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

Kiki's Delivery Service will be in theaters July 31. Some other old Studio Ghibli movies this summer too.

X (A24, 2022, dir: Ti West) is nothing particularly brilliant, but it's a well-acted and -structured treatment of a story of a group of (relatively) young people attempting to create a (relatively) high-brow independent porn in the 1970s. It's predominately a horror movie with some 1970s-type film aesthetics, and it is fairly grisly, but it's not without some lighter, comedic touches. West elevates the affair with some intergenerational social commentary, but don't go into it thinking that it's a whole lot more than a well-executed splatterfest.

On Tuesday I took my adult son to go see The Batman at the Imax for $6.00. I feel like I got my money's worth, and didn't hate it. There were a couple of moments where I said things out loud during the movie, which isn't common for me, like when Edward fired up the batmobile I got pretty excited. I'm not a huge Batman nerd or anything, it just did something for me. So as a fun movie, I give it my qualified recommendation. As part of a larger conversation about Batman movies, there are some problems, but again, let me emphasize that it was a perfectly fine movie to watch on Imax for six bucks.

Apparently everyone in the theater bought a giant tub of popcorn, and I have to say that there is a Venn diagram of odors in which artificial butter and rotting dead things overlaps, and the size of that shared space is not inconsequential. The next time I sit next to someone with an entire tub, I'm going to take out my collapsible popcorn container and say, "Hey, we both know you're not going to finish that--how about helping a brother out?"

One thing that stuck with me about this version of Batman is that he basically seemed like Edward from Twilight in an awesome suit of armor with motorcycle boots. In other flavors of Batman, he's not quite human, but in The Batman, Bruce/Edward gets beaten up and doesn't do anything that isn't outside the realm of material reality. I liked some of the other humanizing moments too, such as when he hesitates before . At other times, Gotham felt so much like 1980s New York that seeing Batman in his full costume walking around felt kind of weird and out of place, like that Saturday Night Live skit where hulk is hanging out with his friends at a party.



Like the rest of you, I was struck by the length of this. They catch the bad guy and then SURPRISE we've got a third act!

Other random thoughts: I totally did not want to so when Batman prevents that from happening I was pretty relieved. Cat Woman was pretty great. Believable, fun, sort of an outlaw, sort of not. I didn't mind the Penguin at all and thought [insert actor's name] did a good job. I guess at the end of the day there was a little too much going on in this movie, and in ways that weakened the film a little. But I still had a good time.

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Other movies: I watched Charade last night and it was pretty enjoyable. It was engaging for an almost-sixty-year-old movie, and definitely felt like a Hitchcock film. Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn had tons of chemistry, although watching him resist her advances and knowing he was probably gay in real life added a different vibe to the proceedings. A fun caper movie. Reading what I just wrote makes me feel like I'm 55. And I am 55.

Long post here, as I spent the weekend catching up on a few of the Oscar contenders so I can mostly have an opinion during the ceremony.

So, not really through much of my own fault, but I really wanted to see Dune on the big screen and it didn't happen until the weekend. I am one of the very rare people who irrationally love the Lynch version and don't think much of the book, and half way through I leaned over to my fiance and said "I can't believe I am saying this, but this is better than the 80s version". But then Villeneuve dropped the ball big time. The first 90 minutes is fantastic, but then he spends an hour doing what the other versions do in 5-10 minutes, and it drags and loses the audience. I still don't know what to make of it, as it is 10/10 for 90 minutes and then 5/10 for an hour. Given my son and fiance couldn't follow the plot, to justify the length they really needed to spend that extra length on the first bit, making things much clearer to the novice viewer.

Nightmare Alley took my two sessions as I started late at night and fell asleep so had to finish the rest the next day, and weirdly this worked and didn't work, as it felt like 2 films. The first hour was a bit of a mess and doesn't have much to do with the next 90 minutes which I did love, and that first hour is really unfocussed bringing in about 4 story threads that don't relate. Everything comes together in the end, but that script really needed a few more drafts to get it tighter.

The Power of the Dog is another one that is quite flawed. Like Nightmare Alley takes a long time to get to the point, and I like the story, but not the way it is told. Too many important plot points happen off screen, it meanders and takes its time, then rushes through important stuff. For example early on, two characters meet, and then a scene or two later the guy turns up and announces they are married. It is good, but I was so unsatisfied by it.

Flee is good, and I do hope it takes out it's 3 awards as it is bold and has such a beautiful style and is probably my second favourite 2021 film. There aren't any real surprises, but it is such a strong story of how difficult some people's passage through life can be through no fault or choice of their own

As for some of the other oscar nominees I have previously seen:
Don't Look Up is a weak 7. It's ok, but is the only one up for Best Film that is consistent, justifies its length and feels like a well thought through film.

Belfast I found frustrating as all the stuff with the troubles was really good, and then there are 3 other plots that happily progress as though this shit isn't happening around him. I know kids would be oblivious to a lot of big world events, but I just wanted hints of it there. Fights between Catholics and protestants in the playground or something.

As I follow the ceremony though I will be a touch annoyed as The Green Knight which was hands down the best film of the year and should win Best Film, Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay didn't get a single nomination.

Totally agreed on The Green Knight, was by far the best film this year.

I have to admit though, I liked Power of the Dog quite a bit. I also didn't mind the second half of Dune and thought it moved along quickly.

ATREIDES!

