LWFS

More charming than it had any right to be, really. Like BOWFINGER as an inspirational tale.

I want to say that THE POPE MUST DIE/THE POPE MUST DIE(T) was something along these lines.

Willets Point wrote: I really want this to be a mistaken identity comedy. "Wait-a, wait-a, wait-a! But if I'm-a da pope-a... then who's-a you-a?" https://thebronxchronicle.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/2013-12-24T062454Z_4_CBRE9BM1IRG00_RTROPTP_3_PEOPLE-US-POPE-BENEDICT.jpg>

Like I said in the Oscar thread, I liked this one lots more than I thought I would. Pryce has never been one of those guys who's been a draw for me when I see him attached to something... but damn if I can think of something (save maybe that Bond movie he was in) where I haven't at least relished his performance a little. He's fantastic, and Hopkins is a great, prickly sparring partner. I don't love the vaguely sitcommy notes it strikes later in the thing, and wish the frisson of the early clashes was a bit more present in the latter portion of it, but overall... I was impressed and engaged and pleased. Great script.

WHEN THEY SEE US was faaaaaantastic, and should be watched by more people than it will be; I think it's considered more of a miniseries than a movie. (Though the lines do keep blurring for streaming fare.) RE: stuff I've seen in the last week. I was surprised by how little I liked THE IRISHMAN-- although I get what he was going for, it wasn't necessarily an improvement over earlier considerations of the same thematic/plot ground-- and by how much I liked ROCKETMAN-- weird and wooly and entertaining-- and THE TWO POPES (though it got a little Odd-Couple-y in spots).

Yeah, the "]I am WAY to much of a fan of Eltons to go see Rocketman. I'd be picking that apart Lolol

MOVIES I SAW (in order of preference): (updated 1/20) BOOKSMART US LITTLE WOMEN THE FAREWELL AVENGERS: END GAME DOLEMITE IS MY NAME LONG SHOT JOJO RABBIT ONE CHILD NATION MARRIAGE STORY ROCKETMAN THE TWO POPES BRITTANY RUNS A MARATHON THE KINGMAKER THE IRISHMAN SPIDER-MAN: FAR FROM HOME HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON III MIDSOMMAR SHAZAM! CAPTAIN MARVEL THE REPORT STAR WARS: RISE OF SKYWALKER THE LEGO MOVIE 2: THE SECOND PART HARRIET JUDY FROZEN II ON MY LIST, YET: 1917 AD ASTRA A BEAUTIFUL DAY IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD CLEMENCY THE DEAD DON'T DIE FIRST LOVE (HATSUKOI) FORD V FERRARI GLASS GOOD BOYS HIGHWAYMEN HONEY BOY HUSTLERS I LOST MY BODY JOHN WICK III JOKER KNIVES OUT THE LAST BLACK MAN IN SAN FRANCISCO LATE NIGHT THE LIGHTHOUSE LITTLE WOMEN MOTHERLESS BROOKLYN ONCE UPON A TIME…IN HOLLYWOOD PARASITE 6 UNDERGROUND TERMINATOR: DARK FATE TOY STORY 4 UNCUT GEMS VELVET BUZZSAW WEATHERING WITH YOU YESTERDAY ZOMBIELAND DOUBLE TAP It bears noting that I liked almost all of these, to some extent. Like, FROZEN II ended up being my least favorite because I just happened to rate all of the new releases I saw a bit better; it never gave me the worst-movie-ever feeling. I think I'm being a lot more careful with curating my movie time (and/or giving all of my crapwatching mental energy to episodic TV/streaming fare).

After I got my kid into Queen-- honestly, once you play the song "BR" for about 90% of kids, the work is done for you-- she ended up taking the ball and running the length of the field with it, to the extent that she goes deep-cut-heavy when asked her favorites ("Innuendo," "I'm Going Slightly Mad," "The Show Must Go On"... though "Somebody to Love" makes the cut, too) AND ended up being the one who called my attention to the opening date of the movie. In preparation, I took a quickie swerve through Queen history just to see what minefields I'd have to be prepared to discuss with her, post-flick (she was eight at the time). So... the basics of the Freddie personal history, basic band history, discography chronology, and all that. I didn't notice every single distortion in real time, but there was a sort of creeping feeling of "Wait, did that actually" at more than a few junctures. It's not like the movie is a terrible film. It's just... there. Though when one considers the fact that it flattened out aspects of the main character that were KINDA key to how much he means to a lot of people (and, likely, his actual personality), and that it distorts the AIDS announcement timing for cheap melodrama, and that it was all approved (if not pushed) by his ostensible friends, well... the there-ness curdles into something a little more sour for me. I mean, if you're going to play that fast and loose with facts... at least do something more interesting (see: the weird-ass, shaggy-dog-as-stage-outfit-tale "Rocketman").

