacritic scanning the reviews when I saw that, in marked contrast to the other critics) Karina someone of The Village Voice had given it 0 (nought) out of a hundred. I was compelled to read the article. She must be squirming with embarrassment or ought to be. Karina totally fails to understand what Mike Leigh is trying to achieve and seems to unable to develop any empathy for unsympathetic characters (a bit of a handicap in film reviewer methinks).
You're absolutely right, as I implied in the post you've quoted above. She's got personal problems, it seems. |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Thu Dec 30, 2010 4:09 pm |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
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Location: Shanghai
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The Kids Are All Right was worthwhile, but what a heavy-handed film. It had a TV-style obviousness in some of its staging, plotting, dialogue. Just not a moment of subtlety anywhere to be found. Many times it was pretty clear what was coming next. I thought the cast was very good and Benning outstanding.
Actually as things went on, I wished for a different film. I was more interested in the family dynamics of two moms each with two children, but one biological per. And we get less of that as the plot veers off in Donor Dad-land. I was intrigued with that for a little while but it kind of turned things more conventional (in more ways than one), and I thought the Ruffalo character was more of a false construct than the rest. I would have preferred the focus remaining on the family character study, rather than the plot complications the filmmakers select.
Sidenote: in the dvd extras, the director has basically the same short messy hairstyle and black-rimmed glasses as Bennings character. Brunette though, not blonde. |
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| inlareviewer |
| Posted: Thu Dec 30, 2010 4:22 pm |
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Joined: 05 Jul 2004
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Location: Lawrence, KS
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| Besides King's Speech and Toy Story III, turns out Another Year, Made in Dagenham, How to Train Your Dragon, Biutiful, Winter's Bone and Blue Valentine are also ineligible for Writer's Guild consideration, due to their not being signatories to the guild's Minum Basic Agreement (why Inglourious Basterds and An Education were shut out from the Guild's noms last year). Anticipate various film companies to grouse, the WGA to refuse to comment. |
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| jeremy |
| Posted: Thu Dec 30, 2010 5:19 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
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Location: Derby, England and Hamilton, New Zealand (yes they are about 12,000 miles apart)
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-12020794
The above link contains a link to first war time speech of George VI . If you've not seen King's Speech this may warrant a spoiler. I also think you'll find that Colin Firth does it better. If only we could all draft in an A-list actor for those key moments in our life. Though arguably, a good writer would be more useful. |
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I am angry, I am ill, and I'm as ugly as sin.
My irritability keeps me alive and kicking.
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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| Syd |
| Posted: Thu Dec 30, 2010 8:54 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 12921
Location: Norman, Oklahoma
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I don't see the actual king's speech there, but it's here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DAhFW_auT20 |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Fri Dec 31, 2010 9:32 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
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Tall Dark Stranger was fairly good and much better than I expected. A viewer of a certain age comes to a Woody Allen film with almost as much baggage as Woody has. I semi-successfully fought off the urge to perceive the skinny flaky aging woman who is left as a Mia Farrow stand-in, a task which would have been easier given a different hairstyle and body type. You can't help feeling that Woody has moved in upper class circles far too long, etc.
There are many familiar Woody tropes and shortcuts and moments throughout Stranger.
I thought it was wise to break up the Woody persona into three distinct parts -- the old lech running after a leggy young thing, the frustrated writer/artist, and the voice-over narrator. Even if I was never clear who the narrator was -- possibly my fault for splitting my viewing over two nights. Notice the components break down nicely into id, ego and super-ego. We only see Hopkins and Brolin together in one brief scene, and Brolin approves of his father-in-law in Heff-mode. The narrator remains invisible, and is actually just used to provide explication and fast forward the plot now and then. All fairly noticeable Woody depictions and Woody concerns, but less obvious when spaced across three characters.
I thought Banderas channeling the-most-interesting-man-in the-world was a little silly. And there are a few romantic comedy convention moments/shortcuts -- such as meeting a great-looking girl by being a voyeur -- that I could have done without. I really liked the chauffeur gag early on, actually got a laugh out of me, and I rewound do re-laugh. The ending predicament was interesting, even if it didn't seem too hard to lie out of.
Pretty enjoyable, entertaining film from Woody.
Well worth a watch. |
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