General movie chitchat

[mrbellamy 6,287]

Hilarious how twice in a row, CAA agent Michael Ovitz claims something about his involvement -- that he bartered an elaborate deal between Spielberg and Scorsese to trade Cape Fear and Schindler's List, and that he helped convince Universal to greenlight the film -- and Spielberg's just like "Uhh no"  Agents!

 

Also bizarre how the article presents George Lucas supervising the mix on Jurassic Park as an exclusive scoop. That's been known forever. 

[JNHFan2000 2,966]

Yeah, same as the statement by Williams about needing a better composer. That's such an old story now

[A24 4,339]

Won't Scorsese look upon Williams as that theme park music composer?

[Faleel 5,356]

2 hours ago, A24 said:

Won't Scorsese look upon Williams as that theme park music composer?

Well, he did write the score to Jurassic Park, So I guess so

[A24 4,339]

Ladies and gentlemen, take a ride on the haunted house of 'Images' ... Or you too scared? Only one dollar! Kids under 6 can ride for free!

 

[mrbellamy 6,287]

3 hours ago, A24 said:

Won't Scorsese look upon Williams as that theme park music composer?

 

Marty knows better than that 

 

[Faleel 5,356]

49 minutes ago, mrbellamy said:

 

Marty knows better than that 

 

"Call me a theme park composer, I DARE ya!"

[mrbellamy 6,287]

JW towers over him, he could beat him up. Although Scorsese has more rage. 

[Jay 37,369]

Denis Villeneuve: ‘Movies Have Been Corrupted by Television’ and a ‘Danger in Hollywood’ Is Thinking About ‘Release Dates, Not Quality’

 

https://variety.com/2024/film/news/denis-villeneuve-tv-corrupted-movies-defends-dune-2-runtime-1235922513/

[Jurassic Shark 12,079]

23 hours ago, Faleel said:

"Call me a theme park composer, I DARE ya!"

 

Scorsese: I'll show you dead composers...

[Edmilson 7,466]

23 hours ago, mrbellamy said:

JW towers over him, he could beat him up. Although Scorsese has more rage. 

 

6 minutes ago, Jurassic Shark said:

 

Scorsese: I'll show you dead composers...

Will the battle between them be scored by Duel of the Fates or some rock song from the 60s?

 

11 minutes ago, Jay said:

Denis Villeneuve: ‘Movies Have Been Corrupted by Television’ and a ‘Danger in Hollywood’ Is Thinking About ‘Release Dates, Not Quality’

 

[mrbellamy 6,287]

1 hour ago, Edmilson said:

Will the battle between them be scored by Duel of the Fates or some rock song from the 60s?

 

 

[Jay 37,369]

On 20/02/2024 at 5:17 PM, Jay said:

A win for physical media?

 

Disney Strikes Deal for Sony to Take Over Its DVD, Blu-ray Disc Business

 

This didn't take long!

 

‘Andor,’ ‘Moon Knight,’ ‘Obi-Wan Kenobi’ and ‘The Falcon and The Winter Soldier’ to Bow on Blu-ray With Deleted Scenes, Featurettes

 

[Edmilson 7,466]

Daniel Day-Lewis is not returning to acting anytime soon and hates streaming:

 

Daniel Day-Lewis ‘Says He’s Done’ With Acting: ‘He Opens Up the Streamers and There’s 7,000 Choices, None of Them Good’

[A24 4,339]

AfterThe Phantom Thread he said that he was getting too old to be appearing in movies and that he was done. I believed him the first time. It's a smart decision. It's better to quit while you are still at your peak.

[Edmilson 7,466]

And I agree with her.

 

Cate Blanchett: Trigger Warnings Imply a ‘Lack of Mutual Respect’

[Faleel 5,356]

1 hour ago, Edmilson said:

And I agree with her.

 

Cate Blanchett: Trigger Warnings Imply a ‘Lack of Mutual Respect’

[Edmilson 7,466]

Not what she meant.

[HunterTech 994]

So the "viewer discretion is advised" you'd see at the start of some older television programs has been coddling me the whole time?

