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| bartist |
 Posted: Mon Dec 23, 2013 11:10 am |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Posts: 6961
Location: Black Hills
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billyweeds wrote:
...On the other hand, American Hustle, which I was hoping I would change my mind about, proves impossible to get through on a second try. This heavy-handed, infelicitous jumble of a misfire is without competition the most egregiously overrated movie of the last decade. A must to avoid, which has been anointed BEST PICTURE OF THE YEAR by the NY Film Critics, who have effectively lost all future credibility with me. And Jennifer Lawrence, who is a good actress (as witness Winter's Bone) and cannot be blamed for being this year's "it girl," is not so hot in her awarded supporting role. Bummer flick.
Kinda liked it. Interesting plot, constructed of partial Abscam truth and part over-the-top Goodfella-opera (just made that term up), with some very funny moments. Far from any "best" list, but not a bad film, and with some good period visuals and tunes. Adams rocked, Lawrence was luscious and scatterbrained, and Xtian Bale did some good VO a la Henry Hill. Guess we saw different movies.  |
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| marantzo |
| Posted: Mon Dec 23, 2013 12:30 pm |
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Saw Nebraska on Saturday afternoon. Definitely worthwhile!
All the characters (country characters), were very well described by the actors and actresses. Some were not very pleasant people and some were very nice people. A lot of aunts, uncles, cousins, and old friends and old places that Bruce Dern's character visits in the town he lived in. Dern, the father, and Will Forte, his younger son, head for Lincoln from Billings to get the million dollar prize that the father thinks he has coming. The father is sort of strange to say the least. A very nice person who keeps to himself, says little and is determined to get to Lincoln even if he has to walk and he does walk at times. His son tries very hard to figure him out and tries all along to bring him down to earth even though his father is very down to earth, but in his own purposeful way.
Forte is very good and Dern is perfect in his role. A wonderful and realistic movie, Loved it.
Another thing about it is that I have travelled many times on the same routes and through the same towns that they go by and visit. I'm sure Bart has ridden far more times than I on these routes. |
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| Befade |
| Posted: Mon Dec 23, 2013 12:42 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 3784
Location: AZ
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Gary.......I like what you say about the son trying to bring his father down to earth. That was what made the movie heart-warming to me.......the patience the son had to let his father be down to earth in his own way. Giving up the attempt to make the father see reality and let him have his own reality.
I did not like the wife, however. She just took up too much verbal space. Always a wise ass comment. She was not an endearing character. |
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| marantzo |
| Posted: Mon Dec 23, 2013 2:02 pm |
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Befade wrote: Gary.......I like what you say about the son trying to bring his father down to earth. That was what made the movie heart-warming to me.......the patience the son had to let his father be down to earth in his own way. Giving up the attempt to make the father see reality and let him have his own reality.
I did not like the wife, however. She just took up too much verbal space. Always a wise ass comment. She was not an endearing character.
Yes, she was an annoying as hell, and, as you stated, took up too much verbal space, but later in the movie she did make a stand that was not annoying. Very good actress. I wonder what she is like outside of her role.
