The Official Movie Thread

[CiG]

‘The Many Saints of Newark': See Michael Gandolfini in ‘Sopranos’ Prequel First Look.

Production is currently underway on “The Sopranos” prequel “The Many Saints of Newark,” and first look photos of a young Tony Soprano has surfaced on Comingsoon.net. Michael Gandolfini, son of the late James Gandolfini, is playing the young version of the character his father originated in “The Sopranos.”



“The Many Saints of Newark” is set in the 1960s during the Newark riots, five days of violence in the New Jersey city sparked by the beating of a black man by white police officers. At the time it was especially lethal among African American and Italian American gangsters involved in the fighting — 26 people died and more than 700 people were injured during the riot.

 

[RadicalThrasher]

Double header tonight

Spoiler

And

Aka Get the Terrorists

Spoiler

Too obscure for a youtube trailer, here's alternate cover art

Badass flick

 

[CiG]

Watching:



Better late than never. Wish I could have seen this when we were doing the 2018 films lists though.

Also: Sesame Street loses case against R-rated muppet film The Happytime Murders over tagline.

This just looks like a shitty knock off of Meet the Feebles.

It's 2018, I will settle for a shitty knock off of Meet the Feebles.

There's not much that's not a knock off these days. But I am surprised they haven't even tried to acknowledge the Peter Jackson original, just palm it off as an original idea.

Well, it might be a little ridiculous to accuse Brian Henson of ripping of Jackson's Meet the Feebles when Meet the Feebles is a literal subversion of his parents' franchise The Muppets.

There's a big difference between subversion and plagiarism.

Indeed but how would you know unless you've seen the film. Have you? Is it more similar to Meet the Feebles than it is The Muppets?

Actually, from what I read about the plot, it looks like he basically took the plot of Who Framed Roger Rabbit? and made it a story for an adult version of The Muppets.

Either way it doesn't sound original at all. Plus Melissa McCarthy in a film is a dealbreaker for me.

Incidentally I think I was right about this. Probably too conventional and lowbrow to impress many in here, but I legitimately enjoyed The Happytime Murders, didn't think it was a rip-off of Meet the Feebles (not really even close tbh, more like Who Framed Roger Rabbit? but for adults and with puppets) and McCarthy didn't bomb it. Probably one of the better comedies I've seen in the last few years.

 

[Krow]

The Lighthouse was really awesome. I went in thinking it was just going to be arthouse garbage. By the time shit went off the rails I was basically speechless.

Spoiler

Dafoe’s curse was absolutely maddening. Holy fuck what a magnificent freak out. I saw mermaid pussy for the first time. Tentacles everywhere. When Patterson saw Dafoe naked but his face was the lighthouse I said WHAT THE FUCK out loud.

my wife’s brother and his gf watched this with us. They went from poopooing the film to begin with to absolute silence at the end.

 

[CiG]

Yorgos Lanthimos' The Favourite felt like the most conventional entry into his filmography. Visually his style was rich and in full effect, but the narrative, script and direction of the actors almost felt like a totally different director to me. Except perhaps the black comedy, that was still there and quite effective too.

For example

Spoiler

the scene where Emma Stone beats off her new husband on their wedding night, with no eye contact or affection whatsoever, as she schemes and talks to herself. Then just wipes his cum on her nightdress and the scene ends. Abigail Masham might be one of the most effective social climber characters I think I've ever seen, and Emma herself was very impressive. I was expecting to not be able to get over my bias against her, but she won me over in the end.



There were many other great scenes, like Queen Anne (played amazingly by Olivia Colman) sucking on Rachel Weisz's entire fist the first time it's revealed they have a secret lesbian relationship, or when Queen Anne snubs Rachel for Emma Stone.



The madness of two attractive women clawing and fighting over an obese gout-ridden ailing queen with 17 pet rabbits, each representing a failed pregnancy, is a pretty ripe context for great cinema. Could have been better sure, could have been less conventional as his films usually are, but it's hard not to buy into the world, and the sets and outfits are breathtaking at times. The degree to which the aristocracy are boorish is itself endlessly amusing and repulsive.

 

[Slammed]

NW

 

[rms]

New Jay and silent Bob any good?

 

[Slammed]

It's exactly what one comes to expect from this pair. If you liked previous Jay And Silent Bob efforts you'll like the silliness and stupidity of this one. They haven't reinvented anything, they haven't changed anything, other than Silent Bob no longer being a "fat ass", and the jokes are pretty much the same as they have always been.

Despite the well used jokes I reckon the writing was pretty good because they managed to pay homage to everything J&SB have ever done. They managed to pull lines from all the movies and even some of the cartoons and fit them into the current scenes. The references all the way back to Clerks were mostly done well but some were so openly silly they were funny. And I think Kevin Smith managed to cast pretty much everyone he knows and has worked with before, expect Shanon Doherty. There is some good 'family' jokes as Smith, Mewes and Smith's daughter bounce comments back and forth and there is plenty of faces in the crowd that may not be instantly recognisable.

 

[CiG]

Watching:

 

[Slammed]

NW

 

[challenge_everything]

Finally got around to this, and loved it

 

[CiG]

Watching:

View attachment 23172

So I'm sitting there roughly 2 hours in and thinking, this isn't offensively bad, but feels kinda boring, pointless and just not exciting.

Spoiler

Then that finale happens and I sit straight up and start shouting yes yes! Best ending to a Tarantino film since... I can't even remember.

