Films To Watch (More to come) Wait Until Dark (Re-Watch) Far From The Madding Crowd (Re-Watch) To Sir, With Love (Re-Watch) Samurai Rebellion (Re-Watch) Cool Hand Luke (Re-Watch) War And Peace (Parts III And IV) The Young Girls Of Rochefort Playtime Marketa Lazarová Scattered Clouds The Nun Mouchette Belle De Jour The Two Of Us The Incident La Collectionneuse A Bullet For The General The Firemen's Ball Face To Face I Even Met Happy Gypsies
Louis: Is it just me or did 1967 have like...less films released than normal, like 1966 has so many films that came out and so did 1968 but 67 feels like, there was some sort of strike or something?
RatedRStar: i mean, Hollywood was really at a real low during this year, as this was around the time when studios were no longer allowed to own theatres and everybody was struggling financially
Louis: This is the rest of the list. Ulysses Custer Of The West The Stranger Our Mother's House (Jack Clayton) Elvira Madigan Thoroughly Modern Millie The Fox I Am Curious (Yellow) Up The Down Staircase Games Le Départ We Still Kill The Old Way The Affair Robbery Accident The President's Analyst Spider Baby Poor Cow The St. Valentine’s Day Massacre Shock Troops Japan’s Longest Day Hagbard And Signe Peppermint Frappé Portrait Of Chieko The Age Of Assassins Thirst For Love (Koreyoshi Kurahara) Death Rides A Horse The Last Adventure Japanese Summer: Double Suicide The Wife Of Seishu Hanaoka Viy Between Sweet And Salt Water Anna Karenina Anna
Louis, when would be a better time to ask you for your 10 favourites of the 21st century? The recent NY Times poll had many people I know composing their own lists, don't see how now is too early.
No, not really, as one shouldn't count 2000, which technically was the last year of the twentieth century. Many people make this mistake. There was never a year zero, we started counting on one. Meaning on January 1st 2000, exactly 1999 had past completely. the last century was over when the year 2000 was over. That was the TRUE milennium. Just like last decade ended on December 31 2020, not 19.
At the end of 2019 a bunch of Youtubers made videos about "The best movies of the decade" and it drove me up the fucking wall!!!!
You know, Stanley Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke called the film "2001" because that was the first year of the new milennium. But their fans somehow don't
Marinelli - (As per usual for Marinelli his screen presence is extremely pronounced and particularly important here basically to craft the fascistic sway of Mussolini, which he wholly disappears into this role. And if you’ve seen him in Martin Eden or Trust you would not immediately pick him for such a part, but once you see him for a second you just completely accept him as Mussolini and there’s not a second needed beyond that. And even beyond that extremely impressive starting point Marinelli finds nuance within his despicable lead which is a lot of different things altogether. Part of it is getting to be the Richard III manipulator, who invites the audience into his evil schemes, where Marinelli plays extremely effectively the sort of smug manner of someone who just loves his abhorrent choices. But he’s equally convincing in portraying the different phases of the man’s personality to the full public where he brandishes the fanatics intensity to bring everyone into fervor, to almost more the crime bosses’s cool when he commands his violent thugs he has for men to do his bidding as he sees fit. He thought is as effective in playing the moments of the man taking in his joy of his wretched behaviors with his ill-gotten gains being moments he highlights with even this naturalistic disbelief at someone who is a little surprised by his own success. Marinelli thrives in exploring every little bit of detail into his performance where nothing is simplistic within it. He is absolutely convincing at the grand scale of the grandiose, including every bit of the expected physicality, in a way where he doesn’t feel like a cartoon but rather the crafted character of a man purposefully creating himself as a godlike figure to his followers. But balances that in his eyes of a man who does have some sense of scale even in his vile nature, that doesn’t humanize him in terms of creating any empathy or sympathy for the horrible man, but does show the man behind his purposeful method crafting his own myth while being a tyrant for his own will. Marinelli delivers a truly great biopic style performance where every facet seems so well realized, with the historical figure just seeming to be him in the moment…even if I didn’t find the actual realization of his story all that compelling beyond him.)
I started watching it. Will finish it and have liked it far more than season 3 already.
8000’s:
A pretty amusing parody song that essentially seems semi-accurate from my exposure from all of you of this very blog to various openings, although I specifically enjoy that it is essentially done as a bad translation with the “Let’s fighting love” chorus.
Oliver:
Bergman’s direction and writing is about crafting the relationship that denotes mood and feeling within the relationship in such a specific way. There’s a purposeful hollowness in a lot of the visual choices, a detachment, and a coldness here that keeps a separation, that separation that is further emphasized within the script of essentially a broken relationship between the self-absorbed mother and the self-doubting daughter. Something, as he always did, he wisely grants moments of just breathtaking performance in focusing on his extremely talented leads in realizing the fraught emotions within that distance. And within his direction keeps you in this coldness, that isn’t in the end entirely about separation but rather the lack of closure and warmth. You never feel fully comfortable but what he does so brilliantly is he does grant you the intimacy of the relationship. You feel through his touches where he does push the emotion, not to create warmth, but to make you feel even more the brokenness where he excels. Also realized in the writing which brings such depth through learning in theoretically just a few interactions the years of these women as they are, who the mother is, the daughter is, and even who the other daughter is within the scheme of a set time and place. A film like this that does this so brilliantly is what I think shows the lacking of some filmmakers who attempt detachment but only detachment, and attempt fewer words and say nothing.
Also watched Squid Game, maybe unfortunately. It continues the many trends of the original season but with the highs being lower for the part and the lows being even lower. As the detective story is even more filler, to a ridiculous extreme and he's also an idiot, the VIP's are even worse somehow, I really didn't care at all about the Pink Guard and there are some really over the top contestants. The games still have a blunt visceral effectiveness, but even then I thought some of the later ones, ESPECIALLY THE FINAL ONE, became contrived where characters do things to get to the end result rather than a natural realization of character. Leaving the whole series very unsatisfying and not remotely in a good way. But it still was largely watchable and has a few key highlights.
