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| bartist |
 Posted: Sat Feb 27, 2016 9:32 am |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Posts: 6965
Location: Black Hills
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gromit wrote: I mostly liked The Big Short, though felt the scenes with guys acting edgy and aggressive in meeting rooms were kind of awkward, and goofy. Thought Bale and Carrell were both very good.
Impressive they managed to dramatize a bunch of business deals.
I wasn't a big fan of the style, but it wasn't too distracting.
Otherwise I'm amazed that Steve Jobs didn't get a screenwriting nomination.
Me too. As for understanding the financial shenanigans in The Big Short, I thought the film explained it sufficiently, driving home the casino analogies. I can understand hating Bale's performance (ref. Weedster), but can't fault an accurate depicting of Asperger's traits. |
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| Befade |
| Posted: Sat Feb 27, 2016 10:52 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: AZ
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Thanks, Gromit. I guess I don't understand the deal about banks reselling them. 99 Homes is a good film for showing the end result of those high risk mortgages.
I just started watching The End of the Tour and it's going to be one of my favorites of the year along with Spotlight, Steve Jobs, Love and Mercy. I'm going to see Mustang tomorrow |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Sun Feb 28, 2016 7:44 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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The End of the Tour and Love & Mercy are two of my favorites of the year as well. My others are 99 Homes, Infinitely Polar Bear, Joy, Trainwreck, Truth, and Room--only one of which (Room) made the Oscar list. Not my favorite year at the movies.
Also hugely admired Son of Saul, which is the favorite for the Foreign Language Oscar, but, brother, is it ever hard to watch.
Sarah Silverman's performance in I Smile Back makes that less-than-great movie well worth seeing. Spotlight and The Revenant are okay, too, just not among my favorites. |
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| Befade |
| Posted: Sun Feb 28, 2016 6:31 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: AZ
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The Sarah S. movie probably won't come here. I'll Netflix it. Mustang was good....but I'm into anything with Turkey and Istanbul....would love to go there.
I recommend Remember with Christopher Plumber. He plays an 80 year old with dementia trying to track down the nazi who killed his family in Auschwitz. Funny, serious, and surprising. Also, the new Michael Moore movie, Where Should We Invade Next? Eye opening account at the way mostly European countries deal with productivity, education, drugs, incarceration in much more successful ways than we do. (Of course when Donald Trump takes over the country we'll be dealing with that stuff in remarkably more unsuccessful ways.) |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Sun Feb 28, 2016 6:58 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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| I want to see both Remember and Where to Invade Next. |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Sun Feb 28, 2016 11:59 pm |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9016
Location: Shanghai
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Befade wrote: The Sarah S. movie probably won't come here. I'll Netflix it. Mustang was good....but I'm into anything with Turkey and Istanbul....would love to go there.
Istanbul is great. Really interesting city. It's hell to drive through, but a good walking city. There were a lot of things to do and see in Istanbul. And people were very friendly. What also worked really well was first we spent a week and a half in Rome, and then followed the Roman Empire East to Constantinople. There's so much history in Istanbul, it was somewhat hard at times to keep straight what was Greek, Roman, Turkish, Muslim, Ottoman. What also worked well was that we stayed in 3 hotels in different locations in Istanbul, so got to experience different parts of the city on foot. It was also nice that We caught the first few days of Ramadan right when we were staying adjacent to the Hippodrome, which is the central feast/celebration area.
It's too bad that Erdogan keeps fucking up the country while trying to impose an increasing authoritarianism on Turkey largely akin to Putin in Russia. When he was rebuked in the 2014 election, in which he was trying to pull a full Putin and change to a presidential system so he could rule with strongman powers, he cut off negotiations and restarted a war with the Kurds in order to undermine the reform party they were allied with, so he could hold new elections in a bid to get a 2/3rds majority to change the constitution. Nice guy. Now he's bombing the Kurds in Syria as well. The O Admin really should have put this guy on notice a few years ago, when he was arresting journalists left and right. |
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| Befade |
| Posted: Mon Feb 29, 2016 2:57 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: AZ
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| Reading Orhan Pamuk's books got me interested in Istanbul. I guess now isn't a good time to go there. Tour groups aren't getting enough people to go. If I had a traveling companion I wouldn't hesitate. I'd love to go on the Bosporus. Walking sounds a lot better than driving. |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Tue Mar 01, 2016 3:34 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
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Location: Shanghai
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Driving in the Sultanahmet area is awfully tricky as lots of twisty one way streets. When we tried to drive to the Galata Hotel next to the Galata Tower, and across the Golden Horn, it was really confusing/impossible to get there. Finally we asked a taxi driver to take me to the Galata Hotel with the others following in our rented car. First he asked another driver about getting there, then hesitated and said sorry that it was too much trouble.
