The Movie House - Part 9

Glory wrote:Manchester by the Sea finally.
8.8/10
Casey Affleck guys. Just Wowww. That subtlety and controlled rage he brought to that role.  Haunting. Not even once we get a feeling he was overplaying his part. Mature, grounded in reality and sincere performance from the man.
The whole movie was just brilliant. Very real and very close to life.
Actually I wanted to talk a lot about this movie, about things I noticed, but nah may be later. Let it sink in first. Its a very meticulously made movie, thats for all to see. Kudos to the director. Anyone seen other films of this guy, Kenneth Lonergan?
And finally Michelle Williams. WhyTf is she not doing more films guys. Every time she comes in front of a camera, even if its just a minor scene, she just oozes class. Girl is easily better than most of those overrated fakeazz chicks we are forced to sit through these days.

There's Margaret directed by Lonergan which is supposedly good. Was thinking of watching it soon before I hopefully go see Manchester By the Sea soon as well.

EDIT: just checked his filmography. He wrote and directed You Can Count on Me, a pretty little good indie film I enjoyed quite much. Apparently he also co-wrote Scorsese's Gangs of New York.

So personally I have been hyping myself up for Manchester by the Sea. And I think at the end I just didn't get what I wanted or expected perhaps. Maybe in the overall story, there was something a bit lacking for me. I think I was expecting a natural filmic ending with some form of dramatisation that was present in Blue Valentine.

But make no mistake, I'm not saying it does not have a lot to offer like someone here above said. It of course is a brilliantly crafted film in all departments, and a tragic, yet honest and true character study on how life can break down a man. The constant repressed/low gear grief and anger is not only present in Casey Affleck's face, body and words, but also in the entire movie.

I give it a more than good 4/5

Good to see a movies threads, didnt know theres this section Im a big movie lover, and been trying to see all the Oscars nominated movies. Btw, what do you all think of the awards? Are they usually fair? What about those so called film critics?

Im more just a regular who likes his movies, and have come to appreciate more variety of them as I age naturally, but so often I still dont understand some of those critics loved movies, I just still dont get some of them. Just an example probably up for good debate is Arrival, its overrated and pretentious, not saying its not good, it is, but just overrated. Im a big Nolan fan and loved Interstellar, maybe I shouldnt be directly comparing the two since its about completely different themes but still Arrival is no where near Interstellar, yet most seem to love it?

Lastly just to mention, the least talked about movie probably Lion, I was pleasantly surprised by it, very moving and recommended.

Awards are cool and fun. For me at least. I mean I always look forward to the awards seasons rush, the thrills and spills, the entertainment in who might get snubbed, and I always root for my favourites. Yet, people from the various academies sometimes seem to make weird choices in the movies that gets nominated/wins or those that lose out. It's purely content and thematically-based at this point though. I'm sure all of us by now knows what an "Oscar movie" feels like. You don't necessarily have to agree with what "the critics" say, however you also have to take into account if you are just a regular movie watcher (not someone who studies the art, and knows the finer/technical details of it) that these critics usually "know" what they're talking about because they do film critique as a job/specialty (so they usually have a good repetoire of films seen in their life under their belt, that's also another good judge of what makes a good film critic. The more films you have seen that more you know about that art and industry - it just makes logical sense). That of course doesn't go for every film critic out there though, they're so varied these days. You find average Joe's writing for your local newspaper and what not. Usually what I would say is look at a few film critics you more often than not tend to agree on their analysis on films, and settle with those if you want to read more about a film online.

Secondly, Arrival is a beautiful film. I feel like people should have had the linguistics knowledge that the film centres its story around. Not of course that you will fail to understand the film if you don't, it just made it more special to me. I did linguistics last year and I learned about linguistics determinsim and it was just beautiful to me the way they accurately incorporated it into the film, so much so that the film may seemed to have ended in a "magical" tone. Like how can this ever happen? Someone develops another dimension of time just by learning a new language? It sounds sappy, and corny, right? But that's exactly what linguistic determinism states. That your language and vocabulary has an impact on your thoughts and perceptions and their limits. So the filmmakers (and the person who wrote the short story which the film was based on) just played around on that concept in a cool sci-fi filmmaking way.
Interstellar is great as well. I think it's a better film than Arrival. But I hold both in very high regard. Interstellar is much more bigger and ambitious in scope, and therefore you could find more fault in its narrative and structure as many critics and film fans did. Also, Arrival is more of an artistic piece imo (which adds to its beauty), as opposed to Interstellar which is scientific and blockbuster-y (not that that can be a bad thing).

I gave Lion 4/5. Just because of the film's emotion (I teared up at THAT scene near the end) and the acting. Overall it can be a bit wishy-washy in the narrative and structure department with that huge gap in between the two time frames and the underdeveloped characters and arcs in Saroo's girlfriend and his brother.

M99 wrote:Watched the trailer for Lion and I was unsure whether it was a movie or a Google Earth ad.

Freeza wrote:John Wick: Chaper 2 is absolutely amazing ffs

Keanu

ffs an extra trip to the cinema then.

so that makes it,
La La Land
Moonlight
Silence
John Wick 2