Cast Rankings 2 & 3 (since they're really one season in terms of design)
1. Gong Yoo (What Guest Emmys should be for) 2. Lee Jung-jae 3. Kang Ae-shim 4. Lee Byung-hun 5. Park Sung-hoon 6. Jo Yu-ri 7. Im Si-wan 8. Kang Ha-neul 9. Jeon Seok-ho 10. Lee David 11. Oh Dal-su 12. Yang Dong-geun 13. Wi Ha-joon 14. Chae Kook-hee 15. Park Gyu-young 16. Park Hee-soon 17. Choi Gwi-hwa 18. T.O.P 19. Won Ji-an 20. Roh Jae-won 21. Young-chang Song 22. Lee Seo-hwan 9999999999999999999999999999999999. The VIPS
I watched The Iron Claw which broke my heart. Aces cast.
Efron-5 White-4 Dickinson-4.5(He's rarely ever focused on but he just has so much natural warmth and camaraderie with the others that it crushes you when he's taken away so suddenly) Simons-4 Tierney-4 McCallany-5 James-4 Eisenberg-3(Apparently a lot of people hated him but I don't know I compared him to the real thing and he seemed close enough)
Matt: It's very telling how the only group that really disliked The Iron Claw were the wrestling fans and their main complaint was Eisenberg not being the carbon copy of Ric Flair during his 1 minute of screentime.
Louis: Your thoughts on the screenplay and editing of Breaking the Waves?
As for Squid Game season 3, I think the writing went downhill. Season 1 was lightning in a bottle in my opinion. But I'm happy to see some talented Korean actors get big roles and you can't deny a Lee Byung-hun performance.
The Princess Bride is splendid. I think that's the best word for it. Elwes-5 Wright-3.5 Patinkin-5 Sarandon-4 Guest-4.5(Surprisingly chilling in the torture scene) Andre the Giant-4 Shawn-4 Falk-3.5 Savage-3.5 Crystal-4 Kane-3.5(Always love to see her) Cook-3.5 Smith-3.5
For the Peter Green era - 1. Man of the World (also a contender for my favourite song, period) 2. Oh Well 3. One Sunny Day 4. Stop Messin' Round 5. Albatross
For the era everybody knows - 1. Songbird 2. Everywhere 3. You Make Loving Fun 4. Go Your Own Way 5. Gypsy
Loved seeing everyone's lists, I hope we get a film version of Stereophonic aka the recording of Rumors in all but name soon.
Tony: Honestly, "Everywhere" slipped my mind, that'd be in my top 5 over "Little Lies." Huge props for shouting out the PG era, although I guess I will always be heavily biased towards Rumors and their more pop efforts.
Tahmeed: Props to you as well for mentioning Stereophonic, I've been interested in that play for a long while. And yeah, the Green era is definitely my favourite era of the band. Do you have a top 5 for that era yourself?
Did anyone else see Elio? I actually saw it a while back and was very pleasantly surprised, I thought there was narratively and tonally a lot of interesting things going on for it beyond the typical Pixar plot structure, I wish it had a stronger ad campaign.
Tony: I'm not as well-versed on the pre Buckingham-Nicks period of the band, but I do love "Man of the World" and "Oh Well." Definitely something I'm working towards rectifying.
Tahmeed: Admittedly I'm not well versed in Fleetwood Mac aside from their greatest hits I've listened to from time to time, but I guess my top 3 would've been:
1. The Chain 2. Tusk (certain scene from a certain film had something to do with it) 3. Go Your Own Way
Gong - (Brilliant expansion of his performance in the first season, and he makes you think the season is getting off on a great foot. Gong takes his suaveness of the initial appearance, with that twisted bit of sadism and takes it further. Gong brings this intensity that he finds in bringing a further psychotic zealousness to the character. Gong, unlike anyone else, presents the game less as a specific type of greedy callousness and more of this vicious philosophical belief in the idea of ridiculing others' lack of righteousness. There is no sense of desire for the money, nor is there any sense of humanity in his performance, rather it is with the utmost cynical insanity of a man who wishes to dispense what he sees as karmic justice as Gong highlight every moment with this intensity of purpose in his performance where his belief is beyond an idea but fundamental. Something I think is essential in making the final scene of his convincing, because what Gong shows by taking this approach is a man whose religion essentially forces him to take on any challenge to his belief full force, and must accept all elements of his beliefs…not exactly in a Harry Waters way, but very very close to it. Gong is terrifying in the confidence of every moment of it, even his final one which he shows as an eerier satisfaction and conviction of accepting his fate, which would’ve seemed potentially forced if you didn’t believe every moment of Gong’s realization of this man’s “faith”.)
Lee Jung-jae - (I’ll say some of the turns of his character I didn’t really love particularly what they forced upon him in the later parts of the season. BUT Lee sells every moment to its utmost. Giving that essential anchor still to every moment and making you feel every moment, even moments of deep depression Lee brings such an honesty. Creating convincingly the emotional moments in his arc, even if the arc writing wise is less than perfect. Lee is never less than truthful, and of the man basically broken this time by the game, rather than hardened by them, Lee creates every step of his struggle believable in terms of his performance, even if I didn’t love the end result writing wise.)
