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gromit
Posted: Sun Sep 23, 2018 9:57 am Reply with quote
Joined: 31 Aug 2004 Posts: 9008 Location: Shanghai
Tully
I actually saw the twist coming a mile away and I'm usually myopic, rarely trying to guess where a film is headed, preferring to just experience things as they unfold. I thought the film was okay, but thought the themes were bluntly handled for the most part. And some of the dialogue seemed both over-written and flat. While the rich brother stuff never seemed real to me, but just another writerly device, barely sketched in. I thought Young Adult was fairly brilliant, but this companion piece seemed fairly minor to me.

[spoiler]
I did want to point out the parallel between Jonah needing an aide but not getting one, and Marlo's situation. In both cases such an assistant is rather unusual, but could be undoubtedly helpful. Maybe the reality is everybody could use an assistant in life.

The car accident rubbed me the wrong way. I can see how it serves two purposes: Marlo's crackup and the reveal, but still it felt like a phony screenwriter device. Then again that was also foreshadowed as we have a number of driving scenes where Jonah acts up and could have caused stressed-out Marlo to have an accident.

The mermaid stuff seemed superfluous to me, but I have a habit of simply tuning out elements I don't care for or don't think work. It all just seems too obvious of a metaphoric device, though they tried to integrate it through the accident scene. Maybe it will work better on a 2nd viewing. Or maybe it will just be left out of my version of the film.
[/spoiler]

And while I'm all for more films centered on women I don't know why that often equates to the males being insignificant and useless [see Greta Gerwig films]. In this case, the husband is barely there, mostly just saying okay or fine to whatever he is asked. I realize the film wants to get at the subjective state of Marlo, and she's focused on things other than her husband during this period. But still, this seems to be a trend of ineffectual males as females assert themselves. I guess the flip side of the Hollywood tradition.

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bartist
Posted: Sun Sep 23, 2018 7:38 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 27 Apr 2010 Posts: 6954 Location: Black Hills
Yeah, the husband was sort of tuned out, which I took to be the point... that he just hadn't signed up for a third child and was trying to hide.

I imagine many saw the twist. I really was thick as a brick on that one. (Jethro Tully)

Agree it didn't rise to the level of Young Adult. But Theron is always good. Duplass, the brother, was pretty underused and yes, not well enough developed. A funnier version of this movie would have put him more in the story.

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gromit
Posted: Mon Sep 24, 2018 1:50 am Reply with quote
Joined: 31 Aug 2004 Posts: 9008 Location: Shanghai
On my other film site, there are a few people who rave about Tully and think it really captures frazzled motherhood and middle-aging.

I never felt like I knew who Marlo was or where she was coming from.
And when it's slipped in that she's an HR person at a faceless company, that didn't really fit, or tell us much about her either. Just that she's conformed. And the fact that she is fighting growing up and essentially becoming her mother or whatever isn't that interesting to me, since it's pretty standard and done in far too many male-centered films.

But maybe that's just me. I've been wary/disappointed in many female-centered and gay-themed films over the past decade or two, because they tend to just rehash stories that have been done to death, but present them as "new" because the protag isn't a hetero male.

For me, Tully came down to how well it captures motherhood. The whole plot twist portion of the film didn't do much for me. And the key is how you react to that.
_______________________________________________

Otherwise, I was amused how the brothers-in-law both think the other harbors hatred while there seems to actually be little or no conflict or animosity.

And I thought it strange that the sexy waitress uniform wasn't sexy and was a fairly hideous color. Not sure what was up with that. But it certainly wouldn't be my idea of a fantasy waitress uniform.

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bartist
Posted: Fri Sep 28, 2018 12:11 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 27 Apr 2010 Posts: 6954 Location: Black Hills
A Simple Favor is a darkly funny Mommy Noir, with the always reliably cute and quirky Anna Kendrick, and a disturbingly dark Blake Lively. It's not a great movie - it's sort of like they turned Gone Girl into a screwball comedy - but it's fun and makes clever use of the Vlogger trope (Kendrick is a single mom with a cooking/crafts vlog that seems fairly dull in a chirpy way until her new best friend mysteriously disappears). Some nice supporting moments from Jean Smart and a congenial police detective.

Before it rolled, there was a trailer for A Star is Born that made me think it could be sort of a turkey, in spite of all its star power.

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Syd
Posted: Sat Oct 06, 2018 8:26 pm Reply with quote
Site Admin Joined: 21 May 2004 Posts: 12902 Location: Norman, Oklahoma
A Star Is Born (the fifth version of the story if you count What Price Hollywood), is well worth seeing, with assured direction by Bradley Cooper, and starring and singing performances by Cooper and Lady Gaga. Not to my surprise, Lady Gaga is an excellent actress and the camera loves her slightly odd features. She's a likely candidate for acting and songwriting awards. (Cooper also co-wrote quite a few of the songs.) Andrew Dice Clay has been resurrected to play Lady Gaga's father, and Sam Elliot is Cooper's considerably older brother and manager. Both are good, but the stars dominate.

