Doug Heffernan
Member
Good! Now stop casting the same damn people in your movies. You're not Martin Scorsese, get over yourself.
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First Reviews for Joy (David O. Russell, J-Law, DeNiro, B. Coops; Oscar Frontrunner?)
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Its a pointless gimmick. There is nothing to get past.
brianmcdoogle
Member
I've seen 52 movies released in 2015 this year, none of them being comic book movies and few being summer blockbusters (a couple are 2014 holdouts that didn't technically release in my city until January 2015, and some foreign releases for similar reasons), and I've given them personal ratings as follow:
1-star rating : 3 movies
2-star rating : 10 movies
3-star rating : 22 movies
4-star rating : 10 movies
5-star rating : 7 movies
That ranks as a pretty mediocre year for movies for me. And, I found it "strange" because some of the best movies of the year have been big studio affairs, like Creed and Mad Max and Inside Out, where that usually isn't the case, and some talented directors have had some big misfires like Pan, Spectre, Jobs, maybe Joy, maybe The Reverent, and so on.
There's a lot I haven't seen this year that I wanted to because the release dates didn't line up with my schedule, like The Assassin playing for only 1 week where I live, or things I need to catch up on like Clouds of Sils Maria and Chiraq and While We're Young and so on. Either way, this year has just felt very mediocre, or average. And, to be fair, I think most years are around the "average" mark, with some years being really great and other years being really weak. I guess I try not to inflate things because if every year is great, then what was 2008? Or 2011? Or 2002? 1997? And so on.
CopperPuppy
Member
Oh hey, the thread title makes this sound pretty promis-
Kadayi
Banned
There's a time and place for regular ensemble casting and it's known as a 'Wes Anderson movie' and the reason it works so well is because of the magic ingredient known as 'Bill Murray'. He is the glue that makes everything work. Lack of Bill is a huge oversight in any regular ensemble endeavour.
Messofanego
Banned
Interesting. I don't compare years, but fair enough.
Did you happen to see:
A Pigeon Sat On A Branch, The Lobster, Hard To Be A God, Ex Machina, Mistress America, Duke Of Burgundy, It Follows, Theeb, Timbuktu, 45 Years, Carol, World Of Tomorrow (only 15 min but better than many sci fi films), Slow West, Macbeth, Girlhood, Diary Of A Teenage Girl, The Wonders, Amy, Cartel Land, Taxi Tehran, The Look Of Silence?
I'm counting out festival films, ten or so I saw.
Cause those are my favourites from this year.
Maybe you judge movies too hard
UberTag
Member
Even if the Academy ignores it, Mad Max is a shoe-in to win GAF's movie of the year awards (unless I'm grossly underestimating how rabid Star Wars are).
brianmcdoogle
Member
Some of those, yes. I enjoyed Ex Machina, Mistress America (minus about 10 minutes of the film that I REALLY hated), It Follows, Timbuktu, Girlhood, Amy, Cartel Land, and The Look of Silence. Gathering from critical consensus, I'm much more lukewarm on Amy and The Look of Silence (especially compared to Oppenheimer's previous). Out of that list, I really liked Mistress America except for 10 minutes nearish the end, and Ex Machina was good, but I don't think it is amazing or anything revelatory.
And, I am big on Everest and The Stanford Prison Experiment, but I feel alone on these movies. Same with Welcome To Me, which is one of my 5-star movies that I know I'm really alone on loving.
Carol isn't playing for me yet, and I hope the only damn art theater near me reopens soon with it playing because that film has been my most anticipated since Cannes. A great director and my favorite actress, I can't wait.
A couple of the ones you listed I don't know what is up with them. The Lobster still hasn't played near me despite there being a famous enough cast to get at least a weekend in my art house cinema, and Macbeth should have played a month ago, but still hasn't (though brief things I've heard about it have lowered my expectations, mainly the sidelining of Lady Macbeth). It's frustrating waiting to see what appears in that one theater of mine and what gets a VOD release. Thank goodness for iTunes so I could see I Smile Back because that was never going to come to a theater near me, and it didn't. But, they've played By The Sea for three weeks for some reason. I dunno. I wish I lived in NYC or LA just for movies.
I probably do to some regard. But, I think "worst movie ever" and "masterpiece" are thrown around way too often, and I think it does a disservice to discuss film in such hyperbolic statements. And, I think the biggest difference I have with people when discussing films, especially the way some people on GAF talk about them, is that I'm totally ok liking or loving a movie that is average or mediocre, but I'm not going to pretend that it is some misjudged masterpiece. I love Bring It On and Mean Girls, but they aren't the best comedies of the last 15 years, and that's ok. It is ok to like mad or mediocre movies. (Mean Girls is probably better than mediocre. Bring It On? Eh) If you listen or read Wesley Morris, the way he talks about Danny Collins from this year is something like "this is my favorite movie that I would never put on a top 10 list". Something like that.