Among many other more trivial things are these big 'uns: -- Queen hadn't been on hiatus before Live Aid; they were a tight, well-oiled touring machine at that point (which is part of the reason they were able to pull off such a tight set on short notice). -- The breakup prior to Live Aid is an invention, presumably for dramatic convenience; also an invention, then, is his being an asshole over going solo, and that being the reason for their breaking up (he wasn't even the first to record a solo album-- Roger Taylor, the guy who scoffs at his solo ambitions in the movie, had recorded TWO before Freddie made a move to do so himself). -- The AIDS diagnosis came a few years after Live Aid. Which... well, Freddie Mercury's diagnosis and subsequent public announcement were a huge deal in terms of acceptance of AIDS patients as, y'know, human beings, so its usage here as emotional glue to foster the band's reunion following an imaginary breakup seems... a little cynical and untoward, at best; at worst, it's gross tragedy porn.

It's tough to be sensational-- or even the least bit edifying-- when you're not being, y'know, honest about the subject. In both form and content, it's the kind of biopic you tend to get when some of the subjects are directly involved with the making. Malek is really good, but he's buried under a pile of sanitized-cum-bowdlerized stuff that lightly crucifies the dead guy in service of serviceable biopic material that isn't emotionally or factually true... and those teeth.

Vic Sage wrote: i find it amusing that it got a nomination for editing, but whaddyagonndo? And that 1917-- whose whole thing is edited-to-look-like-one-shot-- didn't.

I'm with Edgy on this. My fingers were starting to drift toward my cell phone to fiddle until that banquet. The deaging did NOT work so well, did it?

=TransMonk post_id=29803 time=1579133580 user_id=71] Lupita Nyong'o wuz robbed.

MOVIES I SAW (in order of preference): BOOKSMART US THE FAREWELL AVENGERS: END GAME DOLEMITE IS MY NAME LONG SHOT JOJO RABBIT ONE CHILD NATION MARRIAGE STORY BRITTANY RUNS A MARATHON THE KINGMAKER SPIDER-MAN: FAR FROM HOME HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON III MIDSOMMAR SHAZAM! CAPTAIN MARVEL STAR WARS: RISE OF SKYWALKER THE LEGO MOVIE 2: THE SECOND PART HARRIET FROZEN II ON MY LIST, YET: 1917 AD ASTRA A BEAUTIFUL DAY IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD CLEMENCY THE DEAD DON'T DIE FIRST LOVE (HATSUKOI) FORD V FERRARI GLASS GOOD BOYS HIGHWAYMEN HONEY BOY HUSTLERS I LOST MY BODY THE IRISHMAN JOHN WICK III JOKER KNIVES OUT THE LAST BLACK MAN IN SAN FRANCISCO LATE NIGHT THE LIGHTHOUSE LITTLE WOMEN MOTHERLESS BROOKLYN ONCE UPON A TIME…IN HOLLYWOOD PARASITE ROCKETMAN 6 UNDERGROUND TERMINATOR: DARK FATE TOY STORY 4 THE TWO POPES UNCUT GEMS VELVET BUZZSAW WEATHERING WITH YOU YESTERDAY ZOMBIELAND DOUBLE TAP

Nasty little movie. Which isn't to say it's a BAD movie. I think the only thing keeping this not-quite-classic for me is that it's Ben Affleck as the husband. Like, it's about the best fit for a Ben Affleck part you could have-- he's a caddish doof of a hero who's tasked with being mostly unlikable-- and it still doesn't quite work as well as it should.

What, no Baby Driver (2017)? Edgar Wright's vehicle vehicle may be more of a caper-gone-wrong-er, but still... practical driving stuntin' (to a fantastically curated soundtrack) is VERY much a featured co-star. The underrated CB-prank-gone-wrong slasher Joy Ride (2001) is worth a notice, too.

I mean, it's not without charms. But I ain't, y'know, fighting a city full of costumed gangs to see it, y'know?

