Last Movie You Saw, Name & Review Movie • Page 49

Loving is such a mediocre, by-the-books film that it is surprising to remember the ways in which Jeff Nichols started his career. Shotgun Stories showed a young man adapting a sort of Malick style, and Take Shelter was such a bold and openly religious work. Since then, though, the reaction for the last three films is mild appreciation, a sign that all of the talent and skill is still there but that he is either preferring the trappings of the mainstream film or he has been uninspired.

 

Minions - 7.5/10
Oblivion - 8/10

 

Universal's restoration of One-Eyed Jacks on the Criterion blu-ray is stunning. Brando and Charles Lang had exceptional eyes and their cinematography is absolutely gorgeous. For all the ways in which the film subverts the traditional western, it still adheres to some cliches that detract from what a brilliant work I think it maybe could have been, but given the friction between Brando and the studio I wonder how much of that might be due to interference on the studio end. It's a shame the film cost Brando so much on a personal level, and that he never directed again, because even with the knowledge of the troubled production and both the exasperated studio and the perfectionist Brando being unhappy with the finished product, I still found myself enraptured.

 

in my detective fiction class, we're watching Blade Runner today. It'll be my first time seeing it. Will report back

 

Never seen it but am intrigued by a Detective Fiction class.

 

Took one in college and it was my favorite class. Saw so many noirs...

 

detective fiction class

 

I'm picturing the laziest mystery author naming their main character Detective Fiction

 

Detective Fiction has class.

 

Surely James Patterson has already done that

 

Moonlight was fantastic. Regarding his transformation from Chiron to Black though, I think it makes perfect sense. Juan told him that you make yourself into the man you want to be and Juan was the only real adult male influence he had. I agree that it might have been better to not have him interact with Juan and Theresa after their conversation about Juan being a drug dealer and Chiron's mom doing drugs.

 

Elle was...a mess. It felt like it wanted to be 2 or 3 different movies and none of them really cohered into a message or a real point. Huppert, no surprise, does a good job, and there were some very effective scenes/moments, but the movie as a whole was a misfire for me.

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them suffers a bit from Hobbit-syndrome (mining a universe they've already used the best stories from) but has some inventive ideas for creatures and is well-paced and acted. They also veer closer to outright horror stylings than any of the Potter movies, which was novel. Curious to see if it will make for a solid series of movies.

Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk isn't as bad as advertised, but it's a somewhat-rewarding mess, mostly. I definitely get the sense I missed something not seeing it in HRF and native 4k. Just the way it was shot, you can tell you're missing something because he's shooting action scenes a mile away and then zooming in on faces like he's Leone. For every compassionate depiction of PTSD or witty wisecrack between the soldiers, there's a groaner or obvious cliche. Alwyn does a very good job for a newcomer and Chris Tucker is perfectly cast. Also I do not buy for one second that the brawl between the crew and the soldiers would happen

Rules Don't Apply was a loveable trifle. It got way oversold as Beatty's long-belabored passion project. It's mostly light in tone and really makes use of his knowledge of Hollywood machinations and two really charming leads. He is terrific as Hughes in a supporting role, but the last act of the movie where the focus shifts to him is a fairly major tone shift and paced a bit too fast. I'd love to see someone write an extended piece on the through-line of Golden Age Hollywood in this year's veteran auteur films (Cafe Society and Hail, Caesar!)

 

Noooooooo. It's my favorite of the year (at least of what I've had the chance to see twice, Paterson or Personal Shopper might top it on rewatch).

 

White Chicks - 10/10

 

Blade Runner was... visually stunning. It doesn't look dated at all. I think if more people knew 80s movies could look like this, they wouldn't be averse to checking out stuff like this (I know there are a lot of 80s movies that certainly don't look like this). The characters are something I need to dig into a bit. I have to write an essay on the motivation of the criminals and I'm afraid I don't have the time to give the movie the attention it deserves, but hopefully I can pull some stuff out of my two viewings.

 

most 80s American films don't look as nice as Blade Runner. No 80s sci fi films look as nice. It looks better than almost any other sci fi films.

It's a fantastic film. It's not complicated but it's effective. You should be able to write your essay no problem.

 

did you just watch the scene where Terry lip-syncs to A Thousand Miles?

 

By all means, sell me. Maybe a coherent interpretation of it might help.

 

I wish I was confident enough. But I really just think it's like a super fun Haneke film. I love Verhoeven's sense of humor in the film, something that I found was even more pronounced on second viewing when you're no longer trying to solve the mystery. It's also probably my favorite Huppert performance, which is nuts given her career the last 3+ decades.

 

I haven't loved Story of Women or LouLou and she doesn't have much of a role in Amour, so my Huppert knowledge is limited.

And I felt the Haneke connection, too, but Haneke also always has a central thesis in his films that I thought this was lacking. Also if his camera ever moved that much he'd have a stroke. Haha

 

isn't Verhoeven kinda a creep? certainly he was for Hollow Man and I seem to remember a few other spots of his films that were really gross.

 

Verhoeven's disappearance from cinema has been hard. His influence among the newer school of vulgar auteurism has only grown in impact over the last five years, and another film after a decade of waiting has been too long.

 

You need to see more of her stuff! She's done great work with Godard, Haneke, Chabrol, and more recently with Hong Sang-soo and Claire Denis. She's an icon, one of the best around.

 

This time between Black Book and this can probably be attributed to the fact that Elle was originally scripted in English and meant to be made in the US. After they couldn't get any big actress for the main role, they went with Huppert and had to translate the whole script over to French.

 

It is certainly part of it, but he is likely facing funding issues as well. He gets treated like a pariah.