[mstrox 6,651]

I don’t think there’s an understanding there of what a “trigger warning” is - it’s not a warning for a rando moviegoer to not watch due to the content (that’s what the MPA rating system is for, which she is not critiquing).  It’s a no-effort courtesy to people who are legitimately impacted by whatever is being warned about (and the rest of us can blissfully ignore).

[Edmilson 7,466]

15 years ago, Sony announced that Spider-Man 4, directed by Sam Raimi and starring Tobey Maguire, would be released in May 2011.

 

That never happened.

 

[Glóin the Dark 1,222]

On 07/03/2024 at 6:23 AM, A24 said:

It's a smart decision. It's better to quit while you are still at your peak.

Then again, if he’d stayed quit first time around, nobody would have known that he wasn’t yet at his peak, and he wouldn’t have made Lincoln, Gangs of New York, Phantom Thread or There Will Be Blood.

 

 

On 12/03/2024 at 7:22 PM, Edmilson said:

Not what she meant.

 

What exactly did she mean?

[JNHFan2000 2,966]

The film fans who refuse to surrender to streaming: ‘One day you’ll barter bread for our DVDs’

[Edmilson 7,466]

Will and Jada Pinkett Smith’s Charity to Close After Oscars Slap: Donations Sink; Thousands Spent on Elusive Mental Health Orgs and Overdrawn Bank Fees (EXCLUSIVE)

[JNHFan2000 2,966]

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2024/mar/30/alex-garland-civil-war-interview

 

Alex Garland says multiple times in this interview that this will be his last film.

 

 

"Alex Garland smiles broadly only once while in my company, and it’s when I’m about to leave. As I put on my coat and say goodbye, an irrepressible and unmistakable grin of relief spreads across the film-maker’s face. I don’t take it personally – and Garland is unfailingly courteous throughout our conversation – but this seems indicative of both his serious character in general, and his uneasy mood at present. I wonder if it is partly due to filmgoers like me, with our insistent (mis)interpretation of his work, that Garland says that his latest film will also be the last he directs."

[MaxMovieMan 273]

???? Why would he stop now. He’s at the top of his game.

[Edmilson 7,466]

I agree with Shakira.

 

Shakira’s Sons Hated ‘Barbie’ Because It’s ‘Emasculating,’ and She Agrees: ‘I Like Pop Culture’ That Empowers Women ‘Without Robbing Men of Their Possibility to Be Men’

[Andy 4,138]

Without a doubt, the best trailer I’ve seen in decades. They purposely “retroed” the colors, gave it a 70s style voiceover, and that subtle freeze frame before the Title fades up and the narrator says the name of the picture.  If only the whole movie were like this, but as a hopeless Omen apologist, they got me with this.  I can’t believe the studio had the balls to market it like this.  
 

 

[Schilkeman 964]

16 hours ago, Edmilson said:

I agree with Shakira.

 

Shakira’s Sons Hated ‘Barbie’ Because It’s ‘Emasculating,’ and She Agrees: ‘I Like Pop Culture’ That Empowers Women ‘Without Robbing Men of Their Possibility to Be Men’

I haven't seen the movie, but, "Robbing Men of Their Possibility to Be Men," is among the stupider things I've heard in my life, and this is coming from the woman, fully fluent in English, who wrote, "Lucky that my breasts are small and humble So you don't confuse 'em with mountains."

 

On 12/03/2024 at 1:47 PM, Edmilson said:

And I agree with her.

God forbid we be considerate of other people. There's two peoples' opinions I don't have to think about (three actually). Got anymore dipshit takes you wish to share?

[HunterTech 994]

A bit harsh, but I do concede that a movie that ends with it saying that men should be allowed to be their own people instead of following every masculine stereotype is anything but emasculating to men.

 

(That, and nothing will ever be as cool as the whole "I'm Just Ken" sequence.)

[Schilkeman 964]

46 minutes ago, HunterTech said:

A bit harsh

Possibly, but I find this "men just can't be men anymore," thing some Cowardly-Lion-Archie-Bunker bullshit. Punching down is part of addressing privilege. I don't think mens' standing in the world will be effected, or affected, by the Barbie movie.

 

And trigger warnings exist so that people with legitimate trauma can decide whether or not to engage with that piece of media. It is not the woke police trying to raise a world of squibs.

