Talk About Movies: Part 4

Funny, Uncut Gems was a recent rewatch as well. It holds up great, probably my preferred Sandler role. Unsung hero was actually Kevin Garnett for me, usually athlete or non-acting celebrity roles don't go well but KG felt authentically him to me (makes sense since he got to play himself).

Conversely, watching Ryan Bader in Smashing Machine was pretty flat. SM was a disappointment, just a serious vehicle for The Rock that had a very shallow and uninteresting story. Felt like Dave Bautista could have done an equally good job.

Good Time was also good.

In the opening of Good Time when Benny Safdie is being interviewed by the doctor, he gives me the same vibe as Brion James in Bladerunner when he's being interviewed to check if he's a replicant. The jagged answers, the confusion, the way he knows something is up but is powerless to stop it.

Fun story. I was at SXSW in 2015? when the Safdie Bros screened Heaven Knows What. I hated the movie so I didn't bother to stick around for the Q&A, both of them were there. Their intro struck me as pretentious. They didn't appear on stage but did voice over from off stage saying how we're being transported to another world and blah blah. Fast forward a few years later and I fell in love with Good Time. Also a big fan of Uncut Gems.

I'm certain it will get better with repeated viewings, I wouldn't argue against you! That sequence is outstanding. The silhouette of the lady with the shotgun. The singing? CINEMMMMAAAAAA! A few days later and I'm still thinking about it.

The number one sign you've seen a great movie.

yes....bored me to effin' tears. No interest in seeing an unfunny movie about two complete morons.

lol I don't know why, but calling Lillian Gish "The Lady" is just funny to me.

I've seen it at least four times. The influence of German Expressionism is so apparent. The scene with Mitchum in the movie theater when the knife rips through his pants says quite a bit about his character. [emoji16]

Nice homage to the film in Punch-Drunk Love.

Sent from my Pixel 7a using Tapatalk

hah I'd love to say I'm a student of film but most of my knowledge comes from the late 70s onward. Even then I have many blind spots! Working to fix those!

You know it wasn’t actually Mitchum riding the horse, right?

If you've not got to these, there's some beautiful movies by Powell and Pressburger. They are all oustanding, but the two that are also contenders for the greatest movie ever made are:

Black Narcissus
A Matter of Life and Death (aka Stairway to Heaven)

Different tack entirely, but for me, another spectacular movie made before the 70s is Zulu. It gives you an insight into the British psyche, so be warned.

Agree on Powell and Pressburger. I saw A Matter of Life and Death on TV when it was called Stairway to Heaven as a kid. Also saw The Red Shoes when I couldn't have been more than eight years old.

So many of their films to see. I have a soft spot for I Know Where I'm Going (If there, I count the beams on a ceiling of anywhere I stay because of the film). Watch it and you'll know about the beams.

Also, Powell's wife, Thelma Schoonmaker, has edited every Scorsese film since Raging Bull.

Scorsese also talks about being able to take out films from a local place in NYC and wanted to see Tales of Hoffman often, but found some guy had often taken it out before he could. That guy? George Romero.

Sent from my Pixel 7a using Tapatalk

nope

Had to post this, the counting the beams scene from Powell and Pressburger's I Know Where I'm Going, perhaps my second favorite film set mostly in Scotland.

Sent from my Pixel 7a using Tapatalk

Watched In Harms Way yesterday for the first time in over 30 years maybe more. One of those epic type 60's style movies with practically every recognizable face in hollywood at the time showing up. Headlined by John Wayne and Kirk Douglas. Only part I really remembered was Douglas taking his "unauthorized" recon flight. A suicide mission for sure and for good reason as he was a dark character.

It was entertaining throughout but highly fictionalized and not really following any actual battles or operations which as a history buff of that aspect of the war was disappointing for me. Plus there was a whole lot more getting laid than probably happened in the actual war 😀 Why does Hollywood have to jam in stupid subplots?

I found it interesting that Henry Fonda played Nimitz although only refered to as CINCPAC only to play Nimitz again in the movie Midway (another battle movie ruined by Hollywood with ridiculous subplots and fictionalized additions).

Every New Years Eve I reflect on the past year have a few cocktails and watch a doouble feature of all-time favorites that I haven't seen in years. I just decided tomorrows double feature will be Dr. Strangelove and The Wild Bunch and it has been way too long since I have seen either of them.

Thank you for the suggestions! I'll look into it.

I rewatched Mermaids last night and enjoyed it quite a bit. I watched it as a kid but obviously was too immature to understand it. What struck me is how young Winona Ryder acted circles around Cher. I adore Cher, I think she's talented but when it comes to the more intense emotional stuff she can't reach the heights Ryder does. Another thing I noticed is how Ryder is able to express such deep emotions because she has full control of her face. My heart breaks for young actors in Hollywood getting botox in their early 20s, only to lose the ability to show any expression in their faces. =/ Beauty standards will always plague this world. I miss the heck out of Bob Hoskins, he was such a talent.

Timothee Blandamet's PR people are ****ing geniuses. That's the only conclusion I can come to after suffering through Marty Supreme, a film that clearly aims for manic intensity but misses its mark. How this one-note performance has generated so much Oscar buzz is beyond me. There's nothing of interest or range to the character or the acting. Timothee is a profoundly uncompelling screen presence.

thought he was fantastic in the Dune movies. And Call Me By Your Name.

I thought he was good on Dune with a role that catered to him well. Call Me By Your Name, and a lot of his other performances, are largely his boyish, soulful visage looking blankly into the camera.

French Dispatch painfully exposed his limitations. He couldn't do Wes Anderson style at all.

Idris Elba is now Sir Idris Elba. And both Cyntia Erivo and Warwick Davis (Star Wars, Willow) have been awarded OBEs

Totally agree about Chalamet being bland af. I could never understand how he became such a big deal.

Jay Kelly, Noah Baumbach, 2025

George Clooney is in almost every scene as an ageing movie star going through a mid-to-late-life-crisis. Man, no one wears designer clothes like Clooney. He's trying to reconnect with his daughters and elderly father while having to go to Europe to accept a life-time achievment award - his impressive retinue of assistants, publicists, and hair stylists following along in a private plane.

Baumbach and co-writer Emily Mortimer (who also plays Clooney's hair stylist) also include some mini-magic realism, with Clooney seeing scenes from his past whereever he goes. It works.

Adam Sandler plays his manager and Laura Dern plays his long-suffering publicist. Patrick Wilson plays a younger rival, and Billy Crudup plays an acting school friend he reconnects with. It's fun seeing Clooney and Sandler spar and play off one another.

I enjoyed this...Clooney at 64 is still ridiculously handsome and charming, and the camera just adores him. There are some funny bits and some heartbreaking scenes. There's a scene when he's pleading with his estranged older daughter, played by Riley Keough, to come to his tribute in Italy:

"Please come. It's 35 years of my life. It has to have have meant something."
"...What if it doesn't?"

Ouch. I felt that one.

Great watch.

"Please come. It's 35 years of my life. It has to have meant something."
"...What if it doesn't?"

Also... 'Do you know how I know you didn't want to be there? Because you weren't there'. Ouch indeed.

I liked it much less than you but there were certainly some good parts to it. Sandler was great.

The only thing I've seen with Chamalet was Don't Look Up. I don't remember really having any strong opinion on him in either way.

This sounds perfect.