Agreed. It was a convoluted but entertaining romp. The young actress playing Gosling’s daughter was very impressive too.
Our most recent MotW was All the Way with Bryan Cranston playing LBJ (and based on the stage play).
This was really good. By far the best acting Cranston has ever done. So much better than the weak Trumbo performance. I think the experience of the play helped a lot. (Most conversions of plays feel “stagey”, but this one avoids that.)
Set around the 1964 election, it overreaches a bit in trying to cram so much stuff in. The Civil Rights/MLK stuff, electioneering, Viet Nam, etc. And so some stuff got left out. E.g., the runup to the Great Society got short shrift. (It’s a real shame that the GS is now mislabeled as a welfare state thing. It was a “boost up” thing. The later welfare stuff was Nixon’s Federal Revenue Sharing plan.)
Bradley Whitford also did a great job as Humphrey, but this is a harder role. He had to blend into the background. I.e., if he’s doing his job, you barely notice him.
Stephen Root as J. Edgar Hoover and Frank Langella as Sen. Richard Russell are along for the ride, but don’t shine like the other two.
The movie nicely shows the two sides of LBJ. A man with a vision of a better America for everyone but willing to do anything to achieve his goals. A saint and a devil.
Be prepared for lots of strongly expressed racism. It was a tough time.
They had a newsman comment on the election how this will hurt the conservative wing of the GOP for a long time. Right …
I’ll echo the opinions above about Nice Guys.
I was a bit disappointed in All The Way. Yes, Bryan Cranston gave a tour-de-force performance and will probably get an Emmy. But I would have liked to have covered more than just the Civil Right Act of 1964; it felt like an alternate version of Selma.
(I noticed that Johnson said that the Democratic Party had lost the south “for our lifetime”…and then some. It’s 40 years after his death and I don’t think the South has voted for a Democrat yet (with the possible exception of Carter).
Clinton got some Southern states:
From Dusk Till Dawn - I’m a big Tarantino fan but had never seen this one all the way through. It’s more of a “fun” movie than many of his others, and I enjoyed it a lot. But definitely rough and gritty around the edges. The special effects ranged from “wow” to “haha” though.
Sahara - Matthew Mcconaughey as an Indiana Jones-type hero. Ok why not? I had never heard of this 2005 movie before, but it popped up on Netflix and I gave it a shot. As an action/adventure popcorn movie I thoroughly enjoyed it. Steve Zahn was great as his partner/sidekick, and Penelope Cruz was decent as the love interest and her role wasn’t a typical helpless female. Lots of interesting locations and scenes.
All the Way is part one of two plays. Part two focuses on the Great Society aspect of his presidency and is called The Great Society.
The Confirmation. Starring Clive Owen and the usual cast of good but not top-billed indie actors.
Owen plays an alcoholic specially wood-worker looking for his stolen tools and trying to take care of his son for the weekend.
Nice character study for the most part. Good turns by Patton Oswalt and Robert Forster. Sort of hard to believe Owen as a working stiff of this ilk but he does ditch his accent, more or less.
A good view of the life of people on the edge of … everything. A 3 star out of 4 movie.
Fury - Sort of a grittier Saving Private Ryan, with tanks. Avoiding spoilers, there was one particular battle scene where the Germans (SS no less) seemed very incompetent. But overall it was a good war movie, and Shia LeBeuof annoyed me far less than I thought he would.
Approaching the Unknown, with Mark Strong and Luke Wilson. What a dumb movie. Totally implausible premise and almost no science so I’m thinking there will be some great all by himself Tom Hanks in Castaway acting but they didn’t bother with that either. I don’t know what the point of that dumb movie was. Some boring dude on a completely uninteresting one-way trip to Mars, I guess because Mars is trendy now.
I’ve recently seen:
Another Dawn
A 1943 Mexican noir film about a guy trying to get his hands on incriminating documents that will help him bring down a corrupt politician. Nice atmosphere but meh dialogue and acting.
A River Runs Through It
Robert Redford-directed and -narrated drama about two very different brothers who bond over fly-fishing in the 1920s. Plenty of Montana-frontier scenery porn.
Captain America: Civil War
Probably in the top third of superhero movies I’ve seen, with great action sequences and a timely plot about vigilantism and the rule of law. A bit overstuffed with characters, though.
