Movies You’ve Only Just Watched

Watched two movies for the first time last night on streaming. The first, my wife and I watched together. The second, my wife ducked out after ten minutes.

The first was Beetlejuice Beetlejuice. We both concluded that it was a worthy sequel that has a reason to exist, insofar as anything in the Beetlejuice franchise has a reason to exist. Michael Keaton plays his signature character as if he just finished acting in the first film a week ago. The character hasn’t lost a touch. The other characters, the few who return, are a bit changed with thirty years of time, but in a way that is understandable and expected, so nobody seems wildly different. The fact that there are three other villains aside from Beetlejuice, and he and the main cast all team up to stop them for mutual benefit is fun, although I think the character of Delores was built up too much for how little a role she actually played. For a sequel to a movie so weird it never felt like it needed one, and to be made thirty years later to boot, it succeeds where so many sequels fall short.

The second movie was My Dinner With Andre’. If you want a movie that’s different from any other you’ve seen, that’s more about thinking and imagining the moment rather than actually seeing it, this is a movie everyone should see just once. The premise is the easiest to describe in the history of cinema: two men sit in a restaurant and talk. That’s it. Like, no bullshit, that’s the entire damn movie. There’s a two minute period of the first character arriving at the restaurant while his voice-over explains the situation, and another two minute period at the end as he leaves the restaurant and his voice-over describes his feelings at the end of the evening following the dinner, but the rest of it is just listening to these two guys talk, and watching their facial expressions as they each listen to what the other has to say. But what they talk about, and how they describe it in such a way that you cannot help but visualize for yourself the events they reminisce about, is an examination of human nature and the philosophy of who we are as beings in a modern society full of mediocrity and enslaved to capitalistic fascism. Think of it as attending a lecture in a philosophy class, only instead of a professor addressing a class, it’s two professors addressing each other and the class is just watching and listening. It may be dull to the minds of some (my wife just couldn’t stand the concepts being discussed because human nature annoys her already), but to those with an inquisitive mind, or if you just like to listen to people, watch this one.

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On the recommendation of a coworker, I watched ‘In Broad Daylight’ (on YT).

Not going to get into a lot of the details other than he’s the town bully (to put it lightly), a real, not A-Grade, but S-Grade asshole, if he’s not threatening to shoot you he’s threatening to burn your house down. :joy: From out of the gate you’ll hate this guy, and by the “end”… Let’s just say that I LOL’ed and said “Hell Yeah!” when it happened.

Now, I’ll have at least one other question to ask the coworker who recommended it. :thinking:

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Watched Joker: Folie a’ Deux the other day, and it’s not as bad as people say at all, but it’s also nowhere near as good as the first movie. This is mainly due to two reasons.

First, too many songs. The musical concept is fun and it fits with the whole theme set up by the first movie that Arthur Fleck is living a delusional fantasy life half the time, so it creates an in-universe explanation for all the singing and dancing to music that comes out of nowhere. But, while the songs are good, and the performances are good, it just happens too frequently, especially in the second half of the movie where you’re trying to pay attention to the courtroom drama. It could have been better if they’d cut four or five songs from the back half.

Second, the first movie works because it shows the steady decline of Arthur’s sanity, and the steady rise into his image of the Joker. This second movie, he’s already there, and it’s more about how he doesn’t know what to do with it now. He’s dealing with Arkham guards, Lee, the press, his fanatics, and his slowly encroaching guilt and the idea that maybe he’s not as crazy as he thought. The movie doesn’t really seem to know what path it wants to take Arthur down.

And then, a lot of that, and other head scratchers set up by the first movie, such as Arthur’s extreme age relative to Bruce Wayne being an obstacle to any meaningful future misadventures with their two alternate personas, it all gets explained in a twist they pulled straight from the Gotham tv show with the reveal that Arthur is not The Joker, just his inspiration, as the young man who will become the actual Joker murders Arthur at the end and takes his title from him.

I hate that whole legacy concept in comic book characters. With the exception of Spider-Man and The Flash, who were really more like expanding a movement than a legacy attempt, no comic character has ever been able to do this successfully, because fans don’t give a fuck about the new people who takes over the roles, they care about the characters they’ve come to love. Why they felt the need to do this with Joker, other than to ensure that this is the only sequel, is mystifying.

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My biggest issue with the movie is that it’s a jukebox musical. Regular musicals with unique composed songs can be an excellent way to emphasize a character’s emotions, thought process, or how they interact with other characters. However with a jukebox musical they’re taking songs which were written for totally different contexts and trying to cram and make them fit into the story they’re trying to tell.

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I don’t mind that. Like I said, the songs were good and fit with what they were trying to present as the shared madness between Arthur and Lee. It was just too excessive by the second half.

