Talk About Movies: Part 4
Somehow threads merged, so here's part 4 of our ongoing movie discussion.
The Smashing Machine - Ryan Bader lowkey stole the show every time he was on screen. I appreciate the love and tenderness on display between these sweaty, muscly, juiced up fighters. You can tell Bader has seen it all and drew from personal experiences from his life and other fighters like him. Johnson did a fantastic job completely transforming into Mark Kerr. I didn't realize Kerr and Coleman were so close. I watched UFC in its early stages and recall Kerr and Coleman providing the blueprint for the early wrestler fighters, along with Dan Severn of course. This would pair nicely with The Wrestler for the ultimate feel bad double bill.
This movie is so raw and real there were times when it felt like I was watching a documentary, take for example the intense scene between Johnson and Blunt.
Cro,
If you get the chance, watch Pride Fighting. Japanese productions. Wild fights. Mma pre-jujitsu
Cro,
If you get the chance, watch Pride Fighting. Japanese productions. Wild fights. Mma pre-jujitsu
Definitely a blind spot for me. I'll have to track them down. My parents had an unlocked satellite dish that gave us UFC PPVs and IIRC there would be a batch of new UFCs to watch on NYE so we'd all gather round and watch MMA when there were no weight classes and little guys got absolutely obliterated, or a little BJJ dude came in an forced everyone to submit to his crazy grapples.
One Battle After Another rocked me to my core. I don't know where Teyana Taylor came from, but WOW does she come out swinging and does the heavy lifting of this incredible film. Her ferocity and energy are bloody explosive. Another holy **** performance from Leo, Regina Hall is always a welcome face and presence in anything she does. Newcomer Chase Infiniti is an absolute gem, also terrific in Presumed Innocent. It bothered/scared me how Penn sounded just like RFK in spots.
I'm always floored by the way PTA and his DP craft such beautiful shots. An actor backing out of a parking lot in a frenzy after a chaotic shootout went off turns into a masterful 5 second shot. Little touches like this makes this another PTA homerun. I'm sure there are things I missed on first viewing. I LOVE tradecraft in any form. Feels like the Brits do it best (Tinker Tailor, Slow Horses, Bond) but the cool **** going on here blew my hair back. In a year where movies like Sinners, Weapons, and Sorry, Baby are being touted as the best film(s) of the year, PTA stumbles out of his trailer and says, "Hold my joint." I ****ing love this film.
One Battle After Another rocked me to my core. I don't know where Teyana Taylor came from, but WOW does she come out swinging and does the heavy lifting of this incredible film. Her ferocity and energy are bloody explosive. Another holy **** performance from Leo, Regina Hall is always a welcome face and presence in anything she does. Newcomer Chase Infiniti is an absolute gem,
100% agree!! Without question my film of the year. I’m glad it wasn’t quite what I thought it would be. I was expecting basically a full on war film. I never saw a trailer and I didn’t need to to know that I’d be watching it! PTA is QT level for me. Don’t need to anything to know I need to see it!
Firm handshake to Ryan Coogler and PTA for including Native Americans in badass roles in their films this year. I'm Native Canadian, so I'm always eager for representation.
Firm handshake to Ryan Coogler and PTA for including Native Americans in badass roles in their films this year. I'm Native Canadian, so I'm always eager for representation.
I came out of The Order thinking not having Native actors in the Smollett role and especially the Sheridan role (his wife & kids were Native lol) was a huge miss, and i heart Tye Sheridan.
/dead horse
The Monkey is great. Its kind of like the Final Destination movies, but instead of the buildup of trying to guess when someone is going to die in some sort of creeping dread, The Monkey is more 'how will someone die within a second of the Monkey starting'.
In the ever increasing compartmentalized nature of Modern Societies... What is the nature of Friendship, Companionship and more importantly, Love.
The final sequence of this beautiful film reveals what many have lost sight of... Even for someone as heartfelt as Brendan Fraser and his Moral Center.
I can not recommend this film highly enough. Surprisingly, this film is fairly cinematic... making this a theatrical necessity.
Gan Furukawa (also in Perfect Days), should win best supporting actor for his performance in this Film
Beautifully sensitive soundtrack also.
100% agree!! Without question my film of the year. I’m glad it wasn’t quite what I thought it would be. I was expecting basically a full on war film. I never saw a trailer and I didn’t need to to know that I’d be watching it! PTA is QT level for me. Don’t need to anything to know I need to see it!
Same, so glad I went in blind
I just kept thinking “I have idea where this is going, I have never seen anything like this”
I came out of The Order thinking not having Native actors in the Smollett role and especially the Sheridan role (his wife & kids were Native lol) was a huge miss, and i heart Tye Sheridan.
/dead horse
Oh that’s wild. I haven’t watched that one yet. It’s in my queue.
