The Movie Reel

[MargaretMcAleer]

Wow I just returned from watching one of the most memorable experiences I have had in a while at the movies., the film Tar.
BTW Moxie I did not needs my snacks as Todd Field, writer and director of Tar, totally engaged me from start to finish in this film, time factor was not an issue at all. Different, mysterious, uncomfortable and challenging - anchored in a simply spectacular Cate Blanchett.
This film tackles both cancel culture and the fact that women in power could be just as awful as men in power.
It is a brave film.The ambiguous ending is one that's is open to interpretation.
A film I highly recommend. See it. You will not be disappointed.

 

[Jelenafan]

Top Gun Maverick is a fantastic film, I wish I’d seen it in the cinema! Very exciting, and lean too, no flashy emotionalism, typical Tom Cruise action stuff, one of his best, actually…

Kieran, I was team ICEMAN when the first film came out (ice in his veins...) and I just loved how they found a way to incorporate a visibly weak Val Kilmer into that role again, so cool.

 

[MargaretMcAleer]

Horsa,
If you are around I think you would enjoy the movie Tar, I think you like classical music, like myself, Lydia Tar, a fictional charater, played by Cate Blanchett, a conductor, is just brillant, I wont give too much away, I wont spoil it for you and others that have not seen the film as yet.

 

[Horsa]

Horsa,
If you are around I think you would enjoy the movie Tar, I think you like classical music, like myself, Lydia Tar, a fictional charater, played by Cate Blanchett, a conductor, is just brillant, I wont give too much away, I wont spoil it for you and others that have not seen the film as yet.

Thank you very much for the recommendation, Margaret. I do like some classical music. I will try to get chance to watch it when I have time. (I had a brilliant day in book-keeping today & sailed through a lot of work which was supposed to be taxing. I started flagging at the end though.) I've got to complete my computerised accounts course for work & then I've got work. (It's just 2 lots of homework as well as work is rather time-consuming.

 

[Kieran]

Just finished The Courier on Netflix. Spy thriller based on a true story. Benedict Cumberbatch stars, and many recognisable faces. It’s tight and tense. Great spy thrillers always are, and this one shows very well the risk and dangers involved…

 

[Jelenafan]

Something interesting happened in this years "Best actress" category of the Academy Awards

First of all, I think we can all acknowledge that these awards are full of politics, lobbying, pandering, campaigning, etc. since their inception and have no correlation to actual quality in many instances,
now THAT out of the way...

So per the awards season certain actresses names kept on coming back as the favorites to be on the Ocars nom list, especially Michelle Yeoh and Cate Blanchett, but also 2 Black actresses , Viola Davis (Woman King) and Danielle Deadwyler (Till). The usual being nominated for the SAG awards, the BAFTA's, etc, etc. In fact a lot of buzz in the media was how finally several women of color had a great chance to get nominated simultaneously.

A funny thing happened, an indie film called "To Leslie" with a small limited opening grossed about 27K, and the director's wife and his agent, who have an extensive network of contacts in the industry, orchestrated a grass roots campaign, though how much "grass roots" is still open to debate, to get Risebourgh, an English actress, who was the lead a nomination. The bottom line is within a matter of weeks, a film that was hardly mentioned in awards season got a buzz because alot of A celebrities started singing it praises, among them Cate Blanchett, Kate Winslet, Jennifer Aniston, Gwyneth Paltrow, Amy Adams, Jane Fonda, Edward Norton, Sarah Paulson, Helen Hunt, Susan Sarandon, Minnie Driver, the list goes on and on… and some of them did private screenings to show the film and apparently persuaded others to nominate her. Kate Winslet hosted a Q/A with the actress as did Amy Adams. Among these elites it became a cause celebre to get on Andrea's bandwagon. Cate Blanchett went so far as to mention Riseborough's name several times while accepting awards. Lets give credit, a very well organized campaign promoted by many Hollywood actors who pretentiously complain about the “contest” aspect of the award season.

One of the actresses literally instagramed, that since the 4 above mentioned actresses were a lock anyways, to put Andrea Riseborough 1st in their ballots (apparently you have ranking votes).

