The Official Review Thread of 2017

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Re: The Official Review Thread of 2017

Post by Big Magilla »

Zoe Kazan may have been annoying in The Big Sick, but she was channeling real Emily V. Gordon seen here discussing the film:

http://www.imdb.com/list/ls025849840/vi ... =hm_hp_i_1
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Re: The Official Review Thread of 2017

Post by ITALIANO »

Sabin wrote:
Italiano
Do you really know people like her? Because if you do, well, then she's at least REALISTICALLY annoying, and I'd accept that. The point is that I couldn't believe in her as a human being. Every single line she says sounds like it has been written before, and not even very well written. And no, she's not likable...
Well, as I said earlier in my post, these are more ideas of characters than characters. No, I don't know anyone like Zoe Kazan's character, nor do I think she plays a very likable one. She's more of a sitcom creation. However, I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing if done well.
Ok :)
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Re: The Official Review Thread of 2017

Post by Sabin »

Italiano
Do you really know people like her? Because if you do, well, then she's at least REALISTICALLY annoying, and I'd accept that. The point is that I couldn't believe in her as a human being. Every single line she says sounds like it has been written before, and not even very well written. And no, she's not likable...
Well, as I said earlier in my post, these are more ideas of characters than characters. No, I don't know anyone like Zoe Kazan's character, nor do I think she plays a very likable one. She's more of a sitcom creation. However, I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing if done well.
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Re: The Official Review Thread of 2017

Post by anonymous1980 »

LADY BIRD
Cast: Saoirse Ronan, Laurie Metcalf, Tracey Letts, Lucas Hedges, Beanie Feldstein, Timothee Chalamet, Lois Smith, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Odeya Rush, Jordan Rodrigues, Marielle Scott.
Dir: Greta Gerwig.

This is a coming-of-age tale of a rebellious, angst-y teenage girl from Sacramento who goes to a Catholic School but wanting to go to the East Coast to a liberal arts college. Oh, I loved this movie. Yes, it does hit on the many, many tropes of lots of coming-of-age films but it does so very, very well. Writer-director Greta Gerwig crafts a beautiful, very lived-in, even personal work which feels alive and real in a best way possible. It feels honest, I mean, the Catholic school atmosphere depicted here is quite similar to what I personally experience growing up in Catholic school. It's also quite moving, sweet and humane in the way it treats its characters. Despite the ninety-minute running time, you really feel like you got to know the characters. Gerwig has the chops of being a fine, fine filmmaker. This is actually the last film I saw in 2017, quite literally. I can think of no better film to end the year with. One of my favorites of the year.

Oscar Prospects: All of it.

Grade: A.
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Re: The Official Review Thread of 2017

Post by Big Magilla »

She's not a great actress by any stretch of the imagination, but she can do well in the right part.

She makes no bones about preferring that her long-time live-in boyfriend, Paul Dano, got the acting jobs so she could concentrate, like her Oscar-nominated parents, on her writing, or if she must act, it should be on her real love, the stage, where her legendary, 7-time Oscar-nominated and three-time Oscar-winning grandfather first came to prominence.

Her best performance was in Olive Kitteridge, the 2014 mini-series with Frances McDormand and Richard Jenkins. She earned an Emmy nomination for that.
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Re: The Official Review Thread of 2017

Post by ITALIANO »

Sabin wrote: Zoe Kazan (or as my girlfriend refers to her, "The Round-Faced Girl") did not stand out to me as a likable
Please Sabin, tell me that Americans aren't like her. Like Oscar Guy, yes, like Sonic Youth, yes, but not like her! :D

Do you really know people like her? Because if you do, well, then she's at least REALISTICALLY annoying, and I'd accept that. The point is that I couldn't believe in her as a human being. Every single line she says sounds like it has been written before, and not even very well written. And no, she's not likable...
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Re: The Official Review Thread of 2017

Post by Sabin »

Interesting. I happened to watch 'The Big Sick' again for the second time a couple of nights ago, and thought about posting, but family travels kept me from doing so until now.

I say this as a compliment: Italiano's words about 'The Big Sick' have to stand out as one of the most amusingly mean-spirited review of the year on this message board. And yet, I've been trying to figure out why I agree with so much of what he writes while enjoying the film so much. Ultimately, it's a sitcom. Like '(500) Days of Summer,' these are more ideas of characters than characters. I never felt inside their struggle. Rather it's a string of situations that invite us to reflect on our own lives. It's a narcissist film about two largely narcissistic characters.

