-
Ever wanted an RSS feed of all your favorite gaming news sites? Go check out our new Gaming Headlines feed! Read more about it here.
Movies You've Seen Recently | July 2018
- Thread starter Divius
- Start date
Hereditary
pretty dope, the theater experience was awful though with all the teenagers cackling and making clicking noises. a pox on them all. Anyways this movie does a great job of creating a tense family environment before it goes full on Rosemary's Baby. I understand why people were not fans of the hard dive into
I fucked with all of it though. Not on the level of The Witch but its likely my favorite horror movie since.
Incredibles 2
Wow, put some respeck on Brad Bird's name. The action setpieces in here are the best I've seen from these big superpower showcases since....maybe Spiderman 2? I like some of the stuff from Dark Knight, Logan, BvS, Avengers Infinity War as well, and it all belongs on a list for me. But Bird's skills with framing these action setpieces and juggling all the powers on deck are unmatched by few if any who have touched the genre tbh. Movie felt less focused than the first movie, the cuts to the stay at home dad stuff felt deliberately ancillary to the big picture. But it was all a blast regardless, fantastic action and humor in here. Most I've liked an animated Disney movie since Toy Story 3 even.
First Reformed
Best movie of the first half of 2018. Ethan Hawke has always been one of my favorite actors out there, and Schrader writes him such a challenging and strained character to flex with. Its not the type of movie to get nominations, but surely he deserves one for this performance. Defo felt like Schrader took the same slowly maddening and world weary script and lead character of Taxi Driver and transplanted something similar onto a more modern and relevant context. He also sheds a light on how hypocritical the church has been to issues such as Global Warming. Not a connection that ever came to mind to me, but yeah it does seem obvious now that our treatment of the environment would be seen as a great Sin in the classic definition and yet organized religion either has no opinion on the matter or gladly takes donations from big business polluters. I really fucked with this movie, it sells such a strong feeling of powerlessness though so its not an easy movie to recommend unless you're up for a great miserable flick
pretty dope, the theater experience was awful though with all the teenagers cackling and making clicking noises. a pox on them all. Anyways this movie does a great job of creating a tense family environment before it goes full on Rosemary's Baby. I understand why people were not fans of the hard dive into
the supernatural and exorcist-esque horror imagery, since the movie was also serving as a atmospheric exercise in depicting grief and mental illness and some people may have found the loud horror stuff a betrayal of the movie's strengths in the first 2/3rds.
Incredibles 2
Wow, put some respeck on Brad Bird's name. The action setpieces in here are the best I've seen from these big superpower showcases since....maybe Spiderman 2? I like some of the stuff from Dark Knight, Logan, BvS, Avengers Infinity War as well, and it all belongs on a list for me. But Bird's skills with framing these action setpieces and juggling all the powers on deck are unmatched by few if any who have touched the genre tbh. Movie felt less focused than the first movie, the cuts to the stay at home dad stuff felt deliberately ancillary to the big picture. But it was all a blast regardless, fantastic action and humor in here. Most I've liked an animated Disney movie since Toy Story 3 even.
First Reformed
Best movie of the first half of 2018. Ethan Hawke has always been one of my favorite actors out there, and Schrader writes him such a challenging and strained character to flex with. Its not the type of movie to get nominations, but surely he deserves one for this performance. Defo felt like Schrader took the same slowly maddening and world weary script and lead character of Taxi Driver and transplanted something similar onto a more modern and relevant context. He also sheds a light on how hypocritical the church has been to issues such as Global Warming. Not a connection that ever came to mind to me, but yeah it does seem obvious now that our treatment of the environment would be seen as a great Sin in the classic definition and yet organized religion either has no opinion on the matter or gladly takes donations from big business polluters. I really fucked with this movie, it sells such a strong feeling of powerlessness though so its not an easy movie to recommend unless you're up for a great miserable flick
Saw hereditary
If I smoked before I think I would have cried
Not only was it effectively unsettling, it was well shot, incredibly well acted and incredibly emotional.
Also the part I realized
If I smoked before I think I would have cried
Not only was it effectively unsettling, it was well shot, incredibly well acted and incredibly emotional.
Also the part I realized
her dad and brother didn't kill themselves....yo. and also why the grandma wanted Charlie to be a boy. Goddamn
Last edited:
Also glad I had a good theater experience for hereditary, I can't remember a movie that used surround sound so effectively in a long time
There were parts in the movie I thought were coming from the theater and sounds in the theater that I thought may have been in the movie
There were parts in the movie I thought were coming from the theater and sounds in the theater that I thought may have been in the movie
Best new in June:
Won't You Be My Neighbor
Badlands
First Reformed
The Age of Innocence
Hereditary
Best rewatches:
Fury Road (Black & Chrome in theater)
Game Night
ET
Ratatouille
Won't You Be My Neighbor
Badlands
First Reformed
The Age of Innocence
Hereditary
Best rewatches:
Fury Road (Black & Chrome in theater)
Game Night
ET
Ratatouille
Ant Man and the Wasp
A fun romp that often felt a little unfocused but always felt entertaining. It's kind of more of the same, only with less character arcs and certainly less Michael Pena for me, but I think it upped the ante in terms of action sequences. I only wish it had more heist elements because I feel that's what gave the first film a great identity outside of Rudd's charm and the script's humor.
