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adamwatchesmovies · 4 years

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The Best of 2019

What a year. By the time 2019 ended, I had seen over 130 new movies. It's actually probably closer to 150 but I lost count. There are a few titles I missed, such as The Dead Don’t Die, The Fanatic and Honeyland so obviously, this is not an all-encompassing, definitive list of 2019’s best, but it should give you a good idea of which films you need to check out if you haven’t already.

I usually like to save the #10 spot on my list for a movie that’s just for me. Normally, this would mean a giant monster movie, an off-beat creation nobody else saw, a comic book movie that spoke to my particular tastes or maybe a Canadian movie I know didn’t get the opportunity to shine like it should’ve. This year, that’s not happening. Trimming my list down to 10 was hard enough. I certainly wasn’t going to sacrifice one more to make it just 9. Let's dig in.

10. The Farewell

It’s been weeks since The Farewell and I’m still thinking about it. If I was put in the same position as Billi, I'm not sure what I'd do? Is it better to tell someone that's dying that their days are numbered, or should you spare them from that burden? Is it really them you’d be sparing, or is keeping the secret for your own selfish needs? Writer/director Lulu Wang asks serious questions about culture I had never contemplated before. There’s a lot for you here and even more if your family comes from mixed backgrounds.

9. A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

I heard some complaints about Fred Rogers (Tom Hanks) not being the main character of this film by Marielle Heller, from writers Micah Fitzerman-Blue and Noah Harpster. It was the right choice. The plot has a cyical reporter meet Rogers and through their relatively brief interaction, learn what we knew going in. It delivers a moving character arc without having to stain its subject with flaws we didn't want to see. The quasi-meta presentation is what elevates it into top-10 status. That extra touch means it does a lot more than simply re-iterate what we saw in the 2018 documentary Won't You Be My Neighbor?.

8. Knives Out

Knives Out is one of the most entertaining films all year. There are no profound moments of meditation, no earth-shattering realizations about yourself, just a mystery to be solved. All the suspects are so intriguing they could be the stars of their own movies. Put together in the same house as a dead body and you’ve got no idea who did it. Its screenplay is excellent. The twists are juicy. Everything ads up in a satisfying manner. Rian Johnson is already working on a sequel. I can’t wait.

7. Apollo 11

There are few holdovers from the list I made halfway through the year, which either says something about the strength of the second half of 2019, or the weakness of the first. Either way, you’ve got to see Apollo 11. It’s the closest thing to going back in time and being there when man landed on the moon. The tension and anticipation are overwhelming. Knowing what happened doesn't matter. The way the footage is assembled is nothing short of incredible. Why this documentary wasn't present at the Academy Awards is beyond me.

6. Uncut Gems

Adam Sandler should’ve been nominated for an Oscar. He wasn’t. I’ll bet you dollars to donuts it's because of his association with all of those brain-dead Happy Madison Production comedies. His history with cinema shouldn't matter. The movie is what matters. The fact is, this was the perfect role for him. It isn’t even that Sandler’s doing something different, it’s that he’s being used to his full potential. If you weren’t glued to the screen, eager to see what’s coming next, this movie would have you jumping out of the window screaming - anything to escape the anxiety the Safdie Brothers serve up with devilish grins.

5. The Lighthouse

Next on my list is The Lighthouse. Right away, the aspect ratio and black-and-white cinematography lets you know you’re in for something different. You have no idea. What I love so much about this film is the way it handles madness. At the end of the day, I’m not sure if I could tell you if Robert Pattinson’s character was crazy, if Willem Dafoe’s character was the nutty one, or if they both were. It shows you just enough to make you doubt your own sanity. It’s also unexpectedly funny, which makes it feel oddly genuine. In one scene, Robert Pattinson's Ephraim Winslow gets a hold of the lighthouse's logs. In it, his boss, Thomas (Willem Dafoe) recommends Ephraim be disciplined for masturbating excessively. Considering Thomas has been cavorting with some kind of tentacle creature up in the lighthouse (at least that's what I think I saw, I'm not so sure anymore), all you can do is laugh. What kind of loony bin is this turning into? One I'm looking forward to revisiting.

4. 1917

Shot in a way that makes it all look like one take, 1917 is a technical marvel. It hooks itself up to your circular system and steadily replaces your blood with pure, undistilled stress. As you're about to flatline, it stops and gives you a breather. A shot of a meadow untouched by the ravages of war; a reminder of what the soldiers are fighting for and of how utterly devastating armed combat is on humanity as a whole. Gorgeous cinematography, powerful emotions, magnificent production values.

3. Joker

Along with Godzilla: King of the Monsters (a movie they basically made for me), this was my most anticipated movie of the year. To get ready, I watched Taxi Driver and The King of Comedy, two Scorsese films Joker director Todd Phillips drew a lot of inspiration from. For some reason, it seems as though many critics took offense to the similarities. Sometimes I understand differing opinions from mine. This time, I don’t. It’s a great film that warns of the dangers of letting people like Arthur Fleck (brilliantly performed by Joaquin Phoenix) fall through the cracks. Left unchecked, he discovers that by doing terrible things, he becomes a “better” version of himself. It’s not a drama. It’s a horror movie that spins the familiar Batman archenemy in a new direction but also stays true to the character. There are several scenes in this movie that are going to be permanently imprinted in my brain. Those stairs. Need I say more?

Runner-ups

Avengers: Endgame

Even if every single Marvel movie going forward is awful, this caps off the whopping 22-chapter saga epically. A couple of aspects bugged me enough that it could only manage to make the runner-up list but it's a terrific film.

Booksmart

The funniest comedy of the year. I think back to Amy and Molly using their hairs as masks and still can't manage to hold back a few chuckles months later.

Toy Story 4

This one was hard to cut. The only flaw I could find was that it isn’t on the same level as 3… even though they’re both 5-star movies.

Midsommar

I’ve heard the extended cut is even better than the original. I wish I’d had the chance to see it in theatres.

Jojo Rabbit

Audacious and heartfelt. I loved those scenes of Scarlett Johanson being a mom. Her agent might've dropped the ball getting her cast in Ghost in the Shell but she sure knew how to pick great work in 2019.

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood

Quentin Tarantino brings us back to a time when Roman Polanski was simply a good director instead of a convicted rapist, movie stars were untouchable, and the death of someone’s wife under mysterious circumstances was nothing to raise eyebrows about. It’s not a movie that screams “here and now”. If anything, it’s regressive. That said, I cannot deny the experience I had watching it. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime kinda thing and I doubt even Tarantino could pull it off again. I wonder how many people went in knowing what happened to Sharon Tate like I did.

Marriage story

It’s nothing but raw emotion and powerhouse performances in this drama about two people you love going through a divorce. I always make it my goal to watch movies all the way through without any interruptions. Several times throughout, I was tempted to hit "Pause" so I could catch my breath.

Internet lists are everywhere. You know why, don’t you? They suck you in and when you get down to it, most don��t require all that much effort to put together. Except when I make them, apparently. These bi-annual lists always turn out to be difficult to put together. 2019's proved particularly arduous. I’m fairly sure that my #3 movie belongs there. Out of all the movies on this list, it’s probably the one I’m going to go back to most often. The other two? I’d say that technically, one may be better than the other but I think the other one is “more important” so that gives it the edge. What I’m trying to say is, they’re all winners and on a different day, I might even swap them around.

2. Little Women

I have only seen three of the seven silver screen adaptations of Louisa May Alcott’s novel and I don’t expect any of the others to top this one. The secret ingredient to this one's success is Greta Gerwig. Writing and directing, she does so much more than merely translate the classic to movie form. She re-arranges the story to give the events a greater punch than they would if they were shown chronologically and puts a little more emphasis on a couple of key moments (that tear-jerking Christmas, for example) to crank up the emotion. She also makes it more modern without having to change anything about the setting or characters. Admittedly, the back-and-forth between the past and present is a little jarring at first - makes you wonder what Greta Gerwig could’ve done had she been given the de-aging budget Martin Scorsese was given - but that’s where the performances and costumes come in. It takes mere moments before you get what the movie is doing. I’ve said it already but it made me cry.

1. Parasite

To make this list, I didn’t go through all of my past reviews and check which ones were rated what. I thought back to which movies gave me the most vivid memories, which ones gave me the biggest reactions. I’m still not sure how I feel about the final final moment but there’s so much about Parasite that I admire. This would be a great one to watch with others just to see their reactions to the reveal about the bookcase.

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jul-iet · 4 years

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weird asks that say a lot

1. coffee mugs, teacups, wine glasses, water bottles, or soda cans? Coffee mugs

2. chocolate bars or lollipops? Chocolate bars

3. bubblegum or cotton candy? Bubblegum. Cinnamon

4. how did your elementary school teachers describe you? Performative, joyful, clever? Haha

5. do you prefer to drink soda from soda cans, soda bottles, plastic cups or glass cups? From soda cans

6. pastel, boho, tomboy, preppy, goth, grunge, formal or sportswear? ...

7. earbuds or headphones? Earbuddies

8. movies or tv shows? TV shows

9. favourite smell in the summer? All of it! Seaweed, wind from the ocean, rain on hot ground, thick air

10. game you were best at in p.e.? Most. Running maybe? I enjoyed soccer, basketball

11. what you have for breakfast on an average day? Croissants on the best of days, otherwise— some kind of toast maybe paired with fruit

12. name of your favourite playlist? Nice to revisit ones named after places I went

13. lanyard or key ring? Key ring

14. favourite non-chocolate candy? Sour ones

15. favourite book you read as a school assignment? Catcher and the Rye maybe, at the time? Or Lord of the Flies. I really liked studying Shakespeare

16. most comfortable position to sit in? Criss cross or w my knees tucked up to my chest

17. most frequently worn pair of shoes? White sneakers

18. ideal weather? Sunny

19. sleeping position? Usually on my left side, sometimes on my back in a crescent shape

20. preferred place to write (i.e., in a note book, on your laptop, sketchpad, post-it notes, etc.)? Journal

21. obsession from childhood? Fictional relationships in my teens, the movie Spirit in my early childhood

22. role model? A well adjusted person with creative life and intellectual exertions

23. strange habits? A bunch I’m sure

24. favourite crystal? Don’t know that I do

25. first song you remember hearing? Apart from movie soundtracks, it’s Tiny Dancer whilst driving south through a desert

26. favourite activity to do in warm weather? Swim

27. favourite activity to do in cold weather? Get warm? Maybe read

28. five songs to describe you? Girl from the North Country, Wildflowers, People I’ve Been Sad, Shrike, Come Back to Camden

29. best way to bond with you? Be kind and interested in things

30. places that you find sacred?

31. what outfit do you wear to kick ass and take names? Tank top wide legs pants and sneakers

32. top five favourite vines?

33. most used phrase in your phone? Probably “haha” :P

34. advertisements you have stuck in your head? NB shoes may b

35. average time you fall asleep? Between one and two, but I’m trying to remedy that

36. what is the first meme you remember ever seeing? Couldn’t recall

37. suitcase or duffel bag? Suitcase

38. lemonade or tea? Tea if I had to choose, but I love lemonade (could make lemon tea and cool…)

39. lemon cake or lemon meringue pie? Lemon cake

40. weirdest thing to ever happen to you at your school? Maybe the fire alarm fiasco

41. last person you texted? Group of 2

42. jacket pockets or pants pockets? Jacket pockets

43. hoodie, leather jacket, cardigan, jean jacket or bomber jacket? Cardi

44. favourite scent for soap? Mmm lots

45. which genre: sci-fi, fantasy or superhero? Fantasy, maybe? None, really

46. most comfortable outfit to sleep in? Shirt knick

47. favourite type of cheese? Brie

48. if you were a fruit, what kind would you be? A rasp I think? Or a tomato

49. what saying or quote do you live by? This one rings true to my daily thoughts. By Cheryl Strayed: "You go on by doing the best you can. You go on by being generous. You go on by being true. You go on by offering comfort to others who can't go on. You go on by allowing the unbearable days to pass and allowing the pleasure in other days. You go on by finding a channel for your love and another for your rage."

50. what made you laugh the hardest you ever have? Probably shenanigans w my sister

51. current stresses? Circumstance, school, direction, reflection

52. favorite font? TNR!!!

53. what is the current state of your hands? Fabü

54. what did you learn from your first job? How to make coffee and to serve strangers

55. favourite fairy tale? Don’t know that I do. Is Dumbo a fairy tale? A Little Life is part fairy tale according to Hanya

56. favourite tradition? Cards

57. the three biggest struggles you’ve overcome? Lightly, quickly, vaguely: childhood, panic, listlessness

58. four talents you’re proud of having? Painting, writing, smarts, quick reflexes

59. if you were a video game character, what would your catchphrase be?

60. if you were a character in an anime, what kind of anime would you want it to be? IDK anime

61. favourite line you heard from a book/movie/tv show/etc.? Recently, from A Little Life:

"“I’m going”, he tells Jude, but then he doesn’t move. A dragonfly, as shiny as a scarab, hums above them. “I’m going”, he repeats, but he still doesn’t move, and it is only the third time he says it that he’s finally able to stand up from the lounge chair, drunk on the hot air, and shove his feet back into his loafers. “Limes”, says Jude, looking up at him and shielding his eyes against the sun. “Right”, he says, and bends down, takes Jude’s sunglasses off him, kisses him on his eyelids, and replaces his glasses. Summer, JB has always said, is Jude’s season: his skin darkens and his hair lightens to almost the same shade, making his eyes turn an unnatural green, and Willem has to keep himself from touching him too much.”

62. seven characters you relate to? I feel that I’m more able to understand than relate to characters, but… the way Patti Smith expresses herself in her biographical books, Little Creek, Willem for how he deals with other peoples’ pain… I think I don’t encounter enough characters for this

63. five songs that would play in your club? Waterloo, Right Down the Line, Nobody’s Diary, Cringe, Take Your Mama

64. favourite website from your childhood? Haha freearcade for wiz 3 maybe

65. any permanent scars? From trips falls cooking singes

66. favourite flower(s)? Wild! No one particularly

67. good luck charms? I feel like my rings are good luck. I’ve had good luck symbols that have come and gone in time

68. worst flavour of any food or drink you’ve ever tried? I think root beer is rank

69. a fun fact that you don’t know how you learned? I know there’s a bunch but they come up by chance not choice

70. left or right handed? Right

71. least favourite pattern? Houndstooth?

72. worst subject? Maybe physics

73. favourite weird flavour combo? Idk if I have a favourite… dipped digestives in tatziki recently and it wasn’t bad

74. at what pain level out of ten (1 through 10) do you have to be at before you take an advil or ibuprofen? 7 maybe

75. when did you lose your first tooth? In kindergarten

76. what’s your favourite potato food (i.e. tater tots, baked potatoes, fries, chips, etc.)? Salt and vinegar chips

77. best plant to grow on a windowsill? I’d say herbs for cooking… thyme, basil, rosemary, mint

78. coffee from a gas station or sushi from a grocery store? Gas station coffee

79. which looks better, your school id photo or your driver’s license photo? School ID

80. earth tones or jewel tones? Earthy

81. fireflies or lightning bugs? Fireflies

82. pc or console? Beyond me

83. writing or drawing? Writing usually

84. podcasts or talk radio? Pods

84. barbie or polly pocket? Neither

85. fairy tales or mythology? Mythology?

86. cookies or cupcakes? Cookies

87. your greatest fear? Balding unfulfilled potential infection insanity

88. your greatest wish? Romantic love

89. who would you put before everyone else?