That said, when done properly, I like those films. There's a whole range of them. 'The Big Sick' stands out among them. There are a few bum notes and at least one subplot that didn't go anywhere, but it has a hilarious performance by Ray Romano, whose every moment on-screen subverts expectations a little. It's strange that the star of a CBS sitcom would be the only person on-screen that plays the performance closest to the bone. His big speech to Kumail about cheating on his wife ends with a rambling stream of consciousness where he's just trying to make something land. And his final goodbye to Kumail is completely worthless. He's very effective as a man who seems like he can barely carry the weight of his years of marriage in his brain without collapsing in exhaustion.

Zoe Kazan (or as my girlfriend refers to her, "The Round-Faced Girl") did not stand out to me as a likable, interesting person despite their best intentions of giving her more backstory than usual (her divorce), some good, effective banter, and an empathetic situation. She does get one terrific line: "I love it when boyfriends test me on my taste." Kumail is a worse actor but he fares slightly better because...well, I know this guy. He may be in an extraordinary situation, but he's still an immature man-boy, often with a backpack, who bails on conversations before their properly over. In at least one moment (when he hits on a girl at the bar post-breakup), they're going for Alvy Singer territory and fall short, but 'The Big Sick' is a movie I got a lot of pleasure from.
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Re: The Official Review Thread of 2017

Post by ITALIANO »

mlrg wrote:
Also, have you seen Get Out?
Yes. By far the best of the potential Oscar nominees I've seen till now (with the exception of the Lebanese foreign film entry The Insult).

But then the others I have seen are Mudbound and The Big Sick...

Sadly, this year I am too busy to watch movies. but of course I was (half) joking about Girls Trip...
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Re: The Official Review Thread of 2017

Post by mlrg »

ITALIANO wrote:
flipp525 wrote:I

But, *c’mon*, singling out the Pakistani actors as good in the film is a bit of a stretch.

Mmm... well, ok, let's say SOME of the Pakistani actors (I actually found the father of the family not too bad either). But you see, this is a movie where most characters (Pakistani AND American) are broad and ridiculous.

Bad movie. Next on my list will be one between Girls Trip or Dunkirk.
See Dunkirk although I guess it works better seen on a big screen. I haven't seen Girls Trip but just the thought of "having" to sit through it in case it gets nominated for anything makes me want to vomit. The trailer is dreadful.

Also, have you seen Get Out?
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Re: The Official Review Thread of 2017

Post by ITALIANO »

flipp525 wrote:I

But, *c’mon*, singling out the Pakistani actors as good in the film is a bit of a stretch.

Mmm... well, ok, let's say SOME of the Pakistani actors (I actually found the father of the family not too bad either). But you see, this is a movie where most characters (Pakistani AND American) are broad and ridiculous.

Bad movie. Next on my list will be one between Girls Trip or Dunkirk.
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Re: The Official Review Thread of 2017

Post by flipp525 »

I don’t disagree with much of this review, ITALIANO.

But, *c’mon*, singling out the Pakistani actors as good in the film is a bit of a stretch. Their performances (save the very pretty girl who is invited back to the home giving the only performance that attempts to resemble a real person) are broad and mostly ridiculous.

Ray Romano, an actor I usually cannot stand, is the only one who survives the film unscathed. I loved his portrayal and could see him as a surprise Best Supporting Actor candidate.

Zoe Kazan (who is quite lovely in person - I met her and Paul Dano at a good friend’s wedding in Brooklyn a couple years ago) was very annoying. I thought she was so much better in Olive Kitteridge.
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Re: The Official Review Thread of 2017

Post by ITALIANO »

