The Official Movie Thread

[Einherjar86]

I'm very behind on this, but finally saw Villeneuve's Enemy. A visually arresting film, intriguing premise, with overtones of Kubrick, Lynch, and flourishes of Kafka--but narratively flat, I thought. The ending was far too abrupt.

Spoiler

I could have done without the suggestion that one double was merely the imagined creation of the other, which I felt downplayed the agency of the wife and girlfriend characters, although the script tried to revitalize them. The visuals were certainly the best part, and not just the fucked up arachnid imagery; I also loved the cityscape shots, the attention to wiring and communication/surveillance networks. Obviously there are connections to the spider imagery here, the implication being that the city's inhabitants are caught in a web. I wished the film would have developed these symbolic notions into more significant narrative elements. For example, I wanted the premise to link up more meaningfully with the film's clear interests in surveillance, control, state apparatuses. I don't think we can chalk the story up to its protagonist suffering from delusional paranoia--or if we can, that feels underwhelming. It toyed with taking a speculative turn, but maybe there was studio pressure not to go that route. I haven't read anything about the film, so I can't be sure.

But fuck me, those visuals:

 

[no country for old wainds]

i went long on enemy a few years back. i kinda liked it.

 

[Einherjar86]

Good piece.

Overall, I liked the film too--I'm just a sucker for narrative, and I appreciate when a film demonstrates a sense of narrative development/cohesion that mirrors its conceptual ambitions. I agree with you completely though on Villeneuve's almost neurotic command; it manages to overcome what might look silly or superfluous if handled by someone else.

You'd recommend Spider, I take it? I also haven't seen that one.

 

[Bourbon]

Terry Jones has passed away at 77. He was always one of my favorite Pythons. RIP

 

[CiG]

Marriage Story wasn't bad, actually. It didn't blow me away, but I was impressed by the quality of acting. There was one argument scene in particular that I actually found myself getting caught up in.

But it's not going on my best-of list.

Marriage Story: I just watched this today and now I must watch Scenes from a Marriage as this paid homage to it. This was surprisingly really good. I was doubting it and thought it was super hipster at first (which it really is) because these characters don't really live lives I'm familiar with. Before I dismissed it as "white people high brow shit" the arguments got intense, the acting got real, and then I realized my distaste for the characters was done purposefully on the director or writer's end because I suppose they wanted you to see some of the absurdity of the divorce process. It's not my favorite movie, but I thought it was well done and my eyes definitely got watery in the end when he's reading to his child what his wife said about him. It's on Netflix, so if you have it it's worth a watch and it's something that grows on you.

Damn I might be a hipster, because I don't see a future wherein this film isn't on my best of 2019 list. You guys are spot on about the arguments, the flow of the film with the way it weaved in and out of the mundanity of married life and the divorce process and then hitting you with a moment of heartache and agonizing emotional release was heavy stuff.

Two actors I never much cared for gave what was probably the best performances of their careers so far, that was pretty exciting to see. In some places the story was cliche, but I guess divorce is so common these days that it's hard to avoid it coming across that way, and in some ways that's the true point of the film, that it's easy to look at other marriages and think "that'll never be us, we go perfectly together" and the next thing you know you've both hired lawyers who want to win at any cost, and in the meantime your child(ren) are wrenched into a tug-o-war of ego and spite.

It was also really well shot I thought, there was a certain technical proficiency (though spartan unlike Spielberg for example) that really made it a joy to watch. The juxtaposition of an organized marriage slowly unraveling into chaos filmed with tight shots and crisp angles was very much appreciated. Out of all the Netflix originals I've seen this is in the top tier for sure.

 

[CiG]

Watching:



Watching another Hou Hsiao-Hsien picture today:

 

[RadicalThrasher]

Tonight

Spoiler

 

[rms]

Just finished Marriage Story, throughout the entire film I kept thinking that Squid and the Whale was so much better at capturing this phenomenon, and then realized the same director made this one. Why the hell did he come back to this topic?

but I guess divorce is so common these days that it's hard to avoid it coming across that way, and in some ways that's the true point of the film, that it's easy to look at other marriages and think "that'll never be us, we go perfectly together" and the next thing you know you've both hired lawyers who want to win at any cost, and in the meantime your child(ren) are wrenched into a tug-o-war of ego and spite.

