I thought I'd had enough of Three Billboards discourse, mainly because twitter with its back-and-forth sniping is a terrible platform for anything nuanced. But I really liked this measured response penned by Alissa Wilkinson at Vox: [link]

On unrelated news, I did end up seeing Molly's Game last weekend, and uh, that script was the Sorkinest Sorkin ever Sorkined. I thought Jessica Chastain was great (I mean, when isn't she), especially in handling Sorkin's dense dialog and voice-overs. Oh my God, so much voice-overs, y'all. The opening scene is legit great. But I feel like the film loses the way a bit near the end (it is also very long, longer than this type of film should be). There is a scene near the end between Molly and (spoiler), which I have heard praised by some critics on reviews and podcasts, that made me roll my eyes so hard I was almost blinded. Boy, talk about a way to be super-reductive of the protagonist's journey (this also felt very Sorkin.)

That said, the film is snappy and poppy and really quite fun for the most parts. Idris Elba, who plays her lawyer, has nice chemistry with Chastain, and I was like, "well, I wouldn't mind if they did."

This weekend: Phantom Thread or I, Tonya? Possibly both! I also kinda wanna rewatch Lady Bird and The Shape of Water, both of which I'd seen in Toronto 3 months back...

I just saw Phantom Thread, and.... I guess? It sure was beautiful to look at.

I saw The Post today. Good. I am interested if Kat Graham was seen as a pivotal inspiring woman at the time or if Spielberg played that up in the young girls staring at her in awe as she went in to men only spaces shots.

It felt like nothing covered in the film was covered deeply enough, if that makes sense.

It felt like nothing covered in the film was covered deeply enough, if that makes sense.

Yeah, I saw it last night, and felt it was oddly slight. Might be worth re-watching All the President's Men as a more substantive follow-up.

I saw Call Me by Your Name this afternoon. Quite good, but I have to agree with Vonnie that it didn't quite live up to expectations/hype. The narrative treated the relationship as something more profound than the performances delivered, with the possible exception of Michael Stuhlbarg's fatherly speech at the end. (Which is the only aspect of the film I'd consider Oscar-worthy.) And I came away thoroughly unimpressed by most of the cinematography—I don't know how one goes on location to film in Italy in the summer and manages to avoid conveying the beauty of the architecture and countryside, but Sayombhu Mukdeeprom did for most of the movie.

I just saw Phantom Thread, and.... I guess? It sure was beautiful to look at.

I just saw this and goodness, I loved it a lot. It's an exquisite jewel box of a movie containing multitudes of surprises. I've heard it being compared to early Hitchcock, especially Rebecca, which seems right on the money. It even has its own Mrs. Danvers! Except I found the two women in Phantom Thread a lot more complex and interesting.

The other movie that came to my mind after watching this was the Maggie Gyllenhaal/James Spader BDSM romance, Secretary. I wouldn't say the movie was overtly kinky, but it skirts around the edges and is explicitly about shifting power dynamics among its characters. It's twisted as fuck and also surprisingly funny.

Oh, wow: Sorry to Bother You is a bananas satirical comedy about code-switching and exploitative capitalism

Sorry to Bother You consciously borrows on the fantastical style of Michel Gondry to become something all its own. It would be pointless to describe the rest of the plot, because a lot of the joy of the film comes from the element of surprise. Sorry to Bother You deliberately runs off its rails and then out of the railyard entirely.

Sorry to Bother You premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and is awaiting distribution.

Watched Icarus on Netflix on Saturday and then Coco at the theater Sunday. Both very good.

My thoughts on the Oscar noms: [link]

tl;dr Really happy for Gerwig and all the other women nominated in categories that often don't have them, bummed that The Florida Project didn't get more love, and mostly happy I don't have to sit through a lot of crapage for my traditional Oscar blitz.

Reactions on Twitter have been fairly predictable, with the most surprising actually being a local critic I know wondering if Spielberg is now the most under-appreciated of our Great American Directors. I mean, come on!

Hey, I've seen every single Best Picture nominated film! All Hail TIFF, etc. I'm overall reasonably happy with the noms - lots of different films being acknowledged in varying categories and some unexpected pleasures (Leslie Manville for Phantom Thread, yay!) I, too, would have liked more love for The Florida Project. I feel like The Darkest Hour was perfectly solid but not exceptional? I mean, Gary Oldman would probably win Best Actor and I'd be OK with that, but his performance is the only remarkable thing about it.

(The Best Actor category must be pretty weak because while I have not seen it, I heard Roman J Israel Esq was... not a good film.)

I am REALLY happy that both Gerwig and Jordan Peel got Best Director noms. Would have liked to have seen Sean Baker there, but I'm flush in the Phantom Thread spell right now so can't be too sore about PT Anderson being up there.

The ones I'm really rooting for to win: Willem Dafoe for Best Supoorting Actor, Roger Deakins for cinematography for Blade Runner 2049 (whatever my issue with the movie, it was the most singularly visually stunning movie of 2017), and Jonny Greenwood for Phantom Thread score.