Really not much else to say outside of that. It's not a film that looked to make a huge impact, more towed the line than anything, but I enjoyed the humor and action even if the villain was undercooked and the heist elements pretty absent.
3.5/5
A fun romp that often felt a little unfocused but always felt entertaining. It's kind of more of the same, only with less character arcs and certainly less Michael Pena for me, but I think it upped the ante in terms of action sequences. I only wish it had more heist elements because I feel that's what gave the first film a great identity outside of Rudd's charm and the script's humor.
Really not much else to say outside of that. It's not a film that looked to make a huge impact, more towed the line than anything, but I enjoyed the humor and action even if the villain was undercooked and the heist elements pretty absent.
3.5/5
Been a while since checking in so...
Last two seen in June:
I have no memory of my direction (6.5/10) - Midi Onodera is a Canadian video artist, and I saw this at a free screening that she presented with the TIFF cinematheque. It's a video essay about her journey to Japan, trying to discover something about her father and her family's history. It's heavily indebted to Marker's Sans Soleil. Maybe a little too much. But it's generally compelling, and quite playful. A sustained anecdote about a location scout who claims he knew Akira Kurosawa is amusing, and I got a big laugh out of the segments dealing with media coverage of the Iraq War (she splices in footage of videogames, playing with the concept of simulation). When discussing memory and identity, images sometimes fragment into pieces, offering multiple perspectives of objects and places simultaneously. Overall, it does just enough to differentiate itself from Marker, but never really escapes his shadow.
Animal World (5.5/10) - Chinese blockbuster, inexplicably starring Michael Douglas, about a group of hapless people crushed by financial debt and forced into a deadly game of skill and chance to clear their debts. Like many blockbusters, it's overstuffed and moves in too many directions at once. It smartly pares material down from its source (the Japanese manga, Ultimate Survivor Kaiji), but then decides to invent a bunch of other garbage that has nothing to do with anything. It's engaging when it's focused completely on the deadly game on the boat, as characters try to outwit and outplay each other with maths and game theory, but it's otherwise a whole lot of nonsense. In some ways, it's the ultimate blockbuster, as every expensive action sequence is literally pointless, by narrative design, but the film isn't smart enough to do anything interesting with that concept. It's just a bunch of random flights of fancy, flailing its arms in the hopes of entertaining audiences while trying not to run afoul of Chinese censors.
First three seen in July:
The Mystery of Oberwald (6/10) - A strange little late period Antonioni curio, based on a Cocteau play, shot entirely on video, transferred to film, and color corrected on acid. The drama feels a little staid for Antonioni, and almost all of the interest comes from the whack presentation, in which annoying digital artefacts meet psychedelic colors (the police chief literally just radiates the color blue in every scene he is in). Sometimes it's surprisingly, even astonishingly, atmospheric, but other times it's just tacky and obnoxious. Eventually, I actually found myself wrapped up in the story (thanks largely to Monica Vitti, who is radiant here, despite not literally radiating colors like the police chief), but at the end, it's still minor Antonioni at best, and as a visual experiment, eh.
Black Moon (4/10) - European arthouse twaddle. I've heard the film commonly referred to as surreal or anarchic, or both, but my problem is that it is clearly neither, despite trying to be. Louis Malle is far too literal to make any of this work. His plotting is hilariously labored, causal and straightforward, and his images are overwhelmingly mundane (criminal, given Sven Nykvist shot this, though there are some beautiful moments involving interiors and fireplaces). The talking animals are great, though, and I did enjoy the scene with Lily finally meeting the unicorn. But there's nothing anarchic or surreal about a movie that has a character use a ham radio to literally provide plot summaries of the movie up to that point. It wants to be Alice in Wonderland, but with its perplexing gender war backdrop, it mostly looks like Malle just wants to go tumbling down the rabbit hole to escape second-wave feminism.
Leave No Trace (8/10) - Debra Granik is a champion. Of life, community, and people in the margins, slipping through the cracks of society. Also just a fantastic filmmaker. There are two parallel stories here, one about a daughter slowly discovering the world and herself, and one about a father, slowly retreating from the world and shutting everything out. It's heartbreaking. Lots of movies about horses this year (there's one here, too, in a key scene), but while I still have The Rider at the top of my list, this might be the overall best use of animals on screen, given how they function in the narrative, and what they represent for different characters at various points in the film (a hunting dog finds Will and calls him back to society; a bee colony teaches Tom about community; etc.). Granik beautifully captures a sense of life and interconnectedness. I don't want to say anything more because spoilers, but this is one of the best films of the year.
Last two seen in June:
I have no memory of my direction (6.5/10) - Midi Onodera is a Canadian video artist, and I saw this at a free screening that she presented with the TIFF cinematheque. It's a video essay about her journey to Japan, trying to discover something about her father and her family's history. It's heavily indebted to Marker's Sans Soleil. Maybe a little too much. But it's generally compelling, and quite playful. A sustained anecdote about a location scout who claims he knew Akira Kurosawa is amusing, and I got a big laugh out of the segments dealing with media coverage of the Iraq War (she splices in footage of videogames, playing with the concept of simulation). When discussing memory and identity, images sometimes fragment into pieces, offering multiple perspectives of objects and places simultaneously. Overall, it does just enough to differentiate itself from Marker, but never really escapes his shadow.