So when the nominations came out, Riseborough was in, and neither Viola Davis nor Danielle Deadwyler made the final cut. While it was not IMO racially motivated, I find it ironic that Hollywood Elites with their inside campaigning, (no doubt patting themselves on the back for discovering such a stellar performance in an obscure film) just emphasized again how elites have the connection and network to make things happen. Riseborough certainly wasn't the only reason the other actresses were left out, but it does show how some resources/networks are not open to all. The optics are not what some of these A listers would have wanted to see, but the privileged must use their privileges, LOL. Cannot imagine either Viola or Andrea were invited to these screening parties by these elite.

I saw Riseborough's performance and she's fine (the film is a jumble of cliches) but I'm so bummed Deadwyler's role as Emmett Till's mother was overlooked.

Oh well, again the Oscars are back to their consistent form.

 

[Kieran]

Something interesting happened in this years "Best actress" category of the Academy Awards

First of all, I think we can all acknowledge that these awards are full of politics, lobbying, pandering, campaigning, etc. since their inception and have no correlation to actual quality in many instances,
now THAT out of the way...

So per the awards season certain actresses names kept on coming back as the favorites to be on the Ocars nom list, especially Michelle Yeoh and Cate Blanchett, but also 2 Black actresses , Viola Davis (Woman King) and Danielle Deadwyler (Till). The usual being nominated for the SAG awards, the BAFTA's, etc, etc. In fact a lot of buzz in the media was how finally several women of color had a great chance to get nominated simultaneously.

A funny thing happened, an indie film called "To Leslie" with a small limited opening grossed about 27K, and the director's wife and his agent, who have an extensive network of contacts in the industry, orchestrated a grass roots campaign, though how much "grass roots" is still open to debate, to get Risebourgh, an English actress, who was the lead a nomination. The bottom line is within a matter of weeks, a film that was hardly mentioned in awards season got a buzz because alot of A celebrities started singing it praises, among them Cate Blanchett, Kate Winslet, Jennifer Aniston, Gwyneth Paltrow, Amy Adams, Jane Fonda, Edward Norton, Sarah Paulson, Helen Hunt, Susan Sarandon, Minnie Driver, the list goes on and on… and some of them did private screenings to show the film and apparently persuaded others to nominate her. Kate Winslet hosted a Q/A with the actress as did Amy Adams. Among these elites it became a cause celebre to get on Andrea's bandwagon. Cate Blanchett went so far as to mention Riseborough's name several times while accepting awards. Lets give credit, a very well organized campaign promoted by many Hollywood actors who pretentiously complain about the “contest” aspect of the award season.

One of the actresses literally instagramed, that since the 4 above mentioned actresses were a lock anyways, to put Andrea Riseborough 1st in their ballots (apparently you have ranking votes).

So when the nominations came out, Riseborough was in, and neither Viola Davis nor Danielle Deadwyler made the final cut. While it was not IMO racially motivated, I find it ironic that Hollywood Elites with their inside campaigning, (no doubt patting themselves on the back for discovering such a stellar performance in an obscure film) just emphasized again how elites have the connection and network to make things happen. Riseborough certainly wasn't the only reason the other actresses were left out, but it does show how some resources/networks are not open to all. The optics are not what some of these A listers would have wanted to see, but the privileged must use their privileges, LOL. Cannot imagine either Viola or Andrea were invited to these screening parties by these elite.

I saw Riseborough's performance and she's fine (the film is a jumble of cliches) but I'm so bummed Deadwyler's role as Emmett Till's mother was overlooked.

Oh well, again the Oscars are back to their consistent form.

Thanks for the backdrop on this. We discussed it briefly in the Serious PC thread from the perspective of race complaints, but she certainly seems to have been given a huge leg up by her pals. I think she’s a fine actress but haven’t seen the film. Ultimately though, I think they’re all probably campaigning, and so as you say, it has very little to do with quality. I love Viola Davis but I think her chances came a cropper when it was revealed that the African tribe they represented in the film were actually also African slave traders, selling people to the west.

