Amph At The Movies (film discussion thread)

I'm planning to see "It" tomorrow and Mother! shortly thereafter, but might wait on Mother! since the reviews have been mixed. Which is funny, because I'm typically not a fan of the horror genre. However, the It TV series from the 80's I did watch when it originally aired and enjoyed it, and since nostalgia is such a big thing nowadays, I want to see this remake. Speaking of remakes, no one is complaining about It being remade.

I did buy my advance tickets for Thor: Ragnarok. Now, I'm just waiting for the presale tickets for Justice League and The Last Jedi.

 

Retcon alert:

Jamie Lee returning for new Halloween movie.

Then again I think it was already said that the new movie would be a sequel to H2 and forget the other movies.

Either way I'm down.

 

Nostalgia flicks. Big money = No brainer for a reboot.

I never fully watched the Halloween films as I was a kid and too scared to watch them.

I just heard over the radio that the Kingsman: The Golden Circle comes out next week. I thought it was going to be release in Oct. Something else to look forward to this month.

 

Harry Dean Stanton died

All time great

 

Posted about his TV work in the Deadpool thread, but his movie work is also just stellar. Decades and decades of masterful work. I was already looking forward to catching up with Lucky, his most recent movie; now there's another reason to do so, I guess, not that I needed one.

 

I'm double teaming those two on Thursday if you can drive to Missouri.

 

It and Mother! would be a great double feature. Kinda wonky but similar however the best difference I can make between them is if one wants to go see a great horror movie that is laid out understandably, go see It. If one wants to see a slow chatty character drama that completely explodes into a hellish descent into madness and deliberately doesn’t tell you why, go see Mother!

So full mother! spoiler

Spoiler

.. the first shot of the lady on fire is Rachel Wetiz, right? And she's in The Fountain also by Daren Aronfosky. Cuz at the end after everything goes haywire, J.Law is on fire and then it restarts cuz Bardem put the crystal back on the shelf (that he ripped out of the body of the Lawrence Mother!). with the final shot of the new Mother! But it all resets again, hence Lawrence on fire and the opening shot of the other lady on fire which is totally Rachel Wetiz on fire dammit!
Although I did just look up the imdb credits and the "Foremother" (which sounds like the lady in the first shot) is listed as Sarah-Jeanne Labrosse. So maybe it's her. Assuming the credit for "Foremother" is supposed to be the lady in the first shot.
Anyway, Kristen Wigg shooting people in the head two at a time was sick as heck.
Best quote I saw was Aronofsky said it used "Dream logic". While it's not as compellingly coherent was "Black Swan" was (which is saying something because that movie is quite incoherent at times but it still follows through because, in the end, Natalie Portman's character be crazy. Here there is no explanation why it goes from reality to bat****crazy ville).
Basically it's a movie about people in a small isolated country house where it gets progressively crazier but it still feels like something that could happen in reality (with little hints of abnormality / fantasy at the fringes.) And there's an awesome five minute appearance of Domhall Gleeson as a murderous sibling. And then the last 30 minutes just becomes an insanely illogical but compelling cluster**** of the worst rave party / world war happening all inside a house. With cannibalism.

aside: Domhall Gleeson's five minutes as a crazy person in Mother! makes me hope that he gets a chance to cut loose a bit in The Last Jedi like his "Last day of the Republic!!" speech in Force Awakens. He's great at playing a straight man but once in awhile let him off the chain cuz he can be totally gold. Also looking at the imdb both Gleeson youngsters played the siblings in this movie.

 

Speaking of Mother! it joined the ranks of the prestigious F cinemascore!

https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2017/09/darren-aronofsky-mother-cinemascore-f

There's a bit near the end that I can think turned audiences off.

Also here's a talk with Aronofsky and he said the movie is sort of look at it like Lawerence's character is from the point of view of Mother Nature. I didn't read it that way, personally, I just thought it was an insane fever dream, but it's certainly a unique way to look at it

https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2017/09/darren-aronofsky-explains-mother

 

I read it as her as Mother Nature and him as God/creator.

I look at the film as an alternate version of the Bible.

After 2 days of sitting on it I'm looking at it more and more favorably. I'm laughing at the hate it's getting.

 

Top 20 of 2017 for me, easy. Not quite top 10. I love how insane it gets but the chatty first hour change and all the J.Law walking around shots and 20 minutes could have been trimmed. Keep all of the ending. 90 minutes total would have been perfect.

 

Mother! was brilliant. I saw a bit of a metaphor on society's obsession with internet/reality show sharing and having an appetite for every little thing, more than thinking about religion. The

Spoiler

people (followers) wanted more, and Bardem craved their attention. Their emotions would instantly change from one extreme to another.

I was surprised to see Gleeson's name in the credits because I didn't recognize him. This movie's "failure" is another example of an unconventional movie going mainstream, where audiences aren't aware of a director's other works to be kind of prepared on what to expect or what not to expect.

 

Yeah, there are more movies that I want to go to than I actually get out to see. That doesn't mean they all turn out to be great, but they're there. I think the bigger issue is the promotion; a lot of the really good stuff is relatively low-profile, while the average quality of the high-profile movies is probably a lot lower than the overall average. It's not that the movies are rarely that good; it's that the movies people go see are rarely that good. Ironically.

 

There are of course a lot of movies that interest me, but my area's theaters barely get a lot of them.

