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#122 (post thread) |
Moonlight is the best film I've seen
(Disclaimer: I've known one of the film's producers for literally two thirds of my life. That's not why it affected me this strongly, though.)
__________________ ff · tmv · reds · lj · last.fm · soundcloud · pm for facebook (which I never check) “The trouble is that we have a bad habit, encouraged by pedants and sophisticates, of considering happiness as something rather stupid. Only pain is intellectual, only evil interesting. This is the treason of the artist: a refusal to admit the banality of evil and the terrible boredom of pain. If you can’t lick ’em, join ’em. If it hurts, repeat it. But to praise despair is to condemn delight, to embrace violence is to lose hold of everything else. We have almost lost hold; we can no longer describe happy man, nor make any celebration of joy.” -Ursula K. Le Guin, “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” “I never knew a man could tell so many lies He had a different story for every set of eyes How can he remember who he’s talking to? ’Cause I know it ain’t me, and I hope it isn’t you” -Neil Young, “Ambulance Blues” |
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#123 (post thread) |
Logan is one of the best comic book films I've seen in awhile. Maybe since Guardians of the Galaxy; not entirely sure. It's definitely unique. Think Shane and Unforgiven crossed with the X-Men. It also has an incredibly timely message and it's well pulled off.
__________________ ff · tmv · reds · lj · last.fm · soundcloud · pm for facebook (which I never check) “The trouble is that we have a bad habit, encouraged by pedants and sophisticates, of considering happiness as something rather stupid. Only pain is intellectual, only evil interesting. This is the treason of the artist: a refusal to admit the banality of evil and the terrible boredom of pain. If you can’t lick ’em, join ’em. If it hurts, repeat it. But to praise despair is to condemn delight, to embrace violence is to lose hold of everything else. We have almost lost hold; we can no longer describe happy man, nor make any celebration of joy.” -Ursula K. Le Guin, “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” “I never knew a man could tell so many lies He had a different story for every set of eyes How can he remember who he’s talking to? ’Cause I know it ain’t me, and I hope it isn’t you” -Neil Young, “Ambulance Blues” |
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#124 (post thread) |
HBO’s Temple Grandin film. It’s pretty much perfect and everyone should watch it. My only complaint, and this honestly seems pretty churlish given how well the film was done, is that it doesn’t explicitly note that autistic people’s nonverbal communication is different from neurotypicals’ (and for that matter, it can vary from other autistic people’s as well). Then again, Claire Danes’ performance in the title role implies that about as strongly as it could have, which is why I feel strange even complaining about that. Danes’ performance is probably the second best I’ve ever seen in a television production (the best, of course, being Tatiana Maslany’s in Orphan Black, and actually, it feels strange even to compare them, since they’re so different).
Anyway, yeah, pretty much flawless, and anyone who hasn’t seen it yet should.
__________________ ff · tmv · reds · lj · last.fm · soundcloud · pm for facebook (which I never check) “The trouble is that we have a bad habit, encouraged by pedants and sophisticates, of considering happiness as something rather stupid. Only pain is intellectual, only evil interesting. This is the treason of the artist: a refusal to admit the banality of evil and the terrible boredom of pain. If you can’t lick ’em, join ’em. If it hurts, repeat it. But to praise despair is to condemn delight, to embrace violence is to lose hold of everything else. We have almost lost hold; we can no longer describe happy man, nor make any celebration of joy.” -Ursula K. Le Guin, “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” “I never knew a man could tell so many lies He had a different story for every set of eyes How can he remember who he’s talking to? ’Cause I know it ain’t me, and I hope it isn’t you” -Neil Young, “Ambulance Blues” |
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#126 (post thread) |
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