Kang Ae-shim - (Speaking of not liking the end result, she’s great despite having one of the rushed retreads of a choice of a conclusion that I absolutely hated and found it completely poorly placed within the scheme of the series. I didn’t buy the moment and that’s not on Kang it's on the writing. Because she’s terrific in bringing really this early kind of manic, kind of doting but also earnest mom energy in her early scenes. Bringing an innate sincerity that creates the right growing sense of empathy in her performance, as you see her transform from just caring about her son to caring about several of the players. She’s wonderful in creating the spread of warmth, mixed in with the moments of heartbreak and disbelief at the horrors that unfold. She consistently brings a great deal of warmth and presents an ease in the growth of certain elements, such as her change towards Park’s character. Again where they leave her character didn’t work for me, in part because they didn’t give enough real estate to Knag to sell the moment but she regardless she never carried a false note up until the point she had no control over.)
Lee Byung-hun - (I will say, as much as I found the seasons overall disappointing, I would’ve been prompted to watch them even faster if I was told Lee actually had a role this time around. Which he does and that was the one thing that truly excited me in the season 2, although something I found they SEVERELY underexploited in season 3. Lee’s presence though of course adds so much innate power to the proceedings and just from the moment he steps in he of course becomes exceedingly watchable. Lee though naturally does more with the way he presents the nuance of the character who is playing a part, but also this observer more frequently than not. He plays around with the elements so effectively that he successfully makes you question his full motives but at the same time keeps you at an edge knowing his real nature. Again I think they do far less than they could’ve with that, but afterwards despite having less to work with, I did find Lee really did his utmost to sell the emotional extreme of his rushed flashbacks and even the attempt to show the slightly reformed elements in the finale. I don’t think this works as a whole, but Lee does what he can.)
Park - (I won’t get into such debates about casting which I’ve commented on before, but what I will say is Park does not play into any negative tropes with his performance. Rather he goes about giving an honest portrayal of someone that is good, but imperfect in their own ways. Park naturally this kind of strength as it reveals itself, as with this humble shyness that feels genuine to the forced outsider status. Showing the greater the acceptance the greater the openness to a quiet vulnerability. An easy highlight in terms of the new characters though one that I think there was probably even more to do with but again the writing is less than perfect.)
Jo - (A moving performance to be sure particularly in the more we see of her the more she opens up and the more vulnerability we get. Her slow inching towards the heartbreak of her character is wonderfully drawn by her work that creates the sense of this certain combination of hopelessness and persistence that should contrast too much, but she balances in showing it realizing itself in her reactions to different people.)
Im - (I will say kudos to him for selling every emotion that comes up because I thought the writing of his character was extremely contrived with every moment basically switching to develop the plot as needed rather than create any kind of cohesive whole. Having said that, I thought Im was good as the quietly pompous former crypto king, mixed in with the sense of anxiety of being the fallen crypto king, to the callous boyfriend, to the caring dad, to the complete psychopathic, to the attempted hero, to the somehow even bigger psychopath. Too many swings for one character to be believed, and I wouldn’t say I did, but I thought Im gave a good go of each phase even if the connections were imperfect due to the writing.)
Kang Ha-neul - (Another where I found the development of the character extremely contrived at the writing standpoint, because Kang is convincing with the endearing energy that does have traces of the wannabe, but in a way where there is a, perhaps misguided, innocence in his enthusiasm for trying to be part of the group. Hated then when not only did they make it flawed they had him essentially go full heel, where Kang tries but again didn’t believe it. Where there was a path but the writing made it just messy and took it to too much of an extreme.)
T.O.P - (I’ll say it’s a ridiculous over the top performance but as the over the top contestants I did find him more interesting that the completely forgettable over the top guys they for some reason left around far longer in the narrative. He at least is going for something unique as the rapper who is a bit psychopathic to say the least and goes deep in his drug haze. He goes between sort of working and being too much, with probably falling into the latter more often, but I certainly didn’t hate his performance even if I didn’t fully love it.)
I HATED it because it felt so performative as a “look who we got” cameo, sequel/spinoff bait, and also the fact that it was Ddakji made it feel lazy, as it should’ve been an American game.
Anonymous:
Fanning - 2(Found her dull and uninteresting, as I usually do. There needed to be a really powerful spark within her performance, but I never found that in the least. She just sorta there in a performance that needed to be present constantly. Instead found her pretty bland much of the time, with pretty perfunctory not particularly resonant depictions of her character’s raw emotions. She should be going through the wringer but found Fanning gave a “eh” vibe more often than not, rather than one that truly devastates.)
Harrington - (His performance has a decent sort of dashing hero quality to his performance, where he brings an easy presence here of the slight rogue who is good deep down. His section I found probably the most engaging because he delivers on being a brief man with no name type of character, even if his exit is insultingly dumb, particularly since that appears to be Pearce’s character’s only move.)
Flanagan - (He’s the second most interesting thing about the film even if it too is a little undercooked, as the man who is coming to terms with what the right thing is to do. We get the underused Flanagan (I will say Peaky Blinders killing him off screen was one of the weakest choices of that show) who has a strong presence and instantly you get a sense of his history in this place and this group of people. He creates the nagging sense of his actual conscience bothering him with earning the bits of warmth that do realize themselves as he’s pressed to do the right thing. Unfortunately the writing only takes this so far but he’s good with what he has.)
Wilson - (Fun riff on his personality particularly when he gets to start quoting his own screenplay to The Royal Tenenbaums and fervently defends Wes Anderson to Harrelson. But mostly you just get him being Owen Wilson, which is his usual setting anyways, and honestly a good rendition of the old “wow” although I don’t think he even says wow.)
