A very touching blog entry by Ebert.
It's my estimation that... every man ever got a statue made of him, was one kind of sumbitch or another.
Mal ,'Jaynestown'
Buffista Movies 7: Brides for 7 Samurai
A place to talk about movies--old and new, good and bad, high art and high cheese. It's the place to place your kittens on the award winners, gossip about upcoming fims and discuss DVD releases and extras. Spoiler policy: White font all plot-related discussion until a movie's been in wide release two weeks, and keep the major HSQ in white font until two weeks after the video/DVD release.
§ ita § - Feb 20, 2009 8:06:21 pm PST #85 of 30000
Well not canonically, no, but this is transformative fiction.
Polter-Cow - Feb 21, 2009 8:37:23 pm PST #86 of 30000
What else besides ramen can you scoop? YOU CAN SCOOP THIS WORLD FROM DARKNESS!
I just got back from Push. Both the artistic style and the fact that it was set in Hong Kong made it more interesting than your typical sci-fi dudes-with-powers flick. Although the director doesn't appear to be able to film fight scenes for shit; I could barely tell what was going on half the time. But it was very cool, and there were a few neat tricks. This is a very well-trodden field, so it's hard to be original. Dakota Fanning was very amusing.
megan walker - Feb 23, 2009 8:02:16 am PST #87 of 30000
"What kind of magical sunshine and lollipop world do you live in? Because you need to be medicated."-SFist
Post-Oscar blitz, here is the order in which I would recommend the 15 nominated films I saw this year.
Frozen River
Slumdog Millionaire
The Visitor
WALL-E
Man on Wire
(not an amazing documentary, but an amazing story)
Changeling
The Reader
Milk
Frost/Nixon
The Wrestler
(if you don't mind gore)
Tropic Thunder
(for Downey's performance only, which is brilliant)
The Dark Knight
(for Ledger's performance only)
Wanted
(if you can get over the ridiculous premise)
Vicky Christina Barcelona
(if you can get over the ridiculous premise)
Iron Man
The Duchess
Polter-Cow - Feb 23, 2009 8:33:45 am PST #88 of 30000
What else besides ramen can you scoop? YOU CAN SCOOP THIS WORLD FROM DARKNESS!
Tropic Thunder (for Downey's performance only, which is brilliant)
The Dark Knight (for Ledger's performance only)
Really? I thought both those movies had more to offer than those performances, great as they were.
What is Frozen River even about? I'd never heard of it until the nominations.
megan walker - Feb 23, 2009 8:39:34 am PST #89 of 30000
"What kind of magical sunshine and lollipop world do you live in? Because you need to be medicated."-SFist
I was really disappointed by The Dark Knight, mostly because it could have been so much better than it was.
Frozen River is about a women raising two kids in a trailer home on the border of both the Mohawk nation and Canada, who gets involved in smuggling people across the border. It is both really touching and very suspenseful. The performances are incredible--Melissa Leo, but also the woman who plays Lila, and especially her older son.
Hayden - Feb 23, 2009 9:15:05 am PST #90 of 30000
aka "The artist formerly known as Corwood Industries."
Encounters At The End of the World is also a wonderful movie. Although I'm happy that Man On Wire won, I'd be even happier if Herzog had gotten the award.
Frankenbuddha - Feb 23, 2009 9:52:58 am PST #91 of 30000
"We are the Goon Squad and we're coming to town...Beep! Beep!" - David Bowie, "Fashion"
Although I'm happy that Man On Wire won, I'd be even happier if Herzog had gotten the award.
I'd have loved to see his acceptance speech, that's for sure.
Volans - Feb 23, 2009 11:10:27 am PST #92 of 30000
move out and draw fire
Hey, I just saw last year's winner this weekend. I am appalled that Tommy Lee Jones didn't get anything for his performance in No Country for Old Men, but he's more of a blue-collar actor than Daniel Day Lewis, I guess.
NC4OM mostly made me the opposite of homesick. They absolutely nailed the environment I grew up in, and it made me really happy to be a fat soft middle-class suburbanite now.
dcp - Feb 23, 2009 11:28:49 am PST #93 of 30000
The more I learn, the more I realize how little I know.
Raq, have you seen The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada? Also very good.
Volans - Feb 23, 2009 5:30:50 pm PST #94 of 30000
move out and draw fire
Thanks for the rec! Just added to my q.
R and I are doing the modern-day equivalent of couples' therapy: We are simultaneously going thru Netflix rating movies, each on our own account.
"Ooo! Five stars!"
"No way. I'm not even going to RATE that thing."
"Huh. This one was okay."
"Yeah. Another three star."
"Oh god I hated that piece of crap."
"Really? I gave it four."