One Battle After Another was great. A really fun blend of intensity, action, humour, and almost a satire-like darkness to it. At times I felt like I was watching a Tarantino film which felt like a departure for PTA, but a good one.
A couple things prevent me from calling it an all timer -- Teyana Taylor's character was so intense she was unlikeable for me. But it's also a plus, the character accomplishes what it sets out to be. Otherwise the only thing I didn't really love was the ending. For a movie that was as sharp throughout as it was, the finish felt too dull, too soft, too Hallmarky.
4/5 for me, the best of the year that I've seen so far.
Firm handshake to Ryan Coogler and PTA for including Native Americans in badass roles in their films this year. I'm Native Canadian, so I'm always eager for representation.
Being from Ireland, I particularly liked how the Native Americans in Sinners were Choctaw, who helped the Irish during the potato famine, which led to a lasting friendship between us. I reckon Coogler knew this as well as I doubt if having the Choctaw and an Irish vampire was a coincidence.
https://www.choctawnation.com/about/hist...
Their relationship began in 1847, when the Choctaws, who had only recently arrived over the ruinous “trail of tears and death” to what is now Oklahoma, took up a donation and collected over $5,000 (in today’s money) to support the Irish during the Potato Famine. The famine ravaged Ireland during the 1840s.
The Choctaws’ donation was sent to the town of Midleton in County Cork, south of Dublin. There, many decades later, the townspeople realized their aid had come from a people who were themselves in a very unique set of circumstances – reestablishing their society and their government after the long and painful migration.
In 2020 the story took a new twist when a pandemic known as the novel coronavirus, or COVID-19, caused disruptions around the world. The death toll was particularly acute in the Navajo Nation and the Hopi Reservation. The Irish, stating that they were “paying it forward” with their aid from the Choctaws in mind, took up a very sizeable donation with which to aid and assist the Navajo and Hopi.
“Adversity often brings out the best in people. We are gratified – and perhaps not at all surprised – to learn of the assistance our special friends, the Irish, are giving to the Navajo and Hopi nations. Our word for their selfless act is ‘iyyikowa’ – it means serving those in need. We have become kindred spirits with the Irish in the years since the Irish Potato Famine. We hope the Irish, Navajo and Hopi peoples develop lasting friendships, as we have. Sharing our cultures makes the world grow smaller.” — Chief Gary Batton
Caught Stealing, Darren Aronofsky's latest, is a complete mess.
It's a baseball themed Snatch-Running Scared mashup led by Austin Butler. A reasonably decent cast that totally underutilizes Schreiber and D'Onofrio, who you can't even tell are actually in the film until about 15 minutes until the end. Frantically shot and paced, it's the worst Aronofsky film I've seen.
On the topic of Butler, I'm just going to say it now -- not a good actor. Playing Elvis in a Baz Luhrmann film was a one-off pairing that somewhat worked. But even in that he was pretty wooden.
How did this thing get good reviews? I'm baffled. 1.5/5
Even worse than Mother! ??😮
Firm handshake to Ryan Coogler and PTA for including Native Americans in badass roles in their films this year. I'm Native Canadian, so I'm always eager for representation.
you would like watching the expanse - very good scifi that was too expensive to make so got canceled but bezos loved the show so bought it to make as a loss for prime - then after a few years they were told to quickly wrap it up and final season(s) drop off a bit as a result
first two years are amazing television though and features cara gee in some later years who is a native canadian
what are your thoughts on the new trend of hiring beautiful half chinese actresses to portray native women?
most prominent example i can think of is this one in yellowstone
Caught Stealing, Darren Aronofsky's latest, is a complete mess. It's a baseball themed Snatch-Running Scared mashup led by Austin Butler. A reasonably decent cast that totally underutilizes Schreiber and D'Onofrio, who you can't even tell are actually in the film until about 15 minutes until the end. Frantically shot and paced, it's the worst Aronofsky film I've seen.On the
Aronofsky films always make me nervous so I was glad that Caught Stealing wasn’t near that level. I enjoyed while also knowing full well that as a piece of art, it paled in comparison to the rest of his filmography.
The Sting poker scene.
Mother! was very esoteric with its themes but it captured my attention a lot better. M! had an element of horror and suspense to it, which helped to keep it engaging. Wasn't my favourite film but a far better effort than CS.
Aronofsky films always make me nervous so I was glad that Caught Stealing wasn’t near that level. I enjoyed while also knowing full well that as a piece of art, it paled in comparison to the rest of his filmography.
I think his art is a bit vapid overall. Caught Stealing was easily his most linear, straightforward story. Maybe I was expecting too much, but I feel like the screenplay didn't really give him much to work with. Beginning to think he just never was that great of a director.
