Everyone: You aren't on Facebook or Instagram?! How do you keep in touch with people? Don't you want to know what or how they are doing? Or let them know what you are up to?
Me: No.
I'm not a fan of Taylor Swift's music, never was and probably never will be - I honestly can't name more than one of her song titles. The only reason I started watching this documentary was because I needed some background program, something I don't care too much about, so it doesn't matter if I payed attention or not.
.. and then after a couple of minutes I was actually watching it, completely fascinated by the personal look behind the scenes and the glimpse into the life of a very relatable and empathetic person.
This could have been a lot better if it weren't for the second-hand embarrassment I felt throughout for the awkward acting of Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Topher Grace :grimacing:
I never heard of Tonya Harding and "the incident" before this movie was promoted and of course I immediately had to look things up after I did. It's a fascinating story and I'm sure, if something like this happened nowadays, it would generate the same scandal and amount of media circus as it did 23 years ago (if not more because of the internet).
But "the incident" isn't the focus in this movie, it's just in there as part of Tonya's (Margot Robbie) ride up and down her athletic career. The more important parts are the tumultuous and abusive relationships she had with her mother (Allison Janney) and her ex-husband (Sebastian Stan) that are hard to watch - as they should be.
Figuring out how old the characters are at times was a bit confusing, but the acting throughout is fabulous (shoutout to the young Tonya, Mckenna Grace)! There aren't many movies where I can truly see past a well-known face of an actor, but it happenend with I, Tonya. I also enjoyed the camera work, soundtrack, breaking of the fourth wall and the little montage of real footage in the end.
Feeling nostalgic for a time when I wasn't even born.
It's been a while since I watched this movie and I was genuinely surprised that I thought I liked it. I mean, I'm also the first to admit to be easily distracted by beautiful cinematography, music scores and actors I enjoy seeing (Michael Shannon and Aaron Taylor-Johnson really are exceptional and hold at least half of the movie together with their acting!) and I think those three aspects are what I remember liking, because the plot is.. questionable on many different levels.
For me personally this is also a great example for how much I learned in the past couple of years about portrayal of violence against women or how rape/murder of women are used as plot devices - and frankly, I don't want to see it anymore, especially when it's done in such a glorifying, male-gazey and sexualized way.
The most infuriating thing in this movie though, is the fact that it implies Susan (Amy Adams) deserves to be punished and unhappy because she divorced her husband (Jake Gyllenhaal) and unknowingly to him aborted their child. And then nineteen years later her then ex-husband sends her the manuscript for his novel in which he shows how her choices/decisions back then made him feel by comparig it to the rape and murder of his fictional wife and daughter?
Anyway, I'm kind of curious to read the 1993 novel this movie is based on ("Tony and Susan" by Austin Wright), just to see how everything is handled in there..
There's so much wrong with this movie.. I felt so icky afterwards I wanted to take a shower and cleanse my mind with another viewing of Booksmart (2019), but it was already too late and I had to go to sleep.
A couple of thoughts:
- I actually liked the beginning, because I thought this was going to be some sort of stalker story (which it kind of is, I guess) and I wanted to figure out Charlotte's (Allison Williams) motive - jealousy seemed to be too simple.
- Lizzie (Logan Browning) basically "traded" one abuser for another? Anton (Steven Weber) gains her trust, manipulates her mind, then violates her body and calls it a gift, because that's the only way to reach "The Perfection". Charlotte gains her trust, manipulates her mind, then violates her body and calls it salvation, because that's the only way to see the truth - which we then should accept as female empowerment?
- On one hand (no pun intended, seriously) the writers and producers of this film seem to have lived in a bubble for the past couple of years when it comes to the #MeToo movement and such, because this is a rape revenge massacre at its most exploitative.
- On the other hand I wonder if they drew inspiration from some of the most prominent sexual abuse cases that have become public in recent years. The tattoo? Reminded me about this NXIVM sex-cult who branded their victims. The institutionalized sexual abuse of talented girls? Reminded me about those hundreds of female USA Gymnastics athletes, who were abused by their trusted physician. The assault was so subtle and full of plausible deniability that the victims weren't even sure whether they were actually abused. In the movie the abuse is portrayed as some sort of gross religious ritual, with the victims sitting on a stage, strapped to a chair - which we should accept has been going on under the radar for decades?
- But it has a mixed-raced lesbian couple who not only survives but is also making out and the two actresses were even part of the editing process of the sex scene (I guess to make sure it isn't too male-gazey?), so :fist: to progress, or whatever.
I honestly would have profited from some trigger warnings before watching this, so be aware of the following content: Bugs, delusional parasitosis, vomit, suicide, amputation, ableism, paedophilia, child sexual abuse, (threat of) rape and gore in general.
I didn't even bother sitting through the whole eight minutes.
Plus one rating point for the music.
I have watched this before, years ago, but I (for good reason) must have completely supressed the last half hour, because these (two! one of them attempted) rape scenes towards the end were utterly distressing.