ATREIDES!

ATREIDES!

*horn blares*

I am starting to wonder if maybe the telecast would improve a lot if all oscar winners were decided by Thunderdome ...

Will Smith would definitely have won easily under the new system

I thought The Green Knight was well done, but that's about it. I'd gladly watch it again, but I didn't find it compelling. My vote for best picture was Drive My Car: dichotomouspurity.blogspot.com/2022/01/the-show-must-go-on.html

And, yeah, one wonders if they'll stay in the vein of announcing all of these anniversaries with tonight's events. "10 years ago, the audience sat stunned as Will Smith showed why he should be sent to live with his aunt and uncle in Bel-Air."

I'm curious how many comedians just cheered for the free 20 minutes of material. Will is a brutally easy target and he should be thanking Chris for going so easy on him after that slap.

Will isn't gonna get invited to a roast anytime soon either.

Jada is shit actress and a shit person. Her and Will are scientologist assholes too. I feel bad for Chris Rock because dude is gonna have scientology vans following him around to warn him about saying anything bad about Will after this.

I never watch the Oscars, or any of the other award shows, so I missed The Slap. I think that the whole debacle reflects poorly on all the participants. Chris shouldn't have made the joke, which was dated and cruel. Will shouldn't have slapped him, because violence is generally wrong except in self-defense. The people running the Oscars should have ejected Will. Jada and Will both should have been able to endure a bit of public mockery, since their open marriage has already made them targets. And while I try to avoid attacking people for their religion, scientology is an elaborate scam turned cult, created by a bad science-fiction writer.

The Oscars broadcast has been getting rolled by shows on every network short of Tubi for the last ten years. It's a format that went out of fashion when Dinah Shore had a tv show. Remember Dinah Shore? Exactly.

Frankly, it feels like they needed a way to actually get mentions in the morning newspapers, and got it. Short of that I would not have know the Oscars occurred.

Don't know if it was planned. Sure could have been. Sure should have been if it wasn't.

This is a show for actors to watch only. Oh, and Black Barney.

I haven't seen Drive My Car (should), but I'm fine with Coda winning among this generally very-good-but-not-great crop of films.

I've watched a few things lately because I was (and then my wife and I were both) sick for the better part of a week. (I blame myself for going outside--or, more accurately, to an indoor venue unmasked--for, like, only the second time in two+ years, though we didn't pick up covid.)

The original adaption of Firestarter overall isn't bad. I actually enjoy the psi tropes over more heavily used fantasy/SF ones in some respects. It's deliberate ("slow"?) by modern standards, and I'm sure the forthcoming remake will "rectify" that. The cast is littered with notables in even relatively minor roles in a way we just don't see these days. Martin Sheen does some nice work here, particularly in how he switches like a light from being an evil antagonist to unwitting ally via mind control. What's pretty unforgivable, though, is the sexualizing they put a preadolescent Drew Barrymore through. Her treatment by George C. Scott's character is supposed to be skeevy, but it's skeevy on levels beyond the intended, I think--or, perhaps, skeevy on levels that 80s audiences were presumed to be, I guess, tolerant of if not comfortable with. In some respects, it's not much different than the treatment Jodie Foster receives in "The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane" (1976), which, oddly or not oddly enough, also stars Sheen.

I was persuaded to watch the original Texas Chain Saw Massacre after I saw my wife watching the 2022 Netflix installment (and because of its obvious influence on the movie X, which I talked about earlier). It's . . . certainly visceral and upsetting, and it made me wonder about the seeming but perhaps imagined uptick in rural "hillbilly" villains in the 70s.

Extra Ordinary (2019) was a pleasant change-of-pace after both of those--a genial and fairly entertaining comedic take on psychic powers marred, IMO, by Will Forte's uncanny and perhaps unintentional channeling (see what I did there?) of Ron Burgundy.

Stripes, if anything, illustrates how much better a movie the original Ghostbusters (which came a few years later) was--where Stirpes is jejune, slack, and often poorly paced (and I'd discourage anyone from watching the extended version, which I once made the mistake of doing), Ghostbusters is near comedic perfection. Stripes obviously is not without laughs, given it was directed by Ivan Reitman and features near-creative-peak Murray and Ramis, and it's obviously dated in some ways that edgy comedies often exhibit after their eras. It's also a film that very much wants it both ways--the snarky outsider critique of the Army and the recognition and embrace of core Army values--that blunts whatever, if anything, it's trying to say. Contrast this with other "slobs vs. snobs"-type comedies of the period to note the difference; it'd be as if the caddies in Caddyshack ended the movie by themselves becoming club owners.

I haven't even heard of many of the nominees, let alone seen them, other than DUNE which of course cleaned up in the technical categories . This has been the case for many years now; Hollywood seems intent on navel gazing and self indulgence. My movie tastes are fairly simple and basic; I have little use for art house/"thinkie" type movies. Just blow shit up and/or entertain me is all I ask.

I've seen all but a couple of them. In contrast, many of us are interested in a lot of things other than films that "just blow shit up." I don't see it as "navel gazing" when most of the nominees happen to be stories that don't involve a single explosion, although both Dune and Don't Look Up did have them, if that's what you're into (and there's nothing wrong with that.) I'd also consider both of them to be among the bottom half if the Best Picture nominees were ranked as a list. Two excellent films that didn't make it were Red Rocket and C'mon C'mon.