-
Hey Guest. Check out your NeoGAF Wrapped 2025 results here!
Movies You've Seen Recently |OT| October 2013
- Thread starter SCULLIBUNDO
- Start date
- Status
Snowman Prophet of Doom
Member
The movie takes the Spruce Goose fiasco and tries to spin it as some grand triumph, Hughes overcoming those personal demons for a short time before the final descent into madness that is shown at the end. It's a movie about a man's personal obsessions driving away all who are close to him, and eventually driving him into a crazed exile, but the climax of the film is about him trying to put those things aside for a time and prove to the world that he had succeeded, in some limited sense - even though, in reality, the Spruce Goose was a pretty massive flop, even if he did get it to fly for a short time. That it tries to leaven this triteness with a tease of the true madness that would plague him in his final years doesn't really offer any kind of novel twist, as it's a cheap trick.
The movie is bloated, boringly-shot, covers WAY too much of his life to portray any of it with much efficacy (without even trying to convincingly age Dicaprio, who looks prepubescent throughout the whole film, or anyone else, for that matter), and features acting and characterizations that are totally skin-deep and shallow - lots of miming and cartoony voices, but NO sense that the actors have truly inhabited the characters' inner lives, as well. It may superficially have some of Scorsese's stylistic tics, but it's got none of the insight, philosophy, or psychological incisiveness that made him such a great director.
After Hours is a cogent evocation of the weird kind of reality that defines the modern workplace, as well as those that populate it.
The Aviator is a movie that has little to offer and will almost certainly be looked at in the future as an unsuccessful (or, at best, only slightly successful) attempt by a great director to make a more commercial, conventional flick.
Edit: That the movie is not very good is unsurprising to me, given that it's written by the guy who wrote Gladiator - another bloated Hollywood mediocrity filled with cartoony characterizations and, seemingly, zero real perspective on or insight into history.
I suspect "The Wolf of Wall Street" may be at least a bit better, even with Dicaprio, as it at least seems like something Scorsese truly wanted to make, rather than being something he just got brought in on to help a friend.
Dragoon En Regalia
Member
I'm still waiting for 'Sese's version of Silence, honestly. First comes the novel, then Shinoda's take, then hopefully this.
Kilgore Trout
Member
Shinoda's version is good enough to leave me with no desire to see a remake, although I am curious to see Scorsese's take--if it ever gets off the ground.
SCULLIBUNDO
Banned
Now The Aviator is boringly shot as well, huh? I missed you, Snowy. You crazy sonuvabitch.
The Aviator is an impeccably-shot film. And whilst there are beautiful, but boringly shot films, it certainly isn't one of them. Whilst many of Scorsese's past films share that unbridled energy about the way he shoots, frames and cuts his subjects; The Aviator simply isn't meant to be that kind of a film. I absolutely adore the film's look - specifically Scorsese's decision to progress the film's colour palette from an early two-strip colour palette up to the technicolour scenes as the film progressed. Scorsese is romanticizing the era - which has a lot to do with what you call shoddy CGI (which I'm assuming - hopefully not incorrectly, you link to the scene where Hughes is shooting Hell's Angels); those scenes purposely create a sense of artificiality about them. They're romantic flourishes at the expense of realism, yes, but I think they're beautiful.
And I think you're missing the forest for the trees when you criticize the film for attempting to cover too much of Hughes' life without resting on any one period. The film is attempting to create a portrait of Hughes' self-destructive compulsion - his ego and his inability to just stop and know when enough is enough, to be able to rest on his laurels. From Hell's Angels to his overreaching with TWA. That is the point of showing the entire senate hearing debate and supposed triumph of Hughes in getting the Hercules off the ground. It's a superficial triumph, that is just as quickly a success as it is meaningless. He has to keep pursuing these meaningless victories; they inform and feed and are his sickness as much as any other small physical behavioral tics he might display. Every new triumph of his is the way the of an unending future, torturous future for him.
And DiCaprio is fantastic in the film. Those skin-deep performances you call out might be said of everybody around DiCaprio's Hughes, and that is the point. Hughes is largely presented as a sick man who has trouble navigating the artificiality of Golden-Age Hollywood with any semblance of guile. That's probably the biggest thing we get from his interaction with Hepburn - who also, is fantastically played by Blanchett.