90. luckiest mistake? I feel like the way certain trips fell together was lucky

91. boxes or bags? Bags

92. lamps, overhead lights, sunlight or fairy lights? Sunlight

93. nicknames? Jet yetti jules julio

94. favourite season? Summer

95. favourite app on your phone? Spotify, duolingo, YT… soft spot for all my old travel apps

96. desktop background? Lake water

97. how many phone numbers do you have memorized? I think around 5

98. favourite historical era? Don’t have one

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romancandlemagazine · 4 years

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An Interview with John Lurie

Whilst most humanoids struggle to master even one useful skill in life, John Lurie is one of those adept rapscallions who can seemingly turn their hand to pretty much anything — from acting to angling.

This knack has led to a fairly stacked C.V. which involves such notable achievements as forming a rule-flouting jazz band called The Lounge Lizards, appearing in films like Down by Law, Paris, Texas and Wild at Heart and showing his paintings in exhibitions all over the planet.

And if all that wasn’t enough, he’s also hosted his own fishing show, and, with the help of Dennis Hopper, once came particularly close to snagging the elusive giant squid.

Here’s what he had to say about fishing, New York in the '70s and the importance of humour in the world...

First question… your television programme Fishing with John is mint. How did that come about?

I was threatening to do it for a long time, but wasn’t really serious. I would go fishing with Willem and we would video tape it. I flew out one New Year’s Eve to play with Tom Waits and the next day we went and fished with Stephen Torton video taping it.

This woman, Debra Brown, saw the tapes, home movies actually, and brought them to a Japanese company that was looking to get involved in things in New York.

She came back to me and said they wanted to make a pilot. I believe my response was, "Are you kidding?"

When you watch a film or television program, you only see the end result. What was it like filming that thing? Were there any mad struggles?

If you see something good, you can just assume there were mad struggles. If you see something bad, you can assume that people were too lazy to take on the mad struggles.

If I am flicking through the channels looking for a movie, I can tell you in five seconds if a movie is going to be any good by the sound of the door closing or the light or the music or whatever.

Why do you think people love fishing so much?

First off, so we can go to these beautiful places and pretend to be doing something. We wouldn’t go if there were nothing to do. And there is that visceral thing. A big fish on the line is like that exhilarating sports thing, like hitting a baseball perfectly or shooting a basket and the net just goes swish.

And then there is that thing of the world of mystery, right next to the world we are living in. What is in there? We are only going to be aware of what is there with a hook and a nylon string.

So of course we have to drag this amazing creature out of the water and kill it because human beings are pretty much ridiculous. The last bit is not why we love fishing, it’s just an observation.

I’d say it’s a pretty sharp observation. Did you ever face anger from the fishing community due to the lack of more conventional fishing?

Yes.

Why isn’t more television like Fishing with John? I hear we’re supposedly in the age of ‘peak TV’ or whatever, but why is there so much boring stuff out there?

The great thing about this, and a big shout out to Kenji Okabe from Telecom Japan, was they left me alone. I am fairly certain that the reason Breaking Bad was so great was because they left Vince Gilligan alone.

With most projects there are all these people meddling with what you do, to ruin it. The Gatekeepers. It is almost like there is a conspiracy to maintain mediocrity.

Going back a bit now, am I right in saying you’re from Minneapolis originally. What were you into as a child?

At first, dinosaurs and archeology. Then reptiles, particularly snakes after we moved to New Orleans. I was going to open my own snake farm. Then I was pretty sure one day, I would play center field for the Yankees.

An attainable dream. You moved to New York in the late 70s, and not long after, you started The Lounge Lizards. It seems like New York at that time is glamourized a bit now, but what was it like for you? What food did you eat? Where did you go at night? What streets were good to walk down? What did it smell like?

I was trying to remember the food I ate back then and couldn’t remember. I was pretty broke most of the time. They used to serve hors d’oevres at gallery openings and cheese became a large part of my regular diet.

Almost every night, or maybe not even “almost” — more like every night — we went to the Mudd Club. More than what streets were “good” to walk down, I can tell you which streets were bad to go down. I lived on East Third St across from the Men’s Shelter, so my block smelled of rotting garbage and urine.

What are some bits that people don’t talk about from that time? What sucked about back then?

It went fairly quickly from people having more relentless fun than any period in human history to a fairly grim time, a year or two later. There was the beginning of AIDs. I had many friends who were dying or horrifyingly sick. People were getting strung out. There were many deaths. Car accidents. People fell out of windows.

Also, with the artistic promise that was there, the output is disappointing. I suppose the wildness led to a lack of discipline and the work wasn’t nearly as good as it should have been.

I might be wrong, but it seems like at that time people just did what they felt like doing… people made films, music or anything else, with no regard for budget. I suppose for example, you made a film called Men in Orbit in your apartment for $500. Where did this freedom come from?

The freedom came from a ferocious demand to have that freedom at any cost. But it is odd or sad, because the more talented of those people seem to have gone unknown and the people who are now household names are, mostly, the ones who played the game by the rules from the beginning.

Do you think people nowadays get too hung up on money? Or perhaps too hung up on success?

I think people nowadays for the most part are quite lost and afraid. So they do whatever they think they must do to have a successful career, even if it means that they are making shit — and it usually does mean they are making shit.

The Lounge Lizard’s album, Voice of Chunk is an amazing record. What sort of stuff were you listening to when you made that? And who is Bob the Bob?

The listening came from earlier in my life. Evan and I would devour everything. From Stravinsky to Monk to Little Walter to Coltrane to Tibetan music to Ellington to Dolphy to Pigmy music (you get the idea).

Later, when working on my own stuff, I stopped listening to pretty much everything. Though when I was in Morocco doing Last Temptation, I played a lot with Gnawa musicians that shifted me a bit. And around that time Evan discovered Piazzolla.

Bob the Bob is Kazu from Blonde Redhead. That is her mouth on the cover of the record. I still call her Bob.

You’re a prolific painter. Are there certain things that you notice recurring in your paintings?

I live on a small Caribbean island. There are flowers everywhere. I don’t like to think that they influence what I paint but they do. Fucking flowers.

A lot of people paint when they’re young, then stop. Why do you think that is? How come you didn’t stop?

The best paintings I have seen in the last 30 years or so are the ones taped to refrigerators. I don’t know why people stop painting or when they don't stop, why the painting gets so stiff.

I am sure my mother, who painted herself and taught art in Liverpool where the Beatles went, but not at the same time, had something to do with me keeping a freedom in my work. To not be afraid of that childlike dream thing.

Though it has been suggested that it may be time for me to get in touch with my “inner adult.”

How do you know when a painting is finished?

I ask Nesrin. If she says it is finished, I know it isn’t.

You seem like a pretty funny guy. Do you think humour is sometimes underrated? Do people take stuff too seriously sometime?

I think humor is immensely important. I think humor can shift society’s consciousness in a better way than almost anything else. So from Shakespeare to Mark Twain to Lenny Bruce to Richard Pryor and many more - these people shifted things for the better.

Do you know who was president when Mark Twain was at his peak? Benjamin Harrison. Who the fuck was Benjamin Harrison?

What are your thoughts on the internet? It seems like it’s a big thing these days.

I get so disappointed with people because I feel like social media could be an enormously positive thing for the world. And I certainly don’t mean to exclude humor, just I have heard enough fart jokes for one lifetime…

Something that bothers me quite a bit, is a star athlete gets hurt and then the response on places like twitter is close to joy. What kind of bitterness about your own life would make you behave like that?

You’ve just recently released a new Marvin Pontiac album after 17 years. This one is called The Asylum Tapes, and was reportedly made on a four track recorder in a mental institution. Back story aside, what made you want to make an album again?

I have Advanced Lyme, so I was unable to play anything for a long time. Actually because of what was happening to me neurologically, I couldn’t even hear music for the first few years — it was more like fingernails on a blackboard.

As I slowly got better, I was able to play guitar and harmonica again, though playing saxophone would seem to be done for me in this life.

But I am very proud of this album and hope people get a chance to hear it. I made it to cheer people up.

Are people still confused about who Marvin Pontiac is?

I suppose so. He is a character I created to make this music. I suppose that is bad marketing, but fuck it.

Would the album be different if it was a John Lurie album? Do you feel like you can get away with more stuff as Marvin Pontiac? Or maybe what I mean is, is it easier to say some things as Marvin Pontiac?

Yes, absolutely. Marvin gives me a certain freedom. I doubt I would put out a record where I sing about a bear saying, “Smell my sandwich.” But I’m happy that I get a chance to do that.

The lyrics are pretty straight up and direct. Do you sit and stew on songs and ideas for long, or do you just get it out?

Often they just come straight up. Like 'My Bear To Cross' I pretty much just came up with it live in the studio. Some took quite a while. And there are a couple where I never found the right lyrics to finish off a song and put them aside.

Okay, last question… do you think a lot of stuff is too over-thought and over-prepared? Does thinking sometimes get in the way?

Let me think about that.

#John Lurie #Lounge Lizards #New York #Jazz #Interviews

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the-working-class-guide-to-films · 4 years

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Motherless Brooklyn

Edward Norton’s 2nd directional film is the book, Motherless Brooklyn, written by Jonathan Lethem. Norton acts as well as directs, playing the lead called Lionel, a guy who has Tourette’s and is working for a Private Detective agency under the guidance of Frank, played by Bruce Willis. Whilst out on a mysterious job, Frank is murdered and Lionel tries to find out why he was killed and what Frank was up to.

This is a really interesting concept for a film, especially with the condition that Lionel has. The film relies on this a little, especially at the beginning of the film during a phone conversation, but then it isn’t really used. His condition almost doesn’t serve a purpose and doesn’t add anything to the story. Set during the 1950′s as well this really captures that age of America and of Noir films, it would have been interesting to see this in black and white. In the book, it is set during the present day (1999, when it came out), and considering it was changed to replicate the dialogue of that age I think it might have been cooler to change the colour as well. There’s lot of different storylines going on that at times is a bit heavy going. They tie together at the end of the film but at a run time of nearly two and a half hours, my patience was wearing a little bit fun, which was a shame as there are a lot of good things about this movie. I love Ed Norton, one of the best actors about, he gets labelled a perfectionist, which in my eyes is no bad thing, however in this film it almost seems like everything is a bit forced to make THE perfect film. Norton called this his pet project when he first read the book. It becomes a little bit indulgent, some of the scenes last too long, the shots can be a bit slow. Maybe Norton didn’t want it to end, and at times it seemed like it was never going to. It never seemed to know what it was either. At times it was a crime neo-noir, sometimes a comedy, then a drama about black rights. It was just too much.

A lot of the positives come from the source material, so it is hard to praise the story. The screenplay was written by Norton, surprisingly. However it does cover some interesting topics like gentrification and the class system. Like I said, this was one of the storylines and whilst it didn’t get pushed aside, there was always something else going on where you forgot about it a little. There were some good performances from a cast full of big stars. Norton gives a very emotional and tantalising performance. Willem Dafoe also turns up as the slightly manic brother of the villain. From the looks of the trailer for the upcoming The Lighthouse film, this performance seems like a build up to pure Dafoe madness.

2/5

I think that Norton maybe took on too much responsibility for this film. Directed, acted, produced and wrote the screenplay is a lot to do, especially for a story that’s as big as this was. It could have done with some fine-tuning and tightening up to make it more enjoyable. Although it was shot lovely, and the performances were good with some compelling storylines going on, it was just a little bit messy and all over the shop.

#film #Film Review #movies #movie review #cinema #cinema review #new #motherless brooklyn #edward norton #willem dafoe #bruce willis #gugu mbatha-raw #alec baldwin

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tay-centricpsychosis · 4 years

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I’ve been debating whether to start a blog for a little while now, but I’ve been writing some stuff in preparation of it for about a week. Following is everything I wrote:

Writing is difficult, but I said I would with my psychologist, so I guess I’ll start a journal or something of sorts and see if the words flow. I’m 25 now, the years have gotten away from me a bit, time really does seem to fly, especially looking back on it. Last year I had a couple of psychotic breaks. As a result of the psychotic breaks, I got diagnosed with Schizophrenia. My psychologist thinks it was drug-induced psychosis. I don’t really know which it was because I’ve been on antipsychotics since the second admission to hospital, but I also haven’t been taking drugs since the second admission to hospital, so whether it’s the lack of drugs or the addition of prescription drugs that’s keeping me symptom free, I don’t know.

I’ve been having a debate with myself over whether or not I’m actually schizophrenic or whether it’s drug-induced psychosis. In support of schizophrenia, I had what could be described as a prodromal phase where I seemed to lose all capacity for study and work, where I was isolating a bit, and generally disengaging with life. On the other hand, that could be due to me smoking weed almost every day for about two years. Now I seem to have what could be described as negative symptoms of schizophrenia; apathy, anhedonia, poverty of thought, reduced social drive, loss of motivation. On the other hand, these symptoms have also been described as side-effects of the antipsychotics I’m on. Part of me wants to stop the antipsychotics now to see if the negative effects are alleviated, and if the positive effects (delusions, hallucinations) return. Then I’d have an answer to the question of whether it’s drug-induced psychosis or schizophrenia. On the other hand, I’ve only been on the antipsychotics for about six months now, and treatment protocol for schizophrenia says that staying on the antipsychotics for one to two years after first-episode psychosis improves long-term outcomes. If I stop the meds and I need the meds, long term outcomes are worse, but if I stay on the meds and don’t need them, they’re making my current situation noticeably worse: A real catch 22.

I suppose the negative symptoms aren’t too terrible at the moment, anyway. I’m managing to hold down a job, though it doesn’t take many hours in a week. I’m writing a bit, though I doubt it’s any good. I manage to get my ten thousand steps most days, though I’ve been very lazy this week. I’m worried that they’ll be a severe detriment to my schooling once I go back, but that remains to be seen. I currently sleep about twelve hours a day, which will be a severe detriment to my schooling, however, I’m currently writing this at nearly 8AM on no sleep, after waking at 5PM yesterday. I’m hoping I can make it through the day on no sleep, go to bed early tonight, and work my way towards a better sleep routine in preparation for school. So I guess I have plans for the future, which is good.

I’m currently trying to drink less alcohol, and I’ve stopped smoking. I used to have a pretty severe drinking problem, I’d drink a box of wine in about two days, two to three times a week. Last night I was going to buy a bottle of whiskey and get drunk, but stopped myself halfway to the liquor store. Writing always makes me want to smoke, but I’m currently resisting the temptation to go buy a pack. Quitting kind of sucks, but I decided that despite whatever hardships I may face, I still want to live, so quitting both booze and cigs is probably in my best interest.

I miss drugs, I never really did a lot of different drugs, just weed and LSD. I was quite regularly smoking weed, and I guess I’ll miss how it seemed to make things more interesting. I’ll really miss LSD, it seemed to make life worth living, and made everything better. I was suffering from some fairly severe depression for a while and an LSD trip pulled me out of it. I was thinking about microdosing LSD to try and pull me out of the anhedonia and apathy I’m currently feeling, but I don’t think that’s a good idea, and the antipsychotics negate the effect of LSD anyway. I was a lot more creative on LSD as well, but I’ll probably try and be creative later in these writings too. We’ll see how that goes.

I tried to have a nap, but then I got an idea. Rather than writing this all and keeping it to myself, maybe I should start a blog instead. I’ll call it ‘Tay-Centric Psychosis’, I always wanted to start a movie reviewing blog, and maybe I could incorporate that too. It might be a good exercise to keep me writing, and might help me become more involved in life, a record of my existence, it might help keep me grounded in reality as well. It might help me be more social too, since that’s a space that I feel I’m severely lacking at the moment. I don’t know, it might even help someone, I don’t know how, but it’s a nice thought.

