I remember seeing Heaven Can Wait in the theater...fantastic experience...love that movie. My favorite part is when Beatty, dead on the sideline after suffering a huge hit, pops back up and runs out onto the field.

So they met, but if they weren't successful directors of the most profitable movies of all time, I doubt they end up on a beach and come up with the Indiana Jones movie, which leads to ET being written while on that set, so my point is, Bruce not working right might have been the biggest break of his career.

Just something I pondered.

Yeah, and if I were better looking and rich, I'd probably be married to Linda Evangelist or some other super model...what's your point?

It's interesting trivia, how things that look like a disaster at the time can be something else. Especially in filmmaking.

Sorry to disturb you..

Girl on a Train - 4/10

Boring as f.

Scorsese's Silence:

You guys, what if Spielberg wasnt even born?

One could only hope...

A Dangerous Method continues to get better upon every subsequent viewing...

The fact that it is historical makes it even better.

ya this was really awful.

I was expecting something in the vein of gone girl but holy **** was it bad.

Just watched PBS' American Masters profile and interview with Sidney Lumet. Incredible. He tells of an incident when he was in the Service in India where he didn't stop a group of GIs from gang-raping a young girl on a train. He says it's the worst thing he ever did, but he chose not to risk his own life instead.

Makes you understand why the themes of fairness and justice permeates his movies.

2016:

Hunt for the Wilderpeople A
Sing Street A
10 Cloverfield Lane A
Jungle Book A
Captain Fantastic A
Deadpool A
Zootopia A

Captain America: Civil War Boring. Winter Soldier was much better.
The Nice Guys I Don't remember laughing.
Hell or High Water Huge letdown. Trailer was promising.

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Relatos salvajes (Wild Tales) A
This is from 2014... Fresh, funny, great... do not miss this one! Peace!

Knowing that the earth is flat is great, it gives a lot but it takes away some fun also... For example, I would have a hard time enjoying sf from now on because I see it for what it is-a shameless propaganda with a purpose of prolonging the mother of all lies. So no gravities and martians for me (which I skipped anyway).. But lots of good genres left so not a problem

So one incident in his life changed his outlook and maybe influenced his career.
Interesting.

I mean that's a pretty damn big "incident".
doesn't seem strange that such a traumatic experience would profoundly affect the rest of his life.

only an actual psychopath would be unaffected by such an experience.

The Accountant..... not bad for a Ben Affleck movie

I watched it too. Sometimes, what you don't do when you know you should do something haunts us throughout our lives.

A similar single event cause the marx brothers to change the trajectory of their career and elements thereof permeate their movies.

Irrational Man Joaquin Phoenix is an alcoholic depressed philosophy professor with a serious pot belly. He comes up with an idea to give him purpose in his life, fraught with consequences. Along he way he bangs another teacher and a student.

Woody, woody, woody. Allen just phones this one in. The plot itself wasn't bad but the execution was. The dialogue seemed to go from standard Woody philosophical banter to the actors just ad libbing whole scenes. I love both Joaquin and Emma but this movie just didn't work.

Obvious Child

Another example of a successful movie by a flawed stand up comedian. I recently saw Don't Think Twice, which starred Mike Birbiglia and was quite succesful IMO. This one stars Jenny Slate (who I knew as the annoying sister Mona Lisa from Parks and Recreations), and while not quite as immersive as Birbiglia's work, still did a fine job balancing the self deprecating humor with some true life drama.

She plays a version of herself I guess. Struggling stand up comic, broke NY Jew in her late 20's, and recently off of a painful breakup in which she bares her soul on stage in front of an audience in a daringly awkward scene, she ends up having a one night stand with a nice guy. She gets pregnant, and has to wait a few weeks to get the abortion.

We've seen the way movies have evolved when it comes to dealing with abortions. In Dirty Dancing it was a secondary character who got knocked up and led to some meoldramatic BS. In Fast Times at Ridgemont High, it was getting knocked up by a sleezy guy. In Knocked Up and Juno, it was the woman coming to her senses to actually have the baby. This movie doesn't spend too much drama on the decision, which I found refreshing. She wasn't racking her brain/heart to figure out if this was the right decision. This was definitely the right decision for this particular woman in this particular situation. The movie was smart enough to just delve into the consequences of that decision.

Once we get over patting them on the back for taking such a 'risky' position on women's rights, the rest of the movie doesn't seem so great. Slade is too sweet and pretty for this role. She is supposed to be deeply troubled, but all we really want to do is give her a hug. Not to compare again (even though that's what I'm about to do), but Birbiglia plays a similarly lovable character, but with enough bad qualities that somehow make his jealousy and bitterness feel real during that movie. Slade on the other hand, just kind of felt like she was going through the motions to make us believe that she was troubled. I can't put my finger directly on it, but something about her character seemed too perfect to believe the filth that she was talking about on stage.

Still an entertaining flick, but don't expect this to be as groundbreaking or as subversive as you would like. For the movie that's being labelled as the "abortion comedy," it's surprisingly tame.

La La Land - okay

The Lobster - bad (I would say I straight up hated it if the cast weren't so good)

Embrace of the Serpent - great

Fences - pretty much what I expected. Very much a stage play. Denzel was excellent as usual. Viola Davis was fantastic. Thought it was about 20 minutes too long and could have cut the last few minutes completely without hurting the film. 6.5/10

Whiplash

Holy ****. Why did I wait so long to see this? Amazing. Has to be among the greatest endings in film history. I don't think I took a breath for 10 minutes.

Grade: A+


Hidden Figures

About as subtle as a bullet to the brain. This might be the most try hard for an Oscar film of all time.

Grade: C-

Is the general consensus anti-Spielburg now? That makes me cry inside.