I was able to make it through half of this movie before I couldn't take anymore. Who thought this needed to be made? I can't imagine finding anything less interesting than a day in the life of adult film stars. Don't get me wrong - I don't think my life is any more interesting, and that's the point. I had expected there to be some kind of angle like there was in the (criminally underrated) tv show The Deuce.
I can appreciate the stunning visuals and the dark comedy that this film offers but the appreciation for this film completely escapes me. It's a long, long, long way to go to see the fairly uninteresting story play out. I won't get that three hours of my life back.
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I know, I know - another movie in the Groundhog Day sub-genre. They all try to have a different twist on it and some actually succeed. While there are some of the philosophical questions raised in that film they don't spend too much time in that area as its been done before (you won't see anyone driving into a quarry with a groundhog at the wheel). This movie works because the leads are perfectly cast and have fantastic chemistry. I didn't want to like it as much as I did but it sucked me in.
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I think the setup was very good: there are a bunch of refugees being housed on a remote island in Scotland while waiting to be accepted to England. Their story is told through very dark humor and both the actors and the script are very good. The story seemed to have lost a bit of steam as it went along but given the backdrop (a small cast living in a single location) I think that was going to happen, especially when despair is part of the backdrop. I thought the film succeeded in creating a sympathetic portrayal of the plight of the refugee.
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I enjoyed the hell out of this movie. I think what surprised me the most is that I expected a movie about a woman that suffered from dementia and I got something altogether different. I've watched movies like Still Alice that were about people that were suffering from mental illness. The problem with those films is that - from an entertainment perspective - they are rather limited by their backdrop. Sure, you can be emotionally moved by the performances but at the end of the day you know exactly how the story is going to play out.
This film is different. While it starts out with a woman suffering from dementia it is not about a woman with dementia. The film is a study in the dynamics of family and the effects that the shortcomings of parents can have on their children. The story is delicately told and the three leads are phenomenal. I think what impressed me most is how the story played out over the final few scenes - it had to have been difficult to lose sight of the bigger story and to avoid clichés. I thought they nailed it.
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The setup is perfect: a lonely female scientist who has had questionable luck in the dating world is asked to try out a humanoid for three weeks. That humanoid is supposedly made just for her, although the film never really gets into what the means (the few times it is addressed the woman seemed surprised that an aspect of the bot was specific to her preference).
I think this movie is a fine entry into the "what is a relationship" genre. While my favorite movie in this area will always be Her I think this movie isn't too far behind. The struggle to show the areas where the humanoid filled and did not fill holes in the woman's life was extremely interesting. I think where they ultimately left the movie was perfect.
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At this point in my "career" I have reviewed almost 1100 films. I look high and low for good movies. I appreciate it when someone takes a chance and makes something that is unlike others that came before it. I was ready for this movie.
If I had to summarize what is wrong with this movie in a sentence I would say that other than the curiosity of seeing two great actors in a musical there is absolutely nothing compelling about the movie. It's (barely) a musical but there is nothing about the music that you'll remember after the movie ends. If anything it was more of a distraction - Driver wasn't given anything of substance to sing until the end of the movie. Cotillard can obviously sing but it wasn't pleasant to watch her do it in this film. So when you couple a story that's been done a lot with some really mediocre music you end up something that was new yet not very good. I think there was a better movie in there - it may have worked better as a dark comedy.
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This movie was an unexpected treat. These days it seems rare for Cage to find a decent script but he found one here and he knocked it out of the park. There is a real character study in here and it is not limited to the lead. Excellent script, excellent acting and a really nice movie.
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As with other recent lesbian period pieces (Ammonite comes to mind) this movie has been unfairly compared with Portrait of a Lady on Fire. As with Ammonite this movie is extremely understated and the point of the movie isn't so much about a potential relationship as it is about how few options women had in the not-too-distant past. I thought that movie smartly knew how to begin and end the story and it didn't overstay its welcome. The two leads are fantastic and Affleck also shines in an understated supporting role.
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I watch a ton of independent movies made my inexperienced filmmakers. I can probably count on one hand the ones where I could not guess that the movie was made for peanuts or that the writers, actors, directors, etc were either raw or untalented. The biggest giveaway is usually the dialog - often the characters are given filler while trying to establish some sort of conflict or waiting for the next scene that will move the plot forward. In this movie there were no such giveaways. I was engrossed in the story from the opening scenes and enjoyed it throughout. At first I thought that the ending might not have fit after what happened a few scenes before it but I don't think it was necessarily out of place. I personally found the discussions around growing up and surviving college to be interesting. It felt kind of superficial at first but it really ends up going to a deeper place as the story unfolds.