The Aviator is an impeccably-shot film. And whilst there are beautiful, but boringly shot films, it certainly isn't one of them. Whilst many of Scorsese's past films share that unbridled energy about the way he shoots, frames and cuts his subjects; The Aviator simply isn't meant to be that kind of a film. I absolutely adore the film's look - specifically Scorsese's decision to progress the film's colour palette from an early two-strip colour palette up to the technicolour scenes as the film progressed. Scorsese is romanticizing the era - which has a lot to do with what you call shoddy CGI (which I'm assuming - hopefully not incorrectly, you link to the scene where Hughes is shooting Hell's Angels); those scenes purposely create a sense of artificiality about them. They're romantic flourishes at the expense of realism, yes, but I think they're beautiful.
And I think you're missing the forest for the trees when you criticize the film for attempting to cover too much of Hughes' life without resting on any one period. The film is attempting to create a portrait of Hughes' self-destructive compulsion - his ego and his inability to just stop and know when enough is enough, to be able to rest on his laurels. From Hell's Angels to his overreaching with TWA. That is the point of showing the entire senate hearing debate and supposed triumph of Hughes in getting the Hercules off the ground. It's a superficial triumph, that is just as quickly a success as it is meaningless. He has to keep pursuing these meaningless victories; they inform and feed and are his sickness as much as any other small physical behavioral tics he might display. Every new triumph of his is the way the of an unending future, torturous future for him.
And DiCaprio is fantastic in the film. Those skin-deep performances you call out might be said of everybody around DiCaprio's Hughes, and that is the point. Hughes is largely presented as a sick man who has trouble navigating the artificiality of Golden-Age Hollywood with any semblance of guile. That's probably the biggest thing we get from his interaction with Hepburn - who also, is fantastically played by Blanchett.
2010: The year we make contact
Just finished it. I knew going in was going to be a different type of movie and that's fine, I didn't want a 2nd rate copy of the original. Fine it did things differently. There's a lot I liked, including the cast. (Roy Schneider and John Lithgow are really a good thing) And there's a lot of elements I did like including
Overall good movie, good sci-fi, planet stuff was amazing and the last part was surreal to see.
Just finished it. I knew going in was going to be a different type of movie and that's fine, I didn't want a 2nd rate copy of the original. Fine it did things differently. There's a lot I liked, including the cast. (Roy Schneider and John Lithgow are really a good thing) And there's a lot of elements I did like including
Hal's redemption so to speak, and the return of Bowman.
Overall good movie, good sci-fi, planet stuff was amazing and the last part was surreal to see.
Snowman Prophet of Doom
Member
I just.... ugh.
Enjoy the movie, man. I'm very uninterested in doing a point-by-point teardown of the film - though if I rewatched it, I most definitely could, and would.
However, I'll just say, point blank, that your opinion on Dicaprio in the film is nutso. He's an actor whose reputation is built on pure hype. The man projects ZERO masculinity or realistic ambition, going instead for a sort of cartoony caricature of what such a man might be like, and there's zero inner depth or insight that Dicaprio provides that a million other actors could not provide. He's an actor incapable of truly losing himself to a performance, just LEO in everything he's in, yet he insists on choosing parts where he gets to dress in ostentatious "period" costumes that only highlight his on-screen artificiality. I think it was the RedLetterMedia guys who said that he's a bit like a really ambitious high school theatre actor, and as somebody who's BEEN in that milieu for nine years... yeah, that's about right. I know the type well, and he fits it to a T, artistically. And your defense of things like the performances and shoddy CG is akin to people who defend boringly-written poetry that happens to be about boredom. (Blanchett's even worse, really, but she's not quite the linchpin of the movie that Dicaprio is.)
It's a movie that simply has nothing of enduring value to communicate about the man, the period, ambition, mental illness, or anything in-between. It uncomfortably straddles the line between the kinds of character studies Scorsese cut his teeth on and the generic bloated Hollywood biopic it would have been exposed as had it not had a decent director to hide some of its flaws, lacking any kind of real artistic identity or mark to distinguish it as anything other than a very minor film from a major director.
