I kept thinking that this is very similar to Cabin in the Woods.
I kept thinking that this is very similar to Cabin in the Woods.
Movie Theater DiaryQuoting Donald Glover
lol
Midnight Run (1988) - 9
The Smiling Lieutenant (1931) - 8.5
The Adventures of Robinhood (1938) - 8
Sisters (1973) - 6.5
Shin Godzilla (2016) - 7.5
I don't get it.
Well, you see, old boy, the image presented is that of an audition scene taken from a gory horror movie, accompanied here by a text from a song number staged during a similarly framed audition scene from a romantic musical film, thus producing the effect of internet humor through the juxtaposition of two disparate genres.
Movie Theater DiaryQuoting Donald Glover
Almost perfect explanation. My corrections in bold.Quoting number8 (view post)
Last 10 Movies Seen
(90+ = canonical, 80-89 = brilliant, 70-79 = strongly recommended, 60-69 = good, 50-59 = mixed, 40-49 = below average with some good points, 30-39 = poor, 20-29 = bad, 10-19 = terrible, 0-9 = soul-crushingly inept in every way)
Run (2020) 64
The Whistlers (2019) 55
Pawn (2020) 62
Matilda (1996) 37
The Town that Dreaded Sundown (1976) 61
Moby Dick (2011) 50
Soul (2020) 64
Heroic Duo (2003) 55
A Moment of Romance (1990) 61
As Tears Go By (1988) 65
Stuff at Letterboxd
Listening Habits at LastFM
The tweeter in question also fairly disliked La La Land, so I am amused by the glibness of dismissing "Audition" in favor of this Audition (and courtesy of Aloha, this also feeds bit into "Emma Stone is Asian" meme that was very frequent for a while). Now that I typed all that I just realize this is maybe a bit too Film Twitter thing.
Last edited by Peng; 01-03-2017 at 09:36 AM.
Midnight Run (1988) - 9
The Smiling Lieutenant (1931) - 8.5
The Adventures of Robinhood (1938) - 8
Sisters (1973) - 6.5
Shin Godzilla (2016) - 7.5
Really wanted to love this, but man, Spinal is right. This made just think of better movies it borrowed from. After the opening number, the movie was almost afraid to be a full-blown musical. Outside of the wonderful dance to the LA sunrise, there really isn't any memorable choreography in this film. Anyone who has seen a Hollywood musical from the 60's can guess this movie's outcome a mile away. I don't dislike it and I can see why young people are gobbling it up. It's rare to have a modern Hollywood musical not based on a Broadway play, but there's better movies about music and Hollywood out there (see Sing Street and Hail Caesar!)
Sure why not?
STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI (Rian Johnson) - 9
STRONGER (David Gordon Green) - 6
THE DISASTER ARTIST (James Franco) - 7
THE FLORIDA PROJECT (Sean Baker) - 9
LADY BIRD (Greta Gerwig) - 8
"Hitchcock is really bad at suspense."
- Stay Puft
Also, this is some weak ass love letter to LA. I feel like Chazelle is showing what most people think LA is about (traffic! gluten-free! horrible bosses! anal casting directors!)
Sure why not?
STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI (Rian Johnson) - 9
STRONGER (David Gordon Green) - 6
THE DISASTER ARTIST (James Franco) - 7
THE FLORIDA PROJECT (Sean Baker) - 9
LADY BIRD (Greta Gerwig) - 8
"Hitchcock is really bad at suspense."
- Stay Puft
Sure, but he also shined a light on a part the art scene in LA, and I hadn't been exposed to that before in media. Every mural and building exterior the characters walked in front of during outdoor scenes was flat-out gorgeous.Quoting Watashi (view post)
Last Five Films I've Seen (Out of 5)
The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and the Horse (Mackesy, 2022) 4.5
Puss In Boots: The Last Wish (Crawford, 2022) 4
Confess, Fletch (Mottola, 2022) 3.5
M3GAN (Johnstone, 2023) 3.5
Turning Red (Shi, 2022) 4.5
Tokyo Story (Ozu, 1953) 5
615 Film
Letterboxd
This was a Coca Cola commercial version of a classic musical.