 

Yeah, it's true that a lot of places don't have the kind of arthouse theaters I'm blessed to live close to. I'm going to go see Columbus & The Wedding Plan in theaters later this week and I'd venture those movies are not at all widely available.

I will say that I did get to see Mother and I thought it had a superlatively taut, creepy and well-acted first hour that then just slowly went off the rails in a more and more ridiculous way with each passing moment. I would not say it is by any stretch a good movie, but it's interesting. I just think it goes way too cartoonish by the end, to the degree that it kind of lost all impact. I think Aronofsky has to constantly struggle to let his symbolism remain symbolism and not just become explicit. And he definitely lost that struggle with this movie and I was just pretty bored by the end. I mean, chaos for its own sake is just not interesting to me and I found the last thirty minutes or so to be the equivalent of the big CGI battle at the end of a Transformers movie essentially. I'm not sure what exactly is supposed to elevate it above, say, the big fight at the end of a Marvel movie; it's just as chaotic and incomprehensible and loud and I don't think the fact that it's all "symbolic" means that it gets a pass on those things. The first hour is great; the symbolism is there, but its not being screamed into your face and its based on on atmosphere and great performances not on volume and incomprehensibility. I don't think it's a horrible movie by a stretch, but it's pretty bad, taken as a whole. It's absolutely not of a piece with itself and the last thirty minutes or so in particular is increasingly frustrating and annoying. I mean, the first hour put me so substantially in Lawrence's perspective that I would never have believed that by the end I wouldn't give a **** what her ultimate fate was. But that's what happened. Because she, like Bardem, has ceased to be anything resembling an actual character or entity; she's just a symbol by then and I don't care what happens to a symbol. Pfeiffer's phenomenal though. Best thing in the movie. Maybe career best actually. And Kristin Wiig just popping up apropos of nothing was genuinely funny. I laughed out loud, I think.

 

Maybe I'm just not wise enough, but Biblical symbolism didn't cross my mind when watching the movie, therefore I wasn't thinking of a message or meaning. I was just too busy in awe of the zaniness and relating to the feeling of other people being a nuisance and arrogantly and casually so. I would like to see it again.

 

It's essentially a streamlined adaptation of the Bible. With an added female perspective.

He's god. She's nature/earth. Doctor and his wife are Adam and Eve. Sons are Cain and Able. Stone was the forbidden fruit. His office, Eden. The child is a representation of Jesus. The cannibalism the Catholic thing taken to the literal. His poetry is the New Testament.

All of this seemingly confirmed by Aronofsky himself. My own added interpretation would be that the scene where the sink breaks and she goes ape**** the first time was a representation of the flood and first cleansing of the Earth.


Ending the apocalypse.

The biblical Old Testament version of God is split between him and her.

 

I know that now and it's easy to understand, but I just meant none of that crossed my mind while watching the movie. I only found it representing celebrity/social media culture and the constant appetite for content. I think too much is being made of the symbolism in all the responses to negative reviews, as if people had to know that to like the movie. People didn't like it because it wasn't their thing, mostly because they can't handle its content.

 

Hollywood Reporter‏Verified account @THR 6m6 minutes ago


Linda Hamilton and Schwarzenegger and Cameron returning to new Terminator Sequel to T-2 Cameron now has full control over franchise and may Direct or Write Script and produce and have full control over project! Cameron says they are making like the crap that came after T-2 did not exist like they never happened. He never liked the films after T-2 and had little to do with them...

• http://thr.cm/xSsBvr pic.twitter.com/c0OB4kxzng

 

Heh, Cameron was helping promote the last Terminator movie. I guess he can work with his ex. I would just rather the franchise be left alone.

 

I personally just dig on it as it's a horrible dream logic nightmare where everything goes haywire. Anyway, more weird movies, please, is what I wantie.

Hamilton I think is going to be great because I think Cameron knows well enough that crazy Sarah Connor is the best Sarah Connor so also just more of that. How Arnold works into the whole thing is interesting, while he could be the guy who is the basis for the Terminator, I just want to see Arnold be the Terminator, age be damned.


Huh. Beauty and the Beast (live action 2017 version) is the highest grossing movie in worldwide released in 2017 and I ain't never seen it. Odd that. Should be rectified in the next 2 months or so when it hits TMN or Netflix.

 

The Isle of Dogs trailer is amazing. How does Wes Anderson make his animated movies look exactly like his live action movies? The dialogue and the color palette help. The familiar voices.

Bryan Cranston as Chief
Edward Norton as Rex
Bill Murray as Boss
Jeff Goldblum as Duke

 

I'm pretty, meh about the Tomb Raider trailer. I didn't feel I was watching Lara Croft, but rather some random person. Additionally, the film looks like it's taking itself too seriously and doesn't seem to have a fun factor or much of an adventure take to it. Perhaps I'm being over critical as I watched the trailer right after I watch the Jumanji trailer.

 

The Angelina Jolie Tomb Raider movies could not possibly have been any less fun, but I agree there's something about this trailer that feels like service of process to the audience with the note: "You Are Hereby Informed That You Are Not Here for Your Own Enjoyment."

 

Yeah the closest that trailer comes to being fun is Laura's "I'll take two" line at the end. But never underestimate the simple pleasures of Alica Vikander running around in a tank top.