Films II : The Filminator

[HandsomeDead]

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/the-matrix-new-movie-drew-goddard-1235865603/

 

Quote

Warner Bros. is heading back into The Matrix, and this time Drew Goddard is leading the charge.

 

Goddard, the fan-favorite writer-director whose credits include The Martian, The Cabin in the Woods and World War Z, has been tapped to write and direct a new Matrix feature for the studio, Warners announced Wednesday.

 

This will be the first The Matrix film not to directly involve creators Lana and Lilly Wachowski, though Lana Wachowski will act as an executive producer on the new installment.

 

 

*I guess we'll see what "executive producer" means.

[mmmark]

That’s brave given how much the last one lost. Can’t imagine they’ll spend even half as much as they did with resurrections tho. 

[Maryokutai]

Watched Emily the Criminal yesterday. Was actually alright, Aubrey Plaza did a really good job of portraying the character, especially in those scenes where she's in way over her head. Unfortunately I found that the ending doesn't really say much nor does it work as a satisfying conclusion. But up until that point it's a solid crime thriller, noteworthy also maybe for its lack of gun violence (though there are peppersprays and tasers involved).

[Maryokutai]

Watched Spencer, the 2021 movie about Princess Diana with Kristen Stewart as the lead. Initially it took me a bit by surprise because I hadn't really seen any clips of it. It's presented in a very old-fashioned style, with a slightly narrower aspect-ratio than 16:9, 70s/80s colour grading to give the movie this 'realistic' feel and some blemishes like occasional out-of-focus characters (not sure if it's analogue or if they mimicked all of this in post, I'd presume the latter). Combined this makes for a very 'unclean' and approachable look which I think was an excellent choice.

 

The movie itself is a larger-than-life, almost absurdist imagining of what could have happened during Christmas break in a non-disclosed year (the film describes itself as a 'fable based on true events', which I think sums it up pretty nicely). During some scenes it interestingly veers towards the horror genre, the music can be haunting, it's very psychological in sometimes subtle, but sometimes very one the nose moments. Stewart is basically unrecognisable in the role and I think did a fantastic job. I'm not overly familiar with the whole backstory (I knew they got divorced and she died young, but that's about it) but it was just enough to fill in the gaps the movie very deliberately leaves blank. 

 

I wasn't entirely sure what to make of it when I finished it yesterday but after sleeping over it for a night I can say I really liked it. But I can also see why some people couldn't warm to it at all, it's definitely not mainstream-proof and the liberties they took for the narrative will not be everyone's cup of tea.

[Maryokutai]

Seberg, another sort-of biopic with Kristen Stewart, this time about actress Jean Seberg, who rose to fame for very publicly and also financially supporting the Black Panther Party in the 60s in the US. Which in turn resulted in her becoming a primary target of the gouvernment who started to spread false information about her involvement and private life. Again, I only have very superficial knowledge about the background, but will definitely read up on it, it's an interesting (but also utterly revolting) story.

 

The movie is a mixed bag. The up and downs of Seberg are really well executed and portrayed, but they don't have much room to breathe, mostly because the movie also fixates on a rather unnecessary side-plot about one of the investigating agents. Considering it's a compact 100 minutes, I don't see why they didn't just make it a two-hour project by giving Seberg more screentime, particularly towards the latter half. Which, unfortunately, falls completely flat because the very Hollywood-ish ending feels almost like a bad joke considering Seberg's eventual retreat from that industry.

 

So not bad, but not exemplary either. But I think I'll continue going through these post-Twilight movies from Stewart. I've always kind of avoided her for reasons I don't have a proper explanation for, but she did some rather interesting stuff over the last decade or so.

[one-armed dwarf]

I watched a movie with Seberg in it a while back, Breathless with Jean luc Godard. I heard she had a hard life and went through a nightmare filming some Joan of Arc movie but I did not know about the FBI spying on her.

