Do Yeti rank movies with Yeati?
mother!
I don’t know really what to say about this, except that I liked it a lot. I remember hearing that opinions on it were very divided when it came out, and I can see why. I like most of Aronofsky’s work and I went in expecting something different from typical mainstream movies. I was not disappointed.
Been wanting to see this for a bit. Eighth Grade.
It’s about the last week or so in the life of an 8th grade girl. It reminds me a lot in certain ways of Welcome to the Dollhouse*. But now with social media and all that crap! So up to date that there’s a “No one uses Facebook anymore.” line.
The main character Kayla leads sort of a double life. She post videos about basically a fake persona and lives a miserable life of shyness and loneliness. Very bleak.
So, not exactly a fun movie. But well acted, esp. considering the majority of actors are teens. Well made otherwise, too. It’s just … a long downer.
Give it 4 broken iPhones.
- Where did the last 23 years go???
:eek: Very bleak indeed…
You aren’t describing the movie I saw.
Without spoiling the narrative, Kayla is ending middle school and simultaneously trying to grow up and retain her childhood. She meets a variety of other kids and goes through some nice and not so nice situations (nothing that rises to horrific or debilitating). In the end, the movie is optimistic about Kayla and her new phase of life in high school. She understands herself a little better and has at least a friend or two that will help her transition. Life goes on and everyone goes through growing pains. There is no “triumph”, but also no defeat. This is the message I took away.
It is a very well written and realized film with a good to great central performance by a newcomer. I’d recommend it to anyone.
Won’t You Be My Neighbor? the Mr Rodgers bio.
It was a perfectly nicely done biography of a really wonderful human being; I suspect, though, that the rapturous response (99% on Rotten Tomatoes) may be approval of the man, not the movie.
I finally saw Life 92017) last night. I’d seen a tiny bit of it before; enough to whet my appetite.
I have mixed feelings. Most of it is a very good piece of sf filming. I disagree with the critics and the audience rater on Rotten Tomatoes about this. It’s NOT an “Alien” clone, by any means. The characters are set up nicely and given their own personalities. for once I didn’t feel as if they were mere cannon fodder for the eventual Creature Run Amok apocalypse to some. The dialogue is well-written, presenting the story and exposition in a believable and nonobvious way. There’s a good balance between joshing/comraderie and adherence to command structure. Overall, it reminded me of the script for the 1951 The Thing, which gave us controlled professional types dealing with a monster in close quarters.
Great FX – very goof weightless scenes, shots of Earth from orbit, etc.
When they got to the Creature Feature part, the characters behaved believably as trying to maintain non-contamination protocol (a helluva lot better than in Prometheus), and the creature and its escaping were believable.
After that, I’m willing to cut the filmmakers some slack in giving the creature a few lucky breaks. If they didn’t, the movie’s over in no time. But they were giving it too many for credence. Still, good scripting and acting up towards the end.
I’m also willing to cut them some slack on scientific accuracy, especially after the great job they did in bringing an ISS to life onscreen. But there’s no way that a Soyuz thrust is going to send the ISS to “Deep Space”, or an escape pod (do those things even exist IRL on craft like this?) is going to get to “Deep Space” on its lonesome. The best these things would do is perturb the orbit, or send it to the earth (An “escape pod” that can’t get you low enough into the atmosphere to get you significant drag and eventually slow you to re-entry would be pretty useless).
But I felt really betrayed by the ending, which went far beyond probability to absurdity
You mean to tell me that the female commander’s escape pod malfunctioned spectacularly, and that the manually-driven away from the Earth one managed somehow to hit the atmosphere perfectly enough to execute a proper touchdown? That’s as loony as the ending of Planet of the Apes. Either version.
So what started out as pretty decent John Campbellian-sf turns, for no good reason, into an intellect-insulting horror film at the end? I’d recommend it, except for that intentional but absurd downer of an ending.
