A triumph for Baumbach as a writer and director throughout. Bittersweet, lovely, and frustrating like any relationship can be. Driver and Johansson are tremendous- in fact, everyone around them is doing spectacular work with their parts large and small. I got so much joy out of so much hurt!
Baumbach's approach feels reflected in Randy Newman's score, evocative of his Pixar works. The soft tinkle seems counterintuitive at first, but then as the film progresses and the venom increases, it works in concert with how the couple's still-there intimacy keeps coming back in gentle, mostly unconscious moments, a shadow of past marriage that is never drown out by their divorce proceedings' bitterness. Will need a second watch to determine if I can reconcile the perception of this being a mostly balanced look (in term of reasons and perspectives) insides a relationship's dissolution, with my unsatisfied feeling of Nicole receding from the focus as the film goes on. Nevertheless, not as tidy as I'd heard from some corners, and a tremendously affecting, lacerating work. 9/10
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
Baumbach is great when he's focused and guilty and has something to say. (Otherwise he crawls up his own ass an becomes pretentious.)
I found this effective and brutal, save the last 20 or 30 minutes where some scenes felt over-written and forced, eg: Dern's monologue about the Virgin Mary, Driver singing in the restaurant.
The resolution happens a little too easily and occurs mostly (?) offscreen, which I thought was an odd choice.
But on the whole a really great film and makes the cinematic year a little brighter.
I thought this was pretty masterfully done by the involved parties. For me, it's far and away the best thing Baumbach has done to date. I've enjoyed several of his movies, but this is the first one that really feels like a complete success.
letterboxd.
A Star is Born (2018) **1/2
Unforgiven (1992) ***1/2
The Sisters Brothers (2018) **
Crazy Rich Asians (2018) ***
The Informant! (2009) ***1/2
BlacKkKlansman (2018) ***1/2
Sorry to Bother You (2018) **1/2
Eighth Grade (2018) ***
Mission Impossible: Fallout (2018) ***
Ant-Man and The Wasp (2018) **1/2
And the Academy Award goes to.... Adam Driver.
It won't though.Quoting Dukefrukem (view post)
I still need to see Jonathan Pryce but who do you think is the front runner?Quoting Ezee E (view post)
I’d say Phoenix looks like the front runner at this point.Quoting Dukefrukem (view post)
Think Joaquin has it in the bag.Quoting Dukefrukem (view post)
Any other year, sure. If JP doesn't win, it will be considered a huge surprise / snub. My top five 2019 lead acting perfs incidentally are ...Quoting Dukefrukem (view post)
Leo DiCaprio - OUATIH
Adam Driver - Marriage Story
Paul Walter Hauser - Richard Jewell
Robert De Niro - The Irishman
August Diehl - A Hidden Life
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
I'm with you on Leo as performer of the year. I think we talked about it in the thread, but that scene with timothy olyphant was the best scene he's ever done. BUt the academy won't give it to him.Quoting Pop Trash (view post)
I really hope Tarantino follows through with the idea of filming five episodes of Bounty Law.Quoting Dukefrukem (view post)
That's happening! Just announced this weekend!Quoting Ezee E (view post)
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
Holy shit really? wtf? Why didn't i see this??
The best source I could find was IGN and UK Esquire, which doesn't have me totally confident that it's official yet, but looks like he wants to do a 5-part TV show for Netflix, with or without DiCaprio, because of how much plot he could do in a short time-frame.Quoting Dukefrukem (view post)
I think something like this would be a nice transition into whatever his "tenth" movie ends up being.
I do wonder if he'll actually come through with his play as well.
I watched this tonight. Based on this I want to see the rest of Baumbach's work. The leads were fantastic and yey for Laura Dern and Alan Alda. The apartment scene is rather harsh, that's for sure.
BLOG
And everybody wants to be special here
They call your name out loud and clear
Here comes a regular
Call out your name
Here comes a regular
Am I the only one here today?
Baumbach ranked!
1. Marriage Story
2. Kicking and Screaming
3. The Squid and the Whale
4. Frances Ha
5. The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected)
6. Mistress America
7. Greenberg
8. De Palma
9. Margot at the Wedding
10. While We're Young
last four:
black widow - 8
zero dark thirty - 9
the muse - 7
freaky - 7
now reading:
lonesome dove - larry mcmurtry
Letterboxd
The Harrison Marathon - A Podcast About Harrison Ford
I've seen 7.
1. Marriage Story - 9/10
2. Frances Ha - 8.5/10 (mightttt get to #1 on rewatch)
3. Mistress America - 8/10
4. The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected) - 7.5/10
5. While We're Young - 6.5/10
6. The Squid and the Whale (watched too long ago for a rating)
7. Kicking and Screaming - 5/10
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
Kicking and Screaming is so bad.
It appears I'm the only one unimpressed by this one. The performances are fine and I bet many details must be true to life to movie watchers that underwent a divorce (I know the lawyer played by Alda has the mannerisms and speech pattern of my own lawyer grandfather, and they don't even share the same language or cultural environment) but there is nothing here that hasn't been said many times before in better films, even by Baumbach himself, and the movie keeps insisting on giving a balanced account of each spouse (this is even reflected on the marketing) while Driver gets A LOT more screentime than Johansson. I think it's fine, though, just massively overrated by critics and apparently audiences here on Mathcut. I did like Laura Dern as an evil bitch, that's a type of role she hasn't done before to my knowledge and she's great at it.