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Kaylee ,'Shindig'
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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.
I wish I'd managed to see Victoria and Abdul in the week it was playing in the local theater
I wouldn't bother. I usually love Stephen Frears but found this subpar and to be frank, offensive. It struck me as pap colonialist apologia and despite the title, Abdul's character remains a cipher and is mostly there to prop up Victoria's late-life crisis. Judy Dench is predictably excellent in it and the movie is pretty to look at, but it left a bad taste in my mouth. One of the few real disappointments among the films I saw in TIFF.
My top 10 films of the year would go something like this (in no particular order):
Get Out
Logan
Lady Bird
Dunkirk
The Florida Project
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
The Shape of Water
Mudbound
A Fantastic Woman
Lady MacBeth
The Lost City of Z
Wonder Woman
Wait, that's more than 10. Ehh, whatev. The ones I haven't yet seen and am super keen on checking out: Call Me By Your Name (does it have a release date??) and The Square. I tried to get tickets to them for TIFF but couldn't make it work.
I'm a bit afraid to check out Killing of the Sacred Deer. I had mixed feelings about The Lobster (I thought the first half was brilliant and the second half didn't work for me at all) and from what I hear, this new one might vibrate entirely outside my preferred frequency.
Call Me By Your Name is definitely on my must-see list. Did you see the controversy last week about Sony trying to market the film in the UK as a romance between Timothée Chalamet's character and his female bestie? That went over about as well as the Hindenburg.
Did you see the controversy last week about Sony trying to market the film in the UK as a romance between Timothée Chalamet's character and his female bestie?
That was fucking hilarious. The internets helpfully reminded me that they tried to do something similar with Brokeback Mountain as well.
Someone on twitter linked to this recent Armie Hammer profile on Vulture where he talks about the emotional experience of filming Call Me By Your Name and... I think I might now like Armie Hammer? *scratches head* Previously, I thought he was just an uncommonly tall dude with a symmetric face and was charismatic as a block of wood. I did like him quite a bit in The Man from UNCLE remake, I'll grant you.
Ditto here, I'm even willing to put up with Michael Shannon's constant pop-eyed yelling for it. (People keep telling me he's a good actor, and I keep failing to see any evidence of it.)
I'm pretty sure this movie won't convince you. I don't mind him myself, but he is responsible for most of the brutal moments that I could have done without.
Vonnie, Get Out will definitely make my Top Ten as well. (Note: My list above was just what I've seen since the end of September). I anticipate that once I've seen The Florida Project and Lady Bird, Dunkirk will definitively be knocked off for the year.
My Top Twenty through October is here.
I've liked Hammer since I saw him on Reaper years ago. Sounds like going for artistically fulfilling indies rather than trying to be a mainstream leading man might be the better career path for him.
My list above was just what I've seen since the end of September
Aha! Somehow I totally missed that part. Thanks for linking to your older film reviews, Megan. I'm mulling over you said re. Lady MacBeth in particular. You're right in how the film implicates the viewer over the course of the movie. (Very vague spoilery reaction under white font): What comes later in the film feels almost like a personal betrayal. But it's also the thing I admire the most about the film -- how uncompromising it is. How it turns us from sympathetic to horrified on a dime. You are with Katherine until you can't be, but then it's too late to get off. I thought the incredible formal austerity of the film was a such a great complement to its spiritual pitilessness. Certainly one of the most memorable film-going experience I had this year.
I'm still mulling over what I think of Blade Runner 2049. Ultimately, I don't think the film held together as a whole for me, but it had some of the most indelible scenes/images I've seen this year for sure. I need to rewatch it, but goddammit the thing is so fucking long and I have so many other things to watch.
Lady Bird is SO GREAT y'all. I think it's opening semi-widely this week, and I cannot recommend it highly enough. Saoirse Ronan is incredible, but so is every single supporting character around her. It will make you happy and sad and nostalgic and full of emotions and also make you want to call your mother immediately.
I was not a fan of Blade Runner 2029, but I probably wasn't the right audience for it to begin with.
Ditto here, I'm even willing to put up with Michael Shannon's constant pop-eyed yelling for it. (People keep telling me he's a good actor, and I keep failing to see any evidence of it.)
I personally love Michael Shannon but cannot deny the truth behind the description of "constant pop-eyed yelling" (hahaha PERFECT). I mean, the dude just seems perpetually angry. Interestingly, my favourite Shannon performances are the few in which he is more restrained although no less intense. He was by far the best thing about Nocturnal Animals, a film I despised for its ugly misogynistic streak not-so-hidden inside its glossy meta narrative wrapping, but Shannon manages to be complicated and genuine in the film despite everything else. I also loved him a lot in Jeff Nichol's Midnight Special as a quietly devoted father willing to do anything for his young son, who is being hunted by the government for (spoiler-y) reasons. I don't think he yelled even a single time in that movie, even though the circumstances more than called for it.
One of the films I saw in Toronto was The Current War, which Harvey Weinstein was working on when the sexual abuse story broke. Because of that, I don't even know if the movie will even see the light of the day. The film is a lavish if stodgy biopic and nothing special, but Michael Shannon is cast against type in it as a George Westinghouse, portrayed as a thoroughly decent and unassuming man in contrast to Benedict Cumberbatch's flashy Thomas Edison (Cumberbatch is basically playing Edison as Sherlock, so all in all, pretty boring). I really liked Shannon in it, especially his relationship with his wife, portrayed with wit and style by Katherine Waterstone (displaying A LOT more charisma than was evident in her anemic turn in Fantastic Beasts).
Oh, and if you have never seen Michael Shannon channel a bitchy sorority sister, you are in for a treat: [link]
I wouldn't bother. I usually love Stephen Frears but found this subpar and to be frank, offensive. It struck me as pap colonialist apologia and despite the title, Abdul's character remains a cipher and is mostly there to prop up Victoria's late-life crisis. Judy Dench is predictably excellent in it and the movie is pretty to look at, but it left a bad taste in my mouth. One of the few real disappointments among the films I saw in TIFF.
It was such a terrible movie and then when I found out Frears directed it, I was really angry, because it was so terrible and offensive and he's usually so nuanced and wonderful.