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bartist
Posted: Tue Oct 09, 2018 10:13 am Reply with quote
Joined: 27 Apr 2010 Posts: 6954 Location: Black Hills
Good to hear. Trailers can give a very skewed view. The one I saw seemed pitched towards younger viewers.

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bartist
Posted: Fri Oct 12, 2018 10:28 am Reply with quote
Joined: 27 Apr 2010 Posts: 6954 Location: Black Hills
"Hereditary," at the start comes at you like a Shirley Jackson novel, with eccentric people in an ominous house who have just lost the family matriarch. At first there were flashes of humor and wit that led me to think the film would continue to follow the Shirley Jackson playbook, perhaps presided over by a Wes Anderson-ish aesthetic (the mother is an artist who makes dollhouse vignettes which reflect her own domestic life). In this expectation, I was disappointed. About 2/3 of the way through the film, things begin to grimly and unsubtly devolve into a more predictable pastiche of well-worn horror movie cliches - a pinch of Rosemary's Baby (with Ann Dowd as the Ruth Gordon character), a dollop of The Omen II, and so on towards a dismal and silly Eyes Wide Shut conclusion in a treehouse. It's still worth watching, due to some fine performances - Toni Collette is an interesting mess, and Ann Dowd is always maternally disturbing in pretty much everything I've seen her in. But I can't agree with some critics who are calling it an instant horror classic. Perhaps the rookie director may have one in his future.

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Joe Vitus
Posted: Mon Oct 15, 2018 1:09 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 14498 Location: Houston
Couldn't stand the latest A Star is Born, a series of shapeless scenes in which nothing makes much sense. In the Streisand version (which this one seems to rely on most as a touchstone), Streisand's narcissism meant you mostly didn't get see anything of Kris Kristofferson except the back of his head. Bradly Cooper takes this to be an aesthetic and films most everyone most of the time this way--the backs of their heads or a profile featuring a bit of the face and a large portion of the back of their head.
I guess it doesn't matter, since nearly everyone has the same one expression on their faces in nearly every scene. Lady Gaga is playing Lady Gaga, I assume. Otherwise, why else is "Ally" so un-phased by meeting and being courted by one of the biggest names in the music business of her time?
Oddly, Andrew Dice Clay is touching as her father; basically every scene worth watching features him (I love he and his friends explaining to each other what "hits" are on a webpage, and the use of algorithms).


Last edited by Joe Vitus on Mon Oct 15, 2018 5:14 pm; edited 1 time in total

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billyweeds
Posted: Mon Oct 15, 2018 3:38 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 20618 Location: New York City
I agree that Hereditary has been overpraised, but cannot deny its power. It's terminally unpleasant and the antithesis of entertainment. Toni Collette's final scene is unfortunately unremovable from memory. But the acting--particularly by Collette and Alex Wolff--is extraordinary, and the direction is superb. Cannot, however, wholeheartedly recommend it. It's just too grim.
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Ghulam
Posted: Wed Oct 17, 2018 3:23 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 4742 Location: Upstate NY
.

"Can You Ever Forgive Me?"


Raves for a Melissa McCarthy movie at last!



.
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Joe Vitus
Posted: Thu Oct 18, 2018 10:52 am Reply with quote
Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 14498 Location: Houston
Heard her interviewed on NPR this morning, and it sounds like a winner.

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Ghulam
Posted: Thu Oct 18, 2018 11:50 am Reply with quote
Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 4742 Location: Upstate NY
.
Welcome back, Joe!


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Joe Vitus
Posted: Thu Oct 18, 2018 7:48 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 14498 Location: Houston
Thanks!

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bartist
Posted: Fri Oct 19, 2018 10:10 am Reply with quote
Joined: 27 Apr 2010 Posts: 6954 Location: Black Hills
Hi, Joe. Last year, we were wondering if you had been blown away by the then-current film "Harvey." Unfortunately not a remake of the Jimmy Stewart classic.

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Syd
Posted: Fri Oct 19, 2018 10:13 pm Reply with quote
Site Admin Joined: 21 May 2004 Posts: 12902 Location: Norman, Oklahoma
Saw First Man today, and have mixed feelings about it (mostly because Neil Armstrong wasn't an emotionally demonstrative person), but the manufactured controversy about the absence of a flag-raising scene was an opportunistic attempt to appeal to stupidity aided and abetted by the imbecile in chief. Claire Foy is outstanding as Janet Shearon (Neil's wife). I was surprised Kyle Chandler played Deke Slayton, because I would have sworn it was Fred Ward.

Apparently the reason we spend tens of billions of dollars to go to the Moon was so Neil Armstrong could pay tribute to his dead daughter.

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