I’m hoping the Irish girl Kerry Condron wins it, I think she was exceptional in The Banshees of Inisherin…

 

[MargaretMcAleer]

Seeing I had time on my hands yesterday afternoon I decided to watch back to back Batman films, the ones directed by Christopher Nolan.
Christian Bale is my favorite Batman, with some great actors in Michael Caine, and Morgan Freeman.Heath Ledger my favorite Joker. what a great performance, ( I loved him in Brokeback Mountain) sad he passed away too young.

 

[Kieran]

I watched Wrath of Man, the Guy Ritchie/Jason Statham team up for the first time in years. I watched it last Wednesday and was disappointed. I told my brother and he said it was brilliant. I said I didn’t get it, but I was tired at the time. He’s my older bro and so he told me to watch it again. And so I did last night. And he’s right!

Damn, I was too distracted first time, too impatient and tired. It’s a revenge flick. Scott Eastwood is in it, playing his daddy, more or less. A bizarro Clint. He can get the eyes right and you think it’s a Sergio Leone, but really, I doubt he’ll ever capture whatever it was that Clint could do on screen, in that same ideal way, but still, he was good. Josh Hartnett did a good turn. It’s dark and violent, moody music, some typical bleakly laconic Statham humour.

They teamed up again since, Ritchie/Statham/Hartnett for a spy flick, looks like a comedy. I’m in bed now, too lazy to IMDb it. This one, Wrath of Man, has a good rating on IMDb - an even better one now since I gave it an 8 last night…

 

[Kieran]

We’re just watched The Sea Beast on Netflix. It’s an animated movie, very entertaining, spectacular but I can’t help but dwell on its flaws, since they curdle the milk that began so tasty. Sea monster hunters go to war on a giant Red Sea beast. The Kingdom demands victory. The cap’n of the ship is brawny and wears an eye patch. He has a ship mate with a wooden leg. It imitates Jaws quite closely in the way they chase and fight the sea monsters. This bit is good.

SPOILER ALERT for the rest of it.

A young girl stows away on the monster hunters ship. She’s a black kid who eventually, after quite an exciting set of sequences, discovers that the history old Whitey has been selling needs to be decolonised. She SJW’s the rescue of the monster from the patriarchy. The scruffy crowd demands of the king and queen, “listen to the child!” The little black Greta-proxy overturns the order of things and then floats away on the back of the monster to a pastoral beach scene with the big red monster, a little cute blue monster and a token white male who’s been educated on his own badness.

The credits roll at the end…

 

[shawnbm]

I just finished watching Once Upon A Time ... in Hollywood by Quentin Tarantino. His 9th film it tells us. Quite colorful and like a time capsule, with a twist at the end of a well-known (true) story. I think it was better than I expected it to be--he subtly tells two or three stories at one time via the interaction of certain characters against a backdrop of Hollywood fare. Anybody here seen it? Liked or disliked it?

 

[MargaretMcAleer]

I just finished watching Once Upon A Time ... in Hollywood by Quentin Tarantino. His 9th film it tells us. Quite colorful and like a time capsule, with a twist at the end of a well-known (true) story. I think it was better than I expected it to be--he subtly tells two or three stories at one time via the interaction of certain characters against a backdrop of Hollywood fare. Anybody here seen it? Liked or disliked it?

Hi Shawn,
I loved the film and have watched it 3 times already, I am a big fan of Tarantino and I loved his spin on Once Upon a Time in Hollywood

 

[Kieran]

I just finished watching Once Upon A Time ... in Hollywood by Quentin Tarantino. His 9th film it tells us. Quite colorful and like a time capsule, with a twist at the end of a well-known (true) story. I think it was better than I expected it to be--he subtly tells two or three stories at one time via the interaction of certain characters against a backdrop of Hollywood fare. Anybody here seen it? Liked or disliked it?

Loved it too, Shawn and @MargaretMcAleer - I think he makes beautiful films, aesthetically, but there’s a great warmth to this one, the bromance between the two lead characters is fabulous, Al Pacino has a great turn, especially his first scenes in the bar. I like these alt-history endings, like he had in Inglourious Bastards too.