I’ve been anticipating A Real Pain for a while, and it didn’t disappoint. Expertly balances humour with deeper, contemplative themes. Culkin is cast perfectly.

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Today I went to see the animated movie Flow.

It’s been getting a lot of good buzz the past few months, about how gorgeous it is and is highly in the running for a potential Oscar win.

And yeah! It’s really good!

I think it’s primarily a Latvian movie, as the director is from there, but you wouldn’t know that because there is no dialogue throughout the entire film.

The movie follows a group of 5 animals who’ve come together by chance after an apocalyptic flood, and must learn to work together, tolerate each other, and survive…
This movie has something for any animal lover. Or animation lover really.
Cat, Dog, Capybara, Lemur, Bird, Fish, Ancient Dino-looking fish, Ancient Ruins, Nature’s Wrath…
Though, warning, it does feature a lot of tense AF animal peril…

Gosh, but it’s really well-done.

The environments are gorgeous, the animals move so life-like and are incredibly expressive for feral puppets basically.
You can distinctly learn their behaviours throughout the film without any word spoken or seen… the Cat is curious but cautious of everyone. The Dog is adorably stupid, and really wants a friend. The Capybara is eternally chill and honestly just wants a nap. The Lemur is a kind-of smart kleptomaniac, but gets obsessed with its hobby. And the Bird – my favourite of the bunch – is a gorgeous, towering maternal figure, seeking to protect the smaller animals beneath its gaze.

A lot of the heavy lifting in the film is done by the visuals and music.
The main “hook” that builds up over the course of the movie are the animals’ quest to find higher, safer ground, and using these mountainous stalagmites that jut from the ocean floor, always in view, always providing a guiding point. And whenever these spires appear, droning, ominous music can be felt. As mysterious as they are spooky.

All in all, its a great watch, and with plenty of interpretations on what/why these flood events take place by the end, that I’m sure I’ll look up interviews with the director to find more. It’s very smart for a film that can basically transcend all language barriers, since it has none.

Go watch it please. 10/10.

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You mean their “Most likely to be beaten by Disney” category?

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Hey, we’re currently 2 years into a non-Disney Streak! The likes of which we haven’t seen since 2006-7 with Wallace and Gromit: Curse of the WereRabbit, and Happy Feet.

It could get even less Disney this year, who knows!

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Well Inside Out 2 grossed so much, is a sequel to a film that won in its own year and was so widely viewed that I am going to say there is no way it won’t win.

Still I would like a smaller studio to win. Pinocchio I think was the first true small studio win and even then the Netflix deal sort of muddies those waters a lot.

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Wallace and Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl is out on BBC iPlayer in the UK, and worldwide on Netflix on January 3rd. Not much to say really, just that’s great and charming and I highly recommend it when it becomes widely available.

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Watched that yesterday, very enjoyable and I would say a little more poignant than past instalments. I think Ben Whitehead did a great job taking over in full from Peter Sallis. But then he’s been involved with Aardman and worked with Sallis for quite a while, and voiced Wallace for years in the games.

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We went to see Nosferatu last night. It was really cool. It’s very much a love letter to classic horror movies including its namesake. Robert Eggers is a gifted director with a vision; I have loved everything I’ve seen of his. The movie has striking imagery and cinematography, and expertly plays with light and shadow. It’s also restrained in its shots, with a tight aspect ratio and practiced blocking that doesn’t waste an inch of space. Maybe ten minutes too long, but otherwise really really loved it.

And we also watched Carry-On on Netflix the night before. Straight up 90s B-movie silliness. Better than it has any right to be. Not “so bad it’s good”, but actually “good in all the right, self-aware dumb ways”.

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Last night work friends and I went to go see the new Wicked

WOW, oh MAN it’s like really good. Cynthia and Ariana do fantastic jobs.
Galinda is super hateable yet cute/silly, and Elphaba is tragically resilient and wonderfully performed.

I’ve seen the stage musical and also think it’s really good, and obviously have some favourite songs in it, and since the movie is 2h40m long, it really takes its time with the pacing – especially since this is just Act 1! But gosh I just kept expecting “man when are we going to get to X song?? aaaa” but not to say I didn’t enjoy the anticipation to get there.