Love & Friendship
Clever, funny, well-acted, beautifully-shot Jane Austen adaptation. Kate Beckinsale ought to get an Oscar for her star turn as the scheming, self-absorbed anti-heroine, and Tom Bennett is hilarious as a nincompoop nobleman.
Dallas Buyers Club
Matthew McConaughey and Jared Leto definitely earned their Oscars for this one, as a redneck homophobe who takes on the FDA in the early days of the AIDS epidemic and his trans friend who broadens his horizons a bit.
I haven’t seen this, but will say that if anyone hasn’t seen Beckinsale in Cold Comfort Farm (1995), they should. It could be called a star turn.
Hail Caesar! from the Coen Brothers. I went into this with low expectations, based on SDMB threads, and liked it a lot. It was the most instantly appealing Coen film I’ve seen since… hmmm, maybe Fargo? Liked the dance sequence, the mermaid sequence, the cowboy sequence, the Hail Caesar movie-within-a-movie, liked the kidnap sequence, liked the “Gary Cooper-Carmen Miranda” date, liked the deeply sincere kidnappers, liked the religious leaders, liked Josh Brolin’s wife.
On Rotten Tomatoes this was a “critics’ movie” that scored under 50 on the Audience Rating. I agree with the critics.
Saw the Extended English version of The Good, The Bad and The Ugly last night at the Alamo Drafthouse. I have to say that movie is brilliant and continues to stand the test of time. The light and the scene framing was excellent. You could easily see that the secondary characters were dubbed, but it was okay because the three leads were not and they carried the movie. Eastwood, Van Cleef and Wallach were wonderful, with terrific chemistry. And of course the soundtrack has reached iconic status near to Star Wars and the Star Trek themes. I still love that movie and seeing it reminded me of how much I love Lee Van Cleef and his architectural cheekbones.
MotW: The Lobster.
Very well acted and interesting movie. Good choice of cast pretty much all around.
But … I don’t know if I was having an off night or it was the movie. But I kept finding myself very far behind in figuring stuff out. “Oh, they did X because of Y.” dawning 10 minutes late.
While I generally prefer minimal explanation about the “rules” of an alt-society, it would have been helpful if this movie did a better job of making things clear.
As to technical film making, some nice shots but unfortunately too generous with staying with a shot for too long. (A common problem with films like this.) “Okay, I get it. People walking near a lake. Again. Move on to the next bit.”
3 stars out of 4. Could have easily been a 3.5 star if done a bit better.
I finally got a chance to see The Big Short this past weekend. Great movie. Intelligent, informative on all levels, and surprisingly accessible to a wide range of moviegoers. If you haven’t yet seen it, rectify that immediately.
I finally watched the first three Star Wars films this week. I’d seen the first when it came out and didn’t bother with the other two, so I thought it was about time I caught up, then re-watched the next three before watching the seventh.
I actually enjoyed parts of the third immensely, there was a huge amount that could be edited out of the first two, the pacing seemed to be very inconsistent and I was bored at some points. This has probably already been said a million times but Yoda’s way of speaking really gets on my nerves after a few hours, there seemed to be a lot of speaking generally about mundane politics, and most of the actors couldn’t act their way out of a wet paper bag, but the final in the three really gave a lot of helpful background to the next three (which I started watching today having a lot more respect). Watch them again will I? Of course. Enjoy them I will. I suspect Yoda’s bad grammar will continue to irritate, though, and that annoys me because it’s just the grammar pedant in me spoiling otherwise a good trilogy. This is the kind of arrant pedantry up with which I will not put.
Recently seen:
Safety Last!
A great Harold Lloyd silent comedy, with that famous scene where he dangles from a clock high above the city streets. Lloyd wasn’t just a skilled physical comedian, he could really act - his expressions in scenes with his overbearing boss and his sweetly naïve girlfriend were just perfect.
Road House
Having heard about this so-bad-it’s-good Patrick Swayze martial arts film for many years, I finally watched it. Now I never have to again, and that’s just as well (despite some laughs at the terrible dialogue).
Murder on the Orient Express
David Suchet is quite good as the French (non, Belgian!) detective Hercule Poirot in this 2010 adaptation of Agatha Christie’s novel. Even knowing the plot and how it all turns out, I enjoyed it.
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
I’d never seen the whole thing before. This Frank Capra political spoof is cynical and idealistic by turns. Deservedly a classic, although I found Jimmy Stewart’s titular character a bit annoying at times.