Tony:
Attempting to construct happiness (Blade Runner, Phantom Thread, Good Time, The Shape of Water, Lucky, A Taxi Driver, even Get Out in a way, Downsizing, Goodbye Christopher Robin, The Disaster Artist, The Florida Project, Marjorie Prime, Ingrid Goes West, Alien Covenant, Thoroughbreds)
Disruption of Routine - (The Shape of Water, Logan, Phantom Thread, The Killing of a Sacred Deer, The Beguiled, Mother!, Blade Runner 2049, Lucky, My Cousin Rachel, On Body and Soul, A Taxi Driver)
Redemption - (Logan, Blade Runner 2049, The Shape of Water, Three Billboards, Hostiles, Baby Driver, The Ballad of Lefty Brown, The Big Sick, Coco, Beauty and the Beast, You Were Never Really Here)
8000’s:
Absolutely hilarious as her sultry voice pulls no punches at any point in just really being as earthy as possible and both cutting and self-deprecating in equal measure.
Harris:
Raimi I honestly have little to go off of, although I probably saw more than a few of his Seaquest episodes but have literally no memory of them other than Roy Scheider in a submarine. Otherwise I’ve seen him in his quick “filmmaker buddy” roles like Spider-man, which hey I’ll take over Noah Segan as such a performer and find him perfectly serviceable if a bit more than that as the wimpy assistant to J.J. But honestly overall hard to say.
Scorsese is wonderfully used as that is one of my favorite Goodfellas scenes in part because of her just being so naturally herself, which isn’t easy to do actually and something that many fumble with. She’s great though and you completely believe every moment of what she does in her sweet way but there’s a real sense of Italian family history in everything she does. She has range though as the nagging “ma” off-screen in The King of Comedy, she certainly delivers on that one note but effectively so a bit of disrupting De Niro’s mental flow.
The Bear Season 4 is a massive improvement over Season 3, in every possible way. Forward momentum, less of the Faks, and single character episodes that actually progressed the story instead of just being there for the sake of giving performers an Emmy tape. The performances are also as good as they've ever been, with the finale in particular being outstanding.
Really, I think they should have just made a 12-15 episode third season, as it properly takes off and actually addresses almost every thread dating back to Season 2, but I digress.
Cast ranking (redacting the surprise cameos/reprises for those who haven't seen it yet, and I do like every performance below):
1. Jeremy Allen White 2. Ayo Edebiri 3. Ebon Moss-Bachrach (the top 3 are quite interchangeable, and the biggest success of the season is that it gave them actual material) 4. Jamie Lee Curtis 5. Abby Elliot (continues to be the epitome of a generous supporting performance) 6. Molly Gordon 7. [redacted] 8. Sarah Ramos 9. Liza Colón-Zayas 10. Josh Hartnett 11. Oliver Platt 12. Danielle Deadwyler (brief, but I thought she was hilarious) 12. Gillian Jacobs 13. Lionel Boyce 14. Edwin Lee Gibson 15. Rob Reiner 16. [redacted] 17. Brian Koppelman
LVP: Matty Matheson (although he's better this season), and a guest spot I didn't really care for, but still a better cameo than Cena in season 3.
98 comments:
1. Bondarchuk
2. Simon
3. Mifune
4. Wilson
5. Samardžić
Films To Watch (More to come)
Wait Until Dark (Re-Watch)
Far From The Madding Crowd (Re-Watch)
To Sir, With Love (Re-Watch)
Samurai Rebellion (Re-Watch)
Cool Hand Luke (Re-Watch)
War And Peace (Parts III And IV)
The Young Girls Of Rochefort
Playtime
Marketa Lazarová
Scattered Clouds
The Nun
Mouchette
Belle De Jour
The Two Of Us
The Incident
La Collectionneuse
A Bullet For The General
The Firemen's Ball
Face To Face
I Even Met Happy Gypsies
Will Penny
Hombre
Chiriyakhana
1. Bondarchuk
2. Simon
3. Wilson
4. Mifune
5. Samardžić
1. Bondarchuk
2. Simon
3. Wilson
4. Mifune
5. Samardžić
Sad that this will more than likely be Mifune's last review.
1. Bondarchuk
2. Simon
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2.Wilson
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5.Samardžić
1. Bondarchuk
2. Simon
3. Mifune
4. Wilson
5. Samardžić
Avbove prediction by John Smith
Louis: Is it just me or did 1967 have like...less films released than normal, like 1966 has so many films that came out and so did 1968 but 67 feels like, there was some sort of strike or something?
1.Bondarchuk
2.Mifune
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Louis: Thoughts on Luca Marinelli in Mussolini.
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2. Simon
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RIP Michael Madsen. Far too soon.
R.I.P. Michael Madsen
RatedRStar: i mean, Hollywood was really at a real low during this year, as this was around the time when studios were no longer allowed to own theatres and everybody was struggling financially
RIP Michael Madsen
RIP Michael Madsen
RatedRStar: I noticed that too. Only a few films on my watchlist for that year, and I’ve only seen eight (8) so far.
RIP Michael Madsen
RIP Michael Madsen
RIP Michael Madsen
Rest In Peace Michael Madsen. My Goodness! How shocking and tragic.
That’s crazy! Kill Bill Vol. 2 was just playing on AMC yesterday.
Today's just a fucked day, first Diogo Jota now this.
RIP Michael Madsen
RIP Kenneth Colley
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R.I.P. Michael Madsen.
1. Bondarchuk
2. Wilson
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RIP R.I.P. Michael Madsen, Kenneth Colley and Diogo Jota
R.I.P. Michael Madsen & Diogo Jota.
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2. Mifune
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RIP Michael Madsen, Kenneth Colley & Diego Jota.
Rest In Peace Michael Madsen, Diogo Jota and Kenneth Colley.
Praying for all of their families.
RIP Diogo Jota, Michael Madsen and Kenneth Colley.
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Louis: Your thoughts on Luca Marinelli in Mussolini - Son of the Century, and have you watched The Bear Season 4.
Louis: This is the rest of the list.
