Films II : The Filminator

[radiofloyd]

Watched the new Slam Dunk movie in the cinema yesterday, The First Slam Dunk.

 

I had mixed feelings watching it. For a while, I thought it was crap. The movie kept abruptly switching back and forth between the present and the past. Also, the movie is quite serious and they injected some “emotional” scenes into it which were not in the manga at all. In fact, I don’t remember the manga ever straying outside the genre of comedy, when it wasn’t non-stop basketball. I don’t think this abrupt shift in tone from the manga helped the movie.

 

But, the movie does pick up. The second half is better. The final moments of the basketball match are exciting. If I had to score it I’d give it a 6 I guess.

[DisturbedSwan]

Oscar Nominations 2023

 

Best Picture

• “All Quiet on the Western Front,” Malte Grunert, Producer
• “Avatar: The Way of Water,” James Cameron and Jon Landau, Producers
• “The Banshees of Inisherin,” Graham Broadbent, Pete Czernin and Martin McDonagh, Producers
• “Elvis,” Baz Luhrmann, Catherine Martin, Gail Berman, Patrick McCormick and Schuyler Weiss, Producers
• “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” Daniel Kwan, Daniel Scheinert and Jonathan Wang, Producers
• “The Fabelmans,” Kristie Macosko Krieger, Steven Spielberg and Tony Kushner, Producers
• “Tár,” Todd Field, Alexandra Milchan and Scott Lambert, Producers
• “Top Gun: Maverick,” Tom Cruise, Christopher McQuarrie, David Ellison and Jerry Bruckheimer, Producers
• “Triangle of Sadness,” Erik Hemmendorff and Philippe Bober, Producers
• “Women Talking,” Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner and Frances McDormand, Producers

Best Director 

• Martin McDonagh (“The Banshees of Inisherin”) 
• Daniel Kwan, Daniel Scheinert (“Everything Everywhere All at Once”) 
• Steven Spielberg (“The Fabelmans”) 
• Todd Field (“Tár”) 
• Ruben Östlund (“Triangle of Sadness”)

Best Lead Actor

• Austin Butler (“Elvis”) 
• Colin Farrell (“The Banshees of Inisherin”) 
• Brendan Fraser (“The Whale”) 
• Paul Mescal (“Aftersun”) 
• Bill Nighy (“Living”) 

Best Lead Actress

• Cate Blanchett (“Tár”) 
• Ana de Armas (“Blonde”) 
• Andrea Riseborough (“To Leslie”)
• Michelle Williams (“The Fabelmans”) 
• Michelle Yeoh (“Everything Everywhere All at Once”)

Best Supporting Actor

• Brendan Gleeson (“The Banshees of Inisherin”) 
• Brian Tyree Henry (“Causeway”) 
• Judd Hirsch (“The Fabelmans”)
• Barry Keoghan (“The Banshees of Inisherin”) 
• Ke Huy Quan (“Everything Everywhere All at Once”) 

Best Supporting Actress

• Angela Bassett (“Black Panther: Wakanda Forever”) 
• Hong Chau (“The Whale”) 
• Kerry Condon (“The Banshees of Inisherin”) 
• Jamie Lee Curtis (“Everything Everywhere All at Once”) 
• Stephanie Hsu (“Everything Everywhere All at Once”)

Best Adapted Screenplay

• “All Quiet on the Western Front,” Screenplay by Edward Berger, Lesley Paterson & Ian Stokell
• “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery,” Written by Rian Johnson
• “Living,” Written by Kazuo Ishiguro
• “Top Gun: Maverick,” Screenplay by Ehren Kruger and Eric Warren Singer and Christopher McQuarrie; Story by Peter Craig and Justin Marks
• “Women Talking,” Screenplay by Sarah Polley

Best Original Screenplay

• “The Banshees of Inisherin,” Written by Martin McDonagh
• “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” Written by Daniel Kwan & Daniel Scheinert
• “The Fabelmans,” Written by Steven Spielberg & Tony Kushner
• “Tár,” Written by Todd Field
• “Triangle of Sadness,” Written by Ruben Östlund