On Saturday morning while I was busy futzing around the house, I thought I’d put on a filler type movie just to keep me company in the background. I chose 9 to 5 starring Lily Tomlin, Jane Fonda, Dolly Parton and Dabney Coleman. I ended up just plopping down on the couch and working through a bag of Doritos while I watched the whole thing. It really stands up. I mean it’s weird to see a bank of desks in an office space, every one of them with a typewriter and not a computer in sight, but it’s still a good movie. Funny. Poignant is rare spots. Well acted. Just enough farce to keep the pathos interesting. Not to mention that, considering the current political environment, it’s a strong, positive, feminist narrative – from 1980 no less.
Re: peccavi’s comments on Eighth Grade. Done with spoiler boxes. Ahem.
[spoiler]I considered the ending to be more of the same. She didn’t really learn anything and her “optimism” isn’t going to last. This was the Faux-Kayla making another video, complete with the “gucci” (??) sign-off. The Real-Kayla is still the same.
And except for Gus, she doesn’t have new friends. There are seniors who will go away, etc. If you have trouble making friends in 8th grade, making new ones in HS is even harder.[/spoiler]
MotW from Netflix: Private Life.
A couple goes thru unbelievable ordeals trying to have a kid. Kathryn Hahn and Paul Giamatti as the couple. Molly Shannon and the great “that guy” John Carroll Lynch as relatives with a couple of daughters*. Plus several other people you might recognize. E.g., Siobhan Fallon Hogan.
Nicely balanced film. Despite the topic, the stresses shown, the downsides, etc. still a generally funny film. It’s pretty amazing that way. Has a very apt ending, too.
The director/writer Tamara Jenkins has done just a few films since Slums of Beverly Hills (20 years ago :eek:), including writing the film Juliet, Naked which I want to see soon.
Give it 4 and half doses of FSH.
- The “less involved” daugher seemed very familiar. I knew I had just seen her in something. Turns out she was in our last MotW: Eighth Grade. Nice.
My latest five:
Sergeant York
Gary Cooper as the country bumpkin, initially a conscientious objector due to his religious faith, who becomes the greatest American hero of World War I and is rewarded by a grateful nation (even getting the girl at the end). Not a bad action movie for its time.
The Third Murder
Pretty good Japanese courtroom drama about a man charged with a brutal murder who admits his guilt. However, his changing explanations of how and why he committed the crime lead his cynical defense counsel to doubt him, and to dig into the case further.
The Citizen
A poignant Hungarian drama about an African immigrant trying to gain citizenship in Hungary. He befriends his citizenship-test teacher and provides shelter to a pregnant Iranian refugee, and their intertwined relationships lead in some unexpectedly tragic directions.
Kusama: Infinity
Documentary about the acclaimed Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama, a Pop Art contemporary of Warhol who achieved fame much later in life and is still painting at age 89. Worth a look if you like her work, or would like to learn more about her.
The Interview
Over-the-top, occasionally gross political comedy about a lightweight TV talk-show host (James Franco) and his reliable, much-smarter producer (Seth Rogen) who land an interview with Kim Jong-Un, and then are recruited by the CIA to kill him. Very uneven, but with a lot of laughs by the end.
A local theater showed Bullitt the other day. Woo-hoo! The car chase is so much more amazing on the big screen.
When I watched it previously on TV, I never noticed the priest giving last rights to the airport officer who was killed. I’ve noticed before when I see a movie on the big screen as opposed to TV that so much more becomes evident. You’re forced to pay more attention as there aren’t the distractions you get at home, and background stuff becomes more noticeable.
BlacKKKlansman, Spike Lee’s story about a black cop & his white partner who infiltrate the KKK. Loved it; highly recommended.
I watched Love In the Time of Cholera (2007) the other night. It’s based on the novel by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, which I recently read. When I found out there was a movie based on the book, I had to check it out.
It was pretty good, not great. It stayed fairly true to the book as much as it could, given the time jumps and side-plots that a film doesn’t have time for.
I actually found myself rooting for Florentino (Javier Bardem was mostly convincing - could have been better IMO) more so in the film than I did in the book. Fermina was played very well by an Italian actress who I had never heard of. The colors, scenery, and landscapes were amazing (it was actually filmed in Colombia).
If you have read the book, I don’t think the film will ruin it for you. It’s worth checking out.
