It's a bit of an odd duck. It's not a great movie. But it is a very solid good movie. In one sense, it's a movie you've seen before. If you've seen Ocean's (Number), that is. (Because it's directed by the Ocean's director.) It's p much just like one of those with a fun palette swap. Instead of handsome and debonair folk robbing a casino, it's a group of oddly charming, uh, Appalachians doing the thieving.
Charming Tater - oops - Channing Tatum taking the lead role of Billy Ocean Jimmy Logan, and filling his cohort with a motley crew, including Bond, James Bond Daniel Craig. I can tell you this much: Channing Tatum continues to demonstrate what a treasure he is on the big screen.
Maybe not worth a big screen visit but should be a fun popular diversion when it invades your home.
I didn't find any mention of "Colossal" yet. It seems like it might be a black comedy, and it is to a point, but it's more like an indie drama also with giant monsters.
Anne Hathaway plays Gloria, who goes back to her home town because she's broke, homeless, and a dysfunctional alcoholic. She meets up with Oscar (Jason Sudeikis), a childhood acquaintance and, unfortunately for her alcoholism, a bar owner.
She starts hanging out with Oscar and his friends, but the drama starts when she discovers her actions in a park near her house translates exactly to a monster destroying Seoul. There's a twist or two I don't really want to spoil, but Oscar goes from being just an unfortunate choice of companion to a toxic codependent pretty quickly. The fantastical element makes the actions of Gloria and Oscar more morally clear and generally palatable.
A quick warning, the relationship does include violence, but I found Oscar's manipulation - and his companion's complicity - more stressing. He quickly discovers she often blacks out and doesn't remember events. At first, it seems like his reminding her of what transpired is benign, but we as the audience see how that progresses, and I began to wonder how much of the earlier conversations were lies.
Jason Sudeikis does a heel turn really well, I was impressed.
Alice (Chloë Sevigny): Do you really think we know each other well enough to move in together?
Charlotte (Kate Beckinsale): Well, maybe that's good.
Alice: Its not just that we don't know each other well. I'm not even sure we really like each other.
Charlotte: That's okay. You know, Alice, I'm not so much of a bitch as I seem.
A long, talky movie where young people go to clubs, date, dance and generally make a mess of their lives, set just before the disco lifestyle collapses.
Look, I was p much on board the second I saw the trailer for this movie, I dunno, a couple of weeks ago. Slasher movie plus Groundhog Day concept? Oh yeah. That sounds like my jam. For the genre savvy, there aren't going to be any surprises. But not, to my good fun, paint by numbers either. It was a fun ride as our heroine figures out just what the fudge is going on.
Zootopia I was expecting generic animated kids film where animals bounce at me in bright colors for an hour and a half, but instead got an engaging movie about prejudice with interesting characters and a nice little mystery story. Sure it's still a kids movie but well done and I was entertained. I mean, they make you feel for a meter maid ticketing people.
I quite liked the inventive landscape of sentient animals and the different environments that would entail, it was clear people put some thought into this film.
Pixar's new joint. There's only one thing I didn't love about Coco - and it wasn't even in the movie.
Let me get that right out of the way: Dear Disney, WHEN YOU PLAY A PIXAR MOVIE LET PIXAR MAKE THE "SHORT" THAT PLAYS BEFORE IT. Look, I get it. You have to sell Frozen and keep shoving it down kids, and through that proxy, their parents' throats. But, one, a full length cartoon is no longer a short. And two, it's not nearly as thoughtful or touching or endearing or cute or intriguing as a real Pixar produced short.
Okay.
That's done.
Coco is an excellent movie. And because you know it's made by Pixar you will most likely laugh and cheer and jeer and - yes, you know it's coming - cry at the appropriate moment(s). There aren't any real surprises but the characters are so well done that doesn't matter. The world(s) you're in are real enough that you're watching in wonder as it all happens in front of you.
If you thought the new Cars(3) was well animated (I did). If you thought Moana was beautifully done (I did). You are still going to be blown away by how well animated this movie is.
My favorite thing about the movie right now are the Alebrijes - brightly colored animal spirit guides. Most especially Pepita. You'll know it when you see it. And one of the characters had a small pack of Chihuahua Alebrije that were SO ADORABLES.
"Being There" - Peter Sellers plays Chance, a man whose polite demeanor and upper class appearance allows him to stumble upwards, despite the fact that he is a complete simpleton who likes to watch TV.
Chance is the gardener for a walled estate which he has never left. The owner of the estate dies and Chance is evicted. He literally wanders the world until he is accidentally hit by the limousine of Eve Rand (played by Shirley MacLaine), who takes him home to have the Rand personal doctor look at him. The doctor is looking after the dying Ben Rand who is shown as a corporate leader and political kingmaker.
