Movies Serious Movie Discussion

Has anyone seen Call Me by Your Name? I keep hearing it's fantastic, but I'm having a hard time finding motivation to watch a pretty graphic gay love story? I'm not homophobic at all, but the premise doesn't um grab me so to speak.
I heard that Armie Hammer's balls had to be edited out of one shot because the prudish audiences can't handle male frontal nudity smh
 
Honestly its a strange situation in the US especially for me in that were seeing more sex onscreen in general but theres also arguably a more prudish reaction to it and a increasingly clear upper limit both in terms of reaction and box office/award success, NC-17 is pretty much death to the latter two these days.

The obvious example of that to me would be Steve McQueens Shame which I suspect had it cut its sex back to an R-rating level might well have gotten US award nominations, maybe Blue is the Warmest Colour as well. The latter obviously had the benefit that the same kind of limit doesn't exist in France/Cann(although I'm hearing talk conservatives are pushing hard for it) but honestly I felt it was a bit depressing in some ways to see McQueen only getting the recogision he deserved with a "black" film(although I'd argue the most interesting aspect of it is really the white characters) in 12 years a Slave.

To me Call Me By Your Name looks very Merchant Ivoryish(the sunkissed sexual awakenings of the upper classes), I spose understandable as the latter actually adaptated the screenplay.
 
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Tom Ford's A Single Man put me through some tough moments (more due to age/power concerns than sexuality); I don't think an exaggeration of that in Call Me by Your Name is going to do much for me.
 
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Honestly its a strange situation in the US especially for me in that were seeing more sex onscreen in general but theres also arguably a more prudish reaction to it and a increasingly clear upper limit both in terms of reaction and box office/award success, NC-17 is pretty much death to the latter two these days.
Why do you say especially for you? Are you a connoisseur of erotic cinema?
 
Why do you say especially for you? Are you a connoisseur of erotic cinema?

I mean "especially" in relation to the US rather than me, there just seems to be a much bigger difference between an R-rating and an NC-17 rating than there is between a 15 and an 18 here in the UK in terms of the effect it has on a film success with cinema's not showing it. Strange really as on the face of it our ratings are more restrictive in that there higher in age, offer less parential choice and have more legal backing(as in selling to underage people is a criminal offence ala alcohol/tobacco) but culturally they don't seem to have the same effect.

I remember the fuss about Blue Valentine a few years ago looking to avoid an NC-17 rating in the US because the potential negatuve impact on the films success and that ended up as a 15 here in the UK. Were not exactly an example of sexual openness compared to much of Europe either although generally ratings have been going down with 18 ratings given out less often compared to the 80's and 90's were some pretty tame stuff got that rating(amusingly anything with nunchucks in it was automatically an 18 for years due to a moral panic that kids would buy then and beat each other to death).
 
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Got around to seeing Colossal with somewhat mixed feelings. On one hand I think the films actually far more ambitious than the trailers made it look, the central concept of the giant monsters really playing second fiddle to quite an interesting personal drama. By the standards it sets itself though I'd not sure it entirely pulls off, the reveal is well done but the character involved felt a bit arbitrary.

The idea of the "nice guy" as the badguy is certainly interesting and I think is setup well with a lot of little clues playing on typical rom-com clichés that are arguably always somewhat creepy. The character himself to me seemed a bit undercooked in terms of motivation though, I mean we have the protagonist explain his motivation once but he never really addresses it directly expressing resentment at her to warrant such extreme behavour
 
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Ready Player One was a fun time. For probably the first half I was totally immersed (same mix of thrill and nostalgia evoked by Wreck-It-Ralph) but some weird decisions started to pile up as it came to a close and become a more generic team-action romp. Haven't quite worked out if there was a consistent statement made about escapism but it definitely felt like a celebration of gaming in general.


Also rewatched Arrival; still amazing.
 
Rewatched Inherent Vice and definitely got on with it better, probably due to being freed of following the plot and having Lebowski like expectations of it, I'd say up with PTA's best and probably one of his easiest to rewatch.

Arguably works in the opposite fashion to Lebowski I spose, shifting the style back towards more noir gumshoe ala Chinatown with its more stately shooting style and playing the comedy off of this straightness.
 
