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| Marc |
 Posted: Fri Nov 25, 2011 6:31 pm |
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Joined: 19 May 2004
Posts: 8424
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| How can a new Scorsese film not be on a film buff's "short list?" |
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| Syd |
| Posted: Fri Nov 25, 2011 10:39 pm |
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Site Admin
Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 12921
Location: Norman, Oklahoma
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Hugo is the best film I've seen this year. It should be seen on as big a screen as possible, and although I saw it in 2-D, it's the rare film that might be even better in 3-D. There is an opening shot that just makes you say wow. It is also the first Scorsese movie I've ever seen that moved me to tears. I understand now what attracted him to this story; this was a labor of love.
I don't want to give too much away, Hugo is an orphan who lives in a clock tower keeping the clockwork going and has a knack for clockwork mechanisms, such as the automaton he and his father found in a museum. Hugh is also a thief through necessity; he steals food by necessity, and gears and tools for his job and to repair the automaton, partly because he thinks the automaton will give him a message from his father. There is a toymaker in the train station whose adopted daughter wants an adventure; for a particularly good reason, she has a heart-shaped key that fits the automaton. The automaton is only a clue that leads to a deeper mystery.
Lots of famous names in the cast who I didn't recognize. Asa Hutchinson is Hugo, reminding me a little of Freddie Bartholomew. Hutchinson's face lights up on camera and he has expressive crystal blue eyes that Scorsese makes good use of. Chloë Moretz is his friend Isabelle of the heart-shaped key, in quite a different part than I'd previously seen her. Sir Ben Kingsley is her adopted father; amazingly, I didn't recognize him. Christopher Lee is a bookseller; Sasha Cohen an inspector who keeps trying to catch Hugo to send him to an orphanage; Jude Law, Johnny Depp, Emily Mortimer and Ray Winstone are also in the cast. Depp also coproduced. This is a film where it should have been easy for Scorsese to get the actors he wanted; all he had to do is describe the project. **** of **** |
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I had a love and my love was true but I lost my love to the yabba dabba doo, --The Flintstone Lament |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Sat Nov 26, 2011 12:42 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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Marc and Syd--I thought I explained why Hugo was not "on my short list." I summed it up in three titles: Kundun. New York, New York. The Age of Innocence. Still haven't seen Shutter Island or Bringing Out the Dead.
However...
...word of mouth has convinced me Hugo is a must. So see it I will, on January 5. (Sorry so late, but SAG Nominating Committee screenings are weirdly spaced.)
Meanwhile, Marc, I have a screener of Shame in the house, so I fear I'll be suffering through it soon. |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Sat Nov 26, 2011 2:29 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9010
Location: Shanghai
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| What'd Scorsese do, steal the Hugo script from Spielberg? |
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Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
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| Ghulam |
| Posted: Sat Nov 26, 2011 2:30 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 4742
Location: Upstate NY
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Alexander Payne's The Descendants is a fairly entertaining comedy springing from a tragic event and has a theme of forgiveness, but it is nowhere near the high rating the reviewers gave it. The three kids are good.
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Sat Nov 26, 2011 6:34 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: New York City
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Disagree with Ghulam. The Descendants may not be quite up to Payne's very best work (Sideways, Election) but very few films are. It's just slightly overrated, not by much. It's a wonderful movie.
Meanwhile, Young Adult features a horrifying but extremely funny, sometimes laugh-out-loud, and altogether terrific performance by Charlize Theron as a pathologically disturbed writer of "young adult" novels. It's a semi-rewrite of My Best Friend's Wedding with more serious overtones, as Mavis (Theron) decides to get her old high-school boyfriend back just after his wife has given birth to their first child.
The movie wavers slightly in tone and is just a bit hard to believe in some of its moves (for reasons of exposition, Mavis talks a lot with an old high-school acquaintance she probably wouldn't give the time of day to in real life). But Patton Oswalt is good in the role. And Patrick Wilson and Elisabeth Reaser are excellent as the boyfriend and his wife. Jill Eikenberry and Mary Beth Hurt pop up briefly as mothers.
However, it's Theron's performance that makes the movie work as well as it does. She's outrageous in the best sense of the word, surprising you with the character's out-of-control urges yet making you understand. Plus, she looks utterly smashing, which, like they say, don't hurt.
Direction by Jason Reitman is fine, although as with his other movies (Up in the Air, Thank You for Smoking) greatness eludes him. Still, see Young Adult for Theron and a couple of unforgettable moments. You won't regret it. |
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| Joe Vitus |
| Posted: Sat Nov 26, 2011 6:54 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 14498
Location: Houston
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| The Descendants is the current movie I'm currently most interested in seeing. |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Sat Nov 26, 2011 9:19 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9010
Location: Shanghai
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billyweeds wrote:
Young Adult[/i] features ... Patton Oswalt
Direction by Jason Reitman is fine, although as with his other movies (Up in the Air, Thank You for Smoking) ... greatness
Sounds good to me, even if I did have to edit Billy a little. Up and Thank You were two very solid enjoyable films. Interested in general in Patton.