Best Cinematography 

• “All Quiet on the Western Front”, James Friend
• “Bardo, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths,” Darius Khondji
• “Elvis,” Mandy Walker
• “Empire of Light,” Roger Deakins
• “Tár,” Florian Hoffmeister

Best Documentary Feature Film 

• “All That Breathes,” Shaunak Sen, Aman Mann and Teddy Leifer
• “All the Beauty and the Bloodshed,” Laura Poitras, Howard Gertler, John Lyons, Nan Goldin and Yoni Golijov
• “Fire of Love,” Sara Dosa, Shane Boris and Ina Fichman
• “A House Made of Splinters,” Simon Lereng Wilmont and Monica Hellström
• “Navalny,” Daniel Roher, Odessa Rae, Diane Becker, Melanie Miller and Shane Boris

Best Documentary Short Film 

• “The Elephant Whisperers,” Kartiki Gonsalves and Guneet Monga
• “Haulout,” Evgenia Arbugaeva and Maxim Arbugaev
• “How Do You Measure a Year?” Jay Rosenblatt
• “The Martha Mitchell Effect,” Anne Alvergue and Beth Levison
• “Stranger at the Gate,” Joshua Seftel and Conall Jones

Best Film Editing

• “The Banshees of Inisherin,” Mikkel E.G. Nielsen
• “Elvis,” Matt Villa and Jonathan Redmond
• “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” Paul Rogers
• “Tár,” Monika Willi
• “Top Gun: Maverick,” Eddie Hamilton

Best International Feature Film 

• “All Quiet on the Western Front” (Germany) 
• “Argentina, 1985” (Argentina) 
• “Close” (Belgium)
• “EO” (Poland) 
• “The Quiet Girl” (Ireland) 

Best Original Song 

• “Applause” from “Tell It Like a Woman,” Music and Lyric by Diane Warren
• “Hold My Hand” from “Top Gun: Maverick,” Music and Lyric by Lady Gaga and BloodPop
• “Lift Me Up” from “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever,” Music by Tems, Rihanna, Ryan Coogler and Ludwig Goransson; Lyric by Tems and Ryan Coogler
• “Naatu Naatu” from “RRR,” Music by M.M. Keeravaani; Lyric by Chandrabose  
• “This Is a Life” from “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” Music by Ryan Lott, David Byrne and Mitski; Lyric by Ryan Lott and David Byrne 

Best Production Design 

• “All Quiet on the Western Front,” Production Design: Christian M. Goldbeck; Set Decoration: Ernestine Hipper
• “Avatar: The Way of Water,” Production Design: Dylan Cole and Ben Procter; Set Decoration: Vanessa Cole
• “Babylon,” Production Design: Florencia Martin; Set Decoration: Anthony Carlino
• “Elvis,” Production Design: Catherine Martin and Karen Murphy; Set Decoration: Bev Dunn
• “The Fabelmans,” Production Design: Rick Carter; Set Decoration: Karen O’Hara

Best Visual Effects

• “All Quiet on the Western Front,” Frank Petzold, Viktor Müller, Markus Frank and Kamil Jafar
• “Avatar: The Way of Water,” Joe Letteri, Richard Baneham, Eric Saindon and Daniel Barrett
• “The Batman,” Dan Lemmon, Russell Earl, Anders Langlands and Dominic Tuohy
• “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever,” Geoffrey Baumann, Craig Hammack, R. Christopher White and Dan Sudick
• “Top Gun: Maverick,” Ryan Tudhope, Seth Hill, Bryan Litson and Scott R. Fisher

Best Animated Feature Film 

• “Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio,” Guillermo del Toro, Mark Gustafson, Gary Ungar and Alex Bulkley
• “Marcel the Shell With Shoes On,” Dean Fleischer Camp, Elisabeth Holm, Andrew Goldman, Caroline Kaplan and Paul Mezey
• “Puss in Boots: The Last Wish,” Joel Crawford and Mark Swift
• “The Sea Beast,” Chris Williams and Jed Schlanger
• “Turning Red,” Domee Shi and Lindsey Collins

