Rate That Movie Part IV: Movies Never Sleep

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Shrykespeare
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Re: Rate That Movie Part IV: Movies Never Sleep

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Buscemi2 wrote: Remind me not to see his next one.
Don't see his next one.

(Oh, you meant when it happens?)
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Re: Rate That Movie Part IV: Movies Never Sleep

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Correct. Though I'm sure the next one will get dumped onto Netflix and I can pretend it doesn't exist, given the middling box office and C- Cinemascore on this one.
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Re: Rate That Movie Part IV: Movies Never Sleep

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Watched some Oscar nominated shorts today. Usually, I don't go to see these in the theatre as I can see them on YouTube but I have Alamo Season Pass now so I was able to see the animated ones for a low price and since I was already there, I watched the live-action ones with a free ticket I had.

First, the animated nominees.

Hair Love 8/10

The likely winner, due to the themes and Jordan Peele as executive producer. It's an amusing enough short that surprises you as it goes on but not my personal favorite of the five.

Daughter 5/10

The stop-motion animation is nice but I personally found it a little hard to follow.

Sister 8/10

Based on China's one child policy, the short begins with some funny moments before it truly punches you in the gut with its twist halfway. Strong stop-motion animation as well.

Memoirie 5/10

The weakest of the five. Basically, it's Salvador Dali does Alzheimer's. The experimental elements don't quite work and it gets bogged down at the end by some awful CGI.

Kitbull 9/10

My choice between the five. I'd already seen this one on YouTube but this stylized short from Pixar about a stray black kitten and an abused pitbull banding together is an emotional and beautiful short. I might have even teared up a few times.

And to pad out the animation leg of the series, a few shortlist titles also appeared.

Henrietta Bulkowski 8/10

From the animation studio behind Anomalisa comes this Edward Scissorhands-like tale of a very tall woman with a hunchback (voiced by Christina Hendricks) who dreams of flying but cannot due to her physical deformity. When she finds out about a plane crash, she takes it onto herself to fulfill her dream. But that's only the beginning. Stunning animation elevates this odd story and I have to wonder it was passed over in favor of some of the other stop-motion shorts.

The Bird and the Whale 8/10

Simple but effective short about the relationship between a baby whale and a bird marooned after a shipwreck. The hand-painted animation is inviting and calming.

Hors Piste 9/10

The second best of the lineup. Styled after 80's movies, this is about two rescue workers in the Swiss Alps who after saving a stranded hiker gets stranded themselves after one of their skis gets caught in the rotor of their helicopter. Soon, the rescue workers must find a way off, using the injured as an all-in-one tool, with hilarious results. Very Wallace & Gromit like and I could see this getting expanded to feature-length.

Maestro 6/10

More a demo reel than a short, this piece about a swampground orchestra has photo-realistic animation but a very slight premise. Thankfully, it's short and doesn't bore.

And now the live-action nominees.

A Sister 8/10

More or less a Belgian version of The Guilty, this short focuses on a kidnapped woman and how she gets through to a police dispatcher without her kidnapper knowing during one very tense evening. The plot is rather thin but it's thrilling and despite the dark subject matter, there is a sense of positivity in the short.

Brotherhood 4/10

The likely winner, focusing on a family torn apart by ISIS and the member who led to the rift coming back home to Tunisia with a teenaged bride. Personally, I found it rather uninteresting, with way too abrupt of an ending.

The Neighbor's Window 3/10

Maria Dizzia is a good actress. But this is not a good showcase for her, which focuses on an unlikeable New York couple and their obsession with snooping on the lives of their neighbors in the apartment on the other side. At feature-length, this would be a dreadful VOD film no one will ever see. So how did it get an Oscar nomination?

Saria 9/10

My choice for Best Live-Action Short. Set in an orphanage in Guatemala that's basically a prison for young offenders, two sisters plan an escape to the U.S. via a large tree near the orphanage. But after one of the sisters is raped, the planned escape becomes something even bigger. The film is handsomely made, intense, and makes excellent use of its amateur cast. Director Bryan Buckley deserves a shot at a big studio film.

