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| billyweeds |
 Posted: Sat Feb 16, 2019 11:57 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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Syd wrote: Quote: the police have a weak ID
They have a positive ID from the perjurous cop. That counts a lot in a jury setting, particularly in the 1970s. But a competent attorney would make mincemeat of the prosecution's case.
I think Regina King is favored on the theory that the two nominees from
The Favourite will cancel each other out. As near as I can tell the only body to nominate the actress from Roma was the Academy, which doesn't bode well for her. That leaves Amy Adams and Regina King. Adams hasn't won any awards for her performance but I guess she could get a career award. I'm expecting Vice to get shut out.
I'm torn between Weisz and Stone.
I despised The Favourite and wasn't taken by the egregiously miscast Weisz or the overrated Olivia Colman. Stone was okay. The movie was IMO just rotten. Roma was amazing and the actresses were awesome but no chance. Regina King was excellent but my choice would be the non-nominated Kayli Carter for the under-the-radar masterpiece Private Life. |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Sun Feb 17, 2019 9:48 pm |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Posts: 6958
Location: Black Hills
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They Shall Not Grow Old, Peter Jackson's tour de force of restored and colorized WWI footage, with a created soundtrack (he hired lip readers to reproduce what soldiers were saying), is something to see in a theater if you can. Conveys the horror and senseless waste of warfare, yet resisting the temptation to be polemical or messagey. Possibly "we were blown away" is not the best choice of words to describe our viewing experience. Let's just say it's not a popcorn movie.
(ridiculous mis-titling edited ) |
Last edited by bartist on Mon Feb 18, 2019 3:30 pm; edited 1 time in total
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He was wise beyond his years, but only by a few days. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Mon Feb 18, 2019 10:05 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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bartist wrote: They Shall not be Forgotten, Peter Jackson's tour de force of restored and colorized WWI footage, with a created soundtrack (he hired lip readers to reproduce what soldiers were saying), is something to see in a theater if you can. Conveys the horror and senseless waste of warfare, yet resisting the temptation to be polemical or messagey. Possibly "we were blown away" is not the best choice of words to describe our viewing experience. Let's just say it's not a popcorn movie.
Let's also say that its title is They Shall Not Grow Old. I found it riveting for the first 15 minutes but then monotonous. The after-feature documentary on how it was made was more interesting to me. That doc is not seen at all showings. |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Mon Feb 18, 2019 3:40 pm |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Posts: 6958
Location: Black Hills
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| Yeah, we had a "why are those idiots leaving" moment when the first credits rolled. About half the audience stayed. I live with a packrat, who was very vindicated by the bit about how he thought he had just a short run of issues of War Illustrated (or whatever it was called - the subzero weather here seems to be affecting my verbal memory lately) and then found he had them ALL. She's always looking for ways to validate the Packrat Ethos. I still don't know why there's a drawer with 37 kinds of nail trimmers. Are we going to make a movie about nail trimming? |
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He was wise beyond his years, but only by a few days. |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Mon Feb 18, 2019 11:11 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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| Sometimes I think you and I, bart, were separated at birth. We are both married to packrats. More evidence. |
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| carrobin |
| Posted: Tue Feb 19, 2019 12:11 am |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 7795
Location: NYC
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Speaking as a packrat, in the defense of the species here's a quote I saw on a greeting card once: "One of the advantages of being disorderly is that one is constantly making exciting discoveries." (A.A. Milne)
Though I'll admit that I live in hopes of clearing my apartment of the stacks of magazines, books, tapes and disks, etc., that make my studio apartment look like a storage room. But I already have two storage rooms. Calling Marie Kondo! |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Tue Feb 19, 2019 3:04 pm |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9010
Location: Shanghai
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| Actually, when it's disorderly I know where to find things. It's after I straighten up and put things away that I can't find where anything is. But I knew where it likely was among the mess. |
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Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
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| Syd |
| Posted: Tue Feb 19, 2019 11:23 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 12921
Location: Norman, Oklahoma
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Watching Roma, unfortunately on my computer on Netflix, which is not the best. Some spoilers, probably.
What impresses me is how little of interest happens in the first 55 minutes, except for one scene where the father is parking his car in a garage (or patio; I was never quite sure), and there's about two inches leeway on each side, and he manages not to hit anything. We never get to see him back out, which I think would be less successful.