Best Animated Short Film

• “The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse,” Charlie Mackesy and Matthew Freud
• “The Flying Sailor,” Amanda Forbis and Wendy Tilby
• “Ice Merchants,” João Gonzalez and Bruno Caetano
• “My Year of Dicks,” Sara Gunnarsdóttir and Pamela Ribon
• “An Ostrich Told Me the World Is Fake and I Think I Believe It,” Lachlan Pendragon

Best Costume Design 

• “Babylon,” Mary Zophres
• “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever,” Ruth Carter
• “Elvis,” Catherine Martin
• “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” Shirley Kurata
• “Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris,” Jenny Beavan

Best Live Action Short

• “An Irish Goodbye,” Tom Berkeley and Ross White
• “Ivalu,” Anders Walter and Rebecca Pruzan
• “Le Pupille,” Alice Rohrwacher and Alfonso Cuarón
• “Night Ride,” Eirik Tveiten and Gaute Lid Larssen
• “The Red Suitcase,” Cyrus Neshvad

Best Makeup and Hairstyling 

• “All Quiet on the Western Front,” Heike Merker and Linda Eisenhamerová
• “The Batman,” Naomi Donne, Mike Marino and Mike Fontaine
• “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever,” Camille Friend and Joel Harlow
• “Elvis,” Mark Coulier, Jason Baird and Aldo Signoretti
• “The Whale,” Adrien Morot, Judy Chin and Anne Marie Bradley

Best Original Score 

• “All Quiet on the Western Front,” Volker Bertelmann
• “Babylon,” Justin Hurwitz
• “The Banshees of Inisherin,” Carter Burwell
• “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” Son Lux
• “The Fabelmans,” John Williams

Best Sound

• “All Quiet on the Western Front,” Viktor Prášil, Frank Kruse, Markus Stemler, Lars Ginzel and Stefan Korte
• “Avatar: The Way of Water,” Julian Howarth, Gwendolyn Yates Whittle, Dick Bernstein, Christopher Boyes, Gary Summers and Michael Hedges
• “The Batman,” Stuart Wilson, William Files, Douglas Murray and Andy Nelson
• “Elvis,” David Lee, Wayne Pashley, Andy Nelson and Michael Keller
• “Top Gun: Maverick,” Mark Weingarten, James H. Mather, Al Nelson, Chris Burdon and Mark Taylor

[shinymcshine]

Everything Everywhere All at Once

 

Saw this the other day, and now it's got a bunch of Oscar nominations too.

 

I thought it was okay, albeit felt like a weird mash up between a Dr Strange movie meets Saints Row....

[DANGERMAN]

I want to watch Tar and Triangle of Sadness at some point 

[OCH]

Same. I did like the look of Tár when I saw a trailer recently.

 

In contrast to Blakey though (because you can't take life too seriously):

 

43rd Annual Golden Raspberry (Razzie®) Nominations

WORST PICTURE

•         Blonde              
•         Disney’s Pinocchio
•         Good Mourning     
•         The King’s Daughter
•         Morbius 

WORST ACTOR 

• Colson Baker (aka Machine Gun Kelly) Good Mourning
• Pete Davidson (Voice Only) Marmaduke
• Tom Hanks (As Gepetto) Disney’s Pinocchio
• Jared Leto / Morbius 
• Sylvester Stallone / Samaritan

WORST ACTRESS 

• Ryan Kiera Armstrong / Firestarter
• Bryce Dallas Howard / Jurassic Park: Dominion
• Diane Keaton / Mack & Rita 
• Kaya Scodelario / The King’s Daughter
• Alicia Silverstone / The Requin  

WORST REMAKE/RIP-OFF/SEQUEL

• Blonde      
• BOTH 365 Days Sequels – 365 Days: This Day
• & The Next 365 Days [a Razzie BOGO]
• Disney’s Pinocchio 
• Firestarter 
• Jurassic World: Dominion

WORST SUPPORTING ACTRESS 

• Adria Arjona / Morbius 
• Lorraine Bracco (Voice Only) Disney’s Pinocchio
• Penelope Cruz / The 355 
• Bingbing Fan / The 355 & The King’s Daughter
• Mira Sorvino / Lamborghini: The Man Behind the Legend 

