I finally watched this one last night. I guess all the hype made me expect more, so I was very disappointed. The music, visuals and acting were excellent. The story? Not so much. As someone way upthread suggested, it would’ve been more interesting to me if it was a just a couple of Capone-inspired twins looking to open a juke joint in the deep south. I recognize the symbolism that the vampires bring, but still.
Now, how they weren’t aware of how much their guests would be able to pay to make it a successful business doesn’t say a lot about their business sense. Also, wouldn’t vampires be very much aware of what happens when the sun comes out? Did they all just forget?
I’m going to watch One Battle After Another before the Oscars tonight, and hoping it’s better.
Don’t get your hopes up. It was good to look at, well acted, but kinda, hmm I’m struggling here…I just didn’t give a crap about any of the characters. They all seemed self centered and dull.
Pretty sure upthread I was asking what was so great about the cinematography. While I was not informed by the responses here, the Academy thought it worth an award.
Just acknowledging my ignorance in yet another area.
The parts of the movie where there’s a big old vampire fight–those parts have kind of blended in with all the other movies where there’s a big old vampire fight. Nothing super-impressive there.
But the two biggest musical numbers, with the Black musicians crossing time, and the vampires pulling their victims into a classic Irish dance–I still get chills thinking about those.
If I could change one thing about the movie, I would have made it resolve, not in a grand battle, but in more scenes of quiet, terrible beauty. That’s where the movie shone.
I finished watching it today and I really enjoyed it. While I think the quality of the movie declined a bit in the third act, the strength of the actors really carried the movie.
I think it’s a really good example of genre transcending traditional genre conventions. It’s a vampire flick, but it means something. I could see people feeling perturbed by all the vampires in their period drama, and others thinking this is too slow of a build for a monster movie.
But for me, genre that transcends genre is my jam.
As I think about it more (as I’m absolutely fascinated by its 97% rating in Rotten Tomatoes), I think I like movies that quite obviously follow the rules of this universe, or movies that quite obviously don’t. I think it bothers me that a movie that started off as being on this Earth immediately drifts off to some parallel universe with some random sets of rules. That said, I absolutely loved Game of Thrones.
We only got about halfway through this movie before the wife said “nope”. Probably the whole vampire thing put her off, as she isn’t fond of horror movies. I had trouble being interested in any of the characters, but may go back later to finish it on my own.
I enjoyed the movie and loved the time jumping musical act (I rewatched it many times) so I was excited to see they performed it at the Oscars. It did not disappoint and I enjoyed seeing the “vampires” try to get on stage.
Less this and more “For a vampire movie, the vampires are less interesting than the rest of the film”. That’d be a problem if the film was set in 2026, 2350 or 12,000 BC.
I’m not really into vampires (Buffy aside), but I liked these vampires better than most. They represented the temptation of cultural assimilation, which is far more interesting to me than tempting with sexual pleasure. One of my friends pointed out that in this film, the living were the sensual beings, not the vampires. I do agree that the pace of the film changes abruptly and the final confrontation plays out pretty quickly. By then, if you’re not feeling the stakes, the rest of the film won’t change your mind.
There is a ton of subtext with the fact that all the Vampires were either Irish or Black. This wasn’t just a monster film. Also, how fast into the movie did you forget that the Twins were the same actor and never actually side by side? It was flawless both from an effects and an acting standpoint. This is a special movie and like I said in the OP it will be talked about for decades.
Um, I don’t think so? For example, the couple in the farmhouse that the Choctaw posse were trying to warn about possible intruders, I don’t think they were intended to be Irish.
The Irish Remmick as the vampire leader just kinda culturally assimilated everybody, but I don’t think all the non-Black vampires were intended to be read as Irish by geographical and/or ethnic origin.
Right. But I think the fact that the Irish vampire was cut off from his culture was meant to serve as a connection point between him and Sammie. He was a representation of what was at stake for Sammie, who was faced with the choice of either embracing his culture or assimilating. Interesting, too, that they both rejected Christianity, and I think the implication was that it was a colonizer’s religion. I love this film.