The set design is really really cool and full of whimsical architecture and technology. The music and backing track is stunning. (The Oz Dust Dance was really well done, and nearly made me cry with an impressively long sequence of Elphaba dancing on her own as everyone else laughs at her, nearly breaking down until Galinda joins in unexpectedly)

Even had a few surprising performances as Michelle Yeoh has a small singing bit in an early song she does pretty well, and even Jeff Goldblum, in all his kooky Goldblum-ness, has a surprisingly good singing voice in “I’m A Sentimental Man”

I think this movie has a similar emotional “issue” that the Matilda Musical Movie adaptation had — in that, the Main Character’s plight they face is Hate from their family/those around them, which is played up and exaggerated on-stage probably to better sell and communicate that to the audience. Because in Matilda :musical_note: the family’s extreme neglectfulness and abuse felt extremely horrible and way-too-real. And in Wicked here I was shaking my head at the screen every 2 minutes, because nearly literally everyone mistreats Elphaba with bad glances or always running away from her.
Maybe that’s just the “real-ness” of movie magic though. Makes it seem all the more believable and horribly heartbreaking.

The movie does have quite a bit of additions and minor changes from the Stage version, and notably I really liked how they expanded the cast of sentient animal creatures in the film which builds up and strengthens Elphaba’s connection to and need to help these creatures.
And GOSH Dulcibear the Midwife is SUCH a cute and soothing vibe, she was a wonderful inclusion at the start of the film, raising young Elphie :smiling_face:
(Unfortunately Universal has still not released an official image of her character, but yeah she was cool)

The movie only covers Act 1 (and damn it DOES have a banger climax and final number that sets up the beginning of the Witch’s rise to power in Oz) so when it ends with credits it’s like… I KNOW there’s more after I NEED MORE. (And thankfully from what I read, they filmed them at the same time, so if editing goes to plan, we’ll get Part 2 in November of this year next year) :star_struck:

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OOOOHHHHHH Tonight I went to go see Sonic 3 and GOSH it’s really, really, really fun.

It was both very hilarious and super cool, IMO.

Like, take Jim Carrey acting against himself?! As two delusional geniuses (one of whom is even older and more delusional?) Excellent! He had tons of great jokes and GOD the posing and expressions and visual humour. He was so fun²
I adored any and all screen time he had, I love his goofy villainous antics. And here he’s double the goofy… :rofl:

And also, Keanu Reeves himself as Shadow the Hedgehog… DAMN he was really badass… The Rule of Cool is like the guiding point for his character in most of the film, and DAAAAMN, they really sell it.
For instance, in his first fight with Sonic: Getting on his little motorcycle, then getting a gun, with that damn cool voice, only to later boost UP a skyscraper while ALSO doing an Akira Slide… WTF DUDE :exploding_head:

Plus, I really enjoyed how they had more moments for Agent Stone’s infatuation for Robotnik. Like, it’s practically canon that he’s super gay for that Egg Man. Lee Majdoub (his actor) makes references to it a lot and I think even retweets fanart depicting it?

All the other characters and actors were enjoyable, yeah, and I quite liked the dramatic tone of the story with Shadow’s backstory. But honestly 2 Wacky Eggmen, Shadow, and the raw fun of it all with cool action and creative setpieces make this movie a really enjoyable time!
I don’t know a lot of Sonic Lore other than popular memes and material that constantly gets thrown around, so it was cool to see stuff with Maria & Shadow as I know that’s a big dramatic thing in the game(s) or even a Chao Garden themed restaurant, complete with adorable mascot costumes and a live performance – gosh I wish for the fans that becomes a real thing – well, that, and a Chao Garden Game, dangit!

I’d watch it again for sure, and I think it’s probably my favourite of the series so far.

(Okay, well, in terms of a few negatives, I found that some of the lip-synching on the Sonic Crew was a little off at times, and I particularly felt that Ben Schwartz’s many one-liners near the start of the film had strange audio mixing – or maybe it was my theater. But him, his performance and reactions felt a little disconnected from what was going on-screen. It did improve a lot later though, so, IDK…)

Super Big Credits Tease spoilers!!

Oh gosh and you can tell they had a bigger budget for this one, since in the end credits scene they also had a mini action scene, and even had another tiny post-credits scene with Shadow reappearing…
Pretty excited for whatever Metal Sonic might have in store for 4 (also Amy! 2 characters in one tease, woo!) – because despite how much I love Eggman and his larger-than-life performance, I think they do need to take a break from him, at least for one film…

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Watched Conclave yesterday.

I think I already announced my love for huis clos movies in the topic.
So a movie about the huis clos…

It was good. Always like a multilanguage movie, discussion heavy movie, and they set the tone quickly with the sound mixing. It’s dialogue centred and of the kind you would expect for the setting, and then the movie will bring everything back to material reality.

Example from the opening: the pope dies, everyone is gathered around him in his bed, everything is heavy, respectful, with a lot of traditional obligations to go through. And then interjected with the sealing of the room with wax, EMTs take the body away with the most mundane procedure and mechanical noises.

Ending kinda falls flat. But still falls well for what was build before it. And it might be the point.


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One of the best docos I’ve seen.

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