Icedburden
Member
Compliance: Dumb people making dumb decisions. PASS
Undefeated: Great Documentary about a poverty stricken area where the high school football team is trying to make the playoff for the first time. WATCH
The Trip: British road trip movie with Steve Coogan and some other guy. WATCH
Undefeated: Great Documentary about a poverty stricken area where the high school football team is trying to make the playoff for the first time. WATCH
The Trip: British road trip movie with Steve Coogan and some other guy. WATCH
SCULLIBUNDO
Banned
Edit: And I agree about DiCaprio if you're talking about right now. But not then. After he grew up - after Gilbert Grape, nobody was harping on about DiCaprio's acting talents. Not until The Aviator. Since then he's slowly been re-purposing the same performance into similar roles.
He's good in the same way somebody like Nicholson is good. They can't disappear into their roles, but they're great at giving a rousing performance as themselves. They're not great character actors, but they have gravitas and are enigmatic enough to keep your interest on them.
kurisu_1974
Banned
Yeah that part I could relate to, even if I didn't experience it as isolated in empty hotel rooms like these people. The debutante stuff just was very alien to me. I wonder if something like that exists here in Europe outside of the aristocracy.
It's full of stars
Meanhwile I watched
The Purge (2013) - What absolute nonsense thematically and how lazy in execution. I ended up counting the times someone off-screen saves the day by shooting someone that's about to shoot someone.
Behind the Candelabra (2013) - Like this a lot, didn't know much about Liberace, Michael Douglas was pretty convincing as was the rest of the cast, and of course it was quality filmmaking.
V/H/S/2 (2013) - Rather awful sequel, didn't like the first one that much but at least it had some atmospheric ghost stories, this was just silly gore which can be enjoyable too, but in this case the segments got old before they were over except maybe the story set in Borneo. This was the start of my October Halloween Movie Thing (c)
Chainsawkitten
Member
That's horror for ya.
teruterubozu
Member
Such a shame that Scorsese never worked again with the writer of After Hours
Meet you all the way! Rosanna Yeah!
-Stranger-
Junior Member
Gravity
Amazing, Breathtaking cinematography, excellent sound design!
It actually made me feel really nervous/anxious watching it!
4.5/5
Amazing, Breathtaking cinematography, excellent sound design!
It actually made me feel really nervous/anxious watching it!
4.5/5
ViewtifulJC
Banned
After Hours at least 10x more interesting than Aviator. I miss that raw, lean feel of Taxi Driver, King of Comedy, Mean Streets, and After Hours. Goodfellas is amazing, but it feels bloated in comparison. Casino is just this gargantuan whale in brightly colored suits that sounds like the never-ending screams of Sharon Stone. Every minute DDL isn't in Gangs of New York is disposable. I hear Wolf of Wall Street is 3 hours, I think The Aviator Part Two, and it makes me sad.
--
Randomly caught Coming to America on TV last night. That's one of those movies that I'll just stop whatever I'm doing and watch it to the end, every time.
--
Randomly caught Coming to America on TV last night. That's one of those movies that I'll just stop whatever I'm doing and watch it to the end, every time.
Saw Rush at an Xbox advanced screening last night. Didn't know anything about it going into it but don't feel that changed much. Started a bit slow but the final race was fantastic. Nothing outstanding but it was decent cinema which gave an interesting, albeit dramatic, insight into the world of F1 racing of yesteryear.
If you enjoy F1 or cars going in you'll probably enjoy the film a lot.
Going to see Gravity on the weekend, really looking forward to it.
If you enjoy F1 or cars going in you'll probably enjoy the film a lot.
Going to see Gravity on the weekend, really looking forward to it.
So good.
I'm not too thrilled about Wolf of Wall Street either but how does it look like The Aviator Part Two? Also, no love for The Age of Innocence?
As I'm posting I may as well...
Recently saw Jackie Brown, Pat Garret and Billy the Kid and The Deer Hunter. I can see where people are coming from when they say Jackie Brown is Tarantino's best. Pat Garret is my second Peckinpah film (after The Wild Bunch) and it seems I find the 'old west fading away' along with its societal changes deeply affecting for some reason. The Deer Hunter, the first third is the best part.
impossible for this to happen it was symbolic
SCULLIBUNDO
Banned
OfWhiteSkinOnRedLeather
Member
Mud - I actually watched this last month, but whatever. A bit disappointing. It was a decent enough coming or age flick, but nothing comes close to Stand By Me. Shotgun Stories is still top Jeff Nichols. Oh, and Neckbone was seriously channeling River Phoenix in this one.
Snowman Prophet of Doom
Member
I think he means that Wolf of Wall Street looks like another bloated "true story" pic from Scorsese, which I think is true.