At this point, Chance becomes a mirror for everyone who talks to him. Because Chance is agreeable and polite, generally answering "Yes" and "I understand" even if he doesn't, people tend to assume he is being wise and direct, and his talk of gardening is a metaphor for whatever they want. Soon, he has the ear of the President and appears on TV.
As you can imagine, there have been some comparisons between this character and a certain president, but I think that it's mostly a comedic reimagining of Buddha's origin, with a modern, ironic twist.
There's some problems with this movie. More than once, characters have to be completely ignoring the obvious clues that Chance is a simpleton. This is particularly the case with Eve, who falls in love even though he fails to reciprocate in any meaningful way. It's a bit slow for a comedy, and it's not generally LOL-type humor.
Still, it's Peter Sellers in top form and a dark, subtle satire.
Have I said it before? I can't help myself. I like Mr The Rock. I'll watch just about anything he's a part of. (Okay, so I skipped Baywatch and some other even cheesier things. I'm not perfect.) And I'll say that he does, you know, his usual good job hard work beefcaking and being charming here. Though he's the reason I'll unashamedly admit why I went, he's not why I stayed or the total of why I enjoyed it.
But first. Kevin Hart and Jack Black were also in it. They were, well, Kevin Hart and Jack Black. Kevin was more Kevin and Jack was a little less Jack. If you find any of the personalities bothersome, they will still be bothersome here. There's no escape for that.
But the star of the show is Karen Gillan. Not because she's a) pretty and, specifically in this show, dressed that way. No. She p much acts her face off. I guess the downside is that it's too subtle for this application. She does the best acting of the group.
But what about the movie itself? If you liked the first Jumanji, there's no reason why you shouldn't like this one. The corollary is also true, of course. I found it enjoyable and fun. A good diversion for an afternoon. Nothing deep or demanding.
Oh, so I finally got around to watching mother! the other day.
It was good. It is really heavy handed, maybe a little too obvious with the analogy, and pretty far over the top. I can totally understand why some audiences laughed. There was nothing subtle about anything in it. (IMO, you could keep all the crazy bombastic stuff, but there's a sort of body horror it was going for that is most effectively conveyed with more subtle elements that it didn't really pull off.)
It was good, though. I don't know if I can safely or universally recommend it, but it's generally well made, and worth watching if you're OK with some earth scorching.
It's time for another couple of great movies I've seen in the last months:
Heaven knows what
A young and homeless heroin addict roams the streets of New York to panhandle and get her next fix. The main character is actually played by a (at the time) homeless heroin addict and she (Arielle Holmes) is fantastic. Not a feel good movie and certainly not for everyone but a great, great movie nonetheless.
American Honey
This is one of my favourite movies of all time even though it has Shia LaBoeuf in it! The main character (recruited off the streets as well) is played by Sasha Lane who joins a travelling magazine salesmen crew (something that's apparently a thing in the US. I had no idea) and criss-crosses the American Midwest with a band of other young people (among which, btw, Arielle Holmes from Heaven knows what above in her second role!).
Brilliant cast, brilliant score, brilliant everything! Watch it!
Oh also, Riley Keough is leading the gang. She is the granddaughter of Elvis. THE FUCKING GRANDDAUGHTER OF ELVIS? How old am I?
And to finish: a Marion Cotillard movie because she's the greatest actor on the planet:
Rust and Bone
Cotillard plays an Orca trainer (!) in the South of France. After an awful accident she loses both her legs. She develops a relationship with Ali (excellent Matthias Schoenaerts), a single parent and former boxer who gets by with back street fighting.
Bloody brilliant!
Here are the pretty good movies I've watched over the past week or two:
The Shape of Water. Honestly, Guillermo del Toro is just not really my jam, and this was no exception. It was very well made, though, for what it is, which is a fairy tale for grownups. It's expertly crafted and has a lot of little visual subtleties that contribute to the mood perfectly.
However,
when the sea monster guy rubbed the other guy's boo-boo he gave him earlier, I vowed to myself that I was going to walk right out of the theater if it healed it, and I am angry with myself that I didn't keep my promise, but there were other people there. It just kinda makes me unreasonably mad when I can predict too much of what's going to happen, and I predicted way too much about this movie.
Also, it was REALLY FUCKING HOT in the theater.
Bone Tomahawk. I just decided to watch this because we cancelled Amazon Prime and it had been on mu queue there for a while. It was a well done cowboy movie, weirdly anachronistic with the savage "technically not native" Indians and all, and holy fuck that one scene. Well done, but don't watch it, anyone. Except Dingleford, IIRC, who already did. I think that's why I had it in my queue.