[Sweeping Strings 2,363]

Her hips don't lie, that's all I know. 

[mstrox 6,651]

She watched a different movie with her kids than I watched with my kid, I guess.  Ken’s character was a stereotypical lout for the third act as he emulated what he saw in the “real world,” but he had a full arc, broke free and ended at a place of freedom to do pretty much anything he wanted (except hook up with Barbie).

[JNHFan2000 2,966]

Exactly... both Ken & Barbie go through great arcs and development in the film.

 

And I think the reaction that comes from her repsone is also kinda the point of the film and to me sounds like they didn't understand what the film was trying the say.

[Jay 37,369]

Edmilson certainly didn't

[Edmilson 7,466]

8 hours ago, Schilkeman said:

I haven't seen the movie, but, "Robbing Men of Their Possibility to Be Men," is among the stupider things I've heard in my life, and this is coming from the woman, fully fluent in English, who wrote, "Lucky that my breasts are small and humble So you don't confuse 'em with mountains."

 

God forbid we be considerate of other people. There's two peoples' opinions I don't have to think about (three actually). Got anymore dipshit takes you wish to share?

You seem a little bit nervous. Don't need to cry: we're all just debating stuff here and an opinion that goes against your own is not gonna hurt you. I advise you to take a deep breath and count to ten before answering a comment you didn't like on the internet (not only here on JWFan, in hellholes like Twitter or Reddit people would be way less polite than me you said these things to them).

 

Also, if you haven't seen the movie, go do it. You will look less of a fool in a discussion about a movie.

 

Anyway, I don't even know if you opened the link I posted and read the news article (don't worry: it's Variety, not Fox News) or if you just read the headline. But she said:

 

Quote

I’m raising two boys. I want ’em to feel powerful too [while] respecting women. I like pop culture when it attempts to empower women without robbing men of their possibility to be men, to also protect and provide. I believe in giving women all the tools and the trust that we can do it all without losing our essence, without losing our femininity.”
“I think that men have a purpose in society and women have another purpose as well,” the singer added. “We complement each other, and that complement should not be lost.”
“Just because a woman can do it all doesn’t mean she should?” the interviewer asked.
“Why not share the load with people who deserve to carry it, who have a duty to carry it as well?” Shakira answered.

TL;DR: She's a mother of two boys who want them to have positive role models of masculinity that also respect women. She doesn't want them to grew up with their self esteem damaged because society taught them men are evil but bumbling fools while women are perfect (in the ending of the movie it's clearly stated that their Barbie utopical world is utter perfection with all women in charge). Just that. She didn't say that women can't be empowered or something.

 

It's not a zero sum game. Men can be decent people while keeping some positive traits of masculinity and respecting women. Women can be empowered and have lives of their own without becoming the very oppressor they were fighting against for centuries. Men and women, straight or queer, cis or trans, they should all compliment each other and unite for a common cause: the survival of mankind.

 

Instead, the internet incentivates division, anger, hatred, rancor, etc. Thanks to people like you, who start throwing offenses and attacks whenever confronted with an opinion that's not your own.

[mstrox 6,651]

I understand what you’re saying, Ed, but I think the read is all wrong - the movie never posits that women are perfect, and is all about the expectation or facade of feminine perfection being eroded  - the world is a much less perfect place than it seemed at the beginning, and the Barbies and real life characters reconcile the frustrations of that and learn to cope on their own terms.  
 

As for Kens, the movie puts on a very broad display of toxic traits, the kind of thing you would typically see in any movie that has a Jerk Boyfriend or something like that - and says that those are wrong.  It’s the Kens play-acting the bad habits they picked up from the real world in a comical way.  It doesn’t say that all masculinity was wrong.  If pop megastar Shakira is saying that the buffoonish mistreatment of the Barbies is the ideal of being masculine, there’s no hope for her and I hope she can find solace in her millions of dollars.

[Edmilson 7,466]

Yeah, I think you are correct. And yeah, she sure didn't "get" the movie. It's not about men vs women, but more about how both men and women have to adhere to what society traditionally expects of them. In the end, Ken didn't care about this whole patriarchy thing, he just liked horses lol. 

