Official thread about the movie you just saw

In the Jeffrey Epstein world we live in I don't know how preposterous that You Were Never Really Here story was!

You know, I will finish Under The Silver Lake, and I was enjoying it for the most part, but a couple of things: I am not a hard core animal rights guy at all, but was honestly a little troubled by the depictions/images -- however brief or even cartoon-ish -- of some of the animal things, which may have been part of the point, but it affected me more than, say, similar images I've seen in something like Altered States. Could just be my mood.

What also could just be my mood was that on more than one occasion I also caught myself thinking that it was a very white guy movie and wondered if it really needed to be made. And I will watch these types of weird stoner, white guy movies all the time without really thinking that, so I'm not sure why that stood out to me in this particular film.

I think you compared it to Inherent Vice, and I definitely see that and its homages to a ton of other movies that I like (Juliette Lewis could def be a spiritual relative of one of Marlowe's neighbor ladies in Long Goodbye); I'm not saying it shouldn't have been made, it is clearly well crafted and I am enjoying it, but those things stood out and I caught myself reflecting on those two things.

Anyway, that's all more about me than the quality of the movie, it's mostly a fun ride.

Edit to add - I don't know where I came up with Juliette Lewis in this? I guess the topless bird lady just reminded me of her? What a weird pull from my memory -- I never even think about Juliette Lewis, but I had it in my mind that she was in this and then when I saw the topless bird lady I just instinctively made her Juliette Lewis. Weird.

El Chupacabra said:

I started The Vast of Night last night (Amazon, first time director), which definitely had a vibe and was doing some interesting things (Spielberg-y, Rian Johnson-y, maybe; nostalgic sepia-toned camera stuff), but I fell asleep so I'll need to re-watch. No indictment of the movie, my brain is just weird and I can't concentrate and like to sleep, that's all, what.

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I liked it a lot. Very dialogue driven and after about 10-15 min of it you finally get used to it. Well acted for a bunch of nobodies and I found myself riveted by the scene with the old lady. Oh, and it was filmed fairly locally too, which is cool.

You Were Never Really Here was tough. I watched it and Joker back to back. Wrong move. Both good movies, but would rather watch Passion of the Christ 10 more times than either of those films once more.

El Chupacabra said:

In the Jeffrey Epstein world we live in I don't know how preposterous that You Were Never Really Here story was!

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True. True. We need to get out of the darkest timeline stat.

What also could just be my mood was that on more than one occasion I also caught myself thinking that it was a very white guy movie and wondered if it really needed to be made. And I will watch these types of weird stoner, white guy movies all the time without really thinking that, so I'm not sure why that stood out to me in this particular film.

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In hindsight, I definitely feel this vibe. Wow. It tracks with the kind of absurdist hipster vibe of those parts of east-central LA, but it's also a very white movie in a very diverse city. There's just something about the story's internal momentum that I love and how it kind of captures just how ridiculous modern life has become. The lines between truth and conspiracy, fact and fancy, etc. It's all kinda crashing together in this fuckup's odyssey to get laid while making as little money as is required in 00s LA. I kind of want to revisit it now because that's a really interesting observation. Thanks, man.

I can't stomach Woody Allen movies for other reasons, but the whiteness of his New York is definitely up there as one of the reasons I'm fine not really watching his flicks anymore. Annie Hall and Hannah and Her Sisters remain untouchable classics, imo, and there are a few of the weird ones that I find myself wanting to watch every so often (Shadows and Fog, mainly). Manhattan, though? No, thanks.

Dipped into the BLM library on Prime over the weekend.

We were disappointed in Loving. It's such an incredible story, but for some reason, the film felt flat and uninspired.

Selma, meanwhile, was fantastic. Spectacular individual performances, but also a well-executed story overall.

Strickland33 said:

True. True. We need to get out of the darkest timeline stat.



In hindsight, I definitely feel this vibe. Wow. It tracks with the kind of absurdist hipster vibe of those parts of east-central LA, but it's also a very white movie in a very diverse city. There's just something about the story's internal momentum that I love and how it kind of captures just how ridiculous modern life has become. The lines between truth and conspiracy, fact and fancy, etc. It's all kinda crashing together in this fuckup's odyssey to get laid while making as little money as is required in 00s LA. I kind of want to revisit it now because that's a really interesting observation. Thanks, man.

I can't stomach Woody Allen movies for other reasons, but the whiteness of his New York is definitely up there as one of the reasons I'm fine not really watching his flicks anymore. Annie Hall and Hannah and Her Sisters remain untouchable classics, imo, and there are a few of the weird ones that I find myself wanting to watch every so often (Shadows and Fog, mainly). Manhattan, though? No, thanks.

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Yeah, I hear you on Allen. I'm also a big fan of Crimes and Misdemeanors. Never seen Shadows and Fog. I think I could still probably jump into Manhattan and dig it, but I probably won't go out of my way.

Totally spaced that he did Vicky Cristina Barcelona which I LOVED at the time. It was a weird time, though, I don't know if I'll go back and rewatch, I just remember being transported with that thing that particular night.

I had just been dumped and was looking for any way to distract myself. I got stoned and biked up to Franklin St to grab some pizza and a couple of beers at Pepper's. I was in there with the wait staff and one other couple. I looked at the guy, then looked at their mural of NC Musicians, then back at the guy, and realized it was Ben Folds, basically wearing the same thing as he was in his mural portrait. So I went up to him, all high, and was like, hey Ben Folds, I'm from Winston-Salem, too! And he was all "Byoona Vihsta," and we had a moment.

