I watched 'Sing'...the new CGI one with the singing animals.

It was surprisingly much better than I thought it would be. There were a lot of cliches I was expecting that they avoided, and the music was good. Pretty funny and with a message that was not vomit-inducing.

Also saw The seventh seal today and it was not just purty colors and action but was a philosophical and narratively challenging film about religion, death and your purpose in life, and how to keep your humanity without a set of rules to guide you through life.

Finally got out to see La La Land.

It is... a pretty little soap bubble of a film, which hype and critical acclaim has thoroughly squashed.

Like, it's okay on its own.  It's fine.  Pretty good, even, if you're into that kind of thing.

I mean, aside from how weirdly appropriative the (white) male lead is about jazz.  Like NO ONLY I APPRECIATE ITS TRUE GENIUS.  And there is the jazz-splaining scene, where he explains to the (white) female lead what all these crazy black folks is up to.

And it's got this heavy "oh, if only we could go back to the good 'ole days when we didn't have to worry about class and gender and race and we could just sing vapid love songs" sort of vibe too.

So okay, I guess it's actually kinda weirdly racist.  Reminds me a bit of when I heard someone do a review of The Jazz Singer.  It's not Birth of a Nation, but god forbid we showcase an actual black person performing music from black American culture.  Except there's John Legend, so points there?  Except he's... kind of arbitrarily cast as a villain, despite never saying or doing anything wrong.  He makes the leads fight and that's... bad... somehow?  Even though he doesn't do it intentionally?  And is never anything but professional?

GOD DAMNIT FILM WHY ARE YOU TRYING TO MAKE JOHN LEGEND A VILLAIN?

Also, hot damn do I not have a reason to give a shit about these people.  They only ever want things for themselves.  And the world of the film is strangely accommodating of that.  I mean, the male lead comes the closest, with his pretensions to "save" jazz music, presumably for everyone, but OH MY GOD the less said about that the better.  And just... they have no obligations to anyone but themselves, they have no reason for doing anything except that matches up with their never-to-be explored ambition, just... fuck 'em.

Which, well, it would all be fine and good if this was some little indie flick.  It would be cute.  And pretty.  And look, they watched a movie once, isn't that nice?  Don't you feel good that you watched the same movie?

But it doesn't really hold up to the Big Picture context, because it has exactly jack squat to say about anything.  If it's trying to be a cynical look at the movie business, hoo boy does it fail at that.  The ending doesn't go all the way to happily ever after, but, well, [everyone gets exactly what they wanted at the beginning and they don't seem to regret it any, despite the leads not ending as a couple for... no apparent reason.]

And folks, this is a Hollywood entirely without grit.  No one does drugs!  There is no crime! (except for a mis-parked car)  There are no troubling pressures to look or act a certain way or darker implications or scummy hiring practices!  Hell, there is no Screen Actors' Guild, and certainly no labor disputes.  I'd be surprised if this incarnation of Hollywood even had a porn industry.  It's less Hollywood and more a Disney-fied dream of Hollywood.  So, cynical?  Not a bit, really.

Just saw Pans Labyrinth, and it was quiet nice. While I think that the surrealism is a little off and the historical accuracy of the events may be questionable, it presented some great characterization and breathtaking scenes that I just love.

Also watched Central Intelligence and may I say one of the worst films I have seen in a while. Escapism 101 for bored 30 year old men of teens, and in all honesty, it cant handle its own ideas and tries to be something its not. Other then getting to see the rock in his underwear (btw, this film is so gay I have a hard time believing that the rock straight) and a few, FEW giggles it was a waste of time and money.

EDIT: also you should watch spy instead of CI. way funnier and why more interesting then CI and definitely worth your time more then CI.

Last edited by itavin (05-01-2017 04:44:52 AM)

Also watched the new beauty and the beast and in all honesty, Belle is like so not the best Disney princess like rly? But other then that, it was fine, and we got to see that gaston is like so gay, and that makes him the best Disney villain ever and it makes him more interesting the the beast and especially Belle. I appreciate more gay. Also I haven't seen the original in a while so here she is not the best but was she in the original?

LadyButterflyNebula wrote:

itavin wrote:

you should watch spy instead.

Spy is great!  It has Miranda Hart, one of my favorite comedians!

The most recent movie I watched in theaters is Ghost in the Shell.


SPOILERS

[ It has so much potential...  But they cut out Major's sexuality (which is a major, major part of the mangas and animes)!  Gimmie futuristic lesbian androids!

I was ok with Scarlet Johanson playing the role because the body Major is in is a manufactured one, so it wouldn't have to necessarily be Asian, but what I do mind is that she couldn't say the name of her own character correctly.  The character's name is Mokoto...  Legtimately, half of the time she said it MAkoto.  Not the same name.

You can tell they don't expect to get a sequel because they threw everything they could into this movie, which made it a mess.  The red herring villain is completely pointless and actually derails the entire rest of the story.  Had they focused on The Puppet Master and fleshed out that story (like they did in the 1995 movie) it could have been amazing.  Instead they corrupted the whole point of the series, which is not "Look what happens when we get too close with tech" but rather "What will happen if we don't integrate with tech".]

Anyway, that's my tiny screen rant.

Personal rant. Her name is Motoko, not Mokoto. 

I was finally brave enough to watch Bernard Rose's Snuff-Movie, which was not the movie I thought it would be, and was the movie is should be. It reminded me a lot of the "wrong tape" in the Utena movie. But, an entire movie of wrong tape. Covering our fascination and revulsion with the false intimacy of movies, with revenge porn, documentary, docudrama, immature catharsis, peeping in keyholes and watching through the hands over our faces.

