Last movie you watched......

Barbarian:

the good: there are a lot of red herrings. Movie does an amazing job of keeping you guessing. The movie you expect to happen in act one vanishes in a vicious jump scare scene. You forget that movie even existed by the end of act three.

The acting is top notch. The leads keep you intrigued. The allegories and metaphors are a nice layer in a horror film.

the bad: you can drive a semi through the plot holes. You can rationalize some of them, which is part of the beauty of the plot, but they are glaring. Also, the above mentioned allegories and metaphors get smeared on fairly thick. They feel like a neon sign at a time flashing the words “ponder the meaning” at some points.

the ugly: not a scary movie, per se, but it will keep you up thinking and wondering about every noise you heard in the middle of the night.

 

Barbarian. I mean, WTF?

 

I think I kind of loved it, but there was so much wrong with it. Gonna have to ruminate on it.

 

The Weird Al movie on Roku is silly funny with some great cameos and impersonations of celebrities.
The story is 100 percent true!

 

Kind of how I felt. One of my friends, who is a horror nerd, raved about it to me. She started texting me before 8 am the next day asking what I thought.

I liked it, but wanted to love it because it was so different. I can’t say how much the different stuff made it better or worse. In a world of fast moving monsters, cheap fan service and jump edits…this was a change of pace.

 

@Azrael Scott is brilliant.

A new McDonagh movie? I am so excited!

Watched Weird last night, too, @MTM. Maybe I'm more of a fan of Weird Al the person than his music. Or not. UHF is still a DID and I like it far more than his latest movie. Daniel Radcliffe was great. When have we ever seen anything approaching a middling performance, much less a bad one from him? Rain Wilson and Evan Rachel Wood sold the heck out of their turns.* The blink or you'll miss them cameos are a compelling reason to watch this again.

It's not perfect. The pacing is off in places. The jokes sometimes go several beats too long and are repetitive. When it's brilliant you realize it was worth staying for the whole ride. None of the reviews I've read so far mention the parody of Jim Morrison's 1969 concert in Miami. You know he and Radcliffe watched it before they shot their own version. BTW yes, the idea of sweet natured, nerdy Al stalking the stage shirtless, asking the audience if they "want to see it" is as funny as it sounds.


* Want to see an instance of the comedic planets aligning just right? The Mary Shelley/Are You Afraid of the Dark? episode of Drunk History features Wood and Rich Fulcher. You're welcome.

 

Yeah, it looks dumb, but I want to see this.

 

I do too.

 

Same.

 

We went to Armageddon Time, yesterday. It’s James Gray’s movie “inspired by” his childhood growing up as a misunderstood kid with artistic aspirations, his largely troubled family and his friendship with a Black kid who bears a greater punishment when the two get into frequent trouble.

Our son, who is studying film in college, liked it a lot because he said it was rare that a look back as someone’s child to portray the child so unfavorably. Paul, the main character comes off as, in my son’s words, “a bit of an entitled little shit.” Anthony Hopkins plays Paul’s grandfathers, who is the only person who seems able to reach/guide Paul. Hopkins, Anne Hathaway, Jeremy Strong and the rest of the cast, including the younger actors perform well.

The script and story just didn’t do much for me. Paul doesn’t seem to be shaped much by his mistakes that wind up harming Johnny, his Black friend, much more than himself. The movie doesn’t do much to flesh out Johnny, leaving him more of a plot device for Paul’s story. Paul’s, largely symbolic, gesture of disgust with an unfair society is at the seemingly abrupt and awkward end of the film.

It left me with a sort of “What? That’s all?” feeling.

 

"The Outfit" on Netflix. It's a psychological thriller about a bespoke English tailor from Savile Row who relocates to Chicago and winds up becoming the tailor of choice to a violent Chicago mob family. It's filmed almost entirely inside the tailor shop. Great screenplay and performances from an excellent ensemble cast. Mark Rylance in the lead role as the tailor. There are several unexpected twists, and it won't end up where you expect it to. Four stars of five.

 

Saw this in the theater and also really liked it. Didn't realize it was on Netflix, definitely worth a rewatch. Fun setting and twists and Rylance of course is always outstanding.