Nefta Football Club 8/10

After the catharsis of Saria, the audience needs a funny short to cap off the show. After a large shipment of heroin gets lost as one of the drug runners forgot to program their mule's MP3 player to Adele (it makes sense once you see the short), two soccer-loving Tunisians get the stash and take it back to their village. One has plans to sell the powder while the other has much more wholesome plans. Think Danny Boyle's Millions but in Arabic.

If these come back to my local Alamo Drafthouse next year, I might make a return trip. The animation nominees are usually worth a watch, even if there have been some undeserving winners (like that William Joyce one from some years back).
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Re: Rate That Movie Part IV: Movies Never Sleep

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Come to Daddy 6/10

This was a weird one. What begins as a comedy about a son trying to catch up with his estranged father in Oregon turns into a revenge thriller in the vein of Mandy (a film star Elijah Wood produced) with some of Parasite thrown in. The first half is better than the second but it's not a disaster like some of these ready-made cult films are as there's at least ability from the people involved and it doesn't take itself seriously. It also helps that it's not self-absorbed and constantly pandering to the audience like a lot of those films do. It's a hard film to really explain.

And before the movie, there was a short film.

Valerio's Day Out 6/10

Also a weird one. This is based on a supposed incident in New Orleans where a jaguar attacked several animals at a zoo, told from the jaguar's view in a darkly comedic tone. There are some laughs but it's mostly a little too strange for its own good.
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Re: Rate That Movie Part IV: Movies Never Sleep

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The Lodge 3/10

If I were Stephen King and I saw this movie, I'd sue for plagiarism. This Christmas-set horror film is such a blatant imitation of The Shining (with elements of Hereditary and the Heaven's Gate cult thrown in) that you can see many of the story's elements play out way before they happen. There are also no likeable characters in the whole film, with the characters either being complete assholes for the pettiest of reasons or morons just so the plot can work (what kind of father leaves their children in a house in the middle of nowhere with a woman they hardly know during a snowstorm anyway?). Also, much of the film seems to be about throwing things in just for the sake of having things there (Why does a 12 year-old carry a doll around everywhere? Who brings a gas-powered heater into a living room? What was up with Alicia Silverstone's character?).

It's not hard to see why this have been delayed so long. But then again, critics liked the thing. I don't know why.
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Re: Rate That Movie Part IV: Movies Never Sleep

Post by Ron Burgundy »

Knives Out
I went in expecting this would not be that good, the trailers didn't excite me. I left feeling on par with what i expected. That was disappointing coming from a director whose films i liked so much. It also felt a little too long.
Im not saying a word about the plot, no spoilers here.
Best and worst things, the character actors hamming it up and chewing the scenery, and Daniel Craig's accent (which at first was all over the place).
5.5/10
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Re: Rate That Movie Part IV: Movies Never Sleep

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Birds of Prey 8/10

I went in expecting the worst and got a surprisingly refreshing superhero movie. It's not hard to see why this movie isn't doing so well at the box office or why the men's rights people hate it though. The first half is as far from a conventional comic book adaptation as you can get, being a mix of quirky indie film, heist film, and female empowerment picture, as if John Cassavetes took some acid and made a movie during the trip. There's also a lot of non-linear elements and multiple perspectives of events that build up the events (also, nearly the whole movie takes place over a single day, which is not normal for one of these). The second half it when it really becomes the action film that it was marketed as and the fighting sequences are pretty good. They have a rough, unpolished feel that gives the film a more pulpy, grindhouse-like edge to it. The more traditional action sequences are as expected but you get to see the villain blown into smithereens.

The best film to compare Birds of Prey to is not the previous Harley Quinn film, Suicide Squad (which does get some callbacks so it seems that the reboot from James Gunn will serve as DC's first film using the Crisis on Infinite Earth element that's currently being used in the Arrowverse), but rather Steven Soderbergh's Haywire, another female-led action film with hard hitting fight sequences that got a polarizing reception on release based on a terrible ad campaign. If this film had been marketed correctly, it might not have been a hit but it might have become a strong candidate for future cult status.
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Re: Rate That Movie Part IV: Movies Never Sleep

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I loved Birds Of Prey as well, and really hope it grows on people with time. Great soundtrack too. I don't get why it's underperforming (I can understand why conservatives would not like it, though - it's arguably the most unapologetically progressive blockbuster film since Paul Feig's Ghostbusters).

