I fully agree with you about Danish Girl. I thought I was the only person who felt that way.
Recently seen:
Chimes at Midnight
Orson Welles directed and starred in this 1966 B&W Shakespearian mashup focusing on Falstaff and Prince Hal. Had its moments but disappointing overall.
Mad Max: Fury Road
Good but not great. Surprised by all the Oscar love it got.
The Maltese Falcon
Saw this noir classic in a 75th anniversary remastered print. Still holds up well.
Deadpool
Lots of fun - a tongue-in-cheek, fourth-wall-breaking, raunchy, ultra-violent superhero yarn, with a very well-calibrated mix of action and jokes.
Groundhog Day
It has it all: laughs, tragedy, romance, a moral core, and a deeply philosophical resonance that really appeals to me. Great premise, fine cast and just one great line after another.
Set Fire to the Stars and Maps to the Stars.
(Don’t bother.)
Also, my wife just lost her next turn to pick DVDs from the library.
I’ve seen “Gigi” and just thought it was okay. Nowhere near some of the better musicals I’ve seen (“West Side Story”, “Singing In The Rain” and “1776”.)
But before anyone else freaks out about the way the characters were portrayed in the film, consider that the setting of “Gigi” takes place in Paris at the turn of the 20th Century. The life expectancy in the USA in 1900 was age 46.3 for men and 48.3 for women. I don’t know what it was in France at the time but I’ve got to guess that it was similar.
As a comparison, in 1998 the life expectancy in the USA was age 73.8 for men and 79.5 for women
If your life span was just under 50 years old , your “mid-life” would be 25. So it would never be considered strange for women or men getting married and starting a family as early as age 15. (and they’d probably attempt to have as many children as possible, considering the death rate of infants at that time.)
Sure, when the film was released the times had changed, but the setting was well over 60 years prior. It would be like seeing a film today taking place in 1966. The attitudes and actions of people would be much different than they are today, but if you’re going to be true to that period…
Kamikaze '89.
Fun-tastic.
Life expectancy was that low because of high child mortality rates, not because people died of old age @ 50. Mid-life then was certainly earlier than it is now, but it was by no means 25yo.
Sorry, Gigi is just a creepy film. No two ways about it.
The Deer Hunter Devastating film about the effect of the Vietnam War on three Pennsylvania steel workers. Starring De Niro, Walken, and Cazale, this film is a fascinating look at an America of 40 years ago.
Funny Girl. Not. At. All. Streisand has a great voice and a grating screen presence. 3 hours I won’t get back.
Cimarron I really liked this film about the settling and development of Oklahoma as seen through the eyes of a newspaper publisher. Another B. Picture winner from the 1930’s, I’d rather have watched this three times than Funny Girl once.
Marty, 1955, Ernest Borgnine plays Marty, a nice-guy butcher who can’t seem to find a wife. He meets a rather plain schoolteacher one night at a dance, then wrestles with his internal demons (worries about social status) and external demons (dipshit friends, a grasping mother) in determining if this “dog” was good enough for him. Nice movie, sweet movie, but somehow bizarrely callous to the modern viewer.
Tom Jones, 1963, Albert Finney plays a bastard adopted by some English 18th-century society types. Hijinks, and hiked-pantiloons, ensue. Not as boring as Barry Lyndon, but not really rushing to see this one again.
10 Cloverfield Lane - Young lady finds herself in a bunker with a crazy man and his protege. Crazy man holding her hostage speaks of alien attacks and poisoned atmosphere, and his not so crazy protege backs him up… but the young lady keeps hearing evidence of normal life above the underground bunker. Is he right… or just crazy?
Terms of Endearment, 1983. One of my absolute favorite movies, not to mention one of my all-time favorite Best Picture winners, I absolutely adore this movie. And honestly, there’s not a single male character in filmdom that fills me with as much disgust and loathing as Flap Horton. Ugh, just canNOT stand Flap. Deborah Winger makes this movie - I don’t think it succeeds with any other actress.
Smokey and the Bandit, 1977. The greatest road-trip movie, told from a dogs perspective, of all time. Watch as Fred the basset hound gets to eat cheesy diner burgers, sticks his head out the window and bark, howl along to his master’s singing, get loved on by an in-her-prime Sally Field, go for a swim, be the central point of contention in a biker fight, sit in the front seat of the big rig… the adventure never ends with Fred! Oh, and Burt Reynolds is in this movie too.
