What Is The Last Film You Watched? (Newer Films)

[Jay 37,378]

Everly is a movie that's over the top in all the right ways!

[Quintus 5,399]

Ive been told the film provides a totally unrealistic portrayal of the job of a music teacher.

Didn't harm School of Rock.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

Apples and oranges

[Uni 306]

More like apples and Cadillacs. . . .

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

Which is the Cadillac?

[Uni 306]

Gotta be Whiplash. Hard to picture Jack Black driving better than a Volkswagen van.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

Cadillacs aren't very good cars though. Flashy pimp mobiles.

[Jay 37,378]

I'm trying to decide if the girlfriend subplot was important to the film or completely unnecessary... I think the gist of it (him rejecting her to focus on his craft) is important, but they kind of botched the execution / integration of it in the film. Like the actress didn't have the right chemistry with Teller, and the scenes seemed so dissociated with everything else going on, or something.

[Koray Savas 2,251]

That subplot was completely unnecessary.

[Jay 37,378]

Hmmm, I dunno.

It certainly sticks out like a score thumb

[publicist 4,643]

The problem was that his motivation to pick her up seemed as random as buying a cardigan because it might get cold on campus at night. It had no emotional weight. Though i still think you all miss the point with taking the behavioral aspects too literal. There is more going on underneath than overzealous music teachers trying to get students' asses in line. That's part of it, but the other thing is the importance of SUCCESS! and ambition, especially in current american society - it comes at a price. With 5$ and 10 days to shoot it, they can be forgiven for not smoothing some of the rougher edges.

[BloodBoal 7,538]

No, they cannot. They should have strove for perfection!

[publicist 4,643]

You are a bit of a rascal, aren't you?

[BloodBoal 7,538]

[Sweeping Strings 2,365]

While We're Young - amusing generation-gap comedy in which fortysomething documentary film-maker Ben Stiller and his wife Naomi Watts are befriended by hip young couple Amanda Seyfried and aspiring documentarian Adam Driver. At first, the older couple are energised by hanging out with the twentysomethings but disillusionment starts to set in ...

[Quintus 5,399]

That subplot was completely unnecessary.

Wrong thread mate

[publicist 4,643]

Imagine if Rózsa had just said, "Well, that's okay, Jerry. That was all right. Good job." So Goldsmith thinks to himself, "Well, shit, I did do a pretty good job." End of story. No Star Trek: The Motion Picture. That to me is an absolute tragedy. But that's just what the world wants now. And they wonder why film music is dying.

Don't worry. Today Zimmer pushes Balfe. You just are too backwards to appreciate the results.

[Jay 37,378]

Force Majeure

The movie has an intriguing setup - while on a 5 day ski vacation in the alps, an avalanche happens during breakfast of the second morning (seen above), and while the mother covers their children with herself, the father runs off on them.......then comes back and acts as if nothing happened. The rest of their vacation gets more and more awkward for the family - and those they interact with - as they all deal with what happened.

Unfortunately the directing is very bad. Almost every single shot in the movie is long static take that are held for way too long. Occasionally this leads to a very nice shot - long unbroken takes can really draw you into the situation at hand after all - but its overused to the point of being comical eventually. The camera simply doesn't move enough - sometimes you don't even know some characters are interacting with until sentences into their exchanges because he doesn't cut to them, or know how to properly use establishing shots to set up a new scene. This movie could be shown in film schools someway to show how not to shoot and edit a film.

I've heard people describe this film as a "dark comedy", but I wouldn't classify it as such. It was mostly boring and weird. It could have easily been 30 minutes shorter by editing it down and getting to the meat of each scene quicker.

I recommend skipping it, and I heard they are remaking it with Julia Louis Dreyfuss in the female lead. Maybe that will be better if a much better director is at the helm.

[Quintus 5,399]

I hadn't heard of it till now but apparently the painfully slow style is very much deliberate and important in how it makes the viewer squirm and cringe at what's happening. It sounds like it's something I might enjoy.

[Jay 37,378]

Its a very squirmy and cringy film

[nightscape94 965]

Whiplash

Of the three movies I watched this weekend, this was my favorite. I studied jazz as my first introduction to guitar, and of course did not have a teacher like this. I doubt anyone really has to this extreme since Fletcher doesn't exactly straddle the line of caricature as much as pirouetting gracefully over it. Still, it works in the world of the movie. Not sure how I feel about the third act. The last 10 minutes is the jazz music version of a superhero or sports movie, but with a very definite undercurrent of darkness. It doesn't strike me as much of a victory and is falsely heroic, but I think that's the movie's point. Who has really won here, Neyman or Fletcher? Perhaps both. Perhaps neither.

Foxcatcher

Great performances elevate this story of events that still seem inexplicable. Being from the area, I remember this unfolding when I was 15, watching the news, etc. I had been to the Du Pont estate on a field trip when I was younger. I was a weird event. Bennett Miller is proving himself to be quite the director.

