The "last movie I saw" thread

[HuskyFreeNorthwest]

btw, anyone know the whereabouts of one Green Lantern?

I believe on Oa.

[creekster]

Le Gamin au Velo (The Kid with a Bicycle)

A Belgian film about a boy abandoned by his father and is struggle to find someone who cares about him.

A fabulous film. The bike is incidental. This film is about a kid in a tough spot and how he is helped by a kind woman and how it changes his life. It is like a modern version of the beginning of Les Miserable with the woman assuming the role of the bishop and the boy a young Jean Val Jean. A small, quiet film (that uses the opening 8 bars or so of a Beethoven concerto to great effect) that will make you appreciate your life and all you have.

[Katy Lied]

I saw "Being Flynn" last night, starring Robert DeNiro and Paul Dano (of There Will Be Blood fame). I decided to watch this after catching Oxcoug's company's DeNiro/Weitz Q n A.

Wow. This movie rocked me for an hour and a half. Probably because of my daddy issues, mommy issues, and heightened sensitivity right now to portrayals of drug addiction. I thought it was great, though. Paul Dano is a joy to watch act, and DeNiro was good too.

This movie gets you in the details- the homelessness, the grime, the cacophony, the violence, and the profanity juxtaposed with the charity, selflessness, understanding, love that are all generated by humans and left to be sorted out. Not a popcorn movie, and I'm glad I saw it alone, but I thought it was worthwhile.

Nice review

[Surfah]

I must need an emotional recalibration. I spent my weekend trying not to cry in movies you found "cold" and Levin found "emotionally inert." Ok, I'm going to agree with you on a thing a two, but mostly disagree.

As is always my quibble when people use this argument, I don't understand the "predictable" stuff. I know I've said this a million times, but I don't think it's a movie's job to be unpredictable. I agree with you that the movie's arc is mostly predictable -- if you've seen the trailer, I think you know where this thing is headed. That said, I thought there were some unexpected wrinkles along the way that gave this film some real honesty. For example...

Spoiler for Sorry, spoilers:

How great was it when you find out why the daughter chose the boy to be with her the whole time? When you meet the kid, you have him pegged as the dolt the director is going to use in the movie for levity. To me it was totally unexpected when it's revealed that the girl has chosen him because he's also dealing with the loss of a parent -- and it's delivered so well in that late-night scene between the boy and Clooney. The kid quickly turns from someone you had pegged as a movie stereotype into a real character, and I love the way they misled you into believing he was one thing in the beginning.

I also really appreciated that moment when you find out that Lillard's character wasn't in love with the wife. I was completely expecting the typical "yes we were in love, yes we were going to leave our families and run away together, etc." And the Clooney character was expecting that as well, and was really turned on his head when it ended up not being the case. I love the way you could see that he was almost hurt that this man didn't love his wife.

Lillard's wife also delivered some unexpected moments. First, the kiss with Clooney. I know that was done at least in part for comedic effect, but I appreciated how much it repesented Clooney trying to get back at Lillard in a way that was more consistent with his character than going out and cheating with someone in the conventional sense (which is usually what you see). I also found her visit to the hospital at the end to be a complete surprise and a very touching moment.

IDK, I guess I just found a lot of unconvential twists in what what was broadly a conventional storyline. I even really just loved this idea of finding out about someone else cheating in a scenario where you can't confront them. What happens when you have to deal with all those emotions by yourself? When you can't hash them out with the other person in the relationship? How do you do it? Who do you go to? I even found that moment at the end between the father-in-law and Clooney to be pretty unexpected where Clooney says "he could have done more." He spends the whole movie getting berated by the FIL, and you keep anticipating the moment where he's going to tell the FIL what was going on. But he never does, in part to preserve her memory for the FIL, but in part because he's come to the realization that most people do in these types of scenarios that he's also to blame. But he doesn't learn that directly from the wife, as is typical, but rather by proxy through the people and events around the two of them. Really liked that. Also thought they did a great job of making the wife feel like such a real character to the story, even though she's just lying there in a hospital the whole time -- I felt like I had a great sense of who she was.

