Plus it’s now on Peacock
Triangle of sadness
Didn’t expect to like this, but was suprised by how little I did.
“Making up bad people so that you can make fun of them / put them through shit” has to be the worst genre. Good satire requires good writing and at least some observational talent, but everything here is so lazy. I guess the exaggerated length of basically every scene is to create comedy through uneasiness but to me the result was only extreme boredom.
0 stars.
Ironically this smug guy’s next movie will be about boredom (passengers of a long flight are unable to deal with the movie system not working, end up fighting each other, so deep…). I won’t be watching.
Don’t want to only be negative so here’s a short positive review for another movie :
Flow
Animated movie that follows a cat in a post-apocalyptic / flood setting, as it meets other animals and explores the world. No dialogue (animals don’t speak, duh), but short and inventive enough that I enjoyed it throughout.
Especially recommended if you used to play video games but don’t have much time for it anymore (saw ppl mentioning this in another thread, I’m in this boat too), this will give you something close to the feeling of playing an open-world game for 90 mins (bonus : if the people most responsible for your lack of time are your kids, you can also take them. mine loved it)
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Saw Flow as well and was definitely curious as to what kids would think of it. I was happy that there would even be a market for an animated silent film, as I wondered if it might bore kids but also have none of the Bojack-style crassness that anti-animation adults might make an exception to watch. I’m not a great tell for any group-specific targeting like this because I’ll watch almost anything if it looks potentially good. Anyway, glad to hear your kids liked it.
(I liked Triangle of Sadness well enough despite the endless puking sequence, but I can understand someone hating it. I did think it flirted with crossing the Don’t Look Up line of obnoxious smugness.)
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Trying again with Unbreakable. Look, it’s not bad, Shyamalan has certainly done worse, but this notion that Bruce Willis just gets to middle age blissfully unaware that he has literally never been sick or injured is brutally stupid and impossible to buy into. I can more easily accept him not knowing he’s a ghost for a whole movie than this bullshit.
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Martyrs, the original French version
I’ve always seen this mentioned in horror movie groups, finally got around to it. What the fuck did I just watch? It’s gross and makes you feel gross watching it and I guess I have no clue what it’s supposed to be about.
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Well now I want to watch this movie I’ve never heard of.
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Martyrs is well done and highly regarded by us horror fans. However it is not for everyone. A psychological horror/revenge film. A brutally powerful film. It’s a tough watch, for sure. Not likely I’ll ever revisit it but it has definitely stuck with me over the years.
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The second half went in a direction I wasn’t really expecting, i had always assumed it was more of a traditional revenge movie.
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Easily the best Shyamalan for me. The only one I’ve seen multiple times and I’ll always recommend it.The fact that Willis is unaware of his fortunate health never bothered me or remotely took me out of the movie, tbh. So, not that impossible to buy into, I suppose. 
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Right. It isn’t a traditional revenge movie like Last House on the Left or I Saw the Devil. Martyrs kinda starts out that way then takes a hard left.
Actually, I Saw the Devil has a little twist to the revenge premise that makes it different than most horror revenge flicks. If you like this kind of movie, Devil is a solid recommendation.
Another really good revenge film is The Nightingale. It’s done by Jennifer Kent. It was her follow up to The Babadook.
Once you get your fix, I highly recommend The Big Country.
You’ll see what I mean. Gregory Peck, Burl Ives, Heston, Chuck Connors, Jean Simmons.
I can’t claim any great consistency as to when an absurdity in a movie will take me out of it and when one won’t, so fair enough if this doesn’t for you. But it’s an objectively absurd thing for him to ask the audience to blindly accept.
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I bought into it too. It’s not too hard to believe a man is in desperate denial of something that makes him just a little bit above average.
I still laugh however at the audience being expected to be in awe when he benches 250lb.
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As the movie plays out, there is no suggestion that he was ever denying anything. Mr. Glass puts a bug in his ear to go “hey yo, have you ever been sick?” and he immediately becomes obsessed with it, inquiring with his employer and then going and having a heart-to-heart with his wife about it when they barely seem to be on speaking terms about any other topic. Denial is generally the product of someone willfully turning a blind eye to something. He straight up goes, “hell’s bells, I’ve never been sick in my life?” Sickness and injury are all around him for decades since everyone suffers at least minor sickness and injury, and it’s just occurring to him now for the first time that he doesn’t? It’s crazypants.
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I can’t disagree with this - you found it absurd and it took you out of the movie. I’m the same, just not in this case.
I try not to be too analytical while watching a movie. I just want to experience it in the moment. And if it’s a good experience then that will naturally result in me thinking about it more and seeking the impressions of others. So I can see beautiful cinematography in a scene. I’ll admire in in the moment then I’m refocused back on the story in the next scene.
However with something absurd in an otherwise decent movie? That can ruin the entire experience. When a story doesn’t follow it’s own rules, a tiresome contrivance, anything that breaks the illusion (a bad piece of acting, a continuity issue, bad Deus Ex Machina moments) it might be game over.
When something like this happens I can’t just shake it off and get on with the next scene. It sticks in my craw and once the immersion is gone it’s going to be tough for me to jump back in (like you with Willis’ unawareness).
I can’t tell you why the Willis thing never bothered me. I’ve certainly been irritated far more for much less.
I’m not going to try and defend it strongly. I always accepted it and like the movie, even though yes it is silly that he never once questioned it. I’d only put forward that Willis’s starting state is a kind of archetypal middle class white guy malaise. Has a kid, wife, job, house, nether has any real lows or any real highs.
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I don’t find it absurd at all that a straight white dude never stopped to notice how privileged he is. In this case he just happens to be a minor superhero with above average natural strength and immunity.
Hell yes he is in denial. Remember the car accident? He pretended to be injured so badly that he couldn’t play football anymore. He’s not just overlooking his privilege. He’s in denial.
I took it that he lied to everyone, including his wife, about that because he was willing to give it all up for her (given that she separately indicates she basically gave an ultimatum that she couldn’t make a life with a football player). Seemed like a very conscious choice and that he was fully aware that he could have kept playing. I don’t read that as denial either. That was just a lie and a willful sacrifice.
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I don’t think his reactions throughout the movie support your thesis. He’s surprised to revisit the memory and see yes, this was him moving into denial about his abilities. He was never injured.
I definitely buy that he started off aware that he wasn’t injured, but it quickly turned into much more than that.