WORST SUPPORTING ACTOR

• Pete Davidson (Cameo Role) Good Mourning
• Tom Hanks / Elvis 
• Xavier Samuel / Blonde
• Mod Sun / Good Mourning
• Evan Williams / Blonde

WORST SCREEN COUPLE 

• Colson Baker (aka Machine Gun Kelly) & Mod Sun / Good Mourning
• Both Real Life Characters in the Fallacious White House Bedroom Scene / Blonde
• Tom Hanks & His Latex-Laden Face (and Ludicrous Accent) ELVIS
• Andrew Dominik & His Issues with Women / Blonde 
• The Two 365 Days Sequels (both Released in 2022)

WORST DIRECTOR

• Judd Apatow / The Bubble
• Colson Baker (aka Machine Gun Kelly) & Mod Sun / Good Mourning
• Andrew Dominik / Blonde
• Daniel Espinosa / Morbius 
• Robert Zemeckis / Disney’s Pinocchio 

WORST SCREENPLAY

• Blonde  / Written for the Screen by Andrew Dominik,

    Adapted from the “Bio-Novel” by Joyce Carol Oates

• Disney’s Pinocchio / Screenplay by Robert Zemeckis & Chris Weitz

   (Not Authorized by the Estate of Carlo Collodi)

• Good Mourning  / "Written" by Machine Gun Kelly & Mod Sun

 

• Jurassic World: Dominion / Screenplay by Emily Carmichael

   & Colin Treverrow,Story by Treverrow & Derek Connolly

• Morbius / Screen Story and Screenplay by Matt Sazama & Burk Sharpless

 
NOMINATIONS PER PICTURE
 

Blonde = 8
        Picture, 2 Supporting Actors, 2 Screen Couples, Remake, Director and Screenplay
 
Good Mourning = 7    
Picture, Actor, 2 Supporting Actors, Screen Couple, Director and Screenplay
 
Disney’s Pinocchio = 6    
Picture, Actor, Supporting Actress, Remake, Director and Screenplay
 
Morbius = 5    
Picture, Actor, Supporting Actress, Director and Screenplay
 
The King’s Daughter = 3    
Picture, Actress and Supporting Actress  

 

In spite of the Oscar buzz for Elvis. Doesn't look like Tom Hanks was particularly well received in these lists.

[DANGERMAN]

I quite enjoyed Blonde, despite its problems 

[Nag]

Same.

[radiofloyd]

Watched The Banshees of Inisherin in the cinema today. I had no idea what it was going in, expecting something in the vein of an A24 film but it’s very different to that.

 

It’s kind of a film out of time with anything being released today. It feels like something that could easily be adapted from an Irish play in the 1960s. In many ways it reminded me of the old Irish movie The Field which was also very Irish, had similar characters and a similar setting.

 

One of the first things that struck me was that it features both Pat Shortt (the bartender) and Jon Kenny, who were a popular comedy duo in Ireland in the 90s called D’Unbelievables. They are basically reenacting that comedy act here.

 

The film starts off as a dark comedy and then drifts mostly to just “dark” towards the end. I’ve heard reviewers reference films like Ordet and The Seventh Seal (old, very serious movies from the 1950s that dealt with death) and The Banshees of Inisherin definitely reminded me of those. The animals in the movie constantly reminded me of Au Hasard, Balthazar.

 

It also left me a little bit with a similar feeling to The Green Knight, that I had seen a powerful fable or parable that was greater than the sum of its parts (not that I have anything in particular to complain about).

 

If I would complain about anything it would be that the dialogue and humour felt a bit forced at times, but only at times. I wouldn’t say it’s a major negative.

 

The film is very Irish. I grew up in rural Ireland (albeit, not this rural, or not this old) and I can relate to a lot of the sights and sounds in the film. I’m not sure how somebody not from Ireland would view the film.

 

I liked it a lot but I probably need more time to think about it. I don’t think I would go as far as to say it’s a masterpiece. 

[DANGERMAN]

I was wondering what you thought of the theme of anyone with anything about them moving away. I'm not from rural Ireland obviously but I am from a small town and that struck with me a bit, a sense of being destined to leave, or expected to leave

[shinymcshine]

Men (2022)

 

The latest film from writer & director Alex Garland is a take on body morphing British folk horror (now showing on Amazon Prime).