I keep trying to write another post that elaborates on this, but there's really nothing more to it than that. This endeared itself to my familiarity of Hollywood musicals and French musicals (which I actually think is the bigger influence here) almost the exact same way CITW played with horror.Quoting number8 (view post)
Movie Theater DiaryQuoting Donald Glover
Yeah, I keep considering to ask you to expand on this, since I think I know what you're getting at, but I wanted to wait until I saw it a third time before I came back to confidently back such ideas up (since it's now been 4 months since I last it).Quoting number8 (view post)
Last 11 things I really enjoyed:
Speed Racer (Wachowski/Wachowski, 2008)
Safe (Haynes, 1995)
South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut (Parker, 1999)
Beastie Boys Story (Jonze, 2020)
Bad Trip (Sakurai, 2020)
What's Up Doc? (Bogdanovich, 1972)
Diva (Beineix, 1981)
Delicatessen (Caro/Jeunet, 1991)
The Hunger (Scott, 1983)
Pineapple Express (Green, 2008)
Chungking Express (Wong, 1994)
Really disliked the opening two musical numbers. Why was the freeway dance number shot so tightly? What should have been a big, sunny, open scene felt cramped.
Also strongly disliked the ending. []
Mildly disliked how it avoided showing us any of Stone's character's work, whether the one-woman play or her big successes.
Really liked everything else. It's light, colorful, airy and endearing. It's a great ode to romance and the Hollywood dream. The flights of fancy were delightful---the silhouetted dance across the stars, the montage of their lives that could have been[]---and Gosling and Stone were very charming.
(Context: I came to this as someone with no affection for classical musicals. Except those by Busby Berkely.)
Last edited by Melville; 01-14-2017 at 08:07 PM.
I am impatient of all misery in others that is not mad. Thou should'st go mad, blacksmith; say, why dost thou not go mad? How can'st thou endure without being mad? Do the heavens yet hate thee, that thou can'st not go mad?
lists and reviews
Ratings on a 1-10 scale for your pleasure:
Top Gun: Maverick - 8
Top Gun - 7
McCabe & Mrs. Miller - 8
Crimes of the Future - 8
Videodrome - 9
Valley Girl - 8
Summer of '42 - 7
In the Line of Fire - 8
Passenger 57 - 7
Everything Everywhere All at Once - 6
As a direct follow-up to my post on the effectiveness of music in movies (found here, in case you missed it), I take a look at the effectiveness of the music in La La Land, pretty much going down the line and breaking down in-depth why each piece of music in La La Land is absolutely brilliant in its inclusion and execution, and what it all brings to the full package as a whole for the film, for those who might be interested. http://cwiddop.blogspot.com/2017/02/...a-la-land.html
This is playing in IMAX this week, so I took the opportunity to see it again.
Once is more than enough for a lifetime
Last 10 Movies Seen
(90+ = canonical, 80-89 = brilliant, 70-79 = strongly recommended, 60-69 = good, 50-59 = mixed, 40-49 = below average with some good points, 30-39 = poor, 20-29 = bad, 10-19 = terrible, 0-9 = soul-crushingly inept in every way)
Run (2020) 64
The Whistlers (2019) 55
Pawn (2020) 62
Matilda (1996) 37
The Town that Dreaded Sundown (1976) 61
Moby Dick (2011) 50
Soul (2020) 64
Heroic Duo (2003) 55
A Moment of Romance (1990) 61
As Tears Go By (1988) 65
Stuff at Letterboxd
Listening Habits at LastFM
I really didn't like this. I felt it would have been better if it had taken place in the 80s. I feel like characters should I always play to the height of their intelligence and if you have a smart phone which they clearly gave you at the beginning, made sure to show it was cracked. Why can't they search the internet? How bad of a relationship is it if while at dinner the guy runs into john legend and they're awkward. He says he's an old musician he used to know. But suddenly he's playing with him and the movie even shows them doing interviews on youtube and then the girlfriend sees him playing synths for the first time at the concert? Seriously? Never at any point did she in this whole time look on youtube? Even though the movie showed us youtube she just didn't look up the person her boyfriend was working with and they never had a conversation about this stuff? Of course they're going to have a break up fight, they clearly don't talk in the first place.
"Will you come to Boise with me?"
"No, but you know what we could do since we have smart phones, we could Skype! Whoa, problem solved. No need to have our fight we're destined to have."
Then there's the what if ending. So you mean to tell me, if he had kissed her in the bar after getting fired, a girl he's never met except flipped her off earlier that morning than he would not only fulfill his dream of being a bar owner but also her dreams and they'd live happily ever after! Of course! Kiss random women!
I love musicals. This musical made me mad.
The ending really is manipulative and hollow. In reality, Gosling owns a club and Stone is famous, so the only things that her self-indulgent reinvention really changes is that (a) Gosling defaults to her opinion about what is valid artistic expression (i.e., he doesn't play in a band that uses synths [OMG!]) and (b) everyone recognizes her genius from the start, rather than later.Quoting Thirdmango (view post)
Such bullshit.