Babette’s Feast
A French chef makes a fabulous meal to thank the Danish spinster sisters who welcomed her into their home years before when no one else would. A touching tale of love, sacrifice and gourmet dining, it won the Oscar for best foreign language film in 1987.
My most recent flicks:
El Cid
Charlton Heston and Sophia Loren star in this Sixties biopic about an early Spanish hero. Epic battle scenes but otherwise overblown and sometimes even a little silly.
Sophie Scholl: The Final Days
Well-crafted German film about one of the White Rose student opponents of Nazism. A tribute to quiet courage and an unshakeable commitment to humanity.
Finding Dory
If you liked Finding Nemo, you’ll like this - a worthy Pixar sequel. Ed O’Neill is especially good as an octopus with a bad attitude.
Jaws
Having seen bits and pieces over the years, I finally saw the whole movie, and liked it. The shark sfx are a little crude but it still holds up well.
Free State of Jones
Matthew McConaughey is fine in the lead role, as a man fighting the Confederacy on the home front in Mississippi, but the movie is overlong and sometimes even a bit boring. A worthy topic but not that good a movie.
My latest five:
Selma
Powerful historical drama about MLK and the Civil Rights Movement, with a great cast and excellent cinematography.
Trainwreck
Mostly-funny, very raunchy romantic comedy about a slutty, borderline-alcoholic party girl and the buttoned-down surgeon who catches her eye.
Last Man on the Moon
Pretty good documentary about Gene Cernan, the last (for now) astronaut to walk on the Moon, telling his life story from his childhood to his Navy jet-pilot days, to NASA and space, and since. Worth a look for any space junkie like me.
Dogma
Religiously-themed comedy with an all-star cast (including George Carlin as a Roman Catholic cardinal). Having heard a lot about it over the years, I have to say, it didn’t have nearly as many laughs as I expected. It wants to be funnier than it actually is.
Star Trek Beyond
Pretty good ST sequel, with some nice character scenes, exciting action sequences (despite too many gimme-a-break implausibilities), excellent sfx and a very interesting new supporting character. A key shortcoming: I never quite bought the villain’s backstory.
So, we watched the other night a movie starring Jesse Eisenberg. Due to family circumstances, he gets a low level job. Here he meets Kristen Stewart. He falls for and woos her. There’s a complication, of course, since
Kristen is dating a married man.
Eventually Jesse
quits his job and moves to NYC
where
he and Kristen meet again and resume their affair.
The movie is, of course, Adventureland.
“Wait, what?” you say. Don’t you mean Café Society? No, that was the movie we saw a bit ago.
I found out about this via a column at Box Office Prophets.
I don’t think of this as a hidden gem like the BOP writer. An okay-ish film. A good secondary performance by Martin Starr (Gilfoyle from Silicon Valley).
One problem is that Eisenberg is channeling his nervous Woody Allen mensch ego too much. Does a better job playing a Woody Allen surrogate in Café Society!
Stewart, OTOH, tends to overdo the grumpy, sad thing too much in most movies, like this one. Again, she gave a better performance in Café Society.
Ryan Reynolds/Steve Carell. Six of one, half dozen of the other, right?
Of the two, definitely see Café Society.
Thanks for the tip! The trailer looked good.
My latest five:
The Seven Percent Solution
Enjoyable, entertaining Sherlock Holmes film in which the great detective is treated by Sigmund Freud for his cocaine addiction, and confronts a dark and long-suppressed secret from his own childhood. An all-star cast and an interesting plot - mostly serious but with some good laughs.
Up
Heartwarming Pixar movie about a grumpy old man, an overeager young Scout, an adorably dumb dog and their adventures in the wilds of South America.
All The Way
Bryan Cranston is terrific as LBJ in this political/historical movie about all the wheeling and dealing, maneuvering and backstabbing it took to get the Civil Rights Act of 1964 passed.
X-Men: Apocalypse
Pretty good but overlong superhero flick. A highlight, just as in the previous film: the scenes of Quicksilver zipping about, saving the day (or clowning around) while everyone around him practically stands still.
Raiders of the Lost Ark
One of my all-time favorite movies; just as great as ever. Saw it this time with the full score performed live by the Cleveland Orchestra - added quite a bit to the experience.