I liked this; it was a well executed procedural that plucked some emotional chords toward the third act. That doesn't happen often for me anymore.I appreciated the 1980's setting as well--even though that's because it's a biopic, not a creative choice. Usually these sorts of movies are placed in the Civil Rights period.
Beautiful. I never liked The Devil's Backbone. The CGI & the atmosphere were underwhelming. This on the other hand deftly merged the VFX with proper use of shadow. And though this isn't totally a well-rounded film, for some reason I don't care. It touched my heart strings & that's all.
This movie is so contrived & false that it's infuriating. Why did they put themselves & their child through all this? Because of some flimsy stubborn competitiveness established in the beginning? I'm not buying it. And even so, that just makes me loathe these characters. It even goes so far as to lay on a disingenuous feminist element that is completely off base & laughable for no other reason I can imagine than that Baumbach wanted pander to the current political climate. Laura Dern's spiel on women's disadvantages in society do not apply to the court system when deliberating custody. Conversely, it's the man rather who's dealt the disadvantage in this case(Driver even had to pay for a third of Scarlett's legal costs!). The woman is favored in such a circumstance for a reason the Liotta character explicitly brought up earlier on in the film. So, now the film contradicts itself too...
.
I can 't speak for others(clearly to some out there there's resonance here), but as a child who has virtually known divorce all his life, who cannot even remember when his parents were ever together, I could not get over how phony this all felt. As a human being I could not get over how infuriating this all felt(& not the way it was intended). Unfortunately, not even the acting could redeem it for me in any way. In fact, the acting was so good at times that my disgust for the characters would momentarily slip off onto the actors. I found this to be just a bunch of noise & emotions around nothing, wherein they waste their money & potential on divorce proceedings that neither one of them wanted, but sustained anyways out of a sick power game; meanwhile, the world's got real problems going on...In other words, there is no real problem here. Just middle-upper class, self-indulgent, first-world idiots with maniacal egos stirring one up & then acting like nothing happened because Driver needs his shoe tied...
If Baumbach needs a solid story to film he should consider reading some novels & optioning something because clearly he is just forcing something here out of what may be a drought of anything more substantial to say. It's a movie about people who have the resources to be relatively happy, but who create a problem for themselves & come out the other end with nothing--like nothing at all had happened.
If Scorsese had heavily condensed the first couple of acts this could've been a much more powerful piece. I found it a little droll until Frank Sheeran becomes friends with Hoffa. That's when the story finds its focus. That's when I became invested emotionally & couldn't take my eyes off the narrative before me. And then there's the final acf; which I must say was nearly worth the long wait. The futility of a life; especially a life wasted on wrongdoing, wherein everyone who you placed so much importance upon are now gone; & all you're left with is alienation & a heavy conscience as you await your end. A telling powerful shot & De Niro's final line are lasting.
It's not perfect, that's indisputable. And if this were a much younger Scorsese someone would've had him cut out the unnecessary fat that is the first half of this film; but I can forgive it strictly on the basis of that last sequence. At the very least it's not the Wolf of Wall Street hedonist extravaganza that really said nothing substantial at all. This film has a heart, though a heavy one, in spite of all its technical & structural flaws, & it'll stick with me.[/spoiler]
A dull narrative of people's lives revolving around the operations of a show boat...Time passes, things change & I couldn't care less about any of it. What's more, for nearly 2 hours it doesn't seem to give you even 5 minutes of breathing time before it breaks out once again into an unwanted song. It was a relief when it was all finally over.
I don't know whose decision it was to include him, but if it weren't for that kid in black face, I might have been able to forgive this insipid movie solely due to its historical significance...But alas...
At least it still retains some value: a course for any screenwriter on not what to do.
A tendentious piece that leans on the side of liberal propaganda. Almost destitute of the gunman's perspective; his reasoning on why he does what he does beyond just an obvious misogyny that never needed a voice over to establish.
