Has anyone seen that new Coen Bros movie? The trailer makes it look like Fun Movie, like Big Lebowski or i.e. O Bro Where Art Thou, but Iām worry if I go see it, itāll turn out to be one of their Other Sort Of Movies, which aināt sposed to be Entertaining, cos theyāre mostly just trying to Learn you a Lesson.
Itās like I was watching Inside Llewyn Davis last night cos it was on tv, and I think I understood it, i.e. there was that one scene where heās driving through the snow and he sees a sign to where his son lives, and he knows heās at crossroads, and needs to make a decision, but he doesnāt, he just keeps driving blindly into the snow, and even when it results in near car accident, he doesnāt realise heās made a mistake. And I get that. Itās sposed to be Metaphor for his Life, but if movie is gonna require using ur Brain to Figure Things Out, I would rather not do that in Cinema. I will do that at some point in future, when I happen to catch it on TV.
fk you cunts, I shall watch it myself and Find Out. But if I go to the cinema and Learn Something, I will be v.angar, and I will be coming for you cunts srs.
Finally got around to watching Argo. A tense, serious treatment of a very tumultuous time. Way to go, Mr Affleck. The scenes at the airport are something else.
Saw āHail Caesarā last night Bearsy, Itās ok. Iām a Coen Bros fanboy, but it didnāt really work. Great cast and some sublime set pieces, and references to 50ās Hollywood. It just lacked a focus and drifted. Poor Coen Bros is still better than most dross
So Maze Runner is a Zombie Movie Franchise kick off? Ho hum. (Note to self - read more Teen Targetted Angst driven Literature)
Watched Runner on a plane while eating lunch (that or repeats of Top Gear - shouldda watched Top Gear repeats) - started to watch Scorch Trials - fell asleep.
Went to see Spotlight yesterday. Not the greatest film ever but you could have heard a pin drop at the end and it does what it sets out to do perfectly. Some really good performances in it too. Given the subject matter I can see why Morgan Freeman face showed that element of surprise when he read out the name of the best film oscar winner.
Anomalisa ā¦ Itās an animated movie written and directed by Charlie Kaufman. Kaufman is the most inventive and original writer in Hollywood. His last film tanked at the box office, so he had to make an animated film. Itās genius though and simultaneously thought provoking and just stays with you after watching.
I finally caught the final episode of the Hobbit trilogy. What a pile of arse. I always had my doubts about Jackson turning a small childrenās book into a three film epic. The first two films felt overlong, sure. This one, despite only being 2 and a half hours long, seemed the worst to me. It seems to suffer from having loads going on in some areas, and very little in others. For two thirds of the film, Thorin is just bonkers for the gold and doesnāt want to know about fighting, etc. For a series called the Hobbit, Bilbo is not in it much, mostly relegated to telling Thorin heās being a nob or telling Thorin that orcs are on the way. He does have a big dilemma for much of the film, but even so, really doesnāt feel like his adventure at this point, which makes the end all the more baffling.
People moaned about the multiple endings of LotR. Personally, I felt it was the only way to do justice to all of the characters the film spends time on. By necessity, The Hobbit has to spend time on all of these other characters, but only really provides any closure to Bilboās story, and that is fairly shit. Jackson goes out of his way to link the films, so the last thing you see is Ian Holmās depiction of the same character answering the door to Gandalf.
Even the small book managed to tell us that Bard becomes the King of Dale, or that Dain becomes the new King Under The Mountain. These people are already in the film, FFS. Disappointed. Rant over.
In much better news, I finally caught Dr Strangelove. Yes, I know itās crap to be 40 and not have seen it, but better late than never. Itās such a searing critique of the arms race, the influence of fearful speculation in military policy (mineshaft gap = fucking genius) and the then contemporary view that nuclear war was a war worth planning for, fighting and winning.
Sellars is magnificent in all his guises, all very different characters. My favourite has to be the eponymous Strangelove himself, clearly a gross exaggeration of characters like Werner Von Braun, the former Nazi scientist that ran the Apollo program.
The ending is sublime; ridiculous, poignant with perhaps one of the best song choices Iāve ever seen in a film.
On not watching films until far too late in life, I finally got around to seeing Memento the other night. A really superb film that, like Nolanās other films, will stick with me.
Nolanās films are all superb in my opinion, but this really sets up his seeming obsession with identity and trust, which he followed through with The Prestige, Inception and, to an extent, Interstellar.
I generally love Nolan films, but thought Interstellar was shite.
Speaking of shite films, just got back from watching The Revenant. My god is that a dull, ridiculous and bad film.
I like Leo, and he deserves an Oscar, but itās pathetic he got it for that. He basically got an Oscar for spitting an limping. Shame if that is the only film he wins an Oscar for, heās better than that.
Also, Tom Hardy cannot act. Almost every film he is in he is totally incomprehensible. I get heās all moody, and edgy and smouldering. But ffs man enumerate, cinema aināt cheap these days.
Bullshit film. If I had my coat with me Iād have walked home after 40 mins.
So to avoid the budget (Iāll get angry about it later) I went to the world premier of The Pass at Leicester Square Odeon. Part of the BFI Flare film festival. Russel Tovey plays one of the main characters - a footballer. It was a play at the Royal Court previously. Play and screen play written by an old mate of mine from Southampton.
They hope to release it in the UK in October. I recommend watching it. Quite a powerful film.