At this point, I'm beyond terrible when it comes to staying current with new releases. I'm just a straight-up embarrassment. However, I recently watched
Snowden on Netflix and thought it was pretty good. Not a huge Oliver Stone fan (though he went up in my esteem thanks to the job interview scene with not just the explicit Rand reference but even quoting from
Atlas Shrugged ) but I love JGL and I thought he did a great job.
That then sent me off on a mini JGL marathon.* I rewatched
The Lookout which is such a great unassuming and modest thriller. I love both JGL's and Jeff Daniels' characters individually and the oddball relationship they formed. I also rewatched
Uncertainty. I couldn't really remember anything about it (though I had an oddly vivid memory of the
act of watching it on IFC) and it turns out that was probably because it wasn't very good. It could've been awesome, but the way they dealt with the "uncertainty" theme left me feeling empty and wondering what the point of watching the film was.
Lastly, I rewatched
(500) Days of Summer. That's just a phenomenal fucking movie. Like
Uncertainty, I'd only seen it once around the time it came out. Unlike
Uncertainty, I had a pretty good memory of it and remembered loving it. Now, with it fresh in my mind, I can say unequivocally that it's one of the best films about love/relationships out there. It had a particular resonance this time around, as I not only broke up with the gf a few months ago, but towards the end, I was honestly feeling on repeat occasions that my gf was Summer and I couldn't shake the desire to rewatch
(500) Days of Summer - what it says about me that the most prominent thought in my mind as my relationship was disintegrating was how badly I needed to rewatch
(500) Days of Summer I'll leave to somebody else to diagnose - and it was fucking surreal.
*I also tried to watch
The Walk, but not only do I have no desire to listen to JGL do that accent, I just wasn't feeling the style or tone of that thing.
@Bullitt68 you should check this and see what you think
To be perfectly honest, I don't dig zombies.
Night of the Living Dead is the only zombie thing I truly enjoy. I don't even really like Romero's other Dead films.
Have you guys seen
Closer, if so what did you think?
After I rewatched
(500) Days of Summer, I was actually thinking about rewatching that, too. I remember very little about it, though I do remember that it was because of
Will Jacobs pushing it that I watched it the first time around. Were you on that bandwagon back then, too?
Watched Nightcrawler for the ??th time [...] Has there ever been a more convincing sociopath in film?
First off, just for the record, I fucking love
Nightcrawler. However, in response to your question, I think it'd be more accurate to characterize Jake's character in that film as a psychopath.
@Caveat can let me know if I'm talking out of my ass here, but as far as I know, the distinction between a psychopath and a sociopath is that a psychopath doesn't have a conscience whereas a sociopath has the capacity to and does feel remorse.
Given those definitions (and off the top of my head because I'm too lazy to research and see if I'm forgetting something blatantly obvous) I'd immediately nominate Robert De Niro in
Cape Fear as a more convincing psychopath than Jake in
Nightcrawler (though
Nightcrawler is easily twice the film
Cape Fear is).
And then, just for the hell of it, I'd nominate Tom Noonan in
Manhunter as the best sociopath in film history. That's at once one of the most chilling and sympathetic characterizations ever, which is a hell of an acting feat.
@Bullitt68 you see these?
Just the first one.
I watched Rise of the Planet of the Apes last night. It had some problems, but overall, I thoroughly enjoyed it. Too much technology for my taste, but I liked the story enough to forgive that, and while I felt the beginning portion dragged on for too long and the "climax" was extremely perfunctory, the parts that counted (basically the shit with Caesar) were strong and affecting and very enjoyable.
The biggest structural problem, beyond the introductory portion dragging on, was the apparent indecision on whose story this was, Franco's or Caesar's. Is it about the doctors and the testing and the ethical quagmires there or is it about the animals and the (mis)treatment and the ethical quagmires there? It felt like they were trying to shove too much story with too much ethical baggage into the film, which made it bloated and tiresome in parts.
I think the best scene was when Caesar saved John Lithgow from the douche neighbor. Lithgow really stole the show for me, and that scene was very moving. I also can't deny how bad ass it was seeing Caesar run shit in the monkey cells. I've seen a lot of prison movies and this was a really fun and fresh take by featuring a chimp prison saga :icon_lol:
Far from a masterpiece, but definitely a respectable and enjoyable effort.
Haven't gotten around to the others. And I'm not particularly chomping at the bit. Neither zombies nor talking monkeys are what I'd consider to be a go-to for me