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| billyweeds |
 Posted: Mon Nov 28, 2011 11:42 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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bartist wrote: Martha Marcy May Marlene helped me reach some conclusions:
1. Elizabeth Olsen, age 19 (at time of shoot), is an insanely precocious talent. If she doesn't become one of the doyennes of indie films, then this world sucks.
2. Once in a while, a movie knows when to stop, and does so, leaving you with something to reflect on and play out in your mind.
3. Once in a while, a movie depicts weird cults in a realistic way without having to take endless potshots at a specific religion and make everyone a caricature. Not often, and I wish it happened more.
4. John Hawkes can do anything on the spectrum of good and evil. In this case, on the evil end. Brrrrr.
MMMM is a movie I will be thinking about when it comes time for Blanches.
Something that is annoying me about the reaction to this film is the lack of appreciation for the performance by Sarah Paulson as MMMM's sister. Without Paulson's very vivid contrast, Olsen would not shine nearly as brightly as she does.
Olsen herself gave a shout-out to Paulson in the Q&A after the screening I saw.
Hugh Dancy is also aces as the very British, very rigid but very common-sensical brother-in-law. |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Mon Nov 28, 2011 12:58 pm |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
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Location: Black Hills
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I have no lack of appreciation for Sarah Paulson's take on the affluent sister and the expertly carved set of contrasts she provided with the anti-materialistic ideals (and loose privacy boundaries) that Martha has absorbed. Yeah, Paulson's the yardstick with which we measure how far from conventional mores Martha Non-Stewart has traveled. Her over-reaction to the nude swimming (contrasted with Dancy's more restrained -- and appreciative, one senses -- raised eyebrow) set the tone nicely.
And it also makes us realize later how far off the Rez Martha has gone.... I mean, if your sis doesn't like you swimming nude, you might have a clue that joining them in the bedroom while they couple would also bug her. Which raises the question -- was she just that far gone into her utopian mindset, or did she see an opportunity to provoke further? |
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He was wise beyond his years, but only by a few days. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Mon Nov 28, 2011 1:12 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: New York City
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| bartist--What was your interpretation of the last scene? This seems to provoke different takes from different people; even my wife and I had difference reactions. SPOILERS AHEAD IN WHITE I think the sister and brother-in-law are about to be murdered. Others feel it's all a fantasy in Martha's mind. What do you think? |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Mon Nov 28, 2011 7:23 pm |
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| I could really see it sort of both ways. Given that it's built as a haunting psychological drama, I can see the psychological ending as showing how the cult has taken longterm residence in her head. OTOH, (whiting this part out) the chill I felt as I watched was my sense that Patrick knew exactly where she was (due to her abortive phone call from sister's house), knew that she could finger them for the murder, and had sent henchmen to grab her and kill the two people she might have talked to. The chill is deeper for knowing that she said very little to them, only alluding to some hypothetical problem boyfriend. Something about that last swim, and what she sees, kind of hints that your impression might be correct. |
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He was wise beyond his years, but only by a few days. |
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| Marc |
| Posted: Mon Nov 28, 2011 10:06 pm |
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Joined: 19 May 2004
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| I will have to see Melancholia again. When I saw it in September at Fantastic Fest I was underwhelmed. But my expectations were extremely high. Sometimes a second viewing will turn my head around. Too many people I respect love the film. I figure I may have been in the wrong mood or suffering from film festival fatigue. |
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| Ghulam |
| Posted: Tue Nov 29, 2011 12:56 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 4742
Location: Upstate NY
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| Did anyone see Take Shelter? |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Tue Nov 29, 2011 6:38 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: New York City
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Ghulam wrote: Did anyone see Take Shelter?
I certainly did, and raved and raved about it, and bartist (I think it was) did the same. Michael Shannon is my Best Actor of 2011 and Jessica Chastain one of my Best Actresses (though she has inexplicably been placed in the "supporting" category on the SAG Nominating List). It's an extraordinarily powerful movie, with mind-blowing performances. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Tue Nov 29, 2011 6:43 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: New York City
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Saw Bridesmaids for the third time, followed by a Q&A with Kristen Wiig, Rose Byrne, and co-writer Annie Mumolo. This movie just gets better and better with each viewing. It's still screamingly, fall-out-of-your-seat funny, but the emotional depth gets deeper, and I found myself shedding tears in more than one scene.
