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Post by alexanderblanchett on Jan 5, 2020 14:43:05 GMT
Important story about a strong woman that broke all boundaries. It is an important piece of history and gives the potential for an amazing story. What director Kasi Lemmons made out of it is a thrilling adventure, that might not be 100% historical accurate but still focuses on the main theme, women rights and human rights both combined in the historical figure of Harriet. She is played by Cynthia Erivo who once again turns into a great performance making her one of the most promising new stars at the horizon. She nailed the role and offered a great character development to it. Yes she even fought against the rather mediocre screenplay. The rest of the cast is fine but nobody reaches the quality of Erivo who owns the film. Accompanied by a good score and a nice cinematography she makes this film worthwhile, even though the whole potential of the story nor character was not used or found.
Nominations for:
Best Score
Rating: 7/10
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Post by Tommen_Saperstein on Jan 11, 2020 9:30:07 GMT
so, another disappointment. Even after the mixed-bag word of mouth surrounding this I was still looking forward to seeing this one. The trailer was stirring, veteran DP John Toll's visuals looked stunning, the subject was long overdue for a cinematic treatment, Erivo looked ready to bring it, and I've appreciated conventional biopics in the past (which I assumed to be the worst this could be) so I was being cautiously optimistic. Well... it's much worse than I could have feared. For all the production value and for all Erivo's best efforts, the movie has all the character of a TV-movie from the early 2000s. Shocking, depressingly, horrifically bland. I'm gonna blame the screenplay which opts for paint-by-numbers conventions at every turn, including a number of unbelievable situations and the reduction of character development to speechifying (and an awkward device in which Erivo's Tubman communicates by singing and often at really weird times, seemingly just to highlight Erivo's voice because there's no other way it makes sense). Indeed, Erivo's theatrics expose for just how much she had to compensate, rendering her efforts hollow and veering them into melodrama. She tries to milk so much out of so little. She operates at one level throughout and never manages to feel like a real person. Even worse than its sheer conventionality is how Kasi Lemmons diminishes Tubman's conviction and courage by conflating it with (and playing up) her faith, compelling the film to operate somewhere between biopic formula and drab mythology, a genre mashup I never wanted and never want to see again. A standard biopic about Harriet Tubman the Woman would have been better than a standard biopic about Harriet Tubman the Legend, but unfortunately this tends toward the latter at every turn and cheapens its subject's legacy in the process. There's even a scene during a particularly tense escape where she goes into these trances to "talk to God", and receives step-by-step guidelines from the Almighty Himself to avoid danger (so a literal deus ex machina). It's really awkward. Even Toll's visuals, which looked so arresting in the trailer, feel tired in context, like they belong in a movie from 20 years ago. The film feels dated in every respect. 5/10 feels generous for how disappointing this was. _______________________________________ P.S. All this being said, "Stand Up" is a beautiful, stirring and empowering anthem with the cadence and lyrical stylings of a rediscovered gospel hymn building towards an angelic crescendo, and Erivo takes you to church with that vocal performance. If there was any justice in the world it would win the Oscar but I'll settle for a nomination. It's so, so good. My words could never do it justice.
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Post by stephen on Jan 11, 2020 20:28:36 GMT
If you were to program a computer to create an Oscar contender out of an algorithm, it would be this movie. Despite it being well shot (duh, it's John Toll) and solidly staged, it had no soul to it. The whole thing was mechanical in nature and played out in such a rote fashion that I'm almost surprised it was even made as more than a simple proof-of-concept trailer. Erivo gives it her all and she has one hell of a voice, but she is hamstrung by some of the stiltiest dialogue, where almost every single line she had was crafted for trailer-friendly promotion. All of the other characters are so one-note to be almost cartoonish, and while this is a problem that has plagued slavery-based movies before (12 Years a Slave is particularly guilty of this offense), at least those notes were memorable elsewhere. None of the other actors are able to give much of an impression one way or the other. No one was awful, but no one stood out, either.
In short, watch the Drunk History with Octavia Spencer instead.
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Post by cheesecake on Jan 12, 2020 2:30:05 GMT
One of the most forgettable films I've seen in a long time. Already forgot it happened.
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Post by JangoB on Jan 28, 2020 0:39:00 GMT
My main takeaway after this piece of phony boredom was just how utterly artless it was. It's as if nobody took into consideration which choices might've made the scenes actually impactful or more cinematic - the whole thing is the definition of pedestrian and uninspired. Blanchard's overbearing and almost nonstop score cheapens things in a pretty significant way and even John Toll doesn't manage to take the period opportunities by the balls, providing mostly flat and even somewhat TV-like cinematography. Although he always struck me as a DOP who's as good as his director on a particular project - he doesn't really have a signature style and he sure can shoot an uninteresting looking movie so it's upon his director to bring the best out of him. And Lemmons absolutely did not do that.
Erivo was hugely disappointing as well. I never really felt like there was any character building going on within her and the movie's disjointed quality sure didn't help matters. It seemed that she played most scenes in an 'I want an award' mode, shaking and crying all the time. I wasn't convinced at all. The movie's way to incorporate her admittedly admirable singing abilities into the story was just silly. The use of her visions as future predictors was also a bad choice - you'd think the creators of the movie would want it to be filled with danger yet we always know that Harriet will make it out fine because she has these visions which are like the Force.
Tubman is an utterly fascinating person and it's a bloody shame that she got such a bad biopic. Here's hoping for a good reboot in a couple of years!
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Post by Deleted on Feb 2, 2020 15:55:44 GMT
I'm shocked that this was even a theatrical release, frankly. The most rote, pedestrian film I've seen from 2019, barring the Hallmark Christmas movies.
And I certainly would have preferred Janelle Monáe as the titular character.
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LaraQ
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Post by LaraQ on Feb 2, 2020 17:40:31 GMT
I'm shocked that this was even a theatrical release, frankly. The most rote, pedestrian film I've seen from 2019, barring the Hallmark Christmas movies. And I certainly would have preferred Janelle Monáe as the titular character. It really was.How is it possible to make such a flat,uninspiring film about such a fascinating woman?.Cynthia Erivo did not deserve an Oscar Nomination imo.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 3, 2020 19:33:02 GMT
I'm shocked that this was even a theatrical release, frankly. The most rote, pedestrian film I've seen from 2019, barring the Hallmark Christmas movies. And I certainly would have preferred Janelle Monáe as the titular character. It really was.How is it possible to make such a flat,uninspiring film about such a fascinating woman?. Cynthia Erivo did not deserve an Oscar Nomination imo.It has to be the single laziest acting nomination since Blanchett for Elizabeth: The Golden Age.
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