My latest five:
Iron Man
Maybe the third time I’ve seen it - just as much fun as ever. Great cast and dialogue, a good character arc for Tony Stark, kick-ass action sequences, and engaging montages as he designs and builds his various armored suits.
Rushmore
A quirky, funny, ultimately heart-warming romantic comedy about the rivalry between a jaded businessman (Bill Murray) and a brainy prep-school student for the affections of a winsome English teacher. Still one of Murray’s best movies.
2010: The Year We Make Contact
Not nearly as lyrical or intriguingly ambiguous as Kubrick’s masterpiece 2001: A Space Odyssey, and the title is clunky, but it’s a solid sf-adventure sequel.
I, Tonya
Very funny dark comedy about Tonya Harding and the shattering of her Olympic figure-skating dreams. The movie makes no bones about the wildly-differing recollections of Harding, her abusive ex-husband and her loser bodyguard, and it often, and gleefully, breaks the fourth wall. Allison Janney of West Wing fame really earned her Oscar as Harding’s Stage Mom From Hell.
Dante’s Inferno
The first full-length Italian movie, released in 1911. It’s a B&W silent movie; I saw it with a synth score performed live. Overacted, as was the style at the time, and with laughable sfx, but it has some memorable scenes set in Satan’s dreaded realm.
Just watched Cannonball Run. It’s not as fun as Smokey and the Bandit for me today. However I will say that the scenes especially his intro was hilarious. I totally lol’d. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him in a comedic role but he was great here.
Jack Elam is who I was referring to.
MotW: The Kindergarten Teacher with Maggie Gyllenhaal at the title character. Based on an Israeli-French film.
A teacher discovers that one of her 5 year old students is a poet prodigy. She goes to great lengths to “help” him. Resulting in … stuff you have to see to believe.
The movie doesn’t follow the storyline you would expect from the blurb. Things go … differently. Over and over we kept going: “She really didn’t do that, did she?”
Also starring Gael García Bernal (“Maestro”) as her poetry teacher and Michael Chernus (Piper’s brother from OitNB) as her husband.
Of course, as usual, somehow they got an amazing kid, Parker Sevak, to play the kid-poet. Another example of someone clearly too young to possibly act this well. Where do they find these kids?
Fairly good but something of a struggle to watch in terms of what happens. Gyllenhaal is great. Gael García Bernal is basically the same person as in Mozart in the Jungle. Most of the characters just blend into the background.
One thing I don’t get: She takes a ferry (perhaps the Staten Island Ferry) to/from work and home. But it’s not clear sometimes why she’s on the ferry going which way and why at times. The ferry rides seem to be more for “meaning” than anything. So what, why, how???
Give it 4 Suns shining on the sides of houses.
Jack was great in Support your Local Sheriff, starring James Garner. Highly recommended.
Saw Bad Times at the El Royale last night. Kinda like Tarantino light. I’m not sure if there was a clue hinting to a character’s past that I missed, otherwise it seemed rather like the writers trying to get themselves out of a corner at the big climax.
The trailer for Bad Times looks great. I’m sure I’ll see it sooner or later.
The Wife with Glenn Close and Jonathan Pryce. Pryce’s character wins the Nobel Prize* for Literature and goes to Sweden to collect, Close is his wife. A less than fun trip ensues.
Set in 1992 (complete with Concorde stuff for some reason) with flashbacks to the younger versions in the 60s-70s.
Yeah, pretty much what you guess is going on is going on. So somewhat predictable.
But this is a Glenn Close show. She completely dominates the film and just runs with it. I mean, Pryce is a fine actor and all that. Just look at Brazil, for instance. But she blasts right past him.
If you want to see Close in peak form, this is for you. If you want a well developed story with novelty, not so much.
Christian Slater is a “biographer” looking for dirt on the couple. Annie Starke, Close’s daughter, plays the young version of Close’s character. This is the second time she’s done that. Elizabeth McGovern appears in a flashback as a bitter writer with “advice” for the young wife (to be). A nice little part.
Give it 4 dynamite sticks.
- Readers of the book will of course notice the change from the Helsinki prize, etc. Another notable change is that Close’s character is not nearly as nasty.