I woke up at 7PM after 17 hours of sleep yesterday, my plan to not sleep and fix my sleep schedule did not work. I’m committing myself to waking up before noon this week, no matter how many hours of sleep I get. Hopefully writing it down here will keep me committed and honest. Orientation week for Uni is next week. I’m hoping to be up at 9 on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday to make the most out of the orientation. Then it’s back to Uni the week after, and I really want to commit myself to the work and hopefully succeed this year. I assume it’s going to be a struggle for the first few weeks going every day, since I haven’t actually been to a lecture in quite a few years, but hopefully I can fall into a routine and be better for it. I’m worried I’m putting too much pressure on myself going back to school this year. Just living seems to be pretty difficult at the moment, so putting Uni and holding down a job on top of it seems like a recipe for disaster. I got a tarot reading, though, and it said if I put the effort in my schooling will be successful. Kind of nervous to see how this year goes, but as long as I stay out of the hospital, I guess it’ll be better than last year.

We watched The Lighthouse the other night; it was pretty good. I enjoyed the director’s previous film The VVitch too, this one had a lot of the same sort of feel going on. A very competent horror film with some particularly brutal moments. Great performances from both Robert Pattinson and Willem Dafoe, Willem Dafoe in particular. Spilled beans/10.

I watched Pain and Glory, a delightful film about a director, heroin addiction, and back pain. I haven’t seen any of Almodóvar’s other films, but this one came highly recommended. Antonio Banderas gave a stellar performance, and Penélope Cruz was stunning as always. Beautifully shot, with a great soundtrack, it was gripping the entire way through. Sciatica/10

First two days of sleeping better seem to be going soundly, as discussed with my psychologist I’m trying to get into the habit of going to sleep at 11:30 and waking up at 8. Day one of this schedule has gone fine. Hopefully by keeping track of it, I’ll encourage myself to stick to it.

I don’t know, the boringness of my life is what’s keeping me from making a blog, I doubt anyone would find it of any interest since it is basically just skating by on a definition of life at the moment. It’s still probably a good idea, and who knows what people find interesting these days. I think if I wrote about what my actual delusions were some people might find it more interesting. There was a lot to it, though, and I guess I’m worried about being judged for them. Maybe some other time.

I keep in touch with a person I met in the hospital, she called me last night and we had a bit of a talk. She’s one of the few people I’ve had any meaningful conversations with in the last month or so. She considers me to be high functioning in my disorder, which is nice to think about. From what I’ve read, if I do have schizophrenia, I’ll probably deteriorate as I get older, which is an unpleasant thought, but focus on the positive and for now at least I am holding down a job and getting my 10,000 steps a day. If I’m active and properly engaged when I go back to school, honestly, I’m probably doing better than I have in the past 4 or so years, despite the disability. We’ll see, I guess. I bought a parking permit for school today, which if I’m to get my money’s worth out of it, requires me to go every day I have lessons, so I’m hoping that serves as encouragement to stay engaged this year as well.

I’ll probably write more in the future as things progress, but I guess it’s a start to start my blog. I think people will find my psychoses interesting if I go into detail about them, which I might do. Anyway, this is my first post, and hopefully I can develop my blog further.

#mental health #schizophrenia #psychosis #depression

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cinemavariety · 5 years

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The Director’s Series: David Lynch

The director series will consist of me concentrating on the filmography of all my favorite directors. I will rank each of their films according to my personal taste. I hope this project will provide everyone with quality recommendations and insight into films that they might not have known about.

Today’s director in spotlight is David Lynch

#10 - Dune (1984) Runtime: 2 hr 17 min Aspect Ratio: 2.35 : 1 Film Format: 35mm

In the year 10,191, the world is at war for control of the desert planet Dune – the only place where the time-travel substance ‘Spice’ can be found. But when one leader gives up control, it’s only so he can stage a coup with some unsavory characters.

Verdict: Most directors who make enough films will always have a few misses. Dune is almost unwatchable with its convoluted storyline that will confuse anyone who hasn’t read the novel. I’ll give it this - the set and costume design are out of this world, no pun intended.

#9 - The Straight Story (1999) Runtime: 1 hr 52 min Aspect Ratio: 2.39 : 1 Film Format: 35 mm

A retired farmer and widower in his 70s, Alvin Straight learns one day that his distant brother Lyle has suffered a stroke and may not recover. Alvin is determined to make things right with Lyle while he still can, but his brother lives in Wisconsin, while Alvin is stuck in Iowa with no car and no driver’s license. Then he hits on the idea of making the trip on his old lawnmower, thus beginning a picturesque and at times deeply spiritual odyssey.

Verdict: The only one of Lynch’s films that could be considered purely “heartwarming”. It also feels the least like a Lynch film, with the director never really foraying into his autuerist territory. It is a simple, cute film that didn’t exactly leave much of an impression on me.

#8 - Lost Highway (1997) Runtime: 2 hr 14 min Aspect Ratio: 2.35 : 1 Film Format: 35mm

A tormented jazz musician finds himself lost in an enigmatic story involving murder, surveillance, gangsters, doppelgangers, and an impossible transformation inside a prison cell.

Verdict: Lost Highway has a few scenes that I find to be the most bone-chilling in Lynch’s oeuvre. However, I wish that the entirety of this film had the same effect on me. There are more than enough satisfying plot elements to this, but I also feel like Lynch utilizing a modern soundtrack more than Badalementi’s superb score really does make this film feel dated.

#7 - The Elephant Man (1980) Runtime: 2 hr 4 min Aspect Ratio: 2.35 : 1 Film Format: 35mm

A Victorian surgeon rescues a heavily disfigured man being mistreated by his “owner” as a side-show freak. Behind his monstrous façade, there is revealed a person of great intelligence and sensitivity. Based on the true story of Joseph Merrick, a severely deformed man in 19th century London.

Verdict: The Elephant Man showcases how cruel human nature can be. It is one of Lynch’s most sentimental works that manages to be both horrendous and beautiful. John Hurt’s performance as the “elephant man” is multilayered and one of the most impressive, humanistic feats of an artist embodying a character with the utmost ingenuity.

#6 - Blue Velvet (1986) Runtime: 2 hr Aspect Ratio: 2.35 : 1 Film Format: 35mm

The discovery of a severed human ear found in a field leads a young man on an investigation related to a beautiful, mysterious nightclub singer and a group of criminals who have kidnapped her child.

Verdict: This is Lynch’s detective film, and I would say one of the best starting films for someone looking to get into his work. It has all of the surrealist plot motifs we come to expect from Lynch, but also has a pretty understandable storyline for the most part. Blue Velvet explores the dark underbelly beneath the fake “harmless” veneer of a seemingly quiet and peaceful small town.

#5 - Wild at Heart (1990) Runtime: 2 hr 5 min Aspect Ratio: 2.35 : 1 Film Format: 35mm

Young lovers Sailor and Lula run from the variety of weirdos that Lula’s mom has hired to kill Sailor.

Verdict: Many might not see Wild at Heart as one of Lynch’s strongest works, but I personally find it to be the most fun film he has ever made. Lynch creates such a wide variety of scummy characters that truly make your stomach church (I am looking at you Willem Dafoe). It’s one of those so-bad-it’s-perfect movies and the Wizard of Oz allusions are a great addition to the story.

#4 - Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me (1992) Runtime: 2 hr 14 min Aspect Ratio: 1.85 : 1 Film Format: 35mm

In the questionable town of Deer Meadow, Washington, FBI Agent Desmond inexplicably disappears while hunting for the man who murdered a teen girl. The killer is never apprehended, and, after experiencing dark visions and supernatural encounters, Agent Dale Cooper chillingly predicts that the culprit will claim another life. Meanwhile, in the more cozy town of Twin Peaks, hedonistic beauty Laura Palmer hangs with lowlifes and seems destined for a grisly fate. Verdict: I think it’s a real shame that this film was held in such low regard by both critics and fans alike when it was released. These people seemed to be truly confused as to the types of films Lynch makes. Thankfully, it has developed into a real cult classic since then. This film, which also serves as a prequel to the iconic television series, abandons the campy tone of the series and is Lynch achieving the vision that he wanted from the show. It’s a beautiful, haunting, and heartbreaking story.

#3 - Inland Empire (2006) Runtime: 3 hr Aspect Ratio: 1.85 : 1 Film Format: Mini DV & 35mm

An actress’s perception of reality becomes increasingly distorted as she finds herself falling for her co-star in a remake of an unfinished Polish production that was supposedly cursed.

Verdict: Lynch has yet to make a feature film since this one, and it truly is the director going off the rails with his style in the best of ways. Inland Empire is almost completely impossible to describe because it is more of an experience than it is a structured narrative. It returns to Lynch’s often-used idea of “hollywood is hell”. To me, this is Lynch’s scariest film. It’s utterly hopeless and the pixelated DV cinematography exudes a very cold and artificial aesthetic. Laura Dern deserved an Oscar for her performance as an actress who confuses her own life to the character she is playing.

#2 - Mulholland Drive (2001) Runtime: 2 hr 27 min Aspect Ratio: 1.85 : 1 Film Format: 35mm

Blonde Betty Elms has only just arrived in Hollywood to become a movie star when she meets an enigmatic brunette with amnesia. Meanwhile, as the two set off to solve the second woman’s identity, filmmaker Adam Kesher runs into ominous trouble while casting his latest project.

Verdict: You will very rarely find such a perfect masterpiece of a film, but Mulholland Drive manages to do that. It also seems to reveal new layers every time I revisit. Lynch blurs the lines between the dream world and reality so masterfully in this film that it really does linger in your subconscious afterward - much akin to a haunting dream that you can’t seem to shake. Naomi Watts is electric as an LA newcomer who gets involved in the dark recesses of Hollywood.

#1 - Eraserhead (1977) Duration: 1 hr 29 min Aspect Ratio: 1.85 : 1 Film Format: 35mm

Henry Spencer tries to survive his industrial environment, his angry girlfriend, and the unbearable screams of his newly born mutant child.

Verdict: By no means am I trying to say Eraserhead is Lynch’s “best” film - but for me it will probably always remain my personal favorite. This was my introduction to Lynch’s work and it holds a very sentimental spot for me as this was the time in my life when I really began exploring experimental film. Eraserhead is set in a dystopia that could also serve as an alternate reality altogether. Henry Spencer has to deal with his demanding wife and deformed child while daydreaming of a singing woman in the radiator. This is Lynch at his most surrealist, his most uncompromising, and his most nauseating. It truly is one the most impressive low-budget films ever made. It manages a fine line between repulsion and transcendence.

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mezimraky · 5 years

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what was your favourite part and what was your least favourite part of At Eternity’s Gate ? I'd love to hear your opinion on it !

i only get to reply now, several hours after having actually watched the movie but hopefully i am able to recall some of the things that most stood out to me (below the cut because oh gosh i got talkative)

– willem dafoe as vincent? a lovely choice ultimately, he is a great actor and he does well portraying the angst the sorrow the exhaustion and the energy of vincent– but i can’t help being conflicted as vincent did die at the age of 37 and casting a 60-year-old to play him may just be stretching it too far – ad willem dafoe’s age: i kept thinking about this during the movie and it distracted me far too much– it especially became all too overbearing when other people came on screen whom i felt should look older or at least vincent’s age but– they were much too obviously younger than dafoe – such as most poignantly joseph roulin who was played here by laurent bateau and whose age i cannot for the life of be find out but who does not at all appear as old as he should, compared to vincent himself

– theo’s casting? great to see him be a ginger (what’s more! his red hair is a lighter shade of red than vincent’s, which is very much real and i’m glad to see that on screen!) – their relationship? lovely. lovely portrayal of brotherly love though i believe it would have deserved more screentime (i found i prefer biographies that really acknowledge the importance the two bore for each other in their lives) – however ultimately theo was always the scrawnier more feeble and frail looking one (don’t remember where i read it but i’m pretty sure it’s a fact historically) – he was also ill with syphilis at the time and just overall – the movie made him seem such a constant and such a man who could bear leaning onto but– he wasn’t that. or. not so simply. ! ultimately i did enjoy the portrayal from vincent & theo (1990) by paul rhys. it’s been a while since i saw that movie but i remember really liking their take on theo. (but i really am biased)

– oscar isaac as gauguin? interesting choice, oscar is a great actor and pulled off his lines and his attitude very well ! i however couldn’t help feeling sorry when the dynamic between him and vincent didn’t come off as strong as it should have ? like when just before he left he told him that “their temperaments were much too different” to live together or something like that, i felt it was chickening out of really showing something like that on screen – i didn’t see their temperaments clashing. i just saw gauguin continuously trying to teach vincent and vincent trying to defend his way of seeing the world, without really much fight in him. maybe it was just an impression – but if they were able to pull off that scene where vincent asks that random woman to pose for him and then gets upset when she is not sitting right, i wish they made something like that instead into a scene with him and gauguin. of course, their relationship was entirely different but. i do mean the show of emotion. from either and both sides.

– i d i d ultimately enjoy the artsiness of the movie. it was what made me forgive most mistakes. i just. the camera? with the blurry stripe? i was like “wow someone must have had fun doing this!” “someone had fun shooting this very un-fixed very moving very real shot!” “wow this just really feels like me shooting with my phone upright and then remembering that i should opt for a wider frame” – i really could relate to all that attempted artsiness, to the dialogues –

– i did love the dialogues. as weak as some of the characters were, the dialogues were something i could get behind, for the way they were shot, for their nature of simply exploring and baring more of vincent’s mind, making the people conversing with him seem unnecessarily stupid at times but weighing all the heavier on you, the viewer, as they would have on vincent. in a way i was sometimes reminded of what andy warhol used to shoot, what with the screentest or “eat” where you just watch on and watch on something so pointless (?) or meaningless at least, becoming frustrated, and so becoming engaged in a way that is encouraged even though you may not realise it yet

– it was an interesting take in that they took on the most famous epoque of vincent’s life, without rooting him in his past and so – not really adding much to the image of him that the public already has. i don’t know whether that is good or bad. i don’t know what purpose the movie is supposed to serve. i am just observing.

– paradoxically, i believe that in this movie (as much as ‘loving vincent’ was criticised for it) the visuals were the strongest point, to the extent that much else went uncared for perhaps? or that it focused so much on being artsy and pretentious that it failed to convey the real emotion, the real people, but rather gave an image, and made that image live, though it could never become one with reality. i did not feel emotional watching this movie (though there were a few moments of “aw” and “ow” all the while)– i was much too overwhelmed with all the artist intent of the creators.

– “less is more” goes the czech saying. though ultimately i really cannot blame the creators, i really cant. i would have gotten carried away one way or another much like they did. i do appreciate another movie about vincent for me to watch. i do appreciate more attention, another take and also featuring the newest theory of how he died rather than what was a big “plot point” for movies made about him in the past, that used the suicide to frame the tragedy of his life. i really don’t think i want to go back to that, or not so clearly. vincent deserves better. more complexity, more credit.

– if you want vincent’s story conveyed in a very good way, from start to finish, artsy but not overwhelmingly or snobbishly so, having you turn the page so fast but lovingly returning to certain passages, being emotional, finding this real understanding for the artist– please read deborah heiligman’s vincent & theo: the van gogh brothers, to this day it is one of my favourite biographies of vincent’s that i have- factual yet a piece of belletry. amazing, really. i love it.

