2019 Movie Discussion

[Doug]

I've seen Joker twice now and I really like it. It's a fantastic performance from Phoenix and a great movie. Not Taxi Driver-level great but way up there. One thing that's cool about the movie is that even if Batman and Joker had never existed, this movie could still have been made exactly as it is. All the rest of what I love about the movie I can't really discuss because it'd spoil too much, but I can say it's a movie that stays with you. Also, for the record, I still very much prefer Heath Ledger's Joker and The Dark Knight overall, but that was to be expected.

[The Schofield Kid]

This was OK. A little longer than it needed to be but a great soundtrack of Bruce Springsteen songs. Although it took nearly half an hour before we heard them. Inspired by a true story of a young Pakistani guy in Luton in the mid 1980's who feels like his life is going nowhere in a dead end town.

Not a memorable film but a good film for a rainy day.

3/5.

[Gant]

Mid Sommar

Weird, strange, unsettling... I really enjoyed it, Echo's of The Wicker Man (original)

[Gant]

BlackkKlansman directed by Spike Lee

I was really looking forward to this one but strangely didn't connect with it at all.. It felt like
It had an almost comic tone at times that I didn't find funny.. The baddies were almost comic book (reminded me of the
gang in Pink Cadillac ) The closing real footage jarred because it was so shocking, to me that's what the whole film should have felt like...

[Christopher]

I'm contemplating if I want to see Doctor Sleep even though I haven't read the book yet. The book came out six years ago, so obviously I could have read it by now if I'd really wanted to (it is one I've been interested in reading). Anyone watch it yet?

[Gant]

Anyone here seen The Irishman ?

Any thoughts.... ?

[Hammerhead]

I really enjoyed it. Saw it in the cinema though and it was loooooonnng!

[Gant]

I'm only an hour in (netflix) so can't comment properly but I have to say the digital de-ageing process is really bugging me..

I know a lot of people think it works well but to me it's very distracting. There's a disparity between the young heads and obviously much older bodies. The scene outside the grocery was particularly poor..

DeNiro looks like someone in a rubber DeNiro mask doing and over the top impression of the great man.

I'll stick with it tho and maybe it'll become less of a distraction as the film progresses..

[Christopher]

I didn't make it to the theater at all during November, but did go and see two movies last week: Frozen II and Knives Out (that'd be quite a double feature! ). Frozen II is a solid sequel and Knives Out is one of my favorites from this year.

This week we get Richard Jewell (of course), Jumanji: The Next Level, and Black Christmas (the second remake ). I'll probably go see all three in the next few weeks.

[Christopher]

Between Thursday evening and Friday afternoon I saw Jumanji: The Next Level and Black Christmas (like I said elsewhere, Richard Jewell wasn't playing at my local theater so I'll check that out next week most likely). Jumanji was fun. Not as good as the previous, but still quite funny.

Black Christmas wasn't fun or good or anything. It's a movie with a social message, and it's intent on beating you over the head with that message. I don't mind movies with a message. And I like the message of this movie, but the execution stinks. It makes the 2006 movie look great. I need to watch the 1974 original again soon, which I'd possibly rank as among my favorite horror movies.

[Jed Cooper]

These were all good action movies.  All sequels, I enjoyed seeing the return of Stallone as Rambo and Schwarzenegger as Terminator.  Gerard Butler has proven to be an entertaining, relevant actor in the genre. 








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[Jed Cooper]

Very good.  Tina & I enjoyed this very much.  I may see it a second time but damn, ticket prices are so frikin’ expensive!  You’d think with people staying home more due to easier access to movies there that ticket prices would come down.  Well, whatever.  I still enjoy going too much to discontinue altogether but don’t see myself attending as much as I have been lately.  The next one I’m looking forward to is the newest James Bond film.




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[Matt]

The two films I loved the most last year did well last night at the Golden Globes.

Best Motion Picture -- Musical or Comedy: Once Upon a Time in Hollywood

(Surprised this was put in the Comedy classification, but I'm assuming it was strategic to not lose to Joker)

Which brings up the fact that Joker didn't win for Best Motion Picture Drama. Instead, 1917 won. I haven't seen that one, but I did see They Shall Not Grow Old, and don't feel like watching another WWI film anytime soon. Has anyone here seen it?


Quentin Tarantino won for best Screenplay for Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.