The newspaper woman was a pleasure. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Mon Dec 23, 2013 4:47 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: New York City
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| The June Squibb character was intermittently annoying but she talked turkey and that made her likeable to me. Squibb herself did a terrific job. She's apt to be Oscar-nominated. |
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| Befade |
| Posted: Tue Dec 24, 2013 11:22 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: AZ
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| Judi Dench was just as annoying to me in Philomena.........but I would give her an Oscar for being ARTFULLY annoying. |
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| marantzo |
| Posted: Tue Dec 24, 2013 3:32 pm |
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Have you ever watched the BBC series, As Time Goes By ? Dench is excellent in it and not annoying. |
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| yambu |
| Posted: Tue Dec 24, 2013 6:32 pm |
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Joined: 23 May 2004
Posts: 6441
Location: SF Bay Area
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| I saw her recently in Macbeth ('79) with Ian McKellen. As she begins to go crazy, all her evil catches up with her. She gazes up, her mouth opens, and for thirty seconds she emits the most primitive scream, except that no sound comes forth. "Please, God, make her stop." |
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| Befade |
| Posted: Wed Dec 25, 2013 12:34 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: AZ
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| Gary.........the BBC humor doesn't grab me. But Dench, likable, detestable is great in everything. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Wed Dec 25, 2013 10:11 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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| Her is the new Spike Jonze movie about a lonely divorced man (Joaquin Phoenix) who falls in love with his operating system, voiced by Scarlett Johansson. Both actors are marvelous. The movie is a little too theoretical and intellectual to be viscerally moving, but it's mighty impressive nonetheless. Jonze has great talent; the pacing is superb and the art and set direction (the story is set in the almost-near future) are eye-popping and imaginative. The movie has a lot to say--some very funny and some quite poignant--about where the world is going in this technological age. It's indie-style mainstream filmmaking at just about its best. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Fri Dec 27, 2013 12:18 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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| August: Osage County is a pretty good movie that øne wishes were a whole lot better. It's part Long Day's Journey Into Night, part Steel Magnolias, part Written on the Wind--a tragicomedy played with varying levels of melodramatic excess by an all-star cast headed by Meryl Streep and Julia Roberts. The acting is all entertaining and so is much of the script, but the director John Wells never finds a consistent tone, so the movie is all bits and pieces. I would not steer anyone away from it, but neither would I urge anyone to rush out and partake. For a Pulitzer Prize-winning property, it's remarkably cheesy. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Fri Dec 27, 2013 6:52 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: New York City
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Revisited Enough Said, and I think it's pretty safe to say this will remain my favorite movie of 2013. The script and direction by the insanely talented Nicole Holofcener are astonishing. The movie is sometimes hilariously funny, sometimes almost unbearably touching and identifiable...and then there's the acting. James Gandolfini would be my choice as best supporting actor of the year even if he had not passed away, but his surpassingly untimely death makes his genius in this role even more moving. And Julia Louis-Dreyfus finds levels in the lead character that will surprise and delight even her biggest fans from Seinfeld and Veep. She's a great actress. The supporting cast is impeccable.
Nicole Holofcener is five for five. Walking and Talking, Lovely & Amazing, Friends with Money, Please Give, and now the topper, this gift from the cinema gods. Perfection is a hard thing to capture, but I would call Enough Said an absolutely perfect motion picture. I could easily see it three or four more times...today. |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Fri Dec 27, 2013 10:42 am |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Posts: 6961
Location: Black Hills
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Her and Osage aren't released in heartland markets until mid-January. Will be interested in Syd's take on Osage, too - looks like another Tracy Letts (Bug, Killer Joe) script, so yeah, problems may owe more to the director.
Her sounds fun, and the casting sounds great....look forward to Rooney Mara as the critical ex. |
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| knox |
| Posted: Sat Dec 28, 2013 11:43 am |
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Joined: 18 Mar 2010
Posts: 1246
Location: St. Louis
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| I liked American Hustle, which for me captured some of the loonyness of the 70s. Looks like it had variable appeal here - I wonder if the length was a problem...it was somewhat saddled with its debt to actual historical events. The structure did have some similar to Goodfellas, but fell short somehow in how it followed the "Henry Hill" pov. I wanted to like it more than I really did. |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Sat Dec 28, 2013 12:32 pm |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9015
Location: Shanghai
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In central NJ, the nearby train station was named Harrison A. Williams Metropark, honoring the only Senator to get caught in the Abscam sting. He resigned his senate seat (an expulsion vote was in the offing), and served around 5 years in a federal pen. After he was convicted, his name was removed from the train station.
Congressman John Jenrette also got nailed in Abscam, thereby freeing up his wife Rita for a career taking off her shirt in schlocky films such as Zombie Island Massacre ... |
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