The Parrot. This wasn't perfect, but I really liked it, partly because it's the director's first feature, and it's a really strong first effort. It's kind of a surreal little story, and Tarkovsky is obviously a strong influence on her visuals. It feels like it needed just a little bit more editing, because there was some weird stuff like the incidental music being too dominant, like there was too much of it plus it was too loud. Still, it was good and I liked it and will watch her next movie.
The Voyeur's Motel. This is a documentary about that Gay Talese New Yorker article/book about the creepy dude who watched customers from the vents in a cheap motel in Aurora, CO. I remember that motel (no, I never stayed there), so I ate that stuff up. It was pretty good, and it expanded on and added to the stuff from the article. I didn't read the book.
Buster's Mal Heart. This was pretty good. I liked it better the next day when I thought of some things that I had kind of glossed over at first. Again, it's a sort of surreal story, so it takes some tangling out. I probably would recommend this.
Where is My Friend's House? I have no idea why I hadn't watched this one before, but I love this movie. It's by Abbas Kiarostami, which is why it's weird that I hadn't watched it before because I really like him. I totally recommend this to anyone. It would be OK for kids, even.
Manderlay. Jesus fuck, Lars von Trier. This is a beautifully made, expertly crafted sequel to Dogville, but oh, man. I'd wondered why it was so hard to find this movie and why nobody seemed to talk about it ever, and now I know. It's, um. He should not have made this movie. I almost just wish it sucked so I could be like PHBBBBT to the whole thing, but it's actually really well done.
Oh, so I finally got around to watching mother! the other day.
It was good. It is really heavy handed, maybe a little too obvious with the analogy, and pretty far over the top. I can totally understand why some audiences laughed. There was nothing subtle about anything in it. (IMO, you could keep all the crazy bombastic stuff, but there's a sort of body horror it was going for that is most effectively conveyed with more subtle elements that it didn't really pull off.)
It was good, though. I don't know if I can safely or universally recommend it, but it's generally well made, and worth watching if you're OK with some earth scorching.
You are a wise young gentleman and I agree with you. I really liked it but it is really, really not subtle and completely over the top.
A Romanian movie by Cristi Puiu. A family comes together in a small flat for a 40 day memorial service for the deceased patriarch. It's almost three hours long and it's mostly discussions between the various members of the family.
Wonderful, wonderful movie but definitely not for everyone and you really need to be in the right mood to read subtitles for close to three hours.
Thor: Ragnarok, a fun movie with some major issues.
Jeff Goldblum, Valkyrie and Hella are the reasons for this making the good movies post vs the meh movies. Lots of people praised the director and while he deserves some credit, he was also a major flaw. I couldn't figure out why some of the characters didn't feel very invested until I learned a large portion of the movie was ad libed and it all clicked into place. These aren't actors who are used to giving their all on unscripted throw away lines or on variation 24 of 30 and the director just kind of let them do their own thing. A number of Hulk/Banner with Thor lines feel like they are expecting someone to say, "Ok, very funny, cut, now let's do it for real this time guys" only the camera just keeps rolling.
On the other hand as an amusing flashing lights, fights and explosions spectacle it's well done and It's partly worth it just to uh uh, watch, uh, the goldblum, chew some scenery and Valkyrie drink and swagger her way through the film, but otherwise it's exactly what you might expect with no real surprises.
The basic premise is that Michelle (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) is driving cross-country when she gets into an accident and wakes up chained in a windowless room. Howard (John Goodman) reveals himself to be her captor/rescuer, depending on the point of view. There's another guy, Emmett (John Gallagher Jr.) who was a local who forced his way in. Soon we find out they're in a fallout shelter, and supposedly there's been some sort of extinction level event - the only proof is the testimony of the men and some dead animals outside the shelter. The rest of the movie is how Michelle handles her confinement.
In the first half of the movie, I veered between "Howard's some sort of psycho!" and "Howard is weird and not OK, but he's telling the truth, so he's a not a psycho, right?" Until this is definitively answered. The "twist" at the end is easy to guess from the name of the movie, but I still found it a bit surprising.
I watched Molly's Game last week, based on the book by Molly Bloom. I had managed to have never heard of her. She almost made it to the Olympics when she crashed after hitting a tiny piece of tree branch and one ski got unstuck during a jump-off. She then stumbled into a career of organising high-stake poker games.
It's a pretty simple story really, so it depends on the acting a lot and that is pretty high standard. Idris Elba is in it and good as usual but Jessica Chastain outshines him.