What MOVIE(s) have you been....seeing? watching?

I hate it when they append weird little commands to JPGs.

I took the family to see Coco today.

First there was Olaf’s Frozen Adventure which marked a welcome return to Arendelle 4 years (for us) on. It’s interesting to see kids’ reaction as some have moved on drastically - 4 years is a long time for them. This short (20ish minutes) was much better than Frozen Fever from a couple years back, much more original, with many songs, and runs through a whole gamut of emotions. Very funny, I laughed out loud quite a bit.

Coco was marvelous, very colorful, and for once the Disney-Pixar ‘musicals’ made sense as music is an integral part of this film. Songs in the movie are real songs sung by the cast for an integrated reason rather than fun interludes by characters randomly bursting into song to explain the plot. There were wild swings of fortune and, even if you can guess at the denouement (my gf did), it still works great. I cried.

I cried too. Some old woman behind me was balling

The Olaf thing felt REALLY thin. I was so bored and it was soooooo long

CoCo was incredible though. Both visually and audibly amazing. Loved the music. Loved how smart Pixar is. Like he’s giving the backstory context to his family for us, the audience, to catch up and the camera zooms out and he’s shining some dudes shoes who has heard enough, “ALRIGHT! I didn’t ask for your life story!!” Genius

I need to write up some reviews for CoCo and Blade Runner badly

I loved Coco, but that Frozen opener was a big disappointment... I look forward to those Pixar shorts!

They ran Goodfellas at a local cinema and I went to watch it.

It's my second time watching this film and I like it even more now than I first did back then. It's a great film: Great plot, great characters, great cinematrography, great topic. It's the kind of film you can talk a lot about, there are tons of small details and tibits and analysis of mob culture that grow more and more interesting the more you think about them. Some quick thoughts:

1) The parental abuse at the beginning of the film is actually very important. Many of the actual gangster depicted in the film suffered abuse and went on to be abusers themselves. The kind of philosophy they have and how they behave is patterned after abuse. Note that the main character is unfazed by the violence of his father and unfazed by the violence of the mafia afteerwards.

2) The mobsters are never rich, they always remain poor people with money no matter how much they earn. They could have retired, had a good life, invested well or managed risk but never did. They are poor people having windfalls and wasting them trying to earn things that money can't buy: Respect, happyness, friendship. Look at this from a social point of view: Just like the people who gamble are the least likely to be able to handle a windfall, criminals with cash are the least likely to keep it.

3) The mob offers people a simulacrum of what they actually want. They get wives, but no love. They get money, but keep working. They have friends, but none will stand by them. They are respected, until they are "whacked". It's again a "poor people with money" view on life extended beyond the economic realm. They could be content with a better frame of mind, but as long a they strive for a poorly defined "status" or "class" or "being someone" they won't ever get them.

Consider Tommy. All he wants is respect, but he'll never have respect because it's completely undeserved. No matter how many people he kills or who he treatens, he'll always be a joke.

4) This is one of the few mob movies with a significant female presence.

5) The racial angle is covered as well. It's not very overt, but it's mentioned fairly often. Notably the first time black people are mentioned are in the old "blaming imaginary black people for a crime" and then they start showing up both in general society (entertainers, the doctor) and the mafia itself.

6) The gentleman-like,f riendly side of the Mafia is its own personal undoing. Tommy is killed because he saw it was a culture instead of a pure bussiness. Jimmy killed almost everyone involved in the Lufthansa robbery because he saw business and personal gains, not friends or culture. Either way, it's at odds with itself.

7) The drug business killing the italo-american mafia from the inside seems like a strong hypothesis. Would love to read more about that.

8) Everyone in this movie has many, many chances to improve things for themselves. They are repeately warned about the risks or what they shouldn't do and their demise only comes after ignoring dozens of warnings. Drugs are the most clear example , but Tommy's temper and lack of control, Jimmy's cold-heartedness and Karen's lack of care for morality are also big themes. They all pay for it. See also: Stack's murder, using telephones, being tailgated, relying on people like a wig seller and a babysitter, taking bad decisions under drugs.