I loved it. This will definitely piss off some of the people who liked the first film, though (including a certain group of cultural reactionaries whom I won’t dignify by repeating their name), because it’s a scathing and not at all subtle attack on toxic masculinity. That honestly delights me all the more. I’m too tired right now to write a deep analysis of the film (I’m in the midst of a move right now), but I will note that it’s one of the most visually stunning science fiction films I’ve ever seen, and the soundtrack was, if possible, even better than that of the first one. (One particular track Gunn selected has deep personal meaning for me for reasons I don’t care to get into here; I’m honestly not certain he could’ve selected a track for that scene that would’ve had a greater emotional impact on me.) The film’s women also probably have more agency than you’ll find in at least 90% of films of the past decade. The returning cast members are at least as good here as they were in the first film; Rooker, Saldana, and Gillan are better. Gamora and Nebula may have become one of the most interesting sibling pairs in cinematic history. Of the new cast members, Russell and Klementieff made the largest impact on me. (Keep an eye on the latter; she could very easily become a star.) Stallone’s role wasn’t really much more than a cameo, but he made good use of what screen time he had, and apparently we’ll see more of him in the future. Debicki is set up as an intriguing potential antagonist for future films. The film overall is an expansion on the themes of the first film, so it won’t feel as thrillingly fresh as the original did. That’s fine. The first film hid a certain amount of anguish beneath its cheery exterior, and this film explores that anguish in full. The ending is unexpectedly emotional. I won’t spoil any of the film’s major plot elements, though you’ll probably see most of them coming. That won’t dilute the film’s emotional impact in the slightest. It’s strange that the two films that have left me a blubbering wreck at their endings this year have been comic book films (this and Logan). Moonlight and Temple Grandin have resonated more with me overall, but I feel comic book films have really come of age over the past decade or so. I’m not sure I’d say I enjoyed this as much as the first film; does anyone really enjoy The Empire Strikes Back as much as they enjoy A New Hope? Yet we all recognise that Empire is the better film. I think the same might be the case here. Both films have bittersweet endings, and they’re not as unprecedented as their predecessors, but their emotional depth is greater. I’m not sure I’m willing to declare this better than its predecessor just yet (I’ll need to see it at least once more; I want to watch it in 3D), but I think it’s just as good.
__________________ ff · tmv · reds · lj · last.fm · soundcloud · pm for facebook (which I never check) “The trouble is that we have a bad habit, encouraged by pedants and sophisticates, of considering happiness as something rather stupid. Only pain is intellectual, only evil interesting. This is the treason of the artist: a refusal to admit the banality of evil and the terrible boredom of pain. If you can’t lick ’em, join ’em. If it hurts, repeat it. But to praise despair is to condemn delight, to embrace violence is to lose hold of everything else. We have almost lost hold; we can no longer describe happy man, nor make any celebration of joy.” -Ursula K. Le Guin, “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” “I never knew a man could tell so many lies He had a different story for every set of eyes How can he remember who he’s talking to? ’Cause I know it ain’t me, and I hope it isn’t you” -Neil Young, “Ambulance Blues” |
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#130 (post thread) |
The Wonder Woman film was basically everything I'd hoped it would be after the reception it had gotten, and far better than I'd expected before the reviews started appearing. I wrote a longer post, but it got eated while I was trying to submit it and Lazarus unexpectedly didn't save it. I'll edit in further observations when I feel like rewriting them. The short version is that it's very reminiscent in both tone and content of the first Captain America film, but it manages to pull that off without feeling like a carbon copy, and I'd say it's every bit as good.
(Yes, eated Is intentional. It came from a webcomic originally, was then popularised by lolcats, and even later was adopted by the blogger Atrios/Duncan Black to describe banks being taken over by the FDIC.)
__________________ ff · tmv · reds · lj · last.fm · soundcloud · pm for facebook (which I never check) “The trouble is that we have a bad habit, encouraged by pedants and sophisticates, of considering happiness as something rather stupid. Only pain is intellectual, only evil interesting. This is the treason of the artist: a refusal to admit the banality of evil and the terrible boredom of pain. If you can’t lick ’em, join ’em. If it hurts, repeat it. But to praise despair is to condemn delight, to embrace violence is to lose hold of everything else. We have almost lost hold; we can no longer describe happy man, nor make any celebration of joy.” -Ursula K. Le Guin, “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” “I never knew a man could tell so many lies He had a different story for every set of eyes How can he remember who he’s talking to? ’Cause I know it ain’t me, and I hope it isn’t you” -Neil Young, “Ambulance Blues” |
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#131 (post thread) |
I’ve been watching a lot of films lately. Brief reviews to follow.