Last 10 Movies Seen
(90+ = canonical, 80-89 = brilliant, 70-79 = strongly recommended, 60-69 = good, 50-59 = mixed, 40-49 = below average with some good points, 30-39 = poor, 20-29 = bad, 10-19 = terrible, 0-9 = soul-crushingly inept in every way)
Run (2020) 64
The Whistlers (2019) 55
Pawn (2020) 62
Matilda (1996) 37
The Town that Dreaded Sundown (1976) 61
Moby Dick (2011) 50
Soul (2020) 64
Heroic Duo (2003) 55
A Moment of Romance (1990) 61
As Tears Go By (1988) 65
Stuff at Letterboxd
Listening Habits at LastFM
Read the first post in here. My reaction: How dare you compare this to Singing in the Rain on any level. Even if it's implied to be expected.Quoting Ezee E (view post)
I don't get your criticism. The fact that the fantasy doesn't change the career trajectory was the point. The fantasy is strictly about their romance, which was implied to be the sacrifice they made so they could achieve those dreams that they were previously compromising in order to be a good romantic partner. The reason I found it incredibly moving was because they both acknowledged their respective real life happiness that they achieved through selfishness, but shared that brief moment fantasizing movie happiness where things are easier and what they wanted for themselves isn't in conflict with what they wanted for each other.Quoting transmogrifier (view post)
Movie Theater DiaryQuoting Donald Glover
(a) it wasn't a shared fantasy at the end, it was hers aloneQuoting number8 (view post)
(b) the actual romance that is mythologized amounts to basically 5 minutes of montage in the middle of a series of meet cutes and some atrociously conceived conflicts
(c) the movie shies away from what that sacrifice actually was with the "Five years later" convenience. She had to sacrifice the relationship so she could sleep with someone in Paris? He had to sacrifice the relationship because synthesizers don't play themselves? Or did the romance just naturally fizzle because that's what they do sometimes? Who knows, because Chazelle wants to have his cake and eat it too; it's important to keep the characters spotless in order for the forced ending to work.
Last 10 Movies Seen
(90+ = canonical, 80-89 = brilliant, 70-79 = strongly recommended, 60-69 = good, 50-59 = mixed, 40-49 = below average with some good points, 30-39 = poor, 20-29 = bad, 10-19 = terrible, 0-9 = soul-crushingly inept in every way)
Run (2020) 64
The Whistlers (2019) 55
Pawn (2020) 62
Matilda (1996) 37
The Town that Dreaded Sundown (1976) 61
Moby Dick (2011) 50
Soul (2020) 64
Heroic Duo (2003) 55
A Moment of Romance (1990) 61
As Tears Go By (1988) 65
Stuff at Letterboxd
Listening Habits at LastFM
Gosling and Stone are charming as fuck. Gosling, once again in 2016, proves he has excellent comedic timing. And Stone is just an overall great actress. However, the dance numbers DO NOT hold up with other musicals. In fact, this was barely a musical. More apt description is: a film with music. The Gosling/Stone tap dance duo was a little sad. I realize it's 2016, and Hollywood is focused primarily on super heroes, but you cannot force new dogs to do old trickss. That being said, the story is absolutely fine. It's fun. It's simple. It's sad! The opening one shot is perfection with direction. The music was a let down.
I want this to win best picture. I haven't felt this joyful and exuberant after seeing a movie since I don't remember fucking when!!
[+] closer to next rating / [-] closer to previous rating
- Dark (S3) ✦✦✦½ [-]
- Fall (Mann, 2022) ✦✦✦½ [-]
- Ms. Marvel (S1) ✦½ [+]
- Dark (S2) ✦✦✦✦
- Moon Knight (S1) ✦✦½ [-]
- Get Carter (Hodges, 1971) ✦✦✦½ [+]
- Prey (Trachtenberg, 2022) ✦✦✦ [-]
- Black Bird (S1) ✦✦✦✦
- Better Call Saul (S6) ✦✦✦½ [+]
- Halo (S1) ✦✦✦ [-]
- Slow Horses (S1) ✦✦✦½ [+]
- H4Z4RD (Govaerts, 2022/BE) ✦✦½ [-]
- Gangs of London (S1) ✦✦✦½ [+]
- We Own This City (S1) ✦✦✦½ [+]
- Thor: Love and Thunder (Waititi, 2022) ✦✦ [+]
This doesn't deserve best picture.