Ulysses
Custer Of The West
The Stranger
Our Mother's House (Jack Clayton)
Elvira Madigan
Thoroughly Modern Millie
The Fox
I Am Curious (Yellow)
Up The Down Staircase
Games
Le Départ
We Still Kill The Old Way
The Affair
Robbery
Accident
The President's Analyst
Spider Baby
Poor Cow
The St. Valentine’s Day Massacre
Shock Troops
Japan’s Longest Day
Hagbard And Signe
Peppermint Frappé
Portrait Of Chieko
The Age Of Assassins
Thirst For Love (Koreyoshi Kurahara)
Death Rides A Horse
The Last Adventure
Japanese Summer: Double Suicide
The Wife Of Seishu Hanaoka
Viy
Between Sweet And Salt Water
Anna Karenina
Anna
Louis, when would be a better time to ask you for your 10 favourites of the 21st century? The recent NY Times poll had many people I know composing their own lists, don't see how now is too early.
Rest In Peace Julian McMahon. Good Lord!
RIP Doctor Doom
Louis: Your thoughts on "Let's Fighting Love" from South Park.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-VILgSsesD0
RIP Michael Madsen, Kenneth Colley & Diego Jota.
1. Bondarchuk
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Louis: Your thoughts on Bergman's direction and writing of Autumn Sonata?
R.I.P. Julian McMahon
Harris: I specifically wanted to ask that question to everyone ... at the end of this year. The century would be 25 years old, seemed fitting to me
Tim: Wasn't it 25 years old at the end of last year, counting 2000?
No, not really, as one shouldn't count 2000, which technically was the last year of the twentieth century. Many people make this mistake. There was never a year zero, we started counting on one. Meaning on January 1st 2000, exactly 1999 had past completely. the last century was over when the year 2000 was over. That was the TRUE milennium. Just like last decade ended on December 31 2020, not 19.
At the end of 2019 a bunch of Youtubers made videos about "The best movies of the decade" and it drove me up the fucking wall!!!!
You know, Stanley Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke called the film "2001" because that was the first year of the new milennium. But their fans somehow don't
*They got that, but their fans somehow don't
R.I.P. Julian McMahon
Luke:
Marinelli - (As per usual for Marinelli his screen presence is extremely pronounced and particularly important here basically to craft the fascistic sway of Mussolini, which he wholly disappears into this role. And if you’ve seen him in Martin Eden or Trust you would not immediately pick him for such a part, but once you see him for a second you just completely accept him as Mussolini and there’s not a second needed beyond that. And even beyond that extremely impressive starting point Marinelli finds nuance within his despicable lead which is a lot of different things altogether. Part of it is getting to be the Richard III manipulator, who invites the audience into his evil schemes, where Marinelli plays extremely effectively the sort of smug manner of someone who just loves his abhorrent choices. But he’s equally convincing in portraying the different phases of the man’s personality to the full public where he brandishes the fanatics intensity to bring everyone into fervor, to almost more the crime bosses’s cool when he commands his violent thugs he has for men to do his bidding as he sees fit. He thought is as effective in playing the moments of the man taking in his joy of his wretched behaviors with his ill-gotten gains being moments he highlights with even this naturalistic disbelief at someone who is a little surprised by his own success. Marinelli thrives in exploring every little bit of detail into his performance where nothing is simplistic within it. He is absolutely convincing at the grand scale of the grandiose, including every bit of the expected physicality, in a way where he doesn’t feel like a cartoon but rather the crafted character of a man purposefully creating himself as a godlike figure to his followers. But balances that in his eyes of a man who does have some sense of scale even in his vile nature, that doesn’t humanize him in terms of creating any empathy or sympathy for the horrible man, but does show the man behind his purposeful method crafting his own myth while being a tyrant for his own will. Marinelli delivers a truly great biopic style performance where every facet seems so well realized, with the historical figure just seeming to be him in the moment…even if I didn’t find the actual realization of his story all that compelling beyond him.)
Marcus:
I started watching it. Will finish it and have liked it far more than season 3 already.
8000’s:
A pretty amusing parody song that essentially seems semi-accurate from my exposure from all of you of this very blog to various openings, although I specifically enjoy that it is essentially done as a bad translation with the “Let’s fighting love” chorus.
Oliver:
Bergman’s direction and writing is about crafting the relationship that denotes mood and feeling within the relationship in such a specific way. There’s a purposeful hollowness in a lot of the visual choices, a detachment, and a coldness here that keeps a separation, that separation that is further emphasized within the script of essentially a broken relationship between the self-absorbed mother and the self-doubting daughter. Something, as he always did, he wisely grants moments of just breathtaking performance in focusing on his extremely talented leads in realizing the fraught emotions within that distance. And within his direction keeps you in this coldness, that isn’t in the end entirely about separation but rather the lack of closure and warmth. You never feel fully comfortable but what he does so brilliantly is he does grant you the intimacy of the relationship. You feel through his touches where he does push the emotion, not to create warmth, but to make you feel even more the brokenness where he excels. Also realized in the writing which brings such depth through learning in theoretically just a few interactions the years of these women as they are, who the mother is, the daughter is, and even who the other daughter is within the scheme of a set time and place. A film like this that does this so brilliantly is what I think shows the lacking of some filmmakers who attempt detachment but only detachment, and attempt fewer words and say nothing.
Also watched Squid Game, maybe unfortunately. It continues the many trends of the original season but with the highs being lower for the part and the lows being even lower. As the detective story is even more filler, to a ridiculous extreme and he's also an idiot, the VIP's are even worse somehow, I really didn't care at all about the Pink Guard and there are some really over the top contestants. The games still have a blunt visceral effectiveness, but even then I thought some of the later ones, ESPECIALLY THE FINAL ONE, became contrived where characters do things to get to the end result rather than a natural realization of character. Leaving the whole series very unsatisfying and not remotely in a good way. But it still was largely watchable and has a few key highlights.