Our international film festival is now in full swing; lots of good flicks. I’ve recently seen:
Brother
A 2015 Belgian dark comedy/drama about a schlub who impersonates his much-more-suave, but now dead, near-twin brother to get at the late brother’s ex-girlfriend’s fortune after she contacts him, 20 years later, to say she never stopped loving him (the by-then-late brother, that is). I guessed both the twist and the ending, but it’s still worth a look.
Snowtime!
A Canadian animated film about kids in a wintry northern town building, and then fighting over, an elaborate snow fort. A good anti-war message, but as a film it never quite took off.
Right Footed
Documentary about an American woman born with no arms. She learns to care for herself and eventually earns both her driver’s and her small-aircraft pilot’s licenses, and becomes an advocate for the disabled and amputees. Interesting and inspiring.
April and the Extraordinary World
French animated film about an alternative timeline in which major scientists (Einstein, Bohr, Curie, etc.) disappear right on the cusp of fame and neither world war is ever fought. A smart, plucky Paris girl, April, tries to figure out what’s going on, aided by her talking cat, her genius grandfather and a young admirer who is not what he seems. Interesting premise, good animation but overlong, I thought.
Every Face Has A Name
A Swedish documentary filmmaker went through 1945 footage of WWII refugees arriving in his country, reviewed passenger lists and, in the present day, tracked down and interviewed as many survivors as he could. We see several as they watch the footage, spotting themselves, friends and family members from long ago, and describing (sometimes in tears) their wartime experiences and what has happened to them since. Well-made and very moving, and draws a direct link to the current European refugee crisis.
I was thinking that the Hayes Code was in full flower in the 1950s, and so it just might be that the picture was made acceptable in part because of Hayes Code censorship. Suppose there had been no Hayes Code, and the film had included a sex scene between Gigi and her “boyfriend.” The ick factor would have been off the charts.
A couple of oldies that I saw recently:
Planet of the Apes, starring Charleton Heston’s teeth. It was a great movie, almost ruined by his hamming it up and horribly stilted line delivery. Oh, and the soundtrack was so atrocious that Jerry Goldsmith should be ashamed of himself. Here, I can summarize the entire thing for you: bum bum bum CRASH zeeeee wooooo woo wooooooo BAMMM CRASH BANG wubba wubba wubba eeeeeeooooeeeeeee CRASH
Big Trouble in Little China. Never really cared for this when I saw it on tv hundreds of times. It was great on the big screen, though. Made doubly fun as a special Alamo Drafthouse dinner show with capguns, blinky “magic” rings and glow sticks to simulate lightening. Walked out afterwards thinking “that was fun!”
It’s been a while. I posted about the new Pee-wee Herman film in the thread for that. (Short snort: Sort of okay if you’re already a fan.)
Saw The Hateful 8. Not much to say. Sort of “meh”. Wasted too much time on scenery shots and other crap. The whole “twist” premise was overly stupid. It would not have worked at all that way in reality. Etc. It’s no Pulp Fiction.
Do want to plug Man Up with Lake Bell and Simon Pegg. Quite good film about a blind date gone … different. Good acting (well, Lake Bell was doing a British accent …), very good supporting cast, well paced. Some nice humor and other touches.
Movies that are set in one short time frame, e.g., one evening, tend to have problems such as keeping the action flowing evenly. Not this one. It pulled it off nicely.
I posted my review of Hail, Caesar! in the thread for that. (Short review: 1.5 stars.)
I forgot about Sleeping with Other People with Alison Brie and Jason Sudeikis. Yet Another Attempt At An Alternate Romance Movie.
I like Alison Brie quite a bit, both from Community and Mad Men. Did a decent job. But Sudeikis isn’t up to the challenge. He doesn’t have the range.
Not a bad movie. Not a really good movie either. Okay for when you’ve got nothing better to watch.
Just leave your “Isn’t that just like When Harry Met Sally?” comparisons at the door.
One bright spot: The actor who played Brie’s married ex-lover seemed awfully familiar but I couldn’t place him. Then I saw the closing credits and was shocked. That really couldn’t be that guy, could it? Yes it was. Really good job at playing someone very different from the usual roles. Almost worth watching the whole movie just for that. (Don’t look him up if you don’t want to be spoilered.)
More movies I recently saw at the film festival:
My Internship in Canada
Pretty good political satire about a low-profile Canadian MP whose vote becomes enormously important when the country is considering going to war and he’s the tie-breaker in Parliament.
Demimonde
Hungarian costume drama about an aging Budapest courtesan just before World War I and her manipulations of her lovers - a wealthy architect and a moony young poet - and her two servants, one of whom knows too many of her secrets.