#at eternity's gate #vincent van gogh #answered #anonymous #i wasn't going to speak about it this longly but it is 1am and that is the time to get thinking about vincent #thank you for the question i hope i didn't tire you out too much with my replying #i hope you enjoy/ed the movie !! i ultimately did even if i sound critical !!#feel free to come back to chat abt it !!#Anonymous

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filmstruck · 6 years

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A Cinephile’s Guide to Telluride by Pablo Kjolseth

This Labor Day Weekend the Telluride Film Festival turns 45. With over 3,000 film festivals to choose from worldwide, why choose a trip to Telluride? Here’s why:

It's a beautiful place. Telluride is a former silver mining camp located almost 9,000 feet up in elevation alongside the San Miguel River in the Western San Juan Mountains. You’ll be in a box canyon with breathtaking views. If you stand downtown on Colorado Avenue at dusk, you'll see amazing sunsets to the west and steep canyon walls with the postcard-perfect Bridal Veil Falls to the east. Of course, most of the time you’ll be inside a movie theater being transported who-knows-where. But in-between shows and while waiting in line, you can drink in the views.

It's a challenge. In a good way. Attending Sundance is easy as there are plenty of cheap flights into Salt Lake City and then Park City is only a half-hour drive away. Maybe that's why it gets mobbed by 40,000 people. Telluride? It has a tiny airport with tiny planes and what has to be one of the tiniest runways in the U.S. The bulk of people attending, therefore, drive seven or so hours to get there and this helps to separate the wheat from the chaff, with attendance being about a tenth of what Sundance supports.

It's selective. A Sundance or Toronto catalog looks and weighs as much as a phone book and you know what you’re getting into in advance. Which can be a good thing, in terms of giving you many options and choices. But a Telluride catalog is a slim booklet that fits in your back pocket, and people attending won't know what will be in that booklet until they are there, usually the night before the big communal feast on Friday where pass holders and filmmakers commingle and jockey for paper plates in the same buffet line. It's a blind date, one in which you are being asked to trust the movie curators. It’s like a restaurant with no online menu and a great chef who wants to surprise you with all manner of unusual food items that you’ve never tasted.

It celebrates the legacy of film. They show archive prints, silent films with live musical accompaniment and they screen 35mm prints too (although sometimes they don't print this information in their programs, a strange oversight). And, of course, they have the ever-popular world and U.S. premieres by well-known directors or new talented filmmakers about to make a big splash.

It has free events. In the daytime, panel discussions in the park. At night, open air screenings under the stars.

It has a great campground with showers and bathrooms that are only a ten-minute walk from downtown. Warning: show up early if you want a shot at a spot. Otherwise you’ll find yourself driving out of town along Last Dollar Road looking for a place to squat.

It usually has Werner Herzog in attendance. Unless Herzog is on location elsewhere shooting a movie, he'll probably be there to celebrate his birthday alongside screenings that take place in the huge theater named after him or in one of the half-dozen or so other theaters that are within walking distance of each other (the exception to this being the Chuck Jones Cinema in Mountain Village, accessible via a free but half-hour long gondola ride from downtown). Speaking of which:

It has incredible staff, tech crew and theaters. Each theater has a theme, be it the Chuck Jones Cinema or The Galaxy. These theaters are built by volunteers, staff and top-notch technical crewmembers, who all put their heart-and-soul into transforming what is normally a climbing gym or some other public use space into temporary, state-of-the-art dedicated film auditoriums with its own vibe and magic.

IIt has no paparazzi. No press screenings. No rubber-neckers or throngs of people crowding out the celebrities for selfies (okay, some of those). As a result, in Telluride you might find yourself buying a bagel behind Willem Dafoe or bumping shoulders with Danny Elfman. It has a casual vibe. It's not a zoo. It's not a circus. It's not a market. It's a film festival devoted to cinephiles and serious filmmakers, one that just happens to be taking place in a gorgeous mountain setting where you half expect Julie Andrews to break out into song.

It always has a Guest Director. Sometimes a well-known director (John Boorman), or musician (Laurie Anderson), or philosopher (Slavoj Zizek) or, as is the case this year, a novelist: Jonathan Lethem. This is one of my favorite sections because Telluride staff will bend over backwards to find six titles that have had a profound influence on the Guest Director’s life. The choices usually go back in time, swerve among genres and always include new discoveries. They also serve to showcase the power of cinema. This year that program is sponsored by FilmStruck, because we cinephiles have to stick together.

#FilmStruck #Telluride Film Festival #JR #Rosalie Varda #Gael García Bernal #StreamLine Blog #Pablo Kjolseth

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wyatt85wyatt-blog · 5 years

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Aquaman

Aquaman is a 2018 American superhero movie based mostly on the DC Comics character of the exact same identify, distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures.

Aquaman Plot

From Warner Bros. Photographs and director James Wan will come an action-packed experience that spans the large, visually spectacular underwater entire world of the seven seas, Aquaman, starring Jason Momoa in the title role. The film reveals the origin tale of 50 percent-human, 50 percent-Atlantean Arthur Curry and will take him on the journey of his lifetime—one that will not only power him to face who he really is, but to learn if he is deserving of who he was born to be…a king. If you want to look at totally free Aquaman 2018 movie, you ought to use that url - https://yogaasanas.science/wiki/Aquaman, just click on it an enjoy movie night time.It is the sixth installment in the DC Extended Universe (DCEU). Directed by James Wan, with a screenplay by David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick and Will Beall, from a story by Geoff Johns, Wan and Beall, it stars Jason Momoa as the title character, with Amber Listened to, Willem Dafoe, Patrick Wilson, Dolph Lundgren, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, and Nicole Kidman in supporting roles. It is the 3rd reside-action theatrical film featuring the title character, following Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016) and Justice League (2017) and the 1st entire-length characteristic movie centered close to the character. In Aquaman, Arthur Curry, the heir to the underwater kingdom of Atlantis, need to step forward to guide his people against his half-brother, Orm, who seeks to unite the seven underwater kingdoms towards the floor globe. Advancement of an Aquaman movie started in 2004, with a number of ideas falling via above the a long time. In August 2014, Beall and Kurt Johnstad ended up employed to publish two competing scripts and the film was officially introduced in Oct 2014. Wan signed on as director in April 2015 and in July 2016 it was announced the film would move forward with Beall's screenplay, though Wan, Johnstad, Johns and Johnson-McGoldrick all performed different rewrites. The principal cast was confirmed all through 2016 and early 2017. Principal photography began in Australia on Might 2, 2017. Most of the film was shot at Village Roadshow Studios in Gold Coast, Queensland, with generation also held in Canada, Italy and Morocco, and wrapped on October 21, 2017. Aquaman experienced its world premiere in London on November 26, 2018, and is scheduled to be launched in the United States by Warner Bros. Images in True D 3D, Dolby Cinema, IMAX and IMAX 3D on December 21, 2018.

Synopsis

Arthur Curry, the hesitant ruler of Atlantis and King of the Seven Seas, finds himself caught amongst a surface globe consistently ravaging the sea and Atlanteans searching to lash out in revolt, but dedicated to safeguarding the whole globe.

Growth

In 2004, FilmJerk.com noted that Dawn Entertainment's Alan and Peter Riche planned to deliver Aquaman to the massive screen for Warner Bros. with Robert Ben Garant composing the screenplay. Nonetheless, the film fell through. In July 2009, it was documented that Aquaman was in improvement at Leonardo DiCaprio's Appian Way. Warner chairman and CEO Barry Meyer explained that the Aquaman film was in development. A source from Warner Bros. told The Wrap that they ended up discussing the prospects, with the mention of far more Guy of Steel movies as nicely as a Superman/Batman movie, a Surprise Woman movie, and an Aquaman film.[28][29][thirty] Geoff Johns advised Selection that Aquaman is a precedence character for the organization. It was announced on August 12, 2014, that Warner Bros. experienced employed screenwriters Will Beall and Kurt Johnstad to pen two separate scripts for an impending Aquaman movie. The movie was currently being produced on twin tracks, indicating that two scripts ended up composed, 1 by Beall and one by Johnstad, but only the greater model would go forward. On April ten, 2015, The Hollywood Reporter described that James Wan was the frontrunner to direct the film. In June 2015, Wan was confirmed to direct the movie and forget the screenplay by Johnstad. On November twelve, 2015, David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick was hired to create the script, however it was unclear whether or not he would be producing a different script or doing work with Wan. It was then unveiled that earlier script programs had been scrapped and that each Wan and Johns prepared to shift ahead with a new script composed by screenwriter Will Beall. Later on, Johnson-McGoldrick was introduced again to the task to operate on a rewrite of Beall's script. On March 2016, it was announced that the activities of Aquaman will be set after Justice League. Wan confirmed later on on Twitter that cinematographer Don Burgess, who previously worked with Wan on The Conjuring two, will serve as cinematographer for Aquaman. Pre-production began in Australia in late November 2016.

Casting

On October 20, 2014, in an job interview with ComicBook.com, Jason Momoa revealed that the Justice League movie would be coming initial and which is what they had been getting ready for, and he didn't know if the solo Aquaman movie would occur before or right after Justice League. He imagined it may possibly be the origin, the place Aquaman came from. Warner Bros. introduced Aquaman as a part of the DC Prolonged Universe, with Jason Momoa starring. In December 2014, it was revealed that Momoa experienced signed a 4-photo offer with the studio and DC, and he desired Zack Snyder to immediate the solo Aquaman movie. On January 13, 2016, The Hollywood Reporter introduced that Amber Heard entered negotiations to play the female lead position of Mera, Aquaman's love interest her casting was verified two months afterwards. In April 2016, Willem Dafoe was cast in an undisclosed part, afterwards uncovered to be Nuidis Vulko. On December 12, 2016 it was confirmed that Patrick Wilson will enjoy the villainous Ocean Learn, the 50 %-brother of Aquaman. On January 31, 2017, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II was included to the cast as the villain, Black Manta. That identical working day, the press reported that Nicole Kidman experienced entered talks to play Queen Atlanna. Two months later, Kidman confirmed her participation in the film. By February 2017, New Zealand actor Temuera Morrison entered talks to enjoy Thomas Curry, Aquaman's human father. On April twelve, Dolph Lundgren was forged to engage in Nereus, king of Xebel. Ludi Lin was forged in the movie on Might fifteen, 2017. Practically two months later, Michael Beach, who voiced Satan Ray, a character loosely dependent on Black Manta in Justice League Endless, was solid as Black Manta's father. In Oct 2017, Graham McTavish unveiled that he has a function in the movie. In April 2018, Randall Park was cast as Dr. Stephen Shin. In July, Djimon Hounsou, Natalia Safran and Sophia Forrest ended up solid as the Fisherman King, Fisherman Queen and the Fisherman Princess. In November 2018, it was revealed that Julie Andrews has a voice part in the movie.

Filming

Principal pictures began in Australia on Might 2, 2017, beneath the functioning title Ahab. A majority of the film was shot at Village Roadshow Studios in Gold Coast, Queensland with manufacturing also held in Newfoundland, Canada, as well as Sicily and Morocco. Between Might and August 2017, manufacturing also took spot on place all around a variety of locations of the Australian Gold Coast like Main Seaside, Coomera, Southport and Amity Level in North Stradbroke Island, Queensland, as effectively as Hastings Position in New South Wales. On filming underwater sequences, Wan said that "the underwater world is tremendous complex" and "it's not an effortless shoot". On August 11, 2017, filming started on the Arthur Curry Lighthouse established at Hastings Stage and finished later on that thirty day period. In September, for the duration of an job interview with Kiss Radio, actor Ludi Lin described Wan's eyesight for the film as 'Star Wars underwater'. That identical thirty day period, filming took location in Newfoundland and Labrador. Willem Dafoe finished up his element by late September. On Oct 13, James Wan introduced that Patrick Wilson wrapped on the movie. Filming on place took area in the deserts of Morocco by mid-October, which incorporated the metropolitan areas of Merzouga and Erfoud. Principal photography wrapped on Oct 21, 2017.

Audio

On March seven, 2018, Rupert Gregson-Williams was introduced as the composer for Aquaman. Gregson-Williams formerly wrote the rating for Surprise Woman, the fourth movie in the DC Prolonged Universe. The soundtrack will be introduced by WaterTower Songs on December 14, 2018.[69][70] The album will attribute an unique song by American musician Skylar Gray entitled Every thing I Need to have, prepared by Grey and Elliott Taylor.

Launch

Aquaman experienced its world premiere at the Empire, Leicester Sq. in London on November 26, 2018. It is scheduled to be released in the United States by Warner Bros. Photographs in RealD 3D, Dolby Cinema, IMAX and IMAX 3D on December 21, 2018. It was formerly set for July 27, 2018, and then moved to October five, 2018, before settling on its December launch date. Internationally, the film will be introduced in China on December 7, 2018, in the United Kingdom on December 12, 2018, and in Brazil and Russia on December 13, 2018. On November 19, 2018, Atom Tickets was announced that Amazon Primary members in the United States would have early access to tickets for a December 15 screening of the movie at decide on Regal, Nationwide Amusements, ArcLight Cinemas, and AMC theaters.

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Spider-Man: No Way Home Easter Eggs and Marvel Universe References

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This article contains Spider-Man: No Way Home spoilers as well as potential spoilers for the wider MCU.

Spider-Man reaches the end of a trilogy, which in its way now feels like the culmination of a trilogy of Spider-Man sagas. In what we can best describe as the end of the “Son of Stark” era of Spider-Man in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, our hero goes big. Thanks to an ill-advised team-up with a wizard, heroes and villains from other continuities and past movie franchises show up, including a bizarre cameo from a drunken wild card trying to make sense of this madness.

Here are the many, many references and easter eggs sprinkled throughout Peter’s crazy, magical adventure into the multiverse, which leaves him with No Way Home.

Peter Parker

– The Marvel logo unfurls over the sound of news reports that serve as a quick recap of the events of Spider-Man: Far From Home. Is it our imagination, or do they really up the volume/linger on the tidbit about Spider-Man wanting to be the “new Iron Man,” something which, until this movie at least, did at least seem to be the trajectory they were trying to put Peter on.

– Peter is described by J. Jonah Jameson as a “high school delinquent” which, well…there has never been a LESS “delinquent” depiction of Peter Parker in ANY medium than the way the MCU has presented him.

– Peter is now 17 and he and the rest of the Homecoming crew are all high school seniors now. It’s generally considered canon that Peter got his powers when he was 15 years old.

– Protesters use devil imagery over Peter’s face. As the movie is loosely inspired by One More Day, it only makes sense that we get some kind of devil reference. One of these days the MCU will give us some actual Mephisto moments. One of these days…

– Spider-Man briefly gets to wear the Doctor Strange cape. In the Marvel Zombies episode of What If…?, Spider-Man wore the cape prominently enough to get an action figure for it.

– If we are allowed to jump all the way to the end of the movie, the apartment Peter moves into in midtown looks an awful lot like the apartment Tobey Maguire ate cake and battled doorknobs in during the last two-thirds of his Spider-Man trilogy.

– The final suit Holland’s Peter wears when he swings through a cold and blue Christmas NYC looks like a spitting image of the original Marvel Comics Spidey costumes drawn by Steve Ditko, right down to the rich navy blue and bright red color pattern. It also resembles the “Vintage” Spider-Man costume from the PS4 game for this reason.

– Spidey swinging through a blue Christmas also feels evocative of many classic Yuletide Spidey stories that leaned into the sometimes sadder side of the holiday. Take for instance this classic Todd McFarlane cover of Spidey and MJ having a rough time before Christmas.

– At the beginning of the movie, when Peter saves MJ from the crowd of angry folks who have been given a dose of the conspiratorial brain worms by the Daily Bugle, they briefly take refuge on top of a bridge. And as we all know, bridges and Peter’s girlfriends (well…in other universes) are not a good combination. It also works as foreshadowing for later in the movie, when MJ takes a fall from the Statue of Liberty’s scaffolding.

