What MOVIE(s) have you been....seeing? watching?

Suggesting that someone criticizing Johnson's efforts is guilty of film snobbishness is extremely misguided. No one said the film had to be "high art." Frohike and I were both just saying that the film had to be good, which it wasn't, IMO (and his.) But you don't see me accusing dysjunct or Darthjojo of liking "B-movie trash" because they enjoyed it. And my opinion on films generally has zero to do with awards of any kind. Titanic was a bloated, awfully-written, emotionally overwrought piece of shit; just as an example.

I've rewritten the next couple hundred words a couple times now, so I'm just going to leave it there.

I'll admit to liking B-movie trash, Jackwraith, but I still appreciate you being a bro about it.

If there's anything that I've learned over the years, it's that you really can't bash people for what they like. That's just... what they like! I listen to all kinds of music, but I understand that many genres don't appeal to many people. I haven't eaten in a McDonald's in over 30 years, but a lot of people do because their stuff tastes good. It doesn't appeal to me, but if people like it, they like it. Same with movies, books, games(!), and every other kind of preference.

That said, it also doesn't mean I'm going to stop pointing out stuff that I think is flawed and Knives Out, IMO, definitely was. But if you enjoyed it, I'm not going to say you're taking a lowbrow approach or something like that. I think Big Trouble in Little China is a ridiculously bad movie... but I like it BECAUSE it's that bad! Knives Out just didn't hit me in that way.

Jackwraith wrote: I've rewritten the next couple hundred words a couple times now, so I'm just going to leave it there.

Can we stop this?

I liked KNIVES OUT. I think it is good.

You and Frohike do not, because it is bad. That's it.

I'm not out for blood. I'm tired of apologizing for having different opinions on this site.

Some recent viewing:

Rocketman - LOVED THIS MOVIE. I think it's one of the better rock films there is. The musical elements were handled well (especially "Saturday Night's Alright For Fighting" and the transition to the "I'm Still Standing" video) and Taron Egerton was outstanding. It was pure entertainment - maybe not high art or anything like that, but I was grinning the entire time and just loving the whole thing. 70s Elton John is just untouchable.

Parasite - Yes, this is a great, great film. Absolutely deserving of the Oscar. I was surprised that I liked it as much as I did, I kind of felt like it was going to turn out to be OK but not great but it is indeed quite literary, sophisticated, and novel. I believe it will go down as possibly the best Korean film ever made. I really liked Bong to begin with going back to The Host, he's got nowhere to go but up as far as I'm concerned. One of the top filmmakers in the world.

Terminator: Dark Fate - Well, it was better than the last 3-4. It wasn't bad, and it did feel more like a sequel to Judgement Day than I expected but it also lacked the sense of scope and vision of the Cameron-directed films. There was a also a sense of cheapness, of low stakes, and almost a kind of indifference about it all. The future stuff was awesome, as always. Hamilton was great. Schwarzenegger was Schwarzenegger. Felt like a very grand dad kind of role. The action was mostly pretty good except for all of that murky shit with the plane/Humvee/underwater whatever which was boring and reaaaaally stretching credibility. Grace was pretty cool. Rev-9 was pretty cool, loved that a lot of it was in CDMX. Overall, it was fine, worth the $2.99 rental...but I was hoping for more of a Fury Road return to form here.

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood - Hands down Tarantino's best film. I really love this era, I really love LA so it was kind of a can't miss deal here. I love the way the Manson stuff was handled and how it turned the film into an oddly sad, winsome thing - a "what if" story about how Hollywood might have turned out differently. The scene where Polanski drives Sharon Tate to the Playboy Mansion is SOOOOOOO LA. It really captured the sense of driving in the hills. Pitt was excellent, I liked DiCaprio a lot...overall just a very well made Hollywood film about Hollywood. The Bruce Lee thing didn't bother me at all - it was a fantasy sequence and his exaggerated character made sense to me there. I didn't read any racism or cultural insensitivity in it at all.

JoJo Rabbit - I loved this one too. It was really funny, Taika is the man. It reminded me quite a lot of Schlondorff's The Tin Drum, but obviously far less Germanic and funnier. It was pretty predictable (I mean, after the close-up of the shoes, where do you think this is going) and I don't think it necessarily made any profound new statements about any of its subject matter, but it was charming, delightful, and handled the darker material well. It's funny because the entire film I was thinking about THAT SONG...and then there at the end, there it was. I cried.