The Big Sick is another of those movies I would have never get close to if it wasn't a possible Oscar nominee. And, again, I wouldn't have lost anything, really. It's a minor effort, supposedly based on true events (its two writers are a couple in real life, and he plays - badly - the leading role), except that it feels SO... I wouldn't even say "fake" - just so "planned". But yes, is is also fake - for example I can't believe that a traditional Pakistani family, though living in US, speaks English all the time at home rather than Urdu. Long and unmemorable, it contains all the cliches of movies about stand-up comedians - including the typical "show on stage which is so obviously bad you can't believe the actor (in the movie) could even remotely believe it is good, or that nobody told hm before".
Plus - but this is very personal... I couldn't stand them. Honestly. I mean, the people in it. Has it ever happened to you? You see a movie in which the main characters are supposed to be adorable and cute and funny and smart and... and you just hate them. The girl the leading man falls in love with is especially annoying - so much that the moment she fell into a coma I was grateful (bad news: she survives it).
Except for the man playing Holly Hunter's husband (they are the girl's parents) and most of the Pakistani actors, the performances are mediocre at best. Holly Hunter isn't exactly mediocre - she just ACTS - yes, in capital letters - all the time, never a spontaneous gesture, never a natural expression on her face.
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Re: The Official Review Thread of 2017

Post by Mister Tee »

Stronger is the sort of movie that underlines for me just how far apart I stand from the general run of movie-goers. The things I somewhat like about the movie are the scenes that show how angry/hostile the injury makes Gyllenhaal -- the way everyone seems to want to help in ways that just annoy him; the ways his self-pity overrides any gratitude, either to circumstance (his very survival) or those who genuinely sacrifice for him (his girlfriend). The amount of emphasis the film puts on these things may be part of the reason it hasn't been a great financial success. Yet the film ultimately falls short for me because of the scenes audiences probably DID like -- the cliched straining-through-pain, get-your-self-respect-back montages that lead to an ultimate happy ending and character redemption. That same old/same old (during which I always mentally hear the Rocky theme playing in the background) is likely why the studio green-lit the project, but it's the reason I had no outward interest in the film, and only watched it for potential Oscar/Globe completeness.

As for that reason -- Gyllenhaal -- he works hard at the Boston accent and ethos (if you only knew Boston through the movies, you'd assume every denizen had a foul mouth and lived and died for sports). It's a perfectly decent performance, but not a patch on his Nightcrawler work. Tatiana Maslany, with whom I'm not familiar (haven't watched any Orphan Black), certainly has a presence, and brings some interest to a girlfriend role that's a little different from the usual helpmate.
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Re: The Official Review Thread of 2017

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The Original BJ wrote: As for a movie that IS genuinely bad...I'm not being hyperbolic: The Greatest Showman is the single most godawful film I have put myself through this year. Almost from the opening moments, I was horrified -- the score is totally anachronistic (and so is the choreography), Hugh Jackman (despite his reputation as a musical showman with a Tony Award) remains a pretty poor singer, and the whole film has a thoroughly antiseptic, overly-CGIed, hideously edited together look to it that I found completely unpleasant. It's the kind of musical that makes me wonder if people who hate musicals are actually right, the kind of movie that OF COURSE has an obnoxious critic character to peddle the theme that critics are awful because they just can't feel the joy that showmen like P.T. Barnum bring to people, the kind of movie where Zac Efron and Zendaya have an in public interracial romance and no one even bothers to mention that slavery still exists at this point in American history. An ugly, witless, joyless, tuneless, laughable catastrophe, and a pox on the Hollywood Foreign Press for nominating such a grisly thing.
Your review B.J. is one of the funniest I have read about any film in some time. This is the film I most dread having to sit through should it be nominated for any Oscars and if that turns out to be the case I'll have to approach with tongue firmly in cheek.
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Re: The Official Review Thread of 2017

Post by Sabin »

I've enjoyed 'Star Wars' films in the past, but I am not a 'Star Wars' fan. I don't like the mythology. I've always found it akin to sci-fi in a blender. That said, I thought 'The Last Jedi' was very entertaining. There are some huge logic holes but it's about as much fun I've had in a 'Star Wars' film in the theater (which is to say not one of the originals). It's no wonder that it seems to be dividing fans down the middle. It's clearly a remix of previous 'Star Wars' tropes (Jedi training, a weird cantina, a white planet battle) but Rian Johnson is a great remixer. All three of his previous films were expert homages, lacking in spark and soul but only a grinch would refuse them. That's how I feel about 'The Last Jedi.' Rian Johnson stages it terrifically enough that you wish he'd spend his time on something else. The only downside is you can never shake the feeling that you're watching something inconsequential, something that comments on itself, something that is eating itself to provide fuel to create something new. Call it 'Star Wars: Episode VIII – The Last Jedi: The Next Generation.'
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