However, as this seems to be something Scorsese shepherded from beginning to end, rather than something he stepped onto as a hired gun, I think it'll have more personality, at least.
ThisWreckage
Banned
The Lords of Salem was certainly something. It was like watching a Polanski movie through a white trash filter.
Fallout-NL
Member
Yeah I enjoyed Lords of Salem.
Not as energetic as the other Rob Zombie films, but interesting nonetheless.
Not as energetic as the other Rob Zombie films, but interesting nonetheless.
SmashN'Grab
Member
The Conversation (1974) - brilliant film, love the score, the editing and the sound mixing is impeccable, the pacing of the film is spot on... Man, Coppola was really riding a creative high between this and The Godfather Part II. Holy shit.
silentcapybara
Banned
I had the pleasure of viewing Lawrence of Arabia on the big screen for the first time, last night. The 50th Anniversary 4K Restoration print, specifically. It was also my first time seeing the film itself, and I was in awe for the entire 227 minute duration. Truly, a cinematic masterpiece and a technical marvel.
Saw RIPD, which was dumb fun at a certain level but it failed to get a reaction out of me. Also saw How I Live Now, which was actually quite good with the apocalyptic scenario, but the teen romance aspect of it was kinda rotten. Gonna see "the final cut" of The Wicker Man without knowing anything about it in a few, so that ought to be good!
Messofanego
Banned
Filth was a tough, suffocating watch. Longer impressions in the thread as to why. James McAvoy was an absolute delight, I wish that kind of performance was nominated for Oscars.
saw blue jasmine tonight. thought it was superb. i've enjoyed his fluffy flaunts through europe but i wasn't expecting woody to be able to move so well into brutally honest psychological character study at this point in his career. cate blanchett is just mesmerizing, when you're dealing with such a flawed, struggling and regularly unplesant lead you really need an incredible performance to make you feel for her and blanchett makes the whole thing work. she really broke my heart. the script is layered with detail as well as balancing light moments as it thoroughly examines her mental struggles adapting to the loss of her privileged life and emotional security.
i felt the flashbacks were a little too straightforward occasionally - slimy womanizing money laundering capitalist husband with transparent displays of laughably gross opulence and elitism - but the film gives you reason to question their reliability by the end which is nice.
i felt the flashbacks were a little too straightforward occasionally - slimy womanizing money laundering capitalist husband with transparent displays of laughably gross opulence and elitism - but the film gives you reason to question their reliability by the end which is nice.
Jeff Albertson
Member
Just watched the Kill List
I wanted to like it but in the end thought it was utter contrived wank
I wanted to like it but in the end thought it was utter contrived wank
the third act just seems tacked on solely to confuse and be arty but I just thought it was shit
I normally like to watch a director's filmography in order when I can, and with Whit Stillman I technically could, but Last Days of Disco is on IW and Barcelona is a whole three dollars on amazon. so I'm leaning Last Days of Disco. Or I could just finally watch The Holy Mountain. EDIT: scratch everything: I got Jason X
I saw 42nd Street and Repulsion yesterday. Both were scary. Repulsion because wallhands, 42nd Street because abstraction of the body the culture industry yadda yadda.
I saw 42nd Street and Repulsion yesterday. Both were scary. Repulsion because wallhands, 42nd Street because abstraction of the body the culture industry yadda yadda.
Charles Foster Kane
Rosebud
Repulsion>RB
ViewtifulJC
Banned
RB>Repulsion>The Tenant
>CT
Femmeworth
Banned
ID > VJC > CFK > HJ > AT > I82
What are we talking about?
What are we talking about?
You know, I love Repulsion like it was a child, but last year's rewatch did actually put Polanski's dissatisfaction for the film in a proper context, since I was able to notice the technical details he was lamenting about more clearly.
In any case, though, I would still put Repulsion slightly ahead of Rosemary's Baby just because of Catherine Deneuve's legendary performance.
Femmeworth
Banned
Snowman Prophet of Doom
Member
Repulsion is more than a little better than Rosemary's Baby.
Charles Foster Kane
Rosebud
why do you say that?
Gherid__lacksGPS
Banned
Saw Pacific Rim for the second time the other day. Love that movie,hope it gets a sequel. Will be seeing Gravity soon; looking forward to losing my mind, as it seems such will be the case with that flick.
- Status