Animal World (5.5/10) - Chinese blockbuster, inexplicably starring Michael Douglas, about a group of hapless people crushed by financial debt and forced into a deadly game of skill and chance to clear their debts. Like many blockbusters, it's overstuffed and moves in too many directions at once. It smartly pares material down from its source (the Japanese manga, Ultimate Survivor Kaiji), but then decides to invent a bunch of other garbage that has nothing to do with anything. It's engaging when it's focused completely on the deadly game on the boat, as characters try to outwit and outplay each other with maths and game theory, but it's otherwise a whole lot of nonsense. In some ways, it's the ultimate blockbuster, as every expensive action sequence is literally pointless, by narrative design, but the film isn't smart enough to do anything interesting with that concept. It's just a bunch of random flights of fancy, flailing its arms in the hopes of entertaining audiences while trying not to run afoul of Chinese censors.
First three seen in July:
The Mystery of Oberwald (6/10) - A strange little late period Antonioni curio, based on a Cocteau play, shot entirely on video, transferred to film, and color corrected on acid. The drama feels a little staid for Antonioni, and almost all of the interest comes from the whack presentation, in which annoying digital artefacts meet psychedelic colors (the police chief literally just radiates the color blue in every scene he is in). Sometimes it's surprisingly, even astonishingly, atmospheric, but other times it's just tacky and obnoxious. Eventually, I actually found myself wrapped up in the story (thanks largely to Monica Vitti, who is radiant here, despite not literally radiating colors like the police chief), but at the end, it's still minor Antonioni at best, and as a visual experiment, eh.
Black Moon (4/10) - European arthouse twaddle. I've heard the film commonly referred to as surreal or anarchic, or both, but my problem is that it is clearly neither, despite trying to be. Louis Malle is far too literal to make any of this work. His plotting is hilariously labored, causal and straightforward, and his images are overwhelmingly mundane (criminal, given Sven Nykvist shot this, though there are some beautiful moments involving interiors and fireplaces). The talking animals are great, though, and I did enjoy the scene with Lily finally meeting the unicorn. But there's nothing anarchic or surreal about a movie that has a character use a ham radio to literally provide plot summaries of the movie up to that point. It wants to be Alice in Wonderland, but with its perplexing gender war backdrop, it mostly looks like Malle just wants to go tumbling down the rabbit hole to escape second-wave feminism.
Leave No Trace (8/10) - Debra Granik is a champion. Of life, community, and people in the margins, slipping through the cracks of society. Also just a fantastic filmmaker. There are two parallel stories here, one about a daughter slowly discovering the world and herself, and one about a father, slowly retreating from the world and shutting everything out. It's heartbreaking. Lots of movies about horses this year (there's one here, too, in a key scene), but while I still have The Rider at the top of my list, this might be the overall best use of animals on screen, given how they function in the narrative, and what they represent for different characters at various points in the film (a hunting dog finds Will and calls him back to society; a bee colony teaches Tom about community; etc.). Granik beautifully captures a sense of life and interconnectedness. I don't want to say anything more because spoilers, but this is one of the best films of the year.
Last edited:
Gonna keep going on my streak of either or rewatching animated films or catching up with ones I totally missed, so I decided to watch Coco today for the first time.
I'm seriously having divided feelings on this film, and I wanted put lot on emphasis on the word "divided".
On the one hand, it was very predictable movie that didn't really surprise me much and while the visuals provided that famous Pixar flare and polish, I wasn't so keen with the art direction of the afterlife. A lot of it felt pretty samey and the locations got difficult to distinguish one thing from another, be it individuals or locations. I kinda wish more time was spent in the living, to be honest -- felt like there was way more opportunity there both on a technical level and storytelling perspective.
But on the other hand, what the fuck that half hour almost broke me in two. Jesus Christ. Just really goes to show how much care the people behind these films put into realizing their characters and their dynamic between each other if not so much the overall story. It really does take the movie a long way given how well they executed that aspect and the key theme they want to put across through them.
I think I'm going to give this one somewhere along the lines of a very strong B.
I'm seriously having divided feelings on this film, and I wanted put lot on emphasis on the word "divided".
On the one hand, it was very predictable movie that didn't really surprise me much and while the visuals provided that famous Pixar flare and polish, I wasn't so keen with the art direction of the afterlife. A lot of it felt pretty samey and the locations got difficult to distinguish one thing from another, be it individuals or locations. I kinda wish more time was spent in the living, to be honest -- felt like there was way more opportunity there both on a technical level and storytelling perspective.
But on the other hand, what the fuck that half hour almost broke me in two. Jesus Christ. Just really goes to show how much care the people behind these films put into realizing their characters and their dynamic between each other if not so much the overall story. It really does take the movie a long way given how well they executed that aspect and the key theme they want to put across through them.
I think I'm going to give this one somewhere along the lines of a very strong B.
What's wrong with you isn't wrong with me.
