oh yeah there were definitely those too
also just like the paper-thin framing of amy adams’ bit part and the total thanklessness of every time they dragged her character out for an emotional beat was hilarious
here’s amy adams out here to try to sell the superman mythos again for some reason
she sure likes talking to aliens
I still kinda enjoy the long version of batman v. superman (and a little bit man of steel) for being just a full on mess and such, but i can’t say I have actually liked any of the DCU movies and I don’t expect that to change.
Just saw Death of Stalin. That movie was great! It’s really interesting, tonally. It’s full of great gags, but the overall feel of it is sinister as hell. The whole situation is a tinder box that could burst into flames at any second, and you can feel the dread of each character trying to navigate it. Buscemi didn’t look very convincing as Khrushchev, but he played the part well.
I mean it’s more like Joss Whedon’s take on Zack Snyder’s take on DC
Batfleck is my favorite part of those things honestly. I like his crossfit buffboi take on it a lot more than Bale. It’s nice to see a Batman that I can at least sort of buy as physically intimidating
Roman Reigns playing Aquaman was pretty much the worst though
Every single line has the most incredible black irony underneath, it’s the most beautiful thing. It doesn’t matter that it’s less wordplay-y than earlier Ianucci joints.
The wide shots of the city, of monumental state architecture interjected a jolt of terror of The State and the raw power over human life in play. In the Loop dealt with similar potential stakes but cloaked itself in the banality of workplace comedy. I think stepping back is more appropriate when on a historical scale; for near-present camouflaging how it fooled people the first time feels aesthetically right.
I suppose Death of Stalin also took the license to get operatic at times
I cried at the end of the Jumanji reboot
I know we’re all into sincerity or whatever now but check yourself brother
I just read that in Hogan voice
you know I hate sincerity, I cry specifically because it’s maudlin manipulative nostalgia kitsch. I’m emotionally overcome by the artlessness.
Whatever dude. The Rock and Kevin Hart made you feel feelings that you could not deny.
my tears are calibrated to post-post-post-modernism
I watched Jumanji and it was absolutely paint by numbers boring.
Annihilation gripped me in the first twelve point five minutes. I even posted that on FB. But it slowly lost me after they passively listed off each girl’s baggage. And yeah, the ending. While the actual screenplay for the final chapter was ok I guess. It looked like a 1993 movie, in a bad way. After the listing of baggage and up to the final chapter, was garbage. I will list it all out, if you want. I was not expecting it to be that bad. Ex-Machina wasn’t perfect, but it was a hell of a lot better.
Also, Natalie Portman was pretty dang good. And I’m not usually a particular fan of her. The casting overall, was very good. But that movie rides on her character and she did a great job.
I watched The Last Jedi a second time and liked it even more. I don’t L.O.V.E it. But I like it well enough. * and the special features added even more to the liking.*
I watched Dunkirk. It was good. If you appreciate cinema and/or have a bit of specific interest in WWII, there is lots to like. But, even though it is the highest grossing WWII film so far, I think actual viewer ratings with the average viewer would probably be kinda low. Because it’s an uncommon film. Little dialogue. Virtually all sound was produced in studio. Lots of following shots. Little setup for context or characters.
Dunkirk was cut weird, though. Which did bother me. It tries to mess with chronology and the sync of events. But it ends up mostly just feeling backwards and often spoils what could have been some decent story and action beats. And even if that sort of edit had technically worked—it doesn’t feel appropriate for the film at large.
I finally watched Mad Max: Fury Road.
I didn’t like that the cult was basically all the guys are juvenile numbskulls except the leader so of course he is the leader. And then somehow the women are beautiful and smart yet somehow have no power.
Otherwise, the movie was pretty hoss auto destruction action with minimal bullshit. And it was never gross/graphic just because. Nothing was shown which disnt serve the aesthetic and/or the plot.
I had a real difficult time getting into Phantom Thread and didn’t finish. I suspect I didn’t watch long enough for it to essentially reveal itself. But I really didn’t enjoy the main the setup. For reference, I watched until the second time we see him at the breakfast table.
I got bad news 4u
I got bad news 4u
it occurred to me while walking the dog last night that technically these italics are the wrong endianness
yeah that bothered me a little
phantom thread is about everything I hate in relationships. all the little manipulations and tricks you’re expected to do to stay novel and interesting and needed to a person. constant cutsey text messages are basically the exact same as having to poison someone on a regular basis. the whole business is just too inauthentic and manipulative feeling to me.
johnnie to’s breaking news is the most romantic story I’ve ever seen however. what a fool I am cause I’d always put off seeing this movie cause I just assumed it was about some news crew or something, when it’s about a heist crew and assassin team getting caught up in a police cordon and bonding. and at the end, the sole survivor of each team escapes and dies in the process of trying to pull off the other guys job. beautiful 
.
I’ve been working my way through johnnie to’s solo directed milkyway image films. they’ve almost all had great soundtracks so far. my favorites being the odd one dies and where a good man goes. and the song in the bar in a hero never dies, not sukiyaki, the twin peaks sounding one after their girlfriends show up. I’ve been embarrassingly deficient when it comes to to’s movies for too long.
blood vat
some people need artifice to be their authentic selves
The Circle is this near future look at what a corporation having access to all your personal data would be like. Rather on point considering what’s happening with Facebook and Cambridge Analytica. Except that the movie’s idea of solving this problem (after killing someone by having an entire country hunt you down in the name of reconciling an old family friend that didn’t want to be found) is by saying “let’s get everyone on the same level” and made the corporate heads’ emails and documents and their personal lives completely transparent instead of, you know, tender the notion that some information should remain private. How do you come to this conclusion, even after the protagonist (Emma Watson) embarrasses her parents by letting her worldwide viewers see her parents at a compromising time? They never even entertain the idea at all even when the company was talking about their newest innovation “undetectable cameras everywhere so I can see the surf of beaches in HD whenever I want to (oh and public intersections and your home).”
Don’t watch, even with all these big name actors there’s nothing worthwhile to see. They even push metrics and being part of the company in a cult-like fashion as mild inconveniences that become part of the status quo. Like some tech-bro’s dream job that the movie-makers knew it should be framed as a bad thing but only made it a minor “well this one side character burned out from the stress, I guess.” It made me really uncomfortable.