Tarantino seems keen to retire from making films, says he wants to go out at the top, but I don’t think he’s made any truly great films to be “at the top.” He needs something deeper and he might only gain that with age and experience. But he has a great strike rate of making good pop films, very stylishly and with his distinctive flavour in the scripts..

 

[don_fabio]

Just a few words on some of the movies that were commented here and that I watched recently:


Everything Everywhere All At Once
This movie is pretty unique. Original idea and I did like the final message it carried, but the movie is also messy. What a mixture of a genres too and a korean lead female actor was good as well, but the movie could be somewhat shorter 6.5/10

Wrath Of Man
Really good action flick. I hhink it is a remake of some french movie, but I'm too lazy to google it. 8/10.

Tar
I wish this movie went some other way. I was hoping to see something more like a Black Swan from Arronofsky, but instead got drama which I felt I have seen this one too many times before. Could have been more mystery like. Cate Blanchett played her role superbly and carried the whole movie on her shoulders with the 'Apartment for Sale' song being the the most hillarious part of the movie to me. Also those suits she wore the whole time were pretty slick. 6/10

The Menu
Here Anya Taylor Joy carries the movie, she is just eye capturing, feels like she dominates every scene she is in. I could watch any movie she is in, doesn't matter good or bad (Have anyone seen Last night in Soho?). Laugh on pretentious foodies in this one, but plot is messy and I wished it took other turns. I didn't particularly care about the other characters. That meal Anya character was served made me craving in an instant. 6/10

Banshees of Inisherin
Now this is my kind of movie. Simple plot one could say, but so much layer's within the whole friendship break up, metaphore for a civil war in Ireland too. I think the humor parts were hilarious, though it is in escence a serious movie. There's a lot of memorable funny quotes in the movie (''If I was to cut something off myself for every dull person that came in here, I'd only have my head left''), but there are some serious questions asked too (''Do you never get lonely, Podric?''). There are some really interesting characters apart from the main actors. That old grandma with a pipe foreseeing the death count was a good addition and the store lady sticking her nose everywhere she can and what about the priest when he starts implying that men can think of men in a sinful way? Loved the Irish accent too (inserting the word ''like'' at the end of the sentence, saying 'feking'' and a word ''dim'' for a stupid person). Well written and executed movie. 9/10


Hope I didn't spoil it by telling too much.

 

[MargaretMcAleer]

Just a few words on some of the movies that were commented here and that I watched recently:


Everything Everywhere All At Once
This movie is pretty unique. Original idea and I did like the final message it carried, but the movie is also messy. What a mixture of a genres too and a korean lead female actor was good as well, but the movie could be somewhat shorter 6.5/10

Wrath Of Man
Really good action flick. I hhink it is a remake of some french movie, but I'm too lazy to google it. 8/10.

Tar
I wish this movie went some other way. I was hoping to see something more like a Black Swan from Arronofsky, but instead got drama which I felt I have seen this one too many times before. Could have been more mystery like. Cate Blanchett played her role superbly and carried the whole movie on her shoulders with the 'Apartment for Sale' song being the the most hillarious part of the movie to me. Also those suits she wore the whole time were pretty slick. 6/10

The Menu
Here Anya Taylor Joy carries the movie, she is just eye capturing, feels like she dominates every scene she is in. I could watch any movie she is in, doesn't matter good or bad (Have anyone seen Last night in Soho?). Laugh on pretentious foodies in this one, but plot is messy and I wished it took other turns. I didn't particularly care about the other characters. That meal Anya character was served made me craving in an instant. 6/10

Banshees of Inisherin
Now this is my kind of movie. Simple plot one could say, but so much layer's within the whole friendship break up, metaphore for a civil war in Ireland too. I think the humor parts were hilarious, though it is in escence a serious movie. There's a lot of memorable funny quotes in the movie (''If I was to cut something off myself for every dull person that came in here, I'd only have my head left''), but there are some serious questions asked too (''Do you never get lonely, Podric?''). There are some really interesting characters apart from the main actors. That old grandma with a pipe foreseeing the death count was a good addition and the store lady sticking her nose everywhere she can and what about the priest when he starts implying that men can think of men in a sinful way? Loved the Irish accent too (inserting the word ''like'' at the end of the sentence, saying 'feking'' and a word ''dim'' for a stupid person). Well written and executed movie. 9/10


Hope I didn't spoil it by telling too much.