Wonder Woman – I wrote a much longer review of this shortly after seeing it, but it got EATED and I don’t remember everything I said. The comparison to Captain America: The First Avenger seems apt; they feel pretty similar, but this isn’t a carbon copy. The decision to move the setting to WWI works well, I think; first of all, there aren’t nearly enough WWI films, and secondly, the moral ambiguity of the war seems better suited to the character arc. This film remembered not to leave out the warmth and humanity, which distinguished it wonderfully from DC’s other recent film output. Overall, I can’t see much to complain about here. I definitely appreciated the film’s message that superheroes can’t save humanity; humanity has to save itself. Dog Day Afternoon – I’m attempting to remedy gaps in my film viewing; this is the first of several films I’d inexplicably never seen. Pacino’s performance is spectacularly good, possibly a career best; if Cuckoo’s Nest hadn’t been the same year, I’d have said he’d gotten snubbed for Best Actor. It’s astonishing that a film this progressive on queer issues was made in the mid-’70s, and Lumet does a fantastic job making the film’s flawed characters relatable. One observation I made during the phone conversations in the middle of the film was how little any of the characters were actually listening to each other. Lumet was in the midst of an incomprehensible sequence of classic films here; it’s as though he could do no wrong. Withnail and I – Cult British comedy featuring Richard E. Grant and Paul McGann as two dysfunctional, struggling actors. I feel as though I’ll probably need to watch this again to fully appreciate it; it seems like The Big Lebowski in that respect (I didn’t entirely get that film on first viewing either). There are some incredibly hilarious lines in this, though, and it’s ultimately surprisingly poignant. This is another film where all the major characters are extremely flawed people but ultimately end up mostly sympathetic despite their flaws. I haven’t seen anything else like it and I’m not surprised it wound up a cult classic. Animal House – Another in the “how the hell did I not see this before?” list. A few of the gags haven’t aged well but overall it completely deserves its stature as a comedy classic. I’d honestly say it very nearly renders every subsequent college comedy superfluous; I think part of the reason is because it actually throws in some fairly cutting social satire, but it does so without oversimplifying American society or whitewashing its flaws. But mostly, it’s just much funnier than most of its imitators. Psycho – Yet another film I’d inexplicably never seen. I’d seen most of Hitchcock’s other major works (Rear Window, Vertigo, Strangers on a Train, North by Northwest, The Birds), but somehow had never seen this one. I think this may be his best. This is another film I intend to watch at least once more; with Hitchcock, there’s almost always substantial foreshadowing you’ll miss even if, as I did, you know the main plot twists of the film ahead of time, and the framing of shots and cinematography and so on are always very deliberate and usually have symbolic intent. If more modern horror films were like this, I’d probably watch a lot more of the genre. Overall, my only complaint with the film is with the Hollywood psychology; the split personality trope is ridiculous. Then again, this was one of the first films to even use it, and it does so in a much better manner than most films that do so; it’s also a much more sympathetic treatment of violent mental illness than you usually get in Hollywood. (SPOILER) I now have Paul’s Boutique stuck in my head since it sampled the Psycho soundtrack several times and will probably listen to it later today. I also should probably go look for some of Hitchcock’s other lesser-remembered films (Rebecca, The Man Who Knew Too Much, Shadow of a Doubt, Dial M for Murder, Notorious, etc.).
__________________ ff · tmv · reds · lj · last.fm · soundcloud · pm for facebook (which I never check) “The trouble is that we have a bad habit, encouraged by pedants and sophisticates, of considering happiness as something rather stupid. Only pain is intellectual, only evil interesting. This is the treason of the artist: a refusal to admit the banality of evil and the terrible boredom of pain. If you can’t lick ’em, join ’em. If it hurts, repeat it. But to praise despair is to condemn delight, to embrace violence is to lose hold of everything else. We have almost lost hold; we can no longer describe happy man, nor make any celebration of joy.” -Ursula K. Le Guin, “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” “I never knew a man could tell so many lies He had a different story for every set of eyes How can he remember who he’s talking to? ’Cause I know it ain’t me, and I hope it isn’t you” -Neil Young, “Ambulance Blues” |
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#132 (post thread) |
Moana was basically perfect. It’s possibly the most beautiful animated film I’ve ever seen, and the soundtrack was at least as good as you’d expect with Lin-Manuel Miranda being involved. The characterisation was done fantastically as well, and who knew Dwayne Johnson could actually sing? (His acting was more nuanced than he’s usually given credit for being as well.) You’ve seen the basic plot dozens of times before, but this put interesting new twists on it and unpacked it in ways I don’t think I’ve seen in a Disney film before. Probably one of my favourite Disney films to date; I expected it to be good, but it exceeded my expectations in basically every way.