Vic Sage wrote: there was also a biopic with Jeffrey Right from the 1990s. With Bowie as Warhol! Directed by painter/director Julien Schnabel, who later made Before Night Falls, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, and that movie about Van Gogh with Willem Defoe from last year. They're all beautiful movies-- visually and otherwise-- about creativity/striving in the face of death/adversity (among many other things). (Diving Bell-- about a French journalist who suddenly finds himself stricken with "locked-in syndrome," is a personal favorite among them.) Downtown 81 is okay, IIRC, but even when i saw it (back around/right after initial release) it was mostly of value as a visual nostalgia trip.

Annette Bening is a hawt anything. I enjoy Driver, and I wouldn't quite call him a comic presence (he's solid like oak in Silence), but... a little lightweight? Maybe. I'm squarely in that good-not-great camp. It ain't Spotlight... but it's not Harriet, either.

Edgy MD wrote: Ms. de Havilland is still kicking it at 103. It's, like, a once-or-twice-a-year thing with my wife and me where we're home on a mutual off day, and the topic of older films/stars comes up, and we double-check on de Havilland, because our brains are aging, and we weren't all that smart to begin with. (Maureen O'Hara used to be part of this, until the other year. Hedy Lamarr's science pursuits usually come up, too.)

Oh, dip! I didn't realize this was on Prime! In on this tonight.

Okja WAS good, as was The Host (and, for that matter, Snowpiercer). Haven't yet seen Parasite, but I wanna. More to the point of the thread, though... hey, Double Switch/41Forever/lovers of the good old stuff: https://www.criterionchannel.com/The Criterion Channel

You know the one. You know the one? The ostensible "satire," getting a wild mix of great notices and is-this-in-good-taste pearl-clutching? The one with writer-director Taika Waititi (Thor: Ragnarok, What We Do In The Shadows) guiding the ship... AND playing the imaginary-friend Hitler? Y'know, this one? https://www.jweekly.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/10-18-19-jojorabbit1-e1571691665515.jpg> Since I saw it last week and have finally allowed myself to read the reviews, I've seen it described in multiple places as "Moonreich Kingdom," which is certainly a bit glib but not altogether inaccurate. It's certainly assembled as lovingly-- licensed and expertly-deployed German versions of Bowie and the Beatles, sharp production design, sure-handed lenswork-- as any Wes Anderson tweefest. It's also got a little of the same smirky charm and feel. The reason I dubious-quote-marked "satire" above is that the film's jokes are a little less bone-crunching than you'd like from a proper one, which limits its effectiveness as such... in a way, for all its ambition in tonal-bridging, when it comes to the humor and the pathos, it seems to be swinging for singles and gap hits-- observational notices, moments of touching rapport, playful comments on the historical goings-on-- rather than big, looping Oscar-y home runs. There's a lot of interesting dramatic things raised here with the character arcs, not all of which are explored fully. The main character's arc is interesting and rewarding, but others ring less true, and range from flat and pointless (Rebel Wilson's slapstick Nazi-youth matron) to why-God-why (Sam Rockwell, doing a weirdly sympathetic, Teutonic, cracked-mirror version of what he did to Oscar-winning effect in Three Billboards...). Almost all of the principals' performances are excellent; Scarlett Johansson as the lead's mother is nimble and nuanced in a way she's rarely allowed to be in her recent projects, Tamsin McKenzie (who was GREAT in the excellent family-off-the-grid drama Leave No Trace) is subtle and effective as a Jewish refugee, and the kids (notably, lead Roman Griffin Davis and his round-faced buddy Archie Yates) are adorable-without-being-cloying AND possessed of crazy-precocious comic timing. There's a zesty surreality to the movie that's very much a Waititi thing and also matches its protagonists' 10-year-old viewpoint... yet, there's also a disjointed thing going on that sorta maybe hobbles the thing in spots. Much like this summation, the film's a very mixed bag. It's also very much worth seeing. I'm still not sure where I ultimately land on the thing. Und du?

Y'all yell "YAAAS" or "NAW," I'm all like "Eh, MAYbe" Say I'm splitting the uprights like my name was Pat Leahy I feel like these people are reviewing something other than the movie we're talking about.

I'm a big Drunk History afficionado, myself... and I think I preferred the Octavia Spencer version of this story. The one we paid to see was solid and earnest... but REALLY earnest, and contrived in spots (there's some... singing which may or may not be diagetic). Liked the Cynthia Erivo main performance a LOT; she wrings genuine emotion from the audience without emoting. Both YoungerPooper and I came away disappointed that they didn't include more of her action-hero third act (Civil War spy/raid leader). Basically, it's dignified, and it'll play in classrooms. Which is... something less than what we were hoping for.