DDL won an Oscar for doing a dead on imitation of Lincoln and he wasn't even an actor!

I will try writing more movie reviews ITT. The first one is for a movie I've seen last Sunday - Lady Bird. I didn't know anything about this movie, aside from one line synopsis and that it had a lot of positive reviews.

Right from the opening scene with the car, I knew that the movie was trying too hard. Yeah, it was a cool scene, but there is no way, what is seemingly a movie about an ordinary girl growing up, can keep up with that scene. And it didn't. The movie was low key, quirky, somewhat whimsical but unfortunately a little irrelevant as well. For one, it was a little hard to accept the main actress as a teen girl trying to find her place in the world. She was just too comfortable in her own skin for it and it wasn't easy to accept her going through all her different tribulations.

And that is also because, this movie was riddled with cliches. Whether its sexuality, family drama, friendship, work, etc... this movie is filled with so many different cookie cut vignettes, scenes and tiny different sub plots, then it fails to flesh anything truly meaningful out of them. Sure, some scenes and characters find a way to relate to you, but others just seems forced and disconnected from the overall story. Like for example B

John Wick: Chapter 2

7/10

I liked the first one but it had, what I felt, was a good mix of grit and and low rent glitz. Wick being impeccably dressed but going after some 3rd rate gangsters like they awoke the boogeyman. This one was all glitz. Suddenly there's an assassins aristocracy, there's assassins on every corner, Wick is essentially a super hero with his bullet proof silk suit, and Wick is doubling New York's murder rate in public without a cop or anyone really in sight. Him and Common casually trading silenced pistol shots in public while walking in parallel is silly.

Id recommend it for a good hangover movie though.

Most of your review sounds right, but the 7 should be a 2 or a 3. If hangovers lead to this, it's time for AA.

No, he did a great job imitating Tommy Wiseau, but it wasn't necessarily a great acting performance. And yes, I think there's a difference between merely imitating another person's voice and style, and giving a tour de force acting performance as that person. Jim Carrey did both in his performance as Andy Kaufman in Man on the Moon. A current example would be Gary Oldman as Winston Churchill in Darkest Hour.

I see your point.

Watched One From the Heart again today. God, I know why this movie flopped, but I still love it. Tom Waits's score and his voice, along with Crystal Gayle's, is enough for me.

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To answer this properly, I'll have to load all these films into short-term memory and go over them more carefully. I think there is a continuity between the two Chows -- a sort of inexplicable arrogance that is tragic. I'm going to throw in Tony's portrayal of #663 in Chungking Express as having a similar affliction, although he shows signs of snapping out of it.

Let me think more on it.

I've always really liked One From the Heart; in fact, it was one of the first movies I ever purchased (on Betamax of course, lol). It's interesting that you bring this movie up during an ongoing discussion of whether BR2049 is a bomb. Of course, there can be no debate about One From the Heart. It cost an estimated $26M to make, had a total box office of $636k, and forced Francis Ford Coppola to declare bankruptcy.

Watched Get Out. Don't get all the praise. Pretty serviceable genre movie I guess, but Best Picture? Best Actor? Come on. It was a very silly premise and there was little suspense. A few laughs and some good social commentary but not the slightest bit scary.

2017 Best Flicks

I went to a lot of great flicks last year. Unfortunately, only a couple of them were 2017 releases, most were revivals.

One great movie I saw for the first time was 2008's Chocolate. I didn't even know this film existed. It had an interesting premise and interesting stars, but one thing that made it so enjoyable for me was the lack of CGI. A vast majority of the action was the work of the actors, the stunt people and the cinematographers. If you want to see good slum-kids-battle-it-out chop-socky, try to see Chocolate.

The best film released in 2017 (in the People's Republic of Texas), was the Japanese anime, In This Corner of the World. It tells the story of village life before and during WWII. I liked it for its slow, deliberately paced storytelling. I recommend this only to someone in the mood to watch and listen to a tale unfold. It might be a little to strange and foreign for the casual viewer.

