My wife and I saw Furiosa tonight. Absolutely magnificent. George Miller recognized that there was little point in trying to replicate the psychotically audacious paint huffing insanity of Fury Road, so he didn't bother trying. Instead, he crafted an achingly beautiful, hypnotic, novelistic, near-Arthurian epic. Both Anya Taylor Joy and her younger counterpart brought wiry, steely grit to the character of Furiosa. That said, Chris Hemsworth was the MVP of the movie. He was so transfixing as Dementus. And I'm not sure he will ever turn out a performance that utilizes the particularities of his range like this again. Miller knew exactly how to squeeze every ounce of greatness out of the Aussie himbo. Jesus. What a film. It doesn't quite top Fury Road for me. That was just a revelation unlike anything that's ever graced the screen before. But I'm so grateful that George Miller took us back to the Wasteland for a tremendously worthy prequel, perhaps the best ever made.
what was the last movie you watched?
- Thread starter Folsom Al
- Start date
I really liked Hit Man on Netflix, though I wish I'd been able to see it in a theater. I'd just gone to see The Fall Guy the day before because I didn't want to sit in traffic for 90 minutes after work and I have a free month of AMC A-List to use up. The movies have some thematic similarities -- they both drag their lead characters through pseudo-noir plot beats but ultimately land in more of a romantic comedy headspace. I left the theater on Thursday lamenting how fully Hollywood has abandoned good writing in favor of spectacle. There wasn't one moment in The Fall Guy which felt genuine to me. I don't want to say too much more about that movie though because...
Thankfully I didn't need to wait long for the antidote. Richard Linklater is one of the last filmmakers willing to prop up an entire movie on the strength of character work and snappy dialog. Hit Man was charming and inventive in all the ways that The Fall Guy felt formulaic and contrived. Linklater is also known for workshopping scenes with his lead actors, sometimes crediting them as co-writers on the final script (budding star Glen Powell gets that distinction here). And the script is top notch, unfolding like a stage play or a classic Hollywood screwball comedy where the setups all have payoffs and even when we know what's about to happen, it feels like a victory lap rather than a cop out because the characters have all earned their moment.
To better illustrate the point -- and without giving away too many specifics -- there is a centerpiece scene in The Fall Guy which involves a big action sequence staged on a moving construction vehicle which is supposed to make you marvel at the technical proficiency of the filmmakers. I suppose it succeeds at that but it does nothing for the characters or the story. Hit Man has its own centerpiece sequence where two characters are forced to improvise a conversation which they know is being recorded and the stakes are high. The scene involves two actors on a set and some text written on a cell phone passed between them. The sequence in Hit Man is the one I wanted to stand up and applaud.
Granted my taste isn't aligned with everyone. I'm already more than a decade deep into my arms-crossed "do we need to solve every movie problem with a fist-fight" distaste for what I guess might be described as stunt-bro subculture. It doesn't bother me that they exist but I have no interest in tuning in to anything in the John Wick oeuvre. What I am interested in is good actors on screen doing what only good actors can do -- tell a story within a story with their eyes and body language which makes even extraordinary circumstances feel human, relatable, and life-affirming. If that's something you're also interested in, I think you'll find that two hours with Hit Man was time well spent.
Thankfully I didn't need to wait long for the antidote. Richard Linklater is one of the last filmmakers willing to prop up an entire movie on the strength of character work and snappy dialog. Hit Man was charming and inventive in all the ways that The Fall Guy felt formulaic and contrived. Linklater is also known for workshopping scenes with his lead actors, sometimes crediting them as co-writers on the final script (budding star Glen Powell gets that distinction here). And the script is top notch, unfolding like a stage play or a classic Hollywood screwball comedy where the setups all have payoffs and even when we know what's about to happen, it feels like a victory lap rather than a cop out because the characters have all earned their moment.
To better illustrate the point -- and without giving away too many specifics -- there is a centerpiece scene in The Fall Guy which involves a big action sequence staged on a moving construction vehicle which is supposed to make you marvel at the technical proficiency of the filmmakers. I suppose it succeeds at that but it does nothing for the characters or the story. Hit Man has its own centerpiece sequence where two characters are forced to improvise a conversation which they know is being recorded and the stakes are high. The scene involves two actors on a set and some text written on a cell phone passed between them. The sequence in Hit Man is the one I wanted to stand up and applaud.
Granted my taste isn't aligned with everyone. I'm already more than a decade deep into my arms-crossed "do we need to solve every movie problem with a fist-fight" distaste for what I guess might be described as stunt-bro subculture. It doesn't bother me that they exist but I have no interest in tuning in to anything in the John Wick oeuvre. What I am interested in is good actors on screen doing what only good actors can do -- tell a story within a story with their eyes and body language which makes even extraordinary circumstances feel human, relatable, and life-affirming. If that's something you're also interested in, I think you'll find that two hours with Hit Man was time well spent.
Watched The Watchers at the movies. Yes, the style is very much like her father’s style. Could have been made by M Night tbh. I liked it. Didn’t love it but I like these types of movies.