El Chupacabra said:

Totally spaced that he did Vicky Cristina Barcelona which I LOVED at the time. It was a weird time, though, I don't know if I'll go back and rewatch, I just remember being transported with that thing that particular night.

I had just been dumped and was looking for any way to distract myself. I got stoned and biked up to Franklin St to grab some pizza and a couple of beers at Pepper's. I was in there with the wait staff and one other couple. I looked at the guy, then looked at their mural of NC Musicians, then back at the guy, and realized it was Ben Folds, basically wearing the same thing as he was in his mural portrait. So I went up to him, all high, and was like, hey Ben Folds, I'm from Winston-Salem, too! And he was all "Byoona Vihsta," and we had a moment.

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FUCK....I MISS PEPPERS.

Saw the King of Staten Island the other night and thought it was pretty good. Didn't realize until afterwards that it was autobiographical.

Da 5 Bloods- I really wanted to like this movie as as really like Spike Lee movies, but man this movie was a mess. Definitely watchable and not boring but man it had some cringeworthy moments. They also had 70 year old actors playing 20 year old vietnam soliders in flashback scenes which made no sense. Also had Isiah Whitlock jr. break out his catchphrase "Sheeeeeeet" which also made no sense.

One of the main narrative threads is the connection they felt to Norman. That would have been lost if young actors played them. I get why Spike did that. They didn’t have the budget to deage them. May not have had the budget for four more actors either given the special effects and location shoot. Notice he did deage them in the photo at the end.

Agree that it was a bit of a mess, but watchable and engaging.

I didn't mind the aging/de-aging thing as I viewed the flashbacks more through the lens of the Bloods' current memory and state, rather than solely as a plot/information device for the viewer. They were remembering what happened in the present time, when they were at their current ages and back in Vietnam. I don't know if that makes sense, but it also helped me get over the de-aging of the Irishman. I just thought about it as looking back through Frank's memory, so it was going to be a little hazy, smudgy, not clear.

Also didn't mind the Clay Davis "Sheeeeet" because it wasn't out of character or anything; if you hadn't seen the Wire at all you wouldn't have thought twice about it. If you had, you might think it was neat or weird, but I thought it was kind of a fun nugget -- better than some of the meta-attempts I've seen in other shows/movies.

Posted this in the Chat Thread, where we had some decent discussion about it, but this is a twitter thread (WITH SPOILERS) from the Vietnamese perspective, not only of this movie, but throws in some general thoughts on Hollywood/American Vietnam movies from the Vietnamese perspective.


SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS

I really liked the parts where we see them go back to Vietnam as old men and reconcile their feelings about being older and being back to a place that was awful for them yet also made them close as brothers. I also thought the perspective of black soliders looking back on their experience and seeing how they were used as cannon fodder and how unfair the whole experience was for black soliders in Vietnam (and any other war for that matter) was powerful , especially with the sea change of the past few weeks. The whole go back and get the gold and have shoot outs between 70 year old men with bad hips and shady vietnamese baddies was ...umm... kind of like a bad Michael Bay movie.

Been rewatching the Back to the Future movies since there has been some recent related content. There is a plot hole in Part 3 I never realized before. Marty damages the gas line in the delorean when he first goes to 1885 and that sets up the central problem of returning to 1985 because fuel won’t be available for decades, but the delorean that Doc was in when he was sent back to 1885 is also there, so they could have just used parts from that version to piece together a functional time machine. Obviously there are paradox problems in all these movies, but to me that is just a big oversight. Still great movies though that are so much fun to revisit

Saw Knives Out. It was good. There was the usual problem of seeing a surprise critically acclaimed film after everyone else has seen it. I kept waiting for it to get good until it finally did.

PhDeac said:

Saw Knives Out. It was good. There was the usual problem of seeing a surprise critically acclaimed film after everyone else has seen it. I kept waiting for it to get good until it finally did.

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Funny. Wife and I watched it last night. Had heard Daniel Craig's accent was distracting and it was. We enjoyed it. Was not spoiled but did not think the twist was mind blowing like some did.

My wife and I started it together at about 9:15 pm. She left to go to sleep about an hour in. She was wondering when it was going to get good. Business picked up as soon as I started rewatching it. I had to tell her the next day that she needed to finish it.

PhDeac said:

Saw Knives Out. It was good. There was the usual problem of seeing a surprise critically acclaimed film after everyone else has seen it. I kept waiting for it to get good until it finally did.

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Does it bother anyone else that Ben Affleck is tagging Ana de Armas ? I mean, is there anybody he hasn't had sex with ?

Are you saying spike lee is going to make he got game 2?

BiffTannen said:

Does it bother anyone else that Ben Affleck is tagging Ana de Armas ? I mean, is there anybody he hasn't had sex with ?

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Yes considering I watched Batman v. Superman for the first time last night.

Rewatched The Natural last night after browsing and seeing it was available on Prime.

Man, that thing has aged perfectly for me, it's a great movie and was so much fun to watch. Much nostalgia, very goose bumps. Redford, Close, Brimley, Farnsworth, Basinger, and Duvall are perfect. Barbara Hershey is perfect and creepy in her five minutes. Michael Madsen and Joe Don Baker cameos. The Randy Newman score is an all-timer. Endearing and funny, dark and charming.

I think I saw one or two other movies in the theaters before this (Never Cry Wolf and E.T., I think), but the Natural is the first major theater experience I remember. It was a packed room or over-sold or something, because I remember sitting and watching it from the floor in front of the first row and just looking up at these giants and those exploding flood lights. I'm going to choose to believe that is actually what happened and not something I embellished in my brain.

But yeah, the Natural. Good stuff.