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| gromit |
 Posted: Tue Feb 28, 2017 1:47 pm |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9008
Location: Shanghai
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Agree with Billy that Arrival was a snooze.
The pace is slow. Limited character (and alien) development.
Rather perfunctory structure.
The time conceit seemed rather silly.
It seemed to say that we can't view the future because our language has tenses. Whereas it's really the other way around.
The alien ship/artifact/hovering rock made little sense and was left unexplored. The film was only interested in the linguistic/communication aspect, so we learn nothing of the science. Whether any of the ship's material could be scraped off or drilled into or otherwise analyzed. No theories of the composition, or the mechanism by which it remains suspended in defiance of gravity.
I thought it was a bit hokey the US military is willing to put all its trust in one linguistics professor (and one scientist who seems to have little to do).
Besides all of that, it just looked rather ugly. Especially inside the alien ship and in the military buildings. I didn't like the soundscape, as the groaning noises seemed too similar to the alien sounds. Or maybe they were interrelated. Was hard to tell and confusing early on.
The only interesting part was the alien writing. It was strange and unique (even if I thought the tentacle-and-ink concept was silly -- did the aliens always go around with glass walls to write upon?). I liked how the humans were impressed the aliens could write whole sentences so quickly and concisely, and then later they spurt out a whole essay in seconds. But I wasn't sure how Amy Adams went from being totally stumped to understanding alien words. I actually thought maybe I dozed off for 10 minutes, which is still a possibility, or they just elided the eureka moment and it was accretion that cracked the code.
Overall, not much there there. Though I guess it's ripe for a sequel when 3,000 years later the aliens need human help. That is if anyone wants to see those hokey boring aliens again, or cares to help them. |
Last edited by gromit on Thu Mar 02, 2017 11:27 am; edited 1 time in total
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| Ghulam |
| Posted: Thu Mar 02, 2017 2:56 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 4742
Location: Upstate NY
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The Iranian film "The Salesman", written and directed by Asghar Farhadi, fully deserves the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar that it got last Sunday. It has an excellent story, although with some minor plot line flaws. The performances of all actors, whether in major or minor roles, is superb; this in fact seems to be a characteristic of all Asghar Farhadi movies. For example, "A Separation" (which too won the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar in 2011) and "About Elly" (2009) also had bravura all cast performances. "The Salesman" also won two awards at Cannes, for Best Actor (Shahab Hosseini) and Best Screenplay (Asghar Farhadi).
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Thu Mar 02, 2017 8:32 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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Ghulam wrote: .
The Iranian film "The Salesman", written and directed by Asghar Farhadi, fully deserves the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar that it got last Sunday. It has an excellent story, although with some minor plot line flaws. The performances of all actors, whether in major or minor roles, is superb; this in fact seems to be a characteristic of all Asghar Farhadi movies. For example, "A Separation" (which too won the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar in 2011) and "About Elly" (2009) also had bravura all cast performances. "The Salesman" also won two awards at Cannes, for Best Actor (Shahab Hosseini) and Best Screenplay (Asghar Farhadi).
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Asghar Farhadi is arguably the most talented living filmmaker. A Separation is on my all-time top ten list, and The Past is almost as good. Cannot wait to see The Salesman. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Thu Mar 02, 2017 11:47 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: New York City
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Get Out is one of the best horror movies ever, and one of the most trenchant racial commentaries on film. It's also really funny. How many good horror comedies are there?* Jordan Peele has made a masterpiece.
* There's Sgt. Kabukiman N.Y.P.D., of course, but how many others? |
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| Ghulam |
| Posted: Thu Mar 02, 2017 1:03 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 4742
Location: Upstate NY
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billyweeds wrote: Get Out is one of the best horror movies ever, and one of the most trenchant racial commentaries on film. It's also really funny. How many good horror comedies are there?* Jordan Peele has made a masterpiece.
* There's Sgt. Kabukiman N.Y.P.D., of course, but how many others?