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The biggest problem that this movie has is that it came out within a year of Portrait of a Lady On Fire and thus is often compared to that movie. Is it as good as that movie? No, of course not - that movie is among the all-time greats. But this movie is still excellent and that should be good enough. First and foremost, Winslet is incredible. Her character walks such a delicate line throughout the movie - at first starting out as a dour and lonely woman and then going through several other phases (it seemed to me as though her makeup was different at certain times in order to soften up her appearance). The role is so nuanced that I can imagine few actresses being able to pull it off. Saoirse Ronan was also extremely well-cast and had to go through her character's own transformation. While this film doesn't have the highs of "Portrait" in some ways I thought it was more interesting because we saw the story primarily through the eyes of the troubled heroine whereas in Portrait the story seemed to be primarily from the visitor's perspective. This resulted in the audience having a real feel for her heartache throughout.
The acting in this film is extraordinary. Really, top-notch stuff as you might expect from this cast. That said, the movie didn't come near the quality that I had hoped that it would. I think the core problem that I have with it is that I just didn't feel the developing love story. I think part of this is the lack of speaking by one of the leads and then the lack of loving interaction between the two leads. It didn't feel like they were in love - we were just kind of told that they were. It's a fine film - I just didn't see how it would rank among the all-time greats.
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This is a classic example of where a movie might appear on my "favorite" list but not necessarily my "best" list. Is the movie perfect? No. Have we seen a lot of this before? Of course - it's hard to come up with something completely original when there hundreds of movies made every year. It doesn't matter. Sometimes there is something about a movie that just sucks you in and doesn't let you go. This movie had such an effect because the quality of the acting was phenomenal. All of the actors seemed to understand that there needed to be an understated tone to the characters and nobody does that better than Jason Bateman. The film is first and foremost a drama and because of the understated approach to the movie the comedic parts were very funny yet did not take away from the depiction of broken people inside of a broken family. There is a heart in this movie that is undeniable. Probably the highest compliment that I can pay it is that I was ready to watch it again the moment it ended and that almost never happens to me.
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There have been countless movies made about the possibility of men and women being platonic friends. This film takes that question and puts a unique slant on it: can men and women seek friends of the opposite sex when they are in a relationship and make both the friendship and the relationship work? As the movie goes on the central question kind of fades away and I think that is a bit of a shame. I probably would have liked to have seen the movie end a minute earlier with a different ending but that's just me. Kazan and Radcliffe are fantastic together.
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This one isn't for everyone? The pace was very deliberate and this is probably why it was not a box-office hit. You really need to pay attention to what is going on or you will feel very unsatisfied later on (not unlike "Lost in Translation"). While the supporting cast is ridiculous it is still Murray that shines the brightest in his subdued role.
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In reading some of the reviews of this movie I think that some people thought that the movie is about cancer - I don't believe it is. The film begins with four very broken people. There is no hope and there is no direction. An unexpected development brings the four together under one roof and something amazing happens. There is a beautiful shared human experience that gives the film a completely different texture. The movie is no longer about death, it is about living. The beautiful final scene is all the proof that you need.
I thought that the director did an excellent job telling the story. We weren't bogged down by the details of each characters story as that would take away from the large message. There were no trips to the hospital or seeing anyone in a twelve step program. I also loved the titles to each scene - I thought that was a nice effect.
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By skimming the reviews I can see that many people thought that this movie was nothing more than a glorified travel brochure. I didn't see it that way at all. With each new encounter we saw new layers in the main characters revealed and conflicts exposed. At its heart the film is about our development as people and all of the stops along the way. In that sense the move is not unlike life. What I really enjoyed about the movie is that the progression was more subtle than it would be in other films like Sideways. I very much enjoyed it.
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Everything about this movie is wonderful. At the heart of the movie is a story about how our actions can have serious consequences for ourselves in others. For me what is so impressive about this movie is that it doesn't beat you over the head with the choice that was made and the consequences that continue to roll downhill until the credits role. The movie very much feels like an epic (not unlike Cold War) and the decision is only one part of the movie.
The other part of the movie that really impressed me was the scenery. The scenes from Dunkirk were absolutely incredible, not to mention the pre-war backdrops. Incredible work.
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This is the classic example of a movie where the parts are much better than the sum. I adore so many of the actors in this movie.... I really thought that I would love it. There isn't anything inherently wrong with this movie - it just isn't great by any stretch of the imagination. At different points it is a drama, a comedy and even satirical (Christopher Guest flashed through my mind towards the end) but it never excelled at being any of the three. What makes it even that much more odd is that I think that the characters were well-defined and had room to grow - I can't think of another similar movie that seemed similarly set up for success but then didn't be anything more then "meh". A few years later Collette and Carell would team up in the far-superior The Way, Way Back.