(Also, TIL Dwayne Johnson is half-black and half-Samoan. Would never have guessed either of those.)
__________________ ff · tmv · reds · lj · last.fm · soundcloud · pm for facebook (which I never check) “The trouble is that we have a bad habit, encouraged by pedants and sophisticates, of considering happiness as something rather stupid. Only pain is intellectual, only evil interesting. This is the treason of the artist: a refusal to admit the banality of evil and the terrible boredom of pain. If you can’t lick ’em, join ’em. If it hurts, repeat it. But to praise despair is to condemn delight, to embrace violence is to lose hold of everything else. We have almost lost hold; we can no longer describe happy man, nor make any celebration of joy.” -Ursula K. Le Guin, “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” “I never knew a man could tell so many lies He had a different story for every set of eyes How can he remember who he’s talking to? ’Cause I know it ain’t me, and I hope it isn’t you” -Neil Young, “Ambulance Blues” |
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#133 (post thread) |
I wrote a thing about Blade Runner 2049 and another thing about the Oscars and I might as well post them both here. I've seen a lot of films in the past several months, but I haven't written about most of them because after writing as much as I have about Moonlight, writing one or two paragraphs about a film just seems woefully inadequate.
I should note that I don't actually personally know any of this year's winners, so I'm not as awed by them. It occurred to me the other day that if amateur plays and crew credits count, then I have a Kevin Bacon number of 3.
__________________ ff · tmv · reds · lj · last.fm · soundcloud · pm for facebook (which I never check) “The trouble is that we have a bad habit, encouraged by pedants and sophisticates, of considering happiness as something rather stupid. Only pain is intellectual, only evil interesting. This is the treason of the artist: a refusal to admit the banality of evil and the terrible boredom of pain. If you can’t lick ’em, join ’em. If it hurts, repeat it. But to praise despair is to condemn delight, to embrace violence is to lose hold of everything else. We have almost lost hold; we can no longer describe happy man, nor make any celebration of joy.” -Ursula K. Le Guin, “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” “I never knew a man could tell so many lies He had a different story for every set of eyes How can he remember who he’s talking to? ’Cause I know it ain’t me, and I hope it isn’t you” -Neil Young, “Ambulance Blues” |
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#136 (post thread) |
A Star Is Born lives up to the hype and then some. Bring a box of tissues, though; you'll need it. It's even more of a tear jerker than a typical This Is Us episode. Regardless, it might actually be the best musical film I've ever seen. I might expand this with more when I'm not posting from my phone at 5 am, but it has something truly profound to say about art and the process of creation - something I feel a lot of people need to hear.
Unrelated, they played about a dozen trailers before the film and not one of them elicited a "yeah, not gonna see that" response from me. That's literally never happened before. I was surprised how good the new Lisbeth Salander film looks, but then, Claire Foy is a fucking force of nature. I still don't like how Larsson's estate has treated his long-time girlfriend, though.
__________________ ff · tmv · reds · lj · last.fm · soundcloud · pm for facebook (which I never check) “The trouble is that we have a bad habit, encouraged by pedants and sophisticates, of considering happiness as something rather stupid. Only pain is intellectual, only evil interesting. This is the treason of the artist: a refusal to admit the banality of evil and the terrible boredom of pain. If you can’t lick ’em, join ’em. If it hurts, repeat it. But to praise despair is to condemn delight, to embrace violence is to lose hold of everything else. We have almost lost hold; we can no longer describe happy man, nor make any celebration of joy.” -Ursula K. Le Guin, “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” “I never knew a man could tell so many lies He had a different story for every set of eyes How can he remember who he’s talking to? ’Cause I know it ain’t me, and I hope it isn’t you” -Neil Young, “Ambulance Blues” |
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