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| billyweeds |
 Posted: Wed Mar 02, 2016 1:29 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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I loved Joy and Jennifer Lawrence in it. Not a big JLaw fan, I was nonetheless completely won over by her performance in this weird and unpredictable charmfest. IMO it's her best since Winter's Bone by a wide margin. Aside from the waste of Madsen, whose Oscar loss in Sideways still smarts (just as much as Giamatti's non-nomination in the same film), I liked just about everything in the movie--including the behind-the-desk scene bartist seems not to like so much. It showed that even though someone can appear corporate and capitalist (and sometimes needs to), it doesn't necessarily change their inner being.
My only serious problem with Joy was the sequence where she sneaks into the warehouse and runs afoul of the bad guys. Unrealistically staged and needlessly melodramatic.
Edgar Ramirez is a god. |
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| Ghulam |
| Posted: Thu Mar 03, 2016 2:55 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 4742
Location: Upstate NY
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Witch is not just another of those horror movies. It is serious, insightful, has a literary bent and is superbly directed. It is set in New England several decades before the Salem witch trials. The cinematography is extra ordinary. Debut directorial effort by Robert Eggers, a name to remember.
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| marantzo |
| Posted: Thu Mar 03, 2016 8:56 pm |
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Joined: 30 Oct 2014
Posts: 278
Location: Winnipeg: It's a dry cold.
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Marta and I when to see Concussion today. It was very good and way better than we thought it would be.
Anyone see it?
Well....did anyone see it??????? |
Last edited by marantzo on Fri Mar 04, 2016 10:46 am; edited 1 time in total
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Big bang, shmig bang; still doesn't explain how anything starts. |
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| Befade |
| Posted: Thu Mar 03, 2016 10:24 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 3784
Location: AZ
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| I want to see The Witch and I'm not much for horror films. |
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Lost in my own private I dunno. |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Fri Mar 04, 2016 12:02 am |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Posts: 6965
Location: Black Hills
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Quote: The Witch scared the hell out of me. And it's a real movie, tense and thought-provoking as well as visceral....
-- Stephen King
Have heard raves elsewhere, for this film.
Nice to see an uptick in quality horror the past year. |
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He was wise beyond his years, but only by a few days. |
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| marantzo |
| Posted: Fri Mar 04, 2016 10:48 am |
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Joined: 30 Oct 2014
Posts: 278
Location: Winnipeg: It's a dry cold.
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PostPosted: Thu Mar 03, 2016 7:56 pm Post subject: Reply with quote Edit/Delete this post
Marta and I when to see Concussion today. It was very good and way better than we thought it would be.
Anyone see it?
Well....did anyone see it???????
_________________
Big bang, shmig bang; still doesn't explain how anything starts.
Last edited by marantzo on Fri Mar 04, 2016 9:46 am; edited 1 time in total |
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Big bang, shmig bang; still doesn't explain how anything starts. |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Fri Mar 04, 2016 11:17 am |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
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Location: Black Hills
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| I didn't see it, but my wife did when I wasn't in town - the encephalopathy situation in football is something she cares about, being sort of a fan of Nebraska. She liked it, but I don't recall specifics at the moment, beyond that she thought the performances were good and an interesting portrait of the doctor who is trying to sound the alarm. |
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He was wise beyond his years, but only by a few days. |
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| marantzo |
| Posted: Fri Mar 04, 2016 12:39 pm |
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Joined: 30 Oct 2014
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Location: Winnipeg: It's a dry cold.
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Thanks Bart. I'm glad someone saw it.  |
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Big bang, shmig bang; still doesn't explain how anything starts. |
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| Befade |
| Posted: Sun Mar 06, 2016 2:06 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: AZ
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Well...I wanted to see what The Witch was all about so I drove the 2 hours to see it. A creepy horror film. Yes. A serious film. Also yes.
What happens when a family separates itself from a community and has to depend on each other for survival? Talk about dysfunctional. The director researched fairy tales, myths, and history to present this twisted tale. Nothing really scared me until the end. But it definitely left a creepy aftertaste. Just the father and mother with their Biblical spoutings accomplished that.
There's the undercurrent of sexual coming of age and temptation factored in. I was impressed with the historical accuracy....clothing, buildings.
Footnote: I needed subtitles.....could not understand a lot of the old English dialect. |
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Lost in my own private I dunno. |
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| Syd |
| Posted: Thu Mar 10, 2016 7:07 pm |
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Site Admin
Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 12940
Location: Norman, Oklahoma
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| Zootopia's a delight. The scene with the sloths is great (and shown in a trailer), but there are quite a few just as good, including a chase scene through Tiny Rodentia. |
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Rocky Laocoon foretold of Troy's doom, only to find snaky water. They pulled him in and Rocky can't swim. Now Rocky wishes he were an otter! |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Wed Mar 16, 2016 12:58 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9016
Location: Shanghai
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Hmm, Zootopia is playing at the new IMAX 2 blocks away from me.
Though I don't know what language it's in. Probably dubbed in Chinese, I'd assume. I think it's setting records here. I guess good for a date, but if it's only on Chinese I'd be better off seeing it on dvd in English first. |
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Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Wed Mar 16, 2016 1:28 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
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Location: Shanghai
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SEx Machina.
Somewhat disappointing that the billionaire who can create very life-like robots complete with AI just wants to get drunk and have sex slaves. So despite some high-level mumbo-jumbo talk, the film isn't that interested in the implications of AI beyond would you hump a realistic robot. And then the film rather cheats at that, because the faces of the "robots" are clearly (attractive) female actresses. So it rather stacks the deck on what is a rather deflating question anyway.