Here's my top 20:

That's the first time I've heard of In This Corner of the World. Looking forward to watching it.

Well, its nominated for best comedy at the Golden Globes so they agree.

Watched Florida Project and really liked it. Having grown up in cheap hotels/motels in Orlando I got a ton of flashbacks from watching this movie. Willem Dafoe is superb as the motel manager and should up for an Oscar for his role. All the kids, especially Monie were great as well. The movie is funny and touching and shows the absurdity of poor people living on the outskirts of of Disney World.

With all that being said, I think I liked the concept of the ending just didn't like the execution.

La collectionneuse - pretty standard early Eric Rohmer film. Three people stay at a house for some time in the summer. One is an artist, one is a sophisticated doctor and one is a pretty, loose, young girl. Most of the movie is filled with mundane scenes and banal dialogue. While the viewer is trying to figure out what exactly is the nature of interest of each character in the others and how they truly feel. Rohmer succeeds turning peoples feelings into a mystery and makes the whole movie captivating to watch. Often times the characters themselves don't know how they truly feel, which makes Rohmer's movies oh so realistic. Every time I watch his movies I become aware and amazed at how different his movies are from anything else and yet how successful Rohmer's movie language is. B++


The Accused - Late forties thriller directed by the skilled William Dieterle. I saw this movie before and unfortunately it wasn't as good on the second viewing. Dieterle's direction is masterful. The atmosphere is perfect for this murder mystery about a paranoid, nervous professor. However, the story was a little bit light. There wasn't much build up or misdirection and some of the psychobabble was very dated. Still entertaining. B+

"I saw a Rohmer film once. It was kind of like watching paint dry."

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1hr into Florida project and have no desire to continue... Ugh.

Hated tangerine too, though.

Fiancée made me finish, would not recommend!

WD for best actor is a hilarious prospect. He was fine... Nothing memorable about him or the movie for me

Last Jedi

Warning: This is only the second Star Wars flick I've seen. I may have had some trouble figuring out who the characters were, but eventually got it all straight.

Opening title crawl: check.

Rebels: check, but alas, no monuments.

Phone pranks: check (the kids love phone pranks).

"Dreadnaughts" & "Bombs Away!": check.

Darth Vader: now played by Adam Driver.

Pescatarian Jedi: Played by Luke Skywalker.

Mark Hamill: now played by Orson Welles in his greatest role.

Washed-up has-been Jedi: played superbly by Mark Hamil.

Young Luke: now a girl named Rey.

Intergender violence: Carrie Fisher.

Rey and Luke: get in a light saber fight in the rain (but not sexy).

Then: Rey goes to the Death Star (I never figured out why).

Then: Rey and Adam Driver and Smeagol get in a light saber fight. I think maybe Rey won.

Then: some other stuff happens.

Then: Rey is on the Millennium Falcon with Chewbacca (I missed the part that explained how).

Filmies: some beautiful match cuts.

Laura Dern: Wild at Heart and looking good with lilac hair.

Down on a planet: it's time for High Noon with Adam Driver, Luke Skywalker (now played by William H. Macy), but not Katy Jurado.

"See ya around, kid": Nooooooooooooo!

Maybe the greatest film ever made, but ok to wait for TV.

May the Force be with you.

just saw three billboards.
it was phenomenal.

my fav line of the whole film was "Penelope said 'begets'?" ****ing incredible.

wow wasn't expecting to like ladybird as much as I did.
really excellent.

Those were the two best movies of the year by far imo.

ya they are my two fav as well (haven't seen shape of water, bladerunner or hostiles yet).
get out gets an honorable mention.

Wind River was great and gets a little lost in the shuffle imo. Have heard zero Oscar buzz for it but Renner was phenomenal, probably his best performance to date.

I am still mystified by the love for Get Out, I guess it went over my head. There wasn't a single twist that you couldn't see coming from 5 miles away. A bunch of glaring plot holes also. I suspect the movie captured a certain eerie classic Twilight Zone feel for others, that I just wasn't feeling for some reason.

Ladybird sounds like a lot of highschool angst. Confirm?