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| bartist |
 Posted: Mon Dec 13, 2021 8:37 pm |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Posts: 6948
Location: Black Hills
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| Belfast is Branagh's sorta autobiographical love letter to his childhood home, and it's a beautiful piece of film. With a Van Morrison soundtrack that would please any fan. The fuller exploration of the Troubles is to be found in other movies, as this one centers on the nine year old pov of Branagh, ca. 1969. But we absorb enough to understand what is at stake for the family as the father turns against the more extremist Protestant faction which assumes he will join them and donate money. The story and characters have charm and sweetness, and convincingly thick brogues, and I enjoyed this slice of their lives, but I have to warn you that it's on the shallow side. But maybe anything that touches on those themes in under two hours cannot achieve any great depth. |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Mon Dec 13, 2021 8:50 pm |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
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Location: Black Hills
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Syd wrote: House of Gucci is overlong, and especially good in the first hour of so before the walls start crumbling down. Lady Gaga is definitely the best thing in it and makes you wonder what would have happened if Patrizia Reggiani had devoted herself to niceness rather than evil. I guess the house would have crashed anyway. Very gorgeous, and note one climactic scene which is in an appropriately seedy location as opposed to the beautiful locations elsewhere worth seeing. I'm fine with most of the performances, including Pacino, Leto and Driver, though Driver's better in the happy scenes. I'm absolutely convinced that he and Patrizia would marry and be happy for a while. Hell, I'd consider marrying her.
I would definitely keep the knives locked up.
Sounds like the Super Mario thing, with Leto, worked for you.
Agree there was better control of the plot and pacing in the first hour. |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Thu Dec 16, 2021 4:22 pm |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9008
Location: Shanghai
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I didn't get much of anything from Nomadland.
It all seemed rather basic and familiar.
And not as interesting as the people and places I met when I drove around cross-country til my money ran out.
Also, I got tired of the rather intrusive score. And for such a free-form type film about drifting, it was very mannered with plenty of clunky dialog and scripting.
I'd also prefer if the film made some judgment. For example, is Amazon a good place to work? Is there friction between the full-time workers and the seasonal temps? Are workers rushed, stuck with long shifts, and constantly monitored?I know that's not the film's focus, but just McDormand serenely pushing a rack down aisles while smiling at fellow workers seemed extremely limited. I think overall, I would have preferred a film about Bob. He at least had a philosophy and was articulate.
It all seemed rather pat and well-worn and I can't think of one bit of dialog or scene that will stay in my memory by tomorrow. Maybe the 80 foot dinosaur ... |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Thu Dec 16, 2021 7:39 pm |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
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Location: Black Hills
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A Bob Wells movie would definitely drill down into some of the themes better, like the anti-materialism that he teaches.
I liked the photography (and familiar places to me personally), and I appreciated McDormand's melancholy performance and struggle with her own conflicts between freedom and attachment. But her style did, as you note, put a lot of limits on what could be shown to us. She is too closed-off to really cast much light on why the Dave haven didn't work out. Or the sister thing. She remains a low-key enigma.
I think the film may have suggested Amazon isn't a good place to work, but I would not try to persuade anyone to a second viewing to catch that.
I liked Zhao's earlier film, The Rider, much more. |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Fri Dec 17, 2021 8:09 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
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Location: Shanghai
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A lot of the film seemed really familiar and fairly auto-pilot.
Have you been to Wall Drugs? |
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| Syd |
| Posted: Fri Dec 17, 2021 8:27 am |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 12892
Location: Norman, Oklahoma
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| I confess I only made it 20 minutes into Nomadland until I went looking for something more interesting. |
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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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| bartist |
| Posted: Fri Dec 17, 2021 11:04 am |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
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Location: Black Hills
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gromit wrote: A lot of the film seemed really familiar and fairly auto-pilot.
Have you been to Wall Drugs?
Our family vacationed in the Black Hills when I was growing up. My wife is from the area. We now live in Rapid City. It's a bit like asking a New Yorker if they've ever seen a skyscraper. |
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He was wise beyond his years, but only by a few days. |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Fri Dec 17, 2021 11:08 am |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
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Location: Black Hills
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| I will say that Wall Drug (no S) affected me the same way Nomadland affected Syd. After 20 minutes I want to look for something more interesting. |
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| inlareviewer |
| Posted: Mon Dec 27, 2021 11:09 pm |
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Joined: 05 Jul 2004
Posts: 1949
Location: Lawrence, KS
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Hello, Beautiful Third Eye Peeps.
We are still in Lawrence Effing Kansas, but there it is. Here's inla's top 10 thus far:
1. "Summer of Soul."
