Vice was also great. *shrug*
Vice was also great. *shrug*
The perceived "villains" of this year's Best Pics slate (Joker and Jojo Rabbit) are way ahead of last year's (Green Book, Bohemian Rhapsody, and Vice), so that's already an improvement. Then the top crop just can't compare, definitely a big step up this year, no matter how disappointing the individual nominations below them are.
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
Scarlett isn't good in Jojo. She's GREAT in Marriage Story, and has been on a path to a nomination for 16-17ish years. The wide leg pants in both movies sealed the deal. I'm glad she's nominated despite being a jackass and I don't think she'll win, BUT just glad it happened for her, finally.
I love the film and I think the screenplay is great, but I'd like to see Parasite take it.Quoting baby doll (view post)
I don't agree. Its like comparing dog shit with deer shit. They all stink and stick to my shoe.Quoting Peng (view post)
Last edited by Mal; 01-15-2020 at 02:47 AM.
If Joker is pain by numbers, what's the MCU???
Ba-Dum-TISCH!
Joker spends 80% of its run time posturing -- stealing its tone wholesale from Taxi Driver and The King of Comedy -- for no reason but to manipulate you into believing it's doing something important. At least Marvel created the template it’s repeating and has no pretensions about what it’s producing. Joker is also hallow entertainment; it’s just masquerading as prestige with a camera beholden to Phoenix’s unspecific looniness.
None of the main character’s feeble tics leads you into the final sequence of menace, except at the most superficial level (disbturbed man does a crazy thing). It is artless to me, because Phillips is appropriating the 70's "cinema" tone as an end in itself, not to reveal anything about his character or his story. To me, they could've portrayed Phoenix's character a 100 different shades of crazy, told a dozen different “deranged man” stories, and the ending still would've made complete sense.
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
I've only seen Match Point when it came out and I never liked it. Cassandra's Dream, though, which deals with similar themes, now that's a good movie.
As for Joker, I liked it, but I'm more interested in the cultural phenomenon it became. Whenever we film buffs dismiss a film that already surprised people and amassed a cult, it's clear to me which party is missing out on the meat and bones of the picture. Joker wasn't just its marketing - it grew huge by word of mouth.
I've never been persuaded by the argument that, just because a film becomes a grassroots "cultural phenomenon," said film must have something going for it aesthetically. Sometimes shitty movies are "spontaneously" popular with stupid people who have shitty taste in movies. Bohemian Rhapsody was so popular in Japan, some multiplexes were playing it on every screen. That doesn't mean it's a good film or that it's popularity reveals some profound insight into Japanese society circa 2018. What it reveals is that most people have unadventurous tastes in music and film and prefer what's familiar and easy to what's new and challenging.
Just because...
The Fabelmans (Steven Spielberg, 2022) mild
Petite maman (Céline Sciamma, 2021) mild
The Banshees of Inisherin (Martin McDonagh, 2022) mild
The last book I read was...
The Complete Short Stories by Mark Twain
The (New) World
Queen is the worst. Goddamn I hate their music.
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
Over the holidays I had kind of an epiphany about the popularity of their music. I was listening to a 70s-80s-90s radio station in the car, and "We Will Rock You" Came Up. The music and lyrics are so simple that my seven-year-old niece, who hadn't heard it before, was already singing along to it by the end of the song. This utterly simplicity is what makes their music perfect for large communal events (outdoor concerts, sporting events, etc.), and probably contributed to the popularity of Bohemian Rhapsody as a theatrical event. (The same could also be said for A Star Is Born, since most of the people who went to see it had probably already heard "Shallow.") I suspect that the relatively disappointing box office numbers for Rocketman--which made less than half as much money in North America as Bohemian Rhapsody despite being by all accounts a better, more competent film--have something to do with the relative sophistication of Elton John's music.Quoting transmogrifier (view post)
Just because...
The Fabelmans (Steven Spielberg, 2022) mild
Petite maman (Céline Sciamma, 2021) mild
The Banshees of Inisherin (Martin McDonagh, 2022) mild
The last book I read was...
The Complete Short Stories by Mark Twain
The (New) World
You guys must be a riot to hang arond.
And yeah, Rocketman was better than Bohemian Rhapsody... but that's a really low bar for any movie.
Queen is you line in the sand for whether someone is worth hanging out with? Queen?Quoting Grouchy (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
I think Rocketman being surrounded by a group of summer movies, and basically feeling like an encore to Bohemian Rhapsody was part of the problem.Quoting baby doll (view post)
But yeah, loved me some of the Queen hits when I was a kid.
Hell I love Queen whenever I see a Dr Pepper commercial.
I, too, hate Queen. But I also recognize the musical talent of the members.
I love Queen. The movie was decent/solid at best but the band rocks.
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?
I don't think I'm ever bothered when people hate bands. I just don't care. Not all music is for all people. I dig Queen. I hate Rush. I dig Led Zepplin despite most of their riffs are stolen and he sings like a wolverine has attached its fangs to his taint. I like Korn. I like latin music. I like orchestra music. I like Doris Day. I like some emo. I despise some emo.
I don't believe a things popularity, or lack their of, intrinsically determines its quality.
And baby doll throwing out that sometimes people liking a thing makes it popular means they have shitty taste in film...as though thats a definable, factual thing. Sure, some people do have a shitty taste in movies, otherwise the Asylum wouldn't exist. Sometimes, critics love an unpopular movie because its different, but just because a thing is different doesn't automatically make it good. Critics can be jaded sometimes because all they do is watch movies. I'm not saying they can't have their opinion, like what you want. But getting pissy with the audience and insulting them is lame.
I've been so depressed lately that listening to Joy Division cheers me up. (wait what thread is this again ...?)
Anyway I will always love Queen because of this gloriously cheesy shit.
I'm not genuinely upset that three people in this forum don't like Queen. I do wonder what other wonderful stuff they dislike. Sunshine? Air? Life? But seriously, I, like you, have a varied taste in music and people sometimes do get outraged that I can appreciate, I dunno, a Schubert string quartet and Shakira.Quoting Skitch (view post)
This is my playlist if you really want to know how eclectic my taste in music can be - https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4f...RmCJPu9Ly43Wmw
Anyway, I'm aware Bohemian Rhapsody made tons of money while being a shit movie but I think it was one of those surprise hits that don't really have staying power. I know a lot of people IRL who liked it but they weren't passionate about it - Joker fans are very passionate. And the plot twist is that very few of them seem to be potential mass murderers.
Last edited by Grouchy; 01-16-2020 at 10:24 PM.
I will always love Queen because Freddy Mercury is, hands down, the greatest live performer of all time. The closest one I can think of who is still alive would be Rob Halford.
^ Double anyway, I like it when people take hard and fast stances on old bands. I grinned when I read trans' post.
Hard and fast? Dude, I've suffered a lifetime of Queen. This is an opinion chiseled in stone!
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
*opens playlists*Quoting Grouchy (view post)
*first song is by UB40*
*closes playlist*
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
That's not the point I was trying to make. My point was that the fact of a film being popular isn't in itself significant, contrary to Grouchy's claim that cinephiles who dismiss Joker must be missing something essential about the film. Sometimes films are popular for uninteresting reasons despite being bad.Quoting Skitch (view post)
Just because...
The Fabelmans (Steven Spielberg, 2022) mild
Petite maman (Céline Sciamma, 2021) mild
The Banshees of Inisherin (Martin McDonagh, 2022) mild
The last book I read was...
The Complete Short Stories by Mark Twain
The (New) World
Papa Roach?