The Lighthouse - Good fucking god. What garbage. I absolutely hated this film. It's a bad student film idea with a little more of a budget. I was not impressed by the photography and I was not impressed by either actor, both of whom I think are excellent actors. It was boring, pretentious, and eye-rollingly artsy fartsy and I usually really like those three qualities especially in a horror-ish film. The vaguely Lovecraftian/Obra Dinn-ish stuff was more of a *shrug* than anything worth mentioning.

Gosh, other than The Lighthouse I've seen some pretty good ones lately. May check out Colour Out of Space tonight.

Or maybe I should watch Knives Out to join in the fray here?

Michael Barnes wrote: Or maybe I should watch Knives Out to join in the fray here?

Ah yes, Michael Barnes, the peacemaker.

I saw JOJO RABBIT and it's tough for me. I'm not sure Nazis/Hitler are funny. That they can be funny. That the idea of them should be allowed to be funny. Obviously, others have different opinions (Mel Brooks comes to mind). I see Nazism's reign in Europe as a scar on the history of humanity and I find it hard to turn that into yuks in my head. The movie is good, and the angle it takes of "kids are dumb, so are Nazis" is definitely better than the LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL "laughter in the camps" that had a run back in the 90s. It might just be too much for me to ever handle on a rational basis.

That being said, I want to hang out with Taika Waititi. He just seems genuinely good.

jeb wrote: I'm tired of apologizing for having different opinions on this site.

You don't have a different opinion. Knives Out was great fun.

jeb wrote: Ah yes, Michael Barnes, the peacemaker.

I laughed so loud that my spouse asked what was so funny.

jeb wrote: I'm not out for blood. I'm tired of apologizing for having different opinions on this site.

Please halt the victim train. I want to get off.

You're not out for blood. You just suggested that we were being disingenuous about our distaste for the film because it wasn't "high art." It doesn't matter if it was or wasn't "awards bait." It was a shitty film with a painfully routine story that wasn't funny. You don't agree. OK, then. I'm not going to imply any ulterior motives on your part. You just enjoyed it. Fine. No one asked you to apologize for anything; least of all, liking Knives Out. I just objected to having my words reinterpreted as some bullshit elitist perspective, based on a popularity contest that I don't give two fucks about. You didn't just post something like "Reasons x, y, and z are why I thought it was a good film.", as a half dozen other people have done in this thread. You implied an ulterior motive for Frohike and I not liking it. So, yeah, I am going to take exception to someone misrepresenting me, thanksverymuch.

Oh, and Barnes: I thought Once Upon a Time was pedestrian compared to... oh, just about every other film Tarantino has made. We do agree that The Lighthouse was, uh, not good, though.

I think Jeb's objections to the topic of JoJo Rabbit aren't without foundation. There's a fine line between reducing something to mockery and dismissing its magnitude because of that mockery. I thought the film succeeded at being most humorous when it went full Monty Python/absurdist with the "Heil, Hitler!" scene. But the question is: Was it intended to be that funny at all? I wrote about it here: dichotomouspurity.blogspot.com/2019/11/r...out-conclusions.html

I mostly disliked it because it telegraphed genres it clearly didn't give a shit about and either couldn't handle or just used as a springboard for a different movie. Whodunit's aren't exactly high art, but I was expecting some twist that would make this film interesting and I ended up feeling like I expected too much. It was just another popcorn film with some good but non-memorable writing and a great cast. Considering how many accolades it was receiving, I was just sort of nonplussed by it. Hot take...

To completely discredit myself now, I thought The Lighthouse was amazing.

Frohike wrote: To completely discredit myself now, I thought The Lighthouse was amazing.

I can totally see why people liked The Lighthouse. It was pretty ambitious in a number of ways, especially given the limited scope of the story and production. I think I had the same problem with it that you had with Knives Out: I was expecting more and it felt like it didn't deliver.

I loved The Lighthouse as well and could watch Dafoe in that role all day long.

I thought Knives Out was fine. Probably Rian Johnson's weakest film alongside Last Jedi but I was still entertained.

My daughter insisted that we see Knives Out, which I thought was completely out of left field for her. But I saw it, and it was perfectly okay. I didn't feel cheated out of the ticket price, but it seemed like the perfect movie to watch at home on Redbox.

ETA: Told my lady coworker about my daughter wanting to see Knives Out, which isn't a movie she'd normally go see. Coworker's answer was, "Chris Evans."

Finally got around to seeing The Edge of Democracy on Netflix last night. Really well done, although the editing was a little choppy in parts. It's worth watching for anyone interested in more of the oligarchic/neo-fascist environment that has caused three of the world's most influential nations to elect an idiot racist as their chief executive. Also interesting for more detail on the Brazilian situation, in particular, including the outrageous legal system that allows judges to act as prosecutors. Crazy.