 

[no country for old wainds]

parasite got a best picture nom

 

[Vegard Pompey]

Is it unusual for foreign films to get a best picture nom? I don't really pay attention to that kind of stuff. I'm going to see that movie again tomorrow, while it's still in theaters here.

I saw Joker got a ton of noms. I liked that movie but the main thing that stuck with me about it is how much it didn't. I've read essays by critics on different ends of the political spectrum and the more I read different takes on it the more I feel that it handled incendiary subject matter in the least offensive way it could. I don't think it's a bad movie or anything; Phoenix is an incredible joker and the talk show scene is killer. But I'm shocked to see it having the kind of cultural breakthrough that it is. I mean, it's such a roaring financial success that it will surely change the way the film industry sees comic book movies, and masks inspired by the film are turning up in the Hong Kong protests and elsewhere.

 

[no country for old wainds]

Yorgos Lanthimos' The Favourite felt like the most conventional entry into his filmography. Visually his style was rich and in full effect, but the narrative, script and direction of the actors almost felt like a totally different director to me.

it's the first one he didn't write himself so that's probably why. definitely feels like a lot of push/pull between lanthimos and something more conventional, but while they don't mesh properly what's surprising to me is how good the conventional stuff is. never would've guessed lanthimos could do that kind of thing this well.

Is it unusual for foreign films to get a best picture nom? I don't really pay attention to that kind of stuff. I'm going to see that movie again tomorrow, while it's still in theaters here.

I saw Joker got a ton of noms. I liked that movie but the main thing that stuck with me about it is how much it didn't. I've read essays by critics on different ends of the political spectrum and the more I read different takes on it the more I feel that it handled incendiary subject matter in the least offensive way it could. I don't think it's a bad movie or anything; Phoenix is an incredible joker and the talk show scene is killer. But I'm shocked to see it having the kind of cultural breakthrough that it is. I mean, it's such a roaring financial success that it will surely change the way the film industry sees comic book movies, and masks inspired by the film are turning up in the Hong Kong protests and elsewhere.

only the 6th to get a nomination this century, out of roughly 150, so it's fairly rare. also only the second asian movie ever after crouching tiger.

totally agree on joker, i like it mostly 'cause it's good at ripping off other good movies, but its lack of commitment to any real perspective is its biggest problem. kinda feel like you're overselling its historical importance a bit though, i think it's been profitable relative to budget iirc but it's not even one of the top 3 highest grossing comic book movies of 2019, and the film industry has considered comic book movies the most lucrative thing possible for several years now. the merch stuff is just kinda Why So Serious all over again with some v for vendetta rebellion sprinkled on top. it's obviously a fairly major cultural phenomenon but i don't feel it's had anything like the bombshell impact the dark knight or the avengers movies have had.

 

[CiG]

it's not even one of the top 3 highest grossing comic book movies of 2019

Pretty sure its historical importance relates to its rating no?

 

[no country for old wainds]

yeah i guess that's a big deal. the deadpool movies have made a mint with a similar rating, but not quite as much.

 

[challenge_everything]

So I'm sitting there roughly 2 hours in and thinking, this isn't offensively bad, but feels kinda boring, pointless and just not exciting.

Spoiler

Then that finale happens and I sit straight up and start shouting yes yes! Best ending to a Tarantino film since... I can't even remember.

Spoiler

Really? I mean, I love a bit of gratuitous revenge violence as much as the next guy, but I thought it was a cheap payoff to fanboys, was basically a rehash of the Inglorious Basterds idea and had little connection to the rest of the movie.

 

[CiG]

Spoiler

Really? I mean, I love a bit of gratuitous revenge violence as much as the next guy, but I thought it was a cheap payoff to fanboys, was basically a rehash of the Inglorious Basterds idea and had little connection to the rest of the movie.

Spoiler

Little connection? I dunno about you sometimes. Is this like when you tried to claim First Reformed isn't a political film or that Starship Troopers had nothing to say? That ending was about as logical a conclusion to the point of the film as I could think of in hindsight. Also it wasn't revenge violence unless you're defining that so loosely as to be basically meaningless.

To me the point of the film's handling of the Manson Family (which is wrapped up in how the film ends) was to expose them for the weak spineless pieces of shit they were, after decades of pop culture had morphed them into some rebellious murder cult that should give you nightmares, what Tarantino exposes is that they were just fucked up cowards that attacked women and males of the softer variety. Had they come into contact with with anybody even a little tough that night things would probably had been very different. Steve McQueen famously smashed Charles Manson's face in at a party once, and Tarantino alludes to the idea that maybe Tate would still be alive if he'd been with her that night (if you recall the party scene where McQueen watches Tate dancing and says he never had a chance with her, because her "type" are short men who look like teenagers).

The overall vibe I got from the film is that it's a kind of love-letter to the good old days of masculinity and man's man actors of Hollywood, and how do these old types handle the transition into a more artistic and sensitive era. Then you have a hippie cult who get it in their head that preying on the sensitive elements is a good idea, but in Tarantino's alternative universe they fuck with the wrong ones (the old timers) and get absolutely butchered for their troubles. Sure it was an ending for the fanboys, but when the hell has Tarantino ever done anything for anybody other than for the fanboys? He's the biggest fanboy himself.

 

[Einherjar86]

So, fuck the Oscars. Us was monumentally better than Joker. So much more entertaining, a much better story, and better acted. There, I said it.