[Nick1Ø66 4,718]

4 hours ago, JNHFan2000 said:

Exactly... both Ken & Barbie go through great arcs and development in the film.

 

And I think the reaction that comes from her repsone is also kinda the point of the film and to me sounds like they didn't understand what the film was trying the say.

 

3 hours ago, Jay said:

Edmilson certainly didn't

 

What a film is “trying to say” isn’t as important as what a person hears. Once art is released into the world, all that matters is how people interpret it.

 

I’m not sure about declaring what’s the right or wrong message from Barbie. It’s a Rorschach test. The director’s intentions are largely irrelevant.  If Barbie’s not open to interpretation, then it’s just sermonising, and if it is, then people are free to interpret it as they wish.

[A24 4,339]

17 minutes ago, Nick1Ø66 said:

The director’s intentions are largely irrelevant. 

 

I would agree with this if we were talking about music but movies are generally not as ambiguous as music or abstract paintings. 

[mstrox 6,651]

A filmmaker can leave things open to interpretation or not by choice. In this case, I don’t think an argument is there that anything in Barbie is subtext.  It’s a movie for tweens and it wears its morals on its sleeve, often even telling explicitly instead of showing.  The only variable is the sociopolitical baggage - or the chip on their shoulder - that each viewer brings in .

[Nick1Ø66 4,718]

22 minutes ago, A24 said:

 

I would agree with this if we were talking about music but movies are generally not as ambiguous as music or abstract paintings. 

To me it’s not a question of ambiguity. Of course some artists (usually the better ones) are more ambiguous in what they’re trying to say than others. But once art is in the world, it’s open to interpretation, no matter how clear, or ambiguous, the artist’s intentions.

 

The fact that people have taken so many different messages from Barbie is a credit, in my judgment, to Gerwing as an artist, and it would be a lesser film, again IMO, if she was just trying to preach. Part of its power, like most great art, is that so many take different things from it…e.g Shakira had a different take on the film than some here have. Is her take “wrong”?

 

All this gives Barbie a universal appeal, and made it so successful, where so many “message” film’s fail.

 

[Schilkeman 964]

11 hours ago, Edmilson said:

Thanks to people like you, who start throwing offenses and attacks whenever confronted with an opinion that's not your own.

Sure, and I’ll stop the minute those opinions cease trying to make people feel bad for simply existing. Gender is like money, completely made up and holding only the meaning we give it.

 

As for seeing the movie, I was responding to her “robbing men of their possibility to be men” comment. I don’t need to see the movie to know that she is making a qualitative, quantitative, statement on “how men should act.” It’s dipshit nonsense, and I called it such. I sound nervous? Maybe I am. I have a gender fluid child who’s trying to navigate a world that hates and fears them. Statements like these “incentivize division.”

 

History is full of “both sides” arguments that actually only had one side. Maybe my comment was abrasive, but at least I don’t argue by proxy.

 

9 hours ago, Nick1Ø66 said:

But once art is in the world, it’s open to interpretation, no matter how clear, or ambiguous, the artist’s intentions.

I agree it’s open to interpretation, but artist intention and context is vital, otherwise a piece of art is forever beholden to the aesthetic whims of the current generation. This is how we end up with Baby It’s Cold Outside rewrites, and changing words in old novels.

[Edmilson 7,466]

39 minutes ago, Schilkeman said:

Gender is like money, completely made up and holding only the meaning we give it.

See, this is exactly why you'd like the Barbie movie. In the end, it's not about trying to make men or women feel bad, it's about finding yourself without being conformed to what society expects of you. I don't think the movie is a masterpiece or something, but it's telling that the so-called "villain" (Ryan Gosling's Ken) ends up becoming the most memorable character.

 

39 minutes ago, Schilkeman said:

I sound nervous? Maybe I am. I have a gender fluid child who’s trying to navigate a world that hates and fears them. Statements like these “incentivize division.”

 

History is full of “both sides” arguments that actually only had one side. Maybe my comment was abrasive, but at least I don’t argue by proxy.

Whatever. Suit yourself. I won't prolong this discussion any further because I don't want to break the forum's rules. I just think it's kinda funny you throwing a temper tantrum because some singer whose music you don't even care about said she didn't care about what she thought was the message of a Hollywood movie about dolls.