Leave No Trace, much like this year's Lean On Pete, is an inspiring but also heart-wrenching tale for the compassion in others during these post-recession times towards people who have little along the tragedy of when some run away from it. Odd comparison but much like a post-apocalyptic film, the reason for why exactly the father and daughter live in a park is never given and isn't particularly needed as enough is given to make sense. The father is a PTSD-riddled veteran who slowly learns to trust in others while the incredibly strong daughter is more than willing to adapt to new situations. They have fantastic survival skills but little social skills which develop throughout. The joys of a survivalist experience from making fires (Ben Foster fully commits with at one point looking like his hands are gonna get burnt), cooking, shelters, avoiding getting your tracks "burned", transitions to the duo reluctantly adjusting to human civilisation. The film allows Debra Granik to once again find an incredibly honest performance in a young actress since Winter Bone with Jennifer Lawrence, which in this case is Thomasin Harcourt McKenzie. Dale Dickey reunites with the director, this time playing the non-judgmental heart of the film. The cinematography is sublime thanks to Michael McDonough who also lensed Winter's Bone along with Sunset Song and Starred Up. One of the year's best films, don't miss out on this.
Leave No Trace, much like this year's Lean On Pete, is an inspiring but also heart-wrenching tale for the compassion in others during these post-recession times towards people who have little along the tragedy of when some run away from it. Odd comparison but much like a post-apocalyptic film, the reason for why exactly the father and daughter live in a park is never given and isn't particularly needed as enough is given to make sense. The father is a PTSD-riddled veteran who slowly learns to trust in others while the incredibly strong daughter is more than willing to adapt to new situations. They have fantastic survival skills but little social skills which develop throughout. The joys of a survivalist experience from making fires (Ben Foster fully commits with at one point looking like his hands are gonna get burnt), cooking, shelters, avoiding getting your tracks "burned", transitions to the duo reluctantly adjusting to human civilisation. The film allows Debra Granik to once again find an incredibly honest performance in a young actress since Winter Bone with Jennifer Lawrence, which in this case is Thomasin Harcourt McKenzie. Dale Dickey reunites with the director, this time playing the non-judgmental heart of the film. The cinematography is sublime thanks to Michael McDonough who also lensed Winter's Bone along with Sunset Song and Starred Up. One of the year's best films, don't miss out on this.
For me, the bee scene is what got me teary. That was a perfect analogy of trusting in others even if they could hurt you.
The Last Jedi:
Holy fuck people were right this movie was awful. Easily the worst Star Wars movie I have ever seen, yes I like the prequels. I just couldn't get into the movie at all nothing about any of the battles, the character interactions or anything else ever drew me in. The only piece of praise I can give the movie is that I thought the ships and various other transportation vehicles and weapons looked cool but that's honestly it. Yea I was kinda hopeful Luke would do something cool and we didn't even get that. I think I might be done with the franchise after this and it isn't like I was a big fan in the first place.
Holy fuck people were right this movie was awful. Easily the worst Star Wars movie I have ever seen, yes I like the prequels. I just couldn't get into the movie at all nothing about any of the battles, the character interactions or anything else ever drew me in. The only piece of praise I can give the movie is that I thought the ships and various other transportation vehicles and weapons looked cool but that's honestly it. Yea I was kinda hopeful Luke would do something cool and we didn't even get that. I think I might be done with the franchise after this and it isn't like I was a big fan in the first place.
Stronger
I really like Jake Gyllenhaal and hadn't heard of this movie until it appeared on TMN. It was pretty good, and he was good in it. The story was interesting and deserved to be told, although the movie wasn't as good as it could've been.
I fell asleep watching Game Night but I went to see it last winter. Just couldn't keep my eyes open. I'd finish it now, but it was overdue to the library and had to go back today.
I really like Jake Gyllenhaal and hadn't heard of this movie until it appeared on TMN. It was pretty good, and he was good in it. The story was interesting and deserved to be told, although the movie wasn't as good as it could've been.
I fell asleep watching Game Night but I went to see it last winter. Just couldn't keep my eyes open. I'd finish it now, but it was overdue to the library and had to go back today.
I saw that thread someone made today about the movie and while I was out shopping I saw Redbox had it so I said why not?
Dog Island: 7/10. This movie was... weird. Like just weird shit going on in a weird place, kind of creeped me out. Didn't think it was all the funny. Cute though and I liked the message. I'm not going to rank this with other Anderson films because I don't want to.
The Work: 8/10. Fathers and sons, man. Unexpectedly gripping and emotionally draining doc. One of the best films of last year that I just caught up with.
Sweet Country: 8/10. Hell yeah. Totally gorgeous western from a completely new perspective (to me anyway). Australia really had motherfuckers still getting boomeranged in the face in 1929? Like you just turn the wrong corner and you're done for? God damn. Also that is some top notch racism you've got going there, really giving America a run for it's money. In the end I think we take it but just barely, GG. Thanks for the rec Messofanego .
The Work: 8/10. Fathers and sons, man. Unexpectedly gripping and emotionally draining doc. One of the best films of last year that I just caught up with.
Sweet Country: 8/10. Hell yeah. Totally gorgeous western from a completely new perspective (to me anyway). Australia really had motherfuckers still getting boomeranged in the face in 1929? Like you just turn the wrong corner and you're done for? God damn. Also that is some top notch racism you've got going there, really giving America a run for it's money. In the end I think we take it but just barely, GG. Thanks for the rec Messofanego .