Talked with Wiig and Byrne and Mumolo after the screening; they were very sweet and friendly, but something that quite surprised me was how grounded Wiig is. I had assumed, given her bizarrely comic style and the very far-out nature of her SNL creations, that she would be charmingly insane. But no. She is amazingly down to earth. What a delightful shock. |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Tue Nov 29, 2011 9:30 am |
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Ghulam -- yes, I joined BW in praise of Take Shelter. One of the year's best. What did you make of the ending? Do you think it SPOILERS POSSIBLE represented some kind of genuine catastrophe that he had foreseen? or had he somehow drawn his family into his psychosis? END SPOILERS
BW --
Quote: Talked with Wiig and Byrne and Mumolo after the screening; they were very sweet and friendly, but something that quite surprised me was how grounded Wiig is. I had assumed, given her bizarrely comic style and the very far-out nature of her SNL creations, that she would be charmingly insane. But no. She is amazingly down to earth. What a delightful shock.
Not surprising. I suspect of her of being part Norwegian, or similar. Very grounded people. And occasionally photogenic. |
Last edited by bartist on Tue Nov 29, 2011 9:47 am; edited 1 time in total
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Tue Nov 29, 2011 9:45 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: New York City
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bartist wrote: Ghulam -- yes, I joined BW in praise of Take Shelter. One of the year's best.
BW --
Quote: Talked with Wiig and Byrne and Mumolo after the screening; they were very sweet and friendly, but something that quite surprised me was how grounded Wiig is. I had assumed, given her bizarrely comic style and the very far-out nature of her SNL creations, that she would be charmingly insane. But no. She is amazingly down to earth. What a delightful shock.
Not surprising. I suspect of her of being part Norwegian, or similar. Very grounded people. And occasionally photogenic.
Wiig was another of those who actually looks better in person than on screen. On screen she's extremely attractive in an off-center way. In person she's much more genuinely babe-a-licious. Rose Byrne looks great on screen and also in person but in a much different, more accessible, way. Because she spoke in her natural Australian accent, I was reminded how believable she is as an American. She credits it to watching a lot of American television in her native Sydney.
Noticed a weird piece of craziness in the movie. At one point Byrne says something to Wiig on the order of "I'm smaller than you are." That's not true. It's the opposite. Wonder why they stuck with that mistake. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Tue Nov 29, 2011 1:40 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: New York City
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The New York Film Critics have spoken, and inlareviewer will be pleased.
Best Film: "The Artist"
Best Director: Michel Hazanavicus, "The Artist"
Best Actor: Brad Pitt, "Moneyball" and "The Tree of Life"
Best Actress: Meryl Streep, "The Iron Lady"
Best Supporting Actor: Albert Brooks, "Drive"
Best Supporting Actress: Jessica Chastain, "The Tree of Life," "The Help" and "Take Shelter"
Best Screenplay: Steven Zaillian and Aaron Sorkin, "Moneyball"
Best Cinematography: Emmanuel Lubezki, "The Tree of Life"
Best Foreign Language Film: "A Separation"
Best Nonfiction Film: "Cave of Forgotten Dreams"
Best First Feature: "Margin Call"
Special Award (posthumous): Raoul Ruiz
Cannot weigh in on The Artist or Streep, having not seen them as yet, but I can say that Pitt, good as he is, should not have beaten Michael Shannon--and if Chastain is a "supporting actress" in Take Shelter, the term has no meaning any more. |
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| Befade |
| Posted: Tue Nov 29, 2011 9:19 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: AZ
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Quote: 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.
Ghulam and Billy........I wouldn't give it a hugh high rating either. What interested me most was the contrast between the serious drama (I only laughed twice) and the setting of Hawaii....or the role played by Hawaii....never a downer place to be. Really the most interesting aspect was the presence of the daughters and the words that came out of their mouths. |
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| carrobin |
| Posted: Wed Nov 30, 2011 12:32 am |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 7795
Location: NYC
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| R.I.P. Ken Russell, whose Times obit includes a nice photo of Alan Bates and Oliver Reed. From the shoulders up, of course. |
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| Ghulam |
| Posted: Wed Nov 30, 2011 1:50 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: Upstate NY
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Billy and Bartist,
Thanks. Shall probably see Take Shelter on Thursday.
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| Ghulam |
| Posted: Wed Nov 30, 2011 1:58 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: Upstate NY
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Re NY Critics' picks, I too think Money Ball, Tree of Life, Drive, and Cave of Forgotten Dreams were definitely among the better films of the year. I have not yet seen the rest.
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