Amph At The Movies (film discussion thread)

If only he'd done more kegels. We could've avoided all this unpleasantness.

 

I view the last hour of Oppenheimer as showing the futility of trying to "punish" someone for scientific advancement, so Straus had to lean into red scare lies. But his whole speech is trying to make up a moral high ground when he's just super petty

 

We just got back from seeing Ferrari. Back when we went to see Eileen, a trailer for this film was shown beforehand, and we were shocked that Adam Driver was Ferrari. With the grey hair and the accident, he was unrecognizable. So, that was intriguing and we decided to see it. I wasn't able to go out until Thursday of last week because I had gotten a blister on my foot after ice-skating with the youth group on Friday and I further aggravated it while ushering during Christmas Eve. I finally healed it and was able to go out on Thursday, but we weren't able to see the film until last night.

Spoiler

Adam Driver did such a great job as Enzo Ferrari. His best scene was his monologue during which he said that two objects cannot occupy the same space and he said one should question if one is a sportsman or a competitor. In a way, this could be interpreted as him saying that the two women in his personal life could not occupy the same space. Penelope Cruz also did a great job as Ferrari's wife, Laura, who was going through a difficult time in the film. She portrayed Laura's anger and torment very well. Shailene Woodley was good as Lina Lardi, Ferrari's secret partner with whom he has a son. One can see the admiration and love she has for Ferrari despite feeling guilty over having gotten with a married man years ago. Overall, it was a great drama, but I gotta say that that crash scene toward the end of the film was shocking with a very difficult to watch aftermath. I actually said, "Jesus Christ," in the theater as the crash occurred. It wasn't the driver's fault, but still...we felt bad for his girlfriend. That was brutal. The film ends with a touching moment during which Ferrari and his son, Piero, go to visit the the burial site of Ferrari's first son. The film ends with text explaining that Piero is the vice chairman of Ferrari today.

Very interesting movie. Driver is a master of his craft.

 

Good to hear you enjoyed it. Though given the large number of great Italian actors out there who speak near-perfect English, I can’t help but be annoyed at Hollywood’s propensity to not hire any of them to portray Italians. Not to mention Driver and Woodley’s Italian accents, which are horrendous. Just couldn’t take either of them seriously, unfortunately.

 

An interesting comparison of Nolan's Oppenheimer to Hayao Miyazaki's The Wind Rises.

Spoiler: Contains spoilers from both movies

As someone who's seen both movies, I can see where the comparisons are coming from. Yeah, you'll get those people who will suggest that the atomic bomb that Oppenheimer developed was light years more destructive than Jiro Horikoshi's Zero fighters; but the overall themes are essentially one in the same. Both Oppenheimer and Horikoshi were driven by their passions moreso than their desire to support the wars.

Just an edit: it didn't even dawn on me until reading the comments, but Emily Blunt, who plays Oppenheimer's wife in the movie, provided the English dubbed voice for Jiro Horikoshi's voice in The Wind Rises.

 

never thought of the original as lacking polish or freshness. also never felt a sequel was necessary.

 

the first film is clearly set up for a sequel, but i still wish they would have just left it alone. not everything needs a sequel or a remake. yes, old films become dated, that's a given. but to me stuff from the 90's tends to look way more dated than stuff from the 70's and early 80's. we can talk about restoring classic films, we don't need to remake them just because they were made with the equipment of their time. anyway, that trailer looks awful.

 

Frankly, I never understood why some people thought it should qualify for original screenplay in the first place.

 

We just got back from seeing The Color Purple. It was a wonderful and moving musical drama. I have not seen the original film, but this makes me want to check it out. I'd be very happy if this won Best Picture at the Oscars this year.

 

Adapted from toy line, though, that's why it wouldn't cut as original. As much like as videogame and comic book adaptations are rarely adapting the plot or story, it just uses pre-existing characters

 

It adapted the names and characters of the Barbie line, the various Barbies and Kens and Alan and Midge wouldn't exist without them being made by Mattel in the first place.
An original script is just that, not based upon anything. Basing it upon a pre-existing property is an adaptation, like all those Disney ride movies or that Battleship movie or the Emoji movie, or various other toy adaptations. The hypothetical Nisan movie is still an adaptation of the Nisan. Script wouldn't exist without it. "Original screenplay" can't be based upon anything, them's the rules.

 

I guess this is a silly question, but in that same reference, are the Super Mario Brothers Movie, Lego Movie, GI JOE movies, Transformer movies, etc. all "adapted screeenplays" as well?

 

Yes.

 

I'm more or less mostly caught up on Awards Season Movies for 2023. Still need to see Poor Things, The Zone of Interest, and American Fiction. None of these are available to stream or rent via streaming, and I only go to my local AMC for IMAX or Dolby Thursday night showings. I know the Oscar nominees haven't officially been announced or the BAFTA's for that matter, so I'm basing this off of the Golden Globes, which...nobody really takes seriously anymore, I guess. For good reason though.

This season has actually been a bit better compared to 2022. I've liked everything I've seen so far. No movies like Blonde or The Whale, the former I despised, the latter I liked but will never see again. Really, the only movie I want to get nominated but probably won't is Dream Scenario. Nicolas Cage is the best he's been since Adaptation. Maybe it'll get a screenplay nomination, who knows. I'm also really really hoping Saltburn gets some love.

 

You know how Marvel and DC movie credits say "Based on the Marvel/DC comics?" The opening credits for Barbie say "Based on 'Barbie' by Mattel".


Even the movie credits themselves say its an adaptation

 

I showed my wife "Serendipity" which I think is a cute 90 minute rom com where it's not hard to suspend disbelief. She didn't care for it.
Then I thought that I haven't see John Cusack in awhile so I checked IMDb. It appears he did a Prime show in 2020 called Utopia that I've never heard of and then a movie called Pursuit that I also never heard of. Pursuit has a 2.8 IMDb rating - ouch.

What's the last John Cusack movie that you really liked and any idea what his next project is?
For me, 2003's Identity was very good.

 

Love & Mercy is a good movie.

 

I still keep wanting to watch Cell with John Cusack which keeps popping off and on various watch lists I have and that 1408 haunted hotel room movie (may have seen it 15 years ago though but maybe not). Both of which I keep adding and they disappear and then come back again