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| carrobin |
 Posted: Fri Dec 22, 2017 1:39 am |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 7795
Location: NYC
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I'd love to see "The Shape of Water," but I wonder whether it would be too esoteric for her--but if so she'd just doze off, probably. I don't know enough about "Downsizing" because Billy's warning about the trailer has put me off reading much about it. She isn't that into politics, except for her antipathy for Trump, so although I want to see "The Post," I'm not sure she'd stay awake. I'll read up on the others--"Coco" sounds good but I think she has a real thing against animation now. But I'll suggest some of those to her, since it's possible that she'd really be interested in Emily Dickinson or LBJ. (I wonder if people think "Lady Bird" is connected with "LBJ.")
Thanks for all suggestions. Usually I get to Columbia and have no idea what's relevant for an outing, and the various movie theaters tend to run the same five or six flicks regardless of what else is out there. I'm not even sure that they'll be showing "The Shape of Water" or the Churchill film, but they'll have "The Post" because it's got Hanks and Streep. I suspect that otherwise it'll be Jedi all the way. (And I want to see that too--but she doesn't.) |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Fri Dec 22, 2017 6:11 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9008
Location: Shanghai
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Befade wrote: Well said. I've just seen 6 current films and I could say a lot about each of them but this doesn't seem to be the place to do this anymore. Is there another venue where discussion is going on?
Definitely post your thoughts on them, even if it's just a few sentences on each.
I always liked this place best to learn about New Films and get a read on what was good and what I might like. I used to watch over 40 new films per year and would write about most. But the Dvd market here has really slumped and the last 2 or 3 years, I'm down to maybe 2 dozen new films and gettign a later start on them than ever before.
One thing you to have realize is that everyone has access to new films at different times. Billy and those in NYC first, people in further-flung cities and towns later, gromit whenever the pirated dvd's churn out, and some probably wait for netflix.
Often by the time I see a new film, I review it here and then have to search back to when others saw and commented on it. last week I posted my To See list for '17, some of which I'm excited for.
All of which is a long way of saying that it's good and useful for you to review new films here, even if feedback might occur a ways down the road. |
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Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Fri Dec 22, 2017 12:26 pm |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Posts: 6948
Location: Black Hills
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Last edited by bartist on Fri Dec 22, 2017 7:59 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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| Befade |
| Posted: Fri Dec 22, 2017 1:13 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 3784
Location: AZ
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| Carol...I go to films with a 93 year old friend and I have a sense of what she likes. We just saw LBJ and had different reactions to it. She thought he was like Trump and a bully. I thought he came across to me as a good negotiator....something that doesn't seem to exist now. We both liked it. She doesn't hear well so I have to explain some things to her later. She wanted to see Murder on the Orient Express and when she fell asleep I gently woke her up. I had to do a lot of 'splaining to her later. That might be a good fit for your mother. |
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Lost in my own private I dunno. |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Fri Dec 22, 2017 4:14 pm |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Posts: 6948
Location: Black Hills
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Last edited by bartist on Fri Dec 22, 2017 8:00 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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| carrobin |
| Posted: Fri Dec 22, 2017 6:01 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 7795
Location: NYC
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| Befade, "Murder on the Orient Express" might be a good choice, if it's still playing. It's low on my priority list (I loved the previous one, don't need a second version), but back in the '80s she and I took a tourist trip on the Orient Express between London and Bath, and I know she would connect. |
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| Syd |
| Posted: Fri Dec 22, 2017 9:38 pm |
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Site Admin
Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 12894
Location: Norman, Oklahoma
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| I'm rather interested in The Greatest Showman, which is getting mixed reviews. It's a musical based on the (sanitized) career of P. T. Barnum, and has Hugh Jackman in the lead. It's also got Michelle Williams and Zendaya, the singer-actress who I liked a lot in Spiderman: Homecoming. Maybe that would be a good choice. According to Rotten Tomatoes, it's around 50% with critics and well over 80% with audiences. |
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| knox |
| Posted: Sat Dec 23, 2017 11:32 am |
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Joined: 18 Mar 2010
Posts: 1245
Location: St. Louis
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All the Money in the World - looks good. Attention 97 year olds: fine lead performance by an 87 year old. And comes with its own special casting crisis and last-minute editing feats. Spacey was too young for the part anyway - Getty was what, 80 at the time.
Merry Christmas, Festivus, and Solstice. I had some forum suggestions, but deleted them. Just not right to harsh the holiday buzz. (relatives will do that!) |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Mon Dec 25, 2017 12:55 pm |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Posts: 6948
Location: Black Hills
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Hi, Knox. We are seeing ATMITW this week. Good buzz for this.
Local moviehouse showed "It's a Wonderful Life," and we enjoyed it. It's a better (and breathtakingly timely!) film when you aren't watching bits and pieces at home and then wandering off (which has been the way I've seen it in the past). On the big screen, start to finish, it packs more emotional punch and makes a classic case for civilization as a social order that is not just about the bottom line. It's possible to be corny and still say something. My only small issue remains the notion that Donna Reed would be a reclusive and sad librarian in the alternate universe where George Bailey didn't exist. This seems to be a truth that the angel Clarence has conjured for George's familial contentment, one gathers -- when he is restored to his timeline, he won't be imagining Mary living with some other husband (which is probably what would actually have happened, given her looks and personality).
Philosophy-wise, it's a film that some may want to disagree with: the great man theory. If George had never existed, is it possible that someone else would inevitably have filled that nice guy niche, saved the brother from the icy pond, prevented a poisoning, been a foil to Mr. Scrooge Potter, etc.? I do like the way it asserts so robustly the worth and dignity of the individual, that we aren't just cattle. And Stewart is just the man for delivering that assertion, even if he often seems volatile and childlike. Whatever the case, it works.