I was watching the original Assault on Precinct 13 and I think that it is John Carpenter's best film. Everything else that is good I feel I have to make excuses for because it is flawed in some way (too gory, bad acting, etc). Not so with Assault on Precinct 13, as it is so clean and tight. My wife has often said that John Carpenter should provide the first draft of scripts and then told to walk away as he comes up with great ideas and a few amazing scenes but his films are so often poorly executed.

Ouf... just got out if Florida Project, I feel like a different person. I don’t remember a movie doing that to me in a long time. What an ending.

Anyone see this??

I don’t even know how to write or talk about it. I didn’t realize the movie had its hooks in me until the very end

I eventually want to watch Florida Project, but only after I forget the spoiled ending. It sounds amazing.

the ending got spoiled for you? That sucks.

It's still worth the trip though, it's not so much the content of the ending that is the hitter, but how it is delivered. I've never seen anything like that. Never.

It's Christmas Season so I sat down and watched The Witch

A horror movie about a family banished from Plymouth Plantation in the 1650s for the father's refusal to abide by the town elders version of puritanical Christianity. Not that he isn't a zealot in his own right. The family moves into the Massachusetts wilderness and lives on a small farm in isolation outside of infrequent Indian visitors. When creepy and horrible things begin to happen.

It's slow moving and bleak as all get out but it's pretty unsettling. I found the dialog a bit difficult to follow but whether that is from a bit of muttering mixed with ersatz olde English or just me going deaf is uncertain. The visuals were bleak but conveyed that dismal New England countryside that reigns from the moment the fall foliage disappears until spring returns. So from November to April.

The ending was satisfying and scary.

Agreed, THE VVITCH rocks. I grew up in rural Massachu and they could have filmed this shit down the road from my house. My 8xGreat-grandfather George was "gaoled" and "severely whipt" by the Massachusetts Bay Colony back in 1650 for selling muskets and "strong Water" to the Nashaways.

VVItch spoilers...


Once again I have to recommend that VVitch fans seek out a very obscure 1983 horror picture called Eyes of Fire, possibly one of the most underrated and under seen film in the genre. The tone is similar to The VVitch, and it shares the same early America setting. It's probably a little more accessible and definitely weirder. There is a tree-witch that eats children.

I watched The VVitch again this past Hallow's Eve. Definitely a classic.

Yeah, that is such a great exchange...that one line ...it's so well-placed after the other more mundane things, suddenly this utterly Satanic, sensual thing...

Michael Barnes wrote: Lots of watching over the holiday...

Thor: Ragnarok was awesome. I totally freaking loved it, and in a way that I really don't think I have ever loved a Marvel movie- even the better ones. Taika Waititi turned out to be the perfect choice to direct it, and his comic sense really shines through the whole thing. I think you could make the argument that its genre is more comedy than sci-fi or action or whatever, if you're splitting hairs. I laughed through the entire film. I mean COME ON, he's going to meet the Grandmaster (fucking GREAT!) and in the light tunnel or whatever it plays Willy Wonka's song. The interaction with Thor and Loki were WAY better than before, and I loved that you could kind of tell that both actors were relieved that they didn't have to act like this stuff was super serious melodrama. I also think Loki was written way better than ever before. I loved all of the skulls, flaming skulls, aliens, laser guns, dragons space ships...it was like pure 1980s nerd fantasy stuff exploding constantly, like arcade cabinet artwork rendered in live action. Hulk was good, loved all the goofy fan stuff with him, but Hulk v. Fenris on Bifrost...wow, never thought I'd see that. .

Finally someone else who is fed up with the pointless euro gamification of superhero moves into having to be "dark, gritty and serious" (but almost without exception embarrassingly failing anyway) and can enjoy what superhero movies should be more often. (also stop with the mature violence, and make more of them more reasonable to watch with your 6 year old who just wants to see Iron Man fly around and do shit, having to worry about actual guns and violent explicit deaths can be saved as a "treat" for when they they are older).

In fact, here is my easy filter for directors of superhero movies

-> will this be fun and suitable for a 6 year old? No? Back to the drawing board

(I get it, the money draw is coming from sad middle aged men living out their basement nerd fantasies, so it will never happen, but still.)