Last movie you watched......

Movie musicals are always a risky proposition for this very reason. I had the same experience with Rock of Ages. I liked virtually everything else about it, but the vocals were subpar.

OTOH, I've always found Hathaway a very capable singer. Don't know about the rest of them.

 

Les Miz was screened in NYC and LA last night.

Many, many people who saw it say it's the best movie in years. One actor who is an Oscar voter said it's one of the 4-5 best movies ever made and will sweep the Oscars.

 

Every year at least one movie is called the best movie in years.

 

"The Master" had this honor a few weeks ago.

Now it's practically yesterday's news.

 

Finally got around to seeing "Drive." I don't go to the movies often and I have so much stuff on my Netflix queue I usually wait until movies hit the streaming service.

I loved it, though it also unsettled me. Surprisingly, not so much for the violence (though Hendricks getting her head blown off was AWESOME). It was just ... an unsettling movie. I've come to the conclusion that I like conclusions. I don't like open-ended things, or things that have to be interpreted. Wrap it all up in a pretty bow and I'm happy, no matter how ridiculous the turns to get me there.

 

SPOILER

So did you feel that "Drive" was concluded?

There's been some talk that you don't know what is going to come of the Gosling character.

Or did you feel like the fact that we know what comes of the Brooks character at the end was the conclusion you needed, or, more accurately, that the story needed?

It's funny - I feel like a lot of movies, particularly independent movies, being made today are far more influenced by literary short stories - which frequently don't have endings as we think of them - than by movies or even novels.

 

I did, and I didn't. I knew they left it open to do a possible sequel. And at least he got to say goodbye (as much as he could) to Irene. At least all the MAIN guys who were hunting him are gone. And there was the warning that he'd be looking over his shoulder for the rest of his life.

I just ... I don't know. I think I'm the lowest common denominator when it comes to movies. I want easy enjoyment without having to parse the BIG MEANING out of all of it. That's why I like conclusions, because I don't have to wonder about it later.

 

Yeah, I think that's fair. I mean, we don't have to know what happens to every character every second from the time the credits roll. You're right - this chapter of the story was over, in that there were no real loose ends to tie.

If this were indeed the case, I can't imagine that you would have loved "Drive."

I think I prefer endings, too, for the most part. But I like ambiguity when done right. Like "The Grey." I think it was pretty obvious (SPOILER) that the fight was what mattered, not the result.

Mostly, I want endings that are: (1) True to what has happened before; (2) Not formulaic. This is a reason I really have soured on romantic comedies, for example. Every one plays the same beats, almost exactly. Even in movies that are supposed to be fresh and different - like "Friends With Kids" or "The Five-Year Engagement" - it's the same plot skeleton.

That said ... sometimes, I think ambiguous endings are used in order to force "big meaning" where it's not there. Give me a pretty bow at the end, but an unpredictable journey to get there (like "Drive"), any day over tacked-on ambiguity meant to save what came before.

 

I read in one of the magazines that Hathaway was a lock for the Oscar.

 

I love rom-coms.

 

The difference is no one who actually SAW The Master found it to be fantastic whereas everyone who has seen Les Miz, has.

 

Did you love "No Country for Old Men" then? I figure that's the epitome of the ambiguous ending. Or "Mulholland Drive" (Julianne Moore movie?)?