Trying to figure out how you thought this captured the relationship between these two at all. Maybe this would be true for a film like Blue Valentine, but this? At best it's about the internal conflict of being an actress & a mother versus a "genius" man & being a husband/father and the limitations of both characters

And it's done pretty poorly. I don't know how Baumbach got so tame after perfectly capturing the pettiness of divorce in Squid , but the reactions were non standard -- how ridiculous was the fallout from the apartment argument and the low brow divorce hearings?

And to preface it with saying "best performances" for two actors that never have been asked to do much. I don't agree this was better for Scarlett than Lost in Translation nor do I think this role was more difficult than anything Driver had to do in Girls.

 

[Einherjar86]

Finally saw First Reformed. I'm not prepared to formulate significant thoughts yet; all I'll say for now is that it's spectacular, and that Ethan Hawke deserves more praise as an actor than any of the method-acting accolades getting tossed around these days. There are elements of method acting to his role, surely; but what makes the film is the severity of its narrative. I actually view Toller less as a character than as a device in that he simultaneously generates identification and dissociation from the audience. He's clearly a sympathetic character, but I think he's also meant to be an estranging character--which, of course, problematizes his effectiveness as a character (not a bad thing, in my book). At the heart of it is an interrogation of radicalism/fundamentalism, but I'm not sure I have a handle yet on the film's treatment of environmental issues.

That surreal sequence during the physical intimacy ritual, though... damn.

 

[RadicalThrasher]

Watched earlier

Spoiler

 

[CiG]

Trying to figure out how you thought this captured the relationship between these two at all. Maybe this would be true for a film like Blue Valentine, but this? At best it's about the internal conflict of being an actress & a mother versus a "genius" man & being a husband/father and the limitations of both characters.

In a sense it didn't and that's the point. It peeled back their thin facade of the perfect family and revealed that it was cold, dysfunctional and was really only kept alive because of a parental kinship.

And to preface it with saying "best performances" for two actors that never have been asked to do much. I don't agree this was better for Scarlett than Lost in Translation nor do I think this role was more difficult than anything Driver had to do in Girls.

Well that was just my personal opinion, not meant to be taken objectively (hence why I prefaced it by saying they're two actors I'm not really a fan of). I need to rewatch Lost in Translation but I don't remember being especially impressed by ScarJo, though she wasn't bad or anything either. I haven't seen Girls because I'm not a faggot.

 

[Oblivious Maximus]

No marriage/divorce movie will ever top Possession.

 

[CiG]

Well, that's one way to start a film.

 

[rms]

I haven't seen Girls because I'm not a faggot.

yeah it's pretty gay

It peeled back their thin facade of the perfect family and revealed that it was cold, dysfunctional and was really only kept alive because of a parental kinship.

just saying I don't think this was ever a thing in this movie nor was it in the film's interest to do this

 

[RadicalThrasher]

Watching

Spoiler

 

[CiG]

just saying I don't think this was ever a thing in this movie nor was it in the film's interest to do this

Agree to disagree. Not going to pretend I understand your perspective on films much of the time.

 

[no country for old wainds]

Watching

Spoiler

me, to people who think kaya scodelario getting all wet fighting off gators in her living room is a dumb idea:

 

[Oblivious Maximus]

View attachment 23385

Well, that's one way to start a film.

Huppert was the only actress who would take the part. Amazing woman.

 

[no country for old wainds]

elle rules. i've been thinking about it again lately after seeing a couple of rape-revenge movies at opposite ends of the spectrum, the leering new french extremity pulp of revenge and the punishing clinical euro-arthouse of holiday, honestly worth double-billing for how differently they treat the same premise but also both failures in their own ways IMO. verhoeven plays in the spaces between those two sensibilities in ways that expose how reductive they are.

 

[CiG]

I liked your review of Elle on RYM. One thing that stood out to me was that anytime you thought you could predict something, it sidesteps at the last minute and goes a different direction.