Arrival is top three all time sci-fi films imo. Sicario is elite thriller action. BR 2049 is one of the best looking films ever made. I liked dune 1 but if dune 2 completes it it’s hard not to put him among the best ever.
I guess the question for you is whether you know the budgets of Arrival and Sicario? That guy gets more bang for his buck than anyone I can think of in recent memory. Arrival cost $47 million and it looks like a $100 million movie to me (great hiding of stuff to make it look ‘bigger’). Sicario cost $30 million and used locations like it was a $50 million+ movie.
I remember aggressively disliking La La Land (could say why if anyone cares) until I saw what the budget was ($30m). Then I was more impressed with what they did. The point of including La La Land is to say that what’s done on a budget matters for how good a director is. Almost all of the final movie money for Harry Potter was hidden. It did not look like a $200 million movie and I’m from the school who believes you can make incredibly high production value movies without ever exceeding $100 million in budget.
To me, Villenueve is a visionary filmmaker even if he doesn’t really talk about or describe what he does well and I saw he was on a major rise by the time he hit Enemy. Each movie he makes seemingly is basically to say, ‘See what I did on that budget? Now give me real money and see what I can do.’. He is special even if you don’t particularly like his work.
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Yeah it’s not technically speaking a true assembly cut, but that is how it’s referred to on the blu ray so it’s what it’s called typically. It’s an edit based on Fincher notes or something. Can’t remember full details
But like not a true fan edit cause they had access to all the negatives or whatever. They used different footage like the inciting animal is a dog in one cut and a cow in the other.
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Yeah you’re not wrong about any of that, though obviously that’s different from just referring without qualification to the greatest run of films.
I’d have to learn a lot more about the budgets of various directors before I could start incorporating that into a “greatest directors” ranking. There’s no question that it’s more impressive to do more with less though.
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His arc looks a lot like Spielberg’s as an example
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Dune Part 2 is like if Jaws and Citizen Kane fucked and had a Metropolis baby
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If Prisoners and Arrival don’t do it for you, it’s safe to say we’re too far apart on Denis to meet in the middle. Those movies make me cry they’re so good.
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I called Prisoners really good.
Yes but in the context of not being as enamored as some other fans
Hall Pass (2011)
3/10
Just a shit film. Themes of the movie are bad, jokes and motivation were bad. I would have though something with Jason Sudeikis would at least have some merit but nope, just bad.
Before the newest Rewatchables (Rounders): “due to the new Larry David rule…” Sounds like we might start getting Thursday pre-announcements. I love Larry for doing that.
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really can’t comprehend how anyone can listen to any podcast with bill simmons
I can’t even stand listening to him do ad copy reads before other ringer podcasts, dude just makes me physically ill
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I would not have expected to enjoy it either, so I get it. But I do think he’s highly entertaining on the Rewatchables. So much so that the episodes without him really tend to suffer.
Im with you, youve heard of a face for radio? Well Bill has a voice for print media.
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Past Lives
I said this about Oppenheimer:
I’m not sure how best to describe my feelings about that. A lot of the early dialogue just felt…artificial.
With Past Lives, I never felt that. This felt 100% real 100% of the time.
This wasn’t a hokey romance where the good guy ends up with the good girl because of feelings or whatever.
So many memorable scenes were perfectly done: The one on the bed where Arthur felt shut out of a part of her life, Hae Sung exposing his insecurity, the final scene that ended with her crying (even though earlier she said that she doesn’t cry anymore). Even the opening with the perspective of the people at the bar gave us something to look forward to.
This is the best film I’ve seen since Judas and The Black Messiah.
Sorry Yorgos. At least you had 1 day at the top spot.
10/10
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Just Anatomy of a Fall to go? (For the mere Eyebooger Classic anyway.)
Yeah. Planning on that tonight.
Though it’s clearly narrowed to Stone vs Gladstone in reality, I would contend that if anyone should be threatening Emma’s win at all, it’s Sandra Huller in Anatomy.
My observstional streak of men having this at or near the top of their list continues
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The 6 month wait to rejoin AMC’s A list is a kick in the pants