Movies you've seen recently (Part 1)

The only non-Potter movie David Yates directed.

Napoleon Dynamite

Recommended.

I lived in China 20 years ago when this was released and not only did I miss it, I just kept delaying seeing it so long that I eventually realized I had missed its cultural moment.

I decided to see and you know what? It was very cute and I even laughed a few times. What a strange and oddly charming movie. Has almost no plot, just weird and bizarre people being weird.

Worth a viewing.

I just asked my daughter to pick me up some Chapstick at the store - “My lips hurt real bad!”

I kinda liked it, but I didnt like Napoleon being mean to the llama. Made no sense.

Oops, deleted. Inaccurate

Yeah, okay, thanks for that, but still.

But I did like parts of it.

Appears my insufferable pedantry falls flat - I remembered her as an alpaca, but apparently she WAS a llama. Oh, well - a little humiliation is good for the soul :grinning:.

Now, if anyone asks if I was ever wrong, I can say, “yes I was- I thought I was wrong once but I really wasn’t!” :crazy_face: :grinning: :stuck_out_tongue: :laughing:

I went to see Queen Rock Montreal, a concert film from 1981, remastered for IMAX, last night. If you want to see it, go to your local IMAX today or tomorrow (Jan. 21-22, 2024). It’s an exclusive four-day run that started on Friday.

I believe it’s also available on DVD/BD, but not in IMAX, of course.

It was great to see them again at the height of their powers. I saw them live in Baltimore a year before this was filmed. I got one of Roger Taylor’s drumsticks, with his name embossed on it, after the show. (A roadie tossed a bunch of them to a few of us hanging around near the stage.)

Maestro (Netflix) Bradley Cooper wrote, directed and stars as Leonard Bernstein; Carey Mulligan as his long-suffering wife, Felicia. The starring and directing are fine; my issues are with the story. As far as the script is concerned the most interesting thing about LB is that he was gay, and his wife was conflicted about it. We get 1 scene of him writing; 1 teaching; and 1 conducting – which to me was the best scene in the movie, but it just made me want to know more about Mahler’s 2nd Symphony.

There’s no usual biographical structure - it doesn’t try to do “this happened, and then he went there and did this and wrote this…”. No mention of the Young People Concerts, or West Side Story, or the Tom Wolfe/Radical Chic years. The score consists entirely of LB’s music, which is nice…but that’s the only way we know what he wrote.

Sarah Silverman has a small part as LB’s sister. She has no scenes with LB and no one addresses her by name, so we assume she’s LB’s sister and not a random psycho. I suspect much of her part wound up on the cutting room floor.

My ignorance keeps me from knowing which of two things were true: either this is pretty much what Bernstein was like, or it’s not.

If it’s not, then Cooper blew it — but Cooper has always struck me as a terrific actor, and he’s up for award after award for this, and so I’m guessing that’s not it. But if he’s doing an eerily accurate impression, then I guess my takeaway is that Bernstein constantly — acted like he was delivering rehearsed lines, while trying to sound unrehearsed? Kind of like a guy who’s clearly (a) saying stuff for effect, in a skit or something, and (b) picturing himself saying stuff before, y’know, saying it?

I watched Hitchcock’s Stage Fright last night. Had expectations, but man, this movie sucked on Ice! It did however give me a greater appreciation of the talents of Madeline Kahn. :wink:

At the time “bisexual” wasn’t really a thing, but he did sleep with men and women. Whether he was predominantly gay or “properly” bisexual, we’ll never know. But it can’t have been easy for his wife.

To the best of my knowledge of Bernstein’s life, it was very much what he was like. It was all amped up for dramatic purposes as per usual, but you should check out some of his television shows like the Young Person’s Concerts or Omnibus to see him presenting, and various interviews to see how he speaks off the cuff.

IMHO Cooper absolutely nails it (and if the last interview link above is remotely accurate, so does Mulligan).

I’m sure he was bisexual; but the movie content makes it appear that Felicia was an anomaly. We see him with tons of men, but she’s the only woman in his life.

It his how Freddie Mercury was as well?

There was a piece of music used near the end that I absolutely loved. It was called Music for a Found Harmonium. Sadly, it was not on the soundtrack CD. But I bought an online friend’s CD for his"Rhythm and Blues Ceilidh Band" – the Fabulous Potato Heads, and it was on it! Yay!

@Dendarii_Dame and I saw “Get Shorty” last night, a movie that we had never seen before, and enjoyed it very much

My sister recorded this and was listening to the intro in the other room. I had to google what the reference to Kahn was about. Now I get it!

Heads up, there is a sequel to that movie.

Also a rather different, but still entertaining IMHO, 3 season TV show.