My last spoiler comment here is on the B plot of the land sale. It is entirely predictable and cliche that he would choose not to sell the land in the end. However, I completely went with that moment because it rang so true. In many ways, I am The Descendants. My family doesn't own a ton of land in Hawai'i, but I have definitely profited on what at times can feel like a technicality. The state of Hawi'i tracks ethnicity because of its importance in certain programs there. My mom's reads Portuguese, Hawaiian and Chinese. But like most people from the islands, she's mostly unaware of what percentages of each of these constitutes her background. Her mom is 100% Portuguese and her father was a mix of the other stuff. My dad is 100% Haole. For all intents and purposes, I'm 3/4 white by make up, and look nothing but extremely white in appearance. However, in college I was on a diversity scholarship and partcipated as part of the Asian/Poly student council, and I was even awarded a diversity scholarship going into law school. In a lot of ways I was always uncomfortable with this stuff because there's nothing to really distinguish me from other white kids that didn't have access to similar programs (my siblings, on the other hand, did not feel uncomfortable with this stuff simply because their appearance was not as pasty as mine). But to be considered "Hawaiian," you don't need a specific percentage of ethnicity -- you need only have an ancestor that predates Western contact. So that means my kids, who will have almost nothing of Hawaiian blood (my wife is half latina, half white), will still have access to all the Kamehameha programs, scholarships for Hawaiian kids, etc. It's a weird spot to be in, so I felt like I related to the Clooney character, who was clearly portrayed as being uncomfortable with all this land and how it came into his family, and his difficulty wrangling with the idea of profiting from it immensely.

Where I will agree with you is with respect to some of the supporting actors. Many of them were just bad, but in terms of some of the locals, I appreciated their inclusion in the movie. I mean, they can try and teach Clooney to pronounce Hawai'i the right way, but he just can't get it quite nail it, you know? Also some odd decisions with Matthew Lillard and Rob Huebel. It's just hard to take these guys seriously in roles like this when you're familiar with their other work. And then of course you get Laird Hamilton, who can't act at all, but putting him in there is certainly another local nod that I thought was kind of fun.

I also had difficulty with such a segregated view of Hawai'i. Don't get me wrong, Hawai'i can be plenty segregated, but you have that scene at the end with the huge family and in all those generations being on the islands there's not one local looking person in the family? Not one asian? Nothing even resembling mixed blood? Or at the scene with all the people gathered at the Clooney home, they don't have one person even approaching brown as a friend? I know these ethnic enclaves, particularly white, are known for not mixing, but that seemed a little extreme. I've thought about this a bit and figured it must have been a conscious decision on Payne's part to really create the world he was going for. These families definitely exist -- that's Punahou for you -- and I think he just decided to go to a bit of an extreme to create a certain world. It's funny because there was a lady that came from a family like this that lived at the end of our street growing up in Utah. Father was a wealthy haole businessman, she attended Punahou, grew up her entire life on Oahu, and didn't know shit about Hawai'i. When Clooney says "we can't even speak pigeon, let alone Hawaiian," that is exactly this lady, and my mom absolutely couldn't stand her. (btw, both my wife and I had a full-on laugh-out-loud moment at that line, and we were the only two in the entire theater laughing -- kind of awkward for us.)

Anyway, I'm doing some seriously jumbled rambling and feel like I could go on forever right now. I called my dad after the movie and we talked for a good while about some of this stuff and he had some interesting things to say. Anyway, I'll just end with a couple random thoughts that came to mind: I really loved the underwater shot with the daughter. To me that was very unique and just kind of a punch to the gut that was exceptionally well delivered. I also love the way the movie looks at loss generationally. The kids losing their mom, their dad losing his wife, and their grandpa losing both his wife and his daughter. Really well done if you ask me. Also really appreciated the "unromanticized" take on Hawai'i. Every other movie portrays it as paradise, and you often hear mainlanders talk about how much they'd love to live there, like life everyday is a vacation. But it's a regular place, with regular people who have regular problems, and I think that's pretty well conveyed here, especially with Clooney's monologue at the beginning.

I could have written this post. I finally saw the movie tonight and came away with many of the same feelings as you. I loved the movie. I almost lost it when he said goodbye to his wife. Excellent write up MG.