You're welcome, man. I kept on being reminded of Michael Caine with the sheriff. Especially in the poster.
A Wrinkle in Time
I can now see why Disney decided to quietly remove this from the release schedules in most countries. Good lord, this was awful, way worse than the reviews made me expect even. No doubt one of the worst movies I'm going to see this year. Every single character was unlikable, the plot was nonsensical, the acting was poor all around (dishonarable mention goes to the kid playing Charles Wallace, not even the leads in The Book of Henry were this annoying), the writing was terrible (I swear to god, if I have to hear 'Charles Wallace' one more time...) and the special effects weren't even that good for a special effect driven movie. Just terrible all around. Sure, there is something to be said for intentions and I appreciate the chance Ava DuVernay got with this film and the fact that most of the cast is POC's, but good intentions only get you so far.
Also, where Charles Wallace was the most annoying kid I've seen in a long time, Mindy Kaling's character was the most annoying adult. That schtick where she only talked in quotes got old about two seconds after it was introduced. Even the movie decides to drop it in the end when they clearly can't figure out any more relevant quotes. Oh, and what the hell was up with that kid Calvin? Did the book also do this little with him? Were his scenes cut? When he's introduced Charles Wallace says "He's good with diplomacy, we need diplomacy", but he does absolutely nothing the entire movie except stare at stuff and trying to awkwardly flirt with the Meg. What even was the point of him tagging along?
Oh, and another thing... is boiled milk really a thing people drink? Why would you ruin milk like that?
1/5
Eagle vs. Shark
Enjoyable film, not Taika Waititi's best, but very enjoyable.
3.5/5
I can now see why Disney decided to quietly remove this from the release schedules in most countries. Good lord, this was awful, way worse than the reviews made me expect even. No doubt one of the worst movies I'm going to see this year. Every single character was unlikable, the plot was nonsensical, the acting was poor all around (dishonarable mention goes to the kid playing Charles Wallace, not even the leads in The Book of Henry were this annoying), the writing was terrible (I swear to god, if I have to hear 'Charles Wallace' one more time...) and the special effects weren't even that good for a special effect driven movie. Just terrible all around. Sure, there is something to be said for intentions and I appreciate the chance Ava DuVernay got with this film and the fact that most of the cast is POC's, but good intentions only get you so far.
Also, where Charles Wallace was the most annoying kid I've seen in a long time, Mindy Kaling's character was the most annoying adult. That schtick where she only talked in quotes got old about two seconds after it was introduced. Even the movie decides to drop it in the end when they clearly can't figure out any more relevant quotes. Oh, and what the hell was up with that kid Calvin? Did the book also do this little with him? Were his scenes cut? When he's introduced Charles Wallace says "He's good with diplomacy, we need diplomacy", but he does absolutely nothing the entire movie except stare at stuff and trying to awkwardly flirt with the Meg. What even was the point of him tagging along?
Oh, and another thing... is boiled milk really a thing people drink? Why would you ruin milk like that?
1/5
Eagle vs. Shark
Enjoyable film, not Taika Waititi's best, but very enjoyable.
3.5/5
Revenge was really fun to watch, the fact that it was insanely over the top and that it kept delivering crazy scenes
made it even better. And oh my, the blood & guts scenes were intense
girl unimpales herself, then performs an operation while on shrooms and finally goes Rambo on the guys
aside from the operation in the cave the glass stuck in the foot scene was probably the craziest one xD
Don't know where to put this but Trey Edward Shults is coming out with a new movie. Another A24 joint... It's a Musical and Reznor is doing the score.
I'm a huge fan of Shults.
https://deadline.com/2018/07/kelvin-harrison-jr-waves-a24-director-trey-edward-shults-1202420841/
https://filmschoolrejects.com/krish...ts-sets-up-his-next-challenge-with-a-musical/
Shults' Waves will be a "dramatic musical with a fresh spin" that focuses on adolescence and the throes of being a teenager today. The film will track two young couples navigating love and life. Lucas Hedges (Manchester By the Sea) and Sterling K. Brown (This Is Us) are in negotiations to lead the picture, and the rest of the main cast reportedly continues to shape up. Shults, who has written all of his feature films so far, will pen the Waves script.
Of course, this wouldn't be a Shults movie without singling out the music either. Another notable aspect about Waves is the fact that the filmmaker will forego collaborating with composer Brian McOmber, who worked on Shults' prior two movies. Instead, Academy Award-winning duo Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross will take up composing duties on Waves. Variety notes that we can expect the film to be "almost entirely synchronized to music," and contemporary tunes will be peppered throughout Reznor and Ross's score.
I'm a huge fan of Shults.
https://deadline.com/2018/07/kelvin-harrison-jr-waves-a24-director-trey-edward-shults-1202420841/
https://filmschoolrejects.com/krish...ts-sets-up-his-next-challenge-with-a-musical/
Shults' Waves will be a "dramatic musical with a fresh spin" that focuses on adolescence and the throes of being a teenager today. The film will track two young couples navigating love and life. Lucas Hedges (Manchester By the Sea) and Sterling K. Brown (This Is Us) are in negotiations to lead the picture, and the rest of the main cast reportedly continues to shape up. Shults, who has written all of his feature films so far, will pen the Waves script.
