Day 7 of TIFF. Sitting in the theater waiting fory next flick to start - The Kingmaker, an Imelda Marcos documentary.
Parasite remains my fave film of the festival, but I have seen some fantastic movies since. I know ScarJo is canceled and all, but she is excellent in Noah Baumbach's Marriage Story, which is a movie about divorce that manages to be both funny and absolutely heartbreaking. Adam Driver is her counterpart and he is even better. Musical theater folks would get a kick out of the scene where
Driver's character sings Sondheim and aquits himself very well indeed.
I can see the movie netting multiple acting Oscar noms, original screenplay and possibly even best director and picture. I am putting my kittens on it nabbing the People's Choice Award, which is a good barometer for the Oscar season.
Other picks from the festival:
Dolemite Is My Name: Eddie Murphy plays the title character, who is sort of the father of blaxploitation. A really fun underdog triumph story. Murphy is splendid in it.
La Belle Epoque: a witty, fast-paced and original French farce with Daniel Auteuil and Fanny Ardant.
Uncut Gems: has Adam Sandler as a NYC jeweler with a dangerous gambling addiction, whose myriad troubles all catch up with him at the same time and start snowballing. It starts at level 11 intensity and never lets up. For the first 20 mins, I found it almost too much, but once you settle into the frantic rhythm of the film, it becomes an exhilarating ride. Sandler is shockingly good in it. It's directed by Safdie Brothers, whose last film, Good Time, is streaming on Amazon Prime. I saw that just a few weeks ago, and this movie is like Good Time after 12 lines of coke. It stressed me the fuck out but I ended up loving it all the same.
Okay, the movie is starting so more later!
I have been out of the loop what is the latest thing ScarJo did?
Vigorously defended Woody Allen.
Wasn't she barely an adult and working for him on Scoop when she talked about much older men having the requisite experience and taste to be right for her?
Parasite remains my fave film of the festival
Yay, I just got tickets for this at the Mill Valley Film Festival!
(One of the programmers follows me on Twitter and asked me if I was interested in being a volunteer screener for them. None of the many shorts I watched and rated got picked--they had over 2000 entries--but it turns out you get a bunch of vouchers for tickets to the festival for your trouble.)
I know ScarJo is canceled and all, but she is excellent in Noah Baumbach's Marriage Story, which is a movie about divorce that manages to be both funny and absolutely heartbreaking. Adam Driver is her counterpart and he is even better. Musical theater folks would get a kick out of the scene where Driver's character sings Sondheim and aquits himself very well indeed. I can see the movie netting multiple acting Oscar noms, original screenplay and possibly even best director and picture. I am putting my kittens on it nabbing the People's Choice Award, which is a good barometer for the Oscar season.
This is showing at MVFF but it is a "spotlight" film and my vouchers didn't work for it. :-(
Dolemite Is My Name: Eddie Murphy plays the title character, who is sort of the father of blaxploitation. A really fun underdog triumph story. Murphy is splendid in it.
So I was actually thinking of seeing this, or
La Verité,
the new film by the Japanese director who did
Shoplifters.
It stars Catherine Deneuve, Juliette Binoche, and Ethan Hawke.
In other movie news, I saw both
Hustlers
and
Ad Astra
this week.
Hustlers
was very fun and well directed.
Ad Astra
was very pretty to look at but very much a slog, with far too much voiceover.
I can see the movie netting multiple acting Oscar noms...
Only if Netflix decide to release it in cinemas, which I'm not sure they have any plans to do at this point.
Only if Netflix decide to release it in cinemas, which I'm not sure they have any plans to do at this point.
I can't imagine they won't give the latest Baumbach a least a limited release. And I'm pretty sure they would at least make sure to screen it in L.A. to qualify. Isn't that why they are trying to buy the Egyptian?
I feel obligated to see Ad Astra because my frenemy from middle school is in it and we recently reconnected. It's going to be World War Z in Space, isn't it? All about Brad Pitt's character's personal manpain, with the threat to humanity's survival as a secondary backdrop?
I'm still salty about World War Z and want someone to make the movie that book deserves: a Ken Burns-style mockumentary.