[MarkGrace]

I believe on Oa.

Huh?

[HuskyFreeNorthwest]

Huh?

Isn't that the planet Green Latern corps live on? I screwed up another witty response, no wonder you and SU never want to eat with me.

[MarkGrace]

Isn't that the planet Green Latern corps live on? I screwed up another witty response, no wonder you and SU never want to eat with me.

No idea.

[Green Lantern]

Isn't that the planet Green Lantern corps live on? I screwed up another witty response, no wonder you and SU never want to eat with me.

You are correct sir. Oa is indeed the home of the Guardians of the Universe and the central base of the Green Lantern Corps. Oh how I wish they hadn't turned last year's Green Lantern into such a shitty movie thereby ensuring that few mainstream Americans will ever know that.

[MarkGrace]

There he is!

[Green Lantern]

There he is!

I probably need to get back on here and discuss some of the movies I've seen lately. There's been some good stuff. Has anyone heard of this "Hungry Games" phenomenon?

[Katy Lied]

My neighbor has been bugging me and bugging me to watch this japanese movie called Departures, and after 3 months, I invited her over to watch it with me. It actually won an academy award for best foreign language film of 2009, but I've never heard of it.

It's about a japanese man in need of employment who takes a job preparing bodies for burial. Those who know Japan know that there is a definite stigma there. The director of the movie was worried that no one would want to see his film because of the subject matter.

The most moving parts of the film were silent-- no dialogue, no music, nothing. I blubbered like a baby. Death was shown as very beautiful and graceful and sacred and familiar and affectionate.

I'd be very interested in the reactions of both Tim and IPU to this movie. Crap, what an unholy combination.

[BoylenOver]

My neighbor has been bugging me and bugging me to watch this japanese movie called Departures, and after 3 months, I invited her over to watch it with me. It actually won an academy award for best foreign language film of 2009, but I've never heard of it.

It's about a japanese man in need of employment who takes a job preparing bodies for burial. Those who know Japan know that there is a definite stigma there. The director of the movie was worried that no one would want to see his film because of the subject matter.

The most moving parts of the film were silent-- no dialogue, no music, nothing. I blubbered like a baby. Death was shown as very beautiful and graceful and sacred and familiar and affectionate.

I'd be very interested in the reactions of both Tim and IPU to this movie. Crap, what an unholy combination.

Yeah, OhioBlue and I have posted reviews on it here. A funny, tender, touching film. I really enjoyed it.

[PaloAltoCougar]

Jeff, Who Lives at Home. It’s a little troubling that while watching this entertaining movie I was reminded of certain CUF Foyer discussions. Jeff (Jason Siegel) is a 30 year old pothead living in his mother’s (Susan Sarandon) basement. His brother, Pat (Ed Helms) is a self-centered jerk in a troubled marriage with Linda (Judy Greer who, as in The Descendants, is truly outstanding). Inspired by his repeated viewings of Signs (the Shyamalan/Gibson movie), he sees meaning in everything around him, while the more materialistic Pat dismisses such observations as mundane and coincidental. It has a deus ex machina ending which some may dislike, but which provided a nice conclusion to an enjoyable if lightweight movie. Great dialogue at times, at which the Duplass brothers are rather adept. Rated R for language, but Mrs. PAC still gave it a thumbs up.

BTW, if the opening scene of a movie evokes an LOL and sets the tone for the entire film, I’m much more inclined to like the movie overall. That may be one reason why I liked the questionable Kickass so much. Jeff’s opening scene is pretty much perfect in that regard.

[Top Ute]

The Cabin in the Woods

Not a fan of slasher/horror movies, but the twist in this one is apparent from the beginning. And it's that twist that gives the movie its funny moments -- far more than what you'd expect from a film of this genre.

Earns the 'R' rating for the most blood, graphic violence and execution-style killings I've ever seen in a movie. Those weak in the stomach have been warned. That said, if you're aware of the basic premise of the movie going in, the shock/gore value wears off significantly.

[DrumNFeather]

Midnight in Paris. Sort of an interesting concept. I enjoyed it but I probably wouldn't watch it again.