Of course, this wouldn't be a Shults movie without singling out the music either. Another notable aspect about Waves is the fact that the filmmaker will forego collaborating with composer Brian McOmber, who worked on Shults' prior two movies. Instead, Academy Award-winning duo Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross will take up composing duties on Waves. Variety notes that we can expect the film to be "almost entirely synchronized to music," and contemporary tunes will be peppered throughout Reznor and Ross's score.
"Oscar nominee Lucas Hedges and Emmy winner Sterling K. Brown are in negotiations to star in A24's "Waves," which will be Trey Edward Shults' follow-up to "It Comes at Night," sources tell Variety.
Shults wrote and will direct the film, which starts production in Florida next month, with the remaining stars being cast now.
Described as a dramatic musical with a fresh spin, the pic is an energetic, affecting anthem of contemporary teenage life. The movie follows two young couples as they navigate the emotional minefield of growing up and falling in love.
The film will be almost entirely synchronized to music, mixing some iconic contemporary songs alongside an original score from Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross"
ok so I just need that movie to come out, like, yesterday
Shults wrote and will direct the film, which starts production in Florida next month, with the remaining stars being cast now.
Described as a dramatic musical with a fresh spin, the pic is an energetic, affecting anthem of contemporary teenage life. The movie follows two young couples as they navigate the emotional minefield of growing up and falling in love.
The film will be almost entirely synchronized to music, mixing some iconic contemporary songs alongside an original score from Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross"
ok so I just need that movie to come out, like, yesterday
You know, I don't think I have done a June recap yet. I tallied up 18 films in June with a few rewatches and some really good new stuff too.
Biggest surprise was Suicide Squad. I do not understand the hate this gets
Game Night and Tag were both excellent
Hereditary was ok, but it just didn't move me like it did other people
Most valuable rewatches go to Saving Private Ryan, Dazed and Confused, and Death to Smoochy.
The Endless
I hate to toss this a half star less than Resolution, but I think that connected a bit more with me. Resolution did a lot more with a lot less and what I mean by that is how much it showed. The Endless was a really good movie, don't get me wrong, but where Resolution kind of left things up to your imagination in a lot of ways, the Endless showed some of it. Now it doesn't show a lot really, but it did have a bit more to show off as far as whatever is on the other side of whatever is going on. I also value the pair of films quite a bit because these definitely go into cosmic horror in ways we don't get very much of and do it well. Gave this one 3.5/5
The Last Jedi
As if you hadn't heard enough about this one! So let's just cut to the chase, this was a pretty mediocre movie overall. I think they tried to inject too much comedy too often. The part at the beginning with the X-Wing pilot on hold with the bad guy commander was amusing, but it felt really out of place in a movie about starships and lasers. Being on hold is a modern thing that, to me, didn't translate well. Sure it was funny, but it just didn't fit this universe. Then there were the little bunny dog things hanging out with Chewie in the Falcon. That whole bit felt like some Disney exec walked over and said add cuteness here. The big redo of the Hoth battle on a salt flat was cool visually, but it was a redo of one of the most loved battles in the original trilogy.
Stop me if you've heard this one. The Millennium Falcon goes into a cave to shake some Tie fighters or the one about the Jedi that vanishes into the force. The Force Awakens was pretty bad at simply copying the older films and the Last Jedi followed suit in the last half. First half was actually pretty cool with the bad guy fleet pursuing the remaining resistance, but once it started copying things from Empire, it went downhill fast, not that it really started all that well, but it is what it is. Now, is this worth public outcry to redo it, no. I enjoyed the original trilogy, but everything after that with the exception of Rogue One has been from bad to worse. I'd honestly be happy to let this series go and not hear about it for a good long time, but that won't happen and I will still watch these as they pop up on Netflix.
PS The big gorilla looking AT-AT's were an unneeded change too.
Pacific Rim: Uprising
Shocker, I end up loving a movie the mass market hates. After going through the Godzilla series on Filmstruck, this one really connected with me. I love Pacific Rim, but part of me actually likes this a bit more. We get a lot more big robots fighting big monsters and just like the Godzilla franchise, we get a ton of Tokyo destruction only now its not crappy cardboard cities that a dude in a suit is rampaging through. It's a very well done cgi environment that I feel really brought this one to life and contains the essence of the old Godzila movies.
Biggest surprise was Suicide Squad. I do not understand the hate this gets
Game Night and Tag were both excellent
Hereditary was ok, but it just didn't move me like it did other people
Most valuable rewatches go to Saving Private Ryan, Dazed and Confused, and Death to Smoochy.
The Endless
I hate to toss this a half star less than Resolution, but I think that connected a bit more with me. Resolution did a lot more with a lot less and what I mean by that is how much it showed. The Endless was a really good movie, don't get me wrong, but where Resolution kind of left things up to your imagination in a lot of ways, the Endless showed some of it. Now it doesn't show a lot really, but it did have a bit more to show off as far as whatever is on the other side of whatever is going on. I also value the pair of films quite a bit because these definitely go into cosmic horror in ways we don't get very much of and do it well. Gave this one 3.5/5
The Last Jedi
As if you hadn't heard enough about this one! So let's just cut to the chase, this was a pretty mediocre movie overall. I think they tried to inject too much comedy too often. The part at the beginning with the X-Wing pilot on hold with the bad guy commander was amusing, but it felt really out of place in a movie about starships and lasers. Being on hold is a modern thing that, to me, didn't translate well. Sure it was funny, but it just didn't fit this universe. Then there were the little bunny dog things hanging out with Chewie in the Falcon. That whole bit felt like some Disney exec walked over and said add cuteness here. The big redo of the Hoth battle on a salt flat was cool visually, but it was a redo of one of the most loved battles in the original trilogy.