2. "West Side Story."
3. "Pig"
4. "Belfast"
5. "Spencer"
6. "Passing"
7. "The Power of The Dog"
8. ""CODA"
9. "The French Dispatch"
10. "tick, tick...BOOM!"
"Mass," "Parallel Mothers," "Drive My Car," "A Hero," "The Last Duel," still to be seen, but those 10 all slayed us. Wanted to love but didn't "Being The Ricardos, "Don't Look Up," and loved but didn't quite embrace "Luca," and the messterpiece of the year is "Annette." So there. Cannot believe it's been this long, but SO good to be back here. This is the place where true cinemaddiction lives. Just saying. It's ALL so subjective. That's all. inla out. |
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| inlareviewer |
| Posted: Tue Dec 28, 2021 1:47 pm |
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Joined: 05 Jul 2004
Posts: 1949
Location: Lawrence, KS
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Well, it's already changed
1. "Summer of Soul."
2. "West Side Story."
3. "Pig"
4. "Belfast"
5. "Mass"
6. "Spencer"
7. "Passing"
8. ""The Power of The Dog."
9. "The French Dispatch"
10. "tick, tick...BOOM!"
11. "CODA"
"Parallel Mothers," "Flee," "Drive My Car," "A Hero," "Licorice Pizza," "King Richard," "House of Gucci," "Cyrano," "The Last Duel," still to be seen, and something else will undoubtedly pop up. "Annette" remains the weird messterpiece, and the more I think about "Luca," the happier I am remembering it (though "Mitchells vs. The Machines" is probably the richer fillum.) And there you have it. inla out. |
Last edited by inlareviewer on Tue Dec 28, 2021 10:46 pm; edited 2 times in total
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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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| gromit |
| Posted: Tue Dec 28, 2021 5:24 pm |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
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Location: Shanghai
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What did you get out of Pig?
It all seemed rather silly and pointless to me.
I liked the way you'd see characters approaching from a distance via a door or window. That was all I got. |
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| Syd |
| Posted: Tue Dec 28, 2021 8:39 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
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Location: Norman, Oklahoma
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Really liked Spielberg's version of "West Side Story." Very well filmed, acted, sung and choreographed. Rita Moreno's in it too, as the widow and owner of Doc's drugstore. As the Puerto Rican widow of an interracial marriage, she is understandably upset by the ethnic gang warfare, specially since many of the Jets grew up before her eyes. She gets to sing "Somewhere" rather than Maria, and it's poignant.
This isn't a clone of the 1960s musical, but I think the new choreography works even better, though you do get homages to the earlier film.
There's also a heavy helping of irony in that these gangs are fighting over a neighborhood that is being torn down, so continuing the war is really pointless. Just as in "Romeo and Juliet," where the feud is dying out except in the hands of a few diehards like Tybalt. |
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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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| bartist |
| Posted: Tue Dec 28, 2021 8:52 pm |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Posts: 6948
Location: Black Hills
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| Of those listed (nice to have the inla drop by), I've like West Side Story the best (but am halfway through Power of the Dog, and not sure where that will land). So much better than the original movie version, with knockout performances. Want to see tick tick boom but it hasn't passed through stixville. So might settle for small-screening it on Netflix. Also seeing Don't Look Up in near future, which I predict will be misunderstood by the many who don't get Adam McKay's brand of satire. |
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He was wise beyond his years, but only by a few days. |
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| inlareviewer |
| Posted: Tue Dec 28, 2021 10:35 pm |
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Joined: 05 Jul 2004
Posts: 1949
Location: Lawrence, KS
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gromit wrote: What did you get out of Pig?
It all seemed rather silly and pointless to me.
I liked the way you'd see characters approaching from a distance via a door or window. That was all I got.
The best performance Nicolas Cage has given since "Adaptation," some very potent supporting performance (especially Alex Woolf), a scenario 'that never went where I thought it would, and a too-soon-absent star performance from the titular porcine. What can I say? It got to me. It's ALL so subjective. |
Last edited by inlareviewer on Wed Dec 29, 2021 12:05 pm; edited 2 times in total
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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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| gromit |
| Posted: Wed Dec 29, 2021 2:35 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9008
Location: Shanghai
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Yeah, Nic Cage has been awful for a long time.
The weird old age and then injury make-up distracted me. And I thought the role was rather one-note.
The film didn't go where I expected, but I didn't like where it was going, so I started rooting for a dumb conventional resolution, such as Cage and his young helper coming up with some convoluted violent revenge plot, which would half fail and then overcome whatever obstacles. |
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