– It’s also worth mentioning the bridge in question is specifically the Queensboro Bridge, which is the same bridge where Willem Dafoe’s Green Goblin dropped Kirsten Dunst’s MJ so many moons ago.

– When MJ is being questioned by the authorities, she’s referred to by a full name of Michelle Jones-Watson. She bristles at that, and doesn’t like to go by that name. Nevertheless, even though she’s “Michelle Jones” and not “Mary Jane” she is indeed MJ Watson.

– Peter and MJ sharing a quiet moment reading papers and making googly eyes at each other on the top of a building feels like a cinematic version to countless quiet moments in the Peter/MJ marriage before One More Day. Speaking of which…

– MJ having her memory wiped of all memories and traces of Peter Parker–as well as Ned Leeds going through the same–is a bitter repeat of the ending of the controversial 2007 comic saga by J. Michael Straczynski and Joe Quesada. In that generally despised four-part story, Peter and MJ make a deal with a literal devil (the demon Mephisto) to save Aunt May’s life by erasing their marriage and all memory of it. The movie plays it better though with at least Peter being aware of what he gave up afterward, and thus growing from the sacrifice, and both Peter and MJ making the choice to help others instead of alleviating their own sense of guilt.

Ned Leeds

– LEGO Palpatine was part of the Death Star set that Peter and Ned were putting together in Spider-Man: Homecoming. It feels like Peter keeps it within eye line as a reminder of their friendship, one that Ned has now forgotten.

– What is up with the weapons on the wall in Ned’s house and what is on the sewing machine? It looks green and gold?

– Interesting that Ned Leeds asks about other Ned Leeds in the multiverse after meeting Norman Osborn. In the comics, Ned Leeds became the Hobgoblin, completely stealing Norman’s style. At one point, Ned tells Pete that he’ll never turn into a supervillain and try to kill him…

– Ned’s laptop has a sticker of the “This is Fine” Dog. It’s taken from a 2013 webcomic called “On Fire” by KC Green. Doesn’t seem to be a reference to anything within the story, but at least it wasn’t a Dickbutt sticker.

May Parker

– It’s revealed in this movie that May runs a homeless shelter called F.E.A.S.T. This is based on an idea introduced by Dan Slott to the comics in 2008, although it also feels like a more prominent nod (or lift) from the Spider-Man PS4 game where May’s volunteer work at F.E.A.S.T. is central to the game’s plot, and is a meeting ground for both heroes and villains. (May also dies at the end of that game.)

– There’s a bit where May appears to be burning sage while the villains are all in the apartment with them and that is just perfect and hilarious.

– No, your eyes do not deceive you, May is absolutely flirting with Doc Ock with her salt water/fresh water thing. May and Otto Octavius were indeed a couple for some time in the comics!

– May’s death here is, of course, a slight inversion of the old (and unseen in the MCU) Uncle Ben death, right down to May delivering the “with great power there must also come great responsibility” line. But her death, with Peter feeling responsible, is also a bit of a nod to the loathed One More Day comics story, where May is mortally wounded in an attack meant for Spidey after Peter’s identity is revealed, forcing him to make a literal deal with the devil to bring her back. Unfortunately, his deal with Doctor Strange to get his identity back in the box doesn’t bring his aunt back.

– After May dies, Peter says “I wanna tear him apart” about Norman Osborn. This could be a coincidence, but it does echo a line in Richard Donner’s Superman, where a teenage, bullied Clark Kent mentions to his father that he wants to do the same to someone giving him a hard time, before Pa Kent talks him out of it.

– May’s tombstone reads “when you help someone, you help everyone,” which is honestly a perfect balance to “with great power comes great responsibility” and something we should all take to heart.

J. Jonah Jameson and The Daily Bugle

– Even though The Daily Bugle isn’t the traditional, old-school media outlet that it is in comics and previous movies, we do finally get a VERY traditional Daily Bugle “Spider-Menace” headline.

– Jonah showing up with a camera crew to witness a battle between superheroes and supervillains, and then using the footage to paint Spidey as evil, is pretty much classic JJJ, especially since the ‘90s where it was introduced on The Animated Series that he also owned and ran a local New York news station.

– Of course The Daily Bugle is hawking snake-oil supplements to go with their other nonsense. Who says the MCU isn’t realistic?

– In the film’s final moments, to drive home the point that the memory of Peter Parker’s existence has been wiped from the MCU, we hear J. Jonah Jameson offer one of his famed critiques of Spidey, that “only a coward conceals his identity.” It’s a nice counterpoint to how the movie opens with him fixated on knowing who Peter actually is.

Daredevil

– Charlie Cox is back as Matt Murdock! This is Daredevil’s first big screen appearance in the MCU, and it’s a very big deal indeed. It comes the same week that Vincent D’Onofrio’s Wilson Fisk made his official return to the MCU in Hawkeye episode 5. The official continuity status of Marvel Netflix shows like Daredevil remains a little in question at the moment, but there’s no reason to assume they AREN’T part of the Sacred Timeline. Just maybe don’t expect some of the more gratuitously violent elements to make it to the movies or Disney+ any time soon.

– Anyway, none of that matters. How great is it to see Charlie Cox as Matt Murdock again? His “I’m a very good lawyer” crack after catching the brick being thrown through the window may not necessarily feel much like the Netflix/Frank Miller version of the character, but we can imagine something more akin to Mark Waid and Chris Samnee’s incredible run on the character making sense in the MCU proper.

– Matt Murdock has also offered to represent Peter Parker in court several times throughout the Spidey comics, although the most memorable and fleshed out variation of this occurred in the 1990s’ Spider-Man: The Animated Series cartoon where Wilson Fisk framed Peter Parker for espionage, and both Murdock and Daredevil took up his case. One imagines had No Way Home not turned into a multiverse movie that we might’ve seen more of something along these lines.

Green Goblin

– Before Willem Dafoe’s cackling Green Goblin properly returns, the production design had some fun teasing his arrival given the Halloween decorations at the diner where MJ works. For starters, there appears to be what looks like Frankenstein dolls with a green and purple color scheme behind her. Additionally, there is a silhouette of a witch flying on a broomstick, which seems like a deep cut nod to the Green Goblin’s first appearance in The Amazing Spider-Man #14 where Gobby is introduced not on a glider but on a hokey sci-fi broom.

– Folks who have never seen/heard of Green Goblin try to describe him as “a flying green elf,” which sort of covers his goofy, Raimiverse armored design, but would definitely be a more appropriate description of his comic book look.

– Norman’s rejection of the Green Goblin mask in the alley is something of a mirror to the iconic “Spider-Man No More!” imagery.

– Dafoe has a chance to repeat his Spider-Man line “I’m something of a scientist myself,” a quote that has been memed into oblivion in the ensuing years since the first film’s release 19 years ago.

– The idea of Norman having bouts of amnesia to completely separate himself from his Goblin identity is something that goes back to some of the earliest Green Goblin stories, and was also a frequent device on animated series like Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends.

– Interestingly, Oscorp doesn’t exist in the MCU. But does this mean that there’s NO Norman Osborn? That would be something of a shame if this movie robs the Marvel Cinematic Universe of the potential to use one of the best villains in comics in a future Spider-Man movie. It also would seem to eliminate Harry Osborn and that iconic rivalry from the MCU stable.

– When the reformed Doc Ock talks about curing Norman, we get a good look at Norman’s appearance from behind. His purple hood is very reminiscent of the Green Goblin’s cap in the comics, foreshadowing his true state of mind.

– While Norman Osborn never killed Aunt May in the comics, he did famously kill Gwen Stacy, as well as May Parker (Peter and MJ’s first child), although the latter was retconned out of continuity. He also kidnapped Aunt May and had an actress impersonate May and die before Peter as some kind of twisted mind game. Comics are weird.

– Meanwhile, Norman has one hell of a spinebuster! What, was he bitten by a radioactive Arn Anderson? Why wasn’t he the one wrestling Bonesaw?

Doctor Octopus

– Otto comes back infuriated about where his “machine” is and how it had the “power of the sun in the palm of my hand.” This is a reference to his nuclear fusion reactor in Spider-Man 2 and his recurring line about what it could do.

– The license plate on the car used by the MIT administrator appears to be 63-A5M3. A5M is almost certainly “Amazing Spider-Man.” Taking that a step further, A5M3 would mean Amazing Spider-Man #3…which was published in 1963. And what happened in The Amazing Spider-Man #3, you ask? Why, that was the very first appearance of Doctor Octopus, so it’s fitting that gets shouted out in his first appearance in the MCU.

– Doc Ock saying “I should have killed your little girlfriend when I had the chance” is a callback to poor possessed Otto referring derisively to MJ as “the girlfriend” after throwing a car through a window in Spider-Man 2.

– Spider-Man takes control over Doc Ock’s body, which happened in a far darker way in the comics, giving us a run of Otto as the Superior Spider-Man.

– In one of the third act’s genuinely nicest bits, Molina’s Doc Ock and Tobey Maguire’s Peter are allowed to have a moment. The pair were close to becoming fast friends before Otto had his little mishap in the laboratory. And when Otto marvels in this movie that Peter has grown into a man and asks him how he’s doing, Peter responds, “Trying to do better.” This calls back to their first conversation 17 years ago. Yes, we’re all old.

Electro

– Jamie Foxx’s Electro is the character who by far got the biggest glow-up in this movie, and it starts from literally his first moment on screen with that cool, eerie, “charging” moment in the background. The constant jokes about his ridiculous origin story from The Amazing Spider-Man 2 are warranted (especially the bit about his fixed teeth), but perhaps a little tiresome.

– When Electro gets his new powers courtesy of Stark Technologies, yellow lightning bolts shoot in five directions from his face quite frequently, alluding to the character’s goofy, classic comic book appearance.

Sandman

– Flint Marko almost behaves downright heroically a couple of times, which is, of course, in keeping with his arc in Spider-Man 3, but in the comics, Sandman did fully reform a few times, even briefly serving as a member of the Avengers at one point.

– Sandman saying he too fell into a particle accelerator is a nice knock at the unoriginality of some comic book villains’ origins.

Doctor Strange

– Wong is now Sorcerer Supreme because Strange was snapped and was gone for five years. This is the first time it’s been outright explained, though it does cause the ending and mid-credits of Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings to make a little more sense. He appears to take this job very seriously… except when he’s off doing karaoke with the cast of Shang-Chi. It certainly adds a wrinkle to the open-ended relationship with Abomination.

– We would very much like to know what went on at “the full moon party at Kamar-Taj.” And no, we’re not gonna try to sneak a Werewolf by Night reference in here. Or… are we? Did we just stumble on to the plot of that Marvel Halloween special coming to Disney+ next year?

– You can see the Sanctum Sanctorum’s address plaque of 177A right by the door, which is exactly what it is in the comics. There is a 177 Bleecker Street, but it looks nothing like the Sanctum. We’ll just assume that 177A just kind of exists between dimensions and regular folks like us can’t see it.

– Strange says that “they shot an episode of The Equalizer here in the ‘80s” about the Sanctum. The Equalizer was an action procedural that ran on CBS from 1985-1989.

– In the comic event House of M, Spider-Man lived in a reality where everyone knew his secret identity and he was married to Gwen Stacy. In the aftermath, as reality went back to normal, he begged and angrily demanded Strange to remove his traumatic memories of that whole episode. Strange refused to do so.

– It’s interesting that Doc Ock and the other multiversal villains don’t know that magic is real. While it doesn’t necessarily mean that magic DOESN’T exist in their respective universes (see J. Jonah Jameson’s “Doctor Strange” joke from Spider-Man 2 for evidence that it might), it certainly would make sense that it isn’t as mainstream/commonplace as it is in the MCU.

– Strange says “if they die, they die” about sending the villains back to their own corners of the multiverse. Dolph Lundgren’s Ivan Drago infamously said “if he dies, he dies” after killing Apollo Creed in the ring in Rocky IV. In a more Marvel-related take, it is similar to the old editorial mandate that “dead means dead,” which was meant to relay that characters could only come back from the dead if there was a really good explanation for this. Yes, lots of people brought it up to make fun of it for not being very true.

– Strange pushes Peter’s soul out of Spider-Man’s body. While this imagery originated with the Ancient One doing this to Strange in the Doctor Strange movie, it’s more reminiscent of the Ancient One knocking Bruce Banner’s soul out of the Hulk’s body in Avengers: Endgame.

– Strange’s “I have been dangling over the Grand Canyon… for TWELVE HOURS,” is a nod to when he made Loki fall through nothingness…for thirty minutes… in Thor: Ragnarok.

– There’s a lot to unpack with the Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness post-credits teaser, but that might be for when the trailer proper hits YouTube. Either way, we do see direct references to the events of WandaVision and what appears to be Strange Supreme from the animated What If…? show.

At least we’re getting some follow-up on Baron Mordo’s anti-magic quest. Took him long enough.

Tobey Maguire Spider-Man

– There are multiple jokes made at the expense of the Tobey Maguire Spider-Man having organic webshooters while the other two use mechanical devices, a la the comics. It’s amusing since the Holland and Garfield Spideys sound a lot like the baffled comic fanboys on the internet circa 2002, minus the anger.

– The Maguire Peter being the one to tell the story of Uncle Ben’s death and repeat the line “with great power comes great responsibility” is a nod to how those foundational elements of the Spidey character were most important on-screen to his version.

– Things are still “complicated” with this Peter and the Mary Jane of his world. Because heaven forbid nostalgia characters should be allowed to grow, change, and work their shit in the decades between appearances.

– The Maguire Peter telling Ned he had a best friend before “he tried to kill me and died in my arms” is a humorous, if still sad, acknowledgment of poor, poor Harry Osborn in Spider-Man 3.

– Tobey/Peter complains of back problems, a reference to a moment where a de-powered Peter injures his back in Spider-Man 2, but which was ALSO a joke at Tobey Maguire’s expense in that film, when a back injury he sustained on the set of Seabiscuit temporarily endangered his ability to return to the role of Peter Parker.

– Tobey’s Peter also mentions he fought a black ball of alien goo once, clearly referencing Venom from Spider-Man 3.

– Tobey’s Spidey being the one to stop Holland’s Peter from killing Norman Osborn seems like a somber nod to the fact that he never wanted Mr. Osborn to die in the original movie.

Andrew Garfield Spider-Man

– Tobey’s Peter tells Andrew’s Peter that he is “amazing.” This… certainly doesn’t need us to explain it, does it?

– We get a little hint of what happened to Andrew Garfield’s version of Spider-Man after the tragic ending of The Amazing Spider-Man 2, where he was unable to save Gwen Stacy from a fatal fall during an attack by his world’s Green Goblin. This Peter succumbed to rage (for at least a little while) and “stopped pulling my punches,” which means um…there might be a few less Spider-rogues in his corner of the multiverse. He does seem to learn his lesson and helps MCU Peter learn his.

– Garfield’s Peter talking to/reasoning with Electro is such a nice moment, a genuine moment of kindness from a version of Spidey who was often defined so much in opposition to Maguire (and later, Holland’s) “nice guys.” It’s also pretty funny considering The Amazing Spider-Man 2 has him refuse to try and cure Harry Osborn. It’s progress.

– Andrew’s Spidey being the one to save Zendaya’s MJ is a redemption moment for the character who is haunted still by the death of Gwen Stacy. And thanks to how well Garfield sells the scene where he talks about Gwen, it mostly works.

– Garfield referring to himself as Spider-Man “number three” seems to be a self-mocking wink at how his tenure is generally viewed as the weakest of the three actors.

– Garfield’s feeling of inadequacy is hinted when he and the whole world has a laugh at how bad Paul Giamatti’s Rhino was in The Amazing Spider-Man 2. Which, fair enough.