Thanks hadn't heard a peep on this before. |
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Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
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| Syd |
| Posted: Sat Nov 26, 2011 9:44 am |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 12921
Location: Norman, Oklahoma
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Studio Ghibli is coming out next summer with a Borrowers adaptation called The Secret World of Arrietty which is written but not directed by Hayao Miyazaki. It looks to be in a very old-fashioned 2D cartoon style. There was a trailer before "Hugo." There's also a BBC television movie coming out that's simply called "The Borrowers," which will be something like the fifth adaptation.
Miyazaki's next directing effort is a sequel to Porco Rosso entitled Porco Rosso: The Last Sortie, which is projected to come out in Japan next year. I'm not a huge fan of the first movie, though it has some wonderful moments. I was turned off by the voice of the Red Bacon.
Correction: The Secret World of Arrietty is coming out on February 17. It was the number one grossing movie in Japan for 2010. |
Last edited by Syd on Sat Nov 26, 2011 10:52 am; edited 1 time in total
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I had a love and my love was true but I lost my love to the yabba dabba doo, --The Flintstone Lament |
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| whiskeypriest |
| Posted: Sat Nov 26, 2011 10:30 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 6916
Location: "It's a Dry Heat."
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| So Hugo and the Descendents should go on my list with Coriolanus as must see movies for the next month or so. I hope I can get to one of them. |
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| grace |
| Posted: Sat Nov 26, 2011 11:43 am |
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Joined: 11 Nov 2005
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Syd wrote: Studio Ghibli is coming out next summer with a Borrowers adaptation called The Secret World of Arrietty which is written but not directed by Hayao Miyazaki.
Saw the trailers for Arrietty and Mirror Mirror (J. Roberts as evil queen in Snow White tale), and won't be seeing either one. I loved The Muppets, even if this is probably not the crowd in which I'd want to say so. And if work and weather permit, I will be seeing The Descendants this Friday. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Sat Nov 26, 2011 12:33 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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gromit wrote: billyweeds wrote:
Young Adult[/i] features ... Patton Oswalt
Direction by Jason Reitman is fine, although as with his other movies (Up in the Air, Thank You for Smoking) ... greatness
Sounds good to me, even if I did have to edit Billy a little. Up and Thank You were two very solid enjoyable films.
I almost agree with you. Up in the Air is the essence of "solid and enjoyable." All I said was it isn't "great." I stand by that, but "s and e" it definitely is. Thank You for Smoking I don't like, but a lot of folks clearly do. It isn't a "bad" movie, just not "great." |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Sat Nov 26, 2011 2:13 pm |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9010
Location: Shanghai
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billyweeds wrote: It...'...s great. |
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| inlareviewer |
| Posted: Sat Nov 26, 2011 6:49 pm |
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Joined: 05 Jul 2004
Posts: 1949
Location: Lawrence, KS
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Saw Melancholia.
Twice.
Will see it again, and again, once the screener arrives.
Am withal not remotely equipped to do it justice, and since colleague Cousin Betsy of the Employer of Local Record has already addressed it with dead-on accuracy and eloquence in her review, will link that --
L.A. Times: Movie review: Lars von Trier's 'Melancholia' is — gasp — hopeful
-- and leave my own still-gelling observations to be sent to Lorne for posting in the review section. However, cannot resist saying that it is easily the most visually stunning, thematically challenging and richly layered film of Lars von Trier's career to date --and this from someone who has always been at best ambivalent about his auteurship. As thought-provoking, unexpected, challenging, mesmeric and profound a moving picture as any this year, mayhap any year, has seen, even, nay, especially in its helmer's obssessions, tonal contradictions and narrative ellipses -- which are legion -- graced by a marvelous ensemble, particularly secondary protagonist Charlotte Gainsbourg and Kiefer Sutherland -- surrounding the preternaturally transcendent Kirsten Dunst, who gives The Performance of Her Career, to put it beyond mildly. Mandatory viewing for anyone who seriously cares about the future of cinema, existential screen acting and/or our planet. Am inexorably heartfelt and serious about this; so is Mssr. von Trier. Cue up Tristan und Isolde (which the director makes judiciously superb use of), if not, indeed, Vera Lynn. Namaste.
Okay, got that out of the way. Up next in cinemas: The Artist, Hugo, and My Weekend With Marilyn. Screener arrived for Martha Marcy May Marlene, with J. Edgar , War Horse and The Descendants, to name but three, shortly to follow.
And thus the pre-awards-season onslaught begins, no doubt to culminate in the Annual Holiday Trek by the Merylites -- The Documentary Filmmaker, The Singing Dancing Therapist, and Li'l Ole Me -- to see SASSY's Icon play Maggie Thatcher (a foregone conclusion). Oh, it's always like this. inla out.
Thrice edited due to pesky "e" and "a" dyslexic inversion |
Last edited by inlareviewer on Sat Nov 26, 2011 9:29 pm; edited 3 times in total
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| carrobin |
| Posted: Sat Nov 26, 2011 7:09 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 7795
Location: NYC
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| I don't think I could endure seeing the film of "War Horse," having been emotionally knotted and wrung dry just by watching the (so lifelike) horse puppets onstage. Seeing real horses in those scenes--no way. |
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