Haywire is an interesting comparison - I would use that film as reference for The Rhythm Section (female-led action movie that has the protagonist barely making it out of the fight scenes). Also, both bombed in January.
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Re: Rate That Movie Part IV: Movies Never Sleep

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Latest Batch

Ford V Ferrari: 6/10
Overlong and repetitive, but generally a nice experience. A good Sunday afternoon film, with everything being nice and tidy. I'm surprised Ron Howard didn't direct it! They fumbled with the editing of the ending, which makes me wonder how it can win an Oscar for editing, but oh well.

Terminator: Dark Fate: 4/10
It's even worse because I had a semblence of expectation for it. But it's terrible. No new ideas, relying on the old, including Arnie with a backstory that is just ridiculoujs. Even the climax lacks anything distinct. And the whole hybrid robot was done in Salvation. So all that's left is a slight pass at immigration, and the same old same old. The only good thing was the disturbing first scene, and then it was all downhill.

Brittany Runs a Marathon: 5/10
Disappointing "comedy" considering the festival love. It's a nice story about an overweight woman who trains for a marathon while trying to improve herself in general. Like a smaller version of Trainwreck, but with worse cast and fewer jokes. It's too subdued to really engage.

Uncut Gems: 7/10
I had heard mixed things about the new Safdie Bros film, but I loved it. It's a gritty, odd, fucked up story about the dark side of taking risks. It's basically a reverse of every heroic film. Sandler is great, but so is the rest of the cast who give a naturalism to the world. It's like a slightly updated version of The Killing of A Chinese Bookie. One of my films of 2019

Chained for Life: 5/10
Odd comedy about an indie film being made involving a cast of "freaks", and the relationship between the female lead and the male (who is the guy from Under the Skin). It's funny in places but not sure what it amounted to.

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Re: Rate That Movie Part IV: Movies Never Sleep

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Man, I really disliked Birds of Prey. Everything outside of Margot Robbie's performance fell absolutely flat for me. The actual Birds of Prey are all one-note, severly underwritten characters that I simply don't give a fuck about.

There's a 30 minute stretch in this movie where Harley Quinn is completely missing while they try and flesh out Black Canary, and Jesus I was 2 seconds away from falling asleep in the theater.

It's a very pale imitation of Deadpool. Felt more like that Pirates movie where it's all Jack Sparrow. Too much Harley Quinn is definitely possible.

It's also extremely cut up, the timeline is all over the place. The rumors of bad screenings and massive reshoots are supported by the obvious hack job they took to cobble together this story.

Judging by the box office, we aren't getting a sequel. And I don't see Margot Robbie coming back for The Suicide Squad reboot, nor showing up in The Batman or Aquaman 2 or Wonder Woman 1984. This might be the end of the line for her Harley Quinn. Wonder who'll they cast next as Harley, as is DCEU tradition.
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Re: Rate That Movie Part IV: Movies Never Sleep

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Robbie is still attached to the reboot and I think she might be one of the producers as well. They probably won't recast her but they could downplay her character and bring the focus to Idris Elba's Deadshot portrayal.

And I wouldn't go that far to call the film a Deadpool imitator. It wasn't that smug and pandering.
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Re: Rate That Movie Part IV: Movies Never Sleep

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I'm absolutely baffled by the Haywire and The Rhythm Section comparisons for Birds of Prey. Tonally or content-wise, they couldn't possibly be any more different. Birds of Prey was a frenzied superhero funhouse that didn't take itself even remotely seriously, those other two are remarkably dour spy movies.

