I Saw the TV Glow was pretty good!
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All in one movie
The best cinematography in years
The least subtle messaging ever
Amazing set design
Over the top gore that makes GWAR seem serious
Funniest scene of the year
Scenes that made me physically wretch
Some amazingly sexy photography of the female body
The grossest eating scene ever caught on film
Truly gutsy acting
A total and complete lack of subtext
An homage to Vertigo
A vomitous finale that loses the plot.
Real grade: a schizophrenic A and C-
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Yeah, I was gonna say, Margaret Qualley does a bunch of nudity in this movie and the verdict is still absolutely āthis movie is awful to look at.ā
Iām curious what scene youāre talking about here; I donāt think I actually laughed during this movie. Iām not sure I have a super clear funniest scene of the year, but a couple of scenes from Kinds of Kindness come to mind as probably my frontrunners.
When the final blob version of her is sliming its way to the star.
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Uhhhh, you probably shouldnāt watch Paprika then.
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You Canāt Take It With You (1938)
And to think, this (still great) movie is the least of the three Frank Capra/Jimmy Stewart collaborations. Back in the day, I actually acted in a high school stage production of this story, playing Mr. Kirby (father to the Stewart character), so I did go into watching the movie remembering the basic outline of how it goes. Still, memory gets increasingly fuzzy with time, so there was plenty that I didnāt remember also.
As sheer on-screen charm goes, Stewart was the gold standard; I really canāt put anyone past or present above him. Given that, it was a pleasant surprise to see Mr. Potter himself, Lionel Barrymore, make a run at being the heart and soul of this movie despite all of Stewartās best efforts. It distracted me at first to see the villain from Itās a Wonderful Life in an earlier role as a kindly, quirky old grandfather. However, Barrymore gets fully lost in this character and the distraction dissipates without significant issue.
Itās a simple morality tale, and not necessarily a terribly original one, but itās very well-executed and the talented cast really nails the classic Capra tone. Only critique, really: I do question whether the ending fully stuck the landing. It felt abrupt. But if this aspect fell short of the mark, it didnāt miss by too much. A person who enjoys Capraās other works will very likely enjoy this as well. 4/5.
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Iāll recommend Joint Security Area on Criterion if you liked Parasite. One of Park Chan-wookās first movies, stars Song Kang-ho, also from Parasite and a bunch of other movies. Itās billed as a military suspense thriller but really itās an emotional tragedy about this forbidden bromance between border guards across the Korean border.
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Iām pretty sure I watched that in grad school. One of my roommates was Korean, and he rented it from Netflix back when they still mailed DVDs. I donāt remember much about it, but I think it was pretty crazy.
Sympathy for Mr Vengeance was amazing.
For me with a really old book or movie, the question becomes how original it was for the time. Like was this a collection of tropes people were familiar with? Or was it one that oversaturated stories after it became so successful?
I struggle to know the answer to this off-hand, but the basic story of āman who has lost his humanity to business is prevailed upon by people who still have their souls; becomes better manā feels like it had to be well-worn ground even before 1938. But maybe not? This did win Best Picture, so itās entirely possible it was more novel than I think.
Incidentally: one part of the movie is that the Jimmy Stewart character kind of never had the ambition to rise the ranks in his fatherās business because his passion idea since college was to be a leader in building up the use of solar energy as an alternative power solution. I was definitely caught off-guard by that in an 86-year-old movie.
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many close-up scenes of heroin injections. young al pacino SCREAMING because he doesnāt have enough heroin. this movie has it all
3 bags of popcorn thank you the internet archive
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The Substance sticks with you. I still canāt decide if itās an A or a D but itās had me watching more criticism and commentary than most films. Thatās what art should do.
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My son saw Interstellar and was super excited to watch it with me, as I had not seen it. We did so last night. I thought it was pretty silly. Hot take?
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Not a super hot take imo:
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Right down to the word āsillyā too!
Iām pretty sure I did a good job of acting like I thought it was great, my son (15) looooves it and would have felt bad if I didnāt.
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Iām with you. Iāve never been on the Nolan train and this movie was the first one where his obsession with terrible sound editing drove me to hate the movie.
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Itās neither. Itās a mixed bag of good and bad. I am glad I gave it a watch though, even if I donāt envision doing that to myself again.
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Nocturnal Animals (2016)
It took me a second to latch onto this movie, but once I did I was fully in. Itās well-shot, well-constructed, well-acted, and the layers of the story-within-a-story structure are compelling to think through. This movie toys with ambiguity, but it never feels like a cheat; it feels like it leaves unanswered questions that ultimately make the movie feel more interesting rather than less.
My awareness of this movie before seeing it did not include the knowledge that Michael Shannon was even in it, let alone Oscar-nominated for it, but I was happy to discover that award nomination after the fact; he is a true standout in a movie that everybody does a great job in (if Amy Adams or Jake Gyllenhaal have ever missed on a performance, I havenāt seen it or canāt think of it).
Since Tom Fordās other movie, A Single Man, didnāt click for me despite strong reviews, I was nervous that I could be in for more of the same here. Thankfully, not at all the case. I feel like this one will wear well and also prove to be rewatchable. 4/5.
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Into the Wild is moving and heartbreaking. I have known a couple of people who went off the grid and was tempted a couple of times myself. The main character is so good at making connections, but his history with his parents makes him wary of people and pessimistic about our tendency to wage interpersonal wars for the sake of power and control. He hopes to find peace and happiness in isolation among nature, but ultimately finds reason to hope for his connections with the people heās met. He makes the realization too late, though, and weāre left pondering the significance of his journey against the tragedy of his end.
I watched this with a new housemate who has lived off the grid and spent some time in the Las Vegas tunnels. They said itās quite a rush to burn all of your IDs and money.
Side note, Emile Hirsch looks so much like a young Leonardo DiCaprio.
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