 

Come and See (1985) - Late era Soviet anti-war film about the Nazi invasion of Belarus, where 628 villages were burned down by the Nazis. I didn't intend this to be a running theme with the movies I'm watching rn after Zone of Interest but there you go, this was on the watchlist for a bit after all. Very harrowing and not something super easy to summarise, it's less a story than a loosely organised narrative from the perspective of a very young recruit in the Belorussian army. One of the more infamous things about the film is its grueling filming process, with some truly awful looking scenes in a bog in particular but another where they used live ammo to fire overhead the actors. A lot of the film's horror comes from its subjective perspective, everything being experienced from the perspective of its main character, all the chaos, confusion and trauma of it. The sound design in particular becomes more surreal and distorted, for plot and theme reasons. It's the most impactful war film I've seen

 

As a palette cleanser, Everything, Everywhere All At Once (2022), which is like The Matrix but with Calvinball rules. It's about a contest for control of the multiverse but also how it uses that as a metaphor for smaller scale family conflicts 

Spoiler

which is the real story, actually, as well as I guess how we contextualise the different decision points in our life that make us who we are

 

It's an interesting but sort of overly busy film I thought that gets a bit lost in the sauce at times, or maybe that's just what they want you to feel, I dunno. It's really funny though and I like that it just plays by its own rhythm. I really enjoy the tricks it plays with aspect ratio and camera lens, and how it uses that to settle you in its different mashup of genres. There's a playfulness to it. At the same time, it changes contexts so much that it's sort of hard to settle on and ruminate on what it's going for, which became a bit of an obstacle for me when it came to the emotional core it was trying to express as I felt similarly pulled back and forth, unstuck in a different dimension to where the film needed me to be

[Maryokutai]

EEAAO, fantastic abbreviation, is on my list, but haven't been in the mood for it yet.

 

My palette cleanser from yesterday was Underwater, which I can very easily explain as Alien, but in the ocean. Now I'm a bit of a horror pussy and also suffer from bouts of Thalassophobia, so watching a horror movie taking place in the Mariana Trench sounds like a poor movie choice, but it actually wasn't too bad. It's more of a creepy action movie than a pure horror flick, which might disappoint some, but at least guaranteed my survival.

 

It's okay I guess. Compared to Alien it's derivative instead of visionary, but it's so close to its inspiration that the comparisons just can't be avoided. Without spoiling too much it pulls its enemies from the Cthulhu cosmos which I thought was a nice touch and gave it at least some desperately needed uniqueness. It does feature some nice shots and visually striking scenes, but a lot of it happens in underwater areas where you can't see shit.

 

I will mention though, at the risk of sounding mean-spirited and disrespectful towards that entire situation, but boy am I glad TJ Miller torpedoed his career. Even before the allegations I just never liked watching the guy and this (his last movie appearance) reconfirmed it tenfold.

[shinymcshine]

Underwater - there was a whole bunch talked about this on the HPL Historical Society FB group - mostly around how the director kept the monster's identity 'secret' from the studio.

 

I sort of like the movie in some ways, but a cataclysmic ending would have been much more suitable.

 

Mamoudou Athie was pretty good in it too, albeit much better in the Netflix adaptation of the Lovecraft themed series "Archive 81" - damn shame that didn't get renewed.

[Maryokutai]

Yeah, I don't want to be too harsh with it, didn't have the biggest budget and I think it was only the second or third fully-fledged movie from the director. Decent effort, but room for improvement.

 

Athie was good, yeah. Wish they had switched his and Miller's role to be honest. Never heard about Archive 81 – sounds intriguing, I'll put it on the list for whenever I feel brave.

[shinymcshine]

Here's the bit from the director of Underwater:

 

https://bloody-disgusting.com/interviews/3613015/underwater-director-shares-creature-concept-art-talks-got-monster-movie-exclusive/

[one-armed dwarf]

Watched Punch Drunk Love (2002), heard this movie was good but damn I loved it. Adam Sandler plays a guy who's, in my view anyway, clearly neuro-atypical and it's about his struggles navigating life and love. But it's much more affectionate about its subject than the shit comedies he does, nowhere near as mean spirited and cynical (it leaves that to his sisters, to whom he might as well be invisible as a person). Great film, might be my second favorite PT Anderson film after There Will be Blood.