– Garfield refers to his counterparts as his brothers, which is how Peter and his clones Ben Reilly and Kaine considered each other in the comics.

– Garfield awkwardly tells the Spider-Men that he loves them, which is played for laughs. To be fair, Spider-Man Noir said the same thing to his teammates in Into the Spider-Verse and he knew them for about as long.

Captain America

The bulk of this film takes place within a year of Avengers: Endgame. We see there are renovations underway on the Statue of Liberty so that she’s holding Captain America’s shield. Of course, that all gets destroyed during the big final battle with the villains. But in Hawkeye episode 5, which apparently takes place at least a year after this film, Yelena Belova wants to visit the “new and improved Statue of Liberty” on her first visit to New York City. So it looks like they were able to repair the damage and complete the project after all!

Miles Morales

Electro’s line about how “there’s gotta be a Black Spider-Man out there somewhere” is, of course…true! And he recently starred in the best Spider-Man movie of all time with Into the Spider-Verse! It’s only a matter of time before we get Miles in live action…

Damage Control

– It looks like the main Damage Control agent who is making Peter’s life miserable is meant to be Agent Albert Cleary, who is indeed one of the original Damage Control members from the comics.

– When Peter brings up Nick Fury, it’s pointed out that Fury has been off-world for a year. That raises some interesting questions. Why would somebody at that level know that? Doesn’t that defeat the purpose of having Skrull impersonators?

M.I.T. and the Continued Influence of Iron Man

– Peter, MJ, and Ned are dying to go to M.I.T. together, and of course Tony Stark had all kinds of connections at M.I.T. But it’s also worth noting that a future MCU star who we haven’t yet met on screen, Riri Williams, is also an M.I.T. student… one who is right around their age.

– DUM-E pops up in Happy’s condo. The robo-arm, part of a set of Tony Stark helpers in the Iron Man trilogy and Spider-Man: Homecoming, has been MIA for a while. Glad to see someone is looking after at least one of Tony’s robotic children! It knocks over the LEGO Death Star on Peter’s table, a reference to Ned dropping and destroying his in shock during Homecoming (and the crew being annoyed at the many, many takes they had to do before they got it right).

– When Peter Parker returns to Midtown High, a picture of Howard Stark can be seen among the school’s collection of iconic inspo. In the top right corner you can also see Hank Pym.

Happy Hogan

– There’s a Downton Abbey DVD in Happy’s apartment, a callback to his obsession with the show as revealed in Iron Man 3. The photo of Happy shown on the news is another callback to that movie: in a flashback to the year 2000, we discovered that Happy was seemingly so enamored with John Travolta’s Pulp Fiction character, Vincent Vega, that he’d grown his hair out and started dressing like him. Happy is understandably embarrassed by the episode.

– The idea of Peter and May being sent to a “safer place to live” that is a high-tech, Stark-tech protected penthouse comes from the Civil War-era Spider-Man comics. There, Peter willingly revealed his identity to the world, but of course had to keep May safe. It was a little swankier than Happy’s souped-up bachelor pad, but the basics are the same.

Steve Ditko

When MJ and Peter are sharing a quiet moment on a rooftop, there’s a graffiti tag that reads: “Ditko.” Steve Ditko co-created both Spider-Man and Doctor Strange and here they are sharing the screen in an MCU flick. Ditko almost certainly would have hated this (he was a weird/interesting guy), but especially because he barely ever saw a dime from all the Spidey and Strange merchandise through the years.

Venom

– The post-credits scene is a continuation of the post-credits scene from Venom: Let There Be Carnage, in which Tom Hardy’s Eddie Brock was inexplicably pulled from the Sony Universe to the MCU. Here, it seems we’re meant to understand that he was pulled there by Strange’s spell, and then sent back at the same time. But… didn’t Strange say that the folks pulled through were ones who knew Peter Parker was Spider-Man? That… is not the case here.

Then again, in the Let There Be Carnage post-credits, the Venom symbiote claimed to have endless knowledge from a hivemind it can tap into. It’s possible that said hivemind might reach across realities, meaning that, for instance, it knows information privy to the Venom symbiote from Spider-Man 3.

Anyway, the more important thing is that a tiny piece of the symbiote is left behind, opening the door for someone else to merge with it. Could we get a future movie where Tom Holland’s Spidey does the traditional “saga of the alien costume” beats? Or will a new character (perhaps Flash Thompson?) end up as the MCU’s Venom? And, of course, we suspect Eddie isn’t quite done trying to figure out a way to talk to Peter Parker…

– Venom tells Eddie, “You thought Lethal Protector was a shit name” which… it is. But Lethal Protector was the name of the first solo series starring Venom way back in the ‘90s.

Flash Thompson

– Flash’s super cringe-y “No Sleep ‘Til Boston” on his M.I.T. sweatshirt is a riff on The Beastie Boys’ “No Sleep ‘Til Brooklyn.”

– Flash’s autobiography is called Flashpoint. Flashpoint was a comic issue that collected Flash’s initial few appearances as Agent Venom. Why yes, it did happen to come out while DC had an event called Flashpoint. It’s like Marvel trying to release one of those martial arts movies starring “Bruce Li.”

Miscellaneous Stuff

– Apparently one of the non-Stark bits of technology in the movie is an old Donkey Kong Jr. arcade cabinet. Granted, it’s only mentioned and not shown, but still.

– MJ’s forced/fake optimism about the New York Mets is her typical dry wit and sarcasm. But as any Mets fan will tell you, it’s basically what we tell ourselves each year. Also, don’t forget that Peter is canonically a Mets fan both in the MCU and in the comics (he’s from Queens, after all), so it’s nice that MJ is humoring him here. Also worth noting that Doctor Strange appears to be a Yankees fan (based on magnet briefly visible on the refrigerator in the basement).

– Betty Brant is almost given one of Mary Jane’s (not to be confused with this universe’s MJ) lines when she tells Peter to, “Go get ‘em, tiger,” on her broadcast about the first day of school. This, by the by, is the actual final line of dialogue, said by MJ, in Spider-Man 2.

– Another meme re-emerging in No Way Home? The beloved “Spider-Men pointing at each other” during the scene where Ned is trying to get Peter’s attention in the lab. We saw the meme make it to the big screen previously in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.

– The same meme also happens during the flashy end credits sequence where two of the three Spider-Men point to each other.

– The final battle occurring around the Statue of Liberty seems to be an homage (or lift) from the Spider-Man theme park ride at Universal Studios’ Islands of Adventure in Orlando. In that ride, Spidey (and the tourists) must stop the Sinister Syndicate from stealing Lady Liberty’s torch. The five villains from the movie even match up pretty well with their ride counterparts. Both have Doc Ock and Electro, and there’s the goblin type (Hobgobilin/Green Goblin), the shapeless elemental (Hydroman/Sandman), and the bloodthirsty beast (Scream/Lizard).

– Is that an Avi Arad cameo in the coffee shop at the very end? If so, this um…controversial Spider-Man movie producer is “the original true believer” who gets a special dedication at the start of the end credits.

– The film ends with De La Soul’s “The Magic Number.” This is now three perfect end-credits songs in a row, and like using The Ramones in Homecoming, it brings back a New York group to honor Spidey’s New York roots. And honestly, more of you should be listening to De La Soul on a daily basis, or at least certainly more often than you are.

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adamwatchesmovies · 4 years

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The Lighthouse (2019)

With The Witch and now The Lighthouse, director Robert Eggers cements himself as a force to be reckoned with. This film is so wild and original, I never had an inkling of an idea of where it was headed. I couldn’t even tell you what genre it belonged to for the longest time. It’s one of the freshest, most creative, and best films of 2019.

Set in the late 19th century, Ephraim Winslow (Robert Pattinson) arrives on a small island to serve as a lighthouse keeper under the supervision of Thomas Wake (Willem Dafoe). Growing resentful of his boss’ demands and plagued by strange visions, the days weight heavily on Winslow - and his sanity.

I don’t believe in “arthouse horror” but I do believe not all films are created equal. The Lighthouse is black-and-white and shot with the same aspect ratio as silent films of the past (1.19:1). This isn’t a typical movie and the artistic choices are not there just for weirdness’ sake. It’s just the two men on the island in a vast, endless expanse but the frame makes it feel cramped. The lack of color makes what could’ve been beautiful scenery drab and gloomy. There's an old-timey, personal journal feel to it. Something about the camerawork and this scenario is eerie. That’s how you’re certain this is a horror movie… but what kind? It’s got plenty of humor but it isn’t a horror-comedy. As time passes, both men act increasingly strange. Maybe we're exploring cabin fever? Then again, a small mermaid carving Ephraim finds and then carries with him at all times has a supernatural aura to it. With the visions he experiences throwing you further off-balance, you give up. At one point, I fully expected an elder god to rise from the deep and topple the lighthouse but that'd make this film a fantasy. The two men's quirks are too unique to be fabricated. They must’ve been pulled from real-life accounts. Anything feels possible. One thing's for sure. Someone here is crazy. Is it Ephraim? Thomas? Me?!

Dafoe and Pattinson offer stellar performances. One look at them and your mind swims with questions about what brought them to this job. The score has a strange, sanity-grinding effect. Obviously, the characters can’t hear the score but you know they are subject to the persistent cawing of gulls, crashing of waves, and sound of blowing wind. If it’s making you feel like you’re stuck in a never-ending loop, how much longer can they/we stand it?

The Lighthouse is made with such impeccable skill I think it’s destined to be analyzed endlessly by scholars. Every one of its pieces fits together with clockwork precision. There’s no way you’ll be able to appreciate every choice and decision made on a single viewing but that doesn’t matter. The persistent uncertainty is more than enough. I’ve never seen or felt anything like it. (Theatrical version on the big screen, November 5, 2019)

#The Lighthouse #TheLighthouse #movies #films #reviews #movie reviews #film reviews #film criticism #robert eggers #max eggers #willem dafoe #robert pattinson #2019 movies #2019 films

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weekendwarriorblog · 3 years

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The Weekend Warrior 9/10/21 - MALIGNANT, THE CARD COUNTER, TIFF 2021, LANGUAGE LESSONS, THE ALPINIST, EVERYBODY’S TALKING ABOUT JAMIE, FAUCI, and More!

Before we get to this week’s releases-- and there are a lot of them, though not necessarily wide releases -- I probably should mention that the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) is beginning this week up North across the board. I was unable to go in person, more due to the money than any worries about COVID. (Honestly, I have no idea what’s going on at the border right now between America and Canada, but I figured I better wait it out before attending TIFF in person… until I can actually afford it.)

This year’s TIFF offers a lot of premieres, most of them taking place in physical theaters in Toronto, such as Edgar Wright’s, Last Night in Soho, (which just premiered in Venice) and Universal’s musical, Dear Evan Hansen, as well as David Gordon Green’s horror sequel, Halloween Kills (which also just played in Venice oddly). Other movies playing TIFF include Jane Campion’s The Power of the Dog, and The Electrical Life of Louis Wain, both which star Benedict Cumberbatch. Mihael Peace's Encounter, starring Riz Ahmed and Octavia Spencer, and docs like Julia (as in "Child") and Attica. There’s even a doc about the Canadian rock band, Triumph! (I’m looking forward to that one.) Antoine Fuqua’s remake of the German film, The Guilty, starring TIFF regular Jake Gyllenhaal, will have its premiere, and many, many more. Too many to watch, let alone write about, but I’ll try to review a few of these over at Below the Line and maybe some here. (There are also lots of movies that premiered at Cannes in July that will play at TIFF, and some of those will also play at New York Film Festival later this month, which is where I’ll see them.)

A movie that I’ve been looking forward to for quite some time and is finally seeing the light of day is James Wan’s return to horror, MALIGNANT (Warner Bros.). Unfortunately, I don’t think I’ll have a chance to see this before Friday, which is a bit of a bummer, but I’ll look forward to seeing it with the common people in a theater. Because I’m looking forward to this movie so much, I haven’t even watched the latest trailer, so I really don’t know too much about it, which may be for the better.

Of course, you know Wan’s name from some of the most successful horror franchises of the past two decades, starting with Saw in 2004. After a few movies that didn’t do quite so well, Wan reteamed with his Saw collaborator Leigh Whannell for Insidious in 2010, which also did very well and created a similarly successful franchise. (Whannell would go on to direct the third movie in the series, the respectable sci-fi thriller Upgrade, and then he directed 2020’s The Invisible Man for Universal, which was also a substantial hit.) Meanwhile Wan went on to direct The Conjuring in 2013 and its 2016 sequel, The Conjuring 2, based on the true case files of supernatural investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren, played by regular Wan collaborator Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga. Both of those “Conjuring” movies opened with $40 million+, and you guessed it, they also led to hugely successful franchises for Warner Bros with spin-offs galore.

Although Wan has been making big studio mega-blockbusters like Furious 7 and Aquaman in recent years -- and he’s hard at work on a sequel to the latter -- Malignant is his return to horror after a whole five years, which certainly is exciting for horror fans and those who love Wan’s style of horror particularly.

One thing that’s become fairly obvious from writing about box office over the past couple decades is that horror movies are rarely sold on the names of their stars, although Wan has a fine lead in the form of Annabelle Wallis, who just so happened to have starred in the 2014 The Conjuring prequel called Annabelle, which did quite well. (No, she did not play the title doll Annabelle, if you haven't seen it.) And that’s about it. The fact that Wan can do whatever he wants these days, and he decides to return to the horror genre without stacking the deck with all sorts of name actor, is pretty impressive. Even Saw had bigger names actors like Carey Elwes and Danny Glover!

Although I don’t know much about Malignant, it’s definitely giving me vibes of Sam Raimi’s Drag Me To Hell, the horror master’s return to horror after making three “Spider-Man” movies. Although it’s well-loved by horror fans, it ended up opening with just $15.8 million in the summer of 2009. That’s a little daunting when you figure that Malignant is opening in September and in the second weekend of a huge blockbuster like Marvel’s Shang-Chi.

But there’s something else that’s been bugging me, as excited as I am to see the movie. I’ve been doing this a long time, and Warner Bros. has become almost legendary for screening all their movies in advance… every single one. I can maybe think of two examples of movies that didn’t get advance critics screenings. Malignant is screening for critics but only on Thursday night with an embargo Thursday at 10pm. That is not the move of a studio confident in a movie they’re releasing. Maybe it’s to avoid spoilers or maybe it’s ‘cause Malignant returns Wan to the craziness of the Insidious movies rather than the more commercial and mainstream horror of The Conjuring movies. I don’t know, cause I haven’t seen it, but I'm still gonna go see it on Friday night, ‘cause I like James and want to fully support his movie.

But that adds another layer of foreboding to the horror movie that will also be on HBO Max Friday, and it’ll be so easy for the curious to just hit “play” on their remote to watch it that way, which is what I think most people will do. Because of this, I’m struggling to find a way that Malignant makes more than $13 million, taking quite a distant second place to Shang-Chi in its second weekend.

Opening in roughly 500 theaters Friday is Paul Schrader’s THE CARD COUNTER (Focus Features), which stars Oscar Isaac as former prison inmate and professional gambler, “William Tell,” who drives around the casino circuit making money by playing blackjack and poker. He meets two people on his journey that changes the course of his path, the first being Tye Sheridan’s Cirk (Yes, with a “C”), a young man whose father ended up killing himself after serving time in military prison for crimes at Abu Ghraib. Tiffany Haddish plays La Lina, a woman who sees Will’s talent playing cards and wants to put him in her stable of players. The relationship between these three characters is what keeps the movie interesting even when there are only a few minor dramatic fireworks.