You could see the tower on the top of the hill. Finally we stopped on a little side street which would lead right to the square where the Hotel and tower were if it wasn't blocked off. I got out, jogged across the square and asked a lobby bellhop to come and direct us. So he got in the car and first told us to go to the top of the street and take a left which didn't look possible as there were people drinking coffee under umbrellas in the alleyway. Then we had to go back to the highway, look like we were heading way out but take the last exit, and then made a bunch of turns and twist to get up the hill. I never would have figured that out. Sure keeps invaders out.
Istanbul and Western Turkey is pretty far away from the main troubles in southeast Turkey and protests/bombings in Ankara. A few months ago there was a bomb blast in the heart of Istanbul which killed a dozen or so German tourists, but I think that sort of thing is fairly uncommon. Turkey is supposed to have some beautiful beaches but we didn't head that way. |
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Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Tue Mar 01, 2016 3:39 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
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Location: Shanghai
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I'm nearing the end of Pamuk's My Name is Red, which I like but don't love. I enjoyed his memoirs of Istanbul, but partly because I've been there and had some idea what/where he was talking about.
What other Pamuk have you read or would you rec? |
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| inlareviewer |
| Posted: Tue Mar 01, 2016 6:39 pm |
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Joined: 05 Jul 2004
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Location: Lawrence, KS
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Reposted from VisageTome, and no, we didn't boycott, we simply weren't anywhere near network television or streaming capabilities until we joined the BFF at his house for all of 15 minutes before heading out again on an emergency -- but for old times sake, and in loving memory of the Blanches, here you go.
2016 Aclademy Aweirds Wrap-Up:
Having seen the key moments from Sunday night's oddity after the fact, a few thoughts.
1. Chris Rock did what he does, and certain of the jokes were razor-sharp and hilarious, as in the montage of black performers morphed into nominated films -- Tracy Morgan's "Danish" riff made us choke on our iced tea -- and those ineffable Girl Scouts; yet others, like the Price-Waterhouse send-up and certainly the appearance of Stacey Dash (?!?) were, however lacerating, not exactly conducive to getting a largely non-minority in-house audience to accept the underlying premise, nor particularly funny. That said, he absolutely went for it, far more so than his prior outing, and certainly he kept the elephant in the room from quietly squashing the event beneath complacency, which has to count for something. Might feel differently if I'd watched the behemoth in real time -- and continue negative on the decision to omit honorary awards from the telecast, would have loved to hear what Ms. Reynolds or Ms. Rowlands had to say -- but, as we posted on The Night, we have our memories to consider, and life's just too short.
2. While predictably (see 10 Favorite Films post from Sunday) still smarting over the absence of Mr. Tremblay among the nominees, am nonetheless thrilled that Brie Larson deservedly took the Prima Donna prize (and heaven knows she'd had ample opportunity to polish her acceptance speech to a fine-tuned, comprehensive yet spontaneous-feeling and sincerely elated turn). HOWEVER, whomever decided on an ooblie-pooblee rendition of "Big Rock Candy Mountain" -- yeah, they used it in the trailer, but it was hardly hoppitty-skippity-sugary upbeat -- as orchestral play-up music has clearly been watching way too many "Spongebob" or "Fairly Oddparents" reruns. Indeed, the music choices for most of the winners were generic/misjudged to the extreme -- might as well have been the Nickelodeon awards.
3. We all knew Mr. DiCaprio was going to take Master Thespian, and from where we sit, it was good of him to use the final section of his acceptance to call attention to climate change. Full Disclosure: Couldn't get through the film, turned the screener off about 15 minutes after the bear to go review a play, and never got back to it -- but, to paraphrase Frank Morgan to Spencer Tracy post-"Boy's Town" win, didn't see the whole fillum, but you sure as hell deserve an award for the performance you gave at the podium, Leo. Practiced, perhaps, but no less genuinely classy and seriously thoughtful, so props to him.
4. Feel a bit bad about Sly, but not so bad that the upset of Mark Rylance didn't cheer us up a bit (for all our partisanship, we live for upsets....usually), and he couldn't have been more typically eloquent on the fly, even with the Scary Orchestra playing him off prematurely. Don't get us going on Mr. Iñárritu and the same phenomenon occurring just when he was starting to say something pertinent and meaningful, though was impressed he managed to ride out "Ride of the Valkyries," which is more than many a dramatic soprano and/or helicopter has managed.
