Harvester on 4/9/2020 at 22:11

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I'm Thinking Of Ending Things, the new movie by Charlie Kaufman.

Well this is interesting, I liked it very much, but it's not for everyone. You experience it more than you understand it, it's not a puzzle you can piece together while watching like Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.

Lots of strange stuff happens and the movie works best if you just go along for the (car) ride. The two lengthy car rides during a blizzard are just the main characters, both fairly intellectual, talking to each other, but these scenes are not boring and relatively few weird things happen (but still more than in most other movies). It reminded me of Eternal Sunshine in the way the couple gets on each others nerves in subtle ways, but neither of them are as extroverted and unhinged as Clementine in Eternal Sunshine, so it doesn't come to them actually fighting with each other. Some topical subjects are discussed, like whether 'Baby it's cold outside' is a rape song or not, you can tell the movie is made in recent times and in the current societal and political climate.

During the visit to the house of Jake's parents (played by Jesse Plemons, who I normally think looks like Matt Damon but here seems to channel Philip Seymour Hoffman), a lot of weird stuff happens. Characters change names, professions, ages, personalities, even the dog is weird. As I said it works best if you just accept it and go with it instead of trying to understand it as it happens. The female lead, Jessie Buckley is very good in it, and I was surprised to see that Plemons got first billing instead of Buckley. The fairly sensitive to feminist issues main characters would have something to say about that, she clearly has the most important role.

There are references to cultural phenomenons like musicals (including a musical number from Oklahoma), a certain well-known movie director and a certain well-known Oscar winning movie (both movie references are not very flattering, you can tell Kaufman does not like sentimental movies that tug on the heartstrings).

During the last half hour the movie got so weird it lost me a little. But all in all I liked it very much.

As an aside, during the second car ride a large passage from a movie review by Pauline Kael is quoted. I once read a lengthy, scathing critique of Kael's movie reviews, I remember it was written by a woman named Renata Adler if you want to look it up. After hearing most of a Kael review and reading a couple of them a few years ago, I could not agree more. I find her writing style pretentious and overblown, she seems to says a lot while saying nothing of value. Just a lot of big words with nothing substantial underneath. Give me a Roger Ebert over Kael any day.

WingedKagouti on 7/9/2020 at 13:55

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I just watched a video on why Earth biology has enzymes, DNA and other molecules put together in a specific way. It's not a topic that really interests me all that much, but I still found the explanations fascinating. It also briefly covers certain chemicals and how they react when put together one way or the other.

[video=youtube;SKhcan8pk2w]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKhcan8pk2w[/video]

Renzatic on 8/9/2020 at 21:14

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That about mirrors my opinion on the series. By itself, The Godfather is a solid movie, but these days, it's better served as a lead-in to the superior in every way sequel.

The less said about III the better. I watched it when I was too young to have developed a sense of snobbery, and I still thought it was terrible.

SubJeff on 9/9/2020 at 23:36

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Dat Dune trailer tho

Sulphur on 10/9/2020 at 05:50

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That looks like a casualty of the trailer's editing. Nothing I've seen of Villeneuve's work cries J. J. Abrams. I'm more bemused by the Pink Floyd, but Eclipse was always a good closer to Dark Side of the Moon, so eh.

After Arrival and BR 2049, both of which had their flaws but were sound efforts, it was pretty clear Villeneuve could do this justice. Looks promising!