Brad Pitt won for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. I was wondering if he'd be nominated as a supporting actor, and hoped he would, since Joaquin Phoenix had a lock on it with his performance in Joker (and he did win the Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Motion Picture- Drama)

Any other thoughts of the winners/losers?  Here's the list:

https://www.cnn.com/2020/01/05/entertainment/golden-globes-winners-2020/index.html

[AKA23]

Matt, since you loved it so much, I saw "Once Upon a Time...in Hollywood." I'm incredibly sorry to have to tell you this, but I found it to be overlong, very talky, and lacking an interesting plot-driven narrative. To me, it felt kind of boring to watch, and the only character I really cared about was the little girl! I agreed with you that it was less gratuitously violent than most of Tarantino's other work, and I appreciated that, save for the ending of course. I also don't see anything Oscar worthy in Pitt's performance and can't understand why he seems to be running away with the Best Supporting Actor Oscar, at least if predictions are to be believed. I've actually seen all of the other Globes-nominated Supporting Actor performances, and I thought all of them were better than Pitt's. What was so great about it? Pitt's given similar performances before in much better films. I don't get why the film is getting so much critical acclaim. It's very slow and self-indulgent. Perhaps it may hold more resonance for those who lived through those times and who feel nostalgic about that period in history. I don't know. 

Of the Globes winners overall in all categories, I haven't seen most of them. I did like "Parasite," and am happy to see that it appears to be doing well. It's a wholly original work and one of the better foreign films I've seen in recent years. Even though I didn't much like the ending, it's a very unique film, crosses a lot of different genres, and has a satisfying, involving story with well-developed characters that deals with social class differences in Korean society in entertaining yet still highly relevant ways.

My favorite film this year has probably been "A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood," so what do I know?   

[Christopher]

1917 opens wide this weekend, and I've been really looking forward to it. It sounds great. I've seen They Shall Not Grow Old as well, but I'm not sure what these two would have in common other than both being about WWI.

[Christopher]

I saw 1917 today and it is very good. It was mentioned about this winning best drama at the Golden Globes, and I can definitely see this potentially winning Best Picture at the Oscars. Along with best director, cinematography, and probably a slew of technical awards.

[KC]

I saw 1917 today and it is very good. It was mentioned about this winning best drama at the Golden Globes, and I can definitely see this potentially winning Best Picture at the Oscars. Along with best director, cinematography, and probably a slew of technical awards.

Best cinematography, certainly. It's a tour de force, even if much of the effect was achieved digitally.

Otherwise, though I enjoyed it, I had the feeling I had seen this movie before. It's the same basic generic World War I movie they've been making since All Quiet on the Western Front* (1930), with the extra feature that it's also a "Men on a Mission" movie. By this time, we're pretty certain how those are going to turn out, too.

I found the two young lead actors' performances credible and touching, and Benedict Cumberbatch should get an Oscar for "Best Cameo by a Star in a Movie Lacking Stars in Leading Roles." If there were such a thing.

One other thing: The score. It is incredibly intrusive and (at least where I saw it) very loud. You never forget for a moment, "It's only a movie ... hear all that movie music playing?"

This is not to say it WON'T get all the awards Christopher mentioned. What was that phrase I read in Film Comment? (The current issue, with the review, was in my mailbox when I came home from the theater.)

... Dig a millimeter beneath the surface of the ubiquitous art-directed grime of 1917 and you’ll catch the antiseptic smell of the Great Anglo-American Prestige Picture, never more emotionally tidy or stylistically turgid.

https://www.filmcomment.com/article/the-big-screen-1917/

And "Great Anglo-American Prestige Pictures" ... they're what win Oscars, right?

*AQOTWF was based on a German novel and accordingly featured German soldiers, but part of the point of the generic World War I movie is that there wasn't much difference between the experience of soldiers on either side.

[Gant]

You've almost put me off seeing it now KC. I'm not a huge war movie fan but I was hoping for something a little
 different from this one..

[KC]

Well, your results may be different! It is definitely worth seeing. The war scenes are highly realistic (well, except for the music), and I disagree with the author of the Film Comment review that it is "stylistically turgid." I liked the acting. I'd be curious to hear your reaction, Gant!

[Christopher]

I would say there's something "a little different" about this one. The way it's shot is almost an immersive experience.

The music isn't minimalist like an Eastwood movie, but I'm fine with that. In fact there was one sequence when I thought how I really liked the music that was being played there (and I don't remember what sequence that was).