Last Movie You Saw, Name & Review Movie • Page 83

I can't imagine you will.

 

You never know, especially after last week with my 13 film run haha.

 

Baby Driver was a good time, but it didn't quite feel like a film directed by Edgar Wright. It kind of just felt like a cooler, more fun Drive with more talking, more plot, and more stars. I think it just needed a little bit more humor, both in the story and in the editing, to make it really feel like an Edgar Wright film.

 

politely, i disagree. i think one of wright's (admittedly subtle) trademarks is his use of music and kinetic sense of rhythm and action, which were, i think, BD's best strengths (well - i wasn't super keen on the music itself - but its implementation, while occasionally masturbatory - was pretty spot-on) - so it fits squarely into his style for me. that said, i agree that it did need some more humor, especially as the dramatic elements were so clearly lacking.

that said, i'm somewhere between meh Drive and fuck Drive for that film, haha.

 

I think I just need to see more of his films, then. I did actually find myself very invested in the dramatic elements of the story, though, so it wasn't that that was lacking for me. Just the tone of the film I feel like should've been a little lighter considering how the other films of his I've seen were.

 

The Crow-1994

ive actually never watched this film before and im absolutely floored that i havent. its brooding, gothic, funny, tragic, and just wonderfully creative and well made. such a shame about Brandon Lee because he was a great presence in this movie. really just loved the visuals and aesthetics and this idea of being revived to finish something before being put to rest.

9/10

 

Fair enough. It was lighter on laughs. although Wright does like making his comedies get very ironically dark (think ending of Hot Fuzz and Shaun) but this was just dramatic, not blackly comedic, so I think that was part of my mixed feelings.

 

Baby Driver - 8/10

I'm a huge fan of everything Edgar Wright's work. Even the Worlds End, which I found to be 'eh' for him, was still absolutely fantastic. I feel like that's where Baby Driver falls into. For him, and for what I expect from a filmmaker like him, it was 'okay', but that still makes it a really solid movie.

Obviously, this movie is all style, as the plot and the writing was...lets just say it could've been better. I didn't really buy into the romance, I thought some of the characters weren't as defined as they could be, and the movie boils down to "one last job" (superbly cliche). Of course many can say that's what he was going for...cool... but that needs to be off-set by something to make those cliches worth it and, hmm, i think he does that. The care and precision in the action sequences was amazing and the movie had a good amount of intrigue to keep my interest alive for most of this 90 minute car chase music video.

This movie also sorta suffers from being released at a time where we've gotten bits and pieces of this type of stuff already from Drive and Guardians of the Galaxy. Old, nichey music is becoming quite the common trope in a lot of movies/tv right now, so unfortunately the soundtrack for this didn't really make me go "wow cool". It was kinda just there. IF this were released 5 years ago, I'm sure I'd have a different opinion,

In the end. I still enjoyed it. There are plenty of memorable moments in the movie and the overall atmosphere was great.

 

I don't understand how Medium Cool has remained so relatively unheralded. It's probably more relevant to the current moment than it was in the '60s. And Haskell Wexler just always makes things look beautiful. It really seems like something cinephiles should rave about.

I can't say I "enjoyed" The Sweet Hereafter, BUT I did think it was a very good movie. Ian Holm's performance was impossible to look away from. And the way Egoyan shoots the crucial moments always stuns without leaping for attention.

 

Baby Driver wasn't great. Some really great scenes, but virtually everything related to the story during and after the last heist was sloppy and downright silly at times. Buddy's inexplicable super villain escapes and reappearances and Docs sudden unselfish transformation are too lazy to overlook. Some really great and enjoyable scenes (a lot to love about the on foot chase scene) but I personally can't give the last act a pass.

 

Yeah, it's unfortunate but the more I think about Baby Driver, the less I like it. A lot of brilliantly directed/edited scenes that don't add up to a compelling story imo.

I saw A Ghost Story last night and thought it was fantastic.

 

Good to know I've started to infiltrate positive thoughts on baby driver with my narrative negativity

 

Baby Driver
I think a lot of the criticisms re: realism and motivation are weak. It's clearly influenced by Walter Hill and his real world fairytales. I think they laid on Buddy's dedication to his girl pretty thick, so his turn is earned. Spacey's character was odd, I guess, but I didn't think much of it.

It's nowhere near a perfect film and the characters are obviously underdeveloped but I'm not sure why everyone's taking it that seriously. It should be viewed as "silly".

 

I watched Nocturama the other day and I really liked it

 

Oh man, so good! I've got to see it again, but I'm half holding out to see it on the big screen again.

 

It was very well paced for the run time, some of the destruction shots were really breathtaking and the department store was such a fantastic setting for the second half and allowed for some really chilly, beautiful framing. I'm not sure what to make of the ending as it almost felt a little anti-climactic, but then again it was really the only logical way the film could've ended. I definitely will be watching again, loved it and would be curious to read some further analysis.

 

I think the anti-climax speaks well with the film's exploration of the monotony of the aftermath. Aesthetically, Bonello is very easily my favorite working film maker right now. Something about his style just clicks with me in a visceral way.

One of my favorite writers, Blake Williams, wrote a great piece on the film for Cinema Scope last TIFF. Nocturama (Bertrand Bonello, France/Germany/Belgium) - Cinema Scope

 

That is what I as attempting to get at by saying the ending was "logical", it made total sense in context of the hour that came before it. Thanks for the link, will read it after work (goddamn these shitty net filters)

Got a recommendation for which of his films should be the next on my watchlist?

 

House of Tolerance is a straight up masterpiece. Few films have every lulled me into a trance the way that film did. It's one of my 10 favorite films so far this decade.

The rest I've seen are not sure bets like that film and Nocturama. Tiresias is cool but lacks his style. Saint Laurent is pure style but pretty tedious at 2.5 hours.

 

In terms of the soundtrack I think Edgar Wright was well ahead of the curve as the likes of Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz had solid soundtracks as well. Granted they weren't woven into the plot but they were still there and integral to the whole aesthetic.

 

While one doesn't have to take it seriously, I don't think that means we can't critique it. Narrative is a fundamental component of this and the majority of film, and most of his other movies don't stumble this bad. Clearly we are meant to empathize with Baby, cheer for him, and so on, but the impetus in many cases was just too shallow to make me feel like the stakes made sense. One moment Spacey wants to break his legs and kill hia father, the next he dies for him.. If one doesn't care about this when they watch, that's fine, but I don't think that's a sufficient reason for me to ignore it.

 

The video is sort of long but Red Letter Media pretty much sums up exactly how I feel about Baby Driver.

The first half of the review is about Baby Driver and the second half is about Spider-Man.

 

I haven't been excited to see Baby Driver idk

 

By no means is it immune to criticism, it's a flawed film specifically with character development. I just think that the entire plot/idea behind it lends itself to more fantasy regarding the characters at play. They're all inherently tropes and I don't think the movie ever goes for being hyper-realistic. If you can buy into Baby's quirks and luck and talent and cheesy backstory, surely you can forgive Hamm or Spacey's character turns as well. Again, criticize it as much as you want. I just find it odd how much those things took people out of the movie

 

Yeah I guess I didn't entirely buy into Baby's quirks and luck and cheesiness so maybe I can be forgiven for the glaring story flaws taking me out of the movie. I do recognize that there were some very enjoyable scenes so it wasn't a bad experience, but overall it wasn't for me.