Horrible. One of the worst films I have ever scene simply because it takes itself so seriously. A complete lack of subtlety and grace. It's banal. A beautiful concept executed very poorly.
There's competent art film and then there's Achipatpong...I tried to give him a second chance with this film, but it was in vain. I can't stand this director
This movie is soooooo slow. I doubt you'll see anything as slow as this. It's so slow that the opening credits don't arrive until the 43 minute mark lol. Still, not a terrible movie; it just demands a niche audience, clearly it isn't meant for everyone.
Maybe it's because I'm not British, but this movie seemed so pointless to me. It completely failed to hold my interest because of the lack of any meaningful story; like a microcosm of a Robert Altman film.
Even for a 'B' flick, this was really bad. The monsters don't even show up until, literally, an hour in; and by that point they use the same shots over and over again...boring
Comments 1 - 25 of 26
Movie comment on The Last Black Man in San Francisco
LiquidSplitter
Two hours later...And I'm left with a new favorite film of all time. Breathtaking on every level.Movie comment on Just Mercy
LiquidSplitter
I liked this; it was a well executed procedural that plucked some emotional chords toward the third act. That doesn't happen often for me anymore.I appreciated the 1980's setting as well--even though that's because it's a biopic, not a creative choice. Usually these sorts of movies are placed in the Civil Rights period.Movie comment on Vuelven
LiquidSplitter
Beautiful. I never liked The Devil's Backbone. The CGI & the atmosphere were underwhelming. This on the other hand deftly merged the VFX with proper use of shadow. And though this isn't totally a well-rounded film, for some reason I don't care. It touched my heart strings & that's all.Movie comment on Monos
LiquidSplitter
That last image; the piercing culmination of it all.Movie comment on Marriage Story
LiquidSplitter
This movie is so contrived & false that it's infuriating. Why did they put themselves & their child through all this? Because of some flimsy stubborn competitiveness established in the beginning? I'm not buying it. And even so, that just makes me loathe these characters. It even goes so far as to lay on a disingenuous feminist element that is completely off base & laughable for no other reason I can imagine than that Baumbach wanted pander to the current political climate. Laura Dern's spiel on women's disadvantages in society do not apply to the court system when deliberating custody. Conversely, it's the man rather who's dealt the disadvantage in this case(Driver even had to pay for a third of Scarlett's legal costs!). The woman is favored in such a circumstance for a reason the Liotta character explicitly brought up earlier on in the film. So, now the film contradicts itself too....
I can 't speak for others(clearly to some out there there's resonance here), but as a child who has virtually known divorce all his life, who cannot even remember when his parents were ever together, I could not get over how phony this all felt. As a human being I could not get over how infuriating this all felt(& not the way it was intended). Unfortunately, not even the acting could redeem it for me in any way. In fact, the acting was so good at times that my disgust for the characters would momentarily slip off onto the actors. I found this to be just a bunch of noise & emotions around nothing, wherein they waste their money & potential on divorce proceedings that neither one of them wanted, but sustained anyways out of a sick power game; meanwhile, the world's got real problems going on...In other words, there is no real problem here. Just middle-upper class, self-indulgent, first-world idiots with maniacal egos stirring one up & then acting like nothing happened because Driver needs his shoe tied...
If Baumbach needs a solid story to film he should consider reading some novels & optioning something because clearly he is just forcing something here out of what may be a drought of anything more substantial to say. It's a movie about people who have the resources to be relatively happy, but who create a problem for themselves & come out the other end with nothing--like nothing at all had happened.