5. Am hoping the recurrent Oscar curse doesn't impede Ms. Vikander (and we were rooting for either Ms. Mara or Ms. Winslet), because time and again a Newly Rising Star is crowned and then their career goes, if not nowhere, not where it might, and she is uncannily talented (even more so in "Ex Machina," but we digress).
6. Lady Gaga. Have said for years that at some point the wild performance art elements and outlandish social-statement outfits will be put aside, and the woman's genuine and considerable musical abilities will take center stage, and so it proved in her Best Song segment -- she's got the goods and then some. Very affecting, dulcet and galvanic, and regardless of political leanings, was pleased to see The Biden make a plea to end sexual violence, so there.
7. After all the grousing about Sam Smith, it seemed to us that he was coming from a heartfelt place, and he qualified his Sir Ian-quoted remarks as he made them, but didn't qualify what it meant to him, and even if one doesn't agree with what he said or for that matter his winning the award in the first place, he seemed genuinely touched, so who am I to judge?
8. Ennio Morricone. Better late than never, and it's about time. As our venerated Miss Hepburn said, they don't usually give these things to the old ones, you know. Bravo, Maestro, bravissimo, mille grazie, bis.
9. Am sort of thinking Louis C.K. should host next year. Or bring back Ellen. Or Whoopi. Or all three of 'em, maybe with Margaret Cho and/or Tina and Amy. Just saying.
10. Although totally getting why "Spotlight" winning with its A-List, hardly diverse cast might seem to underscore the #WhiteOscars argument, was personally relieved that something ABOUT something, and something truly important to boot, took the top prize. While it wasn't our TOP film (that would be "Room," with "Beasts" right behind it), it was one of our 10 Favorites, so can live with the outcome, especially when the producers were so determined to Make A Statement in their tripartite acceptances. (Am less convinced by the repeated chirons running who/what the undesignated producer-type people thanked, simply because am QUITE sure only their families/colleagues bothered to read it, and even there, our longstanding pet peeve "I'd like to," "I want to," etc. preceding "thank" was part of the syntax. Oy gevalt).
11. Any In Memoriam sequence that omits Abe Vigoda and Joan Leslie, to name but two, is simply not doing sufficient research or paying close enough attention.
12. When all is said and done, am still disenchanted over not just Mr. Tremblay, but the entirely inexplicable shutout of "Beasts of No Nation" (and not just Mr. Elba, who was robbed, period), the absence of "Carol" and Mr. Haynes, and Mr. Sorkin's "Steve Jobs" script, and Mr. Courtenay opposite Ms. Rampling (her performance didn't occur in a vacuum), etc., until recalling that our favorite actors Mr. Tracy and Bogie both said the only way to truly determine the "best" would be to have five different artists do the same property, whether actors, directors, writers, whatever. Because as it stands, it's apples and oranges, kiwis and peaches. Yes, AMPAS president Ms. Isaacs' simple plea to take action may hopefully result in some genuine diversity-minded traction, but it's still not going to give the actual competition cultural/aesthetic validity beyond campaigning, talk-show circuitry and popularity contesting. (Although we did love La Blanchett, Ms. Vikander and Ms. Larson's dresses, so sue us). And, given the Quickening's ever-accelerated paradigm shifts, this entire post is already passé, and then some, so it's back to the theatre, AKA Our Temple of Choice, for us, although first we have to catch up with "Son of Saul" and "Amy," and there you have it. Again (our mantra): It's ALL so subjective.
Happy cinematizin', all. inla out. |
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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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| Befade |
| Posted: Wed Mar 02, 2016 12:28 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 3784
Location: AZ
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Gromit.....just read Snow which I expected to like because I love snow and it was definitely a character in the book. But I found it tedious. It was about a poor town in northeastern Turkey that is embroiled in the issue of secular vs. Islamic government and girls are committing suicide supposedly because the government is banning the wearing of head scarves at school.......a lot of unusual political characters in this.
My favorite and the one that got me so interested in Istanbul is The Museum of Innocence. The city is so well described and Pamuk has actually created a museum that showcases each chapter of the book with the objects included. That museum is pictured in The Innocence of Objects. Did not know Istanbul was such a tricky city to get around. |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Wed Mar 02, 2016 5:05 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
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Location: Shanghai
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I remember you mentioning the museum book (I think I responded be referring to the Museum of Broken Relationships in Zagreb, Croatia). What was also kind of nice was I was up early one morning and slipped out and went there myself when it first opened.