Definitely one of the best True Crime documentaries I've seen in a while, because of its focus on the many victims of the very flawed U.S. criminal justice system - crime victims and survivors, the wrongfully incarcerated or rather the exonerated, after they've spent decades behind bars and their families.
It would have been great to get a more in depth look into solutions or changes that need to happen and how they can be brought about, besides the obvious: Vote the right people into office!
The episodes get a bit sloppy/jumbled towards the end (the last 3 episodes, maybe) with a lot of threads left unexplored.. but yeah.. batshit crazy, that's what this is.
If I don't know what to watch the Ocean's movies never disappoint - if you ignore Ocean's Twelve (2004). They're just a lot of fun :grin:
At least the poster looks good :person_shrugging:
I don't know why, but this is a Christmas movie I actually like. Maybe it's because there are plenty of close-ups of Olivia Wilde's beautiful face in it, or Alan Arkin, John Goodman and (not enough of) Marisa Tomei.. I just like it.
Things I liked the most:
- The storyline of Eleanor (Olivia Wilde) and Joe (Jake Lacy)
- Bucky's (Alan Arkin) grandfatherly conversation with Hank (Ed Helms) in the Poinsettia greenhouse
- The soundtrack (Honorable mention: "Soul Cake" by Sting)
- That little montage of all the mistletoe kisses the shopping mall cop remembered
- You are such a jerk!
- Real snow!
Some things that irritated me:
- Alan Arkin as Diane Keaton's father because they are only twelve years apart
- Young Charlotte (Diane Keaton) and Emma (Marisa Tomei) looked like eight years apart and not eigh_teen_
- Honestly, I'm concerned about all the food that dog ate..
The best things about this movie are its poster and the theme song.
The romance, humor, emotions, even the progressiveness felt so forced and that cameo from a douchy Keanu Reeves made everything worse? And why didn't they cast actual young adults for the later flashback scenes? I knew then, that this wouldn't be all too great and unfortunately I was right.
I can't believe I'm saying this about a movie with Winona Ryder and Keanu Reeves, but this is insufferable.
The most interesting thing about this movie is, that the real Amberley Snyder acted as her own stunt double for all the post-accident riding scenes, while her younger sister Autumn Snyder did all of the pre-accident stunts due to their similar riding styles - and that I learned because of the movie's Wikipedia page I read, while watching the movie.
The most irritating thing for me was, that Steven Greer looks like the guy from the Staircase (2005) case.
Also, I'm thinking about becoming a talking head for documentaries like this and then simply go "Yeah, we did that, but I can't really talk about it, because it's classified", whenever I'm being asked a question. Seems like a lucrative career.
I liked the art style? :person_shrugging:
It's really important to spread the awareness of how grooming works and that, if it happens, it is most likely someone the parents and children know/respect/trust/even love and that not only the children are targeted, but also the parents, who need to be manipulated as well in order for it to work. But this documentary was poorly and tastelessly executed (Who thought these reenactments in the style of home videos from the 1970s were a good idea?) and failed to inform on a deeper level about said pathological behaviour.
I'm in a better mood now! :innocent: -humming I Will Follow Him-
I'm really glad, I had good advice and started with the Original Trilogy. After Episode II, I most definitely would have given up on this series.
Nostalgia is a strange thing.. I remember loving this as a child. Because it must have been up to 20 years since I last saw this movie, I thought it's about time to revisit Fantasia.. and I deeply regret it.
The characters are dull, the child actors are emotionless (looking scared with open mouths, wide eyes and fake tears) and either whispering, screaming or thinking out loud to explain what's going on, the soundtrack is unbearably cheesy and the story_telling_ is basically non-existent; it jumps from one scene to another until it all ends in a ride on the fluffy white (dog) dragon.
The only thing I still liked were those handmade, mechanical creatures, including the (dog) dragon.
Not going to lie, I only realized why this movie is called Love Hard after reading some online comments :neutral_face:
I'm not sure there was a more confusing way to tell this already very confusing story.. :grimacing:
This is one of those movies I loved as a child, but I haven't watched it in what must be 15 years or more and I'm not going to lie, I was hesitant to do so because I hadn't had a lot of luck with revisiting childhood favourites. (I'm looking at you, The NeverEnding Story!) However, this was so much fun, also a lot darker than I remembered, but I guess as a child the funny bits are more important anyway. Since I grew up with a St. Bernard this brought back so many great memories as well! :smiling_face_with_3_hearts: Honestly, I would happily watch this movie again and again.
I honestly don't know why I gave this only a 9 before.. maybe because it's a Pixar movie and I usually don't watch those.. I don't know and it doesn’t matter.
This movie is phenomenal in every way and I probably won't ever watch it and not be an emotional wreck afterwards :candle::orange_heart::skull::fallen_leaf::sparkles:
Surpisingly good? And it actually looked really beautiful. I don't know, I wanted to watch an adventure movie without a lot of substance and that's what I got and I'm completely fine with that.
