I know Greta Gerwig directed Barbie, and that was huge- but how is she not a massive force as a performer? She’s a skilled and magnetic actor, and she’s what scientists have been known to call “good lookin’.” My best guess is that she was choosy about her roles, and would rather be in smaller productions with strong characters than in big budget movies as Generic Leading Lady. Either that or Hollywood is dumb.
Waka Waka!
Holy crap, Allee Willis did everything! If you don’t know who she is- I sure didn’t- this whole documentary is full of “wait- she also did THAT?” moments. You’ve heard the pop music she wrote (starting with Earth, Wind & Fire’s “September”). You’ve seen the art she created. You know the musical she did the music for. She was an early champion of Internet art and digital creativity for all. I can’t even estimate how much of the pop culture of my childhood originated in her brain.
This documentary also has a huge advantage: Willis constantly documented what she was doing. Photos, audio, video, extensive notes; if there was a way to keep a record, she did it. It’s an unabashed celebration of her bonkers life, and it’s crazy fun.
I realized after I got home that this is the second “two relatives with wildly different personalities tour Poland to see where their pre-WWII families lived,” but unlike Treasure, this one is actually good. Sure, the primary conceit doesn’t seem like something any rational person would actually do – “Grandma died, so let’s deal with the pain by visiting historical Holocaust locations from her life” – but it’s pretty clear from the start that neither of these guys is thinking clearly.
Jesse Eisenberg is strong as “Woody Allen, but as a devoted family man instead of a creep,” and Kieran Culkin is fantastic as the coolest guy/biggest loser you’ll ever likely to meet.
Also: this movie really made me miss Jennifer Grey’s original nose. Not that her current one is bad at all, but it’s not the nose of my youth.
Who knew pope-picking could be so tense?
The movie was a good watch, made better by the partially deaf person sitting in front of us asking her son(?) to clarify dialogue.
DEAF PERSON: Did he say “Will you play with me?”
SON(?): No, he said “Will you PRAY with me.”
Before the movie, after a trailer for a WWII movie, she loudly said “Well, that’ll make for a happy Thanksgiving!”
Today was a “two movies at two theaters” day: Heretic at the Universal Citywalk AMC, and Memoir of a Snail at Alamo Drafthouse. Gotta keep those movie passes working!
Once I assumed that these were two Mormon missionaries who had so little sense of danger that they’d walk wide-eyed into a unsafe situation, this movie was a lot of fun. Nonsense, but fun. Also: Hugh Grant is a natural at playing a creep. What a surprise.
If you saw clips from this and thought “Oh, a stop-motion animation movie- I shall bring my children,” maybe give it another look before you load the kids into the SUV and head down to the multiplex. It’s a great movie, but it’s clear from the very first scene where someone dies- not in a Disney “maybe they’re just sleeping” way, but in a “gasping for their final breaths in their deathbed” way- that this is made for adults. Also, it’s Australian; are kids allowed to watch Australians (even in cartoon form)?
I can only use one image for the featured image. Normally when I see two movies in a day I mash the images together in some way, but I didn’t care for the one I made for Heretic so I’m hiding it here. I bet you will love it so much that you will write an epic poem about it.
I see most superhero movies because I’m a sucker for them. It doesn’t matter how much nonsense they have; my brain goes into low-power mode and I accept it all.
But I something about the first two Venom movies made me skip them. After watching this one, I can say that was probably a pretty good idea. My brain just couldn’t downshift enough for this thing. It clearly wasn’t expecting to be taken seriously- Venom is constantly making jokes that would make your dad say “that’s a little corny, don’t you think?” – but the movie is so determined to use as many stale and dumb tropes that it forgets to find new dumb trope to keep people interested.
But as far as I know, it contains the first use ever of Chekov’s Hyperacid. I guess that’s something.
When you have a story that starts with a lawyer helping a cartel kingpin get gender affirming surgery so she can disappear as the person she always wanted to be, and then the real action starts, you probably don’t need to throw in that it’s a musical. And if you do decide to make a musical, you’d better make sure the music lives up to the story. The leads are all strong, and some of the music works, but a lot of it feels like they were afraid people wouldn’t accept a “real” musical. Some of the half-singing would make Rex Harrison say “even I managed more tunefulness than that.”
Also: today at Alamo Drafthouse I had to do the very rare “could you turn off your phone, please” thing to the guy sitting next to me. Distractions are bad enough in a typical movie; they’re unbearable at a half-Spanish musical full of subtitles.
I like when film makers try difficult and different things, and a whole movie shot from a single locked down camera position that takes place over thousands of years (though really mostly over about 100) with multiple timelines on screen at once certainly falls into the “difficult & different” camp.
But a movie needs more than a gimmick to work, and this movie does not work. Some reasons it doesn’t:
Look- some of it does work, but not much. The final scene works, but it really only does because of the hour and a half that mostly doesn’t work before it. The weirdest thing about it: I think with the right director, this could be a good play. All it would take is some creative projections to show the different time periods, reusing actors as multiple characters, and losing Ben Franklin.
Also: I didn’t plan it, but this weekend’s movie theme was “women sex workers dealing with unusual situations.”
I skipped this when it came out- I’m not a huge horror/slasher fan, and I didn’t see the first two movies in the trilogy- but I had a couple of hours to kill in my hotel room and it was on, so I gave it a shot. Very watchable, campy fun that doesn’t hide its love of the eighties in general, and eighties slasher movies in particular. Also reminded me how good Frankie Goes To Hollywood could be.
Fantastic. A three act story, deftly switch genres as it goes, driven by Mikey Madison’s unstoppable energy. Constantly went in ways I did not expect but that made total sense. Hilarious, touching, crushing. One of the best films I’ve seen this year.
Also: my second film at the San Francisco Alamo Drafthouse, and the first one in the big theater. A great space (much better than the little screen upstairs where I saw a very pixelated version of Furiosa), and a crowd that was fully engaged with (and responding to) the movie.