What Movies Are You Watching?

[LennyH]

Agree about that film - The Artist - a one note tedium. I thought I was alone in my irritation.

I made it for about 10 minutes and told my wife that if she wanted to continue she was on her own.

[walto]

I really enjoyed Synecdoche, despite it's every attempt to ward off audience interest and understanding. It was an engaging puzzle.

Well put. I think the review of that pic in the NYer was the first time I'd ever thought Anthony Lane entirely missed the boat. The whole business about the autonomic functions of the brain and the little voice inside one's head was lost on him, I think.

[walto]

Agree about that film - The Artist - a one note tedium. I thought I was alone in my irritation.

I made it for about 10 minutes and told my wife that if she wanted to continue she was on her own.

I wish I'd done the same. I want that 90 minutes back. (The time I sat through Hugo too.) Directors often get more than a pass for making films like those. Upper-middle-brow is right up my alley, and I don't have anything against movies about movies or nostalgia (I always cry at Cinema Paradiso), but the abject self-glorification exemplified in those "I'm arty, sophisticated, and knowledgeable but will still be fun for the kids" FILMS is too much even for me.

[walto]

In another edition of "Who's Right--Scott or Monte?"

Scott Dolan wrote:
I think Julianne Moore is one of the most beautiful actresses in Hollywood.

Hard to be sure, since JC is no more and we are stuck in this dump, but I believe you've said exactly the same thing about every actress in Hollywood.

Nah, I think you've got the wrong guy. I'm pretty picky about throwing around such high praise.

I may have said others were pretty, or whatnot, but not one of the most beautiful.

I rank her right up there with Jane Seymour.

From another thread, Saturday, regarding Tierney Sutton:

Having just scrolled through a page of Google images of her I'd have to completely concur. Insanely attractive woman.

[stonemonkts]

I quite liked Synedoche, and hey, I also liked The Artist, you unsentimental cynical fucks.

[Jazzooo]

I thoroughly enjoyed The Artist and look forward to watching it again. And yes, that was one cute dog.

[Dr Dave]

An actual romantic comedy about actual adults. Meaning, the laughs don't come cheap, mostly, and some of it is not funny at all. Gandolfini is...perfect. Ms. Louis-Dreyfus doesn't act, she mugs, but that's all right.

[walto]

I quite liked Synedoche, and hey, I also liked The Artist, you unsentimental cynical fucks.

Monte and stonemonkts sitting in a tree, K I S......

[Monte Smith]

Monte and stonemonkts sitting in a tree, K I S......

K I S M E T !



Never seen it. How about you, stoney? Unless walto means something else entirely:

[stonemonkts]

No idea what that man has in mind.

[Monte Smith]

Kismat is a wonderful Bollywood feature from 1968 that explores the connection between love, music, and violence. Beautiful young Deepika is mad about the boy but her drummer lover is always pushing her head between the cymbals. Meanwhile, talented young Ameet is told by his bride, "One more note from that guitar and I will shoot you in the ass."

[A. Kingstone]

[.............. "One more note from that guitar and I will shoot you in the ass."

If I had a nickel.

[Jazzooo]

Gravity. Pretty much the first 'don't miss it' flick released in theaters down here of the year for me. Really excellent, gripping, unusual and seemingly impossible to film. Editing, sound, score and direction all aces. The acting is good, though there were two lines of dialogue that made me cringe a little. This will be an Oscar contender for several categories, deservedly so.

And what a waste it would be to wait to watch it at home--it was made for the big screen and should be seen that way.

[mjb]

Gravity. ... The acting is good, ..."

Doug, my dear fellow ... were you high?

Don't get me wrong - I thought it a visual and auditory treat - but to my ears and mind, the acting was pitiful, as was most of the script.

I'm guessing at least one of the cringe lines was spouted after the quite incongruous scene? I'd agree that was about the worst part ... but the rest was, for me, quite putrid.

Still A must see. Preferably in IMAX 3D.

PS Come back and visit why don't you?

[jtx]

I thoroughly enjoyed The Artist and look forward to watching it again. And yes, that was one cute dog.

I was able to watch The Artist last year at a great location for watching that kind of film: London's historic Notting Hill Coronet, opened 1898.

[Jazzooo]

"Doug, my dear fellow ... were you high?"


Maybe just a little. Wait, you weren't? Well, don't come crying to me about bad performances unless you're going into the theater throughly prepared, mjb.

Yeah, I thought Clooney and the voice of--was it Ed Harris?--were pretty wooden, you're right. But I thought Bullock was better than bad for the most part.

[Jazzooo]

And when I come back, we're going to make music, Michael!

[Chazro]

Captain Phillips - Very good. Tense. Hanks just continues giving great performances.

[Jazzooo]

The Paper Boys, with Nicole Kidman, Matthew McConnaghy, John Cusack. A deep south legal thriller that manages to be super sexy, super disjointed and still somewhat entertaining. Kidman has had too much work done and it was distracting in another flick, but in this one she pays an overly made-up tart and the look worked for her.

[Monte Smith]

Movie 43. The best parts are weakly amusing. It isn't a long movie, so there's that.

[walto]

Whatever Works--a crappy and predictable Woody Allen product in which Larry David plays the Allen character. The young woman (Evan Rachel Wood) is very cute, of course. Assembly line stuff. Some critic recently said that Allen's two best periods have been the 70s and his 70s. This is from neither.

[Jazzooo]

Whatever Works is the one Woody Allen film I genuinely hated. There have been some I didn't care for, like the recent one set in Rome, but this was a real stinker.

I saw a despicable one today--MALAVITA, the mob family/witness protection comedy with Robert DeNiro, Michelle Pfeiffer and Tommy Lee Jones, produced by Martin Scorcese. Super violent, predictable, and just plain stupid.

[Fred K]

I saw "In Search of Blind Joe Death: The Saga of John Fahey" at the AFI Theater in Silver Spring over the weekend. I have always liked John Fahey, but I have never really gone too deeply into his back catalogue and was eager to see this. The documentary is only an hour and skips over significant parts his life. It was still a fun, interesting piece -- well worth the rental. The DVD comes out in a couple of weeks and should be available on Netflix or through some other source.

http://www.johnfaheyfilm.com/

[Jazzooo]

Carrie-- kind of annoying, really. I didn't like to see Julianne Moore playing someone ugly and strange.

Runner Runner, about an online gaming magnate, with Ben Affleck and and an unimpressive Justin Timberlake. Not worth it.

Enough Said. I really enjoyed this romantic comedy with James Gandolfini. Grown ups in love.

[walto]

Continuing my viewing of Woody Allen movies I happened to miss. This time I caught

Not great, but much better than the last one. Doesn't really get good until the last fifteen minutes or so, but I like the way Allen leaves almost everything hanging instead of tying it all up with ribbons. It's unsual of him to be lifelike that way. Of course the dialogue and plot are anything but....
Naomi Watts is gorgeous, natch.