Stop me if you've heard this one. The Millennium Falcon goes into a cave to shake some Tie fighters or the one about the Jedi that vanishes into the force. The Force Awakens was pretty bad at simply copying the older films and the Last Jedi followed suit in the last half. First half was actually pretty cool with the bad guy fleet pursuing the remaining resistance, but once it started copying things from Empire, it went downhill fast, not that it really started all that well, but it is what it is. Now, is this worth public outcry to redo it, no. I enjoyed the original trilogy, but everything after that with the exception of Rogue One has been from bad to worse. I'd honestly be happy to let this series go and not hear about it for a good long time, but that won't happen and I will still watch these as they pop up on Netflix.
PS The big gorilla looking AT-AT's were an unneeded change too.
Pacific Rim: Uprising
Shocker, I end up loving a movie the mass market hates. After going through the Godzilla series on Filmstruck, this one really connected with me. I love Pacific Rim, but part of me actually likes this a bit more. We get a lot more big robots fighting big monsters and just like the Godzilla franchise, we get a ton of Tokyo destruction only now its not crappy cardboard cities that a dude in a suit is rampaging through. It's a very well done cgi environment that I feel really brought this one to life and contains the essence of the old Godzila movies.
Synchronised like Baby Driver, hell yeah! Loved Krisha and liked It Comes At Night, just saw Nine Inch Nails live a couple weeks ago, so I'm pretty hyped.
Misery (1990): I read the book a few months ago, have not known anything about the story beyond the basic premise and the famous "hobbling" scene. The book is effective both as a claustrophobic thriller piece and as Stephen King's exploration of his own creative process; the film version understandably foregrounds the first, though I think it was a mistake to include scenes of the local cop looking into James Caan's disappearance, as that cuts against the isolation the audience feels with the protagonist. Kathy Bates' performance as Annie is very strong, and in retrospect it's rare for a role like this to earn Oscar recognition.
Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018): Discussed more in the review thread, but in short, I think this is on the whole superior to the first movie. In particular, the tonal balance is much better here compared to the first one, and it feels like this year's MCU output shows they may have moved past the trend of so many mid-2010s MCU films ruining dramatic moments with unnecessary jokes.
I Could Never Be Your Woman (2007): Did you know that, a decade before Ant-Man and the Wasp, Paul Rudd and Michelle Pfeiffer played lovers in a romantic comedy directed by Fast Times at Ridgemont High/Clueless' Amy Heckerling, also featuring a pre-Atonement Saoirse Ronan as Pfeiffer's daughter? I sure didn't, until coming across it on Netflix while looking at Ronan's available filmography. Pfeiffer plays a TV producer of a silly teen soap opera, where all of the castmembers are played by actors in the late 30s (including the lead, who is played by Stacey Dash, in a good inside joke), which makes it feel a lot like a mediocre episode of 30 Rock, albeit with brighter aesthetics more like something from early 1990s TV. There are some fun bits, and Pfeiffer and Rudd have good chemistry. Ronan is hilarious.
Set It Up (2018): Part of Netflix's attempt to bring back the mid-budget generic romantic comedy, a genre that withered away during the 2000s as it hit creative exhaustion. Zoey Deutch and Glen Powell have good chemistry as personal assistants who try to set their respective bosses (Lucy Liu and Taye Diggs) in a romantic relationship in order to hopefully get more time off from work. The movie as a whole is pleasant but mostly forgettable, and I think they don't quite make Liu's character work, in particular, which is an issue given how the climax turns on that.
Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018): Discussed more in the review thread, but in short, I think this is on the whole superior to the first movie. In particular, the tonal balance is much better here compared to the first one, and it feels like this year's MCU output shows they may have moved past the trend of so many mid-2010s MCU films ruining dramatic moments with unnecessary jokes.
I Could Never Be Your Woman (2007): Did you know that, a decade before Ant-Man and the Wasp, Paul Rudd and Michelle Pfeiffer played lovers in a romantic comedy directed by Fast Times at Ridgemont High/Clueless' Amy Heckerling, also featuring a pre-Atonement Saoirse Ronan as Pfeiffer's daughter? I sure didn't, until coming across it on Netflix while looking at Ronan's available filmography. Pfeiffer plays a TV producer of a silly teen soap opera, where all of the castmembers are played by actors in the late 30s (including the lead, who is played by Stacey Dash, in a good inside joke), which makes it feel a lot like a mediocre episode of 30 Rock, albeit with brighter aesthetics more like something from early 1990s TV. There are some fun bits, and Pfeiffer and Rudd have good chemistry. Ronan is hilarious.