Movie comment on The Irishman
LiquidSplitter
If Scorsese had heavily condensed the first couple of acts this could've been a much more powerful piece. I found it a little droll until Frank Sheeran becomes friends with Hoffa. That's when the story finds its focus. That's when I became invested emotionally & couldn't take my eyes off the narrative before me. And then there's the final acf; which I must say was nearly worth the long wait. The futility of a life; especially a life wasted on wrongdoing, wherein everyone who you placed so much importance upon are now gone; & all you're left with is alienation & a heavy conscience as you await your end. A telling powerful shot & De Niro's final line are lasting.It's not perfect, that's indisputable. And if this were a much younger Scorsese someone would've had him cut out the unnecessary fat that is the first half of this film; but I can forgive it strictly on the basis of that last sequence. At the very least it's not the Wolf of Wall Street hedonist extravaganza that really said nothing substantial at all. This film has a heart, though a heavy one, in spite of all its technical & structural flaws, & it'll stick with me.[/spoiler]
Movie comment on Show Boat
LiquidSplitter
A dull narrative of people's lives revolving around the operations of a show boat...Time passes, things change & I couldn't care less about any of it. What's more, for nearly 2 hours it doesn't seem to give you even 5 minutes of breathing time before it breaks out once again into an unwanted song. It was a relief when it was all finally over.Movie comment on The Man in Grey
LiquidSplitter
I don't know whose decision it was to include him, but if it weren't for that kid in black face, I might have been able to forgive this insipid movie solely due to its historical significance...But alas...At least it still retains some value: a course for any screenwriter on not what to do.
Movie comment on Polytechnique
LiquidSplitter
A tendentious piece that leans on the side of liberal propaganda. Almost destitute of the gunman's perspective; his reasoning on why he does what he does beyond just an obvious misogyny that never needed a voice over to establish.Movie comment on Él
LiquidSplitter
The Guanajuato honeymoon sequence was laugh out loud funny. I had to re-check IMDB to establish I wasn't watching a comedy.Movie comment on Dune
LiquidSplitter
This film makes me want to never hear a voice over again.Movie comment on Cloud Atlas
LiquidSplitter
Horrible. One of the worst films I have ever scene simply because it takes itself so seriously. A complete lack of subtlety and grace. It's banal. A beautiful concept executed very poorly.Movie comment on Il conformista
LiquidSplitter
The cinematography is just brilliant at evoking the theme of the protagonist's inner struggle to conform into something he can't.Movie comment on Alamar
LiquidSplitter
What a beautiful piece of art. It didn't need to be anything more than it was.Movie comment on A torinói ló
LiquidSplitter
If a painter were to tell a story this would be it. Amazing.Movie comment on Sang sattawat
LiquidSplitter
There's competent art film and then there's Achipatpong...I tried to give him a second chance with this film, but it was in vain. I can't stand this directorMovie comment on A Room with a View
LiquidSplitter
These Victorian romance films...I guess they just aren't my cup of tea because I don't see what is so appealing about them.Movie comment on Sud sanaeha
LiquidSplitter
This movie is soooooo slow. I doubt you'll see anything as slow as this. It's so slow that the opening credits don't arrive until the 43 minute mark lol. Still, not a terrible movie; it just demands a niche audience, clearly it isn't meant for everyone.Movie comment on La forteresse
LiquidSplitter
Heartbreaking. Amazing. Beautiful. Unfair. Tormenting. Just a great film.Movie comment on A Canterbury Tale
LiquidSplitter
Maybe it's because I'm not British, but this movie seemed so pointless to me. It completely failed to hold my interest because of the lack of any meaningful story; like a microcosm of a Robert Altman film.Movie comment on The Furies
LiquidSplitter
no good. i havent seen a movie this drab in a whileMovie comment on Invaders from Mars
LiquidSplitter
Even for a 'B' flick, this was really bad. The monsters don't even show up until, literally, an hour in; and by that point they use the same shots over and over again...boringMovie comment on Stagecoach
LiquidSplitter
Gotta say...I did not like itMovie comment on Young Mr. Lincoln
LiquidSplitter
I haven't seen a movie this flat and uninteresting in a while.Movie comment on The Night of the Hunter
LiquidSplitter
Good movie, but the cheesy commentary by Gish at the end and the beginning kinda ruined it for me.Showing items 1 – 25 of 26