Doomsday's Andrei Tarkovsky Love Fest

The Fabelmans
My thoughts here.

Everything Everywhere All At Once
While I wasn't as crazy about this movie as other people have been, it really does come across as the type of film that people want to see more, namely an original and equally well-crafted concept.  Having never seen Swiss Army Man this was my first foray into 'The Daniels' and aside from how entertaining the movie is it was very fun watching Ke Huy Quan back on screen.  In fact the entire movie is excellently cast with everyone in the principle cast matching everyone else.  It probably helps that they're experienced actors all being asked to play roles of varying ranges and emotions.  Normally when I see people really praising a movie my first instinct is to say 'take it easy, it wasn't that good' but while enjoyment doesn't match those who are the mega-fans I can agree that I would definitely like to see more movies like this.  

From my response to Dracula’s criticism:

Had to unlike your comment for Us slander.

I just watched Nope again on Monday, and you hit on a lot of my feelings here.  It's a good movie to be sure, but also one that I feel like never fully taps into its true potential.  And both times I've seen it, there's been this...kind of awkward feeling to it, in that it can't quite sustain a sense of suspense in the way Peele maybe wanted to.  Between the Gordy flashback, whose payoff doesn't feel very impactful and the way the Third Act plays out, like you said (it DOES come off as more silly than tense, now that you point it out; I couldn't put my finger on what it was about that till now), not to mention the overlong runtime affecting the pace and tension somewhat...there MIGHT be a slight bit of hubris creeping into Peele's work, but not to a debilitating degree.  I think Nope is a poster child for "good, not great."

In that it could've helped some?

I prefer the dream. Or I suppose nightmare is more appropriate in this context.

There are some scenes that make Mulholland Drive a preferred watch over Us. A couple very specific scenes.

Two of the movies on the list were about abuse so i decided to watch them one after the other. One is more subtle and the other hits you like a train. I'll leave it to you to decide which one is more effective.

Women Talking

This was the one movie that I knew nothing about before sitting down to watch it. No previews, no critical reviews, no write-ups in the trades, nothing. It's almost impossible to do these days but when I manage to go into a movie completely blind it lends an extra air of excitement to the entire experience regardless of what the movie itself is about. I think I was better served in having no expectations as the story itself is quite unique while touching on a lot of themes that have been at the center of many societal conversations.

Set in 2010 in a strict and isolated Christian community (think Mennonite), a barn becomes a meeting place for all the women, young and old, to decide what the future holds for them. For years the women had been drugged, raped and assaulted by the men. They were told the bruises and injuries were from 'Satan' or other demons, however when a girl spies a man running from her house some of the men are arrested. The rest of the men go to the big city to see to their release and while they're gone the women meet to make a choice; stay, fight and probably stay in a state of sexual servitude and terror, or they band together and leave to face an unfamiliar world. It almost feels like a weird hybrid between 12 Angry Men and Aristophanes' Lysistrata, the comedy about Greek women refusing sex with Athenian and Spartan men until they put an end to the Peloponnesian War. Women Talking is not a comedy in any sense but it is a story about women taking power from those who hold it over them. It's hard to say that it ends with a nice bow on it but it's an interesting fiction where women hold men accountable in the best way they know how.

Women Talking works best when being a little more nuanced and focused on its own story rather than trying to relate it back to us. Sometimes the dialogues feel like they're ripped out of today's headlines which is when the movie is at its weakest, it even throws in a 'not all men!' for good measure in case you didn't get the point but when the characters become more focused on their direct circumstance and on the specific characters it really becomes engrossing. It's hard for a movie like this to stay overly subtle but it does manage to walk that line. There are many movies about the injustices that women have to endure and ones like Women Talking that highlight the systemic and almost gaslighting abuse that exist drive the point home better than ones that come at you head on such as the one I talk about below. It's a sensitive and tricky subject to comment on but Women Talking is one of the more successful movies to do so as of late.

A- so says Doomsday


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She Said

A lot of reviews have been comparing She Said, a film about the New York Times investigation into the sexual abuses of Harvey Weinstein, to Spotlight. It's a fair comparison in that it follows that same formula as we watch investigative reporters Megan Twohey (Carey Mulligan) and Jodi Cantor (Zoe Kazan) delve into the inner workings of Miramax and the cover ups of sexual assault that occured while Harvey was in charge. The movie largely rests on the two leads with Kazan delivering a pretty outstanding performance overall. What starts off as a glance in the direction of Hollywood sexual harassment after the Donald Trump and Bill O'Reilly scandals evolves into a full blown investigation into one of the most successful and powerful producers in Hollywood. We all know how it turned out and I think the story being so fresh is one of the reasons it's not being as well received as the filmmakers might have anticipated.

At this point it's tough for me not to mention how She Said turned out to be an incredible box office bomb which makes me wonder why. I think there are two reasons. One, the Harvery Weinstein scandal is still very fresh. He's frequently making headlines as his trials move forward, heck he was convicted of rape in Los Angeles less than a week ago. I think people might hesitate to drop cash on watching a story that's still unraveling even today. Second, there's a difference between the stories of Spotlight and She Said. Spotlight talked about breaking the scandal in child sexual abuse throughout the Catholic Church. The result of those investigations led to several people, but certainly not all or even most, being held to account. Priests and bishops throughout the world were arrested and jailed. Others who were responsible for covering up the abuse were defrocked. Still, a number were protected by the Vatican and even more were let off due to statutes of limitation or witnesses unwilling to speak out publicly. The ultimate impact though was a Catholic Church that watched millions of members, and their wallets, head for the door as the moral legitimacy of Christianity's oldest religion was irreparably damaged in the public eye. Many offenders never faced justice but it did bring to light an enormous cancer that existed in Catholicism as well as other organized religions. She Said is specifically about Harvey Weinstein and although there was the resulting #meToo movement the story itself revolves around one man, a man who for years was praised by a Hollywood machine that was very much aware that he was a predator. It wouldn't be out of line for some to ask 'Why do I want to watch a Hollywood movie about a rapist that many in Hollywood turned a blind eye to for the sake of their careers?' Of course there's some hypocrisy to this movie and in a time where the theatrical experience is becoming easier for more and more people to avoid it's not hard to understand why people would give this a pass. The people who should be watching this are the actors and filmmakers who heaped praise on the guy for years while almost certainly hearing whispers at the very least about his treatment of women. Maybe this movie is some way to make amends, some sort of penance? I don't know but I would understand if someone read the synopsis of this movie and had a laugh.

She Said is an effective film that doesn't break any mold, cover any new ground or take any controversial stance. Its biggest weakness is that it hits you over the head with a sledgehammer with its message and some of the scenes are almost laughable, like the scene where a guy aggressively comes onto Twohey in a bar. Men, such jerks! Perhaps the boldest move it makes is having people constantly talking on cell phones and when the person on the other end hangs up you hear the 'ch-chk' sound that you would always hear when the person would use a conventional corded phone and never, ever hear with a cell phone. Aside from that, it's a straight forward movie that fits in with similar films but doesn't do a whole lot to stand out.

B so says Doomsday


AFI's Top 10 of 2022
Avatar: The Way of Water
Elvis
Everything Everywhere All At Once
The Fabelmans
Nope
She Said
Tar
Top Gun: Maverick
The Woman King
Women Talking

Ah, well I should put that one next on the docket.

This weekend is either for Tar or Babylon, it might be a game time decision.