Rewatching Cinderella(1950) was an amazing experience, I had nostalgia overboard. And, I still think it holds up, despite its rather sexiest attitude ("Leave the sewing to the women" is a line that sums up this movies attitude on women) and the double sworded message, it is still a beautiful film, masterfully directed, and uses subtle imagery and line to portray character growth. Yeah, it did start a terrible cliche of the "Cinderella story" of rags to riches and, while I would argue otherwise, sexiest idea of the prince and the princess. But it also has the message of kindness works only if it is in both directions, shown as a metaphor in Cinderella who didnt want bruno to hurt Lucifer out of kindness, but in the end asks him to murder the cat (no really, he fell from the attic's window to the farm. He be dead yo), and how she disobeyed her mothers orders and wishes by destroying her idea of control (the smirk in the beginning of the movie to the one at the end are slimier) and achieving her happy ending. I could continue on that, but you get the point. Also, I find Cinderella to be an interesting character, having her in the start be passive and nice, to being more active and harsh, thanks to the support of the fairy godmother, the mice and the glass slipper being a symbol of hope and identity. She may not be too well explored, but she certainly has more character and development then aurora, belle and Pocahontas. Also, she has more smug then them. Weird to like one of the two things Utena was like "You and your terrible ideas need to die" (the other one is Greek mythology, if you are wondering).

*sigh*

The Dark Tower

You know when Hollywood takes something, squeezes everything interesting and unique about it, squashes it into that mass-produced predictable schlock that feels like everything else you have ever watched before that was mediocre? That's the Dark Tower.


I had hope! The casting was excellent! But no. I even liked the idea of the movie playing out differently than the books - some surprises to be had. I was expecting it to be over-the-top and entertaining, even if it wasn't good. But NO. The movie is about JAKE. It starts off in modern day New York. Jake has a dead father and a loving mother. Less than 5 minutes are spent in the dessert. You never for one minute feel like you're in Roland's world unless they're showing you the two moons in the sky. Roland is 'not a gunslinger' and doesn't care about the Tower, so for most of the movie he doesn't use his guns. Jake is the super special chosen one with super ultra powers that he never uses in any relevant way. The Man in Black is perfectly cast but written as a kind of poor man's Kilgrave, and it is revealed that it is he who killed everyone Roland ever became close to, because we can't have the hero having any flaws, it's better for him to be a personalityless blob. It's not that I want the movie to be cookie cutter like the book - the Harry Potter movies changed many things, but they always FELT like Harry Potter, same for LOTR, even when the movies were bad they had a sense of self, an identity, a strong soundtrack, ANYTHING. The only good thing about this movie is that it starts off with the Tet Corporation logo, you can see 19's scattered around here and there, NorthCentral Positronics, the Dixie Pig & Sombrera Corp are seen around but not explicitly mentioned and the rose is painted on a door somewhere. Heck, the Tower isn't even located in a field of roses - it's kind of sticking out of the sky.

All I could think throughout the movie is how awesome it would have been as a Netflix original series. What a complete waste of time and money for such an incredibly mediocre and forgettable movie.

I've got to confess, I have an unhealthy love of Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters. It's gotten to the point where I'm trying to avoid the subject entirely so it doesn't consume my mind.

I watched Hidden Figures

It's a movie adapted from a book based on a true story about 3 African-American mathematicians who worked in NASA during the space race, women who made significant contributions to the space program and were considered some of the most brilliant minds there. It's very much worth a watch - always nice to watch a historical movie that passes the Bechdel test (with flying colors) and is about WOC being inspiring, independent and strong rather than being 'saved' by a white person who is secretly the main character all along (cough cough 'The Help' cough). Yet I don't recommend it on that alone - it was a wonderfully informative movie and really brings to the screen the wonder of trying to reach beyond the earth's atmosphere before desktop computers were even a thing. It's not the kind of movie which feels like you 'ought' to like it, you just enjoy watching it because it's well-written and the actresses are excellent.

There is a moment in the movie (one not based on real events) when the boss at NASA tears down the 'Colored Bathroom' sign in a big dramatic show and then announces that there will no longer be segregated bathrooms at NASA. I've heard there were some criticisms of the film trying to shoehorn in a 'white saviour' or 'not all men' scene. To be honest though, when I watched that scene, it felt much less 'white saviour' and much more 'white guy completely not getting the point and making meaningless gestures'. His dramatic scene takes place in a hallway where a group of white women watch on one side, and a group of black women on the other. They all look rather uncomfortable and the scene is a bit embarrassing. No one cheers when he takes the sign down or anything, and it doesn't fix everyone's problems. It also seems immensely futile; we've already seen the racism and bullying leveled towards one character simply by using the office coffee pot. So.. if that was the filmmaker's intention - it certainly backfired, IMO.

Decrescent Daytripper wrote:

Yams, the thing with the bathrooms was that it never happened irl, there was never such an issue there. They invented a fake issue to have a white guy get involved. That's just way too much effort for only the benefit of giving a white guy something to do.

Oh yeah I totally agree - I just found it interesting that despite that effort it was the weakest moment in the film and clearly Hollywood, not history.

Last edited by Yams (09-09-2017 02:04:51 PM)

Oh I love that movie! Yoko Kanno did the soundtrack, if I remember right. A seriously adorable movie.