If there’s any doubt that Schrader, a significant Hollywood player in the ‘70s and ‘80s, is firing on all cylinders then The Card Counter confirms that 2017’s First Reformed was no fluke, as Schrader remains valid and important well into his 70s. Like First Reformed, this film features an undeniably solid performance from Isaac, who plays such a subdued character, an enigma who every so often truly explodes.

Sheridan's sheepish Cirk seems like an odd choice in road companion, although Haddish proves to be quite a counter (pun intended) to Isaac, as she seems far more comfortable in Will's world. Trying to understand Will and what he sees in Cirk and why he joins the World Poker Tour circuit despite wanting to remain anonymous is what keeps The Card Counter so invigorating. (One odd thing is that despite the title and the opening which literally teaches the viewer how to count cards while playing Blackjack, in most of the movie he’s actually playing poker.)

Folks who enjoy poker movies and the intricacies of Vegas and the gambling community in general should really enjoy The Card Counter for that aspect alone, but then there's the past of the main character, which ties into Abu Ghraib and the horrors of the tortures committed there. Some might feel that two decades after 9/11 isn't the best time to bring those crimes back to the forefront, but Schrader ably explores what it must have been like for the military torturers after they were convicted.

Few screenwriters and filmmakers could pull off what Schrader does in terms of combining these elements, as the story weaves itself through these very different worlds. Frequent Schrader collaborator, Willem Dafoe, takes on a smaller but still significant role as “Gordo,” Will’s commanding officer who trained him to torture. Even so, one of my favorite moments is a scene in a diner where Will performs a card trick for Cirk that would make the late Ricky Jay proud just adds to one's enjoyment.

I will say that I wasn’t as thrilled by the movie’s last ten minutes, as it feels like Schrader ran out of steam in terms of how to resolve all the pieces of a puzzle, leaving a couple pieces out before completion. Regardless, The Card Counter is a constantly compelling film that keeps you invested in the different characters’ behavior as things happen to and around them.

As far as box office, The Card Counter isn't getting a very wide release but with so many movies in the top 10 quickly dropping away leaving movies like Shang-Chi at the top, it should leave room for Schrader's film to inch its way into the top 10 and maybe even the top 5!

A movie I’m unlikely to see and know very little… okay… nothing… about is the faith-based SHOW ME THE FATHER (Sony/AFFIRM Films), which will open in about 1,000 theaters on Friday. Okay, fine, you twisted my arm, and I looked it up. This is a new documentary about fatherhood from the Kendrick Brothers, the duo behind faith-based hits like War Room, Courageous, and Fireproof. I've seen none of those movies, though I know all of them exceeded expectations, but this is also a doc, and those rarely do as well at the box office. I wish I could give you a definitive number for this, but something makes me think it won’t make more than $2 million, even if the religious right seem less worried about COVID and vaccines and wearing masks in movie theaters than everyone else. Expect it to end up in the bottom of the Top 10 with lots of confused movie writers not knowing what it is.

Kristen Bell and Kirby Howell-Baptiste (who have appeared both on The Good Place and in Veronica Mars together) co-star in the comedy QUEENPINS (STXfilms), which is being released straight to Cinemark Theaters on Friday and then it will be on Paramount+ on Sept. 30.

In the movie, based on a true story, Bell plays Connie Kominski, a suburban Phoenix housewife who thrills to saving money with coupons, hatches a scheme with her best friend JoJo (Howell-Baptiste) to sell coupons via mail, not realizing that what they’re doing is illegal as they rack up millions of dollars. Unfortunately, they have Paul Walter Hauser’s Loss Prevention Manager Ken Miller on their tail, and he teams with postal inspector Simon Kilmurry (Vince Vaughn) to try to catch them women trying to scam the supermarkets.

This movie, written and directed by Aron Gaudet and Gita Pullapilly, actually is based on a true story, but it took me a little while to get into it, and it definitely had its ups and downs. The first thing one has to get past is the fact that this is essentially a heist film that involves illicit coupons, and at first, Connie writing letters of complaint to companies comes across a bit like a Greenberg for middle-aged women. (Note: that film's star, Ben Stiller is one of the movie's exec. producers.) On the other hand, Kristen Bell tends to be great in this kind of role and you can tell she's worked with Ms. Howell-Baptiste from their organic chemistry as best friends. Joel McHale has a tougher time fitting in as Connie's husband Rick, but that actually works in this case. (A little trivia fact: McHale, Howell-Baptiste and Natalie Morales, whose directorial debut is reviewed below, all appeared in BenDavid Grabinski's Happily, as did Stephen Root, who has a small role in Queenpins.)

Queenpins eventually falls into a steadier pace with the introduction of Hauser's character and then bringing Vaughn into the mix, although the two of them have very little interaction with the two female leads, as the film instead cuts between the two duos. Hauser essentially seems to be playing a jokier version of Richard Jewell here, constantly trying to get more involved in the case and wanting to be deputized by Vaughn. The two of them work well together, and there's only one unfortunate scene involving… it's too disgusting to mention, but it's where the film needlessly delves into gross-out humor, and that's also where it falters.

As much as the law in this movie act like buffoons, the two ladies don't seem very much smarter, doing idiotic things like buying Lamborghinis and guns in order to "clean” the illicit money from the coupon-selling scam. Because of that, Queenpins gets sillier and sillier and feels less like any sort of possible true story as it goes along. The movie basically comes across like a less skilled version of Butter, but in that case, it was a movie that shouldn't have worked but did. In this case, it's the exact opposite.

Cinemark Theaters only has about 331 theaters across America, including a lot in Texas, California, and Ohio, but honestly, I don't think awareness is high enough for Queenpins for it to make much of a mark, but even if it makes less than a million, it could theoretically break into the top 10 this weekend, but I think it will fall just short.

The movies above are the only ones that may be going even remotely wide, so because of that, this weekend’s box office will look something like this with Shang-Chi remaining #1 with relative ease, Malignant taking a distant second, and Candyman and Free Guy fighting it out for #3.

1. Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (Marvel/Disney) - $33.5 million -56%

2. Malignant (Warner Bros.) - $13.6 million N/A

3. Candyman (Universal) - $4.8 million -53%

4. Free Guy (20th Century/Disney) - $4.5 million -42%

5. The Card Counter (Focus) - $2.2 million N/A

6. Jungle Cruise (Walt Disney Pictures) - $2.1 million -48%

7. Paw Patrol: The Movie (Paramount) - $2 million -50%

8. Show Me the Father (Sony/AFFIRM) - $2 million N/A

9. Don’t Breathe 2 (Sony/Screen Gems) - $2 million -30%

10. Respect (MGM) - $600,000 -57%

--- Queenpins (STXfilms) - $445,000 N/A

It was tough to pick a “Chosen One” this week, because there are a few decent films, but I had to go with Natalie Morales’ directorial debut, LANGUAGE LESSONS (Shout! Studios!), which she co-wrote and co-stars in with Mark Duplass. I saw it at SXSW back in March, and I loved it just as much a second time around, due to the simplicity of the premise and just how much Morales and her co-star do using similar Zoom technology we’ve all been using for the past 18 months. Duplass plays wealthy Californian Adam, whose husband buys him a series of Spanish lessons, given over Zoom by Morales’ character Cariño, who lives in Costa Rica.

You might think after over a year of mostly communicating with family and friends via Zoom, we’d be so sick of it that a movie that uses that as a conceit would be absolutely horrible, but maybe that’s why it’s easier to connect with what Morales and Duplass were attempting with this terrific piece of work. How these two people from different backgrounds interact begins slowly as might be the case while getting online language lessons from a new teacher. As they become more comfortable with each other, there’s more playfulness, as they begin to open up to each other. (Adam's Spanish teacher definitely has a dark side that comes out as things go along.)

I’m not sure if there was a lot of improvisation involved with the script as with some of the films Duplass did with the wonderful Lynn Shelton, but however they put this film together, it works in a similar way where it’s charming and funny, even during some of the more emotional moments. Because Duplass’ character is declared as gay fairly on, there's none of the attempts at making this some sort of meet-cute romance, as may have been the case with a studio movie. There's also never anything lascivious or creepy about their relationship, which makes some of the moments a little confounding, but ultimately, it all pays off.

Even though there’s a certain aspect of the movie that makes you want it to be kept organic and authentic-feeling, there is some gentle scoring by Gaby Moren that’s kept far behind the dialogue that does add something subliminal to the film.

Language Lessons is absolutely delightful -- definitely one of my favorite films of the year -- maybe because it thrives on its own simplicity by just having two actors doing what they do best.

Another great movie coming out in select theaters Friday is EVERYBODY’S TALKING ABOUT JAMIE (Amazon), starring Max Harwood as Jamie New, a fairly normal gay 16-year-old from Sheffield, England… other than the fact that he wants to be a drag queen. His mother Margaret (Sarah Lancashire) supports him, as does his best friend Pritti (Lauren Patel) but Jamie risks the ridicule and mocking and bullying of his entire Year 11 class as he proclaims his desire to attend prom in drag. This is the feature debut by Jonathan Butterell, a choreographer who directed the original stageplay.

I honestly wasn't really sure what to expect when I went to a theater to see this with a real audience. For one thing, I had no idea it was a musical. I had seen Max on some morning show talking about the movie and how it was based on the true story of Jamie Campbell, a British teen who wanted to be a drag queen, but I don’t remember him saying anything about singing or dancing. And the music and performances are all terrific, including all the young actors playing Jamie’s schoolmates, who have more than a few spectacular numbers to show off their own skills. (They’re kind of like the Greek chorus for the film.)

Harwood is exceedingly likeable, which is why he can carry this film, but it’s then an even bigger joy when Richard E. Grant shows up in a mentor role, as former drag queen “Loco Channel.” Grant has proven countless times he can do anything, and though his singing voice takes some adjusting to, it also leads to two absolutely amazing moments. Same with Lauren Patel and Sarah Lancashire, who each have numbers that would bring down the house on a Broadway stage but just gets the tears flowing as you’re watching on the screen. Sharon Horgan, who was just in the recent drama Together, plays more of the antagonist role as Jamie’s disapproving teacher, and her one number does not show that singing is one of her talents. (She does okay, and gets through it, at least.)

That aside, Everybody’s Talking About Jamie is a truly wonderful musical (and movie), one that took me quite by surprise, since I wasn't expecting something a bit more "Free to Be You and Me” (look it up). In fact, Harwood shines, and the cast around him does as well; the fact this musical was able to bring out so many emotions from me offers proof positive that it's a true winner.

Jamie is opening in select theaters this Friday, and then it will stream on Amazon Prime Video starting Sept. 17. I recommend going out and seeing it in a theater if it’s playing near you; it’s a real crowdpleaser, for sure.

Also launching on Amazon this Friday is the series, THE VOYEURS (Amazon), starring the terrific Sidney Sweeney (who many will know from Mike White’s The White Lotus on HBO Max) and Justice Smith as a young couple who move into a loft apartment in Downtown Montreal after which they become interested in the sex life of their neighbors across the street (played by Ben Hardy and Natash Liu Bordizzo).

I’ve really been looking forward to the action-thriller KATE (Netflix), starring Mary Elizabeth Winstead, who I love, so sue me. It also stars Woody Harrelson, who I’m also a fan of. Directed by Cedric Nicholas-Troyan (The Huntsman: Winter’s War), it has Winstead playing Kate, a kick-ass assassin who has 24 hours to get revenge on the man who tries to kill her, eventually teaming with the daughter of one of her targets. Harrelson plays her handler.

The fact that this movie, starring one of my favorite actresses playing an assassin and doing a bit more action than we've seen from Winstead in a while (Birds of Prey being an exception), comes so soon after The Protégé with Maggie Q may only be a coincidence, but whoever is making these movies clearly knows what I'm all about. This one also has a very tiny sci-fi angle as well, and much of it is set in Tokyo, so it has both those things going for it, too.

Is this Winstead's best role or movie? No, probably not, but it does show her versatility, the fact that she can do something like Scott Pilgrim and other types of genre, but also do serious drama, and this is much stronger a venture into a Japanese yakuza thriller by a Westerner than last week's Yakuza Princess. Much of that comes down to Winstead and Harrelson, who do a much better job selling even the weaker dialogue, because you can tell they're both taking it very seriously. Like Yakuza Princess (and Kill Bill, a model for both of them) Nicholas-Troyan leans heavily on his soundtrack and on some of the more stylish visuals, but at least this one offers other things beyond the constantly-circling camera in certain scenes.

Let's face it that watching Winstead taking part in some pretty impressive and violent fight and stunt sequences would probably be more than enough for me to enjoy this even, if there are moments that rip-off Kill Bill so obviously but again, better than other similar rip-offs. Eventually, Kate gets sidled with a young teen girl, Ani (Miku Martineau), the daughter of one of her victims, and that does take away from the "sole assassin” aspect but does give it more of the feel of The Professional. Maybe that would work better if Martineau didn’t seem much older than the teenager she was meant to be playing, which might be due to the fact that she swears more than Samuel L. Jackson. In some ways, Ani offers something more akin to Black Widow with a third act twist that few will see coming.

Ultimately, the movie works well as an action movie, if not slightly marred by its overuse of clichés. It probably will come as no surprise that I prefer seeing action movies like this on the biggest screen possible in a theater, and in fact, this did get a nominal theatrical run last week before streaming on Netflix Friday. Winstead's badassery does wonders at making sure that fans of her and the genre won't be disappointed by its few flaws.

Also hitting Netflix this week (today, in fact) is the doc BLOOD BROTHERS: MALCOLM X & MUHAMMAD ALI (Netflix), which has a fairly self-explanatory title. I haven't seen it yet.

A movie that people who liked the Oscar-winning Free Solo will also want to check out is Peter Mortimer and Nick Rosen’s THE ALPINIST (Red Bull Media/Roadside Attractions/Universal), a documentary about the 23-year-old solo mountain climber Marc-André Leclerc, whose amazing climbs were counterbalanced by his elusive behavior that kept him mostly under the radar for so many years.

This is a very different movie from Free Solo, though. That was about Alex Honnold's determination to make one singular climb, while Leclerc was already making just as many impressive climbs at a younger age. It's pretty obvious that Leclerc was destined to climb even bigger rock faces as Mortimer (whose previous film, The Dawn Wall, was sadly overlooked with all the push behind Free Solo) and Rosen finally catch up with him.

I don't really want to say too much more about the film or Leclerc, since it's best to learn about him through the movie and the amazing interviews compiled by the filmmaking duo. There's a good reason why mountain climbing continues to be of interest to the casual non-climbers like myself. Great films like The Alpinist find ways to glorify these amazing climbers without glossing over how dangerous mountain climbing can be as a sport or hobby.

The Alpinist had a Fathom Event on Tuesday night, but it will also be getting a moderately wide release in theaters through Roadside this Friday as well. You can read my interviews with the filmmakers over at Below the Line, too. Also, I mentioned another Universal doc, Under the Volcano, a few weeks back, and I have an interview with those filmmakers over at Below the Line, as well.

Another doc of note out this week is FAUCI (NatGeo Documentary/Magnolia) from directors John Hoffman and Janet Tobias, which looks at the life and career of NIH Director Dr. Anthony Fauci, but it doesn't deal with the last year and a half where Fauci's main focus was fighting COVID. No, this goes back to earlier in his career, to when he started at NIH, meeting, working with and eventually marrying his wife, Dr. Christine Grady. (Nope, I had no idea he was married either.)

More importantly, the movie follows Fauci's role in the discovery of HIV and AIDs and the conflicts between the government and protest groups like ACT UP who didn't think Fauci and the government did enough to help the gay community fight against AIDS and certainly not fast enough to make a difference.