I really enjoyed Tar, even though it was a long movie, it had my attention from the start to the finish, in ways it was a 'dark movie', I feel the character was made for Cate Blanchett she was outstanding.
I missed the Menu, I hope to catch it on Netflix or Stan
My husband and I really enjoyed 'Banchees of Inisherin, agree with was well written and executed.

 

[don_fabio]

I really enjoyed Tar, even though it was a long movie, it had my attention from the start to the finish, in ways it was a 'dark movie', I feel the character was made for Cate Blanchett she was outstanding.

Yeah she was amazing. Maybe I just don't care enough about classical music, I caught myself at times not knowing what are they discussing really, which conductors and composers. I like the sound of the word conductor used in a musical sense much more than when it's used for electrical purposes. It sounds boring then, but when a person is a conductor it sounds so powerful. Does that make any sense?

 

[MargaretMcAleer]

Yeah she was amazing. Maybe I just don't care enough about classical music, I caught myself at times not knowing what are they discussing really, which conductors and composers. I like the sound of the word conductor used in a musical sense much more than when it's used for electrical purposes. It sounds boring then, but when a person is a conductor it sounds so powerful. Does that make any sense?

I take your point regarding classical music, it is not everyones 'cup of tea' I personally love classical music., you are a electrical engineer arent you lol!, so I understand your comparison using a conductor, agree a conductor of a symphony does have the position of power.

 

[don_fabio]

Watched this classic today for the first time. Just reading about it now and I can see why it was received with mixed feelings in 1958 and claimed to be too long and lacking mystery-thriller of his previous movies. I really liked the ending (and the last 3rd of the movie too) and how it was left for the audience to talk about it and make conclusions of their own. Over the decades this movie climbed on critic's list a lot and is now regarded as one of the best ever made, but critics have their own way of measuring what is better and what not. I only watched 2 of his other movies, Rear Window and The Psycho and felt both of those were better than this one. His movies are sometimes shown on a national TV as a tribute to his work. I think I've seen some bits of ''The Birds'' and ''North by Northwest'' and probably some others, but his movies seem to be always in some odd hours/days on a TV and it's hard to engage to watch it whole. I think I will download more of his work and see it when it suits me.

 

[Federberg]

It’s almost like Chris Rock was calling him a bitch!

 

[Kieran]

Watched a few good films this week, including one great film, starring Jason statham. The Bank Job is based on a true story, a bank heist in London in 1971. It was written by Dick Clement and Ian LeFrenais, who a lot of people here might remember writing popular British TV shows like Porridge, Auf Wiedersehen Pet, Lovejoy, The Likely Lads and others. The Bank Job is tough, lean and pacey, and per usual, Statham is well cast as the villain who is also the hero who has to make things right. The rest of the cast is excellent, including Keeley Hawes, Saffron Burrows, David Suchet and Daniel Mays.

The American stars Clooney, no first name necessary. It shares a lot in common with the third film I watched - Drive, starring Ryan Gosling (second name necessary). Both are beautifully sluggishly paced, filmed with great panache, particularly The American, which has a photographic quality to the direction, which is apt, given that the director Anton Corbijn is such an accomplished photographer, and the main performances by George Clooney and Ryan Gosling are fairly strong, Gosling in particular, who has mastered the art of making expressionlessness very expressive. Both are men trying to avoid trouble that is a consequence of their choices and business, and both films end similarly, but I think Drive gets it right, in understanding which way to end a film like this is most satisfying for the viewer.

For this viewer, anyway.

Spoiler: The End

In both films the protagonist faces a life or death battle with the chief baddie. They both win their battles but are injured. In the Clooney film, I think they got it wrong by having him die just as he's reunited with his lover. Gosling lives, though wounded.