It's too bad this chose to be a twisty thriller rather than explore the implications of AI much. I realize it tries or pretends to do both, but the thriller aspect seemed to predominate.
I thought the film hid its flaws fairly well.
Notably the home security system.
When Caleb arrives, the door talks to him (impressive!) and takes his photo and issues him a key card with his pic on it (kinda cool). Then it's explained that his key card gives him access to certain rooms but not others (nifty). So the key card system is presented as smart, efficient, well-designed. Then the sleight of hand -- the owner billionaire also has a key card with his photo on it. So he can design amazing AI, is very security conscious, even paranoid, but the best security he has is the same lame key card system every office uses. It would make a lot more sense if he had some sort of biometric system -- fingerprint or iris scanning.
Possible Spoilers:
I was also amused at the end where Alicia Vikander heads to the helicopter appearing as a woman not a robot. So they make her slightly robotic by having her walk without moving her arms at all. But she's already mastered facial expressions, language, thought, but she didn't fully pick up on how people actually walk. Again, it sort of works in the film, but is rather silly/unlikely when you think about it.
I also didn't really like the look of the film that much. Or its insistence that these were very smart people. I didn't really buy into the film much, or the idea that within one week, Caleb falls in love with a robot, becomes willing to deceive his boss, help a robot escape to freedom, and commit various crimes. |
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Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Wed Mar 16, 2016 1:37 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
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Location: Shanghai
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The Peanuts Movie.
I didn't hear a thing about this prior to seeing the dvd.
It does a nice job of stringing together a lot of familiar Peanuts themes into feature length. Charlie Brown has a streak of misfortune and failures and crisis of confidence and then things work out. Snoopy and Woodstock have a good time around the margins.
This was an enjoyable recap of all things Peanuts and should be a good introduction for a younger generation. It doesn't try to introduce anything new or stray from the comic strip and the early animated specials. So it really seemed to hit its mark and do what it set out to do. Charming, funny, sweet, and true to Schulz's vision -- it seemed two of his children were involved with the screenplay.
Maybe I'm a bit biased since this was part of my childhood, but I don't know why this didn't get more attention/recognition. |
Last edited by gromit on Sat Apr 02, 2016 11:20 am; edited 2 times in total
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| gromit |
| Posted: Wed Mar 16, 2016 2:13 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
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Location: Shanghai
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Concussion
I thought the underlying true story is quite interesting, which is no doubt why they made it into a film. The film they made is extremely conventional and workmanlike. Even the title doesn't show a lot of imagination. The famous actors kind of stood out too much as actors. Will Smith did a pretty good job of portraying an African doctor, but at times it looked like Will Smith acting a role. Alec Baldwin's bulk and puffiness fits in with the football culture, which is probably why he was cast, but I was also aware of him being AB. And Luke Wilson just looked like Luke Wilson in his cameo as the new commissioner of football.
This is a very formulaic presentation and the dialogue often veered into scripted speechifying. Almost my definition of a film on cable tv.
Recently, I've been helping a team of brain surgeons prepare patient case presentations in English, so I passed the dvd along to them. Will report back what they thought, if they watch it. I would have preferred if the film went into a little detail about what physically became manifest in overly concussed brains, rather than just have doctors look into a microscope at slides of brain slices and mutter wow. From a little internet research, what they saw were concentrations of tangled tau proteins, which are believed to disrupt neuron transmission and cause memory loss, dementia, and other cognitive issues. Tau proteins along with amyloid plaques are the signature of Alzheimer's disease.
In yesterday's news -- two days after I watched the film, the NFL for the first time acknowledged the connection between football and CTE (chronic traumatic encephalopathy), which is what the film is about. And it seems now a couple of hundred ex-football players have donated their brains to science, as the condition can currently only be detected via autopsy.
Though there was an interesting article last week about a new development using PET scans to detect those hallmarks of Alzheimer's early: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/health/elder/12181017/Brain-scan-to-diagnose-Alzheimers-disease-developed-by-scientists.html So maybe this technique could be used to detect tau proteins when folks are still alive, and eventually for active football players to monitor their fitness.
Basically CTE mimics elements of Alzheimer's and was often referred to as early Alzeimers, and in boxing terms "punch drunk." |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Wed Mar 16, 2016 10:10 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9016
Location: Shanghai
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Amy
Oddly I came out of this with the rather same vague views as I had going in. That Winehouse had an impressive voice and interesting phrasing, but her songs were often weak, while I didn't really get her appearance. It's impressive that there is so much footage and stills of her life -- I guess the reality of the modern world. It's distressing to see the shady people surrounding her who made half-hearted attempts to help her when she was spiraling down. her boyfriends seemed rather lame.
I thought her lyrics were particularly weak. But maybe simple lyrics allowed her to deploy her phrasings more readily. It's odd how throughout the entire film there isn't one comment about her appearance, except for thinness/bulimia. Nothing about her B52 'do, her tattoos (some of women?!), her unusual application of mascara, or her above the lip piercing. Maybe in the 21st C this kind of stuff is just taken for granted (except the bouffey hair). But I was wondering about these appearance choices. There also isn't really any sense of who her fans are/were.
The doc is fine enough, but also seemed limited and not as interesting as I expected. It kind of got in one mode -- showing Amy young and happy and progressively getting crankier and drugged up. And that was all it was about. |
Last edited by gromit on Thu Mar 17, 2016 10:19 am; edited 1 time in total
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