Hoffman and Tobias’ doc has a fantastic interview with Fauci at its core that sometimes gets a little cutesy, but also allows him to talk candidly about his efforts in fighting disease, including the efforts to help fight Ebola in Africa where it was so debilitating for those who couldn't afford medicine that the USA had to step in.

But AIDS is really the crux of the film's exploration of Fauci's past achievements (and partial failures), and watching a younger Fauci talking to the AIDS activists in a rousing speech is one of the highlights, as is watching the present-day Fauci tearing up while talking about an AIDS patient who died.

I’ve always had a bit of a skewed perspective on epidemiologists and infectious disease doctors due to a few incidents when I was fighting cancer, and Fauci has annoyed me for the good part of the year by being so wishy-washy and negative towards movie theaters (which led to a full-year of closings in NYC with no major super-spreader cases since they reopened). But this documentary definitely helped change my mind about Fauci, maybe because the general public really never had a chance to meet or know him or his work before COVID hit.

Fauci is quite a fantastic doc in terms of shining the spotlight on a needlessly controversial figure who has been politicized despite having held his position through six administrations. I would definitely point someone to this doc if they still feel negatively towards the country’s top epidemiologist. It helps to humanize Fauci much like the RBG doc did for the late Supreme Court Justice.

Seriously, there are so many movies this week that there’s no way I’m gonna review everything, but you can read about a few of them below.

A music doc hitting New York on Friday and then opening in L.A. on Sept. 17 is Tom Surgals's FIRE MUSIC: The Story of Free Jazz (Submarine Deluxe), exec. produced by Nels Cline and Thurston Moore (who happens to be playing his first NYC show in a couple years this Sunday). It covers the free jazz movement of the '60s and '70s that produced the likes of Ornette Coleman, Cecil Taylor, Sun Ra, Albert Ayler, and John Coltrane. The movie features archival footage from the '60s jazz scene and interviews with key players, including critic Gary Giddins. I'm not going to review this, but it's pretty good, because I definitely had a phase when I was really into this type of jazz, basically all-improvisational with less structure than the jazz that uses charts and such. I know that a lot of people hate or misunderstand the musical style but it's quite stirring, as is Surgal's film. I do feel you'll already have to be a fan of the musical genre to enjoy the movie, though.

Hitting Apple TV+ on Friday is the filmed version of the Broadway musical, COME FROM AWAY (Apple TV+) -- similar to last year’s Hamilton and David Byrne’s American Utopia -- which is being released on the streamer to coincide with the 20th anniversary of 9/11, since the musical is loosely based on the events. It was filmed earlier this year, 14 months into the pandemic that shut down Broadway with a fully-masked audience watching Broadway’s first live performance since the shut-down. This is one of the MANY musicals on Broadway that I’ve never gotten around to seeing but it involves a town in Newfoundland, Canada where a plane lands on 9/11 as they’ve been diverted following the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center.

Claire Lewins’ doc THE WONDERFUL: STORIES FROM THE SPACE STATION (Dog Star Films/Universal Home Entertainment) features footage from the International Space Station and interviews with the astronauts who have been involved with the extraordinary space project. I hope to watch this over the weekend, but it sounds like my kind of movie.

Already on Apple TV+ (it debuted Tuesday!) is Bailie Walsh’s BEING JAMES BOND, a documentary about Daniel Craig’s run as 007 over the past decade plus, which you can rent for FREE on Apple, so go do that!

On Monday, FX and FX on Hulu will debut the first few episodes of Y THE LAST MAN, the new series based on the Vertigo comic series by Brian K. Vaughn and Pia Guerra that I absolutely loved. Set in a world where every single male human and animal has died, it stars Ben Schnetzer (Pride, Warcraft) as Yorick, who is -- you guessed it-- the last man on earth. He’s also an escape artist/magician, trying to survive with his pet capuchin monkey, Ampersand, as he goes across country trying to find his girlfriend Beth who left for Australia before the event. It also stars Diane Lane (as Yorick’s mother, who becomes the President), Olivia Thirlby (as his sister Hero), Ashley Romans (as Agent 355), Missi Pyle, and lots of other actresses (because all the men are dead). I’m slowly making my way through the series, and I like what I've seen so far, but the first three episodes will premiere on Monday.

A few other movies, a couple that I’ve seen, which I just don’t have time to review…

Nicholas Cage stars in Sion Sono's PRISONERS OF THE GHOSTLAND (RLJEfilms), which opens at the IFC Center this Friday. He plays a bank robber who is sprung from jail by Bill Moseley's "Governor" whose adopted granddaughter (Sofia Boutella) has gone missing. Cage's character is allowed to go free to find her, but he's put in a suit that will self-destruct in three days if he doesn't return. So it's kind of like The Suicide Squad, and though it has an interesting cast (including Nick Cassavetes, who also appears in Queenpins this week), I don't remember liking this much at Sundance earlier this year. (I actually don't thnk I got through the movie.)

John Pollono adapts his own stageplay SMALL ENGINE REPAIR (Vertical) to the screen with John Bernthal and Shea Whigham playing life-long friends Terrance and Packie with Pollono’s Frank, who are overly protective of Terrance’s teen daughter, Crystal (Ciaro Bravo). A chance encounter turns into a night that spins out of control as the friends have to make a tough decision about how to resolve the situation. I was pretty mixed on this movie even though Bernthal and Whigham continue to be great in everything they do. (I just think Whigham's recent movie, The Gateway, was better.)

Hitting the horror-streaming network Shudder (I have a subscription, because I’m a fan) on Thursday is Ruth Platt’s MARTYR’S LANE, a ghost story about a 10-year-old girl named Leah (Kiera Thompson) who lives in an old house with her family but whose mother has grown distant. At night, she’s visited by a guest who challenges Leah in exchange for more information about the house and her family.

Saul Williams stars and writes the score for Charles Officer’s AKILLA’S ESCAPE (Vertical), a crime noir about an urban child soldier set in Toronto and New York with Williams playing Akilla, a 40-year-old with a covert cannabis operation that goes legit. As he’s ready to cash out, he’s robbed by a group of masked youths. Akilla captures one of them, a mute 15-year-old named Sheppard that is associated with the Jamaican crime syndicate founded by his grandfather.

Jonah Feingold’s DATING & NEW YORK (IFC Films), which premiered at the Tribeca Festival a few months back, stars Francesca Reale (Stranger Things) and Jaboukie Young-White (The Daily Show) as Wendy and Milo, two Millennials who are thrown together at the worst time in their lives for romance, as they meet on an app called Meet Cute, have a first date, and then ghost each other before being thrown back together into an unconventional romance. I’m usually a fan of the rom-com genre, and I often can even withstand one that takes place in New York City and uses my town in a completely unrealistic way to show how romance can flourish here. (*koff*BULLSHIT*koff*) But then you throw in the M-word (Millennials), and this grouchy old man could barely get through this movie, though I’m not even remotely surprised it premiered at Tribeca. It seems very much like a Tribeca movie, and yes, that was meant in a pejorative way as the former “Film” festival has lost its way over the years. I’m half-kidding, the movie is entertaining enough, and I’m sure younger people will enjoy it more than I did.

A few other films I didn't get to this week…

DOGS (Dekanalog) AZOR (MUBI) BAD CANDY (Dread)

That’s it for this week. Do we have any new movies next week? I think Clint Eastwood has Cry Macho

#Movies #reviews #The Weekend Warrior #box office #Malignant #Queenpins #Everyone's Talking about Jamie #Kate #Fauci #The Alpinist

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back-and-totheleft · 3 years

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Total Recall: 10 Best Oliver Stone films

He’s won 10 Golden Globes, nine Oscars, and four BAFTAs during his long and illustrious career — but Oliver Stone has somehow never been the focus of his own Total Recall, so we decided to change that in honor of this weekend’s Savages, an intriguingly cast drug drama based on the Don Winslow novel about a pair of pot farmers racing to free the woman they love from a Mexican drug cartel. Given his lengthy filmography, you know Stone’s got some good stuff in his filmography — and the cream of the crop is right here in this week’s list.

10. W.

The most recent chapter of Stone’s presidential trilogy, W. served George W. Bush — who was wrapping up his second term while it was filmed — with a somewhat muted, surprisingly sympathetic biopic that traced his occasionally haphazard rise from political scion to oil baron and back again. While Josh Brolin earned near-universal praise for his work in the title role, critics found W. as a whole a little harder to take, citing its laconic pace and insufficiently hard-hitting approach as particularly troublesome flaws. For others, however, it proved a warm, fairly witty farewell for the GWB years; as the Chicago Tribune’s Michael Phillips put it, “The film may be ill-timed, arguably unnecessary and no more psychologically probing than any other Stone movie. But much of it works as deft, brisk, slyly engaging docudrama.”

9. COMANDANTE

For a lot of Americans — especially those who grew up during the early years of the Cold War — Fidel Castro is less a world leader than a shadowy boogeyman whose thirst for brinkmanship nearly triggered World War III. But whatever his sins, Castro remains a longtime veteran of international politics and a subject worthy of investigation — hence Oliver Stone’s Comandante, a 93-minute distillation of the three days he spent filming the Cuban leader in 2002. While a sizable number of critics chafed at Stone’s aggressively friendly attitude toward his subject, others saw something of significant, albeit flawed, value; as Alan Morrison argued for Empire, it is “An opportunity frustratingly squandered, but one which still makes for fascinating viewing thanks to Castro’s natural charisma. Errol Morris would have nailed it.”

8. WORLD TRADE CENTER

Oliver Stone is known for his willingness to entertain conspiracy theories, his leftist political leanings, and his fondness for lurid cinematic violence, so when word got out he was planning to direct a movie about the September 11 attacks, some people were understandably nervous. But like any other director worth his title, Stone understands his role as a storyteller, and World Trade Center — starring Nicolas Cage and Michael Peña as a pair of real-life police officers who were caught in the wreckage after the buildings fell — has no room for politics or conspiracies. Its clear-eyed dedication to the people first affected by the attacks — and the selfless bravery of the men and women who worked to rescue the living — was appreciated by critics like David Denby of the New Yorker, who wrote, “The world may not make sense anymore, but Oliver Stone, a warrior still, celebrating courage and endurance, has, in his own way, come home.”

7. NIXON

In the years immediately following JFK, Stone took detours into war epic territory (Heaven & Earth) and social commentary (Natural Born Killers), but he wasn’t finished with the White House yet. With 1995’s ambitious Nixon, Stone gave us Anthony Hopkins as the disgraced former president and Joan Allen as his wife Pat — and while the 192-minute political epic failed to generate much heat at the box office, both Hopkins and Allen received Oscar nominations for their work in the film, which follows a non-linear path through Nixon’s life and career, taking viewers from his California youth through his resignation. “What it finally adds up to,” argued Janet Maslin of the New York Times, “is a huge mixed bag of waxworks and daring, a film that is furiously ambitious even when it goes flat, and startling even when it settles for eerie, movie-of-the-week mimicry.”

6. WALL STREET

Smart, sleek, and eminently quotable, Stone’s yuppie jeremiad Wall Street gifted Michael Douglas with what arguably became the most iconic role of his career: He was simply perfect as the oily, morally adrift Gordon Gekko, and although Gekko’s signature proclamation that “greed is good” would go on to haunt Douglas, he was an emblematic character for an era in American history when it became acceptable to not only dedicate your life to the naked pursuit of wealth, but to attain it by any means necessary. Stone, who co-wrote the screenplay, based the character on a number of stockbrokers — including his own father — and Douglas embodied Gekko so well that he ended up winning an Oscar for his work. “Like the rest of Stone’s oeuvre, it’s about as subtle as a sledgehammer,” wrote Christopher Lloyd of the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. “But his filmmaking style is like heavy metal: When he hits the right chords, nobody plays with as much power or brash energy.”

5. TALK RADIO

A rare starring vehicle for monologist/playwright/character actor/cult hero Eric Bogosian, Talk Radio found Stone behind the cameras for a loose adaptation of Bogosian’s play of the same name. Inspired by the real-life assassination of Denver DJ Alan Berg, Radio centers around Dallas radio personality Barry Champlain, whose deliberately provocative style (and decidedly non-Red State political views) make him a target of hate mail and bomb threats even as his show is poised to achieve national syndication. Saying it “has the loony intensity of those impassioned conspiracy theorists who look out at the world and see patterns of corruption spreading in all directions,” the Washington Post’s Hal Hinson declared, “it’s another of Stone’s wake-up calls to America.”

4. JFK

A two-time Oscar winner and controversial, career-rejuvenating smash hit for Stone, JFK reconstructs John F. Kennedy’s assassination and then spends most of its epic 189-minute length sifting through the wreckage, treating the killing as a murder mystery that New Orleans D.A. Jim Garrison (Kevin Costner) doggedly attempts to solve at any cost. With an impeccable supporting cast that included Sissy Spacek, Kevin Bacon, Tommy Lee Jones, and Gary Oldman, as well as a screenplay that challenged long-held assumptions about Kennedy’s death, JFK reignited interest in the assassination, eventually leading to new legislation that ordered a reinvestigation and promised that all documents related to the killing would be made public by 2017. And while many critics agreed that the movie could have benefited from a more rigorous approach to the facts, it remains, in the words of the Washington Post’s Desson Thomson, “A riveting marriage of fact and fiction.”

3. PLATOON

The first installment in Stone’s so-called Vietnam trilogy, 1986’s Platoon took a hard look at American involvement in the Vietnam War — and earned Stone Best Picture and Best Director at the Oscars and the Golden Globes in the bargain. Taking a grunt’s-eye view of the war, it puts a human face on the conflict, pitting Willem Dafoe (as Sergeant Elias, mentor to Chris, the young soldier played by Charlie Sheen) against a fellow sergeant (played by Tom Berenger) in a dreadful battle for the platoon. It is, as Roger Ebert wrote, “A film that says…that before you can make any vast, sweeping statements about Vietnam, you have to begin by understanding the bottom line, which is that a lot of people went over there.”

2. BORN ON THE FOURTH OF JULY

He earned positive reviews for his role in Rain Man, but to many scribes, the Tom Cruise of the late 1980s was little more than the pretty face out in front of critically savaged hits like Cocktail — likable under the right circumstances, but lacking real depth. Oliver Stone saw something different, trusting Cruise with 1989’s Born on the Fourth of July — and Cruise repaid him by delivering the most harrowing performance to that point in his career, committing so deeply to his portrayal of paralyzed Vietnam vet Ron Kovic that, according to Stone, he came close to injecting himself with a solution that would have incurred temporary paralysis. Not all critics loved Fourth of July, but even those who had issues with the film were forced to take notice of Cruise’s performance — and for Vincent Canby of the New York Times, the end result was “the most ambitious nondocumentary film yet made about the entire Vietnam experience.”

1. SALVADOR

Stone’s films have received a combined 31 Academy Award nominations (and counting), but he picked up his first for his co-writing credit on the screenplay for Salvador, a 1986 war drama about a rather unlikable American journalist (James Woods, also nominated for an Oscar) who’s burned so many bridges that his only professional recourse is to head to El Salvador with his unemployed DJ buddy (Jim Belushi) to try and find stories in what they initially regard as a relatively inconsequential war. Like a lot of films that try and shine a light on war while shots are still being fired, Salvador bombed at the box office — but it found an appreciative audience with writers like Rob Gonsalves of eFilmCritic, who called it “One of Oliver Stone’s best films, and absolutely James Woods’ best performance.”

-Jeff Giles, Rotten Tomatoes, Jul 5 2012 [x]

#oliver stone #rotten tomatoes #best of #lists

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