What movies did you see last week? (8/13-8/19)
Aug 20, 2018 15:17:11 GMT
Tommen_Saperstein likes this
Post by Martin Stett on Aug 20, 2018 15:17:11 GMT
Snow White and the Huntsman (2012) -- With a good director, this could have been an effective surreal fantasy in the vein of Cocteau's Beauty and the Beast (albeit with more horror elements). The script is kind of crap, but the basis of a surreal horror piece is there with a little rewriting. Instead, we get a bad action movie stuffed full of mediocre CGI and a cast that clearly doesn't give a crap. Especially Kristen Stewart delivering the most "get me the hell out of this contract" performance I've seen in a long, long time. A morbid, turgid piece of shit. 2/10
I, Tonya (2017) -- I actually really enjoyed this. Huh. The first act focusing on Tonya and LaVona is a little sensationalized, but it hits hard and makes a compelling character out of Tonya. The second act is the weak point of the movie, playing these events as Fargo-esque comedy with a cast of characters that doesn't have two brain cells between them. The third act tries to recover by focusing back on Tonya, but is overshadowed by the reality of the case that the movie conveniently ignores: the reality that the people involved said that they were to break Kerrigan's landing leg. Not one mention of this is... fishy. However, as a piece of fiction, it still works to make the character of Tonya an interesting person that you can sympathize with, so job well done for creating a good (lie of a) movie. 7/10
The Post (2017) -- The script is very on the nose, but Spielberg and his cast infuse it with a lot of forward momentum and always keep it quite entertaining. In the end, it isn't really anything more, due to a script that SERIOUSLY needed rewrites to create any sort of nuanced picture. 7/10
Harakiri (1962 rewatch) -- This is exhausting. It's such an angry, worn down story, and every step of it makes you feel Tsugumo's weariness, and his decision to come to the Iyi court to disembowel himself honorably. Tatsuya Nakadai's performance remains as my arguable all time favorite, cycling through more emotions in one role than many actors are allowed to do in thirty. Gosh, I love this movie. 10/10
Zero Dark Thirty (2012 rewatch) -- I can't believe that this is two and a half hours long. It seems so much shorter. The movie is propulsive like few others. The biggest weakness -- and the biggest strength -- of the film is its staunch refusal to make Maya and her allies into either monsters or heroes. It shows the soul destroying cost of being a torturer, but never truly shows anyone believing that what they're doing is wrong (and that's a weakness). It has its uses, and it may be monstrous, but the film shows that some people are willing to sell their souls for what they believe is right (and that's a narrative strength). That's why it's so fascinating: it is a look at Maya as she loses everything she's ever fought for, in the process of fighting for it. She has nothing left at the end, even as she attains her goal. It's a very hard movie to stick a rating on; at the moment I'm giving it a small drop to 8/10, but I could easily push it back up to my 10/10 rating. It's the kind of movie that you need time to chew, but even then I'm afraid that I'll just go in circles.
Penguin's Memory: A Tale of Happiness (1985) -- I admit that I watched this entirely because of the strange backstory behind the making of the film.* Like Snow White and the Huntsman, there's the basis of a good story here, but the movie doesn't focus on any sort of nuanced look at depression or PTSD, but instead fills the movie with over-the-top cliches and easy-to-absolve conflict. That pisses me off, because this could and should have been about Mike learning to live again, but instead it's about cheap Hollywood sentimentality and easy to market conflict. 2/10
*So the deal is this: In the late 1970s or early 1980s, Suntory made a series of commercials starring Mike the cartoon penguin. Some executive along the way said "why does Mike drink so much?" and someone else said "maybe he's a Vietnam war veteran suffering from PTSD and drinks to self-medicate" and the executive replied "BRILLIANT!" And so Penguin's Memory was born.
I, Tonya (2017) -- I actually really enjoyed this. Huh. The first act focusing on Tonya and LaVona is a little sensationalized, but it hits hard and makes a compelling character out of Tonya. The second act is the weak point of the movie, playing these events as Fargo-esque comedy with a cast of characters that doesn't have two brain cells between them. The third act tries to recover by focusing back on Tonya, but is overshadowed by the reality of the case that the movie conveniently ignores: the reality that the people involved said that they were to break Kerrigan's landing leg. Not one mention of this is... fishy. However, as a piece of fiction, it still works to make the character of Tonya an interesting person that you can sympathize with, so job well done for creating a good (lie of a) movie. 7/10
The Post (2017) -- The script is very on the nose, but Spielberg and his cast infuse it with a lot of forward momentum and always keep it quite entertaining. In the end, it isn't really anything more, due to a script that SERIOUSLY needed rewrites to create any sort of nuanced picture. 7/10
Harakiri (1962 rewatch) -- This is exhausting. It's such an angry, worn down story, and every step of it makes you feel Tsugumo's weariness, and his decision to come to the Iyi court to disembowel himself honorably. Tatsuya Nakadai's performance remains as my arguable all time favorite, cycling through more emotions in one role than many actors are allowed to do in thirty. Gosh, I love this movie. 10/10
Zero Dark Thirty (2012 rewatch) -- I can't believe that this is two and a half hours long. It seems so much shorter. The movie is propulsive like few others. The biggest weakness -- and the biggest strength -- of the film is its staunch refusal to make Maya and her allies into either monsters or heroes. It shows the soul destroying cost of being a torturer, but never truly shows anyone believing that what they're doing is wrong (and that's a weakness). It has its uses, and it may be monstrous, but the film shows that some people are willing to sell their souls for what they believe is right (and that's a narrative strength). That's why it's so fascinating: it is a look at Maya as she loses everything she's ever fought for, in the process of fighting for it. She has nothing left at the end, even as she attains her goal. It's a very hard movie to stick a rating on; at the moment I'm giving it a small drop to 8/10, but I could easily push it back up to my 10/10 rating. It's the kind of movie that you need time to chew, but even then I'm afraid that I'll just go in circles.
Penguin's Memory: A Tale of Happiness (1985) -- I admit that I watched this entirely because of the strange backstory behind the making of the film.* Like Snow White and the Huntsman, there's the basis of a good story here, but the movie doesn't focus on any sort of nuanced look at depression or PTSD, but instead fills the movie with over-the-top cliches and easy-to-absolve conflict. That pisses me off, because this could and should have been about Mike learning to live again, but instead it's about cheap Hollywood sentimentality and easy to market conflict. 2/10
*So the deal is this: In the late 1970s or early 1980s, Suntory made a series of commercials starring Mike the cartoon penguin. Some executive along the way said "why does Mike drink so much?" and someone else said "maybe he's a Vietnam war veteran suffering from PTSD and drinks to self-medicate" and the executive replied "BRILLIANT!" And so Penguin's Memory was born.