Boyhood

Expected a bit more from it, but still a lovely film. Felt a bit long toward the end as I became less interested in his character as he got into his teens. The writing started getting too offbeat and edgy, with the main character starting to sound hyper-intelligent, waxing poetic about social media, as though Linklater was afraid to make him sound typical. Also, the purpose of the movie (life doesn't deal you perfect cards), seem to be spoiled at the end when he ends up with a perfect roommate and a girl who seems tailor-made for him when he gets to college. There's a scene before he gets to campus that would have been the correct ending point.

[Jay 37,378]

Re; Whiplash - see my thoughts here about the third act. I think neither of them won, for sure. They're both ultimately worse off for their shared experiences together, I think.

[BloodBoal 7,538]

Next: Birdman!

[Jay 37,378]

Dreadfully boring movie....

[nightscape94 965]

Birdman is up next for me too probably this weekend.

[BloodBoal 7,538]

Birdman is up next for me too probably this weekend.

Well, I was talking to you when I posted that.

[Sweeping Strings 2,365]

John Wick - Keanu Reeves plays the titular ex-hitman 'dragged back in' when Russian gangsters kill his dog (a parting gift from his late wife) and steal his vintage Mustang, setting him off on a 'roaring rampage of revenge'. Wick is a man of relatively few words but many, many bullets and moves of kick-assery ... probably Reeves' most entertaining flick since the first Matrix film.

[Jay 37,378]

I might watch that this weekend

[nightscape94 965]

It's definitely a decent popcorn flick.

[Jay 37,378]

The Inteview

Alright, this was really stupid, but... Dammit, I enjoyed it! Yea, it's juvenile, incredibly raunchy, and probably offensive to some, but who cares? I enjoyed the absurdity of it all, the over the top performance by Franco, the bromance between Franco and Rogenn, and Lizzy Caplan. Lots of funny moments. But it is, throughout, completely stupid, and not for everyone. In the end the drama around its release will be remembered more than the merits of the film itself. It's not very memorable.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

Isn't it racist?

[Dixon Hill 4,234]

Isn't it disrespectful of our Great Leader?

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

Ricard?

[Jay 37,378]

It's just a harmless comedy. The hackers who hacked Sony because of it are way too uptight

[Wojo 2,453]

Was the hack legit, or was it a Sony inside job to promote the movie?

[Jay 37,378]

Let's hack their servers to find out!

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

I doubt Sony would have leaked a bunch od embarrassing emails and scripts of films like SPECTRE just to promote The Interview. Not to mention loads of employee info.

[Jay 37,378]

Duh.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

Duh.

Don't duh me!

[DreamTheater 131]

Funny movie, Franco was totally on the ball with his clever performance of a total dumbass. I'd watch it again.

[Jay 37,378]

Yea, Franco is the best part.

[Koray Savas 2,251]

Agreed. Otherwise I didn't find it very funny.

[A24 4,348]

Me neither but my son already saw it 3 times.

[Unlucky Bastard 7,782]

I doubt Sony would have leaked a bunch od embarrassing emails and scripts of films like SPECTRE just to promote The Interview. Not to mention loads of employee info.

It was marketing genius!

[KK 3,307]

Agreed. Otherwise I didn't find it very funny.

It had some decent gags and Franco was fun. But otherwise yeah, not funny.

[A24 4,348]

Interstellar:

I found Interstellar to be even worse than Gravity. The way Nolan addresses the viewer (through the characters and their dialogue) was almost unbearable. The style was also quite ordinary and entirely devoid of irony and artistry. How strange that the director dares to compare the style with 2001: A Space Odyssey (Nolan said that Interstellar is like 2001 because the story is not told through the characters, which most movies do, even TDK). What?! Interstellar is a very conventional film told from the sentimental and emotional point of view of the characters, just like any other blockbuster. The characters tell the story here, not the director. Matthew McConaughey even whispers his way through the whole movie as if he is explanatory dictionary! And all the goddamn crying and weeping! I can't tell you how much my mouth fell open from bewilderment and disbelief. 'Love conquers time and space!' Man, Interstellar is even too sweet for Spielberg. I'm not a fan of Nolan's house composer Hans Zimmer but his contribution was actually the only positive point that I could find in this film. 2/10

Alex

[Dixon Hill 4,234]

Classic!

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

Alex does highlight Nolan's main weakness as a director. His inability to translate his own scripts into movies without resorting to massive sections of expositionary dialogue.

The first part of Interstellar actually does quite a good job telling the story without spelling it out for us too much.

But once they get in space!

As a spiritual successor to 2001: ASO its even less satisfying then Gravity because unlike that film it aims higher and ultimately falters (Gravity never aspired to be anything but a film about one individual surviving)

[crocodile 8,020]

Nolan was comparing his film to 2001? I know he mentioned technical stuff (model work, rotating sets, some single images) and the film is similarly set in s-f genre. But that's all he said. Any link to other comments?

Karol

[Dixon Hill 4,234]

As I said before it even came out, anyone who expected it to be a "successor" to 2001 was a damn fool, including Nolan himself if he felt that in his heart of hearts - though I don't think he did. And it's just as foolish to judge it as one now. Can't a space movie be judged on its own terms, even if there's an obvious influence? There's a difference between being influenced and trying to do the same thing.