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Wheelman is like if someone saw the opening of Drive, and decided to make that into a full movie. And it's as awesome as it sounds. Grillo is terrific, the driving is well choreographed, and the movie is the perfect length at 77 minutes before the end credits. It dips a bit when the daughter gets involved, but thankfully it's almost over by then. Netflix needs to keep making more of these kinds of movies.
 
Just saw A Quiet Place in theatres, it was a good little horror for what it was but something that really bugged me is why would they decide to have a baby with those creatures still out there? The parents were so meticulous and precautious to not make any noise so that they could survive. But yet they decide to have a baby, who doesn't understand what is going on and for the next 3-4 years at least will be a HUGE liability due to the fact that kids will obviously just start crying randomly for no reason, and thus put the whole family in jeopardy. And why would they want to bring another child into this post apocalyptic world where there are 3 huge killing machines just waiting to slice your body up?

They already had two kids, why would they choose to risk those kids and themselves by having another baby?
 
Just watched The Bad Batch and well..

What a fucking terrible movie.

Why Keanu? Why?
 
Just saw A Quiet Place in theatres, it was a good little horror for what it was but something that really bugged me is why would they decide to have a baby with those creatures still out there? The parents were so meticulous and precautious to not make any noise so that they could survive. But yet they decide to have a baby, who doesn't understand what is going on and for the next 3-4 years at least will be a HUGE liability due to the fact that kids will obviously just start crying randomly for no reason, and thus put the whole family in jeopardy. And why would they want to bring another child into this post apocalyptic world where there are 3 huge killing machines just waiting to slice your body up?

They already had two kids, why would they choose to risk those kids and themselves by having another baby?

My assumption is they forgot to stock up on birth control and he's married to Emily Blunt so do the math...

I saw it as well. Quality movie. I really liked the atmosphere, the use of quiet, and the performances. Seriously, those two kids gave two of the more convincing and admirable young actor performances i can think of in recent memory.

Krasinski and Blunt were great as the parents and never for a second did I doubt the genuine concern for the preservation of the family. They sold it very compellingly.

Certain parts struck me as owing more than a little to Shammy's Signs.
 
Isle of Dogs was really good.

Thoroughly impressive visually and the score was great. Excellent voice work too. Fun bits of very Wes Andersonish humor interspersed in there as well.
 
French Connection 2

I've ignored this Sequel for a long time because i thought it just HAD to be massively inferior to it's Predecessor.
In the End, John Frankenheimer directing this made me finally watch "French Connection 2" because i'm a big Fan of his.

FC2 does about everything right that a good Sequel ought to do.
It keeps the major Plot & Character Elements in Place, but weaves a new Story around it.
The Film establishes some Elements that we later saw in Modern "Fish out of water" & "Buddy Cop" stories.
FC2 deals with Drug addiction better than any Film (besides "The Man with the Golden Arm") up to that Point.
Gene Hackman delivers an even better Performance than in the Original without the Presence of Roy Scheider.

While "French Connection 2" doesn't manage the feat of being a Superior Sequel to an amazing First Film a la "Godfather 2", it is a really good Film, outperforming my Expectations by light years.
 
A couple recently...

Wild At Heart - Never seen this for some reason dispite being a big Lynch and Cage fan. Very enjoyable certainly with arguably the strongest cast of any Lynch film although it did feel a little like a dry run of his Lost Highway/Mullholland Drive style to me.

Leviathan - Very well made but probably close to the top of the most depressing cinema I'v ever seen, don't watch it with a loaded gun in the house. You have to say as well even the art-house style of Hollywood generally isn't willing to paint a picture this damming of the US.
 
You cats seen Cheap Thrills? Thoroughly impressed with such a good movie with a tiny cast and only a few locations. Extremely fucked up though.
 
I watched The Greasy Strangler last night on the advice of some Thrillest type site that listed what was worth watching on Prime.

Definitely a pleasant Napoleon Dynamite feel to it, but to me it felt more Freddy Got Fingered than Napoleon Dynamite. I think people who are really into John Waters type shit would get a kick out of it. For me it was a 5/10 but I think it would be a 7/10 if it were trimmed down to a fighting weight of ~45-60 minutes.
 
Slogging through The City of Lost Z's or whatever it's called right now (have a stomach infection) and while I will slog through it, this movie is not good. Charlie Hunnam in particular... hmm.

He's a Britisher right? So why does he sound like an American doing a bad english accent? And why does he always have his terrible facial hair? He's got to be 35 years old. H/e should have hit puberty by now.
 
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