Cast Rankings 2 & 3 (since they're really one season in terms of design)
1. Gong Yoo (What Guest Emmys should be for)
2. Lee Jung-jae
3. Kang Ae-shim
4. Lee Byung-hun
5. Park Sung-hoon
6. Jo Yu-ri
7. Im Si-wan
8. Kang Ha-neul
9. Jeon Seok-ho
10. Lee David
11. Oh Dal-su
12. Yang Dong-geun
13. Wi Ha-joon
14. Chae Kook-hee
15. Park Gyu-young
16. Park Hee-soon
17. Choi Gwi-hwa
18. T.O.P
19. Won Ji-an
20. Roh Jae-won
21. Young-chang Song
22. Lee Seo-hwan
9999999999999999999999999999999999. The VIPS
Louis: What are the most common recurring themes you noticed in the films of 2017?
5º Ljubiša Samardžić
4º Michel Simon
3º Scott Wilson
2º Toshiro Mifune
1º Sergei Bondarchuk
Louis: Thoughts on #1-8 and T.O.P. for the Squid game cast.
I watched The Iron Claw which broke my heart. Aces cast.
Efron-5
White-4
Dickinson-4.5(He's rarely ever focused on but he just has so much natural warmth and camaraderie with the others that it crushes you when he's taken away so suddenly)
Simons-4
Tierney-4
McCallany-5
James-4
Eisenberg-3(Apparently a lot of people hated him but I don't know I compared him to the real thing and he seemed close enough)
Matt: It's very telling how the only group that really disliked The Iron Claw were the wrestling fans and their main complaint was Eisenberg not being the carbon copy of Ric Flair during his 1 minute of screentime.
1. Mifune
2. Wilson
3. Samardžić
4. Simon
5. Bondarchuk
Louis: What did you think of that cameo in Squid Game’s final scene?
Louis: Your thoughts on the screenplay and editing of Breaking the Waves?
As for Squid Game season 3, I think the writing went downhill. Season 1 was lightning in a bottle in my opinion. But I'm happy to see some talented Korean actors get big roles and you can't deny a Lee Byung-hun performance.
Louis: Ratings and thoughts on Dakota Fanning, Kit Harington in Brimstone, Tommy Flanagan in Lefty Brown and Owen Wilson in Lost in London.
The Princess Bride is splendid. I think that's the best word for it.
Elwes-5
Wright-3.5
Patinkin-5
Sarandon-4
Guest-4.5(Surprisingly chilling in the torture scene)
Andre the Giant-4
Shawn-4
Falk-3.5
Savage-3.5
Crystal-4
Kane-3.5(Always love to see her)
Cook-3.5
Smith-3.5
Louis and everyone else: Your 5 favorite Fleetwood Mac songs? Mine would be:
'Silver Springs'
'Landslide'
'Go Your Own Way'
'Rhiannon'
'Little Lies'
Tahmeed: Ohh love these questions:
"You Make Loving Fun"
"Little Lies"
"Rhiannon"
"The Chain"
"Go Your Own Way"
Always love a top 5 songs from a band question lol
"Landslide"
"Gold Dust Woman"
"Second Hand News"
"The Chain"
"Oh Well"
"Go Your Own Way"
"The Chain"
"Gypsy"
"Sarah"
"You Make Loving Fun"
Bryan: Might i ask for your thoughts on The Passion?
Tim: Sorry to be a downer, but I just found it to be exploitative and with too much focus on Jesus's physical suffering.
Tahmeed:
For the Peter Green era -
1. Man of the World (also a contender for my favourite song, period)
2. Oh Well
3. One Sunny Day
4. Stop Messin' Round
5. Albatross
For the era everybody knows -
1. Songbird
2. Everywhere
3. You Make Loving Fun
4. Go Your Own Way
5. Gypsy
Louis: Your thoughts with this interview with Suzanne Pleshette on Johnny Carson.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TFW3EHmj5c4&t
Loved seeing everyone's lists, I hope we get a film version of Stereophonic aka the recording of Rumors in all but name soon.
Tony: Honestly, "Everywhere" slipped my mind, that'd be in my top 5 over "Little Lies." Huge props for shouting out the PG era, although I guess I will always be heavily biased towards Rumors and their more pop efforts.
Tahmeed: Props to you as well for mentioning Stereophonic, I've been interested in that play for a long while. And yeah, the Green era is definitely my favourite era of the band. Do you have a top 5 for that era yourself?
Louis: Your thoughts on Ted Raimi and Catherine Scorsese as actors?
Louis: Could you add Adnan Siddiqui and Akshaye Khanna in Mom, and Ron Livingston in Lucky to your 2017 ranking?
1. Mifune
2. Wilson
3. Simon
4. Samardžić
5. Bondarchuk
Did anyone else see Elio? I actually saw it a while back and was very pleasantly surprised, I thought there was narratively and tonally a lot of interesting things going on for it beyond the typical Pixar plot structure, I wish it had a stronger ad campaign.
Tony: I'm not as well-versed on the pre Buckingham-Nicks period of the band, but I do love "Man of the World" and "Oh Well." Definitely something I'm working towards rectifying.
