Last movie you watched......

Just watched The Master and all I could see was Arthur Fleck only drunker.

 

Gotta admit I wasn’t really feeling Joker until he stabbed his buddy with the scissors. That was pretty epic.

 

Joker should have won best picture. Probably dismissed as a comic book movie, but it was probably the perfect union of fiction used to tell a bigger truth about society, and even though set in the 1970s, it was the perfect movie to encapsulate the times we're living in. I've seen the others, and while they were good - Joker went deeper and had a bigger payoff.

 

That soundtrack...

 

Finished Parasite. I'm sure I'm not the only one who thought they were watching a different "Parasite" movie than the one that won Best Picture. Was it a good movie? Undoubtedly. A great one? I don't know. I'd put it in line with A Fish Called Wanda - another very good movie that received some acclaim (Kline won an Oscar) but wouldn't be in the discussion for Best Picture. Maybe it was the last 20 minutes of Parasite that made people think it was more "important" than it was. The main thing it was missing for me was an explanation to how this very adept and bright family ended up where they were at the start of the film. Maybe it didn't require explanation to a Korean audience, but it left me kind of baffled.
And looking back on the past year in movies it seems like reviewers are straining harder to find greater meaning in some movies, that really aren't there. Though I can absolutely see why Trump wasn't a fan of Parasite.

 

Sigh...

The only way Joker encapsulates these times is in its psuedo-profoundity. What's the bigger truth? The rich suck and we're mean to mentally ill people? Malarkey. Reality is far more nuanced.

What's the big payoff? That it was probably all in his head?

First Reformed is a much better recent example of a descent into madness film that draws inspiration (or rips off parts of) older films while actually offering at least a couple of new things.

 

No no no no no. No.

 

Yeah, First Reformed ripped off Winter Light right and good. I did like First Reformed, until the very ending, which didn't work for me and Schrader admits he kind of just settled on.

Winter Light is one of the great movies. Not the most accessible, but powerful.

 

Saw A Star is Born. Obviously the point of the film is being a star vehicle for the leads - the story isn't that compelling, nor yields great insight - that said - thought Cooper and Gaga were both outstanding - but like the Streisand/Kristofferson effort - I never bought the relationship.

 

“Hector and the Search for Happiness,” 2014, Simon Pegg, Rosamund Pike. In the same vein of Ben Stiller’s Walter Mitty — part character study, part travelogue. REALLY enjoyed it.

 

Driveways, Brian Dennehy’s last movie. Really nice small film.

 

"Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy"

I like spy movies.