I like but have issues with My Name is Red. I think Pamuk has The Name of The Rose in mind, as it's a murder mystery set circa 1700 among painters for the sultan's court. And it's a struggle for what kind of painting is acceptable to God and Man -- like the books and learning in Name of the Rose. Each chapter is relatively short and narrated by a character -- including the unnamed murderer, the ghost of the murdered painter, the Devil, a painted dog, the color red itself, etc. One problem is that we then get different perspectives on the same events, which is fine but tends to pad out the length. Some things work, some don't. Soem times the characters become interesting or their interrelationships, sometimes the mystery pops back into focus, occasionally there is narrative flow. It doesn't always cohere, but at times does.
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Istanbul has a lot of neighborhoods which are readily accessible by foot. But a real bitch to drive through/around. One other (minor) headache is we decided to drive across the spiffy modern bridge over the Bosporus connecting Europe and Asia. problem is there absolutely isn't a cash lane or manned toll booth. Every lane had a card symbol. So we got up to the booth and were completely stymied. The guy behind us quickly realized what happened --we were idiots -- and got out of his car and swiped his card. When I thanked him and offered to pay, he just waved us on and hopped back in his car.
Istanbul is a lovely walking city, but our strategy of changing hotels/neighborhoods every three days turned out to be perfect. I was disappointed we never ventured further north of the Galata Tower to Taksim Square where the protests erupted (and didn't see the park the gov't wanted to turn into a mosque. Also missed the Dolmabahce Palace, which we saw gleaming from the waterside (and drove past once on our way to the bridge encounter. It's the more modern and European equivalent of the Topkapı Palace, where the sultans moved in the 19th C. It also cost a fortune to build and helped put the Ottoman Empire in debt to European banks/countries, leading to its weakened state and downward spiral. Luxury and decadence lead to downfall and all that. |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Wed Mar 02, 2016 10:07 am |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
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Location: Black Hills
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Inla, enjoyed your repost on all things oscar...I also have an aversion to the "I would like to thank..." syntax. He would like to thank, but can't quite bring himself to do it...
And yes, the music choices were off...also the Shut Up theme they hit the recipient with....Ride of the Valkyries? Seems a bit ominous. |
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He was wise beyond his years, but only by a few days. |
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| inlareviewer |
| Posted: Wed Mar 02, 2016 12:13 pm |
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Joined: 05 Jul 2004
Posts: 1949
Location: Lawrence, KS
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bartist: Well, that's a mercy, anyhow. Yeah, even our beloved Ms. Larson fell into that trap. If people would just say "I thank," or "Thank you to," about 10 minutes might be saved. Plus, as you noted -- "I'd like to thank"? "I want to thank"? Well, what's stopping you? Just always bugs me.
As for the music, it was exceptionally wrong-headed -- half expected Brie to skip up the aisle and do a Lina Lamont "Singin' in the Rain" elbow pop -- ludicrously against the tone of the event and film, and have absolutely no idea what "Valkyries" had to do with any of this year's roster. Did I not receive the memo that "Apocalypse Now" and/or "Wagner" were re-nominated this year? Loopy. |
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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: Wed Mar 02, 2016 1:06 pm |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
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"I love the smell of Francis in the morning..."
Finally caught "Joy" at a 2nd run house. Not D.O. Russell's top tier stuff, but I still enjoyed the reunion of the cast of Silver Linings Playbook and the sweet ironic joke that runs through it, i.e. everyone in the family keeps telling Joy that she has no head for business and lacks the prerequisite toughness, while she keeps manifesting all the Right Stuff and opening fresh cans of Whup-Tush whenever the situation calls for it. Russell seems to have a penchant for eccentric parents (Flirting w/Disaster, SLP, e.g.), though he plays that theme more quietly this time, with VA Madsen being wooed from reclusion/borderline psychosis by a Creole plumber (a subplot that maybe could have been developed more, and with a more comedic dynamic?).
My only real quibble is the length of denoument that followed what, for me, should really be the end of the film, the scene where she squares off with a Texan who has been ripping her off and has him nearly crying like a baby. That's the scene that fulfills the question posed by Isabella R. earlier in the film where she asks if Joy can "pick up the gun" in a business situation, and a satisfying endpoint on her character arc. Instead, we are treated to a VO scene of her later success and wealth, passing references to what sound like pretty horrendous familial conflicts and legal battles, and then there she is, sitting behind the big desk, telling a supplicant inventor how she knows "what it's like to sit in that chair," so that we aren't too put off by how cold and polished and distant she looks from the warm and vulnerable character we saw in the rest of the film. Meh.
Anyway, I do salute Russell for somehow making me taking great interest in a film that is about a success story on the Home Shopping channel, a sub-subgenre I would normally steer clear around if humanly possible. |
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