As for the movie itself, I had an absolute blast with it. Hell, I'd go as far to say that there's no more than 10 other superhero movies that I've liked more than it. Can understand why the cartoonish style bothered some people and the non-linear narrative was definitely a little bit uneven, but I thought it mirrored Harley Quinn's personality (chaotic, vibrant, proudly over-the top) perfectly. Also as you'd probably expect since I'm such an action stooge, the clean, immaculately-choreographed fight scenes brought me immense joy. 8.5/10 from me.
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Re: Rate That Movie Part IV: Movies Never Sleep

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Clemency 8/10

An intimate drama with an anti-death penalty theme that is far superior than the higher-profile Just Mercy. Focusing on an antagonistic prison warden who carries out lethal injections in an unspecified state (possibly California) who soon begins to question her life after a botched injection, this is a quiet film that focuses on people rather than ideas. Alfre Woodard gives a sense of toughness to her character, whose stoicism has led her to lose track of humanity and to become a lost figure in a world of punishment over rehabilitation. Aldis Hodge, in his second role of 2019 where he's jailed for a crime he didn't commit, shows the ability to give emotion without much dialogue. But I'd say the most impressive performance belongs to Wendell Pierce as Woodard's husband. I usually seem to see Pierce in comedies (I haven't watched the Jack Ryan series) but as a dramatic actor, he's quite good.

I can see why this didn't break out as it's a rather bleak film. But in a genre filled with films designed to show the few times when a just and idealistic justice system existed, there must be times when the unjust system that truly exists is depicted.
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Re: Rate That Movie Part IV: Movies Never Sleep

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Quick roundup of what I've watched in the past week
Horse Girl 7/10
While Jeff Baena's surreal, improv-heavy style obstructs whatever message Horse Girl is trying to convey and leads to an abrupt ending that is pretty underwhelming, Allison Brie works overtime to maintain a level of intrigue that no amount of uneven filmmaking can erase. Her fearless, transformative performance makes it easy to feel awful for her character even as she engages in increasingly alarming behavior as a result of her paranoid schizophrenia. Although Brie will likely continue to predominantly star in comedies, this is the type of powerful, multi-faceted acting showcase that will hopefully result in her landing more dramatic roles in the future.

The Photograph 8/10
A surprisingly subversive delight of a romantic drama. The story dedicates a good chunk of time to fleshing out its characters, the leads (Issa Rae, Lakeith Stanfield) have that rare type of explosive chemistry that becomes apparent from the moment they first appear on screen together and the eventual happy ending feels earned because the road to get there was refreshingly bumpy. It sure as hell isn't perfect (the flashbacks involving Rae's character mother and the love interest she left behind aren't nearly as engaging as the scenes in the present), but writer/director Stella Meghie deserves major kudos for creating a warm, heartfelt love story that is far more convincing than your average big screen romance.

Sonic the Hedgehog 7.5/10
A goofy little family adventure comedy that moves at a brisk pace, produces some decent laughs and gives Jim Carrey a valid reason to return to the vintage manic goofball antics that made him such an exciting comedic force in his mid 90's to early 2000's heyday. For a video game adaptation about a hedgehog that runs really fast and collects magic rings that allows him to transport to different places across the galaxy on a whim, that's more than enough for me to deem it a success.

Fantasy Island 4/10
Don't agree with the crowd that's deemed this one of the worst movies ever made. Sure it's clumsily written, not even remotely scary and becomes increasingly stupid as it progresses (oh lordy that final act), but the whole process of trying to put together the jumbled pieces of its crackpot mystery puzzle and charisma of Jimmy O. Yang ensured that it was a harmless bad movie instead of a truly painful piece of garbage.
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Re: Rate That Movie Part IV: Movies Never Sleep

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Varda by Agnes 9/10

Agnes Varda's final film serves as both a eulogy of her long life and career but as sort of an on-screen film school. In its near two hour run time, Varda lectures different audiences and breaks the fourth wall on her films and visual art and it's really fascinating to listen to her go into detail of how she made her work. Though I was already familiar with most of her films, her work as an artist was something I really hadn't paid much attention to. And that material is really fascinating (I'm kind of hoping the inevitable Criterion release finds a way to include some of this work as a bonus feature) and shows another side of Varda cinephiles aren't entirely familiar with.

The only thing that I was disappointed in was that it wasn't longer. Apparently, there were plans for more segments (this was initially going to be a TV series) but Varda died after the filming of the two hours so sadly, this is the last work we'll see from her. But luckily, she left behind a few films, a number having gotten new restorations in recent years, and some really good documentaries. A career worth cherishing.
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