[Maryokutai]

7 hours ago, shinymcshine said:

Here's the bit from the director of Underwater:

 

https://bloody-disgusting.com/interviews/3613015/underwater-director-shares-creature-concept-art-talks-got-monster-movie-exclusive/

 

That's interesting and also pretty wild that they only decided upon what to do with said creature right before they went into post-production. Quite a lot of cool background stuff about this movie, it's unfortunate it didn't get a proper PR cycle due to Disney swallowing FOX and then Covid saying hello. And probably the Miller stuff, too. Some outlets might have unearthed some additional trivia if all of that hadn't happened.

[Nag]

I had to Google the film (Underwater) and realised I'd actually watched it... I don't even remember who was in it...😂... it must've been a drunken second film.

[shinymcshine]

Whilst I'm not necessarily endorsing it as a great film, I think Birdbox really captured the Lovecraftian horror thing pretty well - with people being driven incomprehensively insane if they see an Eldritch being - unless they are already insane and then they venerate it.

 

The whole "oh look that's scary, better blow it up" seems a big cop out.

[Maryokutai]

Café Society, a Woody Allen flick from a couple of years ago with Jesse Eisenberg, Kristen Stewart and Steve Carrell. Didn't really like this one, it's a love triangle story that hops between its plot points like a soap opera and potentially quiet moments that could have left the audience with some empty space to digest are filled with extremely unnecessary and almost annoying narration from Allen himself. And while I think the movie's central idea is that you can't control love and its unpredictable trajectory, for me it almost felt like a celebration of infidelity.

 

On the plus side are some great set designs and costumes and generally beautiful cinematography. And a very sweet performance from Blake Lively, who unfortunately doesn't have a lot of screentime.

[shinymcshine]

@Maryokutai You do seem to have some sort of Kristen Stewart season running.....!?!?

[Maryokutai]

A bit, yeah. I randomly stumbled upon an interview with her over the weekend that I found interesting and started to look into her post-Twilight work. She seems to have carved herself an interesting niche since then, not unlike what Daniel Radcliffe did after Potter.

 

So I picked six movies with her I wanted to watch this week, the remaining two are Certain Women and Clouds of Sils Maria.

[one-armed dwarf]

Love lies Bleeding is on the list of things I want to watch but as I no longer have a cinema near me I'll be waiting for digital/physical release.

 

It is interesting that both Twilight stars worked so hard to shed the kinda reputation that franchise would leave them with by diving into doing lots of independent type films. It's also ironically worked rather well in allowing people accept that Edward Cullen can make a good Batman as he returns to more popular things

 

edit watched Paths of Glory (1957) on 4k UHD last night and what a treat for the senses on the OLED. Sometimes you don't get the best bang for buck when it comes to restoring old films but this one looked wonderful. Deep black levels, HDR great at preserving detail at the high and low end of brightness spectrum, the dingy trenches and the brightly lit chateaus all looking great as possible, no weird AI restoring nonsense on the film grain. It's about 3 soldiers being tried for 'cowardice' during the First World War as a career ambitious general sends them off on a doomed assault. I was left wanting that the court martial segment of the film would be longer. I guess that's not the point though, it's about the inherent unfairness of it all

[shinymcshine]

Oppenheimer 

 

Seen a cross section of views from previous posts about this, and think I'm aligned with those akin to it being a bit of a boring mess.

 

The lack of signposting the timelines was bizarre (esp. in the beginning when it was clearly going between two different periods, but not actually putting a frame on when).

 

It felt like a good 90 mins worth of content stretched into almost double that - and whilst there was no doubt a reasonable story to be told it still didn't go into much about any of the other characters aside from the lead - so it was difficult to empathise too much with anyone.

[one-armed dwarf]

I feel the opposite on the runtime, it felt more like it was a 3hr30 film crammed into 3hrs and had a few snips here and there. But Nolan's films often have that hurried feel to them where they don't really allow you to linger in one moment too long. 

 

There's also the fact imo that Nolan seems less interested in people (except one person) than he is in narrative techniques and tricks, which gives a sense of emotional coldness to a lot of his stuff (except maybe Interstellar). I have issues with the film but I think its narrative structure made up of criss-crossed fragments is what makes it interesting. Feels like the story is built around these tiny narrative particles colliding across time and memory, mirroring the turn of history itself as the invention of atom bombs triggers chain reactions into the future, changing the world fundamentally and mostly for the worse.

 

I just thought that worked really well and made it interesting