 

Just be careful with that whole "right side of history" angle. Believe me, my positions are closer to yours than, say, most people who'd agree with Shakira's comments on Barbie, but that don't stop me from protesting when I see people supposedly doing the "right thing" and "protecting marginalized minorities" engaging into harmful behavior, destroying people's lives and careers, threatening to doxx J.K. Rowling's daughter and even driving some people to suicide.

 

Offending people online and throwing your (perhaps righteous) rage at the injustices of the world into people on the internet won't do any good, nor for you, neither your family and especially not the world in general. Maybe you'll feel good for a moment for having "owning the Trumptards" but it will only increase the amount of rage and thus radicalism on the internet that will spill to the real world.

[Schilkeman 964]

33 minutes ago, Edmilson said:

Whatever. Suit yourself. I won't prolong this discussion any further because I don't want to break the forum's rules. I just think it's kinda funny you throwing a temper tantrum because some singer whose music you don't even care about said she didn't care about what she thought was the message of a Hollywood movie about dolls.

 

Just be careful with that whole "right side of history" angle. Believe me, my positions are closer to yours than, say, most people who'd agree with Shakira's comments on Barbie, but that don't stop me from protesting when I see people supposedly doing the "right thing" and "protecting marginalized minorities" engaging into harmful behavior, destroying people's lives and careers, threatening to doxx J.K. Rowling's daughter and even driving some people to suicide.

That whole last paragraph is a strawman. Arguing with the behavior of others is not the same as countering their argument. And I guess next time you post something I disagree with on a discussion forum, which is almost every day, I'll silently shake my head and move on. 

 

---from A Good Movie, if y'all want to get back on topic.

[Nick1Ø66 4,718]

On 4/4/2024 at 10:15 AM, Schilkeman said:

I agree it’s open to interpretation, but artist intention and context is vital, otherwise a piece of art is forever beholden to the aesthetic whims of the current generation.

But that’s exactly right…every generation interprets art differently, viewed through their own lens and informed by their own values. 
 

Look how differently productions of Shakespeare have varied over the years. There have been productions with different spins on race, class, sex, etc. Countless interpretations. For example, I’ve seen Othello probably a dozen times, and every production had its own take on the same text. Ditto for Hamlet. Henry V had been staged as a British Nationalist piece during WWII and anti-war during the Iraq War. Those varying interpretations are part of what makes art, well…art. It’s also art of what makes great art timeless.

 

I’ll also add that what an artist intends to do isn’t always what they end up creating. If people think art is telling them X, and the artist says “no, no, you’ve got it all wrong, I’m saying Y”, well, whose problem is that? Is it a failure of comprehension on the part of the viewer, or listener, or a failure of the artist in not fully conveying their intention? 
 

Some see Verhoven’s Starship Troopers as promoting fascism. Others (including me) see it as satire. Verhoven will tell you it’s the latter, but so what?
 

I certainly agree that an artist’s intent with their own work is something that can inform an interpretation and opinion of it, but it’s only one component, and while important, it’s not a defining one. IMO this is a view most good artists share.

[Schilkeman 964]

39 minutes ago, Nick1Ø66 said:

But I that’s exactly right…every generation interprets art differently, viewed through their own lens and informed by their own values.

I think we're just disagreeing on a scale or ratio. Obviously, we live in a very different world than Elizabethan England, and we see Shakespeare through that lens, but I think it's impossible to remove the historical context from art. Beethoven's 3rd symphony is not radical, but Beethoven's 3rd symphony, in the context of contemporary symphonic writing, Heiligenstadt, and the French Revolution in 1804, very much is radical. We've disagreed on this before, so I won't belabor the point, I just don't agree with death of the author analysis. People make stuff. Understanding the people can help us understand the stuff.

[Jay 37,369]

At the end of the month, Zendaya will fulfill the prophecy

 

[MaxMovieMan 273]

I feel like some movies these days are getting a little full of themselves style-wise. Style over substance is happening a lot.

[Thor 7,512]

30 minutes ago, MaxMovieMan said:

I feel like some movies these days are getting a little full of themselves style-wise. Style over substance is happening a lot.

 

Depends on what you have in mind, but in the right hands, style IS substance.