Merry Christmas, you Old Film Website! Merry Christmas, Emporium! Merry Christmas.... |
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| knox |
| Posted: Mon Dec 25, 2017 3:03 pm |
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Joined: 18 Mar 2010
Posts: 1245
Location: St. Louis
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Merry Xmas, Beford Falls.
I want to see Syd's movie, too, which also has Michelle Williams, a fine actress. I haven't heard anything about The Greatest Show , but if it's got an audience rating then I guess it's snuck into the plexes here and I missed it. The season is good for movies, given that's it enjoyable just to get out to any event that's indoor and heated.
I like IAWL as a film that was completely retooled by a shifting audience. In the 40s, it was seen as way too down on small town life, when people were worn out from the war and wanted something more purely upbeat. Never mind that George actually finds so much redemption and love in sticking close to home all those years. George didn't get to see the world, attend architecture school and build soaring skyscrapers. Sad, in one way, a creative mind suffocated by a small town. It's like it took the country a long time (and multiple tv broadcasts) to figure out the other side of the coin, the positives of the film, which Barton described. I, too, had a sense that Donna Reed's alternate reality double was beyond implausible...she wasn't going to wither in any universe.
And, totally trivial, but is Uncle Billy's shoulder-pal a crow or a Minah bird? |
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| Syd |
| Posted: Mon Dec 25, 2017 6:25 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 12894
Location: Norman, Oklahoma
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| The Greatest Showman just opened last Wednesday, so should be in theaters now. |
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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 26, 2017 9:59 am |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Posts: 6948
Location: Black Hills
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knox wrote: Merry Xmas, Beford Falls.
I want to see Syd's movie, too, which also has Michelle Williams, a fine actress. I haven't heard anything about The Greatest Show , but if it's got an audience rating then I guess it's snuck into the plexes here and I missed it. The season is good for movies, given that's it enjoyable just to get out to any event that's indoor and heated.
I like IAWL as a film that was completely retooled by a shifting audience. In the 40s, it was seen as way too down on small town life, when people were worn out from the war and wanted something more purely upbeat. Never mind that George actually finds so much redemption and love in sticking close to home all those years. George didn't get to see the world, attend architecture school and build soaring skyscrapers. Sad, in one way, a creative mind suffocated by a small town. It's like it took the country a long time (and multiple tv broadcasts) to figure out the other side of the coin, the positives of the film, which Barton described. I, too, had a sense that Donna Reed's alternate reality double was beyond implausible...she wasn't going to wither in any universe.
And, totally trivial, but is Uncle Billy's shoulder-pal a crow or a Minah bird?
A raven. I'll offer this link once and then....nevermore!
http://morethanyouneededtoknow.typepad.com/the_unsung_joe/2009/12/koko-the-raven.html |
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| Befade |
| Posted: Tue Dec 26, 2017 3:00 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: AZ
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I found it's a Wonderful repulsive. Every time James Stewart had an urge to explore, adventure, or experience life outside his hometown he was thwarted. This comes from the perspective of anyone, me included who grew up in an unhappy family or didn't have the popularity to survive high school. Getting away was essential.
It makes me think of the movie I just saw: My Friend Dahmer...based on a graphic book by a high school friend of Jeffrey Dahmer. This is an extreme example because he was a child with an unusual interest in dissecting road kill. He had a mentally ill mother....thus a completely unsupportive mess of a family. He was an oddball in high school who achieved recognition and friends by reinacting scenes as a victim cerebral palsy fearlessly.
The movie ends when he graduates high school....a friendless alcoholic. I thought it was well acted and empathetic to anyone who didn't fit in. I think the Wonderful excludes this whole population of people who need to be somewhere beside their hometown to flourish. |
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Lost in my own private I dunno. |
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| bartist |
| Posted: Wed Dec 27, 2017 1:20 pm |
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Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Posts: 6948
Location: Black Hills
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Befade wrote: I found it's a Wonderful repulsive. Every time James Stewart had an urge to explore, adventure, or experience life outside his hometown he was thwarted....
I hear ya. And most of the original 40's audience rejected it, on that basis. As I said earlier, the positives that emerged for me on a later viewing were about redemption, about someone who did a lot of good for a lot of people (all the people in Bedford Falls who gained decent affordable housing) and ultimately had the wealth of good friends and the honor of being recognized as a genuine moral force. But, it's true enough that his life is a real mixed bag, and the sacrifices are painful. IAWL certainly can only be the one movie it is, and it does remind me, as you did, that the stories of the misfits who must leave need to be told, too. |
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| Syd |
| Posted: Wed Dec 27, 2017 6:42 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 12894
Location: Norman, Oklahoma
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The Shape of Water is very good with Sally Hawkins' mute falling in love with what I think of as the Creature from the Blue Lagoon, partly because he's rather pretty, and partly because he can't speak but is very quick to pick up sign language. This is in 1962 and an American hunter has brought the Creature back to a secret research facility with the idea that studying a creature which can breathe both air and water might be helpful to astronauts somehow. Of course studying means dissection, and Eliza obviously can't permit that. (Hawkins and Octavia Spencer play cleaning women at the facility and Richard Jenkins plays Eliza' gay roommate.) And since this is 1962, the Russians are also interested.
This could easily have been a 1950s style movie with a romantic subplot, but it's moodier than that, and the romance is really the main plot. The result may wind up my top movie of the year. |
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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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