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This is one of the most unique films that I have ever seen and I think it is one that demands multiple viewings. If you look up "subtle" in the dictionary you'd probably find this movie in the definition. I had to read through several reviews to even get a glimpse of what I missed. The subtle interactions between the two leads is incredible. So much of their time together happens in the shadows - it really adds to the feel of a forbidden love. One thing that I missed is the director's use of color in the middle and then at the end. It really is a joy if you want to do a little work for it.
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What an absolute joy of a film. At different times it was hilarious, absurd, poignant and inspirational. While Scarlett Johansson was at her absolute best it is the young actors that absolutely stole the show. While watching the film I couldn't help but think that all of the themes that existed back then (bigotry, jingoism, hatred, etc) that we thought were gone never really left.
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In a lot of ways this movie reminded me of The Lobster. In that movie there was a ton to like - a fantastic cast, a unique plot and a willingness to do something outside of what we usually see in today's movies. I wanted to love that movie as I wanted to love this movie although if I am being honest I enjoyed this one a little bit more. Even though we all know where the story was going it was interesting to watch the tenuous friendship between the two works devolve. In the end the story felt a little bit trapped, not unlike the two men themselves.
The acting was fantastic and that boosted my rating of the film. In the first half Dafoe does the heavy lifting but in the second half Pattinson shows chops that I didn't know he had.
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This film is pretty much what you'd expect - it will scare the hell out of you because of how people in power act and the acting is fantastic. Adam Driver really has an amazing run of films going now (including the incredibly unseen Paterson). It's a good watch - hopefully people will give it a chance because of the acting and the story because the story matters a lot. Time and time again we justify behavior and policy under the guise of safety.
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I am generally a plan of flashback episodes but this one was weak. The last 5 minutes are strong but it very much felt like they had to created two or three other meaningless story lines to fill the episodes. It stuck out like a sore them in the season.
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Has there ever been a better ending to a show? They completely nailed the entire last season (if you hated the first episode you missed the point). I write this as people are losing their minds over Game of Throwns. I've never seen a second of that show but they seem to have had the same advantage that YTW had: they had the ability to go out on their own terms. The show was no longer bogged down by "will they stay together" - this allowed them the freedom to let it all hang out.
If you liked this season and show I highly recommend fleabag as it had both a superb final season and excellent finale. I am going to miss both shows so much.
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I've enjoyed the chances that this series has taken this season. While this wasn't quite up to the chance that they took in episode 1 of this season I still thought it was great. I suspect that part of the intent was to close out the story lines of the "other" three characters on the series - this seemed like a natural way to kill 3 birds with one stone.
This show excels at showing how difficult it is to make a relationship last. It does this in a very brutal and honest way - at times it is fantastically cringe-worthy. I really appreciate how the children are pretty much non-existent in the show and the focus is on the main characters. I just finished the final episode and there is a great arc to the story. While I love the characters I am glad that they went out on a high note. Sometimes less is more.
It seems there comes a time in many parent-child relationships where the child becomes the parent and the parent becomes... well, either a child or worse. This film starts off simple enough - it seems as though the child is growing up in a home with two well-adjust parents. And then.... you see the cracks of what is beneath. This film really resonated with me in that my parents very much resembled the characters in the movie. My parents got married far too young and later in life they reverted back to the time in which they stopped growing. This film was beautifully told and very well acted.
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The funny thing about googling something like "best Woody Allen movies" is that there doesn't seem to be a general consensus as to what his best works might be and that order in which they should appear. For whatever reason, "Hannah and Her Sisters" had fallen down the order of our "to watch" list.
For much of the first half of the movie I had my moments where I doubted that quality of the film as it seemed as though it was a poorer version of some of his other works. For example, you saw the neurotic Woody Allen, the stammering female lead (Mia Farrow, who I've never thought was particularly great), and commentary on relationships. The plot was slow in developing and at times I found myself a little bored.
It was at that time that I realized that I had been missing the whole point of the movie. The movie wasn't necessarily about relationships or neurosis or adultery. It was about the different stages of life that we pass through and how we all interact in our different phases. Shakespeare really had it right - all of the world is indeed a stage and we are all players and everyone is the audience. It was completely necessary for a long and protracted first half of the movie because it takes time to show the phases that we go through and how our phases affect the phases that other people experience.
Overall I thought this movie was very good. It had one characteristic that I use to measure the quality of a good movie: I was still mulling it over hours and days after I watched it.
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The decision to end the show after this season seems to have been a great benefit to this season. Rather than repeating the same old story lines (like Shameless does) they went to the wedding card and a whole new set of situations have opened up to them. This episode was classic YTW.