The story is seen though the eyes of one of the family's maids/nannies, who I didn't find to be all that interesting. The father of the family disappears, as does the maid's boyfriend, which means both the male adults in the film are scum. But at the 55 minute point, the family finds themselves celebrating New Year's Eve in the most appallingly tastelessly decorated house I've ever seen, including one room where they have all the deceased family dogs' heads mounted on plaques. And let us not forget the living room where which is full of stuffed animals including a deer (Rudolph?) by a Christmas tree and a stuffed boar that seems embedded in an end table. I was thinking that's what you get for being a running-dog lackey of the bourgeousie: you will be up against the wall when the revolution comes.
Which it does in part. What is really toned down in the first half becomes explicit in the second: this is 1970, the time of the so-called "Dirty War" in Mexico, which was similar in some ways to our protests at the time, with more casualties and less effectual. I didn't know about this while watching the film and was educated.
I don't really see this as a Best Picture, and frankly, I'm surprised it was nominated, which puts me in the odd position that I didn't see a 2018 film that I do think deserves Best Picture. I liked BlacKKKlansman the best of the nominees, and I didn't see Bohemian Rhapsody or Vice, but neither of them looked deserving either. I suspect I'd detest Vice; living through Dick Cheney once was enough. |
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| Syd |
| Posted: Tue Feb 19, 2019 11:25 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 12921
Location: Norman, Oklahoma
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| By the way, although I don't think she will win, Marina de Tavira Servitje absolutely deserves to win for Supporting Actress and I'm amazed she hasn't been sweeping the awards. |
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I had a love and my love was true but I lost my love to the yabba dabba doo, --The Flintstone Lament |
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| billyweeds |
| Posted: Wed Feb 20, 2019 6:23 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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Syd--Could not disagree more about Roma, which included no less than three of the most emotionally devastating sequences I've ever seen in a movie. True, they all appear in the second half, but I found the first half riveting as well. Cuaron's cinematography was as stunning as any I've ever seen. But I have it on the suspicion of a cinematographer friend that he probably won't win for that, since cinematographers (who do the voting) don't look kindly on directors doing their own camerawork.
Oh, in case you didn't get it, I think Roma deserves the Oscar, and deserves it as much as any film in the last decade. Otherwise, it was a poor year for movies. I greatly admired BlacKkKlansman and A Star is Born, however. (Of the nominated films.) My second favorite film of the year is Private Life. And I loved Mary Poppins Returns.
One more thing: I saw Roma on Netflix. I plan to see it again in a theater, but it was plenty great on the "small" screen. |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Fri Feb 22, 2019 12:38 am |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Posts: 6958
Location: Black Hills
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| We saw Perry Moppins tonight and pretty much entered into a state of bliss and delight that musicals once induced in us back when Angela Lansbury was a Soviet agent and Dick van Dyke was a chimney sweep. Rather than dying of scrotal cancer (as was the habit of sweeps) however, Van Dyke somehow found a fountain of youth that allows him, at age 93, to leap onto desks and bust some moves. I really have nothing to say about other performers in the film beyond that they made me absurdly happy and therefore capable of nothing but blather and bombast. |
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He was wise beyond his years, but only by a few days. |
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| Befade |
| Posted: Fri Feb 22, 2019 2:50 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 3784
Location: AZ
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Agree.....Three of the most emotionally devastating scenes I’ve ever seen in a film. And I saw it on the big screen. I can still feel the pain.
I veer toward the seldom seen foreign films. Shoplifting and Capernaum were my favorites of the year. I did like this year’s films.
When you are a pack rat you never want to move. You are storing goodies for your future in the same home. Because I’m un packing for a future move I carefully determine what I have that actually sparks joy........ |
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Lost in my own private I dunno. |
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| knox |
| Posted: Sun Feb 24, 2019 11:53 am |
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Joined: 18 Mar 2010
Posts: 1246
Location: St. Louis
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| Befade |
| Posted: Sun Feb 24, 2019 4:15 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 3784
Location: AZ
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| I just saw Cold War so I’m curious which foreign film will win. Cold War had wonderful black and white cinematography and fabulous music but there was a plotting problem: what was it that the lovers loved about each other? I wouldn’t pick that one. |
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| Syd |
| Posted: Sun Feb 24, 2019 7:18 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 12921
Location: Norman, Oklahoma
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| How to Train Your Dragon 3: The Hidden World continues the fine work in this series and brings it to a logical conclusion. Very nice coda, too. |
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I had a love and my love was true but I lost my love to the yabba dabba doo, --The Flintstone Lament |
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