Tahmeed: Admittedly I'm not well versed in Fleetwood Mac aside from their greatest hits I've listened to from time to time, but I guess my top 3 would've been:
1. The Chain
2. Tusk (certain scene from a certain film had something to do with it)
3. Go Your Own Way
Anonymous:
Gong - (Brilliant expansion of his performance in the first season, and he makes you think the season is getting off on a great foot. Gong takes his suaveness of the initial appearance, with that twisted bit of sadism and takes it further. Gong brings this intensity that he finds in bringing a further psychotic zealousness to the character. Gong, unlike anyone else, presents the game less as a specific type of greedy callousness and more of this vicious philosophical belief in the idea of ridiculing others' lack of righteousness. There is no sense of desire for the money, nor is there any sense of humanity in his performance, rather it is with the utmost cynical insanity of a man who wishes to dispense what he sees as karmic justice as Gong highlight every moment with this intensity of purpose in his performance where his belief is beyond an idea but fundamental. Something I think is essential in making the final scene of his convincing, because what Gong shows by taking this approach is a man whose religion essentially forces him to take on any challenge to his belief full force, and must accept all elements of his beliefs…not exactly in a Harry Waters way, but very very close to it. Gong is terrifying in the confidence of every moment of it, even his final one which he shows as an eerier satisfaction and conviction of accepting his fate, which would’ve seemed potentially forced if you didn’t believe every moment of Gong’s realization of this man’s “faith”.)
Lee Jung-jae - (I’ll say some of the turns of his character I didn’t really love particularly what they forced upon him in the later parts of the season. BUT Lee sells every moment to its utmost. Giving that essential anchor still to every moment and making you feel every moment, even moments of deep depression Lee brings such an honesty. Creating convincingly the emotional moments in his arc, even if the arc writing wise is less than perfect. Lee is never less than truthful, and of the man basically broken this time by the game, rather than hardened by them, Lee creates every step of his struggle believable in terms of his performance, even if I didn’t love the end result writing wise.)
Kang Ae-shim - (Speaking of not liking the end result, she’s great despite having one of the rushed retreads of a choice of a conclusion that I absolutely hated and found it completely poorly placed within the scheme of the series. I didn’t buy the moment and that’s not on Kang it's on the writing. Because she’s terrific in bringing really this early kind of manic, kind of doting but also earnest mom energy in her early scenes. Bringing an innate sincerity that creates the right growing sense of empathy in her performance, as you see her transform from just caring about her son to caring about several of the players. She’s wonderful in creating the spread of warmth, mixed in with the moments of heartbreak and disbelief at the horrors that unfold. She consistently brings a great deal of warmth and presents an ease in the growth of certain elements, such as her change towards Park’s character. Again where they leave her character didn’t work for me, in part because they didn’t give enough real estate to Knag to sell the moment but she regardless she never carried a false note up until the point she had no control over.)
Lee Byung-hun - (I will say, as much as I found the seasons overall disappointing, I would’ve been prompted to watch them even faster if I was told Lee actually had a role this time around. Which he does and that was the one thing that truly excited me in the season 2, although something I found they SEVERELY underexploited in season 3. Lee’s presence though of course adds so much innate power to the proceedings and just from the moment he steps in he of course becomes exceedingly watchable. Lee though naturally does more with the way he presents the nuance of the character who is playing a part, but also this observer more frequently than not. He plays around with the elements so effectively that he successfully makes you question his full motives but at the same time keeps you at an edge knowing his real nature. Again I think they do far less than they could’ve with that, but afterwards despite having less to work with, I did find Lee really did his utmost to sell the emotional extreme of his rushed flashbacks and even the attempt to show the slightly reformed elements in the finale. I don’t think this works as a whole, but Lee does what he can.)
Park - (I won’t get into such debates about casting which I’ve commented on before, but what I will say is Park does not play into any negative tropes with his performance. Rather he goes about giving an honest portrayal of someone that is good, but imperfect in their own ways. Park naturally this kind of strength as it reveals itself, as with this humble shyness that feels genuine to the forced outsider status. Showing the greater the acceptance the greater the openness to a quiet vulnerability. An easy highlight in terms of the new characters though one that I think there was probably even more to do with but again the writing is less than perfect.)
Jo - (A moving performance to be sure particularly in the more we see of her the more she opens up and the more vulnerability we get. Her slow inching towards the heartbreak of her character is wonderfully drawn by her work that creates the sense of this certain combination of hopelessness and persistence that should contrast too much, but she balances in showing it realizing itself in her reactions to different people.)
Im - (I will say kudos to him for selling every emotion that comes up because I thought the writing of his character was extremely contrived with every moment basically switching to develop the plot as needed rather than create any kind of cohesive whole. Having said that, I thought Im was good as the quietly pompous former crypto king, mixed in with the sense of anxiety of being the fallen crypto king, to the callous boyfriend, to the caring dad, to the complete psychopathic, to the attempted hero, to the somehow even bigger psychopath. Too many swings for one character to be believed, and I wouldn’t say I did, but I thought Im gave a good go of each phase even if the connections were imperfect due to the writing.)
Kang Ha-neul - (Another where I found the development of the character extremely contrived at the writing standpoint, because Kang is convincing with the endearing energy that does have traces of the wannabe, but in a way where there is a, perhaps misguided, innocence in his enthusiasm for trying to be part of the group. Hated then when not only did they make it flawed they had him essentially go full heel, where Kang tries but again didn’t believe it. Where there was a path but the writing made it just messy and took it to too much of an extreme.)
T.O.P - (I’ll say it’s a ridiculous over the top performance but as the over the top contestants I did find him more interesting that the completely forgettable over the top guys they for some reason left around far longer in the narrative. He at least is going for something unique as the rapper who is a bit psychopathic to say the least and goes deep in his drug haze. He goes between sort of working and being too much, with probably falling into the latter more often, but I certainly didn’t hate his performance even if I didn’t fully love it.)
Razor:
I HATED it because it felt so performative as a “look who we got” cameo, sequel/spinoff bait, and also the fact that it was Ddakji made it feel lazy, as it should’ve been an American game.