I enjoyed it too but a bit less than you did. I liked a comment I read, "It is a good satirization of ex-urban white liberals." |
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| Befade |
| Posted: Thu Mar 02, 2017 2:11 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: AZ
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| I had trouble with The Salesman. I really liked A Separation and The Past and other Iranian films. It might be the same trouble I had with Fences. In Fences I couldn't stand watching Denzel's character. Hated him. In The Salesman I was upset with the wife's behavior. Hated the way she dealt with her trauma. If the purpose of the filmmaker was to show how things are between men and women in Iran.......I guess some things I already know about and don't want to see on screen. |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Thu Mar 02, 2017 5:12 pm |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Posts: 6949
Location: Black Hills
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billyweeds wrote: Get Out is one of the best horror movies ever, and one of the most trenchant racial commentaries on film. It's also really funny. How many good horror comedies are there?* Jordan Peele has made a masterpiece.
* There's Sgt. Kabukiman N.Y.P.D., of course, but how many others?
Fixed that font problem!
And, oh yes, I want to see this ASAHP. |
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| carrobin |
| Posted: Thu Mar 02, 2017 5:16 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 7795
Location: NYC
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| The only horror comedy I've seen was Cabin in the Woods (Joss Whedon). Now I have to catch up with those two... |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Thu Mar 02, 2017 5:45 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: New York City
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carrobin wrote: The only horror comedy I've seen was Cabin in the Woods (Joss Whedon). Now I have to catch up with those two...
I thought The Cabin in the Woods had a fatal case of the cutes. Started out strong but totally fell apart. |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Thu Mar 02, 2017 7:27 pm |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
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Location: Black Hills
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| Ancient forces of the Whedonverse are stirring beneath Manhattan and about to break through the earth's crust under Billy's apartment. |
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He was wise beyond his years, but only by a few days. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Thu Mar 02, 2017 7:59 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: New York City
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bartist wrote: Ancient forces of the Whedonverse are stirring beneath Manhattan and about to break through the earth's crust under Billy's apartment.
Whedon and Weeden cannot really be enemies. |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Thu Mar 02, 2017 8:13 pm |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Posts: 6949
Location: Black Hills
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| Har! Yeah, I detected the "cutes" too. In a similar genre, "Colossal" looks like it might be fun. Opens in April in the USA. Got some good buzz at Toronto. |
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He was wise beyond his years, but only by a few days. |
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| Ghulam |
| Posted: Sat Mar 04, 2017 2:42 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: Upstate NY
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The documentary "I am not your Negro" brings back to life the eloquent voice of James Baldwin using his angry and melancholy unfinished book (the voice is actually Samuel L. Jackson's). The book was meant to be about the lives and deaths of Medgar Evers, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. The film is replete with many uncomfortable truths and is an excellent introduction to the Baldwin narrative. It was nominated for the Best Documentary Oscar but lost out to "O.J.: Made in America" which too is a remarkable documentary putting the O.J.Simpson trial in the context of the sweep of recent racial history.
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Mon Mar 06, 2017 6:19 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: New York City
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| The Salesman is not my favorite film by Asghar Farhadi. That would be 2011's A Separation. But since A Separation is on my all-time top-ten list, that's not saying much. The Salesman is a great movie in its own right, and Farhadi is probably the greatest of all living filmmakers. He's Iranian, as you might know from his well-pubicized, Rump-fueled boycott of the Oscar ceremony where he won his second Oscar for The Salesman. The film is one of those you can't say much about because the plot is almost everything and spoilers would be necessary. Suffice it to say it's about a married thirty-something couple in Tehran whose marriage is tested, to put it mildly, by an attack on the wife. It has profound things to say about gender politics, forgiveness, male chauvinism, sexual assault, and many other important issues. Sounds deep, and it is, but Farhadi is a supreme entertainer, and the suspense is killing. It's a fantastic film, and a must. |
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| Befade |
| Posted: Mon Mar 06, 2017 1:25 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 3784
Location: AZ
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| Speaking of Iranian films I highly recommend Something like Love. Tired of his country's restrictions he goes to Tokyo to make this one. He made Certfied Copy in Tuscany. But this one I didn't care for. |
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