God Knows Where I Am
Excellent, very powerful documentary about a mentally-ill woman who spends a winter in an abandoned New Hampshire farmhouse, keeping a journal as she slowly starves to death. There are interviews with friends and family, but the script is otherwise almost entirely drawn from her sad, eerie journal.
The Lovers and the Despot
So-so documentary about Kim Jong-Il’s minions’ kidnapping of a South Korean director and his actress wife to help revivify the North’s film industry. A bizarre incident but not all that great a movie.
Anthropocene
Pop science documentary about how humanity is changing the world around us through pollution, agriculture, urban sprawl, etc. Almost always interesting, and not as gloomy in its long-term outlook as you might expect.
My last five from the film festival:
Rabin In His Own Words
Good documentary about the Israeli leader in his evolution from soldier to politician to peacemaker to martyr.
Lace Crater
Strange indie film about a woman who has a one-night stand with a… ghost, maybe? Things don’t go too well for her after that.
Embers
Very well-done sf drama about the collapse of society after a pandemic leaves everyone unable to form long-term memories. Kind of like Memento gone global.
Lo & Behold, Reveries of the Connected World
Fascinating but uneven Werner Herzog documentary about artificial intelligence, the Internet and both the promise and perils of high tech.
Little Gangster
Dutch comedy about a bullied kid who tries to get some respect at school by spreading the rumor that his very meek dad is actually a Mafia kingpin.
Hologram for the King. It was … nice, I guess; my local critic gave it a rave review and I don’t know what he was thinking. Tom Hanks is always good, and the insight into Saudi Arabia was fascinating. But the story is rather uneven and takes an odd right turn 3/4 of the way through.
Two sort of similar movies.
45 Years and The Lady in the Van.
Both British, character studies, with at least one famous long time actor in each.
45 Years was a fairly good film at times. But overly dreary at other times. Some unneeded time consuming nature shots and other filler. The worst: seeing how much Tom Courtenay has aged. Makes me feel very old.
Decent enough film to watch if you have spare time.
The Lady in the Van, OTOH, was one of those films that just ticks you off. Why on Earth is the writer letting this miserable old lady live in a filth laden van in his drive for 15 years? It also has two copies of the writer, talking to each other, etc. Why? Just to have dialogue that’s not really that great? Confusing at first. And at the end. The two versions might have different personalities and goals but you can’t tell them apart so what was the point?
It does come together at the end, though, when we find out more about Maggie Smith’s character. The movie should have jumped to that in some way and flashed back to the earlier stuff. Focusing on how the writer found out her story and what it was. (BTW: we find out very little about the writer, who lived the actual story and wrote about it and makes a cameo at the end. Why so little about the 2nd major character?)
(BTW: James Corden has an incredibly small blink-and-you’ll-miss-it role. Weird.)
It’s a 2 star movie that should have been at least a 4 star one.
Recently seen:
Zootopia
Charming, eye-candy-filled Disney film about a city of anthropomorphic animals, and the spunky female rabbit who wants to be the first bunny in the police department. Good but not great.
Calvary
I rewatched this dark comedy, about an Irish village priest whose life is threatened in the confessional by one of his flock - but which one? A powerful, sometimes-harrowing meditation on love, sin, redemption and forgiveness. Brendan Gleeson should’ve gotten an Oscar.
Ice Station Zebra
Hadn’t seen this Cold War submarine drama/Arctic adventure in many years. Some WTF plot moments, but not bad for what it is.
Believeland
Documentary about the trials and tribulations of Cleveland, Ohio’s pro sports teams, and how some fans 'waaaaay over-identify with “their” teams.
Doubt
Drama about a prissy nun (Meryl Streep) in the Bronx in 1964 who comes to suspect that a charming priest (Philip Seymour Hoffman) may be sexually abusing a schoolboy. Amy Adams is also excellent as a naïve young nun.
*Money Monster. * A bit formulaic, but well done.
Jungle Book. Highly recommended. Much closer to the dark and mysterious jungle of Kipling’s original than the musical-cartoony-happy 60’s Disney version.
The Nice Guys with Russell Crowe and Ryan Gosling, an action-comedy set in the 70s, with the stars as grubby, flawed investigators.
The crime investigation story – a porn actress is murdered – is a goulash of silliness and cliches, and it’s nothing that will involve your emotions. There’s lots of comic violence, and a little serious violence. The action and dialogue are pleasant weird, and I chuckled 5 or 6 times. The leads did a good job of being scuzzy without being repellent. They seemed to be having a good time with their roles.
I give it a B+. My time and money didn’t seem wasted.