Messofanego
Banned
Nice to see you enjoyed some of the same movies. Where do you live, USA? Entertainment and Queen Of Earth are on iTunes, festival films that I loved.
I'll check out Welcome To Me, can't get enough of dark comedies.
ZackieChan
Member
Yeah. If you know anything about typography, you'll know that it objectively makes something harder to read. There's literally no reason to do it - it's just a gimmick that makes it more difficult to get through the prose. Why do that?
Messofanego
Banned
You don't need to know anything about typography cause it's not a poster or logo, it's a critique. If you haven't gotten over the style to actually engage with the content after 5 years when everyone's already made their mind up to read/not read, then why protest now?
Maybe to weed out the people who are so uninterested in the best film critic on the internet that they refuse to read something for one of the most trivial reasons imaginable.
Freewheelin'
Member
O. Russell is shit. All his films are just shiny veneers which have no soul or emotion. Literally just actor's showcases.
Last good film he made was Three Kings.
The fact Mad Max is in conversation for these awards alone is reward enough. Won't take the biggun because Spotlight is about real shit and important things (haven't seen it, not a knock on quality but more Oscar thinking).
Last good film he made was Three Kings.
The fact Mad Max is in conversation for these awards alone is reward enough. Won't take the biggun because Spotlight is about real shit and important things (haven't seen it, not a knock on quality but more Oscar thinking).
ZackieChan
Member
It's not trivial - it is literally more difficult to read. Harder to focus on the words. It makes my head hurt to read so much all-caps writing. All for what? A gimmick?
Is there some site out there that retypes it in normal typography?
What if it were written in red font against a black background? Or what if it was a podcast where he was screaming through the whole thing?
There's nothing trivial about presentation when the presentation is an impediment to the content. And there's no reason to write it that way in the first place other than to be gimmicky.
There's nothing trivial about presentation when the presentation is an impediment to the content. And there's no reason to write it that way in the first place other than to be gimmicky.
WrenchNinja
Member
You can't possibly actually believe this
SCULLIBUNDO
Banned
Just caught this and enjoyed it well enough. O'Russell gets too much shit.
Sure, back when he was making awesome stuff like Huckabees he would have been the last person you would expect to become a routine, packaged crowd-pleaser director. But fuck it. These harmless (if sometimes toothless) crowdpleasers are still better and more enjoyable than 90% of the other packaged popcorn filmsthat fail to elicit so much as a smirk most of the time.
I gotta judge the film as the film it is, not the film it isn't for what the filmmaker used to be. And this film ain't bad y'all. Worth a watch. Fun but nothing mind blowing. And sometimes that's enough.
Sure, back when he was making awesome stuff like Huckabees he would have been the last person you would expect to become a routine, packaged crowd-pleaser director. But fuck it. These harmless (if sometimes toothless) crowdpleasers are still better and more enjoyable than 90% of the other packaged popcorn filmsthat fail to elicit so much as a smirk most of the time.
I gotta judge the film as the film it is, not the film it isn't for what the filmmaker used to be. And this film ain't bad y'all. Worth a watch. Fun but nothing mind blowing. And sometimes that's enough.
People are deluding themselves. Mad Max will never win against Spotlight and Carol.
Nor should it, Carol is the better movie.
hosannainexcelsis
Member
That's unfair. I've seen routine, packaged crowd-pleaser inspirational movies (e.g., The Imitation Game). The material of this movie could have easily been presented like that. But Russell did not present it like that. Joy has the most creative direction I've seen in a film this year outside Me, Earl, and the Dying Girl. That's what pulled me in, and in particular pulled me in to the mind of Joy, the woman who's trying to overcome the chaos spiraling around her. It was a successful movie.
Unrelated, but I just watched this for the first time
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7SG43wa7Alo&app=desktop
"Lily Vs. David O." on set of I Heart Huckabees.
Holy shit dude!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7SG43wa7Alo&app=desktop
"Lily Vs. David O." on set of I Heart Huckabees.
Holy shit dude!
illiniguy05
Member
I just watched this movie, and my god what a horrendous piece of shit. I'm ashamed of even bumping the thread for this dreck, but I think people should be warned.
Avoid at all costs.
Avoid at all costs.
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