Set It Up (2018): Part of Netflix's attempt to bring back the mid-budget generic romantic comedy, a genre that withered away during the 2000s as it hit creative exhaustion. Zoey Deutch and Glen Powell have good chemistry as personal assistants who try to set their respective bosses (Lucy Liu and Taye Diggs) in a romantic relationship in order to hopefully get more time off from work. The movie as a whole is pleasant but mostly forgettable, and I think they don't quite make Liu's character work, in particular, which is an issue given how the climax turns on that.
Role Models - Rewatch
I like Paul Rudd and wanted to give this one another watch. It's certainly not the best movie out there, but it has some funny moments and a pretty good cast.
Jane Lynch really hurts the movie, with her awfully written and delivered dialogue that is constantly about drugs, bullshit, sucking dick to get drugs, etc.
I like Paul Rudd and wanted to give this one another watch. It's certainly not the best movie out there, but it has some funny moments and a pretty good cast.
Jane Lynch really hurts the movie, with her awfully written and delivered dialogue that is constantly about drugs, bullshit, sucking dick to get drugs, etc.
Recently watched the fever dream of a film that is Les Blank's documentary about Leon Russell, A Poem Is A Naked Person. The world is utterly absurd and occasionally beautiful.
The use of music in Krisha was so good. I'm a huge fan of that movie and I don't get it's never talked about. Best debut I've seen by a first time for filmmaker in quite some time.
Maybe I was disappointed by Hereditary also because I so wanted it to be like a sequel to Krisha if they had the same director. I wanted a dysfunctional family horror movie, which is what Krisha was basically (which is why it gets under my skin more), and not quite as overt as what Hereditary ended up being.
The fact that it never gets supernatural makes it more unsettling and too close to home.
The fact that it never gets supernatural makes it more unsettling and too close to home.
Catching up on Wes Anderson, I watched Bottle Rocket. While it's obvious that it's his first film, there's still the subtle touch of his unorthodox style that would eventually come full circle with Rushmore.
However, not all was well this week. Curiosity got to be and I watched this series of lame fantasy B-movies called Deathstalker. At least the second one kinda had fun with its ridiculousness but the first was dreadful.
However, not all was well this week. Curiosity got to be and I watched this series of lame fantasy B-movies called Deathstalker. At least the second one kinda had fun with its ridiculousness but the first was dreadful.
So, this is really weird. First, ill give a critique that i hate when people do reviews like this. Like, these arent mainstream movies by any means, and you are tossing around 'Resolution' like everyone should know what it is when talking about Endless. A bit silly.
So next, i actually watched The Endless like 2 hours ago and was about to come in here with a review ( i really liked it), and then I saw your review mentioning it, and you are talking about Resolution, which then prompted me to actually go and figure out what that was. I found it was the directors prior work 6 years ago.
Now i saw Spring some years back and enjoyed it. Don't remember a lot, but then i saw The Endless has 97% on RT, and of course got excited and watched it.
But now before posting my review i was able to go and watch Resolution. Now i don't know what would have been better. Watching it before or after the Endless. The first half im like I wish i watched it first, and the last half im wondering if it was actually better to go back after.
So The Endless is a direct sequel to Resolution, and overall i think as far as indie movies go, this was some incredible stuff. Is Spring connected in any way or is it just these two movies?
edit: But also thanks for even letting me know that Resolution was connected to this by mentioning it, because i probably wouldnt have known otherwise.
Last edited:
Don't Look Now has one of the greatest synchronizations between its setting and its story of any movie. What better place to set a movie about the struggle to accept death than a city than a city that's been dead for years? Every other movie set in this city has focused on its glamorous and romantic, but Don't Look Now relishes in the decaying and seemingly abandoned plazas that spot the city. It's still a far cry from ugly, but it is a haunted atmosphere, and the maze like paths and diluvian waterways perfectly externalize the interiority of the grieving couple at the focal point of the story.
Essentially. It's more a walking museum than a place people actually live anymore. Like 80% of its population on any given day are tourists.
Although when Don't Look Now was filmed it had more than double the permanent residents the city now has (which I believe is under 50,000 now), and it still looked like a mausoleum.
oh, didnt see that one. If only I did sooner. Still not sure though on what was the best order to watch them.
Sweet Bird of Youth (1962): Richard Brooks and Paul Newman return to Tennessee Williams' oeuvre (incidentally, it's interesting that Hollywood has never felt much urge to revisit Williams' work in the modern era where you could actually adapt it much more faithfully than was possible in the 1950s and early 1960s). In this case, the narrative feels rather scattershot, and the stuff with Newman and Geraldine Page feels poorly integrated with the rest of the story. As you'd expect from Williams, there are a few good melodramatic monologues interspersed.
Calibrewas great, but it was mostly related to the tension from waiting for things to happen.
Still a very nail biting and solid movie. :)
The last half an hour was still good, but I feel like it wasn't super original. Maybe it was supposed to be like that and maybe my expectations were wrong, I don't know. :)
Not a lot of films capture that atmosphere as good as Don't Look Now. It's a constant stream of uneasiness mixed with dreamlike atmosphere. It was Lynch before Lynch. Maybe something like The Wicker Man from the same era had that same feeling, but it didn't feel as intimate and personal. I love the word "decay" you use to describe it, it's really that.