 

Unfortunately it does don't really expand much on an initially interesting premise, and ended with the slight twist on the whole home invasion type scenario, as seen many times before.

 

Notable performances from the lead actors, but a reasonably forgettable, unremarkable movie, so a bit of a disappointment. 

[Nag]

Fall.

 

Streaming on Netflix, two daredevil 20 something girls set off to scale a 2000ft radio antenna in the middle of a desert... what could possibly go wrong?

 

For a film that was probably shot on a fairly low budget I thought this was excellent... obviously it works better if you don't like heights to begin with... bonus points for having Jeffrey Dean Morgan in it too.

[mmmark]

I saw clips of that on tiktok last year and it made me feel sick and wobbly. 

[mmmark]

I watched M3GAN and it’s pretty great. A lot funnier than I expected too. 

[Jimboxy]

We watched the Luther film on Netflix this evening, despite never having seen the show. It was proper dog shit, but I quite enjoyed it still. We're going to start the show now, I assume it'll be better

[one-armed dwarf]

Luther is some top grade schlock, I really enjoyed the first couple seasons. Very watchable nonsense.

 

Kinda tuned out at some point tho.

[shinymcshine]

Strange Days (1995)

 

Cyberpunk style noir action thriller starring Ralph Fiennes, Angela Bassett, Juliette Lewis and Tom Sizemore, directed by Kathryn Bigalow from a screenplay by James Cameron.

 

Upon release this was a box office bomb, not really sure why as it's a cracking film with some Impressive effects (there's a fair use of POV camera the fits in really well) and decent story.

 

It centres around a SQUID recording device that records people's neurological signals then allows others to play them back (like a hugely enhanced VR experience). But then a crime is committed and a recorded SQUID disc holds POV evidence, but in the dystopian society no-one trusts the authorities so seek answers themselves.

 

Of further note is this film also provided the sample for Fatboy Slim's 1999 hit single "Right Here, Right Now", as taken from one scene (around 1 hour 43 mins) Angela Bassett yells at Ralph Fiennes, "This is your life, right here, right now".

 

It's really worth checking out - I found it showing a couple of weeks ago on Talking Pictures TV (Freeview/ Sky).

 

Roger Ebert, who gave the film four out of four stars, described it as "a technical tour de force" and highlighted the film's astute use of SQUID technology, stating that "Bigelow is able to exploit the idea of what is happening; she forces her audience to deal with the screen reality, instead of allowing us to process it as routine 'action.'"

[DANGERMAN]

I watched Cocaine Bear over the weekend. Its alright, not hilariously funny but I was worried it'd be terrible and it really isn't. It's neither quite funny enough nor action packed enough to be all it could have been. If people are going to watch it though, I'd say it's worth it

 

 

I also watched the new Guy Ritchie film Operation Fortune. I'm not sure this is any better than Cocaine Bear tbh, and again it's pretty decent. Statham is Statham, you know what you're going to get. Aubrey Plaza is Aubrey Plaza but the script isn't as good as she needs. Josh Hartnett is in it and he's pretty good, glad he's having a bit of a career again because he was really good in Penny Dreadful. 

 

Hugh Grant is probably the standout simply because it's still such a novelty to see him acting. It is a decent performance tbf, and a consistent one. The film itself feels a bit pointless, I never really clicked with the plot at all, and that side of the film seems to be resolved really underwhelmingly

[mfnick]

Top Gun Maverick 

 

Holy shit, everyone was right. That was fantastic! 
I’ll admit I’m not actually that big a fan of the original Top Gun, it’s alright but I never got the hype. This one though, really did it for me. 

[Nag]

The original Top Gun is cringe as fuck to be fair... Maverick is a borderline sex pest.😂

 

But yeah, Top Gun Maverick is great.👍

[shinymcshine]

The Menu (2022, on D+)

 

Decent twisty drama/black comedy with Anya Taylor Joy, Ralph Feinnes and Nicholas Hoult.

 

Won't say too much, to avoid spoilers, but a bunch of people go off on an exclusive/expensive dinner experience - and things take a bit of a turn.....

 

I enjoyed it.