Anonymous:
Fanning - 2(Found her dull and uninteresting, as I usually do. There needed to be a really powerful spark within her performance, but I never found that in the least. She just sorta there in a performance that needed to be present constantly. Instead found her pretty bland much of the time, with pretty perfunctory not particularly resonant depictions of her character’s raw emotions. She should be going through the wringer but found Fanning gave a “eh” vibe more often than not, rather than one that truly devastates.)
Harrington - (His performance has a decent sort of dashing hero quality to his performance, where he brings an easy presence here of the slight rogue who is good deep down. His section I found probably the most engaging because he delivers on being a brief man with no name type of character, even if his exit is insultingly dumb, particularly since that appears to be Pearce’s character’s only move.)
Flanagan - (He’s the second most interesting thing about the film even if it too is a little undercooked, as the man who is coming to terms with what the right thing is to do. We get the underused Flanagan (I will say Peaky Blinders killing him off screen was one of the weakest choices of that show) who has a strong presence and instantly you get a sense of his history in this place and this group of people. He creates the nagging sense of his actual conscience bothering him with earning the bits of warmth that do realize themselves as he’s pressed to do the right thing. Unfortunately the writing only takes this so far but he’s good with what he has.)
Wilson - (Fun riff on his personality particularly when he gets to start quoting his own screenplay to The Royal Tenenbaums and fervently defends Wes Anderson to Harrelson. But mostly you just get him being Owen Wilson, which is his usual setting anyways, and honestly a good rendition of the old “wow” although I don’t think he even says wow.)
Tony:
Attempting to construct happiness (Blade Runner, Phantom Thread, Good Time, The Shape of Water, Lucky, A Taxi Driver, even Get Out in a way, Downsizing, Goodbye Christopher Robin, The Disaster Artist, The Florida Project, Marjorie Prime, Ingrid Goes West, Alien Covenant, Thoroughbreds)
Disruption of Routine - (The Shape of Water, Logan, Phantom Thread, The Killing of a Sacred Deer, The Beguiled, Mother!, Blade Runner 2049, Lucky, My Cousin Rachel, On Body and Soul, A Taxi Driver)
Redemption - (Logan, Blade Runner 2049, The Shape of Water, Three Billboards, Hostiles, Baby Driver, The Ballad of Lefty Brown, The Big Sick, Coco, Beauty and the Beast, You Were Never Really Here)
8000’s:
Absolutely hilarious as her sultry voice pulls no punches at any point in just really being as earthy as possible and both cutting and self-deprecating in equal measure.
Harris:
Raimi I honestly have little to go off of, although I probably saw more than a few of his Seaquest episodes but have literally no memory of them other than Roy Scheider in a submarine. Otherwise I’ve seen him in his quick “filmmaker buddy” roles like Spider-man, which hey I’ll take over Noah Segan as such a performer and find him perfectly serviceable if a bit more than that as the wimpy assistant to J.J. But honestly overall hard to say.
Scorsese is wonderfully used as that is one of my favorite Goodfellas scenes in part because of her just being so naturally herself, which isn’t easy to do actually and something that many fumble with. She’s great though and you completely believe every moment of what she does in her sweet way but there’s a real sense of Italian family history in everything she does. She has range though as the nagging “ma” off-screen in The King of Comedy, she certainly delivers on that one note but effectively so a bit of disrupting De Niro’s mental flow.
Louis: Your 1990s and 2000s cast/director for Materialists.
Louis: Gong is also fantastic in a Netflix show called "The Trunk" alongside his leading lady, Seo Hyun-jin.
Tahmeed: Out of curiosity, who are some of your favourite bands and artists outside of FM?
Louis: Your thoughts on Jeon Seok-ho, Lee David, Park Gyu-young, Song Young-chang and Lee Seo-hwan in Squid Game?
Tony: Here's some favorites across different languages:
English:
Queen
The Beatles
The Beach Boys
Prince
Whitney Houston
Elton John
Kendrick Lamar
Tracy Chapman
ABBA
Eminem
Bangla:
Artcell
Warfaze
Bappa Majumder
Anupam Roy
Nemsesis
Hindi:
A.R. Rahman
Atif Aslam
Kishore Kumar
Shreya Goshal
Mohit Chauhan
1. Mifune
2. Wilson
3. Samardžić
4. Simon
5. Bondarchuk
The Bear Season 4 is a massive improvement over Season 3, in every possible way. Forward momentum, less of the Faks, and single character episodes that actually progressed the story instead of just being there for the sake of giving performers an Emmy tape. The performances are also as good as they've ever been, with the finale in particular being outstanding.
Really, I think they should have just made a 12-15 episode third season, as it properly takes off and actually addresses almost every thread dating back to Season 2, but I digress.
Cast ranking (redacting the surprise cameos/reprises for those who haven't seen it yet, and I do like every performance below):
1. Jeremy Allen White
2. Ayo Edebiri
3. Ebon Moss-Bachrach (the top 3 are quite interchangeable, and the biggest success of the season is that it gave them actual material)
4. Jamie Lee Curtis
5. Abby Elliot (continues to be the epitome of a generous supporting performance)
6. Molly Gordon
7. [redacted]
8. Sarah Ramos
9. Liza Colón-Zayas
10. Josh Hartnett
11. Oliver Platt
12. Danielle Deadwyler (brief, but I thought she was hilarious)
12. Gillian Jacobs
13. Lionel Boyce
14. Edwin Lee Gibson
15. Rob Reiner
16. [redacted]
17. Brian Koppelman
LVP: Matty Matheson (although he's better this season), and a guest spot I didn't really care for, but still a better cameo than Cena in season 3.
Bryan:
The Materialists 1990's directed by Joyce Chopra:
Lucy: Michelle Pfeiffer
John: Val Kilmer
Harry: Sam Neill
The Materialists 2000's directed by Sofia Coppola:
Lucy: Nicole Kidman
John: Matt Damon
Harry: Jimmy Smits
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