Watched The Boys in the Boat on Prime. Really liked this one even if you kind of knew where it was headed. A movie that my wife and I enjoyed together and those are hard to find. I believe it was directed by George Clooney
Watched The Boys in the Boat on Prime. Really liked this one even if you kind of knew where it was headed. A movie that my wife and I enjoyed together and those are hard to find. I believe it was directed by George Clooney
Finished up Rebel Moon (parts 1&2, Netflix) today, mostly while donating platelets this morning. It’s not bad, despite being a bit long. Yes, parts are pretty derivative and the “a bunch of farmers led by a couple disgraced warriors” trope is trotted out again, but the acting wasn’t bad, the special effects are well done, and the story wraps up but definitely leaves open additional opportunities for future films.
I caught a couple of Netflix shows yesterday (No Hard Feelings and Spaceman) - both were fine - No Hard Feelings was somewhat predictable but had a few laughs. I was actually impressed with Adam Sandler in Spaceman - very good performance in a serious role. I liked him in a couple of his funnier flicks like Happy Gilmore and 50 First Dates but thought that Punch Drunk Love, for instance, was absolutely horrible. I liked him a lot in this one.
It seems to be a very polarizing movie. I also really enjoyed it but I had this discussion recently with a group of friends and it was about 50/50 on people who loved and hated it. I'd probably rank Punch Drunk Love as my favorite Adam Sandler performance too though I also really liked him in Reign Over Me and Uncut Gems. Of his high-profile comedies, Happy Gilmore is the only one I vibe with. I still have a soft spot for Happy Gilmore but I don't need to see any of the other Sandler comedies a second time.
Which is funny because I hated, hated, hated PDL (and have never strongly vibed with *any* P.T. Anderson flick) and I could watch The Wedding Singer every week and never get tired of it. Yet I'm far more of an indie-film thoughtful-film guy than a studio/blockbuster guy. Can't quite square that, but I do think this is a PTA effect and not a Sandler effect.
Yeah, this is probably a bigger discussion than you're looking to get into but I mostly feel the same way about PTA's movies. For a guy who has the reputation of being a filmmaker's filmmaker, I find his movies too one-note to justify rigorous analysis. He gets a little too overt in his pastiche for my taste too, but when he drops the self-serious tone and leans into absurd comedy instead, as he does in Punch Drunk Love, Inherent Vice, and the infamous final scene in There Will Be Blood, that's the side of PTA that I do enjoy.
I think a part of it was the fact I was expecting something more typically "Adam Sandler-ish" and decided to go see it in the theater with my wife (around our two-year anniversary) and my pretty conservative parents. We were expecting something completely different based on the ads we saw for it (and some parts were very offensive to my mom in particular, and to a lesser extent my wife).
But it was also just...bad. I really didn't care for it at all. None of us did.
I'm not saying Sandler didn't do a good job with the role. We just didn't like the movie itself.
But it was also just...bad. I really didn't care for it at all. None of us did.
I'm not saying Sandler didn't do a good job with the role. We just didn't like the movie itself.
Trigger Warning popped up on Netflix but it's not good with a fairly simplistic plot. Jessica Alba does OK, but it's more of a B-grade action flick. Some decent enough knife fights, but there's a bunch of obvious stuff (including a pretty silly opening sequence where a sniper takes out a driver of a vehicle at full speed at long distance and then doesn't shoot any of the other bad guys while they are walking up to kill their partner), grenades going off that only hurt the person who dropped it and not others about 10 feet away, stuff like that. It's just meh overall.
I'm a huge fan of almost all of PTA's work, but I gravitate to his LA odysees for their dark, strange, wonderful absurdity: Boogie Nights, Punch Drunk Love, and Inherent Vice. Punch Drunk Love is my favorite of his films because he set out to make something akin to an Adam Sandler romantic comedy, and instead crafted a weird, lovely, affecting examination of social anxiety, suffocating loneliness, and what it's like to grasp desperately for human connection. Watching it post-pandemic is especially fruitful, I think, and I find it all the more engaging now that we live in an increasingly digital world where authentic connection feels further from us every day.
Hah. Yeah, that makes sense. It's not a traditional "date night" film by any stretch of the imagination. If you went in expecting typical Adam Sandler fare, I can see how you'd be put off by what you experienced. But if you engage with the film on its own terms, it's incredibly rewarding and has so much to say about what it's like to reach across the void and connect meaningfully with someone who can understand you in all your complexity and nuance.
I talked about this movie here a while ago and still find it shocking Ana de Armas had to learn her lines phonetically because she didn’t speak English at all in 2016. The fact Philips reportedly didn’t know that until filming started is either grossly incompetent or insane.
Might explain why she’s surprisingly chill to learn her husband’s been secretly running guns through Fallujah though.
Might explain why she’s surprisingly chill to learn her husband’s been secretly running guns through Fallujah though.
Watched 2 movies recently that we’re finally free in streaming
The Beekeeper with Jason Stathan….my wife suggested it because she liked him in The Meg movies. I j7mped on it and told her it may be a bit more graphic. That was an understatemen. Really enjoyed the action. Typical move for him and if you like him, you will like this. Think high body count.
Kong v Godzilla New World Order…..didn’t care for this very much. The difference between this mess and Godzilla Minus One is a wide gap
The Beekeeper with Jason Stathan….my wife suggested it because she liked him in The Meg movies. I j7mped on it and told her it may be a bit more graphic. That was an understatemen. Really enjoyed the action. Typical move for him and if you like him, you will like this. Think high body count.
Kong v Godzilla New World Order…..didn’t care for this very much. The difference between this mess and Godzilla Minus One is a wide gap
